“And this dream of the lovers is given a paradoxical counterpart.  A respectable, fat citizen dreams one night that he is to experience the great triumph of his life.  He is to be presented before the duke’s throne as the greatest of heroes.  He dreams that he cannot get dressed, that he cannot get his head attended to, because, as a matter of fact, his head is not his own excellent head, but the head of an ass with long ears, a snout, and hair that itches.  ’This is exactly like a fairy tale of my youth,’ he dreams.  And indeed, it is a dream!  The mountain opens, the captive princess comes forth and leads him in, and he rests his head in her lap all strewn with blossoms.  The lovely trolls come and scratch his head and music sounds from the rocks.  It is characteristic of Shakespeare that the lovers do not dream fairy tales of their childhood.  Higher culture has given them deeper passions, more intense personal relations; in dreams they but continue the life of waking.  But the good weaver who lives thoroughly content in his own self-satisfaction and in the esteem of his neighbors, who has never reflected upon anything that has happened to him, but has received each day’s blessings as they have come—­this man sees, the moment he lays his head on the pillow, the fairies and the fairy queen.  To him the whole circle of childhood fantasy reveals itself; nothing is changed, nothing but this absurd ass’s head which he wears, and this curious longing for dry, sweet hay.

“This is the dream and the action of the play.  Superficially, all this magic is set in motion by the fairies; Theseus and his train, with whom come hunting horn and hunting talk and processional—­are, in reality, the incarnation of the festival.  And the comedy at the close is added by way of counterpiece to the light, delicate fancies of the dream.  It is the thoughts we have thought, the painfully-wrought products of the waking mind, given in a sparkle of mocking laughter against the background of nightly visions.  See the play over and over again.  Do not study it with Bottom’s ass’s head, and do not be so blase that you reject the performance because it does not command the latest electrical effects.”

Bjornson then proceeds to discuss the staging.  He admits by implication that the machinery and the properties are not so elaborate as they sometimes are in England, but points out that the equipment of Christiania Theater is fully up to that which, until a short time before, was considered entirely adequate in the great cities of Europe.  And is machinery so important?  The cutting of the play used at this performance was originally made by Tieck for the court theater at Potsdam.  From Germany it was brought to Stockholm, and later to Christiania.  “The spirit of Tieck pervades this adaptation.  It is easy and natural.  The spoken word has abundant opportunity to make itself felt, and is neither overwhelmed by theater tricks nor set aside by machinery.