A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Act 1 Scene 1
Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants
Theseus’ reference to ‘four days’ is odd, given that the play’s action seems to take place over a single night, with the wedding on the following evening. This difficulty occurs in a number of Shakespeare’s plays, most notably in Othello.
The moon is a recurring image and reference throughout the play. Traditionally associated with change and fluidity, madness, chastity (through its connection to the Greek goddess Phoebe Diana), and femininity, the moon is linked to many of the play's themes
THESEUS
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in
Another moon; but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
Like to a stepdame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man’s revenue.
HIPPOLYTA
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night,
Four nights will quickly dream away the time,
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.
THESEUS
Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments,
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth,
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.
Hippolyta is the Queen of the Amazons, the warrior-women of Greek legend (the stories are inconsistent-- sometimes she is known as Antiopa). According to legend, the Amazons had been defeated by Theseus in battle, and his marriage to Hippolyta would restore peace. Hippolyta might appear as a lady of the court, a warrior, a prisoner, or some combination thereof.
Exit PHILOSTRATE
Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS
EGEUS
Happy be Theseus, our renownèd Duke!
THESEUS
Thanks, good Egeus. What's the news with thee?
Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius all have no lines during Egeus' lengthy speech. They may stand demurely silent, or struggle to remain silent, or they may attempt to speak and be silenced by Egeus, Theseus, or others.
Egeus' accusation links love with magic, a theme which will become literal when the fairies are involved. Desdemona's father Brabantio makes similar charges in Othello.
Egeus' threat is characteristic of comedies, in which the older generation (and fathers in particular) tries to impose its will on the younger
Very early on, Shakespeare establishes high stakes for the lovers: their situation is one of life and death, or else enforced chastity (which Theseus treats as a kind of living death).
EGEUS
Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander. And my gracious Duke,
This hath bewitched the bosom of my child.
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love-tokens with my child.
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth.
With cunning hast thou filched my daughter's heart,
Turned her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious Duke,
Be it so she will not here before your Grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her,
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.
The notion of the father-as-god is an old one, going back at least to Aristotle, and it was a commonplace in Renaissance thought. Aeschylus' Oresteia makes the (highly dubious) argument that the father is the source of life, and the mother serves only as a kind of incubator or oven.
THESEUS
What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid.
To you your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
HERMIA
So is Lysander.
THESEUS
In himself he is,
But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
Another of the play's recurring images is that of eyes, looking, and seeing, and of the ways in which vision can be misleading or untrustworthy.
HERMIA
I would my father looked but with my eyes.
THESEUS
Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
Hermia must negotiate her social status as a woman with the drive of her desire. In the company of Theseus and Egeus, it is inappropriate for her to speak, let alone to contradict, hence she asks for pardon. Nevertheless, she stands up for herself, if only to ask about the consequences of her choice.
The Duke offers a new option here: rather than die, Hermia can choose to become a nun. She must either marry the husband her father chooses, or else give up sex forever. Theseus speaks admiringly of nuns, while also expressing disapproval for preserved virginity. Nuns may be blessed, he claims, but wives are happier.
Theseus compares women to flowers: the woman who marries is a rose distilled into perfume, a process both beautiful and worldly; whereas the virgin is a flower unplucked, which fades and withers, but is blessed for it.
HERMIA
I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your Grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
THESEUS
Either to die the death or to abjure
Forever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires.
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mewed,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice-blessèd they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distilled,
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
HERMIA
So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
Unto his lordship, whose unwishèd yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
Shakespeare follows Renaissance tradition in mingling classical Greek/Roman references with Christian ones: the idea of a nunnery and chastity combines worship of the virginal Diana with the practice of Christian nuns.
THESEUS
Take time to pause, and, by the next new moon —
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me
For everlasting bond of fellowship —
Upon that day either prepare to die
For disobedience to your father's will,
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,
Or on Diana's altar to protest
For aye austerity and single life.
DEMETRIUS
Relent, sweet Hermia. And, Lysander, yield
Thy crazèd title to my certain right.
LYSANDER
You have her father's love, Demetrius,
Let me have Hermia's. Do you marry him.
EGEUS
Scornful Lysander! True, he hath my love,
And what is mine my love shall render him.
And she is mine, and all my right of her
I do estate unto Demetrius.
Lysander's argument highlights the similarity between the two men, who are described as being virtually interchangeable. There may be a point here about the arbitrary nature of love: being in love with someone makes them utterly unique, even when nothing else about them does.
Terence Hawkes suggests that Nedar may be the name of Helena's mother, rather than her father, noting that "Nedar" is an anagram of "Arden," Shakespeare's mother's family name. Helena may also be named after Helen of Troy, whose father was Tyndarus.
Despite being Athens' ruler, Theseus presents himself as subordinate to the law, and thus unable to break or alter it. This tension between inflexible laws and private desires is a major element in a number of Shakespeare's comedies, including The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, and The Merchant of Venice.
LYSANDER
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 boasts can be,
I am beloved of beauteous Hermia.
Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul, and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
THESEUS
I must confess that I have heard so much,
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
But, being over-full of self-affairs,
My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
I have some private schooling for you both.
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
To fit your fancies to your father's will,
Or else the law of Athens yields you up —
Which by no means we may extenuate —
To death, or to a vow of single life.
Come, my Hippolyta. What cheer, my love?
Demetrius and Egeus, go along.
I must employ you in some business
Against our nuptial and confer with you
Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
EGEUS
With duty and desire we follow you.
Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA
Redness and pallor of the cheek are commonplaces of both drama and poetry. Red cheeks denote youth and beauty, while pale cheeks indicate fear or grief.
LYSANDER
How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
HERMIA
Belike for want of rain, which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
Lysander references the traditions of love in poetry and in stories, linking the lovers' current situation to a narrative and artistic tradition. Even as they insist on the genuine truth of their love, they are aware of its scripted and referential nature, drawn from poems, plays, and stories.
LYSANDER
Ay me! For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth,
But, either it was different in blood—
HERMIA
O cross! Too high to be enthralled to low.
LYSANDER
Or else misgraffèd in respect of years—
HERMIA
O spite! Too old to be engaged to young.
LYSANDER
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends—
HERMIA
O hell! To choose love by another's eyes.
It is a commonplace in poetry and drama that the most passionate and intense young love must also be brief and self-consuming. Juliet uses this same image of lightning as a caution during Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene.
LYSANDER
Or, if there were a 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.
Hermia reaffirms Lysander's assertion that true love always meets with resistance. The difficulties the lovers face are, in a way, reassuring, as they confirm the truth of their love.
HERMIA
If then true lovers have been ever crossed,
It stands as an edict in destiny.
Then let us teach our trial patience,
Because it is a customary cross,
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.
LYSANDER
A good persuasion. Therefore, hear me, Hermia.
I have a widow aunt, a dowager
Of 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 law
Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
Steal forth thy father's house tomorrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town,
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
To do observance to a morn of May,
There will I stay for thee.
Hermia loads this speech with conventional images from love-poetry and romantic art: Cupid was the Roman love-god, the child-archer often depicted as blindfolded, and his golden arrows instilled love in those they hit; Venus was Cupid's mother, the Roman love-goddess, whose chariot was drawn by doves.
HERMIA
My good Lysander!
I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burned the Carthage queen
When the false Trojan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke,
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee.
LYSANDER
Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
Enter HELENA
HERMIA
God speed fair Helena! Whither away?
"Fair" meant beautiful, but could also refer to colouring, indicating light complexion and/or blonde hair. The association of lightness with beauty is a common Renaissance trope, and is used in Act 3 to distinguish between the lighter-coloured Helena and the dark-complexioned Hermia.
HELENA
Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching. O, were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
O, teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
Like Hermia's exchange with Lysander above, this exchange is highly stylized, and functions as a duet. Where the lovers' exchange was harmonious, however, this one is conflicting, with Helena remaining unsatisfied.
HERMIA
I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
HELENA
O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
HERMIA
I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
HELENA
O that my prayers could such affection move!
HERMIA
The more I hate, the more he follows me.
HELENA
The more I love, the more he hateth me.
HERMIA
His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
HELENA
None, but your beauty; would that fault were mine!
Hermia's comment is understandable, as Lysander's love has turned her father against her, incensed Theseus against them both, and left with with the ultimatum to marry Demetrius or else choose death or chastity. Nevertheless, the sentiment hardly seems to recommend either Lysander or love itself, capable of turning heaven into hell.
HERMIA
Take comfort: he no more shall see my face,
Lysander and myself will fly this place.
Before the time I did Lysander see,
Seemed Athens as a paradise to me.
O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turned a heaven unto a hell!
LYSANDER
Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.
Tomorrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the watery glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.
HERMIA
And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
There my Lysander and myself shall meet,
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
To seek new friends and stranger companies.
Farewell, sweet playfellow. Pray thou for us,
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
Keep word, Lysander. We must starve our sight
From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
LYSANDER
I will, my Hermia.
Exit HERMIA
Helena, adieu.
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!
Exit
Helena's speech explores the connection of love to eyes and sight, and especially to blindness. Demetrius, enamored of Hermia's eyes, is unable to see Helena's beauty. Love, argues Helena, is not swayed by objective truth or the evidence of the senses, blinded instead by the fantasies of the mind. This contemplation hints at the effects of the love-potion, and especially the fates of Demetrius and Bottom.
The image of "heat from Hermia" suggests an active role on Hermia's part, rather than simply blaming Demetrius for his own infidelity.
HELENA
How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know.
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste:
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.
For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia's eyne,
He hailed down oaths that he was only mine,
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight.
Then to the wood will he tomorrow night
Pursue her, and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.
Exit