Act 3, Scene 1

Enter the Clowns [QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING]

This scene, whilst comic and entertaining, also addresses some fundamental issues and concerns of sixteenth century (and modern!) theatre.

Read the photocopied handouts and make notes on your copy of the text in response to what you find out. Be prepared to discuss your findings with the class.

We have previously seen the workmen (“clowns”, here, adding to the suggestion that they are here to entertain us) planning a play for the wedding celebration; now they meet in the wood for their rehearsal.

Enter the Clowns [QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING]

How are these theatrical concerns dealt with or explored?

• violence on stage• theatrical representation• audience belief/engagement

Other things to note:

• Bottom’s continued mix-up of language and understanding (“eight and six”/”eight and eight”) (the lion as a “wildfowl”) (“to the same defect”) – this continues as he reads his lines as Pyramus

• “here’s a marvellous place for our rehearsal” – it’s a theatre! The “green plot” is the actual stage; the “hawthorn brake” is the actual dressing room

• Puck’s entrance(s): a director’s choice of folio will affect the staging of this scene and Puck’s role on stage as the mechanicals discuss their business

You have been given a section of the text. Annotate your section with your ideas and comments of significance. Be prepared to share your thoughts with the class.

Things to look for/consider:

• comedy or irony• malapropisms • form and effect (e.g. use of verse or prose)• character and action• any significant use of language

PUCK: What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,So near the cradle of the fairy queen?What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.QUINCE: Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.BOTTOM: Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,--QUINCE: Odours, odours.BOTTOM: --odours savours sweet:So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,And by and by I will to thee appear.

ExitPUCK: A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.

ExitFLUTE: Must I speak now?QUINCE: Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goesbut to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.FLUTE: Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.QUINCE: 'Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak thatyet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all yourpart at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cueis past; it is, 'never tire.'FLUTE: O,--As true as truest horse, that yet wouldnever tire.

Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head

BOTTOM: If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.QUINCE: O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,masters! fly, masters! Help!

Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

PUCK: I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.

Exit

BOTTOM: Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them tomake me afeard.

Re-enter SNOUT

SNOUT: O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?BOTTOM: What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, doyou?

Exit SNOUTRe-enter QUINCE

QUINCE: Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou arttranslated.

Exit

BOTTOM: I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid.

Sings

The ousel cock so black of hue,With orange-tawny bill,The throstle with his note so true,The wren with little quill,--

TITANIA: [Awaking] What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

BOTTOM: [Sings]The finch, the sparrow and the lark,The plain-song cuckoo gray,Whose note full many a man doth mark,And dares not answer nay;--for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolisha bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry'cuckoo' never so?

Bottom and Titania AO2: the comedy of this scene depends on the contrast between the ‘translated’ Bottom, a weaver with an ass-head, and the queen of the fairies, Titania. How does Shakespeare create and highlight this contrast?

TITANIA: I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move meOn the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

BOTTOM: Methinks, mistress, you should have little reasonfor that: and yet, to say the truth, reason andlove keep little company together now-a-days; themore the pity that some honest neighbours will notmake them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.

Bottom and Titania AO2: the comedy of this scene depends on the contrast between the ‘translated’ Bottom, a weaver with an ass-head, and the queen of the fairies, Titania. How does Shakespeare create and highlight this contrast?

TITANIA: I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move meOn the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

BOTTOM: Methinks, mistress, you should have little reasonfor that: and yet, to say the truth, reason andlove keep little company together now-a-days; themore the pity that some honest neighbours will notmake them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.

Incongruity (def: incompatibility) of her perception vs. reality

A perceptive, wise comment. He is not as stupid as he seems.

Informality

Prose versus Poetry

“Methinks, mistress”AO4: Bottom addresses Titania in a way that the audience would recognise as overly-familiar. His attitude should, properly, be one of awe and reverence. Instead, he talks to her informally – giving the audience a sense of danger at his impertinence. This is increased by the fact he wears an ass head.

Significance of the ass head:

• “Ass” and “ass head” were both 16c synonyms for stupidity• It is a visible symbol of this, theatrically effective• The ass was thought of as obstinate, clumsy and ugly• It is a beast of burden, suggestive of Bottom’s low-class status• The pronunciation of ‘ass’ allows a pun on ‘arse’, suggested by Bottom’s name [see essay for more]• Oberon wants Titania to love ‘a beast’

TITANIA: Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

BOTTOM: Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get outof this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.

TITANIA: Out of this wood do not desire to go:Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.I am a spirit of no common rate;The summer still doth tend upon my state;And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;And I will purge thy mortal grossness soThat thou shalt like an airy spirit go.Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!

AO2/AO3: How should Titania be played in this scene? What about Bottom? What does Shakespeare’s language suggest?

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighsAnd light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,To have my love to bed and to arise;And pluck the wings from Painted butterfliesTo fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.

‘to act the role’

AO4: Titania’s four attendants are named after natural medicines. Cobwebs were used to staunch blood. Mustardseed was used in a poultice to soothe stiff muscles. The pea plant supplied oil to relieve the pain of lost love and boiled moths were an ingredient of various plasters and potions.

AO2: Bearing in mind the practical nature of the fairies, consider the way Bottom speaks to them. How does this contrast with the commands given by Titania? What is the significance of this contrast?

“I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good MasterCobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold withyou.” “I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your

mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. GoodMaster Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of moreacquaintance too.”

“Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well: that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now.”

Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,Lamenting some enforced chastity.Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently.

A dark tone? AO2: The meaning of ‘enforced’ is ambiguous – it could mean compelled chastity, such as that Hermia is threatened with, or it could mean the opposite: a violation or rape. This is its usual interpretation. But who is being violated? Bottom? Or Titania?

Why does the moon weep?

AO3: Is it possible to play these lines for laughs?