The main consequence of the connections made in the previous chapters is a different way of reading some of the more dazzling but abstruse passages in Shakespeare. The richness of Shakespeare’s language, and the potential for tension between its extraordinary energy and the concept of mimesis – the representation of reality – is opened up by the observation that its tropes are in more than one way involved in the process of thinking as well as the results of speaking. In the four chapters that follow there will be some unusually extended discussions of the intricacies of language. If these tend towards tediousness at times, then at least the exhaustiveness has a point. In some of these dramatic moments it will end up seeming most plausible to assume that these metaphorical tangles leave the audience with an impression, rather than a precise anatomy, of what might be drawn out in a heated dramatic moment. Nevertheless the contribution of these tangles to such moments still needs to be considered carefully, because no one rhetorical crisis is quite like another.

One speech in particular obliges this play’s inclusion. It represents an extreme example of rhetorical cognition, and a stark contrast with Macbeth and his thoughts on pity. In both cases the attempt to comprehend things better is a kind of failure; in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it is a comical failure. Bottom wakes up under the illusion that he is still rehearsing a play. He soon notices his friends have gone, and then he turns to think about his dream: