A Midsummer Night's Dream Read online

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  List of parts

  PHILOSTRATE ... court in the Quarto text, he is the Master of the Revels who introduces the entertainment in the final act; in Folio, this role is taken by Egeus, leaving Philostrate a non-speaking role in the first scene.

  Act 1, Scene 1

  1.1 Location: Athens Theseus mythical Duke of Athens who conquered the Amazons Hippolyta mythical Queen of the Amazons, captured by Theseus 2 apace quickly

  2 Four happy days the action actually extends over two days and the intervening night 4 lingers draws out/keeps waiting

  5 Like to like

  5 stepdame stepmother

  5 dowager widow

  6 withering out i.e. using up

  6 young man's revenue i.e. her son's inheritance 7 steep soak, be suffused in

  9 moon ... bow Diana was goddess of hunting and the moon 10 New-bent ready to be strung or to let an arrow loose 11 solemnities ceremonies, celebrations

  14 pert lively

  16 pale companion melancholy fellow

  16 pomp splendid display, ceremony

  17 with my sword Hippolyta was captured during Theseus' campaign against the Amazons 18 injuries wrongs

  20 triumph public celebration

  20.1 Hermia name of Aristotle's disreputable mistress; may be derived from "Hermione" (daughter of Helen of Troy) 20.1 Lysander derived from "Alexander" (another name for Paris, who carried off Helen of Troy) 20.1 Demetrius a villainous Demetrius appears in North's Plutarch and in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus

  32 feigning singing softly/deceitful/joyful/desirous/longing 33 stol'n ... fantasy cunningly imprinted yourself in her imagination 34 gauds showy playthings

  34 conceits trinkets

  35 Knacks knickknacks

  35 trifles insignificant tokens

  35 nosegays small bouquets of flowers

  35 sweetmeats confectionary

  36 prevailment persuasion, influence

  36 unhardened inexperienced, yielding

  37 filched stolen

  40 Be it so if

  46 Immediately directly

  52 disfigure alter/erase

  56 kind respect

  56 wanting lacking

  56 voice approval

  58 would wish

  62 concern befit

  63 presence the duke/assembled people/ceremonial place 67 die the death be executed

  68 society company

  70 Know of learn from

  70 blood passions

  72 livery clothing (and lifestyle)

  73 aye always

  73 mewed confined

  78 earthlier happy i.e. more happy on earth

  78 distilled whose essence is extracted for perfume 80 single blessedness i.e. celibacy

  82 Ere before

  82 virgin patent privilege of virginity

  83 his lordship i.e. Demetrius

  86 sealing day i.e. wedding day

  90 would wishes

  91 Diana Roman goddess of chastity and the moon

  91 protest vow

  92 aye ever

  94 crazed flawed/unsound/mad

  94 title claim

  96 Do i.e. why don't

  98 render give to

  100 estate unto bestow upon

  101 derived descended

  102 possessed propertied, i.e. affluent

  103 fairly nobly/equally

  104 with ... Demetrius' superior to those of Demetrius 107 prosecute pursue

  108 avouch declare

  108 head i.e. face

  109 Made love to wooed

  109 Helena perhaps named after Helen of Troy

  110 dotes is infatuated

  112 spotted (morally) stained

  115 self-affairs personal matters

  116 lose forget

  118 schooling admonition/advice

  119 look be sure

  119 arm prepare

  120 fancies desires

  122 extenuate moderate

  125 go come

  127 Against in preparation for

  128 nearly that that closely

  132 Belike probably

  133 Beteem grant

  134 aught anything, whatever

  137 blood rank

  138 cross hindrance/vexation

  139 misgraffed mismatched

  141 stood depended

  141 merit Folio's emendation of Quarto's "friends" (meaning "relatives"); some editors assume that both texts are wrong and that the line should read "Or merit stood upon the choice of friends"

  143 sympathy agreement

  145 momentary fleeting

  147 collied blackened

  148 spleen fit of temper

  148 unfolds reveals

  149 ere before

  151 quick living/brief

  151 confusion ruin

  152 ever crossed always thwarted

  154 trial experience of this trial

  157 fancy's love's

  158 persuasion opinion

  161 seven leagues about twenty-one miles

  162 respects considers

  167 without outside

  169 do ... May i.e. celebrate May Day

  170 stay wait

  172 Cupid Roman god of love

  173 best ... head i.e. one causing love (Cupid's lead arrows were supposed to induce loathing) 174 simplicity innocence

  174 doves symbols of fidelity, these birds drew the goddess of love's chariot 175 knitteth binds together

  176 Carthage queen Dido, who committed suicide on a pyre when Aeneas deserted her 177 false Troyan the Trojan Aeneas

  183 fair beautiful/fair-complexioned

  185 happy favored, lucky

  186 lodestars guiding stars

  186 air melody

  187 tuneable harmonious

  188 green fresh, new

  189 favour good looks/a favorable attitude

  190 catch seize

  193 bated omitted (with play on "baited, hooked")

  194 translated transformed

  200 move arouse

  203 none i.e. no fault

  206 fly flee

  212 Phoebe another name for the Roman moon goddess

  213 glass mirror (i.e. water)

  215 still always

  218 faint pale

  218 wont accustomed

  219 counsel inmost thoughts/advice

  222 strange foreign, new

  229 o'er other some more than others

  232 all everyone else

  235 quantity value/substance/proportion (to what love makes them into) 236 form ordered, attractive appearance/substance

  238 blind Cupid was traditionally depicted as a sightless child

  239 of ... taste the least bit of reason

  240 figure symbolize

  242 beguiled deceived, misguided

  243 waggish playful, mischievous

  243 game jest/play

  243 themselves forswear break their word

  245 eyne eyes

  251 intelligence information

  252 dear expense effort worth making/high price to pay (as Demetrius will pursue Hermia)/begrudging gratitude (from Demetrius) Act 1, Scene 2

  1.2 Quince probably from "quines" or "quoins," a carpenter's wooden wedges 1.2 Snug close-fitting; a good name for a joiner (craftsman who makes furniture) 1.2 Bottom the core onto which the weaver's yarn was wound, or a ball of thread; did not have modern sense of "arse" Flute suggests the fluted pipes of a church organ operated by bellows; perhaps Flute also has a reedy, high voice 1.2 Snout possibly Snout has a large nose (some editors suppose a reference to the spout of a kettle, which a tinker would have to mend, but sixteenth-century kettles did not have spouts) 1.2 Starveling tailors were proverbially thin 2 generally malapropism for "severally" (i.e. individually) 3 scrip scrap of paper/script (i.e. what is written down; the word did not have its modern theatrical sense) 5 interlude short play

  7 treats on deals with, is about

  8 grow ... poi
nt approach a conclusion

  10 Marry by the Virgin Mary

  14 spread yourselves spread out

  20 ask require

  22 condole express great sorrow

  23 humour inclination

  23 Ercles i.e. the Greek hero Hercules

  23 rarely magnificently, exceptionally

  24 tear ... in rant and bluster

  24 split go to pieces

  26 shivering shattering

  29 Phibbus' car the chariot of Phoebus, the sun god

  31 mar ruin

  32 Fates three goddesses in control of human destiny

  33 lofty grandiose, exalted, impressive

  34 vein temperament

  38 wand'ring i.e. on a mission

  42 That's all one it doesn't matter

  43 small high-pitched

  43 will can

  44 An if

  52 Thisbe's ... Thisbe's father these characters never actually appear 57 fitted equipped, provided for (perhaps maintaining the language of joinery) 60 do it extempore improvise

  70 discretion sound judgment

  71 aggravate malapropism for "moderate"

  72 roar roar for

  72 sucking dove conflation of "sitting dove" and "sucking lamb," both proverbially quiet and gentle 72 an 'twere as if it were

  75 proper handsome

  81 discharge perform

  81 your i.e. you know the sort

  82 orange-tawny yellowish-brown

  82 purple-in-grain dyed red

  83 French-crown-coloured i.e. the gold color of the French coin 84 crowns heads; baldness was an effect of syphilis ("the French disease") 87 con learn

  90 devices plans

  91 draw draw up

  91 bill list

  94 obscenely malapropism, perhaps for "seemly" or "obscurely"

  94 courageously spiritedly

  94 perfect word perfect

  96 hold ... bowstrings archers' saying, possibly meaning "stand firm and fight, or cut your bowstrings in preparation for capture"

  Act 2, Scene 1

  2.1 Location: a wood near Athens Robin Goodfellow name traditionally given to a mischievous hobgoblin 2.1 Puck a kind of mischievous goblin

  4 park enclosed hunting ground

  4 pale fenced-in area

  5 Thorough through

  7 sphere stars and planets were thought to be contained within revolving hollow spheres 9 orbs i.e. fairy rings (dark circles in the grass) 10 pensioners bodyguards

  12 favours tokens of favor

  13 savours (sweet) scent

  16 lob country bumpkin

  17 anon soon

  20 passing fell excessively fierce

  20 wrath angry

  23 changeling child taken by the fairies (usually exchanged for a fairy child) 25 trace traverse

  26 perforce forcibly

  29 fountain spring

  29 sheen brightness

  30 square quarrel

  32 making physical appearance

  32 quite entirely

  33 shrewd cunning

  35 villagery villages

  36 Skim take the cream off

  36 quern churn; also a mill for grinding corn

  37 bootless in vain

  38 barm yeasty froth on top of fermenting ale

  39 mislead i.e. with false fire that moves from place to place 46 bean-fed well-fed

  47 filly female

  48 gossip's old friend's

  48 bowl i.e. drinking cup

  49 crab crab apple

  51 dewlap loose fold of skin hanging at the neck

  52 aunt old woman

  55 "tailor" cry of surprise; possibly because she ends up sitting on the floor (customary posture for tailors), or because she sits on her "tail" (i.e. bum) 56 quire company

  57 waxen increase

  57 neeze sneeze

  58 wasted spent

  59 room make way

  59 Oberon name often given to the King of Fairies

  59.1 Titania used by Ovid to refer to Diana (moon goddess) and Circe (enchantress) 64 Tarry stay

  64 wanton willful one, perhaps also with sense of "promiscuous"

  64 lord husband

  65 lady wife

  67 Corin conventional pastoral name

  68 corn straw

  68 versing composing/uttering verses of

  69 Phillida conventional pastoral name

  70 step limit

  71 forsooth in truth

  71 bouncing big, strapping (perhaps with sexual connotations) 72 buskined wearing high hunting boots ("buskins")

  76 Glance at refer to/cast aspersions on

  76 credit favor

  78 glimmering twinkling, shimmering

  79 Perigenia (sometimes spelled "Perigouna") Theseus slept with her after he killed her robber father 79 ravished carried off/seized/raped

  80 Aegles nymph loved by Theseus

  81 Ariadne she helped Theseus find his way out of the labyrinth; he then abandoned her 81 Antiopa Amazon seduced or abducted by Theseus before being abandoned by him 83 middle summer's spring i.e. beginning of midsummer 84 mead meadow

  85 paved with a pebbly base

  85 rushy edged with rushes

  86 in on

  86 beached covered with shingle

  86 margent margin, edge

  87 ringlets circular fairy dance

  88 brawls quarrels/noise; also lively French dance (contrasts with calmer ringlets) 88 sport recreation

  89 piping whistling

  91 Contagious pestilential/harmful

  92 petty small

  92 proud swollen

  93 overborne their continents exceeded their boundaries (i.e. flooded) 94 stretched strained at/pulled

  95 lost wasted

  96 ere ... beard before developing the awn (bristly growth) 97 fold animal pen

  98 murrion infected

  99 nine men's morris ground marked out for a game involving nine pegs ("men") 100 quaint elaborate

  100 mazes pattern of paths cut in the turf

  100 wanton green lush grass

  102 want ... blessed i.e. though the weather is wintry, there are no winter festivities (some editors emend "here" to "cheer") 104 Therefore i.e. because of our dispute

  104 floods tides

  105 washes saturates, renders moist

  106 rheumatic diseases illnesses involving watery discharge, such as colds 107 distemperature poor weather/disorder

  108 hoary-headed white-haired

  110 Hiems personification of winter

  111 chaplet garland

  113 childing fertile

  114 wonted customary

  114 mazed confused/dumbstruck/terrified

  115 increase produce

  117 debate discord

  117 dissension discord

  118 original point of origin

  122 henchman squire, page

  125 votress female follower, bound by a vow

  127 Full very

  128 Neptune Roman god of the sea

  129 Marking observing, noting

  129 th'embarked traders sailing merchants or their ships 129 flood sea

  131 wanton playful/lustful

  132 swimming gait smooth, graceful motion

  137 of that boy i.e. in childbirth

  141 Perchance perhaps

  142 patiently calmly

  142 round circular dance

  144 spare avoid

  147 chide quarrel

  147 downright utterly

  148 from go from

  151 Since when

  151 promontory headland

  153 dulcet sweet

  153 breath i.e. song

  154 rude rough

  155 certain surely/particular

  160 all fully

  160 certain accurate/specific

  161 vestal woman vowed to chastity, here assumed by most commentators to be an allusion to Queen Elizabeth I (the imperial votress) 163 As as if

  164 might could

  167
fancy-free unaffected by love

  168 bolt arrow

  170 purple blood-colored

  171 love-in-idleness pansy or heartsease

  174 or either

  177 leviathan sea monster

  178 girdle belt

  194 The ... stayeth i.e. I will confront Lysander; it is Hermia who is preoccupying me (some editors emend to "slay ... slayeth") 196 wood angry/mad (puns on "wooed")

  199 draw attract (magnetically)

  199 adamant hard magnetic substance

  201 Leave you give up

  203 you fair favorably, kindly to you

  209 but only

  210 leave permission

  218 impeach discredit

  222 desert desolate, isolated

  224 privilege safeguard

  224 for that because

  231 brakes bushes

  235 Apollo ... chase a reversal of the myth in which Daphne, being chased by Apollo, was spared rape by being turned into a laurel tree 236 griffin mythical beast, part lion part eagle

  236 hind female deer

  237 Bootless pointless

  239 stay wait for

  244 set ... sex make me behave in a way that disgraces womankind 248 upon by/at

  254 blows blossoms

  255 oxlips flowers resembling both cowslip and primrose 256 Quite completely

  256 woodbine honeysuckle

  257 musk-roses wild climbing roses

  257 eglantine sweetbriar, a sweetly scented rose

  258 sometime at some time or other

  260 throws sheds

  261 Weed garment

  271 fond on infatuated with

  1 roundel circulardance

  3 cankers wormsthatdestroyplants

  4 reremice bats

  4 leathern leathery

  7 quaint strange/dainty

  8 offices duties

  9 double i.e. forked

  11 blind-worms adders

  13 Philomel nightingale; Philomela was transformed into a nightingale after being raped by her brother-in-law 18 nigh near

  24 etc. indicates chorus is to be repeated

  26 aloof at a distance

  26 sentinel guard

  30 ounce lynx

  31 Pard leopard/panther

  36 troth truth

  38 tarry ... day wait till the cooler part of the day 42 troth pledge (of love)/faith

  45 take the sense i.e. interpret correctly

  46 Love ... conference i.e. love allows lovers to understand one another 52 lie mislead (you) (puns on "lie down")

  53 prettily charmingly/cleverly

  54 beshrew curse

  56 friend lover

  57 human polite/courteous

  59 Becomes befits

  65 wisher's eyes i.e. Lysander's

  65 pressed i.e. closed in sleep

  68 approve test

  78 Churl villain/scoundrel

  79 owe own

  80 forbid ... eyelid prevent you from sleeping

  85 charge command

  85 haunt pursue/hang around

  86 darkling in the dark

  88 fond foolish/doting

  89 grace favor

  90 lies is/resides

  96 marvel wonder

  97 as as if (from)

  98 glass mirror

  99 sphery eyne heavenly eyes

  104 Transparent radiant/see-through

  104 art skill (allowing him to see through Helena's body) 109 What though what of it (if)

  115 will inclination (plays on sense of "sexual desire/penis") 118 ripe not i.e. was not mature enough

  119 point peak

  119 skill discernment