Consider what relation the second scene has to the story.  Is it more extraneous to the movement than the scene presenting the Duke and his bride?  It is linked to the crossed lovers group, on the one side, by the part the chief of the ‘rude mechanicals,’ Bottom, is to assume with Titania, although this does not appear in the first Act, and Shakespeare’s intention to do something special with this character is only shadowed forth here by its prominence.  On the other side it is linked to the ducal group still more superficially, merely by the rehearsal of a piece to be played at the wedding.  It may be contrasted with the preparation in ‘Hamlet’ for a piece similarly played before the Court, but which had a vital connection with the action and characters which is lacking here.  Can there be said to be an artistic design, however, though of a more external sort, in the contrast between the Court scene and the rehearsal scene, and the realistic offset the latter scene supplies to the fairy fantasies that are to follow in the next acts?  For instance, it may be shown that the merriment the clownish scene provides balances the dignity of the ducal scene.  His audience, having put a yoke upon the dramatists by requiring a clown, his genius is betokened here by his making it an artistic advantage.

POINTS 1.  ‘The ancient privilege of Athens,’ I. i. 49.  What was the position of the father toward the family in Attica? 2.  ’On Dian’s altar to protest,’ i. 98.  Did the service of Diana offer women a respite from masculine dictation?  Compare the myth of Iphigenia’s salvation by Diana. 3.  ’To that place the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue,’ i. 172.  What Grecian states had laws more lenient to women? 4.  What traces can be found in history or legend of the victory of Theseus over the Amazons, and the rise of a new civic order on the ruins of a matriarchate? 5.  The story of Pyramus and Thisbe (see Chaucer’s ‘Legend of Good Women’ for an early English use of the story). 6.  Explanation of allusions to Phoebe, Cupid, Ercles, etc.

ACT I

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Upon what does the interest centre in Act I?  In the marriage of Hippolyta and Theseus, or the love affairs of the four lovers?

Is Hermia, whose determination not to be forced to marry starts the plot, the best-drawn character in the first Act?

ACT II

THE FAIRIES’ QUARREL

Show how in this Act a new agency of a fairies’ quarrel is devised and set forth.

Point out how this is made to crystallize in Oberon’s scheme for revenge on Titania, and also how, in the course of disentangling their own love-snarl, it is made to develop the conflict between the crossed lovers.  This, it may be emphasized, is the second step in the movement, as Hermia’s and Helena’s love was the first, and these two main factors of the action are taken up together in this act.