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Inside Shakespeare’s mind:
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Probably written for children or young adults, Shakespeare balances
two stories this comedy possess, one of real life and the other from the
world of fairies.
A wonderful change from his other comedies that is considered
inter-change effect that dominates the play. Easily adaptable for the
state, Midsummer Night's Dream has been well received where ever it was
staged. The play reveals the multi-faceted activity of Shakespeare's
mind who without stress, switch to histories and tragedies from comedies
like this one. It is evident in all his poems, prose, verse, songs and
sonnets. No wonder he remains the genius he is.
I have been wondrously carried away by Mendelssohn's scores I heard
on tape at the recording by the London Philharmonic Orchestra few months
back when I went to the South Bank Centre. This gentle genius's scores
were used for many years for Midsummer Night's Dream. Later, Benjamin
Britten's opera on this play, came to be recognised around 1960.
Synopsis
Theseus, Duke of Athens has to settle a marriage dispute while he is
getting ready to wed the Amazonn Queen Hippolyta whom he had defeated in
a battle. The dispute arises when Eugene wishes his daughter Hermia to
wed Demetrius when she is already in love with Lysander.
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Credits
* Theseus – The legendary Duke of Athens, unexpectedly, the second
longest part.
* Hippolyta – Queen of the Amazons, conquered by Theseus who
surprisely weds her. She was presented at the Old Vic in curtain-rise in
menacles in 1960
* Egeus – Hermina’s heavy father
* Hermia – Smallest of the lovers, probably acted by a boy in yester
years.
* Lysander – He and Demetrius are practically interchangeable.
* Demetrius – Lysander calls him rudely a ‘spooted and inconstant
man.
* Helena – Taller of the two girls. She was acted seriously.
* Quinee – Peter Quince the carpenter
* Snug – The joiner.
* Oberon – King of the Fairies with much of the finest verse.
* Titania – Queen of the Fairies, has the key speech
* Puck – Oberon’s attendant
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She is warned against the consequences she will have to face in the
event she disobeys. In desperation Hermia resolves to elope and in the
following night to meet Lysander in a wooded area close to Athens. They
appeal to Helena who is in love with Demetrius about the plan. In the
wood area,
Lysander – Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood, and to
speak troth in the wood. I have forgot our way. We'll rest us, Hermia if
you think it good and tarry for the comfort of the day.
Hermia – Be it so Lysander, find you on a bed. For I upon this bank
will rest my head.
L. - One turf shall serve as pillow on us both. One heart, one bed,
two bosoms and one troth.
H. - Nay, good Lysander, for my sake, my dear. Lie further off yet,
do not lie so near.
L. - O’ take the sense, sweet, of my innocence
- Act. II Sce. III
Goblin Puck and one of the Fairy Queen's train talk of the quarrel
between Oberon and Titania over the boy she had adopted and desires for
a henchman. She refuses to comply whereupon Oberon Orders Puck to
squeeze the flower on the lids of the ‘Atheniun Youth’ While he himself
anoints Titania. But Puck makes a mistake on Lysander who when he wakes
up, persues Helena.
The mischievous Puck gives an ass's head to Bottom, one of the
mechanics rehearsing a play for the wedding of Theseus. Titania wakes up
only to fall in love with Bottom.
Confusion is rampant because Demetrius who has been anointed and
Lysander fight over Helena to Hermia's distress. The only ting left to
do is to get all lovers to sleep and restore Lysander's sight before he
wakes. Oberon releases Titania. Puck removes the ass's head and one
quarrel is settled as the Fairy King and Queen leave before dawn.
Thesues and Hippolyta who had been hunting early morning, wakes the
sleeping lovers and are to be wedded the same day. Bottom who wake sup
and puzzled about what had happened, goes off to find his fellows.
In performance
A favourite play for the stage because of its appeal to youth, there
has been a suggestion that this magical play with some of Shakespeare's
loveliest lyrical verses was written for a wedding because of its
tripartite narrative of Romantics.
I doubt it. This is a story of Mechanicals and immortals which
critics perversly reduce to a nightmare. This has happened to it so much
through the centuries that we are often surprised now to a find a
straight performance.
Stage, as far back as 1662, was the core of Restoration operatic
version. Later, the same version was done to Purcell’s music.
Covent Garden had it in 1840 and Sadler's Wells in 1856 where the
nine year old Ellen Terry was Puck.
Later there were dozens of revivals at the Old Vic, Central London.
At 1937 Christmas, Tyronne Gutheri delighted many people with his Old
Vic Album at Victoria.
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Titania cradled Bottom's head in her
lap and they both dozed. |
Peter Hall tried various versions at Stratford and Bill Alexander's
version for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Back at United States, the
comedy was flying high with its first performance in New York in 1826
with Charlotte Cushman playing Oberon. When it was premiered in 1895,
George Bernard Shaw gave the most scathing comments on the play.
However the continuity of the play, continued gaining popularity
where it was boarded. Numerous later revivals included a spectacular
result in Max Reinhard's at the Century in 1927. New York Shakespeare
Festival too had their version in 1961. And the New York Group Repertory
Theatre mounted a version in 1990.
And Puck's final song for spring:
When daisies pied, and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight
The cuckoo then, on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he, Cuckoo
Cuckoo, cuckoo, O’ word of fear
Unpleasing to a married ear....... |
