1. Our second set of human characters
are a group of amateur
actors, preparing a performance for
a wedding celebration. Their
blundering efforts parody the whole
business of putting on a play.
What roles does Shakespeare give
the craftsmen in the dramatic
comedy of a MSND?
2. The Craftsmen
The craftsmen are described patronisingly by
others. To Robin they are: ‘hempen hemspuns’
(3:1:70), to Philostrate: ‘Hard-handed
men...Which never laboured in their minds till
now’ (5:1:72). When they try to use a wide
vocabulary they mix up their words and their
attempts to write and stage a tragedy are highly
comical, all in a way calculated to amuse regular
theatregoers and urban sophisticates.
Nonetheless we enjoy their struggle with the
demands of drama and we admire their
determination to succeed. What stock comic character do
the craftsmen fit into?
3. The Names
The craftsmen’s names reflect their jobs:
• Quince, the carpenter – would use wooden wedges called quines or
quoins.
• Snug, the joiner – would make snugly tight joints.
• Flute, the bellows mender – suggests a pipe on a bellows-powered
church organ, and also a flute like voice which is not yet fully
broken.
• Snout, the tinker – mends the spouts (or snouts) of kettles.
• Starveling, the tailor – tailors were proverbially undernourished.
• Bottom, the weaver – unwinds the thread from a bottom or reel.
His name may also carry the sense of ‘bottom’ as the sitting part of
the body, which might then tie in neatly with his later
transformation into an ‘ass’. While it is not certain that either of
these words had their modern vulgar meaning in Shakespeare’s
day, Shakespeare’s use of the word ‘ass’ (for example in Hamlet)
does sometimes sound suspiciously as if it has its modern
associations.
4. The Craftsmen
Most of the craftsmen receive little individual character
development. We know that Francis Flute is the youngest, his voice
unbroken, his beard still ‘coming’ (1:2:44) and for these reasons he
is assigned the role of Thisbe. Snug is ‘slow of study’ (1:2:63) so is
made the lion, a role with no (or as it turns out, just a few) lines.
Tom Snout is originally cast as Thisbe’s father, then switches to the
somewhat limited role of the wall. Similarly, Robin Starveling is
switched from playing Thisbe’s mother to Moonshine, where he is
put out by heckling and fails to deliver all of his speech. All four
men look for guidance to Peter Quince, who seems to be not only
the director, but also the author of Pyramus and Thisbe. Since
there is no record of classical plays being acted by workers, Quince
is certainly original in his ideas and he behaves throughout as the
leader of the project, assigning the parts, taking on the
rewriting, directing the rehersals and, not least among his
achievements, flattering Bottom into co-operation. His speech is
always decisive in tone, until he is before the audience at the
palace, where he suffers a loss of nerve and delivers his lines badly
in the role of Prologue.
5. The Play within a Play –
tragedy as comedy
Although not always found in other comedies, one particularly
interesting comic sequence in a MSND is when the craftsmen
perform ‘The Most Lamentable Tragedy and Most Cruel Death of
Pyramus and Thisbe’. Theseus, Hippolyta and the Athenian court
have to watch the performance in which the play is performed so
badly that it comes across as a comedy.
This is a very common technique in dramatic comedy, where
something that is meant to be serious and pretentious is brought
down to earth and made funny by inept acting. The comedy is
futher heightened by the other noble characters commenting on
the action. The play is delivered chaotically – perhaps mirroring the
earlier chaos, although the actors are well-intentioned. The play is
filled with bathos and is a travesty of what a tragedy should be.
Bathos: a key concept in comedy, this means taking an elevated form (such
as tragedy) and descending it into the ridiculous.
Travesty: when something important or crucial is made ridiculous.
6. The Play within a Play –
tragedy as comedy
The play-scene in which ‘hard-handed men’ with little or no formal
education, take on the performance of a classical tragedy, as
written (it seems likely) by Peter Quince has all the makings of
dramatic comedy. They know how tragedy is supposed to go, and
so does the audience (especially the Elizabethan audience): with
high passions expressed in elaborate metaphors, a hopeless
love, and a drawn-out death scene.
Bottom, and his companions, are a little ‘afeared’ of the theatre’s
potential to stir feelings, to convince the audience that what is
happening on stage is ‘real’; so various prologues, explanations, and
interruptions are scripted into the play to reassure the audience.
The play scene is funny because its situation is so familiar to
everyone in the audience: the community recognises its own
passion for drama, and laughs, not in contempt like the on stage
audience, but in delighted acknowledgement of that irrational need
– and of the courage of the actors who would respond to
it, whatever absurdity that may involve.
7. A Task of Two Halves
The Commentary The Performance
• Your jobs is to prepare an • Your job is prepare a
analysis of the performance of ‘Pyramus
language, style and imagery and Thisbe’ that brings out
used in ‘Pyramus and the comedy (think about
Thisbe’ and comment on its your timing of lines). You
role in the dramatic must consider the best way
comedy. to portray the characters
• You must prepare notes on and their performance.
your responses to share • You must perform the scene
with the Performers. to the Commentators.
8. The Commentary - Think about...
The language:
• What does the full title of the craftsmen’s play tell the audience? Why is it comic in itself?
• What features of language use jump out at you? What is the desired effect of these? Look particularly for the features of
classic tragedy.
• How is it written – the rhythm of the lines?
• How is this different/similar to the previous lines of the craftsmen? Why might this be?
• How is the language ornate and grand?
• What is parody and how does this term apply to this scene? Who/what is being parodied and to what effect?
The imagery:
• Make a list of all the animals talked about in the craftsmen’s play. Next to each animal list the associations we have with
these animals. Are any of the animals used to symbolise something in the play?
• Which senses do the craftsmen refer to in ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’? Is this significant?
• What does the moon symbolise? Read the section in the York notes on the symbol of the moon in Elizabethan times (page
51 – there is also a little bit about the imagery of the sense in this section). How does this add to or change your ideas
about the symbolism of the moon in the craftsmen’s play and what Shakespeare was possibly saying with its use?
The role in the dramatic comedy:
• Where do you see the bathos and travesty of the original tragedy?
• In performing a tragedy they are commenting on the affected habits of the nobility – look at the over the top performances
by both Hermia and Helena of the lovestruck maiden (Helena’s soliloquy at the end of 1:1 for example). What similarities
are there between the characters in the craftsmen’s play and the Lovers?
• Critics argue that if MSND was simply a love story, the 5th act would be redundant. Why is this scene in the play, when the
happy ending is achieved in the scene before? What is it’s real job in the dramatic comedy?
• Critics say one reason for its existence is that the staging of the craftsmen’s excruciatingly bad tragedy offers a kind of
counterpoint to the love theme. The deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe, strongly reminiscent of those of Romeo and
Juliet, show how the lovers’ story might have turned out had fate gone against them, reminding us that every comedy could
easily be a tragedy. How does this fit with the conventions of dramatic comedy?
Don’t forget you must prepare notes on your responses to share with the Performers.
9. What roles does Shakespeare give
the craftsmen in the dramatic
comedy of a MSND?
10. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream is
among other things a celebration of
the power of the theatre.”
What roles does Shakespeare give
the craftsmen in the dramatic
comedy of a MSND?
Look out for the blue
clouds linking ideas
from MSND to the
conventions of
dramatic comedy
11. Your role this lesson:
Each pair will have a different question, below. Can you answer it
now?
• ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ offers a kind of counterpart to the love theme.
Explain.
• How does MSND ask the audience to willingly suspend our
disbelief?
• What is metathetricality and how does it apply to MSND?
• What can we learn about the theatre from the Craftsmen?
• What is theatre’s relation to real life? Does it try and convince us
that what we see on stage is really happening, or should it always
acknowledge its artificiality?
• What is Shakespeare saying about his A Midsummer Night’s Dream
audience?
• A Midsummer’s Night Dream is among other things a celebration of
the power of the theatre. Explain.
12. Feedback from
last lesson:
The Craftsmen and The Language of the Play
Read the whole of the final act of the play. Read through these notes, matching the analysis to the lines and
ensuring a thorough understanding of the scene’s role in the dramatic comedy of a MSND.
The Language: As in all Shakespeare’s plays, the characters speak largely in blank verse, with rhyming couplets
used to mark an exit or end of a scene.
The craftsmen vary the tone and rhythm of the play by speaking in prose except in their dire efforts to perform
in rhyming verse, which parody the techniques Shakespeare uses so brilliantly elsewhere. Short, rhymed lines
and alliteration fail conspicuously in ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ because of the formal patterning and the meanings
are at odds with each other.
The craftsmen have previously spoken in the prose fitting of their uneducated characters. In their play their
short, rhymed lines and alliteration fail conspicuously because the formal patterning and the meaning are so at
odds with each other. The use of repetition , “...die, die, die, die, die...”, is supposed by Quince to be dramatic
but loses its impact through Bottom’s delivery. “O...” is repeated throughout as a mark to the dramatic nature
of a tragedy, Peter Quinces’ idea of a tragedy. Bottom’s over-dramatic verse renders Bottom’s portrayal
ludicrous. Over the top acting is funny because it departs too much from realism. The play’s comedy also
comes from the use of oxymoron like ‘monstrous mouse’ and ‘I see a voice’ which are ridiculous.
In their use of the what they suppose to be the language of tragedy and high drama the actors act as a parody;
Shakespeare parodies his own work and art form.
The Imagery: Shakespeare’s many references to the moon and moonlight subtly create a night-time world
where anything may prove possible. There was a long standing belief still current in Elizabethan times
that, while the heavens were as God had created them, perfect and unchanging, the fall of man had made the
area from the moon down to the earth – the ‘sublunary’ world – imperfect and unstable. Hence change, decay
and death could not be avoided in our world, and earthly love, in contrast to divine love, would often prove
unreliable and impermanent. As a symbol of inconstancy and imperfection, the moon is clearly relevant to the
rapidly changing allegiances of Demetrius and Lysander. Quince arranges his rehearsals for moonlight and
Pyramus cannot die until the moon has sympathetically withdrawn from the stage. The nature of the moon is
inconsistent, changing, like love, with the eye of the beholder.
13. Role in the Dramatic Comedy: The comedy is achieved by timing, by ornate and grand language and by the
observational humour of those watching.
Seductive though its ideology and aesthetics are, love is essentially impractical and ridiculous, as the
climatic performance of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ demonstrates.
In rehearsing a ‘tragedy’ they are commenting on the affected habits of the nobility, think of the over-the-
top performance by both Hermia and Helena of the lovestruck maiden. The title of the play seems to
laugh at the behaviour of the noble lovers – ‘lamentable’ and ‘cruel’ are words that might feature in the
self-indulgent complaints of all four lovers.
We see both bathos and travesty in the death sequence. These are meant to be emotionally
draining, tear-jerking and powerful. Instead they are amusing.
Critics argue that if MSND was simply a love story, the 5th act would be redundant. Perhaps then the role
of this scene in the dramatic comedy to remind the audience, with the tragic tale of ‘Pyramus and
Thisbe’, of how the lovers’ story might have turned out had fate gone against them, reminding us that
every comedy could easily become a tragedy. Critics say one reason for its existence is that the staging of
the craftsmen’s excruciatingly bad tragedy offers a kind of counterpoint to the love theme.
These plays are quite light- Shakespeare’s comedies
hearted, but do have some look at the foolishness
darker and more disturbing of human beings.
elements to them.
14. ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’
‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ offers a kind of counterpart to
the love theme. The deaths of Pyramus and
Thisbe, strongly reminiscent of those of Romeo and
Juliet, shows how the lovers’ story might have turned
out had fate gone against them, reminding us that
every comedy could easily become a tragedy. The
pedestrian devices of language and staging employed
in ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ also offer a counterpart to the
theatricality of A Midsummer’s Night Dream itself, for
A Midsummer’s Night Dream is among other things a
celebration of the power of the theatre.
These plays are quite light-
hearted, but do have some
darker and more disturbing
elements to them.
16. The Willing Suspense of Disbelief
Suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of
disbelief is a term coined in 1817 by the poet and
aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who
suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human
interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic
tale, the reader would suspend judgment
concerning the implausibility of the narrative.
How is this relevant to the theatre and to A
Midsummer Night’s Dream?
Create a list of all the times we are required to
suspend our disbelief as we watch A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.
17. Theatre
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play which flaunts its own
theatricality. We are required to ‘believe’ that any number of
things are happening before our eyes when plainly they are
not. Not only can the stage be a palace in one scene and a
wood in the next, but it can become several parts of the wood
at once. Assured that Oberon is invisible and Cobweb tiny
enough to take on a bee in single combat, we behave rather
like the lovers with the juice on their eyes and see what we are
told to see – and we do so despite Shakespeare’s repeatedly
drawing out attention to the trick. When, for example, Quince
points at the stage and says, “This green plot shall be our
stage” (3:1:3), we find ourselves thinking of the stage as a
green plot, then as a stage, then as a green plot again, while all
the time our eyes literally see a stage. When Francis Flute
resists being cast as a women and later when he appears as
Thisbe, we are reminded that Hippolyta, Hermia, Helena and
Titania were not played by woman when Shakespeare's play
was first staged, but by talented young men in ‘drag’.
19. Metatheatricality
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare
allows largely uneducated working men to
take centre-stage and by their earnest
performance show us the
charm, delights, and dangers of the theatre.
Each of the actors in Peter Quince’s play has a
strong concept of what it means to act a part
in the theatre.
Look again at Act 1 Scene 2 when the craftsmen meet to
discuss the play. What are some of their views on what it
means to act a part in the theatre?
20. Metatheatricality
There are multiply theatrical in-jokes in Act 1 Scene 2:
the reluctance of boys to play the female role and the
member of the company who has fallen into theatre by
accident and seems not to know what he’s doing – like
Snug.
When the actors meet for their rehearsal in 3:1 their
discussion immediately focuses on the basic
philosophic problem presented by theatre: what is its
relation to real life? Does it try and convince us that
what we see on stage is really happening, or should it
always acknowledge its artificiality?
The naive performers believe that the audience will mistake their acting
for real life and will be panicked.
Look at 3:1. What problems do the actors foresee with the play? How
do they then seek to make their play ‘safer’ for their audience?
21. Problems and Solutions
Metatheatricality
• The audience might fear the swords could really kill – a prologue is added where they
will explain that no-one is really killed (3:1:13-17). It has been suggested that this fear
reflects violent unrest among artisans during the 1590’s which would have made the
upper classes especially sensitive to a working man drawing a sword in their
presence, but there is not evidence in the play that anyone finds this particular set of
workers alarming.
• They fear that the nobles will mistake Bottom and Snug for a valiant hero and a wild
lion. They place such great faith in their own acting abilities and so little importance on
the willing participation of the audience in the theatrical illusion – there is the addition
of an explanation to the prologue to reassure them.
• How to produce realistic settings and lighting – either attempt to ‘bring in a wall’ and
real moonlight (remember Shakespeare’s theatre had no electrical lighting) – or ‘Some
man or other must present’ them symbolically. The decision that they opt for is to
have actors perform these roles: “Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so; And being
done, thus Wall away doth go.”
We may note from this scene, in comparison, Shakespeare can create a palace and
wood on stage simply by the suggestive power of his language, and can create
patterns of opposition and marrying together throughout the play without the need
of physical walls to make the points clear. Much of the comedy in the final
performance of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ comes from the craftsmen’s perceived fears
that the audience will think what is happening on stage is real and from the
craftsmen’s desire to make the setting real. The audience is amused because they
can’t imagine ever be ‘afeared’ by acting or not following the plot because there is no
physical wall or moon; the craftsmen’s fears seem ridiculous.
22. Metatheatricality
One effect of repeatedly drawing our attention to the artificiality of
the play is to show that it is more than a simple imitation of reality.
If it had been Shakespeare’s goal to simply imitate realism in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream his play would not have contained
fairies, invisibility, magic juice, a man with the head of an ass and
characters from ancient legends such as Theseus himself.
When Robin refers to ‘we shadows’ (5:1:413) in the epilogue he
seems at first to refer to himself and the fairies as nocturnal
creatures, but soon comes to be understood as a reference to the
acting company also. Is he conceding that he and his magical
colleagues are crude imitators of real life like Peter Quince? Or is
he identifying the craftsmen with some of the qualities of the
fairies – dream like creatures who first observe the mortal world
from a distance, then intervene in it? Perhaps his position is
somewhere between the two – hinting that a play is both an
imitation of life and a creative transformation of it which draws
upon those imaginative aspects of the mind which are revealed
during dreams.
23. The Audience’s Role
The epilogue doesn’t furnish an answer but invites the audience to reach
their own verdict. Unlike the characters, we are able to see and interpret
the overall dramatic pattern. In this we are in a similar position to the
Athenian aristocrats when they watch ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’. For their
part, they complacently believe themselves to be spectators at a silly
diversion which has no relevant to their own lives. We, however, know
from our superior vantage point that the Athenian lovers have been in as
potentially tragic situation as ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ and that to some
degree their own behaviour has been scripted by forces they deny: the
fairies.
Could any of this have an application to us? Are we insulated from the
world of the play, on the other side of the stage, in the ‘real life’ in which
art is an imitation; or are we also in some sense characters following a
script? We are certainly not characters in a Shakespeare play, speaking in
beautiful verse, nor are we controlled by invisible fairies, but it can be
argued that our lives too are shaped by forces beyond our control. Some
people may, like the Elizabethans, locate such forces in the stars or divine
predestination, other refer to genetic disposition, statistical probability or
social conditioning, but the effect is the same: “All the world’s a
stage, and all the men and women merely players.” (As You Like
It, 2:7:140). Comedy highlights that human beings
are in fact ridiculous and cannot
change, they confirm our view of the
world.
24. Metatheatricality
Because a MSND does not emphasise explicit discussions about life and art, it is easy to
mistake it for a lightweight entertainment. It does something much more skilful and
satisfying, however by integrating such ideas into the action, so that we see for
ourselves the similarities between theatre and other human experience, and ourselves
become part of the theatrical process.
Peter Quince’s prologue is a noble statement of the enduring work of the theatre:
To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
...Our true intent is all for your delight.
We are not here that you should here repent you.
The actors are at hand; and, by their show
You shall know all that you are like to know.
(5:1:110-117)
All this discussion of the theory of theatre takes place between a group of clowns, not
intellectuals; this fact foregrounds the artistic authority that actors have in the
‘alternative’ world of theatre. We share a sophisticated view of society though the
craftsmen’s performance that the conventional noble or romantic characters are unable
to imagine.
Through a kind of shared dream, mixing common experience and fantasy, Shakespeare
creates worlds which parallel those normally experienced by the
audience, celebrating, challenging, mocking and enriching the lives of anyone prepared
to share in what the epilogue calls ‘these visions’.
25. Metatheatricality
Each appearance by Peter Quince and his
company of amateur actors is a reminder to us
that any play is constructed with difficulty, and
requires not only skilful acting if it is to
succeed, but a sympathetic audience ready to
pay it the right kind of attention. In the case
of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ an audience full of
‘self-affairs’ and actors who lack skill impede
the performance. What is Shakespeare saying
about his A Midsummer Night’s Dream
audience?
26. • What roles does Shakespeare give
the craftsmen in the dramatic
comedy of a MSND?
Your role this lesson: Can you answer it now?
• ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ offers a kind of counterpart to the love theme.
Explain.
• How does MSND ask the audience to willingly suspend our disbelief?
• What is metathetricality and how does it apply to MSND?
• What can we learn about the theatre from the Craftsmen?
• What is theatre’s relation to real life? Does it try and convince us that
what we see on stage is really happening, or should it always acknowledge
its artificiality?
• What is Shakespeare saying about his A Midsummer Night’s Dream
audience?
• A Midsummer’s Night Dream is among other things a celebration of the
power of the theatre. Explain.
