2.  WHERE SHAKESPEARE FOUND SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS FAIRIES

The models in literature from which Shakespeare drew may have been ‘Huon of Bordeaux,’ where he got little, however, but the name Oberon.  The name Titania may have been derived from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses.’  The Fairy Queen in Shakespeare’s day usually went by the name of Queen Mab.  Puck’s characteristics seem to have been derived from the little tract of ‘Robin Goodfellow, His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests.’  Rolfe, in the notes to his edition of the play, says that White argues that this was probably written after “A Midsommer Nights Dreame.”  Ward thinks that the entire machinery of Oberon and his court may have been derived from Greene’s ‘Scottish History of James IV,’ and that Titania may have been suggested by Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’s Tale.’  He probably owed his fairies in great measure to tradition or folk-lore.  The folk-lore of England was originally made up of Teutonic elements, which have been modified by Danish and Norman invasions, by remnants of old Keltic belief, and by the introduction of Christianity, which last degraded the good fairies into mischievous elves. (See Hazlitt, ‘Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare,’ Halliwell’s ’Illustrations of the Fairy Mythology of Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ also Poet-Lore, April, 1891, ‘Fairy-lore in Midsummer Night’s Dream.’)

3.  SOLAR ORIGIN OF THE FAIRIES

According to some authorities the Teutonic mythology was of cosmic origin.  In the fairies may be seen many reflections of cosmic characteristics.  Oberon and Titania are fairies of the night, and the old battle between light and darkness shows itself in the mad pranks which they play on unsuspecting mortals.  But as the daylight comes they are obliged to flee.  Puck reflects the characteristics of a wind god. (See Cox, ‘Myths of the Aryan Nations;’ also Korner, ’Solar Myths in Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Poet-Lore, Jan., 1891).  Compare his character with that of Hermes in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (Shelley’s Translation).

SYMPOSIUM OF OPINION ON THE CHARACTERS

1.  THE LOVERS

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

1.  Hermia and Helena are hardly worth considering, but if anything Helena is to be preferred to Hermia because she is so humble, and shows no sign of jealousy of Hermia. 2.  If Hermia had been more dignified when she found that both the lovers had turned their attention to Helena, she would better have carried out the promise of her character in the first Act when she declared she would rather die than wed the man chosen by her father.

2.  HIPPOLYTA AND THESEUS

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION