MUCH ADOE ABOUT NOTHING
The title of this Comedy broadly describes its character, and is based upon the double meaning of "Nothing." The events that constitute the plot are the result of "note-ing" or overhearing and so taking note of events which are deceptive in some way. Hence, in all the "note-ing" that takes place, there is, after all "nothing," and the whole amusing plot constitutes much ado about nothing. The letter "h" in Nothing was often silent in Elizabethan pronunciation. The "h" in "Moth" in "Love's Labour's Lost" is another example.
Noting or overhearing as a factor of the plot is introduced also in "Love's Labour's Lost." It is one of several links in workmanship with that Play and its use there may have suggested the production of a Play almost altogether built, as this is, on overhearing or taking critical notice such as Benedicke and Beatrice take of each other.
The part of the plot that is based on an already existent story does not develop this noteing element particularly. For that reason it is the likelier that it is a device of Shakespeare's to make up his Comedy.
ACT I
CLAUDIO NOTES HERO WITH FAVOR AND IS NOTED WITH DISFAVOR
The Story of Act I results, on the arrival of the Prince and his suite, in making it known that Claudio has noted Hero as "the sweetest Ladie" that ever he "lookt on." Show how it also comes out in Scene i that a noting of a severer kind has passed between Benedicke and Beatrice. The two kinds of special interest—the openly admiring noting of Claudio, and the captious notice of each other shown by Beatrice and Benedicke, initiate the two channels of action in which the plot will run. The normal sex-agreement of the one pair of characters is varied by contrast with the more unusual sex-warfare that asserts itself humorously both in Beatrice and Benedicke. Bring out pertinent examples of their defiance of love and marriage. What is to be gathered of Hero and her point of view from this Act? How much from others, from little from herself? And how much from her of others? Contrast with hers the witness given of herself by Beatrice. Is Claudio taciturn, too, when compared with Benedicke?
What noting goes on in scene ii? Is it in accordance with what has already taken place between Claudio and the Prince? What additional noting comes out in Sc. iii. Is this in accordance with Scene i or Scene ii? Act I closes with a sense of some confusion which Act II is required to clear up. In addition to the inconsistency, notice Don John's enmity to Claudio, and its menace of disaster.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is the inconsistency of the last three scenes misleading and puzzling rather than alluring to the curiosity of the reader?
Could it be made more interesting on the stage by the way of enacting the part of Brother Anthony?
ACT II
THE PRINCE PLOTS FOR TRUE NOTING AND HIS BROTHER FOR FALSE
Tell the story of the masked ball. What new light is thrown, first, on the characters and, then, on the plot by means of these fragmentary bits of dialogue heard as the revellers pass on and off stage together.
Is Don John really misled as to his Brother's intentions toward Hero?
What does Hero herself think?
Does Don Pedro himself show that he is acting for another—that the god, Love, dwells beneath his visor? The modernized edition spoils one of the references to this office in which the Prince labors for Love and does a labor of love in whose disinterestedness some doubt is expressed. By changing Love to Jove (in II, i, 92) a literal correction is made in accord with the legend referred to, but in entire destruction of the point made by the Prince, if Shakespeare means to adapt the allusion to his special purpose. Note also Benedicke's name for Claudio (II, iii, 34). What is your opinion of this? (See Note on II, i, 91, in "First Folio Edition"). Compare another instance where the Prince shows that he is acting for Cupid (II, i, 358-367). Is Don Pedro the most active spirit in the plot? Show how in Acts I and II, it is made clear that the plot will consist in the prevalence of either a favorable or unfavorable influence upon the happiness of the characters. Who represents each influence?
Notice that the favorable influence in its first action in favor of Claudio's happiness is misunderstood, discounted and disbelieved in several directions. Is Claudio led to distrust of the Prince by others or by his own jealousy?
In the second action of the favorable influence initiated by the Prince, which of the characters share? Does the unfavorable influence work against Benedicke's happiness?
What is Borachio's place in the action of the unfavorable influence?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Noteing or overhearing is itself nothing or has a large element of the deceptive in it. How is it made to work well in Benedicke's case? Is the element of truth the only one that is effective?
ACT III
THE NOTE-ING IS NOTED
Show that the action taking the Story on consists in the "note-ing" already planned being enacted and being noted as true. How does this work with Beatrice in Scene i?
In Scene ii the unfavorable influence makes its preparation to carry on the plot disastrously by the same method. How is this made clear?
In Scene iii the "note-ing" is as effective for evil as that in scene i, is for good. But a counter influence is brought to bear upon it which consists in "noteing" the falsity of the first "noteing." Show how this is arranged and promises to solve all difficulty. But the marriage is shown next to be in active preparation, and then the promise of intervention in time to frustrate Hero's disgrace is in scene v itself frustrated by the bestowal of all Dogberry's "tediousness" upon Leonato and by his own impatience. Show the place in the action of the hurrying on of scene iv, and the tediousness of scene v, and of both on the humor of the Play.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Are the Prince and Claudio justified in the action they propose?
Is the element of chance, which both destroys the falseness of the evidence by means of Borachio's talk, and prevents it from being known by Dogberry's, especially fitting? Why?
ACT IV
HERO IS REPUDIATED AND BEFRIENDED
Does Claudio's demeanor in the repudiation scene betray the violence of love?
What is to be inferred from the Prince's words and those of his bastard brother Don John?
Is it natural for Leonato to be convinced and to know his daughter no better?
Why is the Friar on her side? Notice how the Friar represents the Church as Dogberry does the Law. As institutional forces of civic life, outside the circle of the central group of characters, they intervene in the action of the drama when it is properly amenable to outside influences and civic instrumentalities. And both are brought into the sphere of the Play by a means in sympathy with the artistic method belonging to it. Observe how Dogberry is made humorously to desire to have everything noted down, and how the Friar has come to the conclusion that Hero is innocent "by noting of the Ladie." With the Friar on her side, Hero and her one staunch friend—Beatrice are enabled to follow a policy of resistance to her disgrace and of re-establishment, first, of her good fame and, then, of her happiness. How is this brought about? The share of the Friar in rallying her friends to be loyal, and the share of Beatrice in instituting a counter-movement to the accusation combine to what effect? How does it suit with the scheme of the action that the love of Benedicke and Beatrice here attains its climax?
What does scene ii accomplish for the plot?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is the injection of tragedy at this Fourth Act into the Comedy effective? Does it change the character of the Comedy or merely intensify it?
Does Beatrice ask an unreasonable deed of Benedicke when she says "Kill Claudio"? Suppose it were to prove true, instead of to be prevented as may be already guessed, by the defeat of Don John's false witness and evil influence: Is Beatrice justified in refusing Benedicke if he will not kill his friend because it shows "there is no love" in him?
ACT V
THE DOUBLE WEDDING
The valor and humor of the two old men against the two young ones has especial value in restoring the comic vein. How does this somewhat belated loyalty of Leonato act upon our sympathy with him? Does the forbearance of Claudio and the Prince toward the two men raise our esteem of them or lead to further dislike?
What effect has the mock heroics of their ineffective challenge on Benedicke's earnest championship of Hero? Is the Prince's satiric speech (V, i, 208-209) to be interpreted as complimentary to Benedicke? Notice Claudio's next speech in comment upon it, and explain the implications intended.
What does Leonato mean by blaming Borachio less than the three nobles? How far do you think him justified—the relations of master to man at the time being considered?
Was Margaret to blame? Why did she not make the cheat known? (Cf. V, iv, 5-7 with V, i, 311-314). Is it worth while to spend much time on making all minor details clear?
Is Claudio's consent to a second marriage creditable, natural, or a clumsy expedient which only the entire hollowness of the whole plot of false noting as to Hero renders endurable? Can you imagine any way of acting the part of Claudio that would make it seem attractive?
Do you find it in character at the wedding that one couple says so little, the other so much?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is the ending of the Plot happily contrived in too forced and unreal a way?
Which is the most stirring scheme in the Play and why?
Which is the funniest, and is it possible to say why?
THE CHARACTERS
Does this Play succeed in giving so extremely definite and varied an impression of the characters that it is chiefly notable for that? To bring out this idea of the plot as successful less in itself than because it illuminates the quality and humor of the characters, compare with the "Comedie of Errors" or any of the Plays where events figure more prominently. Show how the events of this Play may be said to be created by the Characters. The Prince and his Brother (and their tools on each side who lend themselves to their plans with Dogberry, the highly unconscious, and the Friar, the highly conscious character) by being what they are constitute the diverse means of influencing the whole turn of events. These persons may all be considered with reference to what they are themselves, in character, and through that, in relation to the other characters of the Comedy.
BENEDICKE AND BEATRICE, CLAUDIO AND HERO
These two loving couples reveal their special characters most vividly by means of their contrasting and supplementary relations to each other. Show how Benedicke and Beatrice do not throw Claudio and Hero too much in the shade by their superior brilliancy, because through the love of the minor couple their own love is enabled to ripen. Is their character heightened or lessened in wit and individual interest by love?
The minor characters: Show how the adversity of the family brings out the heroic element lying unobserved in Brother Anthony of the "dry hand," and kindles his philosophy into something martial.
The merry maids, Ursula and Margaret and their light-hearted parts in the plot.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Beatrice "is a tarter,—and, if a natural woman, is not a pleasing representative of her sex." She "will provoke her Benedicke to give her much and just conjugal castigation," says Campbell. Is he right, and will Benedicke feel so?—or is Swinburne right, who says she is "a decidedly more perfect woman than could properly or permissibly have trod the stage of Congreve or Molière" and who speaks of her "light true heart"?
Is the superficial Claudio worthy of Hero?
Are the faults in the plot of the Play, such as are necessitated by the design of using the characters themselves and their "noting" of one another as the source of events, and, therefore, in the last analysis not faults, a study of their relation to the design leading us, as Hartley Coleridge puts it, never to censure Shakespeare without finding reason to eat our words?
A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME
Having read "A Midsommer Nights Dreame" as a whole, if it be not already fresh in the mind, or, if possible, having seen it acted, then consider more carefully the characteristics of its dramatic structure, studying the plot and progress of the story as it is unfolded act by act, also the sources, the characters, and so forth, as suggested in the following study.
ACT I
THE CROSSED LOVERS
Sum up the incidents and characters introduced in the first Act and ascertain which are most important in influencing the rest of the story.
It may be noticed that Theseus and Hippolyta and their marriage festivities are personages and events which make up a decorative external sort of frame for the whole play, but that the centre of the action takes its start, primarily, from the conflict of Hermia's love for Lysander with her father's choice of Demetrius, and, secondarily, from the clash of Helena's love for Demetrius with his suit for Hermia. Show how the brisk bit of dialogue between Hermia and Lysander (I. i. 141-166) implies the forthcoming plot. For example, it may be shown that 'to be enthrall'd to love' (the first folio reading is love instead of low, which was an emendation of Theobald's,) [Footnote: See foot note in First Folio edition.] and to have 'sympathy in choice' made as 'momentary as a sound, swift as a shadow, short as any dream,' is to be the fate of all the lovers in the play, except Theseus and Hippolyta, and to constitute the substance of the action.
Consider what relation the second scene has to the story. Is it more extraneous to the movement than the scene presenting the Duke and his bride? It is linked to the crossed lovers group, on the one side, by the part the chief of the 'rude mechanicals,' Bottom, is to assume with Titania, although this does not appear in the first Act, and Shakespeare's intention to do something special with this character is only shadowed forth here by its prominence. On the other side it is linked to the ducal group still more superficially, merely by the rehearsal of a piece to be played at the wedding. It may be contrasted with the preparation in 'Hamlet' for a piece similarly played before the Court, but which had a vital connection with the action and characters which is lacking here. Can there be said to be an artistic design, however, though of a more external sort, in the contrast between the Court scene and the rehearsal scene, and the realistic offset the latter scene supplies to the fairy fantasies that are to follow in the next acts? For instance, it may be shown that the merriment the clownish scene provides balances the dignity of the ducal scene. His audience, having put a yoke upon the dramatists by requiring a clown, his genius is betokened here by his making it an artistic advantage.
POINTS 1. 'The ancient privilege of Athens,' I. i. 49. What was the position of the father toward the family in Attica? 2. 'On Dian's altar to protest,' i. 98. Did the service of Diana offer women a respite from masculine dictation? Compare the myth of Iphigenia's salvation by Diana. 3. 'To that place the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue,' i. 172. What Grecian states had laws more lenient to women? 4. What traces can be found in history or legend of the victory of Theseus over the Amazons, and the rise of a new civic order on the ruins of a matriarchate? 5. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe (see Chaucer's 'Legend of Good Women' for an early English use of the story). 6. Explanation of allusions to Phoebe, Cupid, Ercles, etc.
ACT I
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Upon what does the interest centre in Act I? In the marriage of
Hippolyta and Theseus, or the love affairs of the four lovers?
Is Hermia, whose determination not to be forced to marry starts the plot, the best-drawn character in the first Act?
ACT II
THE FAIRIES' QUARREL
Show how in this Act a new agency of a fairies' quarrel is devised and set forth.
Point out how this is made to crystallize in Oberon's scheme for revenge on Titania, and also how, in the course of disentangling their own love-snarl, it is made to develop the conflict between the crossed lovers. This, it may be emphasized, is the second step in the movement, as Hermia's and Helena's love was the first, and these two main factors of the action are taken up together in this act.
Are the other two groups which were introduced in the first act, the Duke's party and Bottom's set, interwoven with the new fairy group in any way in this Act? See if the new fairy element now shows any disposition in the person of Oberon to smooth out the difficulties of the mortals.
Oberon's intentions, however, were one thing, and his deeds another. Through Puck as his instrument, his jealousy at once begins to make matters worse instead of better for the lovers. Notice the delicate appropriateness of Oberon's means of influence, namely Puck and the two flowers, the first being 'Cupid's flower,'—Love in idleness—the second 'Dian's bud,' introduced later to correct the influence of the first. The first flower assists in the development of a plot which is to enact the 'momentariness' of 'sympathy in choice.' The cross-purpose, fostered by Puck's mistake, seems to provide the comparatively grosser sort of merriment for this Act which Bottom and his friends supplied for the first; and the dainty humor and sprightly novelty attending the introduction of the fairies on the scene, the description of their quarrel, and the foreshadowing of the influence they are to have on the next stages of the story, may be shown to occupy the chief place in the plot at this period, the crossed lovers, who predominated in the first Act, now falling into a relatively subordinate position.
POINTS 1. Robin Goodfellow and the traditions about him. 2. Fairies and changelings. 3. The stories of Theseus's loves. 4. Explanation of allusions to nine men's morris, old Hiems, etc. 5. Account of theories as to meaning of references to the imperiall votresse, a little westerne flower, a mearemaide on a dolphins backe, etc. Warburton says the mermaid was meant for Mary Queen of Scots. N.H. Halpin thinks that by Cynthia is meant Queen Elizabeth; by Tellus, Lady Douglas; by the little 'western flower,' Lettice, wife of Walter, Earl of Essex, while Cupid is Leicester. (See "First Folio Edition" for particulars). 6. Explain use of 'Lob,' II. i. 15; 'wodde,' 200. 7. 'The starres shot madly from their Spheares,' i. 159. Look up Ptolemaic system of astronomy for explanation of the idea. Compare "Merchant of Venice," V. i. 71-75, and notes on same in "First Folio Edition" of that play. 8. What is "Love in idleness"? (See Introduction to "First Folio Edition" of "A Midsommer Nights Dreame" for references to this flower in Chaucer's poem of "The Flower and the Leaf.") Compare "The Taming of the Shrew," I. i. 156. 9. What are "Cankers" in the musk rosebuds? II. ii. 4.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is it probable that the various passages in this act said to allude to current incidents were so intended? In that case what effect do they have upon the beauty of a Play set in Athens?
Is the interest of this Act a divided one?
ACT III
CROSS-EFFECTS OF OBERON'S SPELL
Analyze the scenes constituting this Act. Observe that scene i. takes up Bottom and his fellows, the group not as yet brought into relation with the fairy group, and initiates them in the magic of fairy land by means of the new but appropriate head Puck bestows upon Bottom. Why is Bottom picked out for this favor? The 'ass-head' as a symbolic piece of stage furniture. Show how this transformation makes the mismating of Titania with Bottom more gross and obvious to the audience; also how this is the next direct effect of Oberon's revenge.
Notice that scene ii. takes up the cross-effect already worked upon Lysander by Puck's mistake, instead of on Demetrius, as Oberon intended, and sets forth its further effects upon Helena and Hermia. The dialogues between the two pairs of lovers now overheard by Oberon makes the error clear, and so enables him to take the first step in clearing up the tangle. Meantime, the poet and his audience agree with Puck that they are so far 'glad it so did sort, As this their jangling' is esteemed 'a sport.'
POINTS 1. Explain 'It shall be written in eight and sixe,' III. i. 23-4. 2. The custom in Shakespeare's day as to the women's parts. Would it have been as amusing to the audience then as it would be to us when Quince says 'Robin Starveling, you play Thisbies mother'? 3. Pyramus and Thisbe. This may have been derived from Ovid, or from Chaucer's "Legend of Good Women," or C. Robinson's "Handful of Pleasant Delights." (1504.) 4. Explain 'Two of the first like coats in heraldry,' III. ii. 220. 5. Describe the personal appearance of the heroines from the references made.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is Puck or Bottom the presiding genius of this act?
Does the jangling between the two women belittle them as heroines, and is it, therefore, a blot upon the beauty of the play?
ACT IV
HARMONIZING EFFECTS OF OBERON'S SPELL
Trace throughout this act the smoothing-out process.
Why does Oberon himself release Titania while Puck is made to minister to the other victims of the charm? Is Oberon's explanation of the Fairy Queen's sudden change of heart about the changeling quite satisfactory, or does it simply appear so by a sort of artistic sleight-of-hand characteristic of Shakespeare in small touches at the close of a plot?
Show how poetically suitable as a stage effect the entry of Theseus and his huntsmen is,—shedding the first rays of morning on the night-enchanted lovers.
Why is Bottom made to waken last? Perhaps because he helps to denote the prose of broad daylight. Show what relation scene ii. has to the completion of the smoothing-out process.
POINTS. 1. 'I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,' IV. i. 126. What relation had Hippolyta to these Greek heroes? 2. Account of May-day rites. 3. Traditions of St. Valentine. 4. Rites of Midsummer Eve.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Why is the choice of Hermia's father for her no longer supported by the Duke? Does this imply a criticism on the inconsistency of allowing men their choice, and their brides none, with which Shakespeare was in sympathy, or is this only apparent to some modern minds?
ACT V
THE THREEFOLD MASK
If the central action of the play be considered as virtually concluded with the fourth Act, what office is performed by the fifth Act?
Notice that in it the three groups of characters constituting the play—the court group with the lovers; the 'rude mechanicals' and their 'tedious brief scene,' and the fairy train—are in this Act all brought upon the stage, the whole spectacle being set in the palace at Athens, in celebration of the wedding festivities of the ducal pair, which, as before noticed, is used as a sort of decorative frame for the play as a whole.
Examine the working-out of this unified presentation of all the personages. How are we to account for the silence of the women who were made to do so much towards the institution of the action? Show the poetic reasons for the entrance of Puck and the fairies last of all, and when the stage is empty.
POINTS. 1. Explanation of all mythical allusions. 2. Account of theories as to meaning of 'The thrice three muses,' etc., V. i. 59. 3. What is a 'Bergomask dance'? 4. The date and occasion of the play: This play appears in Meres's list of 1598 and in the Quartos of 1600. Titania's description of the unseasonable weather (II. i. 92, foll.) may refer to the year 1594. Note that Chaucer in the 'Knight's Tale' speaks of the tempest at Hippolyta's home-coming. Many critics have believed that the play was written on the occasion of some marriage in high life, but they do not agree as to whose it was.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Upon what does the interest of the last Act centre? How does the ending suit the various threads of the Play?
Is Theseus or Hippolyta the wiser critic of 'the story of the night'; and which of them is the wiser critic of the play of Pyramus and Thisbe?
SOURCES OF THE PLAY
1. WHERE SHAKESPEARE FOUND SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS MORTALS
In Plutarch's 'Life of Theseus' will be found passages which furnished Shakespeare with some points for his drama. Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale' is also said to have given him material. The editor of the "First Folio Edition" suggests in the introduction that a reading by Shakespeare of a poem in his day supposed to be Chaucer's, 'The Flower and the Leaf,' gave him an important hint for his plot. Examine for yourself, and state what indebtedness you find in any of these sources. In I. i. 20, Theseus says to Hippolyta, 'I woo'd thee with my sword.' Compare this with the account given in Chaucer. According to another version of the story Hercules gave Hippolyta to his kinsman Theseus in marriage. Compare 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' and the 'Knight's Tale' with Shakespeare's 'Dreame.'
2. WHERE SHAKESPEARE FOUND SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS FAIRIES
The models in literature from which Shakespeare drew may have been 'Huon of Bordeaux,' where he got little, however, but the name Oberon. The name Titania may have been derived from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses.' The Fairy Queen in Shakespeare's day usually went by the name of Queen Mab. Puck's characteristics seem to have been derived from the little tract of 'Robin Goodfellow, His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests.' Rolfe, in the notes to his edition of the play, says that White argues that this was probably written after "A Midsommer Nights Dreame." Ward thinks that the entire machinery of Oberon and his court may have been derived from Greene's 'Scottish History of James IV,' and that Titania may have been suggested by Chaucer's 'Wife of Bath's Tale.' He probably owed his fairies in great measure to tradition or folk-lore. The folk-lore of England was originally made up of Teutonic elements, which have been modified by Danish and Norman invasions, by remnants of old Keltic belief, and by the introduction of Christianity, which last degraded the good fairies into mischievous elves. (See Hazlitt, 'Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare,' Halliwell's 'Illustrations of the Fairy Mythology of Midsummer Night's Dream,' also Poet-Lore, April, 1891, 'Fairy-lore in Midsummer Night's Dream.')
3. SOLAR ORIGIN OF THE FAIRIES
According to some authorities the Teutonic mythology was of cosmic origin. In the fairies may be seen many reflections of cosmic characteristics. Oberon and Titania are fairies of the night, and the old battle between light and darkness shows itself in the mad pranks which they play on unsuspecting mortals. But as the daylight comes they are obliged to flee. Puck reflects the characteristics of a wind god. (See Cox, 'Myths of the Aryan Nations;' also Korner, 'Solar Myths in Midsummer Night's Dream,' Poet-Lore, Jan., 1891). Compare his character with that of Hermes in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (Shelley's Translation).
SYMPOSIUM OF OPINION ON THE CHARACTERS
1. THE LOVERS
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
1. Hermia and Helena are hardly worth considering, but if anything Helena is to be preferred to Hermia because she is so humble, and shows no sign of jealousy of Hermia. 2. If Hermia had been more dignified when she found that both the lovers had turned their attention to Helena, she would better have carried out the promise of her character in the first Act when she declared she would rather die than wed the man chosen by her father.
2. HIPPOLYTA AND THESEUS
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
1. The only indication we have of the character of Hippolyta is in the last act, where she is so bored by the play of 'Pyramus and Thisbe.' Does this show stupidity on her part or exceptional development? 2. Do you agree with Dowden that there is no figure in the early drama of Shakespeare so magnificent as Theseus? His insistence in Act I. that Hermia should obey her father against her own inclinations is certainly not very praiseworthy, but might be excused on the score of the times in which he lived. 3. His complaisance toward Quince and his companions has been considered an indication that he was a most perfect gentleman; does he not rather conceitedly patronize them?
3. THE FAIRIES
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
1. Have the Fairies any idea of morality? 2. Oberon was perfectly justified in wishing to get the changeling from his wife, and shows himself worthy of becoming a mortal for insisting on his rights as a husband. 3. Titania is the most developed woman character in the play, because she insists on her individual right to the changeling. 4. Is Puck a more developed fairy than Ariel in 'The Tempest'?
4. THE PLAYERS
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
1. Is Shakespeare making fun of the stupidity of Quince and his companions, or is he gently satirizing the stage and the exaggerated style of writing for the stage which prevailed at this time? 2. If the last is true, is not Shakespeare in the last act making fun of the audience, as well as of the players, who with a superior air pass judgment upon the play and indulge in very lame wit, while the real meaning of it quite escapes them.
SYMPOSIUM OF OPINION ON FAVORITE PASSAGES
Every member of the class or club should bring in a short paper giving his favorite passage in the play and why he likes it, including his criticism of the metre, of the metaphors and similes, and the thought contained.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
1. Which characters in the play are original with Shakespeare? 2. What is to be thought of Shakespeare for bringing together in one play Greek mythology, English folk-lore, and English workmen of his own age? Does this commixture of elements make the Play seem unnatural or incongruous? Has he skilfully harmonised these diverse elements by giving the Play its dream-like character? 3. That this play is charming cannot be disputed. Is its chief charm its humor, its fancy, its dramatic construction, or subtle developments of character?
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Sufficiently indirect use of contemporary political events in a Play was a cause of popularity without seeming dangerous to the State.
As "Love's Labour's Lost" is an early example of a plot woven out of masked allusions to current topics, so even as definitely plotted a comedy as "The Merchant of Venice" here and there worked in an animating shred of contemporary reference.
After Dr. Roderigo Lopez, the Queen's physician, was accused by Don Antonio of Portugal, and executed June 7, 1594, on the charge of being bribed by the King of Spain to poison Queen Elizabeth, the story of a Shylock's defeat and the rescue from his clutches of an Anthonio had just enough relevance to be popular without definiteness enough to be obtrusive.
ACT I
SHYLOCK'S "MERRIE BOND"
Why is Anthonio sad? Is it presentiment? Is it, despite his unselfish willingness to furnish forth Bassanio to sue at Belmont for Portia, some sense of loss in friendship through this love? Anthonio and Bassanio may be considered as examples of that devoted friendship illustrated by Valentine's feelings towards Protheus in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona."
The group of young and gay courtiers circling about the two friends bring them into brighter relief.
Unlike Protheus, though perhaps younger and less wrapped up in the sense of friendship than Anthonio is, Bassanio is worthy of such regard. Do the "faire speechless messages" he has received from Portia's eyes and his praise of her as "nothing undervalued to Brutus's Portia" tell the cause of his quest better than what is said of her wealth? Notice that even what he says of that is as a mere grace of her person: "her sunny locks Hang on her temples," etc. (I. i. 177-181).
What reasons had Shylock for hating Anthonio?
Does Anthonio's demand that he lend the money to him as an enemy justify the terms of the bond?
Is Bassanio right in distrusting, and wrong in accepting such a bond?
The long pedigree of Jewish and Christian antipathy and its illustration in this bond by the characters that are its exemplars.
What is to be gathered of Portia in this Act before she meets again with Bassanio?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Are Anthonio and Shylock more individual than typical?
Does the Act close with assurance of good luck or foreboding of bad?
Is Bassanio a fortune hunter?
Is he to blame for what follows?
ACT II
PORTIA'S CASKETS
Why is Jessica's story intertwined with Portia's? What dramatic purposes does it serve? Are Jessica and Launce alike justified in leaving Shylock? Why? (See Introduction to the Play in First Folio Edition for suggestion). Is the Jew's lament for his daughter although piteous, inadequate.
Is the choice of the gold and the silver by the Moor and Spaniard significant of their natures?
What reason is there to find in the symbolism and the persuasion to choice each suitor employs that Portia's father has used the wisdom of a seer in prescribing the choice from the three caskets?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Do you like Jessica? Why? In what ways are Portia and Jessica alike in the generousness of love though opposite in circumstances?
Is Jessica's elopement to blame for her father's joy in the wreckage of Anthonio's ships and his final exaction of the bond? Was it introduced in the Plot for this purpose?
ACT III
BASSANIO'S LUCK AND ANTHONIO'S LOSS
Shakespeare's creed of love as engendered in the eyes may be illustrated by passages in many other plays as well as this. What is meant by it?
Is Bassanio's daring in venturing so much for his chance with Portia itself a sign of his fitness, or the reverse? How is his casket significant of this test-stone—i.e., adventurousness?
Is the match of Nerissa and Gratiano an irrelevance to Portia's and Bassanio's courtship or an enhancement of their happiness? Show how the two points of climax in event and feeling balance absolutely but do not sacrifice each other? Are Shakespeare's experiments in bold juxtaposition of extreme fortune and happiness and utterly irretrievable devastation anywhere so poignant as the arrival of Anthonio's letter at the betrothal of Bassanio and Portia?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is the secret of Bassanio's adventurousness the supreme honor in which he holds love? Nothing else being of so much consequence, he yields everything to love. Does Jessica, also?
The "manners" of Portia, according to Gildon, "are not always agreeable or convenient to her Sex and Quality; particularly where she scarce preserves her modesty in the expression." What is to be thought of this?
Is Anthonio's letter characteristic of his nobleness as a friend, or is it too insistent upon bringing Bassanio to him, since to send such a letter was equivalent to fetching him?
Is it Portia's best warrant as a noble bride and wife that she appreciates Anthonio's message and friendship?
ACT IV
THE LUCK REDEEMS THE LOSS
By means of Bassanio's luck in winning Portia's love and hand Shylock is finally defeated of his malicious purpose. Portia considered as the embodiment of Bassanio's luck and the instrument bringing Shylock to confusion.
Does it matter whether the law-point is disputable or not since the traditional stories on which the Play is built up afford the opportunity for its use?
Does Shylock get Justice, since he had refused mercy?
Illustrate the legal knowledge and studies of Italian women of the
Renaissance affording a parallel for Portia's sagacity and leadership.
(For hints see pp. 256-260 in "First Folio Edition.")
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Do you think Shylock is wronged?
Does Shylock so preponderate the Play as to destroy its balance, and outweighing all other characters make them insignificant?
Are Actors justified in acting the Play so as to dwarf the Love plot and cut out Act V as needless?
Is Portia the proper counterpart in consummate character creation to Shylock? To whom does, if properly played, the ultimate interest of the Play belong?
Why does this position belong to no other character's part?
ACT V
THE RINGS
What is the business of Act V?
How is it linked to the preceding Act? Since reunion and rejoicing are not alone the business of the plot; since recognition and declaration to the two husbands, and to Anthonio, especially, are needed, as well as to the others, of the part played by the wives in solving the difficulties of the plot, the Ring scenes constitute the due dramatic conclusion of the Play. Note that the threat of quarrel over the reluctant but requisite giving away of the rings in the preceding Act makes a deceptively serious difficulty. It is happily to be solved as a result of the wives' preceding action. This difficulty and this solution at this final stage of the plot constitute a little character play that is an epitome of the action. The whole is the more happily and amusingly solved that the Audience is wise and the characters still in the dark are really perplexed.
Point out the value of the exchange of Rings as made clear in these two ways, by bringing out the characters of Gratiano, Bassanio, and especially of Anthonio as peace-maker; and by bringing out to them the fact that to the wives' love and skill the victory over the difficulties they suffered is due.
Are the rings the sole test of this?
What other news adds to the general denouement of all difficulties?
Is the summing up of the Play a victory of love and intelligence over hate and narrow-mindedness?
Show how the rings symbolize this, and music and moonlight provide the proper atmosphere for its operation. The appropriateness of the moonlight for a calm out of strife, brought about by women, is matched by the fitness of music and the reference to the harmony of the spheres to suggest that earth-harmony to which Portia was presiding Angel.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is any incident of Act V without relevance to the plot?
Is the Play the nobler or the weaker dramatically for the poetic and symbolic influence shed upon it by Act V?
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
If this Comedy was written, as tradition reports at the bidding of Queen Elizabeth in order to show Falstaffe in love, it is interesting to see that Shakespeare confines his love-making to mercenary motives, and by causing him to make love to two at once renders him as a lover merely a cheat.
So keeping the word of promise to the ear, he obeys by breaking it to the sense. To show Falstaffe as a lover amounts to showing him as no lover at all.
In this sense, the Play might be called a courteous satire upon the
Queen's request.
THE STORY OF ACT I
FALSTAFFE IS FORCED TO "CONICATCH"
How Falstaffe falls into trouble, turns away his followers and begins a new enterprise: How do his followers take revenge? What light upon this opening of the story do scenes i. and iii. show?
What is the underplot as shown in scenes ii. and iv and a part of scene i?
Do they appear to have anything to do with each other?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Which of her suitors does Anne prefer? Which is to be preferred?
Is the grievance of Shallow against Falstaffe a necessity of the plot to show the fat knight in love, or an episode introduced out of Shakespeare's grudge towards Sir Thomas Lucy? (See pp. 117-119, 138-141, etc., "First Folio Edition.")
THE STORY OF ACT II
THE MERRY WIVES AND FORD LAY PLOTS
In Act II a third under-intrigue that of Ford with Falstaffe is added to the two before introduced.
Show how the Merry Wives reveal their separate personalities in their reception of the duplicate letters, and their plot to dupe Falstaffe.
Contrast their two husbands as their natures and marital relations are shown by their different manner of taking the information given them by Nym and Pistol. Ford, considered as Shakespeare's first study of jealousy. How does he compare with Leontes?
How does Ford assist in the plot of the Play?
What pertinence to Ford's jealousy is there in the allusion to Queen
Elizabeth's Sonnet? (II, ii, 199-200).
The Sources of the Merry Wives' intrigue and what Shakespeare has done with them. (See "Sources," First Folio Edition). How is the Duel scene related to the underplot?
What characters belong in common to plot and counterplot?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Does Falstaffe show any material differences in character as he appears in this Play, in comparison with the way he appears in "Henry IV?"
THE STORY OF ACT III
THE DOUBLE DUPERY
Contrast the feelings of Falstaffe before and after the Buckbasket episode?
In which scene is Ford the worst duped?
Give an account of Dame Quickly's relations to the intrigues, and show how her multitudinous offices as go-between interfere with each other so that she is "slacke" in one of her errands. What is the effect of her slackness on the contradictions in the time of the action. (See Duration of the Action, in "First Folio Edition"). Are they only seeming contradictions? The Sources of the Ford intrigue and what Shakespeare has done with them.
Anne and her father and mother as characterized in this act, with relation to the suitors.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is Anne the only character one can thoroughly sympathize with?
Are the situations such as owe their fun largely to coincidence, like those in the "Comedie of Errors," or to a teeming variousness in the human naturalness of all the characters?
THE STORY OF ACT IV
FORD'S ENLIGHTENMENT
Why is the Old Woman of Brentford trick a climax upon that of the
Buckbasket?
Falstaffe's wish that all the world might be cheated is true to the method of the Play. Show in exemplification of this, how a fourth intrigue grows out of the third, and is introduced as late as this fourth Act. How is the joke of the Host against Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh Evans avenged? Is this reference to the "three Cozen Jermans" that are said to run away with the Host's horses, liklier to be an allusion seriously made to a real event or to make use of it as an entirely fictitious intrigue and practical joke in the Play? Is this mock happening such as could be clear by the method of enacting it and one entirely consonant with this Comedy as a farce-mosaic of laughable tricks? (See pp. 120-121, 179-180, also Note on IV. iii. 6). Discuss probabilities. The turn taken in the plot: Show how all combine against Falstaffe; also the place of this intrigue in making material for Act V.
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Has the "Merry Wives" any serious or tragic moments such as belong usually to Shakespeare's Comedies?
Compare the jealousy of Ford with the jealousy of Adriana in the
"Comedie of Errors." Which exemplifies the riper treatment and why?
THE STORY OF ACT V
THE DEFEAT OF MERCENARY LOVEMAKING
Make clear the ins and outs of the Fairy trap, first for its actors, then for the dupes? Can the apparent inconsistencies in the wearing of green or white and the mention of "Quickly" for "Queene" be accounted for on the supposition that everybody is deceived except Nan and Fenton? (See Notes on V. v. 421, 205-209).
The compliments to Queen Elizabeth in the Play: What are they and how is their appropriateness to the Plot made good?
Consider the "humors" of the Welsh and French speeches and episodes as exploitations and developments of the similar humors of Fluellen and the Frenchmen of "Henry V."
The fairy scenes and effects of this Play compared with those of the wedding night feast at the end of "A Midsommer Nights Dreame."
What indications are there in the Falstaffe of "Henry IV." that he is superficially affected by the Puritanism about him? Is he any more deeply affected by it in the present Play? What is the difference in his appearance in this Play with respect to Puritanic morals: Is he more affected by them, at the last, when he is so grossly their victim, or have they grown, and put him out of date in England except as an atavism?
Have Page and his Wife any loftier standpoint as to mercenary love than Falstaffe himself? Is Fenton's speech (V. v. 225-235) the moral of the last Act or is Ford's (237-238)?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is the main design of the Play to "cure Ford of his unreasonable jealousy," as Rowe says, or to dupe and reform Falstaffe? Is the total aim sport to laugh over "by a Countrie fire?" Is it a Comedy of irony turned against all mercenary motives in love?
AS YOU LIKE IT
I
THE DRAMATIC CONDUCT OF THE PLAY: THE WRESTLING MATCH
How much of the situation existing in the play comes out in Act I. i.?
And what action takes place?
The strained relation existing between the brothers Orlando and Oliver is revealed through Orlando's conversation with Adam and with his brother Oliver. The situation at court is also revealed through the conversation of Oliver with the wrestler Charles, and also the loving relation existing between Celia and Rosalind; thus we are at once put into the possession of three emotional or passional causes for action—Oliver's hatred of his younger brother, the younger Duke's hatred of his older brother, and the love of Celia for Rosalind. Of these causes for action only one bears any fruit in this scene, namely, Oliver arranges with the wrestler to kill Orlando. What are the connections existing between sc. ii. and sc. i.? First there is a picture of the loving relationship existing between Rosalind and Celia (already mentioned by Oliver in sc. i.) which reveals very subtly differences in their natures. The action set going by Oliver in sc. i. is consummated in the wrestling match, but with a result different from that hoped for by Oliver, thus leaving Oliver's hatred still present as a cause of action. Out of the wrestling match what further passional and emotional causes of action are set up? Duke Frederick's hatred for Orlando is aroused because he learns he is the son of a man he had considered his enemy, and action against him is the immediate result. Orlando is warned by Le Beau that he is not safe at the court. The Duke's hatred of his brother bears further fruit in its extension to Rosalind. The meeting of Rosalind and Orlando brought about by the wrestling match gives rise to a fresh emotional force in their budding love for each other. In Sc. iii., the state of Rosalind's heart as to Orlando, hinted at in sc. ii., is fully revealed; the Duke's hatred takes shape in his sentence of banishment or death, giving rise to a new direction for action, and the emotion of Celia's love for Rosalind bears fruit in her determination to go with Rosalind into banishment.
II
LIFE IN THE FOREST OF ARDEN
In Act II. how are the elements of action, character delineation and emotion intermingled?
Sc. i. gives us a picture of the banished Duke and his followers in the Forest of Arden, already prepared for in Act I., introduces us to the personality of the Duke, and in the conversation with the lords prepares us for coming delights in the personality of Jaques. It does not advance the action, at all. In sc. ii., the result of Celia's act in going with Rosalind is shown in the bad Duke's consternation, who determines that they shall be found, thus starting another thread of action to be developed later. Sc. iii. the passional cause of action in Oliver's hatred of Orlando reaches a crisis; Orlando is obliged to flee to save himself from death. Sc. iv. shows Celia and Rosalind arrived at their journey's end in the Forest of Arden, and making arrangements with a shepherd for a comfortable little house to rusticate in; thus is closed the thread of action started by the Duke in banishing Rosalind. In the conversation of their new companions, Corin and Silvius, we learn of the love of Silvius for the scornful Phebe, which is another emotional impulse to action, later blending itself with the plot. In sc. v. we meet Jaques, already mentioned, and get another glimpse of the pleasant company in the forest, but they are still quite detached from the active elements of the play. Sc. vi. shows us how far Orlando and Adam have gone in their flight, and sc. vii. presents again the good Duke's court, develops further the personality of Jaques, and prepares us, through his conversation about the fool whom he had met in the forest, for the contact of one of the threads of action with the element of inaction represented by this good Duke's forest court, while in the sudden breaking in upon them of Orlando it is brought into contact with another of the threads of action.
III
LOVE IN THE FOREST OF ARDEN
At the opening of Act III. what results have been brought about by the action so far? Everybody in the play except Oliver and the bad Duke has arrived in the Forest of Arden. In sc. i. of Act III. the hatred of the Duke is still active as a force, and Oliver through this means is also sent off to finally bring up in the Forest of Arden. The Duke's attitude as a motive force having worked itself out in its relation to Orlando and Rosalind, the emotional cause of action in the love of Rosalind and Orlando is free to develop, and the remainder of Act III. is devoted chiefly to the presentation of the situation between the lovers, which, owing to the disguise assumed by Rosalind, gives rise to the charming inconsistencies attending the wooing of a proxy Rosalind who is in reality Rosalind herself. Around these central lovers, whose characters Shakespeare unfolds, revolve other interesting personalities. Touchstone meets his fate in Audrey. Phebe still scorns Corin and perversely falls in love with Ganymede. The action is only advanced to the extent that Rosalind learns the state of Orlando's mind while he still remains in ignorance as to hers.
IV
HATRED BECOMES LOVE IN ARDEN
Are there any fresh elements or developments in Act IV.?
Sc. i. merely continues the love-making of Act III. Sc. ii. gives another glimpse of the good Duke's court; in sc. iii. the love of Phebe bears fruit in a letter to Ganymede, and Oliver finds his way to the forest. The bad Duke's intentions toward Orlando in sending Oliver after him are, however, frustrated by the sudden change of heart against a bad Duke is a good Duke. Contrast their actions throughout the play. Contrast also the two brothers, Orlando and Oliver. What are the resemblances between the characters of Oliver and Duke Frederick?—between Orlando and the banished Duke? Is Orlando's rebellion against his brother's injustice or the banished Duke's acceptance of his brother's injustice the more to be praised? Compare his attitude with that of Prospero under similar circumstances. Whose repentance is the more sincere, Oliver's or Duke Frederick's? Note that Oliver has lost all when he repents, while the Duke gives up everything just as he is about to realize his aim. Is the repentance of the usurping Duke merely a ruse of Shakespeare's to bring the play to a happy ending? In Lodge's story he does not repent, but is proceeded against by his brother. Contrast Jaques and Touchstone. Is Jaques's melancholy affected? What is the main difference between Rosalind and Celia? Which is the more the friend of the other? (For valuable suggestions on these points see 'Characters in "As You Like It,"' Poet-lore, Vol. IV. pp. 31 and 81, Jan. and Feb., 1892.)
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Which is the better philosopher, Jaques or Touchstone, and which is more closely related to the philosophy of the play?
The characters of the two Dukes are not developed; they are merely walking gentlemen, whose office it is to keep the play in motion.
2. The Lovers of the Play.
The Different Kinds of Love in 'As You Like It.' Examples of love at first sight in Shakespeare. Note Orlando's surprise at the suddenness of Oliver's and Celia's love. Was his own less sudden? Consider Hymen's song and Jaques's remarks in the last scene as descriptive of the various couples. Does the comic element of the play, as represented by Touchstone, discredit sentiment in the play? Notice the madrigal in Lodge's novel (given in Poet-lore, Vol. III., in the article on Lodge, Dec, 1891), and consider whether Shakespeare has borrowed anything from it in characterizing Rosalind's wooing? Contrast Lodge's Montanus as a lover with Shakespeare's Silvius. Is Montanus too much of a "tame snake" to be natural? Or does this constancy in love make him a superior figure? Is it a sign of Silvius's inferiority that love has its own way with him? Can love be true that changes if it is unrequited?
Are those actors right, do you think, who play Oliver as guessing who Ganymede is when she swoons? Is Rosalind's conduct unwomanly? Is her disguise unlikely?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
It is best for the man to love the most; and therefore has Silvius and
Phebe's unequal love-match a better chance for happiness than
Rosalind's and Orlando's?
VII
THE PASTORAL ELOPMENT
The Rise of Pastoral Poetry, and Shakespeare's Use of it in 'As You
Like It.'
Compare Spenser's 'Shepherd's Calendar,' Fletcher's 'Faithful Shepherdess,' etc. Point out any differences you find between Shakespeare's and Spenser's pastoral poetry. Modern literary use of the pastoral element, Wordsworth's 'Michael.' Is the pastoral life of literature always artificial? Can a progress toward realism be shown? The humor of the play. Discuss in particular the humorous comments on contrasts between court and country life. Compare modern instances of the refinements and artifices of city life and the crudeness of work and pleasure in the country.
Special Points.—1. The Forest of Arden: Is it in England, France, or Shakespeare's imagination? 2. "Old Robin Hood of England." What are the legends concerning him? 3. The archaic words in the play. (See Prof. Sinclair Korner's 'Shakespeare's Inheritance from the Fourteenth Century,' in Poet-lore, Vol. II., p. 410, Aug., 1890.)
QUERY FOR DISCUSSION
Is the opposition shown in the play between life at court and in the country truly shown to be to the advantage of the country.
VIII
THE MORAL ELEMENT
The moral side of the Play consists, according to the Introduction in the First Folio Edition, in its persuasion toward an Arden of the disposition, or a spirit of happy good will toward all men. How far does this cover the lesson of the Play?
What is to be thought of the idea in the 'Ethics of "As You Like It"' (Poet-lore, Vol. III., p. 498, Oct., 1891), that Touchstone's opinion of a shepherd's life (III. ii.) is the key-note of the play? Are the references to fortune in the play significant? Dr. F.J. Furnivall says: "What we most prize is misfortune borne with cheery mind, the sun of man's spirit shining through and dispersing the clouds which try to shade it. This is the spirit of the play." Of this Dr. Ingleby says: "The moral of the play is much more concrete than this. It is not how to bear misfortune with a cheery mind, but how to read the lessons in the vicissitudes of physical nature." C.A. Wurtzburg says: "The deep truths that may be gathered from the play are the innate dignity of the human spirit, before which every conventionality of birth, rank, education, even of natural ties, must give way." Give arguments drawn from the play in favor of or against all of these suggestions. Is it an evidence of Shakespeare's intention to be a moral teacher that he altered the fate of Duke Frederick?
QUERY FOR DISCUSSION
Has the play any moral that is not gently satirized in it?
IX
THE SOURCE OF THE PLOT
Shakespeare's Variations from Lodge.
Compare Lodge's 'Rosalind' with 'As You Like It.'
(For this story, see "Shakespeare's Library" or Extracts in Notes and
Comment in Sources in "First Folio Edition").
Is the story better without the parts Shakespeare leaves out (e. g., Adam's proposal to Rosader to cut his veins and suck the blood; his nose-bleed; the incident of the robbers accounting for Aliena's sudden love, etc.)? Why is the "Green and gilded snake" added? Isn't the "lioness" enough? Is Rosader or Orlando the finer character, and why? The new characters introduced—Audrey and William—considered as embodying real instead of ideal pastoral life. Do Shakespeare's changes affect the plot, the characters, or the moral of the story? (For an examination of the plot of the play, see 'An Inductive Study of "As You Like It,"' in Poet-lore, Vol. III., p. 341.)
A Sketch of Lodge's Life and Work. (See 'An Elizabethan Lyrist: Thomas
Lodge,' in Poet-lore, Vol. III., p. 593, Dec, 1891.)
QUERY FOR DISCUSSION
Is Shakespeare's framing of the plot of 'As You Like It' not to be admired, because it is borrowed?
X
THE MUSIC OF THE PLAY
This may consist of a brief paper on the subject illustrated by a
program of the songs with the old and more modern settings. (See New
Shakespeare Society's Papers, on this subject; 'Shakespeare and
Music,' by E.W. Naylor.)