ENGL 252: Great Books II
Dr. Debora B. Schwartz
English Department, California Polytechnic State UniversityWilliam Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) did not himself publish any of his plays. In 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, John Heminges and Henry Condell (Shakespeare's friends and members of his theater company) posthumously published thirty-six of his plays in the so-called "First Folio" (abbreviated as F1; a "folio" -- Latin for "leaf" -- is produced when a sheet of paper is folded in half, yielding two leaves or four pages). Eighteen of the plays in F1 appeared there for the first time in any printed form. The other eighteen, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, had previously appeared in separate quarto editions of a single play (so called because the paper upon which they were printed was folded into quarters, each sheet yielding four leaves or eight pages; quartos are thus usually smaller than folios). The quarto version (abbreviated as Q; numbered if more than one quarto printing has been preserved) is considered authoritative for all but 7 of the 18 plays preserved in quartos.
Plays were sold by the playwright to the company (i.e., by Shakespeare to the Chamberlain's Men, later called the King's Men), but printed versions became the property of the printers (who bought the manuscript from the theater troupe, the playwright, or an individual who had obtained or reproduced a copy of the text, with or without the authorization of the playwright). Because there was no such thing as copyright in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, playwrights and theatrical troupes tried to keep their plays out of print. Without copyright protection, there was no compensation to a troupe and/or playwright if a rival troupe obtained a copy of and produced a play, thereby cutting into the original troupe's audience (and profits). For this reason (and because copying handwritten scripts was a long and tedious task), individual actors generally received only a copy of their individual lines and cues. Some of the quarto versions of Shakespeare's plays seem to have been pirated from a single actor's partial script, with other passages reconstructed from memory or invented. A theater troupe would retain one or more copies of the full text to use as a prompt book; this master copy would be presumably be identical to or close to Shakespeare's working manuscript of the full play.
While some of the better quarto versions of the plays were presumably printed with the authorization of Shakespeare's company (possibly because a shortage of cash caused them to sell a script to a publisher), none of Shakespeare's plays were published under his direct supervision. Thus, modern notions of "authenticity" do not apply to either the Shakespearean text or to Elizabethan theatrical practice: the text of a play could vary from performance to performance, as passages were added, altered or deleted to incorporate references to current events; to please (or so as not to offend) a particular audience; to accommodate a change in the acting personnel, etc.
To a certain extent, the same variability applies today. Any production of a Shakespearean play is the result of numerous interpretive decisions made by the director and the actors. The text may be altered -- lines, speeches or whole scenes modified or cut completely -- to correspond to the director's understanding of the play, to shorten a text, to provide greater clarity, or for some other reason. The choice of setting (ancient Athens? Shakespeare's England? San Francisco during the Summer of Love? a fairy-book version of India?) immediately telegraphs the director's vision, as do the sort of actors who are cast (physical types, age, etc.), the ways in which they are are costumed, and their blocking (how, when and why they move about the stage). As you consider the productions of the play we will discuss in class (whether in video clips or live performances), note specific details in the performances and production values (e.g. set and lighting design, costumes, make-up) and consider how these details communicate a specific interpretation of Shakespeare's text.
The Shakespearean texts that are published today do not correspond exactly to any sixteenth- or seventeenth-century printed versions of the plays, nor are they "authentic" in the modern sense (i.e. a final product viewed as definitive and unchangeable by its author and his audience). The modern Shakespearean text is the product of a series of editorial decisions: which printed form (if more than one exists) should one choose as the base text? what changes should be made to that copy? (inclusion of passages found in other printed versions; correction of obvious or less obvious misprints; etc.) What about act and scene divisions, indications of setting, and stage directions (sparse or lacking in most printed versions)? How about line numbering? Modernization of punctuation and spelling? Just as each production of a Shakespearean play is the result of decisions made by the director and the actors, the editor's text is based upon a series of decisions informed by his or her knowledge of Shakespeare.
For our unit on Shakespeare, you are also responsible for the following online readings:
Please note that these online readings were not originally created for this class; they contain references to works we are not reading in ENGL 252 along with links leading elsewhere on my websites (e.g. those for ENGL 204: Renaissance and Early Modern Literature, ENGL 339: Shakespeare, or for ENGL 331: Renaissance Literature). You can avoid confusion by refraining from following links or by printing out the readings out and reading them in hard copy rather than online.
1) Notice the ways in which Shakespeare uses language (prose, blank verse and rhyme) to differentiate between characters (i.e. fairies and mortals; nobility and rustics) or to create other effects (increased solemnity or silliness; poetic effects).
2) There are four plot levels in A Midsummer Night's Dream: the royal wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta; the story of the Athenian lovers, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena; the conflict between the fairies, Titania and Oberon (seconded by Puck); and the efforts of the "Rude Mechanicals," Bottom, Quince and company, to put on a play worthy of a royal wedding. Know characters (by name!) in each plot level, and be aware of the ways in which they (the characters and the plot levels) interact. How are they parallel or contrasted? What do the different plot levels have in common? (e.g. a movement from conflict to harmony; the theme of love triumphing over great odds). How does Shakespeare use these parallel plots (and characters) to unify the play as a whole?
3) The play begins with conflict: forced marriages, fighting fairies, and thwarted lovers. The theme of forced marriages picks up a thread woven through many of our previous readings, including the unhappy wives in Guigemar and Yonec, the Tristan stories, the Knight of the Cart, and the Miller's Tale; as well as the unwilling brides in Cligés, the Romance of Silence (Eufeme and very possibly Silence herself) and the Knight's Tale (not only Emily, but also "Duke" Theseus's conquered Amazon queen, Hippolyta). It is interesting to note that the reigning monarchs in A Midsummer Night's Dream are none other than . . . Theseus and Hippolyta. (Note that Theseus and Hippolyta are not the only characters common to both MND and Chaucer's Knight's Tale: "Philostrate," Theseus's "Master of Revels," is the name assumed by Arcita after returning to Athens in disguise in order to be near Emily.) Theseus embodies the Athenian law which decrees a father's absolute right to decide his daughter's future, without regard to her wishes. As Egeus succintly puts it, "As [Hermia] is mine, I may dispose of her" (MND 1.1.42). That Hippolyta is an unwilling bride is made clear in Theseus's opening speech: "Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword,/ And won thy love, doing thee injuries. . ." (MND 1.1. 16-17). As you read, look for passages that suggest men's right to rule over women (what the Wife of Bath called maistrye) and the strategies women use to get their way despite the Athenian law.
4) Because Hermia is not ultimately forced to marry Demetrius, the ending of A Midsummer Night's Dream is considerably sunnier than that of e.g. the Romance of Silence. Indeed, while the play begins with discord on each of the plot levels, it ends with a triple wedding and a newly reconciled pair of Fairy monarchs. In this movement from conflict to harmony, notice how marital/erotic love is used as a symbol of social harmony and concord. Note also the imagery of fertility (natural fecundity vs. blight, but also the implicit fertility of the couples who will be united in marriage.) What are Titania and Oberon fighting about at the beginning of the play? (What is the symbolic significance of the Changeling boy?) As you read, consider how Shakespeare moves from the theme of male rule over women (what the Wife of Bath called maistrye) to the possibility of marital happiness.
5) The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, stories about magical transformations. What are some of the other transformations in the play? Consider both literal transformations ("Bless thee, Bottom! thou art translated!" [III.i.119-120]) and figurative ones (between day and night, discord and harmony, reality and dream, unhappiness and bliss).
6) Acts I and V take place in the "real" world of Athens (by day), Acts II, III and IV in a dream world, the woods outside the city (by night). Why does Shakespeare make use of the two settings? How can each be characterized? Do they serve any symbolic purpose? Who governs each world? What kinds of power are contrasted? Which is ultimately more powerful? (Does one have an effect on -- transform -- the other?)
7) Trace the references to dreams and dreaming in the play. What do "dreams" represent? Who presides over the dream world (the forest at night)? What is the power of dreams? Can dreams have an effect on "reality"?
8) Characterize the fairies and their magic. To what extent do they represent natural forces (i.e. the power of nature?) What else might they represent? Notice that the fairies' magic takes place at night, and that it is several times compared to (or mistaken for) dreams. To what extent is their "magic" a double of the playwright's magic, making a "dream" come to life on the stage? In this regard, you may want to consider references to dreams and dreaming, to magic, and to poetry (e.g. Theseus's conversation with Hippolyta in V.1.1-27), as well as Puck's epilogue.
9) It is thought that A Midsummer Night's Dream was first written to be performed at a court wedding. Pyramus and Thisbe is a "play within a play" put on by the "Rude Mechanicals" to celebrate a royal wedding. In Act V, then, we are watching an audience watch a play that is like the play we are watching as an audience. What does this parallelism suggest? What function does the "play within a play" serve? (What is its dramatic significance and thematic relevance to the work as a whole?) Are there parallels between the stories of Pyramus and Thisbe and of the Athenian lovers? (Or with Romeo and Juliet, which dates from 1594-1596 -- the same years as A Midsummer Night's Dream?) In other words, are Bottom and company there only for comic relief, or do they convey a more serious message? If so, what?
Contents of this and all linked pages Copyright Debora B. Schwartz, 1996-2009
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