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A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream
Shakespeare's intertwined love polygons begin to get complicated from the start--Demetrius and Lysander both want Hermia but she only has eyes for Lysander. Bad news is, Hermia's father wants Demetrius for a son-in-law. On the outside is Helena, whose unreturned love burns hot for Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plan to flee from the city under cover of darkness but are pursued by an enraged Demetrius (who is himself pursued by an enraptured Helena). In the forest, unbeknownst to the mortals, Oberon and Titania (King and Queen of the faeries) are having a spat over a servant boy. The plot twists up when Oberon's head mischief-maker, Puck, runs loose with a flower which causes people to fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Throw in a group of labourers preparing a play for the Duke's wedding (one of whom is given a donkey's head and Titania for a lover by Puck) and the complications become fantastically funny.
298 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1595
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About the author
William Shakespeare
22k听books45.7k听followersWilliam Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 14,331 reviews
April 21, 2025
That Helena is a bitch.
I know the big draw for this play is all the fairy goings-on, but upon re-reading/re-listening to it for the umpteenth time, I was more interested in the insane inner workings of Helena's mind.
Ok. Get this.
Hermia and Lysander are in love. But Hermia's dad wants her to marry Demetrius, and you know how dads can be about that sort of thing. For example, my husband really liked this boy that my oldest daughter dated several years ago. For the purposes of this review, we'll call him Kevin. In his eyes, Kevin was the best boyfriend his little girl could choose. My daughter didn't feel the same. As you may already know, daughters rarely like the guy their fathers want them to like.
And now, because he's petty as hell, he refers to every poor boy that she brings home as Not-Kevin.
Sometimes to their face.
Now. Demetrius is determined to marry Hermia even though she obviously loathes him.
Because some men find rejection sexy.
And Helena is obsessed with Demetrius and follows him around like a puppy. Even though he obviously doesn't want her.
Because some women find rejection sexy, too.
You're probably wondering why Hermia and Lysander don't just give her father a bit of time to cool off with all this Demetrius stuff, right?
Well, because if Hermia doesn't agree to marry Demetrius quick-like, her dad is going to send her to a convent (of Diana b/c this is set in Greece) or have her killed, which is his right under the law...but probably just the convent.
Harsh, right?
This guy makes my husband look tactful, and as you may realize from the above-mentioned story, that's not an easy thing to do.
So, Hermia and Lysander make plans to meet in the woods, run off to the big city, get hitched, and live happily ever after.
Remember how I said Helena is a bitch?
Well, this is where Helena proves she is a level 10 clinger that will do anything for a scrap of attention.
She rats her best friend Hermia's escape plan out to Demetrius!
In the hopes that he...? What? Finds Hermia in time to stop her from marrying someone else? If Hermia is out of the picture, Demetrius will have to look elsewhere for matrimonial prospects!
Helena is just shooting herself in the cooch by telling him that her rival for his love is sneaking off to get married.
A real stalker would know this. <--just saying
She. is. terrible.
And if Demetrius weren't such a douchebag, I probably would have felt a little sorry for him getting saddled with such an obvious crazypants for the rest of his life.
Ok. Enter the fairies.
They have their own problems. The biggest of which is that Oberon is apparently jealous of how much time Titania spends doting on the son of her (now dead) human friend.
God, men are so weird!
So what happens?
Lots of bickering, lots of crying, lots of fairy dust getting thrown around on the wrong people, lots of mistaken love, and of course a dude with an asshead.
Sounds freakishly similar to my early twenties.
I'm sure you know the story. I think most everyone has seen or heard this story in one form or another in their life. And if you haven't read the original play and want to, it's pretty easy to get into. I've read it a few times, but this time around I listened to the full-cast audio version.
It's excellent. And I'd suggest that as an option to anyone who is interested. After all, this was supposed to be acted out, so it works well when you have voice actors doing their thing to bring Shakespeare's story to life.
Highly Recommended.
I know the big draw for this play is all the fairy goings-on, but upon re-reading/re-listening to it for the umpteenth time, I was more interested in the insane inner workings of Helena's mind.
Ok. Get this.
Hermia and Lysander are in love. But Hermia's dad wants her to marry Demetrius, and you know how dads can be about that sort of thing. For example, my husband really liked this boy that my oldest daughter dated several years ago. For the purposes of this review, we'll call him Kevin. In his eyes, Kevin was the best boyfriend his little girl could choose. My daughter didn't feel the same. As you may already know, daughters rarely like the guy their fathers want them to like.
And now, because he's petty as hell, he refers to every poor boy that she brings home as Not-Kevin.
Sometimes to their face.
Now. Demetrius is determined to marry Hermia even though she obviously loathes him.
Because some men find rejection sexy.
And Helena is obsessed with Demetrius and follows him around like a puppy. Even though he obviously doesn't want her.
Because some women find rejection sexy, too.
You're probably wondering why Hermia and Lysander don't just give her father a bit of time to cool off with all this Demetrius stuff, right?
Well, because if Hermia doesn't agree to marry Demetrius quick-like, her dad is going to send her to a convent (of Diana b/c this is set in Greece) or have her killed, which is his right under the law...but probably just the convent.
Harsh, right?
This guy makes my husband look tactful, and as you may realize from the above-mentioned story, that's not an easy thing to do.
So, Hermia and Lysander make plans to meet in the woods, run off to the big city, get hitched, and live happily ever after.
Remember how I said Helena is a bitch?
Well, this is where Helena proves she is a level 10 clinger that will do anything for a scrap of attention.
She rats her best friend Hermia's escape plan out to Demetrius!
In the hopes that he...? What? Finds Hermia in time to stop her from marrying someone else? If Hermia is out of the picture, Demetrius will have to look elsewhere for matrimonial prospects!
Helena is just shooting herself in the cooch by telling him that her rival for his love is sneaking off to get married.
A real stalker would know this. <--just saying
She. is. terrible.
And if Demetrius weren't such a douchebag, I probably would have felt a little sorry for him getting saddled with such an obvious crazypants for the rest of his life.
Ok. Enter the fairies.
They have their own problems. The biggest of which is that Oberon is apparently jealous of how much time Titania spends doting on the son of her (now dead) human friend.
God, men are so weird!
So what happens?
Lots of bickering, lots of crying, lots of fairy dust getting thrown around on the wrong people, lots of mistaken love, and of course a dude with an asshead.
Sounds freakishly similar to my early twenties.
I'm sure you know the story. I think most everyone has seen or heard this story in one form or another in their life. And if you haven't read the original play and want to, it's pretty easy to get into. I've read it a few times, but this time around I listened to the full-cast audio version.
It's excellent. And I'd suggest that as an option to anyone who is interested. After all, this was supposed to be acted out, so it works well when you have voice actors doing their thing to bring Shakespeare's story to life.
Highly Recommended.
April 25, 2020
how to flirt, shakespeare style, a midsummer nights dream edition:
i guess its true what they say - the course of true love never did run smooth.
鈫� 3.5 stars
- elope with your love in a fairy wood
- follow your friends into the fairy wood with your ex-fianc茅, who you still pine over even though he loves another woman
- become entranced by magic flower juice and chase after the wrong girl until you fall over with exhaustion
- call your girl an acorn
- realise your ex-fianc茅 is truly the one you love, even though you ditched her once you got to the woods
- have a double wedding with your lover, your friend, and the f-boi who used to love you
i guess its true what they say - the course of true love never did run smooth.
鈫� 3.5 stars
July 21, 2021
Re-reading the play this time, I couldn't stop thinking about The Magic Flute.
Like Mozart's opera, Shakespeare's play may have a silly plot composed of fanciful, seemingly arbitrary elements, yet, through the power of absolute artistic mastery, the framework of what might otherwise be nothing but a second-rate masque is transformed, by the unwearied attention of genius--and in Shakespeare's case, sublime poetry--into a work of great resonance, an archetypal myth.
Like Mozart's opera, Shakespeare's play may have a silly plot composed of fanciful, seemingly arbitrary elements, yet, through the power of absolute artistic mastery, the framework of what might otherwise be nothing but a second-rate masque is transformed, by the unwearied attention of genius--and in Shakespeare's case, sublime poetry--into a work of great resonance, an archetypal myth.
August 28, 2021
A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96.
It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons.
These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanical's) who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set.
The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 乇賵夭 倬賳噩賲 賲丕賴 噩賵賱丕蹖 爻丕賱 2007賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 乇賵蹖丕 丿乇 卮亘 賳蹖賲賴 鬲丕亘爻鬲丕賳貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲 卮讴爻倬蹖乇貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賲爻毓賵丿 賮乇夭丕丿貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 丕賳鬲卮丕乇丕鬲 賳丕賴蹖丿貨 趩丕倬 趩賴丕乇賲 1390貨 丿乇 185氐貨 卮丕亘讴 9789646205468貨 賲賵囟賵毓: 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲賴 賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 亘乇蹖鬲丕賳蹖丕 - 爻丿賴 16賲
賲賵囟賵毓 賳賲丕蹖卮鈥屬嗀з呝� 丕蹖賳讴賴 毓卮賯 乇丕 亘丕 毓賯賱 讴丕乇蹖 賳蹖爻鬲貙鈥� 亘賱讴賴 賴賲丕賳賳丿 卮丕毓乇蹖 賵 丿蹖賵丕賳诏蹖貙 鬲丕亘毓 禺蹖丕賱 丕爻鬲貨 賴賲乇丕賴 禺蹖丕賱 亘賴 賵噩賵丿 賲蹖鈥屫③屫� 卮丿鬲 蹖丕 囟毓賮 倬蹖丿丕 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 賵 丕夭 賲蹖丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 丿讴鬲乇 芦噩乇噩 亘乇丕賳丿爻貙 丿丕賳賲丕乇讴蹖禄貙 丿乇 囟賲賳 丕賳鬲賯丕丿 丕夭 丕蹖賳 丿乇丕賲貙 丿乇 鬲丕蹖蹖丿 賴賲蹖賳 亘丕賵乇 賲蹖賳賵蹖爻賳丿: 芦亘卮乇 丿爻鬲鈥屫堌� 睾乇丕蹖夭貙 賵 乇賵蹖丕賴丕蹖 禺賵蹖卮 丕爻鬲貙 賵 賲丿丕賲 蹖丕 禺賵丿卮 乇丕 诏賵賱 賲蹖鈥屫操嗀� 賵 蹖丕 讴爻蹖 丿蹖诏乇 丕賵 乇丕 賮乇蹖亘 賲蹖鈥屫囏回�
趩讴蹖丿賴: 芦鬲爻賵爻貙 丿賵讴 丌鬲賳禄貙 賯乇丕乇 丕爻鬲 賲丕賴 丌蹖賳丿賴貙 趩賱賴 蹖 鬲丕亘爻鬲丕賳貙 丿乇 卮亘蹖 讴賴 賲丕賴 賯乇氐 讴丕賲賱 丕爻鬲貙 亘丕 芦賴蹖倬賵賱蹖鬲丕禄 丕夭丿賵丕噩 讴賳丿貨 亘賳丕亘乇丕蹖賳 芦鬲爻賵爻禄 亘賴 芦賮蹖賱賵爻鬲乇丕賳賴禄 乇卅蹖爻 鬲卮乇蹖賮丕鬲 賵 噩卮賳 賵 爻乇賵乇賴丕蹖 禺賵丿貙 賮乇賲丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫囏� 亘乇賳丕賲賴 鈥屫й� 亘乇蹖夭丿貙 鬲丕 丌賳 卮亘貙 噩賵丕賳丕賳 芦丌鬲賳蹖禄 賵丕賯毓丕賸 亘賴 毓蹖卮 賵 賳賵卮 亘倬乇丿丕夭賳丿貨 丕賲丕 賴賲诏蹖 噩賵丕賳丕賳 芦丌鬲賳蹖禄貙 丕夭 丕蹖賳 賲賵囟賵毓 禺賵卮丨丕賱 賳蹖爻鬲賳丿貨 芦賱蹖爻丕賳丿乇禄 賵 芦丿蹖賲蹖鬲乇蹖賵爻禄貙 讴賴 丕夭 讴賵丿讴蹖 亘丕 賴賲 丿賵爻鬲 亘賵丿賴 鈥屫з嗀� 賴乇丿賵 毓丕卮賯 芦賴乇賲蹖丕蹖禄 夭蹖亘丕貙 賵 乇蹖夭賴 賲蹖夭賴貙 丿禺鬲乇 賴賲爻丕蹖賴 蹖 鈥屫堐屫� 賴爻鬲賳丿貙 賵 賲卮讴賱 倬蹖趩蹖丿賴 丕蹖 丿丕乇賳丿貨 芦丕跇卅賵爻禄 倬丿乇 芦賴乇賲蹖丕禄貙 丿賵 倬丕 乇丕 丿乇 蹖讴 讴賮卮 讴乇丿賴貙 讴賴 丿禺鬲乇卮 亘丕蹖丿 卮亘 毓乇賵爻蹖 芦丿賵讴禄貙 賵 丿乇 丨囟賵乇 芦丿賵讴禄貙 亘丕 芦丿蹖賲蹖鬲乇蹖賵爻禄 丕夭丿賵丕噩 讴賳丿貙 賵诏乇賳賴 芦賴乇賲蹖丕禄 乇丕 賲蹖鈥屭┴簇� 蹖丕 亘賴 賲毓亘丿 讴丕賴賳丕賳 賲蹖鈥屬佖必池� 讴賴 鬲丕 倬丕蹖丕賳 夭賳丿诏蹖貙 賴賲丕賳鈥屫� 鬲乇卮蹖丿賴 亘賲丕賳丿貙 丨丕賱 丌賳讴賴 讴爻蹖 丿乇 丌賳 賲丨賱賴 蹖 芦丌鬲賳禄 賳蹖爻鬲貙 讴賴 賳丿丕賳丿 芦賴乇賲蹖丕禄貙 丕夭 亘趩诏蹖 毓丕卮賯 芦賱蹖爻丕賳丿乇禄 亘賵丿賴 鈥屫ж池€ω�
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 23/07/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 05/06/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96.
It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons.
These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanical's) who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set.
The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 乇賵夭 倬賳噩賲 賲丕賴 噩賵賱丕蹖 爻丕賱 2007賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 乇賵蹖丕 丿乇 卮亘 賳蹖賲賴 鬲丕亘爻鬲丕賳貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲 卮讴爻倬蹖乇貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賲爻毓賵丿 賮乇夭丕丿貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 丕賳鬲卮丕乇丕鬲 賳丕賴蹖丿貨 趩丕倬 趩賴丕乇賲 1390貨 丿乇 185氐貨 卮丕亘讴 9789646205468貨 賲賵囟賵毓: 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲賴 賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 亘乇蹖鬲丕賳蹖丕 - 爻丿賴 16賲
賲賵囟賵毓 賳賲丕蹖卮鈥屬嗀з呝� 丕蹖賳讴賴 毓卮賯 乇丕 亘丕 毓賯賱 讴丕乇蹖 賳蹖爻鬲貙鈥� 亘賱讴賴 賴賲丕賳賳丿 卮丕毓乇蹖 賵 丿蹖賵丕賳诏蹖貙 鬲丕亘毓 禺蹖丕賱 丕爻鬲貨 賴賲乇丕賴 禺蹖丕賱 亘賴 賵噩賵丿 賲蹖鈥屫③屫� 卮丿鬲 蹖丕 囟毓賮 倬蹖丿丕 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 賵 丕夭 賲蹖丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 丿讴鬲乇 芦噩乇噩 亘乇丕賳丿爻貙 丿丕賳賲丕乇讴蹖禄貙 丿乇 囟賲賳 丕賳鬲賯丕丿 丕夭 丕蹖賳 丿乇丕賲貙 丿乇 鬲丕蹖蹖丿 賴賲蹖賳 亘丕賵乇 賲蹖賳賵蹖爻賳丿: 芦亘卮乇 丿爻鬲鈥屫堌� 睾乇丕蹖夭貙 賵 乇賵蹖丕賴丕蹖 禺賵蹖卮 丕爻鬲貙 賵 賲丿丕賲 蹖丕 禺賵丿卮 乇丕 诏賵賱 賲蹖鈥屫操嗀� 賵 蹖丕 讴爻蹖 丿蹖诏乇 丕賵 乇丕 賮乇蹖亘 賲蹖鈥屫囏回�
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鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 23/07/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 05/06/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
June 15, 2024
Lovers flee the authority of a father who is contrary to them, a lover who pursues the one he loves and does not love her, accompanied by the one who loves him and does not love him. - You follow me
There is nothing very original you will say to me. Still, there is also theatre and magic in the forest. Worlds intermingle in joyful confusion. Artisans from Athens come to rehearse a play for the king's wedding. Fairy and facetious beings, bewitching, a magical flower that lavishes all the energy of love for the first creature seen upon awakening - even if it had the head of an ass.
There's no need for a villain in The Dream to hold the viewer in suspense. Problems fly away by magic; you have to let yourself be bewitched. This piece feels like weightlessness, celebrating theatrical play, the beneficial lightness, and the beautiful fantasy of the imagination that frees us from the weight of reality. And it's so good!
There is nothing very original you will say to me. Still, there is also theatre and magic in the forest. Worlds intermingle in joyful confusion. Artisans from Athens come to rehearse a play for the king's wedding. Fairy and facetious beings, bewitching, a magical flower that lavishes all the energy of love for the first creature seen upon awakening - even if it had the head of an ass.
There's no need for a villain in The Dream to hold the viewer in suspense. Problems fly away by magic; you have to let yourself be bewitched. This piece feels like weightlessness, celebrating theatrical play, the beneficial lightness, and the beautiful fantasy of the imagination that frees us from the weight of reality. And it's so good!
August 14, 2020
"And with her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him.
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes."
i felt that Hermia
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes."
i felt that Hermia
February 6, 2021
One of Shakespeare's most popular comic plays though a figment of the imagination an illusion, a delusion in actuality that's the pity... such a delectable world to inhabit. Essentially a love story between two couples, a thin plot device in a mythical Athens which never was . Lysander loves his girlfriend Hermia (they want to marry). However her father Egeus, does not consent, prefers the groom to be more prominent admittedly a common story. Threatening Hermia with death or being forced to become a nun. With the help of the city's ruthless ruler and a fierce warrior
his friend Theseus, the Duke of Athens it's the silly law... Fathers had this right then to choose their children's mates. Egeus, wants his daughter to marry Demetrius. Why? Never quite explained. Maybe the tyrant doesn't like the color of the man's hair. Also the narrative involves Helena, Hermia's best friend, she loves Demetrius, which is not reciprocated, that's the rub .The strange part is the men and women have little differences between themselves. Shakespeare is making a point about love (All four are rather interchangeable). Nonetheless the impetuous eager lovers decide to elope, hide in the nearby woods overnight and flee to one of the boys wealthy widow aunt's home. Far from the city's authority but they miscalculate just a trifle. Hermia confided to Helena about the plan, she unwisely tells the jealous Demetrius, he follows the couple and Helena follows him. Back in Athens the Duke Theseus is busy preparing a wedding feast, Hippolytata the amazon warrior leader he defeated in battle. A little weird ? First you want to kill each other then get married, love, hate are this close... She will soon become his bride. Also six tradesman are secretly putting on a play to surprise the royals (yes a play within a play). Pyramus and Thisbe, a Romeo and Juliet type of work you can guess about the quality. Where are they going to rehearse , the eerie woods of course. Still this intoxicating forest has a secret, it's haunted by unseen spirits, including Oberon the King of the Fairies and Titania the Queen, they reign here, this dark fairyland by night. Puck, a mischievous hobgoblin does all their dirty or funny pranks depending on your point of view..Puck enjoys his job...very much so. Everybody arrives the lovers quarrel, Bottom the Malaprop weaver acquires the head of an ass, thanks to Puck, scaring his timid friends away."Lord what fools these mortals be!"Says the mischievous whirlwind Puck as a magic flower makes the lovers change partners, their affections seem quiet fickle."The course of true love never did run smooth"! Remarks Lysander . Enchanting fable, a dream, a poem, an incantation , funny too and has valuable lessons about the human condition. Delightful...a bit of whimsy...
his friend Theseus, the Duke of Athens it's the silly law... Fathers had this right then to choose their children's mates. Egeus, wants his daughter to marry Demetrius. Why? Never quite explained. Maybe the tyrant doesn't like the color of the man's hair. Also the narrative involves Helena, Hermia's best friend, she loves Demetrius, which is not reciprocated, that's the rub .The strange part is the men and women have little differences between themselves. Shakespeare is making a point about love (All four are rather interchangeable). Nonetheless the impetuous eager lovers decide to elope, hide in the nearby woods overnight and flee to one of the boys wealthy widow aunt's home. Far from the city's authority but they miscalculate just a trifle. Hermia confided to Helena about the plan, she unwisely tells the jealous Demetrius, he follows the couple and Helena follows him. Back in Athens the Duke Theseus is busy preparing a wedding feast, Hippolytata the amazon warrior leader he defeated in battle. A little weird ? First you want to kill each other then get married, love, hate are this close... She will soon become his bride. Also six tradesman are secretly putting on a play to surprise the royals (yes a play within a play). Pyramus and Thisbe, a Romeo and Juliet type of work you can guess about the quality. Where are they going to rehearse , the eerie woods of course. Still this intoxicating forest has a secret, it's haunted by unseen spirits, including Oberon the King of the Fairies and Titania the Queen, they reign here, this dark fairyland by night. Puck, a mischievous hobgoblin does all their dirty or funny pranks depending on your point of view..Puck enjoys his job...very much so. Everybody arrives the lovers quarrel, Bottom the Malaprop weaver acquires the head of an ass, thanks to Puck, scaring his timid friends away."Lord what fools these mortals be!"Says the mischievous whirlwind Puck as a magic flower makes the lovers change partners, their affections seem quiet fickle."The course of true love never did run smooth"! Remarks Lysander . Enchanting fable, a dream, a poem, an incantation , funny too and has valuable lessons about the human condition. Delightful...a bit of whimsy...
July 12, 2023
2nd Review:
So, it's been 10 years, I think, since I last read this. Shame on me. This is one of my all time favorite plays. I love it. Still, haven't seen it live on stage. Another Shame on me.
So, reading this, I noticed something for the first time. Oberon is a horrible husband. Seriously. Titania has a young boy she keeps around her from an human friend and Oberon wants this boy to raise up as another servant. Titania flatly refuses him. This whole thing is set in motion basically because Oberon feels he is entitled to anything he wants. He has Puck get the flower for the love spell he puts on Titania. He humiliates his wife by having her fall in love with an ass. While she's in this sorry state, he gets the boy he wants to be his servant and then he is willing to lift the spell.
Oberon is a complete jerk face. Titania deserves much better than him. He schemed and played dirty to get what he wanted. I'm so angry just thinking about it. I really don't like scheming. I get it's part of life for many people. Still. The fact that he gets away with it really irritates me. At the end, he has everything he wants and Titania seems happy as a goldfish with her 10 second memory and all's good.
Rant over. I love reading the language again. There is magic in the words. What a story. Is there anything else out there in this world like this story, not much really.
I think I enjoy reading about tricksters as an archetype. Puck, Wei Wuxian and so on.
Anyway, the one I feel most sorry for is Demetrius. He is the one who still has the love spell on him. It could be best for him, because the thing with Hermia wouldn't have worked out, but still, this wasn't his choice. That's gross. I mean good for Helena, but if that spell ever wears off, she will be in a rough spot and a loveless marriage. Love is a many splendid thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. And how horrible to marry someone that can't stand you. Anyway.
So July has started out as the month of re-reads. So be it.
1st Review
My Favorite Play!
After reading all Shakespeare plays, I wonder why schools focus so much on the tragedies and not so much on the comedies. We were never assigned a comedy to read in school, but to me, this is by far Shakes' best play, hands down. I'll take this over Hamlet, Macbeth or Romeo.
I love the Puck and he has so many great lines in the stories. This work gives me life. I have seen several movie versions of this, but I haven't seen the play in person - bucket list.
One of my favorite quotes is, "I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me, to fright me if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can. I will walk up and down here and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid."
It's a quote that really empowered me in a time in my life I grew into the person that sent me to acupuncture school. They shall hear I am not afraid by singing; it really meant so much to me and who I was. I use to say that to myself all the time. Somehow in the stress of school and doing all the hoops I had to jump through for school, I lost that and now, I am afraid of the world and sit in my house alone and this was before Covid-19. I have my family, yes, and I'm thankful for them, but it's important to have friends too. When I left home, I haven't totally replaced my community and it's all my own fault. I long to take back the power of those words and and not be afraid. I use to love what made me so unique and it's hard to get to, at the moment.
The fairy fantasy is sandwiched between a love story. The best part of the story is the love story part, but I love this whole thing: the words, the subject, the love story and the fairies.
Someone made a modern movie based on this called, "Were the World Mine" and several of these quotes are set to music and I have listened to those powerful songs hundreds of times. I love it. It's a gay take on the play and it's hilarious.
I would love to read this yearly and I just haven't. It is a goal to claim. To me, this is one of the most brilliant stories told anywhere. It rings at a deep level for me. It brings me life, joy and wonder. It has to be one of the top 3 books of all time for me.
It doesn't get any better.
So, it's been 10 years, I think, since I last read this. Shame on me. This is one of my all time favorite plays. I love it. Still, haven't seen it live on stage. Another Shame on me.
So, reading this, I noticed something for the first time. Oberon is a horrible husband. Seriously. Titania has a young boy she keeps around her from an human friend and Oberon wants this boy to raise up as another servant. Titania flatly refuses him. This whole thing is set in motion basically because Oberon feels he is entitled to anything he wants. He has Puck get the flower for the love spell he puts on Titania. He humiliates his wife by having her fall in love with an ass. While she's in this sorry state, he gets the boy he wants to be his servant and then he is willing to lift the spell.
Oberon is a complete jerk face. Titania deserves much better than him. He schemed and played dirty to get what he wanted. I'm so angry just thinking about it. I really don't like scheming. I get it's part of life for many people. Still. The fact that he gets away with it really irritates me. At the end, he has everything he wants and Titania seems happy as a goldfish with her 10 second memory and all's good.
Rant over. I love reading the language again. There is magic in the words. What a story. Is there anything else out there in this world like this story, not much really.
I think I enjoy reading about tricksters as an archetype. Puck, Wei Wuxian and so on.
Anyway, the one I feel most sorry for is Demetrius. He is the one who still has the love spell on him. It could be best for him, because the thing with Hermia wouldn't have worked out, but still, this wasn't his choice. That's gross. I mean good for Helena, but if that spell ever wears off, she will be in a rough spot and a loveless marriage. Love is a many splendid thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. And how horrible to marry someone that can't stand you. Anyway.
So July has started out as the month of re-reads. So be it.
1st Review
My Favorite Play!
After reading all Shakespeare plays, I wonder why schools focus so much on the tragedies and not so much on the comedies. We were never assigned a comedy to read in school, but to me, this is by far Shakes' best play, hands down. I'll take this over Hamlet, Macbeth or Romeo.
I love the Puck and he has so many great lines in the stories. This work gives me life. I have seen several movie versions of this, but I haven't seen the play in person - bucket list.
One of my favorite quotes is, "I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me, to fright me if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can. I will walk up and down here and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid."
It's a quote that really empowered me in a time in my life I grew into the person that sent me to acupuncture school. They shall hear I am not afraid by singing; it really meant so much to me and who I was. I use to say that to myself all the time. Somehow in the stress of school and doing all the hoops I had to jump through for school, I lost that and now, I am afraid of the world and sit in my house alone and this was before Covid-19. I have my family, yes, and I'm thankful for them, but it's important to have friends too. When I left home, I haven't totally replaced my community and it's all my own fault. I long to take back the power of those words and and not be afraid. I use to love what made me so unique and it's hard to get to, at the moment.
The fairy fantasy is sandwiched between a love story. The best part of the story is the love story part, but I love this whole thing: the words, the subject, the love story and the fairies.
Someone made a modern movie based on this called, "Were the World Mine" and several of these quotes are set to music and I have listened to those powerful songs hundreds of times. I love it. It's a gay take on the play and it's hilarious.
I would love to read this yearly and I just haven't. It is a goal to claim. To me, this is one of the most brilliant stories told anywhere. It rings at a deep level for me. It brings me life, joy and wonder. It has to be one of the top 3 books of all time for me.
It doesn't get any better.
November 13, 2018
"Ein Sommernachtstraum"is one of the top references as a classic. In the beginning, it is difficult to get there, but once you get used to the style, it is quite an entertaining, beautiful and confused story about the back and forth of the love affair. A must for interested in Shakespear and theater.
February 5, 2020
鈥淟ord, what fools these mortals be!鈥�I became a fan of plays when I read a few of them in my English book. They were very good. I liked them. Ever since I wanted to read more of them and of course when I searched for them, Shakespeare鈥檚 name was on top.
A while ago I was afraid of reading them because of the classical English. But few days ago, I thought to try them and will use Google as a guide. And now I can鈥檛 explain how much happy I鈥檓 right now... Even though I faced difficulty to understand at first but with some help of Google, I enjoyed the play a lot. Now I鈥檓 getting a little bit used to of the writing. 馃槉
And for this play, it was sooo amazing! Really enjoyed it a lot. It was full of fun. I didn鈥檛 expect to like this this much!
CHARACTERS
Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena. They are the mains.
PLOT
Lysander and Hermia are in love and want to get married. But Hermia鈥檚 father wants her to marry Demetrius who is also in love with her. At the same time, Helena is in love with Demetrius who doesn鈥檛 love her back.
Lysander and Hermia plans to runaway and marry each other. They also tell Helena about their plan. Helena tells Demetrius about it while thinking to get his attention. But that never happens. And he goes on pursuit to stop them. And Helena also goes behind him. And they all are in the forest where the fairies happen to stay.
When the king of fairies sees Helena chasing Demetrius who doesn鈥檛 love her back, he tells his servant puck to make him love back using a love juice. And this where everything goes terribly wrong and hilarious...馃槀
RANDOM THOGHTS
I鈥檓 now more pumped up to read all of his plays. And I surely will. For now, this is my favorite play.
Next one is Hamlet. Let鈥檚 see 馃槈.
1 February, 2020
August 27, 2017
Book Review
4 out of 5 stars to , a comedy written in 1595 by . What a fun read! I first read this in high school and then again in college as part of a course on Shakespeare. Then I watched a few movie versions. It's full of so much humor and creativity. The plot is essentially the impacts of magic, as some fairy dust causes everyone to fall in love with the first person they see -- once the dust falls on them. Imagine the hilarity that ensues in a chain reaction of who loves who. If you want to read a comedy, this would be one of the top 3. It's got lovable characters, lots of understandable metaphors and a ton of memorable and enjoyable scenes.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on 欧宝娱乐, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at , where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.
4 out of 5 stars to , a comedy written in 1595 by . What a fun read! I first read this in high school and then again in college as part of a course on Shakespeare. Then I watched a few movie versions. It's full of so much humor and creativity. The plot is essentially the impacts of magic, as some fairy dust causes everyone to fall in love with the first person they see -- once the dust falls on them. Imagine the hilarity that ensues in a chain reaction of who loves who. If you want to read a comedy, this would be one of the top 3. It's got lovable characters, lots of understandable metaphors and a ton of memorable and enjoyable scenes.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on 欧宝娱乐, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at , where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.
June 22, 2017
mini-review, as I do for classics:
this was my first time reading Shakespeare on my own, and I kind of...saw that as a negative. I like discussing Shakespeare in a classroom setting, and being motivated to mark up the text and otherwise process it fully. I felt like I missed out on stuff here.
also, this play felt so short. maybe it's my edition's fault, for being 111 pages. maybe it's how abrupt the ending was (which is very). or how flat the characters were, or how there were a sh*t ton of them. long story short, it's not my fave Shakespeare.
all that being said, this was very readable and funny at some points. I think this is one of the plays you really need to see performed, rather than read it.
bottom line: I recommend watching this (I sure want to!) but I don't think I recommend reading it.
this was my first time reading Shakespeare on my own, and I kind of...saw that as a negative. I like discussing Shakespeare in a classroom setting, and being motivated to mark up the text and otherwise process it fully. I felt like I missed out on stuff here.
also, this play felt so short. maybe it's my edition's fault, for being 111 pages. maybe it's how abrupt the ending was (which is very). or how flat the characters were, or how there were a sh*t ton of them. long story short, it's not my fave Shakespeare.
all that being said, this was very readable and funny at some points. I think this is one of the plays you really need to see performed, rather than read it.
bottom line: I recommend watching this (I sure want to!) but I don't think I recommend reading it.
August 25, 2017
兀賵賱丕 丕毓鬲乇賮 "禺噩賱丕" 兀賳 丿賷 兀賵賱 賯乇丕亍丞 賱賷丕 賱卮賰爻亘賷乇貙 賵亘丕賱氐丿賮丞 噩丕卅鬲 亘丕爻亘賵毓 丕賱噩賵丿乇賷丿夭 賱賴
賮賲賳 兀賵賱 丕亘乇賷賱 賵丕賳丕 亘乇賵丕賷丕鬲 丕賱睾丕亘丕鬲 兀購噩賷賱
賵賯乇乇鬲 禺鬲賲 鬲噩賵丕賱賷 亘丨賰丕賷丕鬲 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱禺乇丕賮賷丞貙 亘乇賵丕賷丞 賯賵賷丞 賰賱丕爻賷賰賷丞
賵賴賱 賴賳丕賰 丕卮賴乇 賲賳 卮賰爻亘賷乇貙 賵丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 賲賳鬲氐賮 氐賷賮 丕賱卮賴賷乇責
賱賰賳 丕賵賱 毓賯亘丞 氐丿賲鬲賳賷..兀賳噩賱賷夭賷 丿賴 賷丕賲乇爻賷責
賵賱賰賳 噩賳賷丕鬲 噩賵噩賱 丕乇爻賱鬲賱賷..賲賵賯毓 毓馗賷賲 爻丕毓丿賳賷
賲賵賯毓 賳丕賮毓 丕賱毓賱賲 睾夭賷乇..亘賴 賯爻賲
賱丕賯乇丕 賱賱卮丕毓乇 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷 丕賱噩賱賷賱貙 亘賱睾鬲賴 丕賱丕氐賱賷丞 噩賳亘丕 賱賱睾丞 賴匕丕 丕賱噩賷賱
賱賯丿 亘賴乇鬲賳賷 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丨賯 賰賷賮 賱賲 兀賱賯 賱賴丕 賲賳 賯亘賱 亘丕賱丕
丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 賲賳鬲氐賮 氐賷賮 貙賱乇亘賲丕 丕賰孬乇 丕毓賲丕賱 卮賰爻亘賷乇 禺賷丕賱丕
噩賲丕賱丕...禺乇丕賮丞...爻毓丕丿丞...賵賲乇丨丕 賵囟丨賰丕 噩賱賱丕
丕賵賰貙 丕賳丕 夭賴賯鬲 賲賳 丕賱爻噩毓 貙 毓匕乇丕 氐丿賷賯賷 丕賱賯丕乇卅 丿毓賳賷 丕氐賷睾 丕賱賲乇丕噩毓丞 丿賵賳 鬲囟賷毓 丕賱丕賲乇 賴夭賱丕
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賷噩亘 丕賳 丕毓鬲乇賮 丕賳賳賷 丕卮毓乇 丕賳賳賷 丕賱賵丨賷丿 賲賳 賷乇賷 丕賳 鬲賱賰 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賰丕賲賱丞貙 賱賷爻 賮賯胤 賱兀賳賳賷 賲賳 賴賵丕丞 丕賱賯氐氐 丕賱禺乇丕賮賷丞 賵賱賲 兀鬲賵賯毓 兀賳 賷賯丿賲 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賲孬賱賴
賵賱賰賳 兀毓噩亘賳賷 噩丿丕 爻禺乇賷鬲賴 賲賳 丕賱鬲乇丕噩賷丿賷丕鬲 丕賱丨賲賯丕亍 賰兀賳鬲丨丕乇 丕賱賲丨亘賷賳 亘賱 賵丕賱爻禺乇賷丞 賲賳 鬲乇鬲賷亘丕鬲 丕賱夭賵丕噩 丕賱賲爻亘賯丞 亘卮賰賱 賲賲鬲丕夭 亘賱 賵鬲賯丿賷賲 丕賱毓丿丕賱丞 丕賱卮毓乇賷丞 賱賲賳 賷賱毓亘 亘賯賱賵亘 丕賱賮鬲賷丕鬲 賵賷鬲乇賰賴丕
賵賱賰賳賷 丕賷囟丕 囟亘胤鬲 賳賮爻賷 丕囟丨賰 毓賱賷 丕賰孬乇 賲賳 賲賵賯賮 賱賲 賷毓賮 毓賱賷賴 丕賱夭賲賳 賵賷噩毓賱賴 賲賰乇乇丕...亘賱 賵丕賳賮噩乇鬲 賮賷 丕賱囟丨賰 賱丕 兀乇丕丿賷丕 亘賮氐賱賴丕 丕賱兀禺賷乇 亘兀賰孬乇 賲賳 賲賵賯賮 賲賳賴丕 賴匕丕 丕賱丨賵丕乇 亘賷賳 丕賱丿賵賯 孬賷爻賷賵爻 賵 丿賷賲賷鬲乇賷賵爻 丕孬賳丕亍 賲卮丕賴丿鬲賴賲 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕賱賴夭賱賷丞
賷賯氐丿 賴賳丕 丕賱賲賲孬賱賷賳 丕賱兀禺乇賷賳 , 亘賷賳賲丕 丕賱兀爻丿 賴賵 賲賲孬賱 兀禺乇 , 賵亘丕賱賮毓賱 爻賷鬲賰賱賲 亘賱丕 丕賷 賱夭賵賲
丨爻賳丕 , 賱丕 兀毓賱賲 兀賳 锟斤拷丕賳 賱賮馗 丨賲丕乇 賱賴 賳賮爻 丕賱賲毓賳賷 丕賱賲夭丿賵噩 丕賱毓丕賲賷 賮賷 丕賱賯乇賳 丕賱爻丕丿爻 毓卮乇 賵賱賰賳 賴匕丕 丕賱爻胤乇 賮毓賱丕 噩毓賱賳賷 丕囟丨賰 亘卮丿丞
賵丿毓賳賷 丕氐丨亘賰 賲毓賷 賱兀賰孬乇 賲丕 丕毓噩亘賳賷 亘丕賱賯氐丞...賵賱賳乇 賯氐氐 丕賱丨亘 丕賱馗乇賷賯丞 賵丕賱賲禺鬲賱胤丞 亘卮卅 賲賳 丕賱爻禺乇賷丞 賵丕賱鬲賯丕賱賷丿 丕賱毓鬲賷賯丞...賴噩丕亍 賱賱丕賳鬲丨丕乇 賵丕賱賱毓亘 亘賯賱賵亘 丕賱亘賳丕鬲..鬲賯丿賷爻 丕賱丨亘 丕賱匕賷 賷賲賳丨 賱賱胤亘賷毓丞 丕賱丕爻鬲賲乇丕乇..賵賷噩毓賱賳丕 賲睾賮賱賷賳 賮賷 亘毓囟 丕賱兀丨賷丕賳
*** 爻亘毓 賯氐氐 丨亘 ***
鉂も潳 囟丿 乇賵賲賷賵 賵 噩賵賱賷賷鬲 鉂も潳
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丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賲賱賷卅丞 亘賯氐氐 丕賱丨亘 丕賱賲賳胤賯賷丞 賲賳賴丕 賵丕賱睾賷乇 賲賳胤賯賷丞..賵賱賰賳 賰賱賴丕 鬲賳丕賱 賳賴丕賷丞 毓丕丿賱丞 噩賲賷賱丞 爻毓賷丿丞
賵賮賷 賳賮爻 丕賱賵賯鬲 鬲爻禺乇 賲賳 賳賴丕賷丕鬲 賯氐氐 丕賱丨亘 丕賱賲兀爻丕賵賷丞 丕賱賲亘丕賱睾 賮賷賴丕 賮賷 賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丿丕禺賱 賲爻乇丨賷丞
丕賱丨賯 賷賯丕賱 馗賳賳鬲 兀賳 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賴賳丕 賷爻禺乇 賲賳 乇丕卅毓鬲賴 丕賱兀卮賴乇 "乇賵賲賷賵 賵 噩賵賱賷賷鬲" 賵丕賱鬲賷 兀乇丕賴丕 賯賲丞 丕賱賲丨賳 丕賱賲賯丿賲 亘丨賳賰丞 兀丿亘賷丞 丨賯賷賯賷丞 禺丕賱丿丞... 賵賱賰賳 賴賳丕 亘賲爻乇丨賷丞 "丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 賲賳鬲氐賮 氐賷賮" 賷鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲 亘賳賴丕賷鬲賴丕 賮賷 丨賮賱 夭賮丕賮 丿賵賯 兀孬賷丕 賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲毓鬲亘乇 賲丨锟斤拷賰丕丞 爻丕禺乇丞 毓賱賷 賯氐丞 卮亘賷賴丞 亘乇賵賲賷賵 賵噩賵賱賷賷鬲
賵丕賱睾乇賷亘 丕賳 丨爻亘 丕賱丨爻丕亘丕鬲 丨賵賱 鬲賵丕乇賷禺 丕賵賱 毓乇囟 賱賲爻乇丨賷丕鬲 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賮兀賳 丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 氐賷賮 鬲賱賷 乇賵賲賷賵 賵噩賵賱賷賷鬲 亘毓丕賲 賵丕丨丿...賮賷 1595/1596
賯氐氐 丕賱丨亘 賴賳丕 鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 亘卮賰賱 馗乇賷賮...賱丕 丕禺賮賷 丕賳賳賷 賮賷 丕賱賲乇丕噩毓丞 賴匕賴 丕賱賲乇丞 爻兀禺鬲氐乇 卮乇丨 丕賱丕丨丿丕孬 -丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賯氐賷乇丞 兀氐賱丕 賮丕賱鬲賯乇兀賴丕 乇噩丕亍丕- 賵爻兀賰鬲賮賷 亘丕賳胤亘丕毓丕鬲賷 賵鬲丨賱賷賱 賲丕 丕爻鬲胤毓鬲 賮賴賲賴 賲賳賴丕 -賮賱爻鬲 賲鬲毓賲賯 賱賱丕爻賮 亘毓丿 賮賷 丕丿亘 卮賰爻亘賷乇
賵賱賰賳 丕賱賲賱丕丨馗 賯亘賱 丕賱亘丿亍 兀賳 亘丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 丕賱賲毓鬲乇賮 毓賱賷賴 丕賳 丕毓賲丕賱 卮賰爻亘賷乇 鬲毓噩 亘丕賱賱賵乇丿丕鬲 賵丕賱賲賱賵賰 廿賱丕 兀賳 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲賱賰 賲禺鬲賱賮丞 亘丨賯..丨賷孬 爻鬲噩丿 兀賷囟丕 丕賳 卮禺氐賷丞 毓賲丕賱 丕賱賯氐乇 賱丿賷賴賲 丿賵乇 賰亘賷乇 亘賱 賵丕賰亘乇 賲賳 丿賵乇 丕賱丿賵賯 賳賮爻賴
亘賱 賵丕賷囟丕 丿賵乇 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賵丕賱匕賷 爻賳鬲胤乇賯 賱賴 賱丕丨賯丕
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱兀賵賱賭賭賷 鉂も潳鉂�
丿賵賯 兀孬賷賳丕 孬賷爻賷賵爻 賵賲賱賰丞 丕賱兀賲丕夭賵賳 賴賷亘賵賱賷鬲丕
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賱丕 兀丿乇賷 賱賲 丕賮賴賲 賰孬賷乇丕 賰賷賮 兀丨鬲賱 賲賲賱賰鬲賴丕 賵賮賷 賳賮爻 丕賱賵賯鬲 賴賷 賵丕賯毓丞 賮賷 丕賱丨亘 亘賴 亘賴匕賴 丕賱丿乇噩丞 賵賱賰賳 毓賱賷 賰賱 丨丕賱 賴賲丕 毓賱賷 鬲賵丕賮賯 賵丨亘 賲賳 亘丿丕賷丞 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賵賷禺胤胤丕賳 賱丨賮賱 夭賵丕噩賴賲丕 亘卮賵賯 卮丿賷丿 禺賱丕賱 4 丕賷丕賲
賱賳 鬲噩丿 丕賱賰孬賷乇 毓賳 賯氐鬲賴賲丕..賱賰賳 卮禺氐賷丞 孬賷爻賷賵爻 兀毓噩亘鬲賳賷 亘卮丿丞 丕賳賴 毓丕丿賱 賵毓丕卮賯 賵禺賮賷賮 丕賱丿賲 丕賷囟丕 賲賳 鬲毓賱賷賯丕鬲賴 毓賳 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱孬賭丕賳賷丞 賵丕賱孬賭丕賱孬賭丞 鉂も潳鉂�
賴賷乇賲賷丕 - 賱賷爻丕賳丿乇 - 丿賷賲賷鬲乇賵爻 - 賴賷賱賷賳丕
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賴賷乇賲賷丕 鬲丨亘 賱賷爻丕賳丿乇 賵賱賷爻丕賳丿乇 賷丨亘賴丕 ...賵丕亘賷賴丕 乇噩賱 賳亘賷賱 氐丿賷賯 丕賱賲賱賰 賷丨丕賵賱 丕賳 賷噩毓賱賴丕 鬲賯鬲賳毓 亘兀賳 鬲鬲夭賵噩 丿賷賲賷鬲乇賵爻 丕賱匕賷 賷丨亘賴丕 賵丕亘賷賴丕 賷賮囟賱賴 毓賳 賱賷爻丕賳丿乇
丕賱賱賷 賴賵 賱賷爻丕賳丿乇 亘賷賯賵賱 賱丿賷賲賷鬲乇賵爻 "胤丕賱賲丕 丕亘賵賴丕 亘賷丨亘賰 賰丿丞 賲鬲爻賷亘 丕賱亘鬲 賵丕鬲噩賵夭賴 賴賵" 鈥� 賴賷乇賲賷丕 亘賯賷 亘鬲囟乇亘 賯賳亘賱丞 兀賳 丿賷賲賷鬲乇賵爻 乇爻賲 丕賱丨亘 毓賱賷 丕毓夭 氐丿賷賯丕鬲賴丕 賴賷賱賷賳丕 賵鬲乇賰賴丕 亘毓丿 賲丕賵賯毓鬲 賮賷 丨亘賴 -賵賯毓鬲 賮賷 丕賱丨亘 賮賯胤 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賱丕 賷賵噩丿 亘賴丕 噩賳爻 禺丕乇噩 丕胤丕乇 丕賱夭賵丕噩 賵丿賷 賲賷夭丞 賲賴賲丞
賷丨鬲丿 丕賱氐乇丕毓 賵賱賳 丕鬲賰賱賲 毓賳 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬.賷賰賮賷 丕賳 鬲毓乇賮 丕賳 賴匕丕 丕賱氐乇丕毓 爻賷爻鬲睾乇賯 賲卮賴丿 賰丕賲賱 賴賵 丕賱兀胤賵賱 禺賱丕賱 丕賱賮氐賱 丕賱孬丕賱孬 賮賷 丕賱睾丕亘丞...賵賱賰賳 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 爻賷鬲睾賷乇 賰賱 卮卅
丕賱丨亘 亘賷賳 丕賱丕乇亘毓 卮禺氐賷丕鬲 賰丕賳 馗乇賷賮丕..賵兀毓鬲賯丿 丕賳 丕賱賳赖丕賷丞 丕賱毓丕丿賱丞 丨鬲賷 賵廿賳 鬲丿禺賱鬲 賮賷賴丕 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賰丕賳鬲 賲賵賮賯丞 噩丿丕 賵丕毓噩亘鬲賳賷 賱賱睾丕賷丞
卮毓乇鬲 亘丕賱卮賮賯丞 毓賱賷 賴賷賱賷賳丕 噩丿丕 賵賱賰賳 毓賳丕丿賴丕 賵毓丿賲 鬲氐丿賷賯賴丕 賰丕賳 馗乇賷賮丕 賵丕賳 賰丕賳 賲胤賵賱丕
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱乇丕亘毓丞 鉂も潳鉂�
賳賰 亘賵鬲賵賲 賵賳賰 亘賵鬲賵賲
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賴賵 卮禺氐 賵丕丨丿..亘賵鬲賵賲 匕賱賰 丕賱毓丕賲賱 丕賱亘爻賷胤 賵丕賱匕賷 賷賯賵賲 亘丿賵乇 丕賱亘胤賵賱丞 賮賷 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕賱鬲賷 賷毓丿賴丕 賮乇賷賯 賲賳 丕賱毓賲丕賱 亘丕賱賯氐乇 賱鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 賮賷 丨賮賱 夭賵丕噩 丕賱丿賵賯
賵賷鬲丿禺賱 亘賵鬲賵賲 賮賷 毓賲賱 丕賱賲禺乇噩 胤賵丕賱 丕賱賵賯鬲 亘鬲賵噩賷賴丕鬲 賱亘丕賯賷 賮乇賷賯 丕賱鬲賲孬賷賱 亘卮賰賱 爻丕禺乇 賵丕賷囟丕 賮賷 鬲賮禺賷賲 賵鬲囟禺賷賲 丿賵乇賴 爻賷噩毓賱賰 鬲卮毓乇 兀賳 兀賲孬丕賱 亘賵鬲賵賲 賲賵噩賵丿賷賳 賮賷 賰賱 賲賰丕賳 賮賷 賲噩丕賱丕鬲 丕賱丕丿亘 賵丕賱賮賳 毓丕賲丕 賮賷 賲氐乇
賮亘賵鬲賵賲 亘丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 賲賵賴亘鬲賴 丕賱鬲賲孬賷賱賷丞 丕賱亘卮毓丞 賮賴賵 丕賱賲鬲丨賰賲 賵鬲兀孬賷乇賴 賰丕賳 毓賱賷 賰賱 卮禺氐賷丕鬲 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘賱 賵丿賷賰賵乇丕鬲賴丕 丕賱亘卮乇賷丞
丕爻鬲睾乇賯 丿賵乇 亘賵鬲賵賲 賵賯鬲 胤賵賷賱 賲賳 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賰賲丕 賯賱鬲 賮賷 亘丿丕賷丞 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 .. 賰鬲亘賴 卮賰爻亘賷乇 亘卮賰賱 噩賷丿 賮毓賱丕
爻鬲卮毓乇 丕賳賴 乇噩賱 賷丨亘 賳賮爻賴 噩丿丕 亘卮賰賱 禺賮賷賮 丕賱丿賲 賵丕毓噩亘賳賷 噩丿丕 丕賷囟丕...丕賳賴 賷丨亘 賳賮爻賴 丨鬲賷 毓賳丿賲丕 丨丿孬鬲 丕賱賯氐丞 丕賱爻丕丿爻丞
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱禺丕賲爻丞 鉂も潳鉂�
鬲丕賷鬲丕賳賷丕 賵丕賵亘賷乇賵賳
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賲賱賰丞 賵賲賱賰 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱禺乇丕賮賷丞 亘丕賱睾丕亘丞
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
賷亘丿賵 兀賳 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賷乇賷丿 兀賳 賷馗賴乇 兀賳 賴賳丕賰 睾乇丕卅亘 賲丕 亘賴匕丕 丕賱毓丕賱賲
丨爻賳丕, 胤賵丕賱 丕賱卮賴乇 賯乇兀鬲 乇賵丕賷鬲賷賳 丨丿賷孬賷鬲賷賳 毓賳 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱禺乇丕賮賷丞 亘丕賱睾丕亘丕鬲...賵賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲噩賲毓 亘賷賳 4 賲賳 丕卮賴乇 賯氐氐 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱禺賷丕賱賷丞 丕賱賮賱賰賱賵乇賷丞 賮賷 賲爻乇丨賷丞 賵丕丨丿丞 亘丿丕禺賱 丕賱睾丕亘丞 賵亘卮賰賱 爻賵丿丕賵賷 賵丕賯毓賷
賰丕賳 賷噩亘 兀賳 兀賳賴賷 鬲賱賰 丕賱乇丨賱丞 丕賱乇賵丕卅賷丞 亘丕賱睾丕亘丕鬲..賵毓賱賷 丨爻亘 毓賱賲賷 兀賳 鬲賱賰 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賱卮賰爻亘賷乇 亘賴丕 丕賷囟丕 睾丕亘丞 賵噩賳賷丕鬲 禺乇丕賮賷丞..賵亘氐乇丕丨丞 賯丿 賮丕賯 鬲賵賯毓丕鬲賷
丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賱賴賲 丿賵乇 賲賴賲 賮賷 丕賱丨亘賰丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲噩毓賱賴丕 賰丕賱丨賱賲 亘丕賱賳爻亘丞 賱賱丕亘胤丕賱..卮毓乇鬲 丕賳 賴賳丕賰 賲毓賳賷 禺賮賷 賱賮賰乇丞 丕賱賮鬲賷 丕賱賴賳丿賷 丕亘賳 氐丿賷賯丞 鬲丕賷鬲丕賳賷丕 賵丕賱匕賷 亘爻亘亘賴 賷丨丿孬 賲卮賰賱丞 亘賷賳 丕賱夭賵噩賷賳 丕賱賲賱賰 賵丕賱賲賱賰丞..賮賯丿 賯乇兀鬲 賲丐禺乇丕 賮賷 乇賵丕賷丞 "亘賳丿賵賱 賮賵賰賵" 兀賳 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賱丿賷賴 賲毓丕賳 禺賮賷丞 賰孬賷乇丞 毓賳 丕賱睾乇丕卅亘賷丕鬲 賵丕賱賴賳丿 卮賴賷乇丞 亘匕賱賰, 賱匕丕 賱丕 丕毓鬲賯丿 兀賳 丕氐賱 丕賱賮鬲賷 賲賳 丕賱賴賳丿 賯丿 噩丕亍 賲賳 賮乇丕睾
丕賲丕 毓賳 鬲賯賱亘丕鬲 丕賱噩賵 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賲 匕賰乇賴丕 賮賷 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 丕賷囟丕 亘爻亘亘 丕賳 賲賱賰丞 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賮賷 賲夭丕噩 爻卅 丕賷囟丕 賷孬亘鬲 丕賳 丕賱乇噩賱 賱丿賷賴 賳馗乇賷丞 賲丕
亘毓丿 丕賱亘丨孬 賵噩丿鬲 丕賳 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賱賲 鬲馗賴乇 賮賷 賯氐氐 丕禺乇賷 賱卮賰爻亘賷乇 爻賵賷 兀孬賳丕賳 賵賴賲丕 :
"The Tempest"
"The Merry Wives of Windsor"
賵丨鬲賷 丿賵乇賴賲丕 賰丕賳 亘卮賰賱 丕賯賱 賲賳 賴賳丕 ..賰賲丕 鬲賲 匕賰乇 噩賳賷丞 賲毓丕賱噩丞 賮賷 乇賵賲賷賵 賵噩賵賱賷賷鬲
賯氐丞 丕賱丨亘 賴賳丕 賱丕 鬲毓丿 賯氐丞 丨亘 賯丿乇 賲丕 賴賷 禺賱丕賮 夭賵噩賷 亘爻賷胤 鬲爻亘亘 賮賷 毓丿賲 丕賱賲毓丕卮乇丞 亘賷賳賴賲丕.. 賵亘爻亘亘 賴匕丕 丕賱禺賱丕賮 丨丿孬鬲 賰賱 丕賱丕毓丕噩賷亘 賱賰賱 丕賱卮禺氐賷丕鬲 亘爻亘亘 毓胤乇 丕賱丨亘...賵賲丕 夭丕丿賴 賴賵 丕賳 兀賵亘賷乇賵賳 賱丿賷賴 賲賳 丕賱賳亘賱 兀賳 丕卮賮賯 毓賱賷 賲氐賷乇 丕賱兀丨亘丕亍 賱匕賱賰 丨丿孬鬲 毓賯丿丞 丕賱丨賰丕賷丞 毓賳丿賲丕 噩毓賱 毓賮乇賷鬲 賷丿毓賷 乇賵亘賷賳 丕賳 賷爻丕毓丿賴 賮賷 丨賱 丕賱禺賱丕賮 亘賷賳賴 賵亘賷賳 夭賵噩鬲賴 賵丕賷囟丕 亘賷賳 丕賱丕丨亘丕亍
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱爻丕丿爻丞 鉂も潳鉂�
鬲丕賷鬲丕賳賷丕 賵 亘賵鬲賵賲 -亘乇兀爻 丕賱丨賲丕乇
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亘丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 丕賳賴 禺胤兀 毓胤乇 丕賱丨亘 廿賱丕 兀賳 禺賮丞 丿賲 亘賵鬲賵賲 賵賲丿賷 卮毓賵乇賴 亘賳賮爻賴 賱賳 賷噩毓賱賴 賷賱丨馗 賵賱丕 亘兀賳賴 匕賵 乇兀爻 丨賲丕乇 賵賱丕 丨鬲賷 亘丨亘 賲賱賰丞 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱噩賲賷賱丞 賱賴 鈥� 亘賱 爻賷丨丕賵賱 丕賳 賷噩毓賱 禺丿賲賴丕 賷禺丿賲賵賴 賮丨爻亘 , 廿賱賲 兀賯賱 賱賰賲 丕賳賴 賮賷 毓賱丕賯丞 丨亘 賲毓 賳賮爻賴責
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱爻丕亘毓丞 賵丕賱兀禺賷乇丞 鉂も潳鉂�
亘賷乇丕賲賵爻 賵孬賷爻亘賷
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賵賴賷 賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 賮賷 兀禺乇 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞..賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丿丕禺賱 賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲爻賲賷
"丕賱丿乇丕賲丕 丕賱賯氐賷乇丞 丕賱賲乇賴賯丞 毓賳 亘賷乇丕賲賵爻 賵丨亘賷亘鬲賴 孬賷爻亘賷貙 鬲乇丕噩賷丿賷丕 丨夭賷賳丞 噩丿丕 賵賰賵賲賷丿賷丞"
兀賵 亘丕賱兀賳噩賱賷夭賷丞
鈥淎 tedious short drama about young Pyramus and his love Thisbe, a very sad and tragic comedy.鈥�
賴匕賴 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賴賷 兀丨丿 丕賰孬乇 賲丕 丕毓噩亘賳賷 亘鬲賱賰 丕賱賯氐丞 賵丕囟丨賰賳賷 亘卮丿丞... 賵鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 賮賷 丨賮賱 丕賱夭賵丕噩 亘毓丿 丕賱賳賴丕賷丕鬲 丕賱爻毓賷丿丞
賴賷 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕賱鬲賷 賷毓丿賴丕 丕賱毓賲丕賱 賲賳匕 亘丿丕賷丞 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賵賷賯賵賲 亘亘胤賵賱鬲賴丕 亘賵鬲賵賲 賵亘賯賷丞 丕賱毓賲丕賱 賵丕賱鬲賷 鬲鬲丨賵賱 賱賲爻禺乇丞 丨賯賷賯賷丞 賱賷爻 賮賯胤 賱兀丿丕亍 丕賱賲賲孬賱賷賳 丕賱賲賯丿賲 亘兀爻賵丕 胤乇賷賯丞 賲賲賰賳丞 賵賱丕 賰爻乇賴賲 賱賱丨丕卅胤 丕賱乇丕亘毓 賵丨丿賷孬賴賲 丕賱賲亘丕卮乇 賱賱噩賲賴賵乇...賵賳賵毓 丕賱丕丿賵丕乇 賳賮爻賴丕 -賰丕賱丨丕卅胤 賵丕賱賯賲乇 賵丕賱丕爻丿 - 賵丨鬲賷 鬲毓賱賷賯丕鬲 丕賱丕亘胤丕賱 "孬賷爻賷賵爻" 丿賵賯 丕孬賷賳丕 賵丕賱賲卮丕賴丿賷賳 賲毓賴 賰丕賳鬲 丕賰孬乇 賲乇丨丕
賮賰乇丞 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丿丕禺賱 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕賰賷丿 賮賰乇丞 噩賷丿丞貙 賱賰賳 丕賱丨賰丕賷丞 賳賮爻賴丕 鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 亘卮賰賱 賰賵賲賷丿賷 噩丿丕 賲孬賷乇 噩丿丕 賱賱囟丨賰
賵賱鬲賳鬲賴賷 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丕賱賲乇丨...亘丕賱丨亘 丕賱匕賷 賴賵 爻乇 丕賳鬲馗丕賲 丕賱丨賷丕丞 賵丕賱胤亘賷毓丞 .. 賵丨鬲賷 丕賱毓丿丕賱丞
鉂� 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂�
丕賱賳赖丕賷丞
鉂� 鉂� 鉂�
賷噩亘 兀賳 丕毓鬲乇賮 丕賳賷 賰賳鬲 賲禺胤卅丕..禺氐賵氐丕 丕賳賷 賱賲 丕賯乇兀 卮賰爻亘賷乇 丕賵賱丕 賱丕賳賷 鬲毓賱賷賲 "丨賰賵賲賷" 賮賱賲 賷賰賳 賮賷 丕賱賲賯乇乇 毓賱賷 丕賱丕賯賱 丨鬲賷 2000 爻賳丞 丕賱鬲禺乇噩 賲賳 丕賱孬丕賳賵賷丞 丕賱毓丕賲丞 賲爻乇丨賷丞 賱賴...賵賱賱丕爻賮 賱丕 丕毓鬲亘乇 賳賮爻賷 賯丕乇卅 噩賷丿..賱丕賳 丕賱賰孬賷乇 賱賲 兀賯乇兀賴 亘毓丿 亘乇睾賲 丕賴賲賷鬲賴 賵卮毓乇鬲 丕賳賴 賰丕賳 爻賷賰賵賳 賲賲賱丕 賵孬賯賷賱丕
賵賱丕 丕賳賰乇 丕賳 丿賷 丕賰鬲乇 賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕氐賱丕 賰賳鬲 賲鬲卮賵賯 丕賯乇兀賴丕 賲賳 丕賵丕禺乇 丕賱鬲爻毓賷賳丕鬲 賲毓 氐丿賵乇 賮賷賱賲 賲亘賳賷 毓賱賷賴丕 賮賷 1999 賵賱賰賳賷 賱賲 丕卮丕賴丿賴 賱丕賳 丕賱乇賯丕亘丞 賲賳毓鬲賴 賵賯鬲賴丕
賵賱賰賳 丕賱丕爻賲 賰丕賳 毓丕賱賯丕 亘亘丕賱賷 賱賮鬲乇丞 胤賵賷賱丞 賵賰賳鬲 賵賯鬲賴丕 亘毓賲賱 丕睾丕賳賷 賰賵賰鬲賷賱丕鬲 毓賱賷 卮乇丕卅胤 賰丕爻賷鬲 賵丕爻賲賷賴丕 "丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 氐賷賮 噩1 賵賵氐賱 丨鬲賷 噩7 賯亘賱 丕賳 賷馗賴乇 乇丕丿賷賵 爻賵丕 賵賯鬲賴丕 賮賷 2002
-賮賯乇丞 丕賱匕賰乇賷丕鬲 丕賱丕賱賷賲丞 :)-
賵賱賰賳 噩丕卅鬲 丕賱賮乇氐丞 丕禺賷乇丕
賵賲鬲兀禺乇丕 丕賮囟賱 賲賳 丕亘丿丕
賵賱賲 丕鬲禺賷賱 丕賳賷 爻丕爻鬲賲鬲毓 亘賴丕 賱賴匕賴 丕賱丿乇噩丞 賲胤賱賯丕
賲丕匕丕 鬲毓賱賲鬲 賲賳 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞責
賱丕 卮卅...兀賳賴丕 賲賱賴丕丞 爻丕禺乇丞 丕噩鬲賲丕毓賷丞 馗乇賷賮丞 亘賱 賵賳馗賷賮丞 亘毓賰爻 賰孬賷乇 賲賳 丕賱乇賵丕賷丕鬲 賵丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丕鬲 丕賱丨丿賷孬丞 丕賱賲毓丕氐乇丞
丕囟丨賰鬲賳賷 賰孬賷乇丕 賵丕賲鬲毓鬲賳賷 賵噩匕亘鬲賳賷
兀賴..賵兀賳 丕賱丨亘 賯丿 賷氐賳毓 賲賳丕 賲睾賮賱賷賳 丕丨賷丕賳丕...賰賲丕 賷賯賵賱 丕賱毓賳賵丕賳 丕賱丿毓丕卅賷 賱賱賮賷賱賲 丕賱鬲爻毓賷賳丕鬲賷..賵賱賰賳 賮賷 賳賮爻 丕賱賵賯鬲 丕賱丨亘 丕爻丕爻賷 噩丿丕 賱爻賷乇 丕賱丨賷丕丞 賵丕賱胤亘賷毓丞..賮賯胤 賮賷 丕胤丕乇賴 丕賱爻賱賷賲
賵賱鬲爻鬲賲鬲毓 亘丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賱賴匕丕 丕賱丨丿 賲孬賱賷 賮胤亘毓丕 亘賱睾鬲賴 丕賱丕氐賱賷丞 丕賮囟賱.. 賵 亘丕賱丕爻鬲毓丕賳丞 亘賯丕賲賵爻 "丕賳噩賱賷夭賷 -丕賳噩賱賷夭賷" 賵賲鬲氐賱 亘丕賱丕賳鬲乇賳鬲 丕賱賲賵囟賵毓 馗亘胤 賰鬲賷乇 亘爻 毓丕賷夭 卮賵賷丞 鬲乇賰賷夭
賱賰賳 亘氐乇丕丨丞 丕賱賲賵賯毓 丕賱賲賲鬲丕夭 爻丕亘賯 丕賱匕賰乇
No Fear Shakespeare
賵丿賴 賲賲賰賳 鬲賯乇兀 丕賱賳氐 丕賱丕氐賱賷 賵賳氐 賲賰鬲賵亘 亘丕賱丕賳噩賱賷夭賷 丕賱丨丿賷孬
賱賰賳 丕賱賳氐 丕賱賯丿賷賲 亘乇睾賲 氐毓賵亘鬲賴 賱賰賳賴 丕賮囟賱 亘賰鬲賷乇 賮賷 丕賱爻噩毓 毓賱賷 丕賱丕賯賱
賱賰賳 丕賱賲賵賯毓 丿賴 丨丕賵賱 亘卮賰賱 賲賲鬲丕夭 丕賳賴 賷禺賱賷賰 亘乇囟賴 鬲爻鬲賲鬲毓 亘丕賱賳氐 丕賱噩丿賷丿 賵丕囟丕賮丞 賯賱賷賱 賲賳 丕賱爻噩毓 賲賳 賵賯鬲 賱賱鬲丕賳賷 夭賷 賲丕毓賲賱鬲 賮賷 丕賵賱 丕賱乇賷賮賷賵 賴賳丕 亘丕賱毓乇亘賷
丕賯乇兀 丕賱丕鬲賳賷賳..賵鬲乇噩賲 賱賵 鬲丨亘 亘爻 賮毓賱丕 賲鬲毓丞 丕賱丨賰丕賷丞 亘賱睾鬲賴丕 丕賱丕氐賱賷丞
爻鬲噩丿 丕賳賰 爻鬲亘鬲爻賲 賵乇亘賲丕 鬲囟丨賰 亘丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 丕賳 400 毓丕賲丕 賲乇鬲 毓賱賷賴丕
丕鬲賲賳賷 賱賰 賯乇丕亍丞 爻毓賷丿丞 亘睾丕亘丞 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賵丕賱匕賷 爻兀賯乇兀 賱賴 丕賱賲夭賷丿 亘丕賱鬲兀賰賷丿
Happy Shakespeare Day...Happy Earth Day...Happy Spring . :)
23 賽April 2016
Reading , Act a Day,
From 18 April 2016
To 22 April 2016
賮賲賳 兀賵賱 丕亘乇賷賱 賵丕賳丕 亘乇賵丕賷丕鬲 丕賱睾丕亘丕鬲 兀購噩賷賱
賵賯乇乇鬲 禺鬲賲 鬲噩賵丕賱賷 亘丨賰丕賷丕鬲 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱禺乇丕賮賷丞貙 亘乇賵丕賷丞 賯賵賷丞 賰賱丕爻賷賰賷丞
賵賴賱 賴賳丕賰 丕卮賴乇 賲賳 卮賰爻亘賷乇貙 賵丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 賲賳鬲氐賮 氐賷賮 丕賱卮賴賷乇責
賱賰賳 丕賵賱 毓賯亘丞 氐丿賲鬲賳賷..兀賳噩賱賷夭賷 丿賴 賷丕賲乇爻賷責
賵賱賰賳 噩賳賷丕鬲 噩賵噩賱 丕乇爻賱鬲賱賷..賲賵賯毓 毓馗賷賲 爻丕毓丿賳賷
賲賵賯毓 賳丕賮毓 丕賱毓賱賲 睾夭賷乇..亘賴 賯爻賲
賱丕賯乇丕 賱賱卮丕毓乇 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷 丕賱噩賱賷賱貙 亘賱睾鬲賴 丕賱丕氐賱賷丞 噩賳亘丕 賱賱睾丞 賴匕丕 丕賱噩賷賱
賱賯丿 亘賴乇鬲賳賷 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丨賯 賰賷賮 賱賲 兀賱賯 賱賴丕 賲賳 賯亘賱 亘丕賱丕
丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 賲賳鬲氐賮 氐賷賮 貙賱乇亘賲丕 丕賰孬乇 丕毓賲丕賱 卮賰爻亘賷乇 禺賷丕賱丕
噩賲丕賱丕...禺乇丕賮丞...爻毓丕丿丞...賵賲乇丨丕 賵囟丨賰丕 噩賱賱丕
丕賵賰貙 丕賳丕 夭賴賯鬲 賲賳 丕賱爻噩毓 貙 毓匕乇丕 氐丿賷賯賷 丕賱賯丕乇卅 丿毓賳賷 丕氐賷睾 丕賱賲乇丕噩毓丞 丿賵賳 鬲囟賷毓 丕賱丕賲乇 賴夭賱丕
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賷噩亘 丕賳 丕毓鬲乇賮 丕賳賳賷 丕卮毓乇 丕賳賳賷 丕賱賵丨賷丿 賲賳 賷乇賷 丕賳 鬲賱賰 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賰丕賲賱丞貙 賱賷爻 賮賯胤 賱兀賳賳賷 賲賳 賴賵丕丞 丕賱賯氐氐 丕賱禺乇丕賮賷丞 賵賱賲 兀鬲賵賯毓 兀賳 賷賯丿賲 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賲孬賱賴
賵賱賰賳 兀毓噩亘賳賷 噩丿丕 爻禺乇賷鬲賴 賲賳 丕賱鬲乇丕噩賷丿賷丕鬲 丕賱丨賲賯丕亍 賰兀賳鬲丨丕乇 丕賱賲丨亘賷賳 亘賱 賵丕賱爻禺乇賷丞 賲賳 鬲乇鬲賷亘丕鬲 丕賱夭賵丕噩 丕賱賲爻亘賯丞 亘卮賰賱 賲賲鬲丕夭 亘賱 賵鬲賯丿賷賲 丕賱毓丿丕賱丞 丕賱卮毓乇賷丞 賱賲賳 賷賱毓亘 亘賯賱賵亘 丕賱賮鬲賷丕鬲 賵賷鬲乇賰賴丕
賵賱賰賳賷 丕賷囟丕 囟亘胤鬲 賳賮爻賷 丕囟丨賰 毓賱賷 丕賰孬乇 賲賳 賲賵賯賮 賱賲 賷毓賮 毓賱賷賴 丕賱夭賲賳 賵賷噩毓賱賴 賲賰乇乇丕...亘賱 賵丕賳賮噩乇鬲 賮賷 丕賱囟丨賰 賱丕 兀乇丕丿賷丕 亘賮氐賱賴丕 丕賱兀禺賷乇 亘兀賰孬乇 賲賳 賲賵賯賮 賲賳賴丕 賴匕丕 丕賱丨賵丕乇 亘賷賳 丕賱丿賵賯 孬賷爻賷賵爻 賵 丿賷賲賷鬲乇賷賵爻 丕孬賳丕亍 賲卮丕賴丿鬲賴賲 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕賱賴夭賱賷丞
Theseus
I wonder if the lion be to speak.
Demetrius
No wonder, my lord. One lion may when many asses do.
賷賯氐丿 賴賳丕 丕賱賲賲孬賱賷賳 丕賱兀禺乇賷賳 , 亘賷賳賲丕 丕賱兀爻丿 賴賵 賲賲孬賱 兀禺乇 , 賵亘丕賱賮毓賱 爻賷鬲賰賱賲 亘賱丕 丕賷 賱夭賵賲
丨爻賳丕 , 賱丕 兀毓賱賲 兀賳 锟斤拷丕賳 賱賮馗 丨賲丕乇 賱賴 賳賮爻 丕賱賲毓賳賷 丕賱賲夭丿賵噩 丕賱毓丕賲賷 賮賷 丕賱賯乇賳 丕賱爻丕丿爻 毓卮乇 賵賱賰賳 賴匕丕 丕賱爻胤乇 賮毓賱丕 噩毓賱賳賷 丕囟丨賰 亘卮丿丞
賵丿毓賳賷 丕氐丨亘賰 賲毓賷 賱兀賰孬乇 賲丕 丕毓噩亘賳賷 亘丕賱賯氐丞...賵賱賳乇 賯氐氐 丕賱丨亘 丕賱馗乇賷賯丞 賵丕賱賲禺鬲賱胤丞 亘卮卅 賲賳 丕賱爻禺乇賷丞 賵丕賱鬲賯丕賱賷丿 丕賱毓鬲賷賯丞...賴噩丕亍 賱賱丕賳鬲丨丕乇 賵丕賱賱毓亘 亘賯賱賵亘 丕賱亘賳丕鬲..鬲賯丿賷爻 丕賱丨亘 丕賱匕賷 賷賲賳丨 賱賱胤亘賷毓丞 丕賱丕爻鬲賲乇丕乇..賵賷噩毓賱賳丕 賲睾賮賱賷賳 賮賷 亘毓囟 丕賱兀丨賷丕賳
*** 爻亘毓 賯氐氐 丨亘 ***
鉂も潳 囟丿 乇賵賲賷賵 賵 噩賵賱賷賷鬲 鉂も潳
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丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賲賱賷卅丞 亘賯氐氐 丕賱丨亘 丕賱賲賳胤賯賷丞 賲賳賴丕 賵丕賱睾賷乇 賲賳胤賯賷丞..賵賱賰賳 賰賱賴丕 鬲賳丕賱 賳賴丕賷丞 毓丕丿賱丞 噩賲賷賱丞 爻毓賷丿丞
賵賮賷 賳賮爻 丕賱賵賯鬲 鬲爻禺乇 賲賳 賳賴丕賷丕鬲 賯氐氐 丕賱丨亘 丕賱賲兀爻丕賵賷丞 丕賱賲亘丕賱睾 賮賷賴丕 賮賷 賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丿丕禺賱 賲爻乇丨賷丞
丕賱丨賯 賷賯丕賱 馗賳賳鬲 兀賳 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賴賳丕 賷爻禺乇 賲賳 乇丕卅毓鬲賴 丕賱兀卮賴乇 "乇賵賲賷賵 賵 噩賵賱賷賷鬲" 賵丕賱鬲賷 兀乇丕賴丕 賯賲丞 丕賱賲丨賳 丕賱賲賯丿賲 亘丨賳賰丞 兀丿亘賷丞 丨賯賷賯賷丞 禺丕賱丿丞... 賵賱賰賳 賴賳丕 亘賲爻乇丨賷丞 "丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 賲賳鬲氐賮 氐賷賮" 賷鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲 亘賳賴丕賷鬲賴丕 賮賷 丨賮賱 夭賮丕賮 丿賵賯 兀孬賷丕 賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲毓鬲亘乇 賲丨锟斤拷賰丕丞 爻丕禺乇丞 毓賱賷 賯氐丞 卮亘賷賴丞 亘乇賵賲賷賵 賵噩賵賱賷賷鬲
賵丕賱睾乇賷亘 丕賳 丨爻亘 丕賱丨爻丕亘丕鬲 丨賵賱 鬲賵丕乇賷禺 丕賵賱 毓乇囟 賱賲爻乇丨賷丕鬲 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賮兀賳 丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 氐賷賮 鬲賱賷 乇賵賲賷賵 賵噩賵賱賷賷鬲 亘毓丕賲 賵丕丨丿...賮賷 1595/1596
賯氐氐 丕賱丨亘 賴賳丕 鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 亘卮賰賱 馗乇賷賮...賱丕 丕禺賮賷 丕賳賳賷 賮賷 丕賱賲乇丕噩毓丞 賴匕賴 丕賱賲乇丞 爻兀禺鬲氐乇 卮乇丨 丕賱丕丨丿丕孬 -丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賯氐賷乇丞 兀氐賱丕 賮丕賱鬲賯乇兀賴丕 乇噩丕亍丕- 賵爻兀賰鬲賮賷 亘丕賳胤亘丕毓丕鬲賷 賵鬲丨賱賷賱 賲丕 丕爻鬲胤毓鬲 賮賴賲賴 賲賳賴丕 -賮賱爻鬲 賲鬲毓賲賯 賱賱丕爻賮 亘毓丿 賮賷 丕丿亘 卮賰爻亘賷乇
賵賱賰賳 丕賱賲賱丕丨馗 賯亘賱 丕賱亘丿亍 兀賳 亘丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 丕賱賲毓鬲乇賮 毓賱賷賴 丕賳 丕毓賲丕賱 卮賰爻亘賷乇 鬲毓噩 亘丕賱賱賵乇丿丕鬲 賵丕賱賲賱賵賰 廿賱丕 兀賳 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲賱賰 賲禺鬲賱賮丞 亘丨賯..丨賷孬 爻鬲噩丿 兀賷囟丕 丕賳 卮禺氐賷丞 毓賲丕賱 丕賱賯氐乇 賱丿賷賴賲 丿賵乇 賰亘賷乇 亘賱 賵丕賰亘乇 賲賳 丿賵乇 丕賱丿賵賯 賳賮爻賴
亘賱 賵丕賷囟丕 丿賵乇 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賵丕賱匕賷 爻賳鬲胤乇賯 賱賴 賱丕丨賯丕
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱兀賵賱賭賭賷 鉂も潳鉂�
丿賵賯 兀孬賷賳丕 孬賷爻賷賵爻 賵賲賱賰丞 丕賱兀賲丕夭賵賳 賴賷亘賵賱賷鬲丕
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賱丕 兀丿乇賷 賱賲 丕賮賴賲 賰孬賷乇丕 賰賷賮 兀丨鬲賱 賲賲賱賰鬲賴丕 賵賮賷 賳賮爻 丕賱賵賯鬲 賴賷 賵丕賯毓丞 賮賷 丕賱丨亘 亘賴 亘賴匕賴 丕賱丿乇噩丞 賵賱賰賳 毓賱賷 賰賱 丨丕賱 賴賲丕 毓賱賷 鬲賵丕賮賯 賵丨亘 賲賳 亘丿丕賷丞 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賵賷禺胤胤丕賳 賱丨賮賱 夭賵丕噩賴賲丕 亘卮賵賯 卮丿賷丿 禺賱丕賱 4 丕賷丕賲
賱賳 鬲噩丿 丕賱賰孬賷乇 毓賳 賯氐鬲賴賲丕..賱賰賳 卮禺氐賷丞 孬賷爻賷賵爻 兀毓噩亘鬲賳賷 亘卮丿丞 丕賳賴 毓丕丿賱 賵毓丕卮賯 賵禺賮賷賮 丕賱丿賲 丕賷囟丕 賲賳 鬲毓賱賷賯丕鬲賴 毓賳 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱孬賭丕賳賷丞 賵丕賱孬賭丕賱孬賭丞 鉂も潳鉂�
賴賷乇賲賷丕 - 賱賷爻丕賳丿乇 - 丿賷賲賷鬲乇賵爻 - 賴賷賱賷賳丕
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賴賷乇賲賷丕 鬲丨亘 賱賷爻丕賳丿乇 賵賱賷爻丕賳丿乇 賷丨亘賴丕 ...賵丕亘賷賴丕 乇噩賱 賳亘賷賱 氐丿賷賯 丕賱賲賱賰 賷丨丕賵賱 丕賳 賷噩毓賱賴丕 鬲賯鬲賳毓 亘兀賳 鬲鬲夭賵噩 丿賷賲賷鬲乇賵爻 丕賱匕賷 賷丨亘賴丕 賵丕亘賷賴丕 賷賮囟賱賴 毓賳 賱賷爻丕賳丿乇
Lysander
You have her father鈥檚 love, Demetrius.
Let me have Haemia鈥檚. Do you marry him.
丕賱賱賷 賴賵 賱賷爻丕賳丿乇 亘賷賯賵賱 賱丿賷賲賷鬲乇賵爻 "胤丕賱賲丕 丕亘賵賴丕 亘賷丨亘賰 賰丿丞 賲鬲爻賷亘 丕賱亘鬲 賵丕鬲噩賵夭賴 賴賵" 鈥� 賴賷乇賲賷丕 亘賯賷 亘鬲囟乇亘 賯賳亘賱丞 兀賳 丿賷賲賷鬲乇賵爻 乇爻賲 丕賱丨亘 毓賱賷 丕毓夭 氐丿賷賯丕鬲賴丕 賴賷賱賷賳丕 賵鬲乇賰賴丕 亘毓丿 賲丕賵賯毓鬲 賮賷 丨亘賴 -賵賯毓鬲 賮賷 丕賱丨亘 賮賯胤 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賱丕 賷賵噩丿 亘賴丕 噩賳爻 禺丕乇噩 丕胤丕乇 丕賱夭賵丕噩 賵丿賷 賲賷夭丞 賲賴賲丞
賷丨鬲丿 丕賱氐乇丕毓 賵賱賳 丕鬲賰賱賲 毓賳 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬.賷賰賮賷 丕賳 鬲毓乇賮 丕賳 賴匕丕 丕賱氐乇丕毓 爻賷爻鬲睾乇賯 賲卮賴丿 賰丕賲賱 賴賵 丕賱兀胤賵賱 禺賱丕賱 丕賱賮氐賱 丕賱孬丕賱孬 賮賷 丕賱睾丕亘丞...賵賱賰賳 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 爻賷鬲睾賷乇 賰賱 卮卅
丕賱丨亘 亘賷賳 丕賱丕乇亘毓 卮禺氐賷丕鬲 賰丕賳 馗乇賷賮丕..賵兀毓鬲賯丿 丕賳 丕賱賳赖丕賷丞 丕賱毓丕丿賱丞 丨鬲賷 賵廿賳 鬲丿禺賱鬲 賮賷賴丕 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賰丕賳鬲 賲賵賮賯丞 噩丿丕 賵丕毓噩亘鬲賳賷 賱賱睾丕賷丞
卮毓乇鬲 亘丕賱卮賮賯丞 毓賱賷 賴賷賱賷賳丕 噩丿丕 賵賱賰賳 毓賳丕丿賴丕 賵毓丿賲 鬲氐丿賷賯賴丕 賰丕賳 馗乇賷賮丕 賵丕賳 賰丕賳 賲胤賵賱丕
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱乇丕亘毓丞 鉂も潳鉂�
賳賰 亘賵鬲賵賲 賵賳賰 亘賵鬲賵賲
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賴賵 卮禺氐 賵丕丨丿..亘賵鬲賵賲 匕賱賰 丕賱毓丕賲賱 丕賱亘爻賷胤 賵丕賱匕賷 賷賯賵賲 亘丿賵乇 丕賱亘胤賵賱丞 賮賷 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕賱鬲賷 賷毓丿賴丕 賮乇賷賯 賲賳 丕賱毓賲丕賱 亘丕賱賯氐乇 賱鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 賮賷 丨賮賱 夭賵丕噩 丕賱丿賵賯
賵賷鬲丿禺賱 亘賵鬲賵賲 賮賷 毓賲賱 丕賱賲禺乇噩 胤賵丕賱 丕賱賵賯鬲 亘鬲賵噩賷賴丕鬲 賱亘丕賯賷 賮乇賷賯 丕賱鬲賲孬賷賱 亘卮賰賱 爻丕禺乇 賵丕賷囟丕 賮賷 鬲賮禺賷賲 賵鬲囟禺賷賲 丿賵乇賴 爻賷噩毓賱賰 鬲卮毓乇 兀賳 兀賲孬丕賱 亘賵鬲賵賲 賲賵噩賵丿賷賳 賮賷 賰賱 賲賰丕賳 賮賷 賲噩丕賱丕鬲 丕賱丕丿亘 賵丕賱賮賳 毓丕賲丕 賮賷 賲氐乇
賮亘賵鬲賵賲 亘丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 賲賵賴亘鬲賴 丕賱鬲賲孬賷賱賷丞 丕賱亘卮毓丞 賮賴賵 丕賱賲鬲丨賰賲 賵鬲兀孬賷乇賴 賰丕賳 毓賱賷 賰賱 卮禺氐賷丕鬲 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘賱 賵丿賷賰賵乇丕鬲賴丕 丕賱亘卮乇賷丞
丕爻鬲睾乇賯 丿賵乇 亘賵鬲賵賲 賵賯鬲 胤賵賷賱 賲賳 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賰賲丕 賯賱鬲 賮賷 亘丿丕賷丞 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 .. 賰鬲亘賴 卮賰爻亘賷乇 亘卮賰賱 噩賷丿 賮毓賱丕
爻鬲卮毓乇 丕賳賴 乇噩賱 賷丨亘 賳賮爻賴 噩丿丕 亘卮賰賱 禺賮賷賮 丕賱丿賲 賵丕毓噩亘賳賷 噩丿丕 丕賷囟丕...丕賳賴 賷丨亘 賳賮爻賴 丨鬲賷 毓賳丿賲丕 丨丿孬鬲 丕賱賯氐丞 丕賱爻丕丿爻丞
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱禺丕賲爻丞 鉂も潳鉂�
鬲丕賷鬲丕賳賷丕 賵丕賵亘賷乇賵賳
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賲賱賰丞 賵賲賱賰 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱禺乇丕賮賷丞 亘丕賱睾丕亘丞
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
賷亘丿賵 兀賳 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賷乇賷丿 兀賳 賷馗賴乇 兀賳 賴賳丕賰 睾乇丕卅亘 賲丕 亘賴匕丕 丕賱毓丕賱賲
丨爻賳丕, 胤賵丕賱 丕賱卮賴乇 賯乇兀鬲 乇賵丕賷鬲賷賳 丨丿賷孬賷鬲賷賳 毓賳 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱禺乇丕賮賷丞 亘丕賱睾丕亘丕鬲...賵賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲噩賲毓 亘賷賳 4 賲賳 丕卮賴乇 賯氐氐 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱禺賷丕賱賷丞 丕賱賮賱賰賱賵乇賷丞 賮賷 賲爻乇丨賷丞 賵丕丨丿丞 亘丿丕禺賱 丕賱睾丕亘丞 賵亘卮賰賱 爻賵丿丕賵賷 賵丕賯毓賷
賰丕賳 賷噩亘 兀賳 兀賳賴賷 鬲賱賰 丕賱乇丨賱丞 丕賱乇賵丕卅賷丞 亘丕賱睾丕亘丕鬲..賵毓賱賷 丨爻亘 毓賱賲賷 兀賳 鬲賱賰 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賱卮賰爻亘賷乇 亘賴丕 丕賷囟丕 睾丕亘丞 賵噩賳賷丕鬲 禺乇丕賮賷丞..賵亘氐乇丕丨丞 賯丿 賮丕賯 鬲賵賯毓丕鬲賷
丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賱賴賲 丿賵乇 賲賴賲 賮賷 丕賱丨亘賰丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲噩毓賱賴丕 賰丕賱丨賱賲 亘丕賱賳爻亘丞 賱賱丕亘胤丕賱..卮毓乇鬲 丕賳 賴賳丕賰 賲毓賳賷 禺賮賷 賱賮賰乇丞 丕賱賮鬲賷 丕賱賴賳丿賷 丕亘賳 氐丿賷賯丞 鬲丕賷鬲丕賳賷丕 賵丕賱匕賷 亘爻亘亘賴 賷丨丿孬 賲卮賰賱丞 亘賷賳 丕賱夭賵噩賷賳 丕賱賲賱賰 賵丕賱賲賱賰丞..賮賯丿 賯乇兀鬲 賲丐禺乇丕 賮賷 乇賵丕賷丞 "亘賳丿賵賱 賮賵賰賵" 兀賳 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賱丿賷賴 賲毓丕賳 禺賮賷丞 賰孬賷乇丞 毓賳 丕賱睾乇丕卅亘賷丕鬲 賵丕賱賴賳丿 卮賴賷乇丞 亘匕賱賰, 賱匕丕 賱丕 丕毓鬲賯丿 兀賳 丕氐賱 丕賱賮鬲賷 賲賳 丕賱賴賳丿 賯丿 噩丕亍 賲賳 賮乇丕睾
丕賲丕 毓賳 鬲賯賱亘丕鬲 丕賱噩賵 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賲 匕賰乇賴丕 賮賷 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 丕賷囟丕 亘爻亘亘 丕賳 賲賱賰丞 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賮賷 賲夭丕噩 爻卅 丕賷囟丕 賷孬亘鬲 丕賳 丕賱乇噩賱 賱丿賷賴 賳馗乇賷丞 賲丕
亘毓丿 丕賱亘丨孬 賵噩丿鬲 丕賳 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 賱賲 鬲馗賴乇 賮賷 賯氐氐 丕禺乇賷 賱卮賰爻亘賷乇 爻賵賷 兀孬賳丕賳 賵賴賲丕 :
"The Tempest"
"The Merry Wives of Windsor"
賵丨鬲賷 丿賵乇賴賲丕 賰丕賳 亘卮賰賱 丕賯賱 賲賳 賴賳丕 ..賰賲丕 鬲賲 匕賰乇 噩賳賷丞 賲毓丕賱噩丞 賮賷 乇賵賲賷賵 賵噩賵賱賷賷鬲
賯氐丞 丕賱丨亘 賴賳丕 賱丕 鬲毓丿 賯氐丞 丨亘 賯丿乇 賲丕 賴賷 禺賱丕賮 夭賵噩賷 亘爻賷胤 鬲爻亘亘 賮賷 毓丿賲 丕賱賲毓丕卮乇丞 亘賷賳賴賲丕.. 賵亘爻亘亘 賴匕丕 丕賱禺賱丕賮 丨丿孬鬲 賰賱 丕賱丕毓丕噩賷亘 賱賰賱 丕賱卮禺氐賷丕鬲 亘爻亘亘 毓胤乇 丕賱丨亘...賵賲丕 夭丕丿賴 賴賵 丕賳 兀賵亘賷乇賵賳 賱丿賷賴 賲賳 丕賱賳亘賱 兀賳 丕卮賮賯 毓賱賷 賲氐賷乇 丕賱兀丨亘丕亍 賱匕賱賰 丨丿孬鬲 毓賯丿丞 丕賱丨賰丕賷丞 毓賳丿賲丕 噩毓賱 毓賮乇賷鬲 賷丿毓賷 乇賵亘賷賳 丕賳 賷爻丕毓丿賴 賮賷 丨賱 丕賱禺賱丕賮 亘賷賳賴 賵亘賷賳 夭賵噩鬲賴 賵丕賷囟丕 亘賷賳 丕賱丕丨亘丕亍
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱爻丕丿爻丞 鉂も潳鉂�
鬲丕賷鬲丕賳賷丕 賵 亘賵鬲賵賲 -亘乇兀爻 丕賱丨賲丕乇
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亘丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 丕賳賴 禺胤兀 毓胤乇 丕賱丨亘 廿賱丕 兀賳 禺賮丞 丿賲 亘賵鬲賵賲 賵賲丿賷 卮毓賵乇賴 亘賳賮爻賴 賱賳 賷噩毓賱賴 賷賱丨馗 賵賱丕 亘兀賳賴 匕賵 乇兀爻 丨賲丕乇 賵賱丕 丨鬲賷 亘丨亘 賲賱賰丞 丕賱噩賳賷丕鬲 丕賱噩賲賷賱丞 賱賴 鈥� 亘賱 爻賷丨丕賵賱 丕賳 賷噩毓賱 禺丿賲賴丕 賷禺丿賲賵賴 賮丨爻亘 , 廿賱賲 兀賯賱 賱賰賲 丕賳賴 賮賷 毓賱丕賯丞 丨亘 賲毓 賳賮爻賴責
鉂も潳鉂� 丕賱爻丕亘毓丞 賵丕賱兀禺賷乇丞 鉂も潳鉂�
亘賷乇丕賲賵爻 賵孬賷爻亘賷
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賵賴賷 賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 賮賷 兀禺乇 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞..賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丿丕禺賱 賲爻乇丨賷丞 鬲爻賲賷
"丕賱丿乇丕賲丕 丕賱賯氐賷乇丞 丕賱賲乇賴賯丞 毓賳 亘賷乇丕賲賵爻 賵丨亘賷亘鬲賴 孬賷爻亘賷貙 鬲乇丕噩賷丿賷丕 丨夭賷賳丞 噩丿丕 賵賰賵賲賷丿賷丞"
兀賵 亘丕賱兀賳噩賱賷夭賷丞
鈥淎 tedious short drama about young Pyramus and his love Thisbe, a very sad and tragic comedy.鈥�
賴匕賴 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賴賷 兀丨丿 丕賰孬乇 賲丕 丕毓噩亘賳賷 亘鬲賱賰 丕賱賯氐丞 賵丕囟丨賰賳賷 亘卮丿丞... 賵鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 賮賷 丨賮賱 丕賱夭賵丕噩 亘毓丿 丕賱賳賴丕賷丕鬲 丕賱爻毓賷丿丞
賴賷 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕賱鬲賷 賷毓丿賴丕 丕賱毓賲丕賱 賲賳匕 亘丿丕賷丞 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賵賷賯賵賲 亘亘胤賵賱鬲賴丕 亘賵鬲賵賲 賵亘賯賷丞 丕賱毓賲丕賱 賵丕賱鬲賷 鬲鬲丨賵賱 賱賲爻禺乇丞 丨賯賷賯賷丞 賱賷爻 賮賯胤 賱兀丿丕亍 丕賱賲賲孬賱賷賳 丕賱賲賯丿賲 亘兀爻賵丕 胤乇賷賯丞 賲賲賰賳丞 賵賱丕 賰爻乇賴賲 賱賱丨丕卅胤 丕賱乇丕亘毓 賵丨丿賷孬賴賲 丕賱賲亘丕卮乇 賱賱噩賲賴賵乇...賵賳賵毓 丕賱丕丿賵丕乇 賳賮爻賴丕 -賰丕賱丨丕卅胤 賵丕賱賯賲乇 賵丕賱丕爻丿 - 賵丨鬲賷 鬲毓賱賷賯丕鬲 丕賱丕亘胤丕賱 "孬賷爻賷賵爻" 丿賵賯 丕孬賷賳丕 賵丕賱賲卮丕賴丿賷賳 賲毓賴 賰丕賳鬲 丕賰孬乇 賲乇丨丕
賮賰乇丞 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丿丕禺賱 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕賰賷丿 賮賰乇丞 噩賷丿丞貙 賱賰賳 丕賱丨賰丕賷丞 賳賮爻賴丕 鬲賲 鬲賯丿賷賲賴丕 亘卮賰賱 賰賵賲賷丿賷 噩丿丕 賲孬賷乇 噩丿丕 賱賱囟丨賰
賵賱鬲賳鬲賴賷 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 亘丕賱賲乇丨...亘丕賱丨亘 丕賱匕賷 賴賵 爻乇 丕賳鬲馗丕賲 丕賱丨賷丕丞 賵丕賱胤亘賷毓丞 .. 賵丨鬲賷 丕賱毓丿丕賱丞
鉂� 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂も潳 鉂� 鉂�
丕賱賳赖丕賷丞
鉂� 鉂� 鉂�
賷噩亘 兀賳 丕毓鬲乇賮 丕賳賷 賰賳鬲 賲禺胤卅丕..禺氐賵氐丕 丕賳賷 賱賲 丕賯乇兀 卮賰爻亘賷乇 丕賵賱丕 賱丕賳賷 鬲毓賱賷賲 "丨賰賵賲賷" 賮賱賲 賷賰賳 賮賷 丕賱賲賯乇乇 毓賱賷 丕賱丕賯賱 丨鬲賷 2000 爻賳丞 丕賱鬲禺乇噩 賲賳 丕賱孬丕賳賵賷丞 丕賱毓丕賲丞 賲爻乇丨賷丞 賱賴...賵賱賱丕爻賮 賱丕 丕毓鬲亘乇 賳賮爻賷 賯丕乇卅 噩賷丿..賱丕賳 丕賱賰孬賷乇 賱賲 兀賯乇兀賴 亘毓丿 亘乇睾賲 丕賴賲賷鬲賴 賵卮毓乇鬲 丕賳賴 賰丕賳 爻賷賰賵賳 賲賲賱丕 賵孬賯賷賱丕
賵賱丕 丕賳賰乇 丕賳 丿賷 丕賰鬲乇 賲爻乇丨賷丞 丕氐賱丕 賰賳鬲 賲鬲卮賵賯 丕賯乇兀賴丕 賲賳 丕賵丕禺乇 丕賱鬲爻毓賷賳丕鬲 賲毓 氐丿賵乇 賮賷賱賲 賲亘賳賷 毓賱賷賴丕 賮賷 1999 賵賱賰賳賷 賱賲 丕卮丕賴丿賴 賱丕賳 丕賱乇賯丕亘丞 賲賳毓鬲賴 賵賯鬲賴丕
賵賱賰賳 丕賱丕爻賲 賰丕賳 毓丕賱賯丕 亘亘丕賱賷 賱賮鬲乇丞 胤賵賷賱丞 賵賰賳鬲 賵賯鬲賴丕 亘毓賲賱 丕睾丕賳賷 賰賵賰鬲賷賱丕鬲 毓賱賷 卮乇丕卅胤 賰丕爻賷鬲 賵丕爻賲賷賴丕 "丨賱賲 賱賷賱丞 氐賷賮 噩1 賵賵氐賱 丨鬲賷 噩7 賯亘賱 丕賳 賷馗賴乇 乇丕丿賷賵 爻賵丕 賵賯鬲賴丕 賮賷 2002
-賮賯乇丞 丕賱匕賰乇賷丕鬲 丕賱丕賱賷賲丞 :)-
賵賱賰賳 噩丕卅鬲 丕賱賮乇氐丞 丕禺賷乇丕
賵賲鬲兀禺乇丕 丕賮囟賱 賲賳 丕亘丿丕
賵賱賲 丕鬲禺賷賱 丕賳賷 爻丕爻鬲賲鬲毓 亘賴丕 賱賴匕賴 丕賱丿乇噩丞 賲胤賱賯丕
賲丕匕丕 鬲毓賱賲鬲 賲賳 丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞責
賱丕 卮卅...兀賳賴丕 賲賱賴丕丞 爻丕禺乇丞 丕噩鬲賲丕毓賷丞 馗乇賷賮丞 亘賱 賵賳馗賷賮丞 亘毓賰爻 賰孬賷乇 賲賳 丕賱乇賵丕賷丕鬲 賵丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丕鬲 丕賱丨丿賷孬丞 丕賱賲毓丕氐乇丞
丕囟丨賰鬲賳賷 賰孬賷乇丕 賵丕賲鬲毓鬲賳賷 賵噩匕亘鬲賳賷
兀賴..賵兀賳 丕賱丨亘 賯丿 賷氐賳毓 賲賳丕 賲睾賮賱賷賳 丕丨賷丕賳丕...賰賲丕 賷賯賵賱 丕賱毓賳賵丕賳 丕賱丿毓丕卅賷 賱賱賮賷賱賲 丕賱鬲爻毓賷賳丕鬲賷..賵賱賰賳 賮賷 賳賮爻 丕賱賵賯鬲 丕賱丨亘 丕爻丕爻賷 噩丿丕 賱爻賷乇 丕賱丨賷丕丞 賵丕賱胤亘賷毓丞..賮賯胤 賮賷 丕胤丕乇賴 丕賱爻賱賷賲
賵賱鬲爻鬲賲鬲毓 亘丕賱賲爻乇丨賷丞 賱賴匕丕 丕賱丨丿 賲孬賱賷 賮胤亘毓丕 亘賱睾鬲賴 丕賱丕氐賱賷丞 丕賮囟賱.. 賵 亘丕賱丕爻鬲毓丕賳丞 亘賯丕賲賵爻 "丕賳噩賱賷夭賷 -丕賳噩賱賷夭賷" 賵賲鬲氐賱 亘丕賱丕賳鬲乇賳鬲 丕賱賲賵囟賵毓 馗亘胤 賰鬲賷乇 亘爻 毓丕賷夭 卮賵賷丞 鬲乇賰賷夭
賱賰賳 亘氐乇丕丨丞 丕賱賲賵賯毓 丕賱賲賲鬲丕夭 爻丕亘賯 丕賱匕賰乇
No Fear Shakespeare
賵丿賴 賲賲賰賳 鬲賯乇兀 丕賱賳氐 丕賱丕氐賱賷 賵賳氐 賲賰鬲賵亘 亘丕賱丕賳噩賱賷夭賷 丕賱丨丿賷孬
賱賰賳 丕賱賳氐 丕賱賯丿賷賲 亘乇睾賲 氐毓賵亘鬲賴 賱賰賳賴 丕賮囟賱 亘賰鬲賷乇 賮賷 丕賱爻噩毓 毓賱賷 丕賱丕賯賱
賱賰賳 丕賱賲賵賯毓 丿賴 丨丕賵賱 亘卮賰賱 賲賲鬲丕夭 丕賳賴 賷禺賱賷賰 亘乇囟賴 鬲爻鬲賲鬲毓 亘丕賱賳氐 丕賱噩丿賷丿 賵丕囟丕賮丞 賯賱賷賱 賲賳 丕賱爻噩毓 賲賳 賵賯鬲 賱賱鬲丕賳賷 夭賷 賲丕毓賲賱鬲 賮賷 丕賵賱 丕賱乇賷賮賷賵 賴賳丕 亘丕賱毓乇亘賷
丕賯乇兀 丕賱丕鬲賳賷賳..賵鬲乇噩賲 賱賵 鬲丨亘 亘爻 賮毓賱丕 賲鬲毓丞 丕賱丨賰丕賷丞 亘賱睾鬲賴丕 丕賱丕氐賱賷丞
爻鬲噩丿 丕賳賰 爻鬲亘鬲爻賲 賵乇亘賲丕 鬲囟丨賰 亘丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 丕賳 400 毓丕賲丕 賲乇鬲 毓賱賷賴丕
丕鬲賲賳賷 賱賰 賯乇丕亍丞 爻毓賷丿丞 亘睾丕亘丞 卮賰爻亘賷乇 賵丕賱匕賷 爻兀賯乇兀 賱賴 丕賱賲夭賷丿 亘丕賱鬲兀賰賷丿
Happy Shakespeare Day...Happy Earth Day...Happy Spring . :)
23 賽April 2016
Reading , Act a Day,
From 18 April 2016
To 22 April 2016
December 14, 2024
"The course of true love never did run smooth;" is a famous, often-quoted line - a truism throughout all ages and cultures. Where does it come from? It is spoken by a character called Lysander, in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, and articulates possibly the play's most important theme.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a fanciful tale, full of poetry and beautiful imagery, such as,
"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:"
and,
"Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence."
It is thought that A Midsummer Night's Dream was written between 1595 and 1596, probably just before Shakespeare wrote "Romeo and Juliet", although both underwent many revisions, both on-stage and off. And as with all Shakespeare's plays, it is impossible to be sure of any dates or an exact order. Unusually, the main plot seems to have been entirely his own invention, although some characters are drawn from Greek mythologies. Theseus, for instance, the Duke whom we learn at the start of the play is to marry the Amazon queen Hippolyta, is based on the Greek hero of the same name. Plus there are many references to Greek gods and goddesses in the play. The play is set in Athens, and there is a "play within a play" (a theme to which Shakespeare returned time after time) which is based on an epic poem by the Roman poet Ovid.
The play also includes many English fairy characters such as "Puck" - or "Robin Goodfellow", to give him his alternative name. "Robin Goodfellow" is a particularly English figure, who was very popular in the sixteenth-century. Fairies had been very much respected and feared for time immemorial. People were in awe of their magical powers. They were believed to often be mischievous at the very least, if not positively malignant, and names such as "Goodfellow" were meant to appease or pacify them, so as not to incur their vengeance. The moon was a source of myth and mystery, to be wondered at and its influence possibly feared. Oberon's,
"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania"
And Puck's,
"Now it is the time of night,
That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide:"
are indicative of the audience's superstitions and the common beliefs of the time. Many such elements in Nature were viewed as supernatural; what we now term "pagan" was the norm, and although people were fascinated by the fairies and "little people", they also feared them. Puck's comment,
"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
could be voiced by any fairy up to mischief. The woodland at night would be both enchanting and thrilling to an Elizabethan audience - an unpredictable place of danger and possible bewitchment. The fantastical atmosphere, and the magic of the surreal fairy sphere which Shakespeare conjures up, are important and unique elements of this play.
The third component is the depiction of ordinary working trade and craftsmen in London of the time, and the theatrical conventions such as men playing the roles of women. The scenes where these foolish and absurd characters are involved provide much of the humour. They often make laughing stocks of themselves via Shakespeare, for our entertainment, and although much of this play seems strange and whimsical to a modern audience, it is classed as one of his comedies. It is completely different from any other of the plays which Shakespeare had written up to that point, although some of the themes present themselves again in "Romeo and Juliet", but given an entirely different emphasis and dramatic intent.
One such theme is the ownership of females by their father. The play opens with Egeus asking for Theseus's support, in insisting that Hermia (Egeus's daughter) should marry whom he chooses,
"As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law"
(The third choice, if his daughter refuses to do her father's bidding, is for her to live a life of chastity as a nun, worshipping the goddess Diana.) This was the prevailing ethos in Elizabethan times, and there is no question that a daughter was the legal property of her father. Additionally, a common justification for choosing a future husband for his daughter could be summed up in the idea that "love is blind". Egeus is not merely insisting on his rights as a father, but wants the best for his daughter, and according to the Elizabethan view, thinks that an arranged marriage is the best way of protecting her from any irrational romantic nonsense.
Hermia herself is refusing to submit to her father's demands, as she is in love with Lysander. This theme, of a young girl's rebellion against her father, is against all conventions of the time, and is taken up with a devastating conclusion in "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare's own views on the power of love are unclear. Helena says,
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:"
which could easily be the author's voice, and tends towards the opposite view. Perhaps one could speculate that this could have been the reason why he developed the idea further, to make a much more serious statement in his tragic play.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, is a much more frivolous and fanciful affair. Not one love affair but three are intertwined throughout the play. Demetrius, whom Hermia has been commanded to wed, is in turn loved by Helena. So Hermia loves Lysander, and Lysander loves Hermia. Helena loves Demetrius - but Demetrius also loves Hermia rather than Helena. So one young woman has two suitors, the other none, but since four are involved the audience are hoping for a traditional "happy ending". In the meantime, there are plenty of chances for misunderstandings.
As the play proceeds we are invited to laugh at this hapless group, in their lovelorn afflictions, rather than feel any true sympathy, because the whole affair is portrayed in such a light-hearted way, as opposed to the tragic story of young love, "Romeo and Juliet", which has probably not yet been completed. In that play there is tension throughout, and the sure knowledge, (as the audience had been told in the prologue) that there would be no happy outcome. Here we are free to poke fun at the young lovers' "torments", as we are fairly sure of everything ending happily.
Other characters who become involved in the confusion are "Titania", queen of the fairies, and "Oberon" king of the fairies. Shakespeare has taken the character of "Titania" from Ovid's "Metamorphoses", and his "Oberon" may have been taken from the medieval romance "Huan of Bordeaux", translated by Lord Berners in the mid-1530s.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon is jealous of Titania's favourite, a changeling Indian child. She is keeping the child as a page, but Oberon wants to train him as a knight. All the young lovers from Athens, plus the main fairy characters, are in the woodland for various reasons at the same time. The woodland of course being also the realm of the fairies, much confusion is bound to follow. The audiences of the time will have greatly anticipated and appreciated this devilment, as "Robin Goodfellow"'s pranks and tricks will have been well known to them.
To a modern audience, the events seem farcical, and the play does require quite a leap of faith to enjoy the fairytale whimsy of the woodland scenes. Nevertheless, the scenes of passion between the beautiful, graceful Titania and the clumsy Bottom, with a grotesque ass's head, are so incongruous that its humour is timeless and crosses any boundaries with ease.
There are other "opposites" which tickle our funnybones even after so many centuries. Helena is tall, a "painted maypole", whereas Hermia is short, "though she be but little she is fierce," and both their scuffles and the enchanted lovers' declarations seem deliberately ridiculous in this context. They are overly earnest and serious - and followed immediately by joking, merry, clumsy workmen. All the fairies are ethereal, Titania being particularly beautiful; all the craftsmen earthy and clumsy, Bottom being particularly grotesque. Puck plays pranks, whereas Bottom is an easy and natural victim. Puck uses his magic with ease, whereas the craftsmen's attempts to stage their play is laborious and ridiculous by contrast. The incompetent acting troupe's enactment of the "play within a play", "Pyramus and Thisbe", is still humorous even now. Juxtaposing these extraordinary differences to exaggerate the contrast, meant that Shakespeare ensured laughs from his audience, while heightening the surreal fantastical elements.
The idea of dreams is perhaps the central pivot of the play. Events happen in a haphazard fashion, and time seems to lose its normal motion and progress. No one in the woodland scenes is ever in control of their environment - even Puck makes mistakes with his love potions. He gleefully revels in such mistakes,
"Lord, what fools these mortals be!
...
"Then will two at once woo one, -
That must needs be sport alone;
And those things do best please me
that befall preposterously."
Yet Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of their rational world. The audience is given no explanation for the fantastical woodland sphere, with its illusions and fragile grip on reality. Shakespeare is clearly manipulating our sense of understanding throughout, inducing a dream-like feeling to the action.
The love potions are magical or supernatural symbols of the power of love itself, inducing the same symptoms that true romantic lovers exhibit in their natural state, of unreasoning, fickle and erratic behaviour. No one who has been given a love potion in the play is able to resist it, much as falling in love appears to others to be inexplicable and irrational.
Towards the end of the play we have a delightful rendering of the bumbling tradesmen's attempts to stage "Pyramus and Thisbe," which Shakespeare has taken from Ovid's epic poem "Metamorphoses". He also incidentally uses the plot again for "Romeo and Juliet", which seems quite bizarre, given the way it is used as a ludicrous farce here. Theseus and Hippolyta are well aware that the enactment of this play may be farcical and clumsy. They have been warned by Philostrate that the production is by "hard-handed men", (or as Puck calls them "rude mechanicals") and that their production is,
"Merry and tragical! tedious and brief
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow"
and this adds to their anticipation. And Theseus will welcome the diversion of such fancies. His wise words earlier, about his world of the rational,
"Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends"
could refer both to the action which we have seen so far, and the workmen's play we are about to see.
The audience views this absurd little play through the eyes of Theseus and Hippolyta. The young Athenian lovers are also present, having been satisfactorily paired off, as we suspected they would be. Everyone is relaxing and poking fun at the hapless players,
"This is the silliest stuff I ever heard"
protests Hippolyta, but Bottom, the bumbling buffoon, breaks out of character every now and then, to earnestly assure his audience that all is as it is meant to be - they merely need to keep watching and they'll understand...
Shakespeare has written their performance as a delicious satire of the overly melodramatic earlier actions of the young lovers, and recognising this makes it even more hilarious to the audience. The young Athenians' overpowering emotions are made to seem even more ridiculous by virtue of these clumsy actors and this provides a comic ending to the play. Since the Pyramus and Thisbe of the craftsmen's play were themselves facing parental disapproval, it encapsulates and echoes the whole play within which it is set.
The final speech by Puck highlights the thematic idea of dreams. If the audience does not care for the play, he says, or if we have been offended by it, then he suggests it should be considered as nothing but a dream. It is interesting that the fairies are all still present as the wedding are about to take place. Shakespeare's message is not entirely clear here; it is as if he is merging the fairies and their magic with Theseus and Hippolyta's rational world. Perhaps it is to convey that we will never be free of the irrationalities and unpredictabilities of romantic love; either that or that the fairy folk will always be around us to create havoc. The workmen's play was mocked by Theseus and Hippolyta, perhaps the message is that human behaviour and ceremonies of the larger play, that is the real rational world, are unknowingly mocked by the fairy folk. Who knows?
A Midsummer Night's Dream is not one of Shakespeare's greatest masterpieces. Although it remains popular and is staged quite regularly, this may be down to imaginative staging and the exceptional production values we now have. On the page it reads as an inconsequential play, all whimsy, candyfloss and fluff. It is both significant and noticeable, how Shakespeare revisited some of the themes here, in "Romeo and Juliet," but in that play he used them with such skill that he created an abiding and deeply tragic drama. In both plays we have the intoxicating and overwhelming influence of romantic love, the powerlessness of young women to rise up against their families and conventions, and the "potions" to influence a particular course of events; all those elements are here too, but combined to make a fantastical, frivolous, illusory bit of nonsense.
However there is much beautiful poetic imagery in this play, such as,
"My soul is in the sky"
"Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;"
"...by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams" and,
"O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!" (even if this last is to an ass...)
Yes, A Midsummer Night's Dream does provide a few smiles even now. And if your taste runs to flights of fancy; if you like to read tales of fairies such as Peas-Blossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustard-Seed, using language and imagery such as,
"Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:"
"[I] heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back..." or
"Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness"
if you are attracted by gauzy fragility and a sense of illusion, then you may enjoy the fantasy and whimsy of Shakespeare's play. For as "The Bard" says,
"... as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name."
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a fanciful tale, full of poetry and beautiful imagery, such as,
"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:"
and,
"Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence."
It is thought that A Midsummer Night's Dream was written between 1595 and 1596, probably just before Shakespeare wrote "Romeo and Juliet", although both underwent many revisions, both on-stage and off. And as with all Shakespeare's plays, it is impossible to be sure of any dates or an exact order. Unusually, the main plot seems to have been entirely his own invention, although some characters are drawn from Greek mythologies. Theseus, for instance, the Duke whom we learn at the start of the play is to marry the Amazon queen Hippolyta, is based on the Greek hero of the same name. Plus there are many references to Greek gods and goddesses in the play. The play is set in Athens, and there is a "play within a play" (a theme to which Shakespeare returned time after time) which is based on an epic poem by the Roman poet Ovid.
The play also includes many English fairy characters such as "Puck" - or "Robin Goodfellow", to give him his alternative name. "Robin Goodfellow" is a particularly English figure, who was very popular in the sixteenth-century. Fairies had been very much respected and feared for time immemorial. People were in awe of their magical powers. They were believed to often be mischievous at the very least, if not positively malignant, and names such as "Goodfellow" were meant to appease or pacify them, so as not to incur their vengeance. The moon was a source of myth and mystery, to be wondered at and its influence possibly feared. Oberon's,
"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania"
And Puck's,
"Now it is the time of night,
That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide:"
are indicative of the audience's superstitions and the common beliefs of the time. Many such elements in Nature were viewed as supernatural; what we now term "pagan" was the norm, and although people were fascinated by the fairies and "little people", they also feared them. Puck's comment,
"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
could be voiced by any fairy up to mischief. The woodland at night would be both enchanting and thrilling to an Elizabethan audience - an unpredictable place of danger and possible bewitchment. The fantastical atmosphere, and the magic of the surreal fairy sphere which Shakespeare conjures up, are important and unique elements of this play.
The third component is the depiction of ordinary working trade and craftsmen in London of the time, and the theatrical conventions such as men playing the roles of women. The scenes where these foolish and absurd characters are involved provide much of the humour. They often make laughing stocks of themselves via Shakespeare, for our entertainment, and although much of this play seems strange and whimsical to a modern audience, it is classed as one of his comedies. It is completely different from any other of the plays which Shakespeare had written up to that point, although some of the themes present themselves again in "Romeo and Juliet", but given an entirely different emphasis and dramatic intent.
One such theme is the ownership of females by their father. The play opens with Egeus asking for Theseus's support, in insisting that Hermia (Egeus's daughter) should marry whom he chooses,
"As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law"
(The third choice, if his daughter refuses to do her father's bidding, is for her to live a life of chastity as a nun, worshipping the goddess Diana.) This was the prevailing ethos in Elizabethan times, and there is no question that a daughter was the legal property of her father. Additionally, a common justification for choosing a future husband for his daughter could be summed up in the idea that "love is blind". Egeus is not merely insisting on his rights as a father, but wants the best for his daughter, and according to the Elizabethan view, thinks that an arranged marriage is the best way of protecting her from any irrational romantic nonsense.
Hermia herself is refusing to submit to her father's demands, as she is in love with Lysander. This theme, of a young girl's rebellion against her father, is against all conventions of the time, and is taken up with a devastating conclusion in "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare's own views on the power of love are unclear. Helena says,
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:"
which could easily be the author's voice, and tends towards the opposite view. Perhaps one could speculate that this could have been the reason why he developed the idea further, to make a much more serious statement in his tragic play.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, is a much more frivolous and fanciful affair. Not one love affair but three are intertwined throughout the play. Demetrius, whom Hermia has been commanded to wed, is in turn loved by Helena. So Hermia loves Lysander, and Lysander loves Hermia. Helena loves Demetrius - but Demetrius also loves Hermia rather than Helena. So one young woman has two suitors, the other none, but since four are involved the audience are hoping for a traditional "happy ending". In the meantime, there are plenty of chances for misunderstandings.
As the play proceeds we are invited to laugh at this hapless group, in their lovelorn afflictions, rather than feel any true sympathy, because the whole affair is portrayed in such a light-hearted way, as opposed to the tragic story of young love, "Romeo and Juliet", which has probably not yet been completed. In that play there is tension throughout, and the sure knowledge, (as the audience had been told in the prologue) that there would be no happy outcome. Here we are free to poke fun at the young lovers' "torments", as we are fairly sure of everything ending happily.
Other characters who become involved in the confusion are "Titania", queen of the fairies, and "Oberon" king of the fairies. Shakespeare has taken the character of "Titania" from Ovid's "Metamorphoses", and his "Oberon" may have been taken from the medieval romance "Huan of Bordeaux", translated by Lord Berners in the mid-1530s.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon is jealous of Titania's favourite, a changeling Indian child. She is keeping the child as a page, but Oberon wants to train him as a knight. All the young lovers from Athens, plus the main fairy characters, are in the woodland for various reasons at the same time. The woodland of course being also the realm of the fairies, much confusion is bound to follow. The audiences of the time will have greatly anticipated and appreciated this devilment, as "Robin Goodfellow"'s pranks and tricks will have been well known to them.
To a modern audience, the events seem farcical, and the play does require quite a leap of faith to enjoy the fairytale whimsy of the woodland scenes. Nevertheless, the scenes of passion between the beautiful, graceful Titania and the clumsy Bottom, with a grotesque ass's head, are so incongruous that its humour is timeless and crosses any boundaries with ease.
There are other "opposites" which tickle our funnybones even after so many centuries. Helena is tall, a "painted maypole", whereas Hermia is short, "though she be but little she is fierce," and both their scuffles and the enchanted lovers' declarations seem deliberately ridiculous in this context. They are overly earnest and serious - and followed immediately by joking, merry, clumsy workmen. All the fairies are ethereal, Titania being particularly beautiful; all the craftsmen earthy and clumsy, Bottom being particularly grotesque. Puck plays pranks, whereas Bottom is an easy and natural victim. Puck uses his magic with ease, whereas the craftsmen's attempts to stage their play is laborious and ridiculous by contrast. The incompetent acting troupe's enactment of the "play within a play", "Pyramus and Thisbe", is still humorous even now. Juxtaposing these extraordinary differences to exaggerate the contrast, meant that Shakespeare ensured laughs from his audience, while heightening the surreal fantastical elements.
The idea of dreams is perhaps the central pivot of the play. Events happen in a haphazard fashion, and time seems to lose its normal motion and progress. No one in the woodland scenes is ever in control of their environment - even Puck makes mistakes with his love potions. He gleefully revels in such mistakes,
"Lord, what fools these mortals be!
...
"Then will two at once woo one, -
That must needs be sport alone;
And those things do best please me
that befall preposterously."
Yet Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of their rational world. The audience is given no explanation for the fantastical woodland sphere, with its illusions and fragile grip on reality. Shakespeare is clearly manipulating our sense of understanding throughout, inducing a dream-like feeling to the action.
The love potions are magical or supernatural symbols of the power of love itself, inducing the same symptoms that true romantic lovers exhibit in their natural state, of unreasoning, fickle and erratic behaviour. No one who has been given a love potion in the play is able to resist it, much as falling in love appears to others to be inexplicable and irrational.
Towards the end of the play we have a delightful rendering of the bumbling tradesmen's attempts to stage "Pyramus and Thisbe," which Shakespeare has taken from Ovid's epic poem "Metamorphoses". He also incidentally uses the plot again for "Romeo and Juliet", which seems quite bizarre, given the way it is used as a ludicrous farce here. Theseus and Hippolyta are well aware that the enactment of this play may be farcical and clumsy. They have been warned by Philostrate that the production is by "hard-handed men", (or as Puck calls them "rude mechanicals") and that their production is,
"Merry and tragical! tedious and brief
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow"
and this adds to their anticipation. And Theseus will welcome the diversion of such fancies. His wise words earlier, about his world of the rational,
"Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends"
could refer both to the action which we have seen so far, and the workmen's play we are about to see.
The audience views this absurd little play through the eyes of Theseus and Hippolyta. The young Athenian lovers are also present, having been satisfactorily paired off, as we suspected they would be. Everyone is relaxing and poking fun at the hapless players,
"This is the silliest stuff I ever heard"
protests Hippolyta, but Bottom, the bumbling buffoon, breaks out of character every now and then, to earnestly assure his audience that all is as it is meant to be - they merely need to keep watching and they'll understand...
Shakespeare has written their performance as a delicious satire of the overly melodramatic earlier actions of the young lovers, and recognising this makes it even more hilarious to the audience. The young Athenians' overpowering emotions are made to seem even more ridiculous by virtue of these clumsy actors and this provides a comic ending to the play. Since the Pyramus and Thisbe of the craftsmen's play were themselves facing parental disapproval, it encapsulates and echoes the whole play within which it is set.
The final speech by Puck highlights the thematic idea of dreams. If the audience does not care for the play, he says, or if we have been offended by it, then he suggests it should be considered as nothing but a dream. It is interesting that the fairies are all still present as the wedding are about to take place. Shakespeare's message is not entirely clear here; it is as if he is merging the fairies and their magic with Theseus and Hippolyta's rational world. Perhaps it is to convey that we will never be free of the irrationalities and unpredictabilities of romantic love; either that or that the fairy folk will always be around us to create havoc. The workmen's play was mocked by Theseus and Hippolyta, perhaps the message is that human behaviour and ceremonies of the larger play, that is the real rational world, are unknowingly mocked by the fairy folk. Who knows?
A Midsummer Night's Dream is not one of Shakespeare's greatest masterpieces. Although it remains popular and is staged quite regularly, this may be down to imaginative staging and the exceptional production values we now have. On the page it reads as an inconsequential play, all whimsy, candyfloss and fluff. It is both significant and noticeable, how Shakespeare revisited some of the themes here, in "Romeo and Juliet," but in that play he used them with such skill that he created an abiding and deeply tragic drama. In both plays we have the intoxicating and overwhelming influence of romantic love, the powerlessness of young women to rise up against their families and conventions, and the "potions" to influence a particular course of events; all those elements are here too, but combined to make a fantastical, frivolous, illusory bit of nonsense.
However there is much beautiful poetic imagery in this play, such as,
"My soul is in the sky"
"Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;"
"...by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams" and,
"O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!" (even if this last is to an ass...)
Yes, A Midsummer Night's Dream does provide a few smiles even now. And if your taste runs to flights of fancy; if you like to read tales of fairies such as Peas-Blossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustard-Seed, using language and imagery such as,
"Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:"
"[I] heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back..." or
"Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness"
if you are attracted by gauzy fragility and a sense of illusion, then you may enjoy the fantasy and whimsy of Shakespeare's play. For as "The Bard" says,
"... as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name."
April 8, 2019
鈥淭hough she be but little, she is fierce!鈥�
A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream is Shakespeare鈥檚 funniest comedy, honestly. When a couple tries to run away, they get followed by a man in love with them, and then by a woman in love with him. And a fairy fucking around makes it all go to shit. As you do!
This play is probably funniest because of its excellent set of characters, including:
鉁擧ermia 鈥� is 4鈥�9鈥� and could kick your ass. runs a feminist blog
鉁擫ysander 鈥� is so beautiful and so, so useless
鉁擧elena 鈥� was told she was too tall for a pair of heels once by a shoestore clerk and stared him directly in the face while purchasing them. your one friend who鈥檚 pining over some shitty man
鉁擠emetrius 鈥� the shitty man. okay, actually, he鈥檚 doing his best, he鈥檚 just like, really bad at everything
鈫抋daptation thoughts鈫�
Okay, first of all, may I just say: I won鈥檛 rest until someone does a version that changes the genders of Lysander and Helena and makes it a play about an arranged marriage being forced apart because they both find gay love. you're all weak for not taking this obvious opportunity
But in case you wanted a serious answer: I have not actually seen this adaptation yet, but I am a huge fan of the casting of this production:
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here are my other Shakespeare thoughts:
Hamlet - 鈽呪槄鈽呪槄鈽�
Romeo & Juliet - 鈽呪槄鈽呪槅鈽�
Midsummer - 鈽呪槄鈽呪槄鈽�
Macbeth - 鈽呪槄鈽呪槄鈽�
Much Ado - 鈽呪槄鈽呪槄鈽�
| | | |
April 25, 2014
Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;
The best of life is but intoxication:
Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk
The hopes of all men and of every nation;
Without their sap, how branchless were the trunk
Of life's strange tree, so fruitful on occasion:
But to return,鈥擥et very drunk; and when
You wake with headache, you shall see what then.
~ Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto II, Stanza 179.
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you should think, we come not to offend,
But with good will. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then we come but in despite.
We do not come, as minding to content you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent you,
The actors are on hand; and, by their show,
You shall know all, that you are like to know.
~ (V.i.108-117)
The Lightweight Satire
A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream is often viewed as a lightweight play, but it is much more than that. It is one of Shakespeare鈥檚 most polished achievements, a poetic drama of exquisite grace, wit, and humanity. It has perhaps become one of Shakespeare鈥檚 most popular comedies, with a special appeal for the young. But belying its great universal appeal it might be a stinging social satire too, glossed over by most in their dreamy enjoyment of the magnificent world Shakespeare presents and also by the deliberate gross-comedy in the end that hides the play from itself.
A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream is an Archetypal play where charm, innocence, violence and sexuality mix in giddy combinations. In this fantastic masterpiece, Shakespeare moves with wonderful dramatic dexterity through several realms, weaving together disparate storylines and styles of speech.
It offers a glorious celebration of the powers of the human imagination and poetry while also making comic capital out of its reason鈥檚 limitations and societies鈥� mores. It is also perhaps the play which affords maximum inventiveness on stage, both in terms of message and of atmosphere.
The Course of True Love
鈥淭he course of true love never did run smooth.鈥�
1. In some ways Lysander鈥檚 well-known declaration becomes one of the central themes, as the comedy interlocks the misadventures of five pairs of lovers (six if one counts Pyramus and Thisby) - and uses their tribulations to explore its theme of love鈥檚 difficulties.
2. Also central to the play is the tension between desire and social mores. Characters are repeatedly required to quell their passion for the sake of law and propriety.
3. Another important conflict is between love and reason, with the heart almost always overruling the mind. The comedy of the play results from the powerful, and often blinding, effects that love has on the characters鈥� thoughts and actions.
4. Third antipathy is between love and social class divisions, with some combinations ruled out arbitrarily, with no appeal to reason except for birth. This when combined with upward aspirations and downward suppressed fantasies form a wonderful sub-plot to the whole drama. Represented best by Bottom鈥檚 famous dream.
Each of these themes have a character representing them that forms the supporting cast to the lovers鈥� misadventures, defining through their acts the relationship between desire, lust and love and social customs:
1. The unreasonable social mores is represented by Egeus, who is one character who never changes. (Also perhaps by听Demetrius听who appeals to the same customs to get what he wants)
2. Unloving desire by Theseus who too never changes, and also perhaps by the principal lovers (H&L) in their original state. (Helena could be said to represent 鈥榯rue鈥� love but Shakespeare offers us nothing to substantiate this comforting assumption. It is also important that the women's loves not altered by the potion, which is very significantly dropped into the eyes, affecting vision - i.e. it can affect only superficial love.)
3. Lack of reason, though embodied in all the lovers, are brought to life by Puck as the agent of madness and of confusion of sight, which is the entry-point for love in Shakespeare.
4. Finally, class aspirations and their asinine nature by Bottom himself
Love, Interrupted
Out of all these, every character is given a positive light (or an extra-human light, in the case of the fairies) except Egeus, who is the reason for the night-time excursion and all the comedy. In fact, Shakespeare even seems deliberately to have kept the crusty and complaining Egeus out of the 'joy and mirth鈥� of the last celebrations - he disappears along with the over-restrictive society he is supposed to represent - of marriages, reasoned alliances and 鈥榖loodless鈥� cold courtships.
Hence, it is social mores that compel the wildness on love which is not allowed to express itself freely. When freed of this and allowed to resolve itself in a Bacchanalian night all was well again and order was restored to the world.
This reviewer has taken the liberty of assuming that this is the central theme of the play - which is also deliciously ironic since it is supposed to have been written for a wedding. What better time to mock the institution of marriage than at a wedding gala?
So in a way the four themes - difficulties of true love, restrictions by propriety and customs, and the comical unreason that beset lovers, and class differences that put some desires fully into the category of fantasies - are all products of social mores that impose artificial restrictions on love and bring on all the things mocked in this play by Shakespeare.
In fact this is one reason why Bottom could be the real hero of the play (as is the fashion among critical receptions of the play these days) - he was the only one comfortable in transcending all these barriers, at home everywhere and in the end also content with his dreams and in the realization that he would be an ass to try to comprehend what is wrong with the world.
The Subtle Satire
The lovers鈥� inversions of love could be taken to be a satire on the fickle nature of love but I prefer to see it as another joke at the expense of social mores - of the institution of marriage and courtship, in which each suitor professes undying love in such magnificent lines until he has to turn to the next and do the same. This is reinforced by allusion to how women are not free to 鈥榩ursue鈥� their loves as men are since social mores allow only the man to pursue and the woman has to chose from among her suitors. It is quite telling that it was Bottom who accepted love and reason seldom go together and expresses the hope that love and reason should become friends. His speech echoes Lysander鈥檚 in the previous scene. Lysander, the aristocrat instead听 is just another attempting to find a way to understand the workings of love in a rational way, the failures emphasize the difficulty of this endeavor. Lysander thus ends his speech by believing/claiming his newfound love for Helena was based on reason, quite absurdly, but yet quite convinced - representing most of mankind.
By taking the lovers to the enchanted forest of dreams, far from the Athenian social customs and into听 land where shadows and dreams rule, and then resolving everything there, even allowing Bottom a glimpse of aristocratic love, Shakespeare seems to say that it is the society that restricts love and makes it artificial - all that is needed is听 bit of madness, a bit of stripping away of artificiality - throughout he cupid鈥檚 potion. Again the need for a bit of madness (lunacy, mark the repeated moon ref). It is almost an appeal to the Dionysian aspects of life - see alternate review on Nietzsche for detail. (Also see these two Plato-based reviews for important and balancing takes on 'rational' love - Phaedrus & The Symposium
Puck Vs Quince (or) Diana Vs Cupid (or) Art Vs Entertainment
Significantly the final words of the play belong to the master of misrule, the consummate actor and comedian, Puck. In some sense, Puck, with his ability to translate himself into any character, with his skill in creating performances that seem all too real to their human audiences, could be seen as a mascot of the theater. Therefore, his final words are an apology for the play itself. Also mark how Puck courteously addresses the audience as gentlefolk, paralleling Quince's address to his stage audience in his Prologue.
Thus, the final extrapolation on the theme could be that Shakespeare ultimately points out that though a bit of madness and wildness is needed to bring love back into the realms of the truth, it can also be achieved through great art, through sublime theater - not by bad theater though! This could be a statement that Art and thus Theatre is a substitute for the madness of love that is needed to escape the clutches of society (and live the fantasies away from the constricting artificial 'realities') and find yourself, to rediscover yourself away from 鈥榗old reason鈥�.
When the actor playing Puck stands alone on the stage talking to the audience about dreams and illusions, he is necessarily reminding them that there is another kind of magic - the magic of the theatre. And the magic it conjures is the magic of self-discovery. Continuing the play鈥檚 discourse on poetry, Puck defines the poetry of theater as an illusion that transports spectators into the same enchanted region that dreams inhabit. Thus the spectators have not only watched the dream of others but have, by that focus of attention, entered the dream state themselves.
This 鈥榝inding yourself鈥� seems to be the most essential part of love and as long as you are constrained by imposed restrictions, this is impossible. That is why Shakespeare has made it easy for us and created an art-form of a play that allows us to dream-in-unreason and wake up refreshed. But there is a caveat too, highlighted by the parallel prologues of Puck and Quince - A 鈥楥rude鈥� entertainment like 鈥楶yramus and Thisbe鈥� might only allow one to while away an evening happily. It might not give the transport and release and inward-looking that is necessary to achieve the madness that true art is supposed to confer. So Shakespeare uses the play to educate us on what is needed to find ourselves and then the play-within-the-play to also show us what to avoid.
Lord, What Fools Mortals Be
鈥淎rt, like love, is a limited and special vision; but like love it has by its very limits a transforming power, creating a small area of order in the vast chaos of the world . . . . At the moment when the play most clearly declares itself to be trivial, we have the strongest appeal to our sympathy for it. . . .鈥� ~ Alexander Leggatt
鈥淚 will get Peter Quince to write a ballet of this dream. It shall be call鈥檇 鈥淏ottom鈥檚 Dream,鈥� because it hath no bottom.鈥�
In one of the most philosophically transcendent moments in the play, Bottom wakes up from his grand aristocratic/magical dream and is disoriented. Bottom decides to title his piece 鈥淏ottom鈥檚 Dream鈥� because it has no bottom - all literature and art are bottomless, in that their meaning cannot be quantified, cannot be understood solely through the mechanisms of reason or logic. Here it parallels life and love, both beyond reason, limited only by the imagination.
Of course, this is a very simplistic representation of a wonderfully complicated play. It can be read in many different ways based on the viewpoint you chose to adopt. I have tried out a few and felt the need to comment slightly at length on this viewpoint. This is not to diminish the play, which I fully concur with Shakespeare is indeed a 鈥楤ottom鈥檚 Dream鈥� since it has no bottom in the wealth of meaning to be mined from it.
Lord, what fools these mortals be, Puck philosophizes, mockingly. And perhaps we are indeed fools - for entering into the dangerous, unpredictable world of love or of literature; yet what fun would life be without it?
November 29, 2023
2024 will be my year of Shakespeare (I鈥檒l probably give up after 3 plays)
March 18, 2020
I鈥檓 glad I decided to do a reread of this.. I always thought this play was a lot of fun, and who doesn鈥檛 love some Fae trickery and drama?
July 14, 2024
This is one of the most hilarious comedies of Shakespeare that I have read, even funnier than A Comedy of Errors . Combining fantasy and reality and setting in Athens at the time of the wedding of the Duke of Athens, Theseus to Hippolyta, the Queen of Amazon, the play revolves around the adventures of the four young Athenian lovers, a group of performers who plan to put on a play for the wedding of the Duke and the Queen, and the meddling acts of fairies, especially those of the Fairy King's through Pluck, his most trusted "knavish" spirit.
The main theme of the play is love, and actions of jealousies and betrayals center upon that theme. The writing is beautiful; poetic and lyrical. This is the second time in my reading of Shakespeare that I came across such beautiful, poetic, and lyrical writing, the first time being in Romeo and Juliet. It is a real treat to read those poetic and lyrical verses as they tell this light hilarious story.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the most creative and imaginative plays by Shakespeare. The fantasy element is brilliantly combined with reality and the play is cast by an interesting set of characters ranging from humans to fairies to human-animal forms! All these elements have contributed to making the play a very interesting read. I enjoyed it very much and had a good laugh all along. Shakespeare had done a great job with this play.
The main theme of the play is love, and actions of jealousies and betrayals center upon that theme. The writing is beautiful; poetic and lyrical. This is the second time in my reading of Shakespeare that I came across such beautiful, poetic, and lyrical writing, the first time being in Romeo and Juliet. It is a real treat to read those poetic and lyrical verses as they tell this light hilarious story.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the most creative and imaginative plays by Shakespeare. The fantasy element is brilliantly combined with reality and the play is cast by an interesting set of characters ranging from humans to fairies to human-animal forms! All these elements have contributed to making the play a very interesting read. I enjoyed it very much and had a good laugh all along. Shakespeare had done a great job with this play.
August 22, 2023
PS: Saw a production of this play again this summer, one of those picnic on the lawn outdoor productions, kinda punky, kinda funky, and where the boys are bewitched to be with girls but when they are unbewitched they get together with their Truly and Fated Intendeds, boys with boys and girls with girls. The most gender fluid of any production of this play I have ever seen, which totally makes sense with all the messing around with gender/sexuality. Billy Boy, again, ahead of his time.
鈥淢y Oberon, what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamored of an ass鈥�--Titania
A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream is one of Shakespeare鈥檚 early plays, written around 1595-96, what appears to be the tenth by the actor-turned-playwright, but considered his best at that point, and certainly one of his best loved plays ever. I read it this time because I have just reread Neil Gaiman鈥檚 Sandman, Volume 4, which includes his Eisner-award-winning fantasy tale about a production of that play with some speculation about a deal the young Will made with Dream of the Endless, to have Shakespeare write this play and The Tempest. Great comics fantasy back story.
I report on my reading in mid-summer 2020, where some of my fellow country people are locking down and some are partying their little heinies off, convinced the whole thing is a hoax:
鈥淟ord, what fools these mortals be!鈥�
I won鈥檛 give you a synopsis, since you are either familiar with it or won鈥檛 care, but there are several plots and subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. So right, it鈥檚 a romantic comedy, so it has to be about love and weddings and hookups and flirtations and rejections and delusions, not necessarily in that order. One subplot revolves around a conflict between four Athenian lovers, Hermia and Lysander, another about a group of six amateur actors, Peter Quince, Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout and Snug who have to act out their interpretation of the play "Pyramus and Thisbe" at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta.
In a parallel plot line, Oberon, king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, have come to the forest outside Athens. The trickster character Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, is much involved in the playful mayhem involving love potions and other machinations. So there鈥檚 a play within a play, one commenting on the other, though we might ask: Did anything happen here, or is it all a dream within a dream?
鈥淎re you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream.鈥�
Though surely no one at first read or viewing can claim they know what in the heck is going on with any certainty. But who cares, it's about fantasy and fun!
Themes include, duh, the vagaries of love--I love her and she ignores me but loves him, who loves another who ignores him, which is central to the comedy, of course:
鈥淭he course of true love never did run smooth.鈥�
It becomes clear:
鈥淭he lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.鈥�
More themes include dreaming, play, theater, art, Invention! The idea of performing a part or one鈥檚 identity. There are fluid sexual identities, silly jokes, and the blurring of reality and fantasy. And the supernatural. And nature is central to this romantic comedy and its sensuality:
鈥淚 know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.鈥�
So, yeah, it has lovely poetry!
And humor. Death, and grief are central to Shakspeare鈥檚 tragedies, but in the plays actors obviously 鈥減retend鈥� these scenarios, so in this play we have the traveling actors make fun of that process in the play within a play:
鈥淭hus I die. Thus, thus, thus.
Now I am dead,
Now I am fled,
My soul is in the sky.
Tongue, lose thy light.
Moon take thy flight.
Now die, die, die, die.鈥�
And there鈥檚 also some raucous, baccanalian humor. Way fun!
But if you aren鈥檛 all that literary, take the word of Samuel Pepys, who said of it in his Diary that it was "the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life,鈥� though he admitted it had "some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my pleasure."
鈥淢y Oberon, what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamored of an ass鈥�--Titania
A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream is one of Shakespeare鈥檚 early plays, written around 1595-96, what appears to be the tenth by the actor-turned-playwright, but considered his best at that point, and certainly one of his best loved plays ever. I read it this time because I have just reread Neil Gaiman鈥檚 Sandman, Volume 4, which includes his Eisner-award-winning fantasy tale about a production of that play with some speculation about a deal the young Will made with Dream of the Endless, to have Shakespeare write this play and The Tempest. Great comics fantasy back story.
I report on my reading in mid-summer 2020, where some of my fellow country people are locking down and some are partying their little heinies off, convinced the whole thing is a hoax:
鈥淟ord, what fools these mortals be!鈥�
I won鈥檛 give you a synopsis, since you are either familiar with it or won鈥檛 care, but there are several plots and subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. So right, it鈥檚 a romantic comedy, so it has to be about love and weddings and hookups and flirtations and rejections and delusions, not necessarily in that order. One subplot revolves around a conflict between four Athenian lovers, Hermia and Lysander, another about a group of six amateur actors, Peter Quince, Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout and Snug who have to act out their interpretation of the play "Pyramus and Thisbe" at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta.
In a parallel plot line, Oberon, king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, have come to the forest outside Athens. The trickster character Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, is much involved in the playful mayhem involving love potions and other machinations. So there鈥檚 a play within a play, one commenting on the other, though we might ask: Did anything happen here, or is it all a dream within a dream?
鈥淎re you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream.鈥�
Though surely no one at first read or viewing can claim they know what in the heck is going on with any certainty. But who cares, it's about fantasy and fun!
Themes include, duh, the vagaries of love--I love her and she ignores me but loves him, who loves another who ignores him, which is central to the comedy, of course:
鈥淭he course of true love never did run smooth.鈥�
It becomes clear:
鈥淭he lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.鈥�
More themes include dreaming, play, theater, art, Invention! The idea of performing a part or one鈥檚 identity. There are fluid sexual identities, silly jokes, and the blurring of reality and fantasy. And the supernatural. And nature is central to this romantic comedy and its sensuality:
鈥淚 know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.鈥�
So, yeah, it has lovely poetry!
And humor. Death, and grief are central to Shakspeare鈥檚 tragedies, but in the plays actors obviously 鈥減retend鈥� these scenarios, so in this play we have the traveling actors make fun of that process in the play within a play:
鈥淭hus I die. Thus, thus, thus.
Now I am dead,
Now I am fled,
My soul is in the sky.
Tongue, lose thy light.
Moon take thy flight.
Now die, die, die, die.鈥�
And there鈥檚 also some raucous, baccanalian humor. Way fun!
But if you aren鈥檛 all that literary, take the word of Samuel Pepys, who said of it in his Diary that it was "the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life,鈥� though he admitted it had "some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my pleasure."
February 16, 2018
Find all of my reviews at:
I鈥檓 sure there鈥檚 some keyboard commando all primed and ready just waiting for a chance to chime in about how 鈥渢his isn鈥檛 Facebook鈥� or 鈥渢alk about books and don鈥檛 post stupid pictures.鈥� To him/her/them I shall quote ol鈥� Bill himself and say . . . .
Fucketh off with thee!
Because I have read A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream and I鈥檝e read it more than once. Originally I read it back in the stone age as a high schooler who opted for additional literature classes as electives rather than other selections such as 鈥淗ome Ec鈥� and asked for things like this for Christmas, which although unattractive still holds a prime location on the 鈥榩uter desk . . . .
I鈥檝e re-read it occasionally over the years because I enjoy the Shakespeare comedies *cough supernerd cough*. But I never loved it as much as I loved it last night when this happened . . . .
And my baby boy made his acting debut as Francis Flute in a modernized in music/wardrobe, but not in content version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Yeah, this is a post that should probably go on Facebook, but I deleted that motherfucker and never looked back so you鈥檙e getting my proud momma moment here. Haters can eat a bag of weiners.
(Additional tidbit: Robin Goodfellow (a/k/a 鈥淧uck鈥� to those of you in the know) was played by a girl and she kicked allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll of the ass.)
I鈥檓 sure there鈥檚 some keyboard commando all primed and ready just waiting for a chance to chime in about how 鈥渢his isn鈥檛 Facebook鈥� or 鈥渢alk about books and don鈥檛 post stupid pictures.鈥� To him/her/them I shall quote ol鈥� Bill himself and say . . . .
Fucketh off with thee!
Because I have read A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream and I鈥檝e read it more than once. Originally I read it back in the stone age as a high schooler who opted for additional literature classes as electives rather than other selections such as 鈥淗ome Ec鈥� and asked for things like this for Christmas, which although unattractive still holds a prime location on the 鈥榩uter desk . . . .
I鈥檝e re-read it occasionally over the years because I enjoy the Shakespeare comedies *cough supernerd cough*. But I never loved it as much as I loved it last night when this happened . . . .
And my baby boy made his acting debut as Francis Flute in a modernized in music/wardrobe, but not in content version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Yeah, this is a post that should probably go on Facebook, but I deleted that motherfucker and never looked back so you鈥檙e getting my proud momma moment here. Haters can eat a bag of weiners.
(Additional tidbit: Robin Goodfellow (a/k/a 鈥淧uck鈥� to those of you in the know) was played by a girl and she kicked allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll of the ass.)
February 4, 2022
One of my favorites and the first play I read aloud to my children years ago, sitting outside in lawn chairs one midsummer week.
And now those days come back to me every time I read it again. I especially remember the laughter of my oldest in all the right places.
And then there is the well-known C.S. Lewis joke about seeing the play put on by an all-girls school: "It was the first time I saw a female Bottom." In these days of potty humor this still makes me giggle.
2017 Update:
Part of my Arkangel project to listen to all of Shakespeare's plays on audio. This is the play I am most familiar with and yet, I still loved the recording. So much fun!!
2022 Update: Watched the 1981 BBC production for my goal of now watching all the plays. It was clean and fairly well done. Helen Mirren was Titania and her lines were done exquistely as would be expected. My favorite video is still the 1935 movie wih Olivia de Haviland, James Cagney, and Mickey Rooney using Mendelssohn's lovely score.
And now those days come back to me every time I read it again. I especially remember the laughter of my oldest in all the right places.
And then there is the well-known C.S. Lewis joke about seeing the play put on by an all-girls school: "It was the first time I saw a female Bottom." In these days of potty humor this still makes me giggle.
2017 Update:
Part of my Arkangel project to listen to all of Shakespeare's plays on audio. This is the play I am most familiar with and yet, I still loved the recording. So much fun!!
2022 Update: Watched the 1981 BBC production for my goal of now watching all the plays. It was clean and fairly well done. Helen Mirren was Titania and her lines were done exquistely as would be expected. My favorite video is still the 1935 movie wih Olivia de Haviland, James Cagney, and Mickey Rooney using Mendelssohn's lovely score.
March 4, 2019
3 3/4
Upped the rating when I realized that I'd given 3 1/2 to King John, Pericles, and The Taming of the Shrew
Been a while since I've visited this review. This play was the first I read in a project to read all the Bard's plays before I kicked the proverbial bucket wherever you're supposed to kick it. I'm probably behind on this goal by now (of reading/reviewing four plays a year). Ah well.
There are multitudes of rather innocuous comments inside this spoiler. It can safely be skipped.
This Plan of attack was my answer to all the above scratching my head. These following sections used to be in spoilers, but I've revealed this stuff else there wouldn't be much showing.
Read the introduction
I noted the sources listed: Chaucer (the opening of the play has similarities to the beginning of the Knight鈥檚 Tale; Plutarch鈥檚 鈥淟ife of Theseus鈥�; and of course Ovid鈥檚 tale of Pyramus and Thisbe.
Naturally the Faeries are found in folklore. 鈥淏elief in faeries, which had been fairly strong some generations before, was dying out except among the ignorant 鈥� Among educated men and women fairies had become a picturesque fantasy, and a topic for pretty verse and Courtly entertainment.鈥�
Read the play
If you鈥檝e never read the play, and want a synopsis, look elsewhere.
Well okay, here鈥檚 a synopsis.
Athens: Theseus and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta are preparing to be wed. Young Athenians Lysander & Demetrius are both in love with Hermia, who loves the first & loathes the second, whom her father insists she must wed. A second Athenian lass, Helena, does love Demetrius, but is spurned by him.
A group of comedic blue collars is preparing to present Pyramus & Thisbe following the wedding ceremony; chief among these is Bottom, a bombastic buffoon. Meanwhile the king and queen of the faeries (Oberon & Titania) are preparing for the midsummer night鈥檚 faerie revelries in the woods outside Athens, but are locked in a caustic argument about Titania鈥檚 young 鈥渃hangeling鈥�, a boy 鈥渟tolen from an Indian king鈥�. (II.i.21-23)
Oberon commands his mischief-maker Puck to gather a weed that, when sprinkled on the eyes of a sleeper, will cause them to fall madly in love with the first live being they see on awaking. Puck is to sprinkle this on Titania and arrange that she will see something or someone ridiculous when she awakes . Mix this in with Lysander and Hermia deciding to flee from Athens, and sleeping in the woods when they tire; Demetrius searching for Hermia; Helena moping about in the same woods; the play actors rehearsing in the same environs; Puck wreaking planned and unplanned havoc on various characters, including giving Bottom the head of an ass; Titania falling for this ass-headed one; lovers reversing the object of their desires, spurning those whom they formerly loved; and soon only Oberon is left with any knowledge of what鈥檚 going on, trying to instruct Puck on how to straighten everything out.
Eventually, all鈥檚 well that ends well. It is good fun.
Watch a movie of the play
Recently I've been reading plays that the Chesapeake Shakespeare Theatre has been putting on, before seeing their production. SO I'm not feeling a need to also see a movie of the play. However, back when I started I wasn't seeing live productions. Thus the following words on movies of Midsummer Night's Dream.
Several versions of the play have been filmed, the earliest in 1909 with Charlie Chaplin. I chose to watch . This movie features extensive use of Felix Mendelssohn's beautiful music which he wrote for the play 鈥� first the 1826 Overture, and then the 1842 incidental music.
The film features the debut of Olivia de Haviland as Hermia; James Cagney as Bottom (his only Shakespearean role, for which he got a lot of deserved praise); and a thirteen year old Mickey Rooney as Puck.
The wording and cadence of Shakespeare is fairly well preserved in the movie, though extensive editing chops out much of the text. I felt it was a good production, and I was certainly more entertained by the movie than by the play.
Mendelssohn鈥檚 music was wonderful, and the fairie sequences which were all accompanied by this music were inspired magic. The ballet done in these scenes was gorgeous, and the way the fairies glided through the air was beautiful. The costuming of the female faeries, including that of Titantia, surprised me by its very suggestive, almost salacious, design. And Victor Jory as Oberon lent that role a dark creepiness which I found very appealing. All in all, these dreamlike scenes were for me the highlight of the movie.
The Theatrical release poster
Read any commentaries on the play that I have
The only small bit on this play was the following note in the Coleridge book, which is taken from marginalia he wrote at I. i. 246 ff, where Helena betrays Hermia. Since it鈥檚 all I鈥檝e got, I鈥檒l quote the whole thing:
I am convinced that Shakespeare availed himself of the title of the play in his own mind as a dream throughout, but especially (and perhaps unpleasingly) in this broad determination of ungrateful treachery in Helena, so undisguisedly avowed to herself, and this too after the witty cool philosophizing that precedes. The act is very natural; the resolve so to act is, I fear, likewise too true a picture of the lax hold that principles have on the female heart when opposed to, or even separated from, passion and inclination. For women are less hypocrites to their own minds than men, because they feel less abhorrence of moral evil in itself and more for its outward consequences, as detection, loss of character, etc., their natures being almost wholly extroitive. But still, however just, the representation is not poetical; we shrink from it and cannot harmonize it with the ideal 鈥�鈥漞虫迟谤辞颈迟颈惫别?鈥�
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January 8, 2011
It's still as awesome as I remember. Though, unfortunately, causes me some initial irritation with The Iron King.
Robbie Goodfellow is a wicked spirit running around having fun and pulling ridiculous pranks. He's not a serious teenage boy who is dramatic and suspenseful or mysterious or sexy.
Why do we have to turn everything into sexy these days? Why does every male character have to suddenly fit the romantic male archetype?
Why are mythological creatures becoming obsessed with teenage girls?
Robbie Goodfellow is a wicked spirit running around having fun and pulling ridiculous pranks. He's not a serious teenage boy who is dramatic and suspenseful or mysterious or sexy.
Why do we have to turn everything into sexy these days? Why does every male character have to suddenly fit the romantic male archetype?
Why are mythological creatures becoming obsessed with teenage girls?
October 23, 2017
if i had a professor who actually talked about this and made it interesting then im sure i wouldve liked it more but i was just like ?????????
January 17, 2025
The Strange Party
I鈥檝e just had the weirdest dream
(Things aren't always what they seem)
All my GR friends were here
Celebrating the new year
At my parents-in-law鈥檚 place
Who had gone away someplace
Partygoers one by one
Showed up ready to have fun
There was Nick with a cigar
Blowing smoke rings from afar
Violeta had brought salad
Vesna sang us a sweet ballad
Ken kept drinking from a can
Like a real American
Someone knocked and there was Lee
Come all the way from Italy
Lisa put some music on
But no one fancied reggaeton
Ilse danced a grim Fandango
Me and Bogdan did the tango
On the sofa friend Irena
Dreaming hummed a cantilena
Jeroen David and Katia
Wrestled on the bath mat yeah
S. came with an alligator
And forgot about it later
Fio who had eaten shrooms
Went exploring many rooms
Julie drank a lot of wine
She even guzzled some of mine
P.E. looked through every drawer
Opened and closed every door
After one too many tokes
We all laughed at Olga's jokes
Laysee made a kitchen mess
Trying to bake a cake no less
Cookie didn鈥檛 show up at all
She鈥檒l be in my dream next fall
In the front yard there was Noam
Chatting up the garden gnome
Mark rode his bike in the foyer
Right behind him barked his lawyer
Great fun it was while it lasted
Everyone I knew was blasted
But my in-laws were due back
Any minute now alack!
My wife whispered 鈥済et them out
Even if you have to shout
Your weird friends have gone too far
And I don鈥檛 know who they are
Plus I鈥檓 tired I need some sleep
Please be so kind as to sweep
Up the crumbs and clear the smoke鈥�
(Un)fortunately I awoke
(If you wish to join the party, let me know, and I'll include you in a custom-made dream-couplet, faster than you can say Sandman.)
November 11, 2022
鈥淟overs and madmen have such seething brains
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends."
One of William Shakespeare's most famous comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream, delights in gorgeous language, clever plot twists, fairies and whimsy. I'd read this before, but it felt like the right time to get it out and read it again. While it doesn't have the emotional grip on the reader (or playgoer) that Hamlet, Henry II or several of his tragedies have, it was fun to revisit this and experience it again! 4.5 stars
...............
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends."
One of William Shakespeare's most famous comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream, delights in gorgeous language, clever plot twists, fairies and whimsy. I'd read this before, but it felt like the right time to get it out and read it again. While it doesn't have the emotional grip on the reader (or playgoer) that Hamlet, Henry II or several of his tragedies have, it was fun to revisit this and experience it again! 4.5 stars
...............
August 15, 2021
By far the 鈥渨eirdest鈥� Shakespeare I have read so far. Psychedelic and dreamy are both perfect descriptions. I am not going through the plays in chronological order, and so the juxtaposition of King Lear and the Dream was interesting. With the first, we are dealing with progeny, filial loyalty, old age 鈥� in other words, topics with a bit of gravity. With the second? Love, fairies, a play within a play, and an ass. One thing that made for deeper meditation was the seeming randomness of the young people鈥檚 loves. Demetrius, Hermia, Helena, and Lysander had strong convictions about love prior to entering the magical forest. This may not have changed with their exiting the forest, but our good friend Puck had spun the Wheel of Fortune and switched some allegiances around. They wake as if from a dream and go about their merry way, as if their love had not been a matter of life and death. Hmmm. Random, or another piece of commentary by Shakespeare with a wink and a nudge? He did write R & J, after all.
June 23, 2022
This was the first Shakespeare I read outside of school, and I truly adored it! Everything you鈥檇 want in a play is here; humor, beautiful imagery, quotable lines, and a perfect touch of magic. I loved all the different storylines and the juxtaposition between them was so hilarious, I鈥檓 really glad I picked this up and can鈥檛 wait to get more into Shakespeare!
January 20, 2020
Such a fun, whimsical, hilarious play full of meddling characters, mix ups, and clueless clowns who made me chuckle openly and scream when mischief ensued. I can鈥檛 believe it took me this long to read this play!
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