Are the other two groups which were introduced in the first act, the Duke’s party and Bottom’s set, interwoven with the new fairy group in any way in this Act?  See if the new fairy element now shows any disposition in the person of Oberon to smooth out the difficulties of the mortals.

Oberon’s intentions, however, were one thing, and his deeds another.  Through Puck as his instrument, his jealousy at once begins to make matters worse instead of better for the lovers.  Notice the delicate appropriateness of Oberon’s means of influence, namely Puck and the two flowers, the first being ’Cupid’s flower,’—­Love in idleness—­the second ‘Dian’s bud,’ introduced later to correct the influence of the first.  The first flower assists in the development of a plot which is to enact the ‘momentariness’ of ‘sympathy in choice.’  The cross-purpose, fostered by Puck’s mistake, seems to provide the comparatively grosser sort of merriment for this Act which Bottom and his friends supplied for the first; and the dainty humor and sprightly novelty attending the introduction of the fairies on the scene, the description of their quarrel, and the foreshadowing of the influence they are to have on the next stages of the story, may be shown to occupy the chief place in the plot at this period, the crossed lovers, who predominated in the first Act, now falling into a relatively subordinate position.

POINTS 1.  Robin Goodfellow and the traditions about him. 2.  Fairies and changelings. 3.  The stories of Theseus’s loves. 4.  Explanation of allusions to nine men’s morris, old Hiems, etc. 5.  Account of theories as to meaning of references to the imperiall votresse, a little westerne flower, a mearemaide on a dolphins backe, etc.  Warburton says the mermaid was meant for Mary Queen of Scots.  N.H.  Halpin thinks that by Cynthia is meant Queen Elizabeth; by Tellus, Lady Douglas; by the little ‘western flower,’ Lettice, wife of Walter, Earl of Essex, while Cupid is Leicester. (See “First Folio Edition” for particulars). 6.  Explain use of ‘Lob,’ II. i. 15; ‘wodde,’ 200. 7.  ’The starres shot madly from their Spheares,’ i. 159.  Look up Ptolemaic system of astronomy for explanation of the idea.  Compare “Merchant of Venice,” V. i. 71-75, and notes on same in “First Folio Edition” of that play. 8.  What is “Love in idleness”? (See Introduction to “First Folio Edition” of “A Midsommer Nights Dreame” for references to this flower in Chaucer’s poem of “The Flower and the Leaf.”) Compare “The Taming of the Shrew,” I. i. 156. 9.  What are “Cankers” in the musk rosebuds?  II. ii. 4.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is it probable that the various passages in this act said to allude to current incidents were so intended?  In that case what effect do they have upon the beauty of a Play set in Athens?

Is the interest of this Act a divided one?

ACT III