The Scrivener: Muddled Marriages In Fairy Time
…Lysander lets them know that Demetrius has been having a bit of a cuddle with Hermia's friend Helena. However, Demetrius has now gone off Helena. Oh, these kids!
It's a bit of a kerfuffle, and some nasty threats are made, but Lysander reminds them "The course of true love never did run smooth"….
Brian Barratt reminds us that Shakespeare’s words are as fresh, funny and topical today as they were centuries ago.
This is the third in a series of five articles about “A Midsummer Night’s Dream’’. There is no better guide to the works of the greatest dramatist than Brian.
To read earlier articles in the series, and more of his columns please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/the_scrivener/
And do visit his challenging Web site The Brain Rummager www.alphalink.com.au/~umbidas/
Rambling through "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - 3
There isn't a pot of tea on the table and there aren't any cheese and lettuce sandwiches, but it's a pleasant domestic scene, and upper class too. Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta are chatting about their wedding, "our nuptial hour", which is only a few days away.
Then this bloke Egeus turns up with his daughter Hermia. He wants her to marry a chap named Demetrius but she wants to marry Lysander.
Lysander lets them know that Demetrius has been having a bit of a cuddle with Hermia's friend Helena. However, Demetrius has now gone off Helena. Oh, these kids!
It's a bit of a kerfuffle, and some nasty threats are made, but Lysander reminds them "The course of true love never did run smooth". That's just one of the quotable quotes from the play — Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
Lysander and Hermia decide they'll break the rules. They're going to run off to the woods, the next night, and elope. Little do they know what else is going on in the woods.
Another couple, Oberon and Titania, are having a row. He's a king, by the way, and she's a queen. Of the fairies. He doesn't exactly welcome her: "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania", says he. Another memorable line from Shakespeare.
Their problem is that Titania has stolen a little boy from an Indian king, and Oberon wants that boy for himself. Evidently this regal couple didn't actually live together. The boy is a changeling, which means "a little changed person" — stolen by fairies from a human family and a sickly fairy child left in his place, or he was half fairy, half human. Whatever the case, Oberon is keen to get his hands on him but Titania won't budge.
Pre-marital mix-ups at the palace and dubious goings-on down in the dark woods. Thank goodness there are a few normal working class folk around. Meet Quince and Snug, who are carpenters; Snout, who repairs the spouts on kettles; Flute, who mends bellows; and Bottom, a weaver. They are planning a gig for the forthcoming wedding ceremony.
Quince organises who will play which role in a little masque about Pyramus and Thisbe. Coming from ancient Greek sources, it's a tale about another young couple and their secret meetings. It is a sort of burlesque tragedy, a strange choice for a happy occasion. (A masque was a short entertainment involving masks, acting, singing and dancing.)
What happens during the hours of darkness might be real; it might be a fairy tale; it might be dreams within a dream. At the end, when the masque has been performed, Theseus announces:
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
What he doesn't realise is that everyone somehow ended up in the woods during that magical midsummer night and have already had their "fairy time". Puck, the mischievous goblin, had confused Oberon's instructions and added some tricks of his own. He offers an apology:
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
The party didn't hear it. They had already gone to bed, perchance to dream again.
© Copyright Brian Barratt 2009
