A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 1 - “The course of true love never did run smooth…”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 1 - “The course of true love never did run smooth…”

I like the idea that perhaps straight after writing ‘Romeo and Juliet’, probably his most popular tragedy, Shakespeare quickly whipped up over the course of a week, the magnificent magical comedy ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. It gives a symmetry to his work. Besides, Elizabethan playwright’s often wrote a comedy after writing a tragedy mostly to give variety to their audiences and maybe some playwright’s did this as a homage to the Ancient Greek playwrights and festivals where playwrights had to write both tragedy and comedy.

The first mention of the play is seems to be around 1597 but the combination of topical and weather references and the fact that the play centres around a wedding mean that it was probably written in 1594 or 1595. Nevertheless, while dates are debatable, the magnificent richness of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is not.  It has it all - three interlocking plots, explorations of love, characters speaking in rich verse, comic characters pitched in prose, the appearance of fairies, manipulations and plot meanderings galore, a play within a play, weddings, transformations of all descriptions and some magnificent speeches and witty one liners.

The question often asked when looking at Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', is why would he write this play at this point in his career. After the success of 'Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare probably wanted to produce a play quickly and Comedy and History were his forte at this point in his career. Besides, the attempted poisoning of Queen Elizabeth I earlier in 1594 and the lack success of by the English forces sent to Ireland meant that writing another History play straight away might prove problematic, so comedy it was. Besides, masques and plays with music seemed to be all the fashion in 1594.  Francis Davison's 'The Maske of proteus and the Adamantine Rock' had proved popular with Queen Elizabeth I. The court seemed to look favourably on light fantastical plays and plays that alluded to Ancient Greece and Rome. Elizabeth also seemed to spend a lot of time during the summer of 1594 in the country (probably a distraction to the attempted murder and the troubles in Ireland and the worries of who would succeed her on England's throne as Elizabeth grew increasingly old). So pastoral idealism seemed to also be back in fashion. So Shakespeare decided he would have a play that had it all. 

Shakespeare went back to read Spenser's 'Epithalamion' as a source for the play. He probably had a deadline, since the play was either performed at the wedding of Elizabeth Carey (Lady Berkeley) and done in a garden setting or performed at court for Elizabeth I in midsummer of 1595. It would later have most of its early public performances at The Theatre. 

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ opens on a festive note at the palace of Theseus, Duke of Athens, four days before his wedding to Hippolyta. He is anxious for the wedding but she preaches patience. Theseus orders some “merriments” to be developed for the occasion and Philostrate leaves and this leads to the Mechanicals rehearsing and developing their play for the wedding. But storm clouds are on the horizon and the journey to unity of love for many of the characters will not be smooth. Enter Egeus.

Egeus demands to see Duke Theseus with a complaint against his own daughter. It seems that his daughter Hermia, whom Egeus has promised to Demetrius, loves Lysander. To complicate matters more, we find out later in the scene that Helena, Hermia’s BFF, loves Demetrius but has been jilted by him as he pursued Hermia. Demanding that the strict laws of Athens be enacted if Hermia does not follow her father’s desires, Egeus asks Theseus to make a judgment. Theseus gives Hermia until his wedding to make one of three choices:

“Either to die the death or to abjure

For ever the society of men…

Or else to wed Demetrius…”

Left alone together, Hermia and Lysander discuss how, “The course of true love never did run smooth…” Eventually, Lysander comes up with a plan for them to run away from Athens and “sharp Athenian law”, cross through the wood to the house of a wealthy aunt of his so that they can get married. They tell Hermia’s BFF, Helena, of the plan and then they leave to prepare for their elopement. Left alone, Helena muses on the nature of love:

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind…”

Helena decides on her own convoluted plan to get Demetrius back by telling him of Hermia and Lysander’s elopement, then letting him follow them into the woods and then she plans to follow him and somehow she will find a way in the woods to win back Demetrius’ love.

Shakespeare then cleverly shifts to the action to our second plot and second group of characters. In a different part of Athens, a different class of people with a different purpose, take the stage. At Peter Quince’s house, a group of tradesmen, in the true tradition of the trade guilds who put on play during medieval times, are starting rehearsals. This scene is a dramatic contrast to the previous one. These characters speak in prose and their efforts to cast their play are clumsy and humorous. Even their choice of play is ridiculous. The Babylonian myth of ‘The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe’, taken from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ is complex, melodramatic and tragic and thoroughly unsuited for performance at a wedding. Nevertheless, they bumble through preparations.

Peter Quince, the carpenter, takes command of the rehearsals and designates the parts. Quince casts himself as Thisbe’s Father. Nick Bottom, the weaver, gets to play Pyramus (even though he thinks and demonstrates that he could play any or all of the parts in the play and has an extensive beard collection to boot to help him with multi-casting). Francis Flute, the bellows-maker, is chosen to play the young female Thisbe, but he is a little upset by being cast as a woman again because he “has a beard coming”. Robin Starveling, the tailor, will play Thisbe’s Mother (and later he also gets to shine in the part of Moonshine). Tom Snout, the tinker, Pyramus’ Father, but he will also play The Wall. While Snug, the joiner, gets to play The Lion, despite his reservations that this part might scare the ladies too much. Quince gets this motley crew to meet for their next rehearsal:

“… meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town,

by moonlight; there will we rehearse,

for if we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with company,

and our devices known.”