| I have had a most rarevision. I have has a dream past the wit of man to saywhat dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go aboutto expound this dream. Methought I was– thereis no man can tell what. Methought I was andmethought I had–but man is but a patched fool ifhe will offer to say what methought I had. The eye ofman hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. | Not about a dream, but about love and how there are times that there are no words to describe what love can be |
| Hippolyta, I wooed the with my swordAnd won thy love doing thee injuries | Theseus conquered in battle to win her over |
| Full of vexation come I, with complaintAgainst my child, my daughter Hermia– | Egeus is upset and angry with Hermia because children are expected to obey their parents |
| This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child.–Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymesAnd interchanged love token with my child.Thou hast by moonlight at her window sungWith feigning voice verses of feigning loveAnd stol’n the impression of her fantasy With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits,Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats–messengersOf strong prevailment in unhardened youth | Lysander courted Hermia behind Egeus’ back |
| To you, your father should be as a god, One that composed your beauties, yea, and one… | Theseus is telling Hermia to obey her father because he made her |
| I would my father looked but with my eyes | Hermia wishes her father could see her love for Lysander |
| Either to die the death or to adjureForever the society of men | If Hermia doesn’t marry Demetrius, she either dies or becomes a nun |
| So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord | Hermia says she would rather die than marry Demetrius |
| I am, my lord, as well derived as he, As well possessed. My love is more than his;My fortunes every way as fairly ranked(If not with vantage) as Demetrius’;And (which is more than all these boast can be)I am beloved of beauteous Hermia | Lysander’s saying that he is just as wealthy as Demetrius, he is the same social rank as Demetrius, and Hermia loves him |
| The course of true love never did run smooth | Main idea of the play |
| A good persuasion. Therefore, hear me, Hermia:I have a widow aunt, a dowagerOf great revenue, and she hath no child.From Athens is her house remote seven leagues,And she respects me as her only son.There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;And to that place the sharp Athenian lawCannot pursue us. If thou lovest me, thenSteal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night,And in the wood a league without the town(Where I did meet thee once with HelenaTo do observance to a morn of May)There will I stay for thee. | The plan |
| Demetrius loves yours fair. O happy fair! | Helena is jealous because Demetrius loves Hermia’s beauty |
| O, teach me how you look and with what artYou sway the motion of Demetrius’ heartHelena | Helena wants to be like Hermia because Helena loves Demetrius but Demetrius loves Hermia |
| Lysander and myself will fly this place | Hermia is telling Helena about her and Lysander’s plan to run away |
| Or, if there were sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,Making it momentary as a sound,Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, Brief as the lightning in the collied night,That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth,And, ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”The jaws of darkness do devour it up.So quick bright things come to confusion | Love’s obstacles |
| Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will. | Bottom wants to play every part |
| The King doth keep his revels here tonightTake heed the Queen come not within his sight | Feud/conflict |
| And now they never meet in grove or green,By fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen,But they do square, that all their elves for fearCreep into acorn cups and hide them there | Feud/conflict |
| Thou speakest aright.I am that merry wanderer of the night. I jest to Oberon and make his smileWhen I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, Neighing in likeness of a filly foal.And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowlIn very likeness of a roasted crab,And, when she drinks, against her lips I bobAnd on her withered dewlap pour the ale.The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;Then slip I from her bum, down topples she And “Tailor!” cries and falls into a cough,And then the whole choir hold their hips and loffeAnd waxen in their mirth and neeze and swearA merrier hour was never wasted there.But room, fairy. Here comes Oberon. | Pranks that Robin pulls |
| I’ll met by moonlight, proud Titania. | Not a good greeting |
| To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,Come from the farthest steep of India | Titania is accusing Oberon of leaving India to be with Hippolyta. |
| As in revenge have sucked up from the sea Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, Hath every pelting river made so proudThat they have overborne their continents The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,The plowman lost his sweat, and the green cornHath rotted ere his young attained a beard. | Their fights are causing disharmony in natureCrops are dying, seasons are changing |
| By their increase now knows not which is which.And this same progeny of evils comesFrom our debate, from our dissension;We are their parents and original. | Titania and Oberon’s conflict parallels a conflict in nature (the seasons) |
| His mother was a vot’ress of my order,And in the spicèd Indian air by night Full often hath she gossiped by my side And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands, | Titania and the mother of the Indian boy were friends therefore she believes she should have rights to him |
| Well go thy way. Thou shalt not from this groveTill I torment thee for this injury. | Oberon wants to get revenge and take the Indian boy for himself |
| Having once this juice, I’ll watch Titania when she is asleepAnd drop the liquor of it in her eyes | Oberon is casting a love potion so Titania will fall in love with the first thing she sees when she wakes up, a trick so Oberon can win |
| You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant!But yet you draw not iron, for my heartIs true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,And I shall have no power to follow you | Helena’s love for Demetrius |
| Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?Or rather do I not in plainest truthTell you I do not, nor cannot love you? | Demetrius rejecting Helena |
| I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius, The more you beat me I will fawn on you.Use me but as your spaniel: spurn me, strike me,Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave (Unworthy as I am) to follow you. | Helena is so desperate that she’ll go as far as being treated like a dog to be in a relationship with Demetrius |
| Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.We cannot fight for love as men may do.We should be wooed and were not made to woo. | Helena is saying that he made her like this because he led her on |
| A sweet Athenian lady is in loveWith a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes,But do it when the next thing he espies May be the lady. Thou shalt know the manBy the Athenian garments he hath on. | Oberon wants Robin to cast a spell on Demetrius so that he can fall in love with Helena |
| I mean that my heart unto yours is knit,So that but one heart we can make of it;Two bosoms interchainèd with an oath–So then two bosoms and a single troth.Then by your side no bed-room me deny,For lying so Hermia, I do not lie. | Our two bodies are linked together by the promises we’ve made to each other, so there are two bodies and one faithful vowPun at the end means “By lying down next to you, I am lying” |
| This is he my master said despisèd the Athenian maid | Robin thinks Lysander is Demtrius |
| No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,For beats that meet me run away for fear. | Example of Helena’s low self worth |
| And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.Transparent Helena! Nature shows at, That through thy bosom make me see they heart.Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a wordIs that vile name to perish on my sword! | Lysander falls instantly in love with Helena |
| Who will not change a raven for a dove? | Helena=doveHermia=raven |
| Reason becomes the marshal to my willAnd leads me to your eyes, where I o’erlookLove’s stories written in love’s richest book. | Lysander is saying that he sees a love story in Helena’s eyes |
| Not a whit! I have device to make all well.Write me a prologue, and let the prologue seem tosay we will do no harm with out swords and thatPyramus is not killed indeed. And, for the morebetter assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am notPyramus, but Bottom the weaver. This will put them out of fear. | Bottom wants a prologue to be written so that people know Bottom doesn’t actually kill himself at the end of Pyramus and Thisbe |
| If you think I come hither as a lion, it werepity of my life. No, I am no such thing. I am a man a other men are.” And there indeed let him name his name and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner. | The men in the play think that the audience will actually think Snug is a lion |
| ‘Ninus’ tomb, man! Why you must notspeak that yet. That you answer to Pyramus. Youspeak all your part at once, cues and all.–Pyra-mus, enter. Your cue is past. It is “never tire.” | Everyone in the play is messing up their lines |
| O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see onthee?What do you see? You see an ass-head of yourown, do you? | Robin turned Bottom’s head into a donkey (ass) head |
| I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing againMine ear is much enamored of thy note,So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape,And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move meOn the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. | Titania sees Bottom with the donkey head and instantly falls in love because of the spell |
| Methinks mistress, you should have littlereason for that. And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays. | Love is an unreasonable concept- reason and love are not associated in any way shape or form. |
| This falls out better than I could devise.But hast thou yet latched the Athenian’s eyesWith the love juice, as I did bid thee do? | Oberon is happy that Titania fell in love with Bottom |
| If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleepBeing o’er shoes in blood, plunge in the deepAnd kill me too | Hermia said if Lysander was killed she wants to be killed too. |
| The will two at once woo one. | Lysander and Demetrius love Helena |
| These vows are Hermia’s. Will you giver her o’er?Weigh oath with oath and you will nothingweigh. | The promises you’re making to me (Helena) belong to Hermia. Will you abandon her? If you weighed the promises you made to me against the promises you made to her, they’d come out the same—they both weigh nothing. They’re lies. |
| O spite! O hell! I see you all are bentTo set against me for your merriment.If you were civil and knew courtesy,You would not me thus much injury.Can you not hate me, as I know you do,But you must join in souls to mock me too?If you were men, as men you are in show, You would not use a gentle lady so | Helena thinks Demetrius and Lysander are making fun of her and that if they were real gentlemen, they wouldn’t do this to her |
| Make mouths upon me when I turn my back,Wink each at other, hold the sweet jest up. | Helena thinks they are playing a joke on her because they both love her and not Hermia |
| I swear by that which I will lose for thee, To prove him false that says I love thee not. | I’ll give my life for you, just to prove this guy wrong when he says I don’t love you. |
| I would I had your bond. For I percieve A weak bond holds you. I’ll not trust you word. | Demetrius is calling Lysander out for not being able to keep a promise |
| “Puppet”? Why so? Ay, that way goes the game Now I perceive that she hath made compare | Helena and Hermia are in a feud making fun of each other’s heights |
| Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cava-lery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber’smonsieur, for methinks I am marvels hairy about the face. And I am such a tender ass, if my hair dobut tickle me, I must scratch. | Bottom is getting spoiled by Titania’s fairies |
| Her dotage now I do begin to pity. | Oberon feels bad for Titania now. This shows that Oberon still care about Titania |
| I then did ask her her changeling child, Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sentTo bear him to my bower in Fairyland.And now I have the body, I will undoThis hateful imperfection of her eyes. And, gentle Puck, take this transformèd scalpFrom off the head of this Athenian swain,That he, awaking when the ither do,May all to Athens back again repairAnd think no more of this night’s accidentsBut as the fierce vexation of a dream.But first I will release the Fairy Queen. | Oberon is restoring order |
| My lord, I shall reply amazèdly,Half sleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear, I cannot truly say how I cam here. | Lysander and the others are unable to describe what happened to them reflects how love can be overwhelming and difficult to define completely |
| Dian’s bud | Diana is the goddess of chastity |
| ‘Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. | Hippolyta is intrigued |
| More strange than true. I never may believeThese antique fables nor these fairy toys.Lovers and madmen has such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehendMore than cool reason ever comprehends.The lunatic, the lover, and the poerAre of imagination all compact.One sees more devils than vast hell can hold:That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven,And as imagination bodies forthThe forms of things unknown, the poet’s penTurns them to shapes and gives to airy nothingA local habitation and a name | Theseus doesn’t believe them and doubts themIronic because he is a part of stories that people don’t believeTheseus is saying that people in love do not see things clearly and see things as they want toWriters give meaning to things that are hard to define |
| But all the story of the night told over,And all their minds transfigured so together,More witnesseth than fancy’s imagesAnd grows to something of great constancy,But, howsoever, strange and admirable. | Hippolyta is saying that their story is all the same and there is more to it than Theseus thinks |
| To wear away this long age of three hoursBetween our after-supper and bedtime?Where is our usual manager of mirth?What revels are in hand? Is there no play To ease the anguish of a torturing hour? | Theseus wants to pass time so he can sleep with Hippolyta sooner |
| “A tedious brief scene of young PyramusAnd his love Thisbe, very tragical mirth.”Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow!How shall we find the concord of this discord? | Oxymoron |
| The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse, if imagination amendthem. | The best plays are still only illusions, and the worst are just as good, if you just use your imagination to fill them in. |
| Hand in hand, with fairy grace,Will we sing and bless this place. | The fairies blessed the castle in Athens with all the newlyweds wishing them Happily Ever After. |
| So shall all the couples threeEver true in loving be, And the blots of Nature’s handShall not in their issue stand. | Each of the three couples will always be faithful and in love, and their children will have no deformities. |
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Final~Quote–>Meaning/Analysis
August 22, 2019