The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'. Sidgwick Frank
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Frank Sidgwick
The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'
Published by Good Press, 2020
EAN 4064066427092
Table of Contents
1. The Main (Sentimental) Plot of the Four Lovers and the Court of Theseus
Analysis of Chaucer's Knightes Tale
2. The Grotesque Plot: Bottom and the Ass's Head: With the Interlude of Pyramus and Thisbe
The Legend of Pyramus and Thisbe
Robin Good-fellow; His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests
The Hostess's Tale of the Birth of Robin Good-fellow
Of Robin Good-fellow's Behaviour when he was Young
How Robin Good-fellow Dwelt with a Tailor
What Happened to Robin Good-fellow after he went from the Tailor
How Robin Good-fellow served a Clownish Fellow
How Robin Good-fellow helped Two Lovers and deceived an Old Man
The Second Part of Robin Good-fellow, commonly called Hob-goblin
How Robin Good-fellow helped a Maid to Work
How Robin Good-fellow led a Company of Fellows out of their Way
How Robin Good-fellow served a Lecherous Gallant
How Robin Good-fellow turned a Miserable Usurer to a Good House-keeper
How Robin Good-fellow loved a Weaver's Wife, and how the Weaver would have drowned him
How Robin Good-fellow served a Tapster for nicking his Pots
How King Obreon [12] called Robin Good-fellow to dance
How Robin Good-fellow was wont to walk in the Night
The Tricks of the Fairy called Pinch
The Tricks of the Fairy called Patch
The Tricks of the Fairy called Gull
The Tricks of the Fairy called Grim
The Tricks of the Women Fairies told by Sib
The Romance of Thomas of Erceldoune
Reginald Scot - Discovery of Witchcraft (1584)
The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow
A Proper New Ballad, intituled
The Fairies' Farewell: Or God-a-mercy Will
A study such as the present one does not demand any elaborate investigation of the date or circumstances of the first production of the play, unless these throw light on the inquiry into its sources; but in any case it is always well to base a literary study on literary history. Here it will suffice to say shortly that A Midsummer-Night's Dream, first published in 1600, must have been acted before or during 1598, as it is definitely mentioned in Mores' Palladic Tamia of that year. A more exact determination of its date can only be derived from the internal evidence supplied by allusions in the text or by metrical and general style. Such allusions as have been discovered—for example, that reference to "the death of learning," V. i. 52–3—form here as elsewhere a battle-ground for critics of all sorts, but do not really assist us to an answer. More trustworthy testimony, however, is afforded by the general character of the play, and by Shakespeare's handling of his material; these considerations, combined with whatever other evidence is available, have caused the play to be assigned to the winter of