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William Shakespeare's
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
A Reader's Guide
to Acts Four & Five
NOTES & STUDY QUESTIONS
ACT FOUR
I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what
dream it was. Man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I
was—there is no man can tell what. Methought I was—and methought I had—but
man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of
man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste,
his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter
Quince to write a ballet of this dream. It shall be called "Bottom’s Dream," because
it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of the play, before the Duke.
Bottom, 4.1.203-214 / 207-222
reading for plot 1
p. 63 / 4.1.45-69 Pelican
How does Oberon react upon seeing Titania asleep on the arms of Bottom, the half-man,
half-beast? And who now has custody of the Indian boy?
reading for meaning 1: Oberon's speech
p. 63 / 4.1.63-69 Pelican
Most of Oberon's long speech is in blank verse (that is, in unrhymed iambic pentameter).
However, at the end, Oberon begins speaking in rhyme; why, do you think?
reading for plot 2
p. 63 / 4.1.63-69 Pelican
What does Oberon tell Puck to do to Bottom?
reading for meaning 2: the dance
p. 64 / 4.1.75-85 Pelican
At the end of this passage, Oberon and Titania dance; what does their dance emphasize
about their relationship—what might it symbolize?
reading for plot 3
p. 65 / 4.1.102-110 Pelican
Why have Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and others come to the forest?
reading for plot 4
pp. 67-68 / 4.1.153-180 Pelican
What does Egeus ask Theseus to do to the young Athenian lovers discovered sleeping in the
forest? Does Egeus get what he wants?
reading for meaning 3: Theseus decides the young lovers' fates
pp. 67-68 / 4.1.153-180 Pelican
What does Theseus decide to do about Lysander and Hermia's desire to marry one another?
What does the decision Theseus makes reveal about his character?
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
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reading for plot 5
p. 69 / 4.1.199-217 Pelican
How has Bottom physically changed upon waking? What does he remember of his
adventures? And what will he ask Peter Quince to do?
reading for meaning 4: Titania & Bottom
3.1, 4.1
Oberon gleefully imagines the relationship between Titania and Bottom as grotesque and
degrading; as Puck boasts, "My mistress with a monster is in love" (3.2.6). How would you
describe the relationship Titania has with Bottom? Is it degrading? Or is it in one way or
another a positive relationship? How would you compare it to the one she has with Oberon?
NOTES & STUDY QUESTIONS
ACT FIVE
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
Theseus to Hippolyta, 5.1.4-8
reading for plot 1
pp. 71-72 / 5.1.2-22 Pelican
How does Theseus describe people who are in love?
Whom does he compare them to?
reading for plot 2
p. 72 / 5.1.23-27 Pelican
Like Theseus, Hippolyta finds the young lovers’ account of their adventures rather strange,
but she is more inclined than Theseus to believe it. Why? What does she say?
reading for plot 3
pp. 74-75 / 5.1.61-81 Pelican
How does Philostrate feel about the mechanicals’ production of "Pyramus and Thisbe"?
Does he recommend that the court watch it?
reading for plot 4
p. 80 / 5.1.209-216 Pelican
Do Theseus and Hippolyta admire the actors? What does this representative passage
suggest?
reading for meaning 1: "lion vile hath here deflowered my dear"
p. 83 / 5.1.287 Pelican
Bottom, as he so often does, accidentally uses the wrong word here: he says the lion has
"deflowered" Thisby, not "devoured" her. To be deflowered is to lose one's virginity. As
Marjorie Garber notes, Bottom's mistake connects sex with death (145). Where else in the
play does Shakespeare link sex and death? For example, in Act One what does Theseus
warn Hermia might happen to her if she refuses to marry Demetrius?
reading for plot 5
p. 88 / 5.1.415-430 Pelican
At the end of the play, we are not in the forest but back at Theseus' court. However, the
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closing lines belong not to Theseus or to any other Athenian but to Oberon and Puck. Why
does Shakespeare close the play with them?
....
Questions to think about now that you've finished the play
men with animal heads
As William C. Carroll notes, there are two characters in the play who wear animal heads:
a) Bottom wears an ass head after he is "translated"—transformed—by Puck's
mischief.
b) Snug wears a lion's head during the mechanicals' play.
What does Snug's transformation have in common with Nick Bottom's transformation?
What differences do you see between them?
Shakespeare's Ovidian comedy
5.2
Consider the mechanicals' play. "The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe" (Met. Book IV) is a
somber tale; why do you suppose Shakespeare chose—of all 250+ stories in
Metamorphoses—this one to dramatize? Why do you suppose Shakespeare incorporates so
tragic a tale in a romantic comedy? Why does it become part of a celebration of marriage?
August 2011
revised May 2015
Appendices
I. scene-by-scene plot summary
ACT ONE
1.1—RELUCTANT LOVERS & ARDENT LOVERS
Theseus, Duke of Athens, impatiently awaits his upcoming wedding to Hippolyta, Queen of
the Amazons. The wedding will take place in four days, at the next new moon; Theseus
instructs Philostrate, one of his servants, to encourage the Athenian youth to celebrate.
Hermia, a young Athenian woman, wishes to marry her boyfriend Lysander; her father,
Egeus, forbids the marriage because he wants his daughter to marry another man,
Demetrius. The Duke tells Hermia that she must obey her father; if she does not, she could
be executed or live the rest of her life in a nunnery.
Lysander and Hermia resolve to escape the harsh Athenian law and marry at Lysander's
aunt's house. They will meet in the wood tomorrow night and then travel to his aunt's.
The two make a mistake, however; they tell Hermia's best friend Helena about their plans
to elope. Helena, who loves Demetrius although he has jilted her (see 1.1.106-110),
decides to reveal the plan to Demetrius, hoping to win his favor.
1.2—THE MECHANICALS: LET'S PUT ON A SHOW!
The "mechanicals"—laborers from Athens—plan to perform a play at the Duke's wedding;
the play will dramatize the tragic tale of Pyramus and Thisbe. Peter Quince is planning the
play, though he has his hands full with Nick Bottom, who wants to play all the parts in the
play. They will meet in the woods the following night to rehearse (the same night Hermia
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and Lysander will meet in the forest).
ACT TWO
2.1—OBERON & TITANIA'S CUSTODY BATTLE
The scene opens with Puck and a Fairy; Puck admits that he makes mischief (such as
skimming all the cream from the milk in the housewife's churn so that she can't make
butter). Puck also says that his master Oberon has quarreled with Titania, queen of the
forest. Titania has been caring for "[a] lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king," and Oberon
wants the Indian boy to be in his care instead of hers.
Oberon and Titania enter, quarreling; she refuses to give Oberon the child because the
child's mother was one of Titania's followers. Their disagreements have caused
turbulence—the seasons are all jumbled, so that winter frosts "fall in the fresh lap of the
crimson rose." The mortals, bewildered, scarcely know which season is which.
Once Titania leaves, Oberon plans to get even: he tells Puck to fetch a magic flower, lovein-idleness. Oberon will sprinkle Titania's eyes with juice from the magic flower while she
sleeps; she will then fall in love with whatever she first sees upon awaking—whether her
gaze falls on a "bull, / On meddling monkey, or on busy ape."
Helena and Demetrius enter; while he is openly contemptuous of her, she still loves him.
Oberon, invisible to their sight, decides that he will intercede. The young Athenians exit,
and Puck enters with the magic flower. Oberon tells Puck to seek the "disdainful youth"
Demetrius and to daub his eyes with the juice, provided that Puck makes sure Demetrius
will see Helena upon waking.
2.2—LOVE-IN-IDLENESS WORKS ITS MAGIC
After Titania's fairies sing her to sleep, Oberon squeezes juice from the magic flower on her
eyes. Puck, however, screws up: he comes across two Athenians fast asleep and squeezes
the juice on the sleeping man's eyes. But the two asleep are in fact Hermia and Lysander.
When Demetrius enters with Helena fast on his heels, the commotion awakens Lysander—
who thus instantly falls in love with Helena. Helena (already subject to Demetrius' scorn)
feels Lysander mocks her, and as she runs off in pursuit of Demetrius, a smitten Lysander
runs after her. Alone in the grove, Hermia awakes from a nightmare and runs off in search
of her beloved Lysander.
ACT THREE
3.1—BOTTOM, TRANSFORMED
The laborers come to the forest to rehearse their play. Puck decides to entertain himself by
changing Bottom's head into an ass's head. The monstrously changed Bottom sings to
show the other mechanicals (whom he thinks are trying to trick him) that he is not afraid.
His singing awakens Titania, who is instantly infatuated with Bottom. She commands all her
servants to wait upon him.
3.2—UNDOING PUCK'S MISTAKES
Puck boasts about his prank to a delighted Oberon. But the two soon discover that Puck
has anointed the eyes of the wrong Athenian youth—not Lysander but Demetrius. Hermia
accuses Demetrius of murdering Lysander; Demetrius, exhausted, lies down to sleep.
Oberon anoints Demetrius's eyes with the juice, planning to correct Puck's error. But Puck
fetches Helena, awakening Demetrius, who thus falls in love with Helena. Now the men
compete for Helena's love, just as they previously have competed for Hermia's love. Helena
understandably feels that the two men are making fun of her. Hearing the quarrels, Hermia
returns, believing that her former best friend has stolen Lysander's heart. Puck charms all
four unhappy lovers to sleep so that Oberon will make all right again.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
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ACT FOUR
4.1—BOTTOM, RESTORED
Titania and her new love Bottom fall asleep in each other's arms. Because Oberon now has
the Indian boy in his possession, he removes the charm from Titania, who is appalled to see
(once she is awake) the grotesque creature she had loved. Titania and Oberon, happily
reconciled, will bless the Duke's marriage.
The Duke and Egeus, hunting in the forest, come across the young lovers. In spite of
Egeus' objections, Theseus decides to let the young lovers marry whom they choose.
Puck restores Bottom to his human state. Bottom, upon awaking, fells he has "had a
most rare vision" and will ask Peter Quince to write a ballad about this strange and
wonderful dream.
4.2—BOTTOM, REUNITED
Bottom returns to the company of the other mechanicals, who delightedly welcome him
back. Enacting the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe to celebrate the Duke's wedding will go
forward as planned.
ACT FIVE
5.1 "THE SILLIEST STUFF THAT EVER I HEARD"
Theseus is skeptical of lovers' wild stories about their misadventures in the forest; he says
lovers are like madmen. Hippolyta is more sympathetic; she says that the consistency of
the story the four lover tell makes it hard to dismiss.
They then watch the mechanicals' play, which doesn't seem tragic at all but uproariously
funny. When the clock tolls midnight, the Athenians retire.
Oberon, Titania, and their followers enter the palace; dancing and singing, they bless the
sleepers. Puck stays behind, asking the audience to applaud if they liked the play—and to
tell themselves that if they did not, they must have dreamed it.
II. Shakespeare's Verse
When you open your copy of the play, you will notice that some passages look different
than others. In Act One, for example, Theseus says to Hippolyta, whom he soon will marry,
Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword,
And won thy love doing thee injuries.
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.
You will probably find some of the diction—"wooed"? "pomp"? "reveling"?—unfamiliar and
maybe, you feel, impossible to understand. Yet if you hear the lines sensitively recited or
read them carefully, you will probably pick up on the contrast between past hostility
(Theseus says he has done Hippolyta "injuries") and future friendliness and love ("I will wed
thee in another key").
You can enjoy Shakespeare without pausing to translate every unfamiliar word. Listening
sensitively, reading with care, will take you a considerable distance.
Now look at another passage. These lines are spoken by Peter Quince, an Athenian
laborer, to a group of other laborers:
Here is the scroll of every man’s name which is thought fit, through all Athens, to
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play in our interlude before the Duke and the Duchess on his wedding day at night.
You probably deduced from the passage, in spite of some difficulty with unfamiliar words,
that Quince has a list of laborers who are able to perform in a play—a play to celebrate the
wedding of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta.
But note the difference in the arrangement of words on the page; the beginning of each
line in Theseus’s speech is capitalized (even if he is in the middle rather than at the
beginning of a sentence), and those lines do not reach the right margin. Quince’s speech,
however, is written more conventionally, just as this paragraph itself is: each line goes to
the right margin, and capital letters predictably begin only proper nouns (Quince, Theseus)
and words that begin each sentence. Why?
Some characters at certain times speak in prose; others speak in verse. Shakespeare’s
characters often speak in a patterned kind of poetry called blank verse. The term applies
to the following pattern:
—each line contains roughly ten syllables
—the syllables usually fall into five pairs
—within each pair, the second syllable is stressed more heavily than the first
—the lines do not rhyme
The pattern is not uniform; there are infinite and deliberate variations that give the dialogue
variety. Yet Shakespeare uses the pattern often enough to give the dialogue some melody,
to make it intelligible to us yet somehow more special than everyday speech. In Act 3,
Scene 2 (3.2), Hermia, a young woman from Athens, accuses Demetrius, another young
Athenian, of murdering Hermia’s beloved Lysander, a man she hopes to marry. The baffled
Lysander replies
You spend your passion on a misprised mood:
I am not guilty of Lysander’s blood.
If we split up the speech into two-syllable units...
and then stress the second syllable more than we do the first, this is what we might hear:
You spend/ your pas/ sion on/ a mis/ prised mood:
I am/ not guil/ty of /Ly san/der’s blood.
Each two-syllable unit is called a "foot"; there are five such units in each line, so each line is
written in "pentameter" verse.
Each of those two-syllable units stresses the second syllable—a unit of sound called an
"iamb." Thus the lines Lysander speaks are in iambic pentameter, as are the lines of most
of the characters in the play. Blank verse by definition is unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Another person might legitimately argue that Lysander could stress "I" more than "am" in
the second line, emphasizing his innocence, or that "on" in the first line doesn’t receive any
particular stress:
You spend / your pas/ sion on/ a mis/ prised mood:
I am/ not guil/ty of /Ly san/ der’s blood.
To some extent, then, where we place the emphasis is a judgment call, as long as we don’t
distort the language in order to fit the pattern. Thus, some lines of blank verse will have
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
nine syllables or eleven rather than ten, and not all of them will conform strictly.
characters, like Peter Quince, don’t speak in verse at all, but prose.
7
And some
One of the remarkable features of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, however, is the variety of
kinds of speech. Look for example at Lysander’s lines below: what do you see? what do
you hear?
Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.
To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the wat’ry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass
(A time that lovers’ flights doth still conceal)
Through Athens gates have we devised to steal.
If Lysander’s speech is representative of the dialogue in the play—and in many ways it is—
what else do you think might distinguish the dialogue in this comedy? And look at the
passage below, from Act Five. Here we see one of Peter Quince's fellow laborers, a man
named Nick Bottom, reciting a passage from an old play. How would you describe its form?
The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates,
And Phibbus’ car
Shall shine from far
And make and mar
The foolish Fates.
As you read, can you discern why some characters speak in blank verse, others in rhyme,
and others in prose? And why do still others move from one to the other?
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