CROSS-EFFECTS OF OBERON’S SPELL

Analyze the scenes constituting this Act.  Observe that scene i. takes up Bottom and his fellows, the group not as yet brought into relation with the fairy group, and initiates them in the magic of fairy land by means of the new but appropriate head Puck bestows upon Bottom.  Why is Bottom picked out for this favor?  The ‘ass-head’ as a symbolic piece of stage furniture.  Show how this transformation makes the mismating of Titania with Bottom more gross and obvious to the audience; also how this is the next direct effect of Oberon’s revenge.

Notice that scene ii. takes up the cross-effect already worked upon Lysander by Puck’s mistake, instead of on Demetrius, as Oberon intended, and sets forth its further effects upon Helena and Hermia.  The dialogues between the two pairs of lovers now overheard by Oberon makes the error clear, and so enables him to take the first step in clearing up the tangle.  Meantime, the poet and his audience agree with Puck that they are so far ’glad it so did sort, As this their jangling’ is esteemed ‘a sport.’

POINTS 1.  Explain ‘It shall be written in eight and sixe,’ III. i. 23-4. 2.  The custom in Shakespeare’s day as to the women’s parts.  Would it have been as amusing to the audience then as it would be to us when Quince says ‘Robin Starveling, you play Thisbies mother’? 3.  Pyramus and Thisbe.  This may have been derived from Ovid, or from Chaucer’s “Legend of Good Women,” or C. Robinson’s “Handful of Pleasant Delights.” (1504.) 4.  Explain ’Two of the first like coats in heraldry,’ III. ii. 220. 5.  Describe the personal appearance of the heroines from the references made.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is Puck or Bottom the presiding genius of this act?

Does the jangling between the two women belittle them as heroines, and is it, therefore, a blot upon the beauty of the play?

ACT IV

HARMONIZING EFFECTS OF OBERON’S SPELL

Trace throughout this act the smoothing-out process.

Why does Oberon himself release Titania while Puck is made to minister to the other victims of the charm?  Is Oberon’s explanation of the Fairy Queen’s sudden change of heart about the changeling quite satisfactory, or does it simply appear so by a sort of artistic sleight-of-hand characteristic of Shakespeare in small touches at the close of a plot?

Show how poetically suitable as a stage effect the entry of Theseus and his huntsmen is,—­shedding the first rays of morning on the night-enchanted lovers.

Why is Bottom made to waken last?  Perhaps because he helps to denote the prose of broad daylight.  Show what relation scene ii. has to the completion of the smoothing-out process.

POINTS. 1.  ‘I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,’ IV. i. 126.  What relation had Hippolyta to these Greek heroes? 2.  Account of May-day rites. 3.  Traditions of St. Valentine. 4.  Rites of Midsummer Eve.