No Fear Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act 1, Scene 1, Page 5 A Midsummer Night’s Dream I must confess that I have heard so much And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof, But being overfull 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. THESEUS I have to admit I’ve heard something about that, and meant to ask Demetrius about it, but I was too busy with personal matters and it slipped my mind.—Anyway, Demetrius and Egeus, both of you, come with me.

I want to say a few things to you in private.—As for you, beautiful Hermia, get ready to do what your father wants, because otherwise the law says that you must die or become a nun, and there’s nothing I can do about that.—Come with me, Hippolyta. How are you, my love?—Demetrius and Egeus, come with us. I want you to do some things for our wedding, and I also want to discuss something that concerns you both. EGEUS With duty and desire we follow you. EGEUS We’re following you not only because it is our duty, but also because we want to. Exeunt. Manent LYSANDER and HERMIA They all exit except LYSANDER and HERMIA. LYSANDER How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale? How chance the roses there do fade so fast? LYSANDER What’s going on, my love? Why are you so pale? Why have your rosy cheeks faded so quickly? 130 Belike for want of rain, which I could well Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.

HERMIA Probably because my cheeks' roses needed rain, which I could easily give them with all the tears in my eyes. 135 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— LYSANDER Oh, honey! Listen, in books they say that true love always faces obstacles. Either the lovers have different social standings— Shakespeare Love Quotes: 50 Shakespeare Quotes On Love You are here: Home / Shakespeare Quotes / Shakespeare’s Love Quotes Read Shakespeare’s Top 50 Love Quotes We have a romantic soul here are NoSweatShakespeare and would like to share our favourite Shakespeare love quotes with you.

The 50 Shakespeare love quotes below are taken from the plays only – if we’d looked into Shakespeare’s sonnets and Shakespeare’s poems we could easily have doubled the list (and may yet do just that!) So, without further ado, here are the all time top love quotes from Shakespeare: Shakespeare Love Quotes 1: Twelfth Night – Act 1, Scene 1 “If music be the food of love, play on” Shakespeare Love Quotes 2: Antony & Cleopatra – Act 1, Scene 1 “There’s beggary in love that can be reckoned” Shakespeare Love Quotes 3: Much Ado About Nothing – Act 2, Scene 1 “Speak low if you speak love” Shakespeare Love Quotes 4: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Act 1, Scene 2 “The course of true love never did run smooth” Shakespeare Love Quotes 5: Much Ado About Nothing – Act 3, Scene 2 “Love goes by haps; Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps” Shakespeare Love Quotes 6: Antony & Cleopatra – Act 5, Scene 5 “The stroke of death is as a lovers pinch, Which hurts and is desired” Shakespeare Love Quotes 

7: Henry VI Part 1 – Act 5, Scene 2 “She’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed; She is woman, and therefore to be won” Shakespeare Love Quotes 8: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Act 1, Scene 1 “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind” Shakespeare Love Quotes 9: The Tempest – Act 3, Scene 1 “Hear my soul speak.

Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service” Shakespeare Love Quotes 10: As You Like It – Act 3, Scene 5 “Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?” Shakespeare Love Quotes 11: Romeo & Juliet – Act 1, Scene 1 “Love is a smoke and is made with the fume of sighs” Shakespeare Love Quotes 12: King Lear – Act 1, secene 1 “I love you more than words can wield the matter, Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty” Shakespeare Love Quotes 13: The Two Gentlemen of Verona – Act 3, Scene 1 “Love is like a child, That longs for everything it can come by” Shakespeare Love Quotes 14: As You Like It – Act 3, Scene 4 “The sight of lovers feedeth those in love” Shakespeare Love Quotes 15: The Two Gentlemen of Verona – Act 3, Scene 1 “What is light, if Sylvia be not seen?

What is joy if Sylvia be not by?” Shakespeare Love Quotes 16: The Merchant of Venice – Act 2, Scene 6 “Love is blind, and lovers cannot see, The pretty follies that themselves commit” Shakespeare Love Quotes 17: Twelfth night – Act 3, Scene 1 “Love sought is good, but given unsought is better” Shakespeare Love Quotes 18: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Act 3, Scene 3 “Cupid is a knavish lad, thus to make females mad” Shakespeare Love Quotes 19: Romeo & Juliet – Act 2, Scene 6 “Come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy, That one short minute gives me in her sight” Shakespeare Love Quotes 20: Hamlet – Act 2, Scene 2 “Doubt that the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move his aides, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love” Shakespeare Love Quotes 21: The Tempest – Act 3, Scene 1 “I would not wish any companion in the world but you” Shakespeare Love Quotes 22: As You Like It – Act 3

, Scene 5 “I pray you, do not fall in love with me, For I am falser than vows made in wine” Shakespeare Love Quotes 23: Anotony & Cleopatra – Act 3, Scene 5 “Her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love” Shakespeare Love Quotes 24: Romeo & Juliet – Act 3, Scene 2 “Lovers can do their amorous rites by their own beauties” Shakespeare Love Quotes 25: As You Like It – Act 4, Scene 3 “Love hath made thee a tame snake” Shakespeare Love Quotes 26: Othello – Act 1, Scene 3 “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, And I loved her that she did pity them” Shakespeare Love Quotes 27: The Two Gentlemen of Verona – Act 1, Scene 3 “Oh, how this spring of love resembleth, The uncertain glory of an April day, Which now shows all beauty of the Sun, And by and by a cloud takes all away” Shakespeare Love Quotes 28: Much Ado About Nothing – Act 2, Scene 3 “I will not be sworn but love may transform me

 to an oyster” Shakespeare Love Quotes 29: As You Like It – Act 3, Scene 5 “Mistress, you know yourself, down on your knees, And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love” Shakespeare Love Quotes 30: As You Like It – Act 2, Scene 4 “In thy youth wast as true a lover, As ever sighed upon a midnight pillow” Shakespeare Love Quotes 31: Macbeth – Act 2, Scene 3 “A heart to love, and in that heart, Courage, to make’s love known” Shakespeare Love Quotes 32: Henry IV Part 2 – Act 3, Scene 2 “For where thou art, there is the world itself, And where thou art not, desolation” Shakespeare Love Quotes 33: Hamlet – Act 3, Scene 4 “You cannot call it love, for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame” Shakespeare Love Quotes 34: Much Ado About Nothing – Act 2, Scene 3 “She will die if you love her not, And she will die ere she might make her love known” Shakespeare Love Quotes 35: As You Like It –

 Act 4, Scene 1 “Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love” Shakespeare Love Quotes 36: Cymbeline – Act 3, Scene 4 “Men’s vows are women’s traitors” Shakespeare Love Quotes 37: Romeo & Juliet – Act 1, Scene 1 “Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof” Shakespeare Love Quotes 38: The Two Gentlemen of Verona – Act 5, Scene 2 “Love will not be spurred to what it loathes” Shakespeare Love Quotes 39: Romeo & Juliet – Act 2, Scene 1 “This bud of love by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet” Shakespeare Love Quotes 40: Love Quotes from Troilus & Cressida – Act 3, Scene 2 “To be wise and love, Exceeds man’s might” Shakespeare Love Quotes 41: As You Like It – Act 5, Scene 2 “They are in the very wrath of love, and they will go together.

Clubs cannot part them” Shakespeare Love Quotes 42: Othello – Act 4, Scene 2 “His unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love” Shakespeare Love Quotes 43: Much Ado About Nothing – Act 5, Scene 1 “What a pretty thing man is when he goes in his doublet and hose and leaves off his wit!” Shakespeare Love Quotes 44: Troilus & Cressida – Act 3, Scene 1 “Is this the generation of love? Hot blood, hot thoughts and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers. Is love a generation of vipers?” Shakespeare Love Quotes 45: Hamlet – Act 4, Scene 7 “Love is begun by time, And time qualifies the spark and fire of it” Shakespeare Love Quotes 46: As You Like It – Act 3, Scene 4 “The sight of lovers feedeth those in love” Shakespeare Love Quotes 47: Othello – Act 3, Scene 3 “Excellent wretch!

Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee, and when I love thee not, chaos is come again” Shakespeare Love Quotes 48: The Merchant of Venice – Act 2, Scene 6 “Lovers ever run before the clock” Shakespeare Love Quotes 49: Love Quotes from Othello – Act 4, Scene 3 “I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip” Shakespeare Love Quotes 50: Love Quotes from Henry V – Act 5, Scene 2 “I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say ‘I love you'” Shakespeare Love Quotes 51: Love Quotes from Henry VI part 3 – Act 3, Scene 2 “I’ll make my heaven in a lady’s lap” Shakespeare Love Quotes 52: Love Quotes from Henry V – Act 5, Scene 2 “You have witchcraft in your lips” Shakespeare Love Quotes 53: Love Quotes from Othello – Act 3, Scene 3 “I humbly do beseech of your pardon, For too much loving you” Shakespeare Love Quotes 54: The Taming of the Shrew

 – Act 2, Scene 7 “Kiss me, Kate, we shall be married o’Sunday” Shakespeare Love Quotes 55: Love Quotes from Much Ado About Nothing – Act 1, Scene 1 “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me” What do you think of the above Shakespeare love quotes?

Let us know at tell us your favorites in the comments section below. If you’re interested in more Shakespeare quotes check out some other relevant articles such as Shakespeare quotes , Shakespeare soliloquys and Shakespeare monologues 78 replies Famous Shakespeare Quotes: Top 50 Shakespeare Quotes Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. ( Twelfth Night ) Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. ( Julius Caesar ) Full fathom five thy father lies, of his bones are coral made. Those are pearls that were his eyes. Nothing of him that doth fade, but doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange. (The Tempest) A man can die but once. (Henry IV, Part 2) How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child! (King Lear) By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap to pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon, or dive into the bottom of the deep, where fathom-line could never touch the ground, and pluck up drowned honour by the locks. (Henry IV Part 1) If you prick us, do we not bleed?

If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? (The Merchant of Venice) I am one who loved not wisely but too well. (Othello) If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes’ palaces. (The Merchant of Venice) We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. (The Tempest) Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. ( Macbeth ) Beware the Ides of March. ( Julius Caesar ) Get thee to a nunnery. ( Hamlet ) If music be the food of love play on. ( Twelfth Night ) As merry as the day is long. ( Much Ado about Nothing ) To thine own self be true. ( Hamlet ) All that glisters is not gold. (The Merchant of Venice) Nothing will come of nothing.

(King Lear) The course of true love never did run smooth. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) Lord, what fools these mortals be! (A Midsummer Night’s dream) Whoever loved that loved not at first sight? (As You Like It) There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. ( Hamlet ) A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! (Richard III) Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day. (Macbeth) Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) The fault, dear Brutus, lies not within the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. (Julius Caesar) Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18) Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. (Sonnet 116) He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus; and we petty men walk under his huge legs, and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves.

(Julius Caesar) But, for my own part, it was Greek to me. (Julius Caesar) Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. ( Hamlet ) The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne, burn’d on the water. (Antony and Cleopatra) Off with his head! (Richard III) Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. (Henry IV, Part 2) Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. ( The Tempest ) This is very midsummer madness. (Twelfth Night) Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. (Much Ado about Nothing) I cannot tell what the dickens his name is. (The Merry Wives of Windsor) We have seen better days. ( Timon of Athens ) I am a man more sinned against than sinning. ( King Lear ) Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust. ( Cymbeline ) This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle…This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

( Richard II ) Famous Quotations from A Midsummer Night's Dream Famous Quotations from A Midsummer Night's Dream Ay me! for aught that ever I could read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. (1.1.132) O, hell! to choose love by another�s eyes. (1.1.140) If there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, Making it momentany 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. (1.1.141) 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. (1.1.183) 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 Helen'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. (1.1.226) The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. (1.2.11) Masters, spread yourselves. (1.2.16) I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split. (1.2.31) This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein. (1.2.43) Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming. (1.2.50) I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you as 'twere any nightingale.

(1.2.85) Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's day. (1.2.89) Hold, or cut bow-strings. (1.2.115) Puck. How now, spirit! whither wander you? fairy Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Swifter than the moone's sphere; And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green: The cowslips tall her pensioners be; In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours: I must go seek some dew-drops here, And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. (2.1.1) 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 quire hold their hips and loff. (2.1.51) Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

(2.1.60) The fold stands empty in the drown�d field, And crows are fatted with the murrion flock; The nine men's morris is filled up with mud. (2.1.96) Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger, washes all the air, That rheumatic diseases do abound: And thorough this distemperature we see The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose. (2.1.103) Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song, And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid's music. (2.1.149) But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft Quenched in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon, And the imperial votaress passed on, In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it, Love-in-idleness. (2.1.161) I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes. (2.1.175) I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania some time of the night, Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamelled skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in. (2.1.249) You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen; Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong; Come not near our fairy queen. (2.1.9) Weaving spiders come not here; Hence you long-legged spinners, hence! Beetles black, approach not near; Worm nor snail, do no offence.

(2.2.20) God shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living. (3.1.32) Look in the almanack; find out moonshine, find out moonshine. (3.1.55) What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen? (3.1.82) Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated. (3.1.124) What angel wakes me from my flowery bed? (3.1.135) Out of this wood do not desire to go. (3.1.159) As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, Rising and cawing at the gun's report, Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky; So, at his sight, away his fellows fly. (3.2.20) Lord, what fools these mortals be!

(3.2.115) So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition; Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart. (3.2.208) Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks, Make mouths upon me when I turn my back. (3.2.237) O! when she's angry she is keen and shrewd. She was a vixen when she went to school: And though she be but little, she is fierce. (3.2.323) ...Night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast, And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger; At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, Troop home to churchyards. (3.2.379) Cupid is a knavish lad, Thus to make poor females mad.(3.2.440) Jack shall have Jill; The man shall have his mare again, And all shall be well.

(3.2.461) I must to the barber's, monsieur, for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face. (4.1.25) I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones. (4.1.32) Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. (4.1.37) I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. (4.1.43) My Oberon! what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamoured of an ass.(4.1.82) I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear... So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. (4.1.118) I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.

(4.1.211) The eye of man 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. (4.1.218) The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, Are 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 forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination, That, if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy; Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear! (5.1.7) What revels are in hand? Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

(5.1.36) A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus And his love Thisbe: very tragical mirth. Merry and tragical! tedious and brief! That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. (5.1.56) For never anything can be amiss, When simpleness and duty tender it. (5.1.82) Out of this silence yet I picked a welcome; And in the modesty of fearful duty I read as much as from the rattling tongue Of saucy and audacious eloquence. (5.1.100) If we offend, it is with our good will. That you should think, we come not to offend, But with good will. To show our simple skill, That is the true beginning of our end. Consider then we come but in despite. We do not come as minding to content you, Our true intent is. All for your delight, We are not here. (5.1.108) Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast.

(5.1.148) The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them. (5.1.215) The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve; Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time. (5.1.372) Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon; Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, All with weary task fordone. (5.2.1) Not a mouse Shall disturb this hallowed house: I am sent with broom before, To sweep the dust behind the door. (5.2.17) If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear. (5.2.54) _________ Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 1 Scene 1 - the course of true love never did run smooth Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 1 From A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. K. Deighton. London: Macmillan & Co. Stage Direction.

Theseus, the great legendary hero of Attica, was the son of Egeus, king of Athens. Among his many exploits was the war he waged against the Amazons, whose queen, Antiope, he, according to one tradition, carried off. According to another, the Amazons, led by Hippolyte, in their turn invaded Attica to avenge the capture of Antiope, when Theseus, having vanquished them, married Hippolyte. 2. apace, swiftly; "at an earlier period the word was written as two words, a pas ... It is also to be remarked that the phrase has widely changed its meaning. In Chaucer ... it means 'a foot-pace,' and was originally used of horses when proceeding slowly, or at a walk. The phrase is compounded of the English indefinite article, a, and the M. E. pas, modern E. pace, a word of French origin" (Skeat, Ety. Dict.). 3. methinks, it seems to me; me, the dative, and the A. S. thyncan, to seem, which is quite distinct from the A. S.

thencan, to think; slow, used adverbially. 4. lingers my desires, delays the realization of my desires; for lingers, used transitively, cp. R. II. ii. 2. 72, "Who gently would dissolve the bands of life, Which fond hope lingers in extremity." 5, 6. Like ... revenue. The picture here is of a widow who for long years keeps the heir out of possession of that portion of his father's property to a life interest in which she is entitled as her dower, and which will be his at her death; dowager is a coined word from another coined word, dowage, endowment, ultimately from the Lat. dotare, to endow, and is equally appropriate to mother and step-mother, though step-dame is here used with special reference to the proverbial harshness of step-mothers to step-children; step-, in composition, is the A. S.

steop, meaning "'orphaned,' or 'deprived of its parent'; so that it was first used in the compounds, stepchild, stepbairn, stepson, stepdaughter, and afterwards extended, naturally enough, so as to form the compounds stepfather, stepmother, to denote the father or mother of the child who had lost one of its first parents" (Skeat, Ety. Dict.). For withering out, Steevens compares Chapman's translation of Homer, bk. iv., "there the goodly plant lies withering out his grace." 7. steep themselves in night, plunge themselves in the gloom of night; with an allusion to the sun dipping below the horizon and so bringing on the night. For steep, in this figurative sense, cp. Oth, iv. 2. 50, "Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips"; A. C. ii. 7. 113, "Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense In soft and delicate Lethe." 8. Four nights ... time; four nights will quickly pass away in dreams. 10.

New-bent, Rowe's correction of 'Now-bent.' 11. solemnities, marriage festivities; as below, iv. 1. 131, 182. 12. merriments, displays of mirth; diversions. 13. pert, lively, brisk; now used only in a disagreeable sense, = forward, saucy. According to Skeat, the M. E. pert has two meanings and two sources. In some instances it is certainly a corruption of apert, F. apert, open, and pertly means 'openly,' evidently; in others it is from Welsh pert, smart, spruce, as here. 14. Turn ... funerals, turn melancholy out of doors, and let it go as an accompaniment to funerals. 15. The pale ... pomp, such a pale-faced attendant is not a fitting one for the festivity of our marriage; companion, as frequently in Shakespeare, used in a contemptuous sense. 16, 17. See note on stage direction above. 18. in another key, to another tune; in a very different way; cp. T. C. i. 3.

53, "An accent tuned in the self-same key." 19. triumph, stately pageant; public festivity; cp. R. II. v. 2. 66, "For gay apparel for the triumph day." 20. duke, from Lat. dux, leader, chief, is in Elizabethan literature a title frequently given to Grecian chiefs, and Chaucer speaks of 'Duke Theseus.' 21. Egeus, a trisyllable, as throughout the play: what's...thee, what is it you have to tell us about yourself? 22. vexation, trouble; the word was formerly used in a more forcible sense than it now has. 27. This hath is the reading of the later folios, and it seems likely that in the reading of the quartos and first folio, 'This man hath,' 'man' was repeated from 1.25: for bewitch'd, Theobald, retaining 'man,' reads 'witch'd': the bosom, the heart within the bosom. 28.

given her rhymes, addressed her in verse; as though the rhymes were a love-potion. 29. interchanged love-tokens, given to her and received from her presents in pledge of love. 31. feigning voice, voice which pretended to be deeply moved by love. 32. stolen ... fantasy, fraudulently made yourself master of the impression upon her fancy, i.e. by impressing his own image upon it. The figure is that of surreptitiously obtaining the impression of a seal to be used in giving validity to a document of possession; fantasy, the older form of 'fancy,' i.e. love, or rather an inclination to love. 33. gawds, ornaments, toys; literally things which please the fancy, from Lat. gaudium, gladness, joy; cp. below, iv. 1. 164, and T. C. iii. 3. 176, "That all with one consent praise new-born gauds": conceits, "presents fancifully devised" (Schmidt). 34.

Knacks, Skeat gives as the senses of the word (1) a snap, crack, (2) a snap with the finger or nail, (3) a jester's trick, piece of dexterity, (4) a joke, trifle, toy; the two latter words being the sense here; cp. W. T. iv. 4. 360, "To load my she with knacks"; T. S. iv. 3. 67, "A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap." The more modem form is the reduplicated 'knick-knacks' = trifles, toys, which is found in Beaumont and Fletcher's Loyal Subject, ii. 1. 126, in the sense of deception, "But if ye use these knick-knacks." 34, 5. messengers ... youth, which are most persuasive envoys to those like my daughter whose tender age is easily impressed. 38. stubborn harshness, sullen obstinacy against my will; harshness is more generally used of the rough treatment of a superior, as in Temp. iii. 1.

9, "O, she is Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed. And he's composed of harshness." 39. Be it so, if it should prove that. 41. the ancient ... Athens, the time-honoured custom which the citizens of Athens enjoy. 42. As she ... her, that, as she belongs to me, I may do as I please with her. 43-5. Which shall ... case, and this disposal of her shall be either marriage with this gentleman, or death in accordance with that law which is expressly applicable to a case of such disobedience. Warburton points out that by a law of Solon's, which Shakespeare may have assumed to be in force even in Theseus' day, parents in Athens had absolute power of life and death over their children; but he also, and more probably, suggests that Shakespeare perhaps neither thought nor knew anything of the matter; Immediately, with direct reference to. Steevens points out that the line "has an undoubted smack of legal commonplace." 46. be advised, listen to reason; suffer yourself to be prevailed upon by advice; cp. Oth, i. 2.

65, "General, be advised; He comes to bad intent"; but the phrase is frequent in Shakespeare. 48. One that ... beauties, one to whom you owe your personal beauty; so 'composition' is used for 'frame,' 'constitution,' K. J. i. 1. 88, "In the large composition of this man." 50, 1. and within ... it, and within whose power it lies to leave the figure (of your beauty) as it is, or to destroy it; i.e. who has power of life and death over you. For the ellipsis of 'it is,' see Abb. � 403. 54, 5. But in ... worthier, but in this particular respect, since he lacks your father's approval, he must be held to be less worthy than Lysander who has that approval. For kind, cp. M. A. ii. 1. 70, "if the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer"; for voice = approval, suffrage, cp. R. III. iii. 4. 20, "And in the duke's behalf I'll give my voice"; J. C.

iii. 1. 177, "Your voice shall be as strong as any man's In the disposing of new dignities." 56. look'd but with my eyes, saw matters only as I see them. 57. with his judgment, as his discernment shows them. 59. by what ... bold, what inward strength emboldens me. 60. Nor how ... modesty, nor how far it may beseem me as a modest maiden; for concern, = afifect, cp. below, i. 1. 126, "Of something nearly that concerns yourselves." 61. In such a presence, in the presence of one so exalted as my sovereign: to plead my thoughts, to give expression to my thoughts in pleading my cause before you; for plead, with a cognate accusative, cp. i. H. VI. ii. 4. 29, "If he suppose that I have pleaded truth." 63. may befall, can possibly befall; for this, the original, sense of may, see Abb. � 307. 63, 4. in this case ... Demetrius, in case I should refuse, etc.

65. the death, the well-known sentence of death passed upon disobedience; for the, expressing notoriety, see Abb. � 92. 68. Know of your youth, interrogate the warm feelings of youth and find out: your blood, the impulses of nature. 69. Whether, here, as frequently in Shakespeare, metrically a monosyllable. 70. the livery of a nun, not merely the dress worn by a nun, but all that is involved in the wearing of that dress; cp. R. J. ii. 2. 8, "Her vestal livery is but sick and green"; Per. ii. 5. 10, "One twelve moons more she'll wear Diana's livery." Of course the mention of nuns in Theseus' time is an anachronism. 71. For aye, forever; cloister, more commonly used for the partially enclosed walk beneath the upper storey of monasteries, convents, colleges, etc., but also for the buildings themselves, or any place of religious seclusion; from Lat.

claustrum, an enclosure: mew'd, confined; a 'mew,' from which the verb comes, was originally a cage for hawks, etc. Cp. R. III. i. 1. 132, "More pity that the eagle should be mew'd, While kites and buzzards prey at liberty." 72. To live a barren sister, to spend your days as one of the sisterhood (of nuns) without any children of your own to gladden your life. 73. Chanting ... moon, with languid monotony offering up hymns of praise to that chaste-cold divinity, the moon. The faint hymns are in contrast with the fervid devotion offered to divinities from whom some warm return of favour might be expected; the moon (personified as Diana, the goddess of chastity) making no return of love to her devotees. For fruitless in this sense, and for an illustration of the passage generally, cp. V. A.

751-5, "Therefore, despite of fruitless chastity, Love-lacking vestals and self-loving nuns, That on the earth would breed a scarcity And barren dearth of daughters and of sons, Be prodigal." 74. that master ... blood, who attain such a mastery over their natural inclinations. 75. To undergo ... pilgrimage, as to submit themselves to a pilgrimage through life uncheered by the joys of love. For undergo, cp. W. T. iv. 4. 554, "if you will not change your purpose But undergo this flight"; for pilgrimage, as applied to the weary journey through life, cp. R. II. ii. 1. 154, "His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be"; Genesis, xlvii. 9, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years"; Hebrews xi. 13, "strangers and pilgrims on the earth." 76-8. But earthlier ...

blessedness, but as regards earthly happiness, better is the lot of the rose whose sweetness is distilled from it than that of the rose which, unplucked, lives a lonely existence, and at length withers away upon its bush; i.e. putting aside the figure, happier, as far as earthly joys are concerned, is the maiden who marries than she who dies unwedded. For earthlier happy Capell would read 'earthly happier,' thus sacrificing the far more poetic reading of the text which emphasizes the earthly character of the happiness to be enjoyed; virgin belongs to rose rather than to thorn; Malone compares Sonn. V, 13, "Flowers distilled, though they with winter meet, Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet"; for thorn, = a tree or shrub armed with thorns, cp. i. H, IV, i. 3. 176, "To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke." 80. my virgin patent, the privilege of remaining unmarried, which belongs to me. 81, 2. Unto ...

sovereignty, to the sway of him to whose unpalatable yoke my soul utterly refuses submission; for lordship, as applied to a husband, cp. A, W. v. 3. 156, "I wonder, sir, sith wives are monsters to you. And that you fly them as you swear them lordship. Yet you desire to marry: "My soul, emphatic; I from the bottom of my soul. For the ellipsis of 'to' before whose, see Abb. � 201. 83. Take ... pause, take time to reflect on the matter. 84, 5. The sealing-day ... fellowship, the day on which Hippolyta and I are to ratify by marriage a bond of everlasting partnership in love; cp. T. N, v. 1. 164, "And all the ceremony of this compact, Seal'd in my function, by my testimony." 87. For disobedience, as a punishment for disobedience. 88. as he would, as he (sc. your father) desires that it should be. 89. to protest, to make solemn profession of; cp. T, G. iv. 2.

7, "When I protest true loyalty to her." 90. austerity ... life, a hendiadys for 'the austerity of a life of singleness,' such as was led by those who devoted themselves to religious seclusion. 92. Thy crazed ... right, the utterly invalid title you set up to the right which is assuredly mine; the original sense of 'craze' is 'break,' 'weaken.' 95. he hath my love, I have given him my affection. 96. my love, the affection I bear to him: render, give; as often in Shakespeare without any idea of giving in return, or giving back. 97. my right of her, the right in her which as a parent I possess. 98. estate unto, devolve upon, as an estate is devolved; elsewhere Shakespeare uses 'estate on,' or 'upon,' as in Temp. iv. I. 85, "And some donation freely to estate On the blest lovers"; A. Y. L. V. 2. 13, "all the revenue that was old Sir Rowland's will I estate upon you." 99.

as well derived, of as noble descent; as frequently in Shakespeare, e.g. J. C ii. 1. 322, "Brave son, derived from honourable loins." 100. As well possess'd, as richly endowed in point of wealth. 101, 2. My fortunes ... Demetrius, in that which I owe to fortune, I am in all respects the equal, if not the superior, of Demetrius; his love is the gift of Nature, his prosperity of Fortune. 103. which is ... be, a matter of greater importance than all these other advantages which I boast; for which used in this parenthetical way, see Abb. � 271. 104. of, by; see Abb. � 171. 105. prosecute my right, follow up the right I have to Hermia. 106. avouch it to his head, boldly assert it to him face to face; avouch, formed from a (Lat. ad, to,) and vouch, to warrant, affirm strongly. 108. her soul, her deepest love; soul, emphatic, as in 1.

82. 109. dotes in idolatry, worships him with foolishly passionate love; to 'dote' is to betray foolishness in whatever way; so we speak of a person being in his dotage when (especially from age) he has lost the power of reasoning. 110. spotted, polluted by perjury; cp. R. II. iii. 2. 134, "Terrible hell make war Upon their spotted souls for this offence." 111. so much as you tell me, i.e. I have heard of his inconstancy. 112. thought, intended: spoke, for the curtailed form of the participle, see Abb. � 353. 113. over-full of, too much occupied: self-affairs, personal affairs; for similar compounds of 'self,' cp. T. C. ii. 3. 182, "self-breath"; Cymb. iii. 4. 149, "self-danger." 114. did lose it, forgot all about it; it completely passed out of my mind. 116.

some private schooling, some words of reprimand to be said in private; cp. i. H. IV. iii. 1. 190, "Well, I am school'd." 117. For you, as regards you; look ... yourself, take care to discipline yourself, prepare yourself; cp. M. V. iv. 1. 264, "I am arm'd and well prepared." 118. To fit ... will, to accommodate your fanciful desires to your father's determination in the matter. 119. yields you up, necessarily gives you up. 120. Which, and this law: extenuate, weaken the force of; in Oth. V. 2. 342, "nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice," the word means to 'palliate'; Bacon, in his Colours of Good and Evil, 7, uses it as here for to 'weaken'; Adv. Learn, i. 2. 3, and Letter of Advice to Essex, as = to 'depreciate.' 122. what cheer, my love? how is it with you? how do you look upon things?

cheer, look, countenance; from O. F. chere, chiere the face, look; so we say, 'he put a good face upon the matter.' 123. go along, come with us; see Abb. � 80; along, from "A. S. prefix and-, ... over against, close to, and A. S. adjective lang, long. The sense is over against in length" (Skeat, Ety. Dict.). 124. I must employ you, I have employment for you. 125. Against, in preparation for; to be ready by the time of; cp. below, iii. 2. 99, "I'll charm his eyes against she do appear": nuptial, frequently used by Shakespeare in the singular, as conversely he uses 'funerals' where we should say 'funeral.' 126. nearly ... yourselves, that closely concerns yourselves; for similar transpositions of the adverb, see Abb. � 421. 127. With duty and desire, with dutiful eagerness. 129. How chance ... fast?

We should now say either 'How does it chance that the roses there do fade,' etc., or, 'How do the roses there chance to fade,' etc. Cp. below, v. 1. 300, "How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover?", and see Abb. � 37. 130. Belike, probably; literally by like, i.e. likelihood. 131. Beteem, allow, permit; literally make or consider as fitting. Skeat (Ety. Dict. 8. v. 'teem') shows that 'teem' is related to the A. S. suffix -teme, tyme, with the notion of 'fitting ' or 'suitable.' "In Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, A.D. 1587, we have 'could he not beteeme' = he did not think fit, would not deign; the Latin text has dignatus, Metam. X. 157. Spenser uses it still more loosely: 'So woulde I...

Beteeme you to this sword' = permit, grant, allow you the use of this sword; F. Q. ii. 8. 19." ... Probably, as the Cl. Pr. Edd. point out, both here and in Haml. i. 2. 141, "so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly," Shakespeare had in his mind a reference to the word teem in the sense of 'empty,' 'pour out,' from Icel. tama, to empty: the tempest of my eyes, the torrent of tears which is ready to pour from my eyes. 132. Ay me! alas for me! for aught ... read, for anything to the contrary that I have ever met with in my reading; so far as my reading goes. 133. by, in the way of; by mens of. 134-40. The course ... eyes. Malone thinks that Milton imitated this passage in P. L. x. 896-906. 135. it was ... blood, there was inequality in the matter of birth. 136. cross! ... low!

O, what a trial that one of higher rank should be the slave of love to one beneath him! cross, cp. R. II. iv. 1. 241, "yet you Pilates Have here delivered me to my sour cross" where, as here, there is an allusion to the figurative phrase of 'bearing one's cross,' i.e. trials, which originated in Christ's being made literally to bear to the place of execution the cross on which He was crucified. So, Galatians, v. 24, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Malone compares V. A. 1136, "Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend ... Ne'er settled equally, but high or low," though he misquotes the end of the latter line. 137. Or else ... years, � or else there was disparity of age; the pair linked together were not suitable to each other in point of years; to 'graft,' the only form now in use, is corrupt, owing to a confusion with 'graffed,' past participle of 'graff.' Shakespeare uses the correct form, as here, R. III.

iii. 7. 127, A. Y. L. iii. 2. 124, and also the corrupt form, Macb. iv. 3. 51. 138. spite! ... young. O sad misfortune that age and youth should be bound by contract to another! Cp. The Passionate Pilgrim, xii. 157, etc., "Crabbed age and youth cannot live together," etc. 139. Or else ... friends,� or else it depended upon, was due to, the choice made by friends; the union had been a matter of negotiation between the friends, or relatives, not a matter of love between the principal parties. 140. hell! ... eyes. O misery that choice in a matter of love should be made by others than those immediately concerned! to choose love is elliptical for 'to make choice of the object of love.' 141. sympathy, correspondency, equality, in birth, years, etc.; cp. R. II. iv. 1. 33, "If that thy valour stand on sympathy," i.e.

if you are unwilling to meet in combat one who is not your equal in rank; Oth. ii. 1. 232, "sympathy in years, manners, and beauties." 142. it, sc. love. 143. momentany, from Lat. momentaneus, as the more modern form 'momentary' is from the Lat. momentarius. 144. Swift as a shadow, sc. in passing away. 145. Collied, darkened; literally covered with coal-smuts, as 'collier' is from the M. E. col, coal, with the suffix -er, and the insertion of i for convenience in pronunciation. 146. in a spleen, in a fit of passion; as though the lightning were endowed with the same feelings as a man; cp. K. J. ii. 1. 448, "With swifter spleen than powder (i.e. gunpowder) can enforce:" unfolds, i.e. from the mantle of darkness in which they were enveloped. 147, 8. And ere ...

up, and before a man can so much as say 'Behold!' it is again swallowed up by darkness; cp. R. J. ii. 2. 119, 20, "like the lightning, which doth cease to be, Ere one can say 'It lightens.'" 149. confusion, ruin; as frequently in Shakespeare. 150. ever, constantly: cross'd, thwarted by circumstances. 151. It stands ... destiny, it (sc. that they should be thwarted) is a decree firmly established by destiny; edict, with the accent on the former syllable, as often in Shakespeare. 152. teach ... patience, teach ourselves, thus tried, to endure with calmness. 154. As due to love, as much a part of, as much belonging to, love. 155. poor fancy's followers, the constant attendants on poor love. 156. A good persuasion, a good belief, doctrine, to hold; cp. Cymb. i. 4. 125, "You are a great deal abused in too bold a persuasion"; M. M. iv. 1.

47, "whose persuasion I come about my brother." 157. a widow aunt, an aunt who is a widow; widow, used as an adjective. 157, 8. a dowager ... revenue, one endowed with a rich jointure; see note on 1. 5. 159. remote, removed, distant; cp. L, L. L. v. 2. 806, "some forlorn and naked hermitage Remote from all the pleasures of the world." 160. respects, regards; cp. i. H, IV, v; 4. 20, "I do respect thee as my soul." 161. may, shall be able; on the original sense of may, see Abb. � 307. 162. sharp, cruel. SparkNotes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Themes, Symbols, & Motifs A Midsummer Night’s Dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Love’s Difficulty “The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander, articulating one of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes—that of the difficulty of love (I.i.134). Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and though the play involves a number of romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the audience from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so lighthearted that the audience never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the comedy without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome. The theme of love’s difficulty is often explored through the motif of love out of balance—that is, romantic situations in which a disparity or inequality interferes with the harmony of a relationship.

The prime instance of this imbalance is the asymmetrical love among the four young Athenians: Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia instead of Helena—a simple numeric imbalance in which two men love the same woman, leaving one woman with too many suitors and one with too few. The play has strong potential for a traditional outcome, and the plot is in many ways based on a quest for internal balance; that is, when the lovers’ tangle resolves itself into symmetrical pairings, the traditional happy ending will have been achieved. Somewhat similarly, in the relationship between Titania and Oberon, an imbalance arises out of the fact that Oberon’s coveting of Titania’s Indian boy outweighs his love for her. Later, Titania’s passion for the ass-headed Bottom represents an imbalance of appearance and nature: Titania is beautiful and graceful, while Bottom is clumsy and grotesque. Magic The fairies’ magic, which brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the play, is another element central to the fantastic atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the almost supernatural power of love (symbolized by the love potion) and to create a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic causes chaos, as when Puck mistakenly applies the love potion to Lysander’s eyelids, magic ultimately resolves the play’s tensions by restoring love to balance among the quartet of Athenian youths. Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own ends, as when he reshapes Bottom’s head into that of an ass and recreates the voices of Lysander and Demetrius, stands in contrast to the laboriousness and gracelessness of the craftsmen’s attempt to stage their play. Dreams As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; they are linked to the bizarre, magical mishaps in the forest. Hippolyta’s first words in the play evidence the prevalence of dreams (“Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four nights will quickly dream away the time”), and various characters mention dreams throughout (I.i.7–8).

The theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt to explain bizarre events in which these characters are involved: “I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream,” Bottom says, unable to fathom the magical happenings that have affected him as anything but the result of slumber. Shakespeare is also interested in the actual workings of dreams, in how events occur without explanation, time loses its normal sense of flow, and the impossible occurs as a matter of course; he seeks to recreate this environment in the play through the intervention of the fairies in the magical forest. At the end of the play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience members themselves, saying that, if they have been offended by the play, they should remember it as nothing more than a dream. This sense of illusion and gauzy fragility is crucial to the atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as it helps render the play a fantastical experience rather than a heavy drama. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Contrast The idea of contrast is the basic building block of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The entire play is constructed around groups of opposites and doubles. Nearly every characteristic presented in the play has an opposite: Helena is tall, Hermia is short; Puck plays pranks, Bottom is the victim of pranks; Titania is beautiful, Bottom is grotesque. Further, the three main groups of characters (who are developed from sources as varied as Greek mythology, English folklore, and classical literature) are designed to contrast powerfully with one another: the fairies are graceful and magical, while the craftsmen are clumsy and earthy; the craftsmen are merry, while the lovers are overly serious. Contrast serves as the defining visual characteristic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with the play’s most indelible image being that of the beautiful, delicate Titania weaving flowers into the hair of the ass-headed Bottom. It seems impossible to imagine two figures less compatible with each other. The juxtaposition of extraordinary differences is the most important characteristic of the play’s surreal atmosphere and is thus perhaps the play’s central motif; there is no scene in which extraordinary contrast is not present.

Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Theseus and Hippolyta Theseus and Hippolyta bookend A Midsummer Night’s Dream, appearing in the daylight at both the beginning and the end of the play’s main action. They disappear, however, for the duration of the action, leaving in the middle of Act I, scene i and not reappearing until Act IV, as the sun is coming up to end the magical night in the forest. Shakespeare uses Theseus and Hippolyta, the ruler of Athens and his warrior bride, to represent order and stability, to contrast with the uncertainty, instability, and darkness of most of the play. Whereas an important element of the dream realm is that one is not in control of one’s environment, Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of theirs. Their reappearance in the daylight of Act IV to hear Theseus’s hounds signifies the end of the dream state of the previous night and a return to rationality.

The Love Potion The love potion is made from the juice of a flower that was struck with one of Cupid’s misfired arrows; it is used by the fairies to wreak romantic havoc throughout Acts II, III, and IV. Because the meddling fairies are careless with the love potion, the situation of the young Athenian lovers becomes increasingly chaotic and confusing (Demetrius and Lysander are magically compelled to transfer their love from Hermia to Helena), and Titania is hilariously humiliated (she is magically compelled to fall deeply in love with the ass-headed Bottom). The love potion thus becomes a symbol of the unreasoning, fickle, erratic, and undeniably powerful nature of love, which can lead to inexplicable and bizarre behavior and cannot be resisted. The Craftsmen’s Play The play-within-a-play that takes up most of Act V, scene i is used to represent, in condensed form, many of the important ideas and themes of the main plot. Because the craftsmen are such bumbling actors, their performance satirizes the melodramatic Athenian lovers and gives the play a purely joyful, comedic ending.

Pyramus and Thisbe face parental disapproval in the play-within-a-play, just as Hermia and Lysander do; the theme of romantic confusion enhanced by the darkness of night is rehashed, as Pyramus mistakenly believes that Thisbe has been killed by the lion, just as the Athenian lovers experience intense misery because of the mix-ups caused by the fairies’ meddling. The craftsmen’s play is, therefore, a kind of symbol for A Midsummer Night’s Dream itself: a story involving powerful emotions that is made hilarious by its comical presentation.

Question: The line 'The course of true love never did run smooth' appears in which of Shakespeare's plays?
Answer: A Midsummer Night's Dream