The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer night's Dream' by Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
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Compiled by Frank Sidgwick >> The Sources and Analogues of \'A Midsummer night\'s Dream\'
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9 THE SOURCES AND
ANALOGUES OF 'A
MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S
DREAM' COMPILED
BY FRANK SIDGWICK
[Duffield & Company Crest]
NEW YORK
DUFFIELD & COMPANY
LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS
1908
* * * * *
"COMBIEN DE ROMANS DU JOUR ET DE GAZETTES AI-JE FERMES POUR ETUDIER PLUS
LONGTEMPS CES ADMIRABLES COMPOSITIONS, IMAGES DE L'ESPRIT, DES MOEURS ET
DES CROYANCES DE NOS ANCETRES!"
_Paulin Paris._
* * * * *
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
Sec. 1. THE MAIN (SENTIMENTAL) PLOT 7
Sec. 2. THE GROTESQUE PLOT 27
Sec. 3. THE FAIRY PLOT 33
OBERON'S VISION 66
ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS 69
NOTES 188
INDEX 194
* * * * *
THE SOURCES AND ANALOGUES
OF
"A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM"
A study such as the present one does not demand any elaborate investigation
of the date or circumstances of the first production of the play, unless
these throw light on the inquiry into its sources; but in any case it is
always well to base a literary study on literary history. Here it will
suffice to say shortly that _A Midsummer-Night's Dream_, first published in
1600, must have been acted before or during 1598, as it is definitely
mentioned in Mores' _Palladic Tamia_ of that year. A more exact
determination of its date can only be derived from the internal evidence
supplied by allusions in the text or by metrical and general style. Such
allusions as have been discovered--for example, that reference to "the
death of learning," V. i. 52-3--form here as elsewhere a battle-ground for
critics of all sorts, but do not really assist us to an answer. More
trustworthy testimony, however, is afforded by the general character of the
play, and by Shakespeare's handling of his material; these considerations,
combined with whatever other evidence is available, have caused the play to
be assigned to the winter of 1594-5. So placed, it is the latest of the
early comedies of Shakespeare, who makes an advance on _The Two Gentlemen
of Verona,_ but has not yet attained the firmness of hand which fills the
canvas of _The Merchant of Venice_ with so many well-delineated figures.
Once arrived at this conclusion, we need not let ourselves again be led
away into vagueness or critical polemics by an attempt to find any
aristocratic wedding which this masque-like play seems designed to
celebrate; such theorising, however interesting in other ways, does not
concern and will not avail us now.
It is none the less of value to recognise at the outset that _A
Midsummer-Night's Dream_ is more of a masque than a drama--an entertainment
rather than a play. The characters are mostly puppets, and scarcely any
except Bottom has the least psychological interest for the reader.
Probability is thrown to the winds; anachronism is rampant; classical
figures are mixed with fairies and sixteenth-century Warwickshire
peasants. The main plot is sentimental, the secondary plot is sheer
buffoonery; while the story; of Titania's jealousy and Oberon's method of
curing it can scarcely be dignified by the title of plot at all. The
threads which bind together these three tales, however ingeniously
fastened, are fragile. The Spirit of Mischief puts a happy end to the
differences of the four lovers, and by his transformation of Bottom
reconciles the fairy King and Queen, while he incidentally goes near to
spoiling the performance of the "crew of patches" at the nuptials of
Theseus by preventing due rehearsal of their interlude. It is perhaps a
permissible fancy to convert Theseus' words "the lunatic, the lover, and
the poet," to illustrate the triple appeal made by the three ingredients
the grotesque, the sentimental, and the fantastic. Each part, of course, is
coloured by the poet's genius, and the whole is devoted to the comic aspect
of love, its eternal youth and endless caprice, laughing at laws, and
laughed at by the secure. "What fools these mortals be!" is the comment of
the immortal; the corollary, left unspoken by those outside the pale, being
"What fools these lovers be!"
The sources from which Shakespeare drew the plots of his three dozen of
plays are for the most part easily recognisable; and although in each case
the material was altered to suit his requirements--_nihil tetigit quod non
ornavit_--there is as a rule very little doubt as to the derivation. We can
say with certainty that these nine plays were made out of stories from
Boccaccio, Masuccio, Bandello, Ser Giovanni, Straparola, Cinthio or
Belleforest; that those six were based on older plays, and another
half-dozen drawn from Holinshed; that Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, Sidney,
Greene, and Lodge provided other plots; and so forth, until we are left
with _The Tempest_, founded in part on an actual contemporary event,
_Love's Labour's Lost_, apparently his only original plot--if indeed it
deserve the name--and finally our present subject _A Midsummer-Nights
Dream_.
The problem--given the play--is to discover what parts of it Shakespeare
conveyed from elsewhere, and to investigate those sources as far as is
compatible with the limits of this book. For this purpose, it is most
convenient to adopt the above-mentioned division into three component plots
or tales; and because these are rather loosely woven together, the
characters in the play may be simultaneously divided thus:--
1. Theseus. The main (sentimental) plot of the four
Hippolyta. lovers at the court of Theseus.
Egeus.
Philostrate.
Lysander.
Demetrius.
Helena.
Hermia.
2. Bottom. The grotesque plot, with the interlude
Quince. of _Pyramus and Thisbe_.
Snug.
Flute.
Snout.
Starveling.
3. Oberon. The fairy plot.
Titania.
Puck.
Fairies.
It may be observed that for these three plots Shakespeare draws
respectively on literature, observation, and oral tradition; for we shall
see, I think, that while there can be little doubt that he had been reading
Chaucer, North's Plutarch and Golding's Ovid, not to mention other works,
probably including some which are now lost, it is also impossible to avoid
the conclusion that much if not all of his fairy-lore is derived from no
literary source at all, but from the popular beliefs which must have been
current in oral tradition in his youth.
* * * * *
Sec. 1. THE MAIN (SENTIMENTAL) PLOT OF
THE FOUR LOVERS AND THE COURT OF THESEUS
"And out of olde bokes, in good feith,
Cometh al this newe science that men lere."
_Chaucer_.
* * * *
I
As the play opens with speeches of Theseus and Hippolyta, it is convenient
to treat first of these two characters. Mr. E.K. Chambers has collected (in
Appendix D to his edition) nine passages from North's Plutarch's _Life of
Theseus_, of which Shakespeare appears to have made direct use. For
example, Oberon's references to "Perigenia," "Aegles," "Ariadne and
Antiopa" (II. i. 79-80) are doubtless derived from North; and certainly the
reference by Theseus to his "kinsman Hercules" (V. i. 47) is based on the
following passage:--
... "they were near kinsmen, being cousins removed by the mother's
side. For Aethra was the daughter of Pittheus, and Alcmena (the mother
of Hercules) was the daughter of Lysidice, the which was half-sister to
Pittheus, both children of Pelops and of his wife Hippodamia."
In modern phraseology, Theseus and Hercules were thus second cousins.
Of the Amazon queen North says:--
"Touching the voyage he [Theseus] made by the sea Maior, Philochorus,
and some other hold opinion, that he went thither with Hercules against
the Amazons, and that to honour his valiantness, Hercules gave him
Antiopa the Amazon. But the more part of the other Historiographers ...
do write, that Theseus went thither alone, after Hercules' voyage, and
that he took this Amazon prisoner, which is likeliest to be true."
At this point we should interpolate the reason why Hercules went against
the Amazons. The ninth (as usually enumerated) of the twelve labours of
Hercules was to fetch away the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, a gift
from her father Ares, the god of fighting. Admete, the daughter of
Eurystheus (at whose bidding the twelve labours were performed) desired
this girdle, and Hercules was sent by her father to carry it off by force.
The queen of the Amazons was Hippolyta, and she had a sister named Antiopa.
One story says that Hercules slew Hippolyta; another that Hippolyta was
enticed on board his ship by Theseus; a third, as we have seen, that
Theseus married Antiopa. It is not easy to choose incidents from these
conflicting accounts so as to make a reasonable sequence; but, as North
says, "we are not to marvel, if the history of things so ancient, be found
so diversely written." Shakespeare simply states that Theseus "woo'd"
Hippolyta "with his sword." Later in the play we learn that the fairy King
and Queen not only are acquainted with court-scandal, but are each involved
with the past histories of Theseus and Hippolyta (II. i. 70-80).
Apart from these incidents in Theseus' life, Chaucer supplies the dramatist
with all he requires in the opening of _The Knightes Tale_, which we shall
discuss in full shortly.[1]
"Whylom, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a duke that highte[2] Theseus;
Of Athenes he was lord and governour,
And in his tyme swich a conquerour,
That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.
Ful many a riche contree hadde he wonne;
What with his wisdom and his chivalrye,
He conquered al the regne[3] of Femenye,
That whylom was y-cleped[4] Scithia;
And weddede the quene Ipolita,
And broghte hir hoom with him in his contree
With muchel glorie and greet solempnitee,
And eek hir yonge suster Emelye.
And thus with victorie and with melodye
Lete I this noble duke to Athenes ryde,
And al his hoost, in armes, him besyde.
And certes, if it nere[5] to long to here,
I wolde han told yow fully the manere,
How wonnen was the regne of Femenye
By Theseus, and by his chivalrye;
And of the grete bataille for the nones
Betwixen Athenes and Amazones,
And how asseged[6] was Ipolita,
The faire hardy quene of Scithia ..."
Egeus, whom Shakespeare makes a courtier of Theseus and father to Hermia,
is in the classical legend Aegeus, father of Theseus; both Plutarch and
Chaucer so mention him.
The name of Philostrate also comes from Chaucer, where, as we shall see, it
is the name adopted by Arcite when he returns to court in disguise, to
become first "page of the chamber" to Emelye, and thereafter chief squire
to Theseus. It is in this latter capacity that Chaucer's "Philostrate" is
nearest to Shakespeare's character, the Master of the Revels.
Of the four lovers, the names of Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena, are of
course classical; Shakespeare would find lives of Lysander and Demetrius in
North's Plutarch. The name of Hermia, who corresponds with Emilia or Emily
of _The Knightes Tale_, as being the lady on whom the affections of the two
young men are set, may have been taken from the legend of Aristotle and
Hermia, referred to more than once by Greene. The name cannot be called
classical, and appears to be a mistranslation of Hermias.[7]
The story of Palamon and Arcite has not been traced beyond Boccaccio, that
fountain of romance, though he himself says the tale of "Palemone and
Arcita" is "una antichissima storia." Possibly the story was taken, as much
of Boccaccio's writing must have been taken, from tradition. Palaemon is a
classical name,[8] and Arcite might be a corruption of Archytas.
Boccaccio's _Teseide_ (the story of Theseus) which was written about 1344,
and may have been first issued wholly or in part under the title of
_Amazonide_, is a poem in the vernacular consisting of twelve books and ten
thousand lines in _ottava rima_.[9]
Chaucer, in the Prologue to _The Legend of Good Women_ (which is presumably
earlier than the _Canterbury Tales_) states that he had already written
" ... al the love of Palamon and Arcyte
Of Thebes, thogh the story is knowen lyte.[10]"
Skeat says "some scraps are preserved in other poems" of Chaucer; he
instances (i) ten stanzas from this _Palamon and Arcite_ in a minor poem
_Anelida and Arcite_, where Chaucer refers to Statius, _Thebais_, xii.
519;[11] (ii) three stanzas in _Trolius and Crheyde_; and (iii) six stanzas
in _The Parlement of Foules_, where the description of the Temple of Love
is borrowed almost word for word from Boccaccio's _Teseide_.[12] Finally,
Chaucer used _Palamon and Arcite_ as the basis of _The Knightes Tale_. By
this time, while he retains what folk-lorists call the "story-radical," he
has reduced Boccaccio's epic to less than a quarter of its length, and
improved it in details. It stands as the first of _The Canterbury Tales_.
ANALYSTS OF CHAUCER'S _KNIGHTES TALE_
Old stories relate that once there was a Duke Theseus, lord of Athens, a
conqueror of many lands. His latest conquest was "Femenye" (once called
Scythia), whose queen Hippolyta he wedded and brought home, accompanied by
her young sister Emilia. Now as he drew near to Athens, a company of ladies
met him in the way, and laid before him their complaint, to the effect
that, their husbands having fallen at the siege of Thebes, Creon the tyrant
of Thebes would not let the bodies be buried or burned, but cast them on a
heap and suffered the dogs to eat them. Duke Theseus, having sworn to
avenge this wrong, sent Hippolyta and Emilia to Athens, and rode to Thebes,
where in full battle he fought and slew Creon, and razed the city. The due
obsequies were then performed.[13]
Amongst the slain were found, half-dead, two young knights named Palamon
and Arcite, whom the heralds recognised, from the cognisances on their
armour, as of blood-royal, and born of two sisters. Theseus sent them to
Athens to be held to ransom in prison perpetually, and himself returned
home in triumph.
So years and days passed, and Palamon and Arcite dwelt in durance in a
tower; till on a morrow of May it befel that the fair and fresh Emilia
arose to do observance to May, and walked in the garden, gathering flowers
and singing. Now in a high chamber of the tower, which adjoined the
garden-wall, Palamon by leave of his gaoler was pacing to and fro and
bewailing his lot, when he cast his eyes through the thick-barred window,
and beheld Emilia in the garden below; whereat he blenched, and cried out
as though struck to the heart. Arcite heard him, and, asking him why he so
cried out, bade him suffer imprisonment in patience; but Palamon replied
that the cause of his crying out was the beauty of the lady in the garden.
Thereupon Arcite spied out of the window at Emilia, and was so struck by
her fairness
"That if that Palamon was wounded sore,
Arcite is hurt as muche as he, or more."
So strife began between the two. Palamon said it were small honour for
Arcite to be false to his cousin and sworn brother, since each had taken an
oath not to hinder the other in love; nay, as a knight Arcite was bound to
help him in his amour. But Arcite replied that love knows no law; decrees
of man are every day broken for love; moreover Palamon and he were
prisoners, and were like two dogs fighting for a bone which meantime a kite
bears away. Let each continue in his love, for in prison each must endure.
Now a duke name Pirithous came to visit his friend Theseus; who being also
a friend to Arcite begged Theseus to let him go free out of prison, which
Theseus did. And Arcite was set free without ransom, but on condition that
his life should be forfeit if he ever set foot again in any domain of Duke
Theseus.
Yet now Arcite found himself in no better stead, being banished from the
sight of his lady; and could even find it in his heart to envy Palamon, who
might still blissfully abide in prison--nay, not in prison, in Paradise,
where sometimes he might see her whom both loved. And on his part Palamon
was jealous of Arcite, who might even now be calling together his kin in
Thebes to make onslaught on Athens and win his lady Emilia.
"Yow loveres axe I now this questioun,
Who hath the worse, Arcite or Palamoun?"
Now when Arcite had for a year or two endured this torment, he dreamed one
night that the god Mercury appeared to him, and said to him, "To Athens
shalt thou wend." Whereupon Arcite started up, and saw in the mirror that
his sufferings had so changed him that he might live in Athens unknown. So
he clad himself as a labourer, and went with one squire to Athens, and
offered his service at the court, where for a year or two he was page of
the chamber to Emilia, and passed under the name of Philostrate. And in the
course of time he was so honoured that Theseus took notice of him, and made
him squire of his own chamber, and maintained him nobly.
Meantime Palamon had lain seven years in prison, when it befel on the third
day of May (as the old books that tell this story say) that, aided by a
friend, he broke prison, having given his gaoler to drink of drugged wine,
and so fled the city, and lay hid in a grove. Hither by chance came Arcite
to do observance to May; and first Palamon heard him sing
"Wel-come be thou, faire fresshe May;
I hope that I som grene gete may,"
and thereafter fall into a study, as lovers will, lamenting his hard fate
that he should be passing under a false name, and daily be slain by the
eyes of Emilia. Whereat Palamon started up, and reproached him, and
challenged him to fight; and Arcite answered him no less boldly, saying he
would bring him arms and weapons on the morrow, as well as meat and drink
and bedding for the night.
So on the morrow the two donned their harness, helping each other to arm,
and then fell a-fighting, Palamon like a wild lion, and Arcite like a cruel
tiger, till they were ankle-deep in blood.
On the same day rode forth Theseus with Hippolyta and Emilia to hunt the
hart, and Theseus was aware of the two knights fighting. He spurred his
steed between them, and cried to them to hold their hands. And Palamon told
him who they were, and why they fought. Theseus at first was angry, and
condemned them both to death; but when the queen Hippolyta and Emilia and
the ladies of their train pleaded for them, he relented, bethinking himself
of what love is, for he himself had been a servant [lover] in his time;
wherefore, at the request of the queen and Emilia, he forgave them, if they
would swear to do his country no harm, and be his friends. And when they
had sworn, he reasoned with them, that each was worthy to wed Emilia, but
that both could not so do; therefore let each depart for a year, and gather
to him a hundred knights, and then return to tourney in the lists for the
hand of Emilia.
"Who loketh lightly now but Palamoun?
Who springeth up for joye but Arcite?"
And thanking him on their knees, they took their leave and rode away.
Royal were the lists which Theseus made, a mile in circuit, and walled with
stone. Eastward and westward were marble gates, whereon were built temples
of Venus and Mars, while in a turret on the north wall was a shrine of
Diana goddess of chastity. And each temple was nobly carven and wrought
with statues and pictures.
Now the day of the tourney approached, and Palamon and Arcite returned each
with a hundred knights.
"To fighte for a lady, _ben'cite!_
It were a lusty sighte for to see."
Palamon brought with him Ligurge king of Thrace, and with Arcite was
Emetreas, the king of India, each a giant in might. So on a Sunday they all
came to the city.
And in the night, ere dawn, Palamon arose and went to the temple of Venus
to pray that he might win Emilia for his wife; and, as it seemed, in answer
to his prayer, the statue of Venus shook, and Palamon held it for a sign
that the boon he asked was granted. Emilia meanwhile went to the temple of
Diana, and prayed to the goddess, that she might remain a virgin, and that
the hearts of Palamon and Arcite might be turned from her; or, if she needs
must wed one of the twain, let him be the one that most desired her. To her
appeared the goddess Diana, and told her that she must be wedded to one of
the two, but she might not tell which that one should be.
And Arcite went to the temple of Mars, and prayed for victory; whereat the
door of the temple clattered, and the fires blazed up on the altar, while
the hauberk on the god's statue rang, and Arcite heard a murmur of
"Victory." So rejoicing thereat he returned home
"As fayn as fowel is of the brighte sonne."
Thereafter in the heavens above strife began betwixt Mars and Venus, such
that Jupiter himself was troubled to quell it; till Saturn (the father of
Venus) comforted his daughter with assurance that Palamon should win his
lady.
That day was high festival in Athens, and all Monday they justed and
feasted, but went betimes to rest that they might rise early to see the
great fight. And on the morrow there were lords and knights and squires,
armourers, yeomen and commoners, and steeds and palfreys, on every hand,
and all was ready.
Now a herald proclaimed from a scaffold the will of Duke Theseus, decreeing
the weapons with which the tourney should be fought, and the rules of the
combat. Then with trumpets and music, Theseus and Hippolyta and Emilia in a
noble procession took their places; and from the west gate under the temple
of Mars came Arcite with a red banner, and from the east, under the temple
of Venus, Palamon with a white banner. And the names of the two companies
were recited, the heralds left pricking up and down, the trumpet and
clarion sounded, and the just began. Sore was the fight, and many were
wounded and by the duke's proclamation removed from the fight; and many a
time fought Palamon and Arcite together. But everything must have an end;
Emetreus gave Palamon a wound; and though Ligurge attempted his rescue, he
was borne down; and though Emetreus was thrust from his saddle by Palamon,
Palamon was wounded, and had to give up the combat and the hope of winning
Emilia. And Theseus cried to them that the tourney was finished, and that
Arcite should have the lady; whereat the rejoicing of the people was loud.
But in heaven Venus wept, so that her tears fell down into the lists; yet
Saturn promised that her sorrow should be eased soon.
And in truth as Arcite rode in triumph down the lists, looking up at
Emilia, Pluto, at the bidding of Saturn, sent from hell a fury, that
started from the ground in front of Arcite's horse, which shied and threw
his rider; and Arcite pitched on his head, and lay as though dead. They
bore him to Theseus' palace, cut his harness from off him, and laid him in
a bed.
Theseus for three days entertained the knights of the tourney, and then all
of them went their several ways. But Arcite lay dying; no longer had Nature
any power;
"And certeinly, ther nature wol nat wirche,
Far-wel, phisyk! go ber the man to chirche!"
On his deathbed he called Palamon and Emilia to his side, and bade farewell
to his heart's queen, commending Palamon to her,
"As in this world right now ne knowe I non
So worthy to ben loved as Palamon
That serveth yow, and wol don al his lyf.
And if that ever ye shul ben a wyf,
Forget nat Palamon, the gentil man."
And his speech failed him, and his strength went out of him: but he still
kept his eyes fixed on his lady, and his last word was "Mercy, Emilye!"
Theseus gave Arcite a costly funeral, and built his funeral pyre in the
grove where Palamon had heard him lament on the morning of May. And when by
process of time the grief and mourning for Arcite had ceased, Theseus sent
for Palamon and Emilia; and with wise words bidding them be merry after
woe, gave Emilia to Palamon, who wedded her, and they lived in bliss and in
richness and in health.
"Thus endeth Palamon and Emelye.
And God save all this faire companye!"
Such is Chaucer's tale of Palamon and Arcite. It was dramatised before
Shakespeare's day by Richard Edwardes in a play now lost. Possibly the play
of "Palamon and Arcite" four times recorded--in for different spellings--by
Henslowe in his _Diary_[14] is Edwardes' play, but as the latter was
performed at Oxford before Queen Elizabeth as early as 1566, it is at least
equally possible that Henslowe's play is another version.
The complete Chaucerian form of the story of Palamon and Arcite is
dramatised in _The Two Noble Kinsmen_, a play to which Shakespeare
undoubtedly[15] contributed. The changes made by the authors--Fletcher and
Massinger or Shakespeare, or all three--are little more than such
limitations as are demanded by dramatic form; for instance, the Kinsmen,
when discovered fighting, are dismissed for a month to find three knights,
instead of being given a year to find one hundred. Chaucer's hint, that
Palamon was assisted to escape from prison by a friend, is developed by the
dramatists to make the sub-plot of the gaoler's daughter. The
character-drawing is far more subtle than the poet's; Chaucer leaves the
reader's sympathies equally divided, despite the fact that he says plainly
that Arcite was in the wrong, because he violated the compact of the two
kinsmen to assist each other in love.
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