| A Midsummer Night's Dream |
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As Duke Theseus prepares for his marriage to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, he is interrupted by Egeus. This courtier seeks the Duke's intervention because his daughter, Hermia, will not agree to his choice of Demetrius for her husband as she loves Lysander. The Duke urges Hermia to be obedient to her father, otherwise she must either die, or accept a celibate life in Diana's temple. Lysander and Hermia plan to elope, and their secret is shared with Helena, whose love for Demetrius has been scorned. At night the lovers escape from Athens but they lose their way in the woods. They are followed by Demetrius, and by Helena, who has told him of their intention to defy the law. Nearby, Oberon, king of the fairies, has quarrelled with his queen, Titania, over a page-boy she refuses to give him. Oberon overhears Helena and Demetrius arguing and sends his mischievous servant, Puck, to seek a love-potion flower to anoint Demetrius. Mistaking the Athenian he seeks, Puck puts the flower juice on the eyes of the sleeping Lysander so that when he is woken by Helena he immediately loves her and rejects Hermia.
The ass's head is removed and Bottom returns to the city to rejoin his friends as they prepare to give their play. Meanwhile the lovers' arguments tire them out as they chase one another through the woods and when Demetrius rests, Oberon puts magic juice on his eyes so that both he and Lysander pursue Helena until the four lovers fall asleep, exhausted. Puck puts restorative juice on Lysander's eyes before the lovers are woken by Theseus and Hippolyta and their dawn hunting party. Happily reunited to each other, Lysander with Hermia, Demetrius with Helena, they agree to share the Duke's wedding day. Later the play of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' is presented before the wedding guests. As the three couples retire to bed Puck and the fairies return to bless the palace and its people. 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was written about 1594-95 and was first printed in 1600. © Marian J. Pringle |
That night a group of working men are preparing a play on the tragic love-story of Pyramus and Thisbe to present before Theseus on his wedding day. Bottom, the weaver, is to play the lover, Pyramus, while Flute, the bellows-mender, agrees, under protest, to play Thisbe. Their fellows play the parts of the Moon, the Wall and the Lion and they are directed by Quince, the carpenter. Their rehearsals in the wood are overheard by Puck who plays a trick on them by giving Bottom an ass's head which frightens the others away. Bottom is lured towards the sleeping Titania whom Oberon has anointed with his magic flower juice. On waking, the fairy queen falls in love with the ass and entertains him with her fairies, but when Bottom falls asleep beside her, Oberon restores Titania ‘S sight and wakes her. After expressing her dismay at the sight of Bottom she is reconciled to Oberon. 
