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List of parts
PHILOSTRATE ... court in the Quarto text, he is the Master of the Revels who introduces the entertainment in the final act; in Folio, this role is taken by Egeus, leaving Philostrate a non-speaking role in the first scene.
Act 1, Scene 1
1.1 Location: Athens Theseus mythical Duke of Athens who conquered the Amazons Hippolyta mythical Queen of the Amazons, captured by Theseus 2 apace quickly
2 Four happy days the action actually extends over two days and the intervening night 4 lingers draws out/keeps waiting
5 Like to like
5 stepdame stepmother
5 dowager widow
6 withering out i.e. using up
6 young man's revenue i.e. her son's inheritance 7 steep soak, be suffused in
9 moon ... bow Diana was goddess of hunting and the moon 10 New-bent ready to be strung or to let an arrow loose 11 solemnities ceremonies, celebrations
14 pert lively
16 pale companion melancholy fellow
16 pomp splendid display, ceremony
17 with my sword Hippolyta was captured during Theseus' campaign against the Amazons 18 injuries wrongs
20 triumph public celebration
20.1 Hermia name of Aristotle's disreputable mistress; may be derived from "Hermione" (daughter of Helen of Troy) 20.1 Lysander derived from "Alexander" (another name for Paris, who carried off Helen of Troy) 20.1 Demetrius a villainous Demetrius appears in North's Plutarch and in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus
32 feigning singing softly/deceitful/joyful/desirous/longing 33 stol'n ... fantasy cunningly imprinted yourself in her imagination 34 gauds showy playthings
34 conceits trinkets
35 Knacks knickknacks
35 trifles insignificant tokens
35 nosegays small bouquets of flowers
35 sweetmeats confectionary
36 prevailment persuasion, influence
36 unhardened inexperienced, yielding
37 filched stolen
40 Be it so if
46 Immediately directly
52 disfigure alter/erase
56 kind respect
56 wanting lacking
56 voice approval
58 would wish
62 concern befit
63 presence the duke/assembled people/ceremonial place 67 die the death be executed
68 society company
70 Know of learn from
70 blood passions
72 livery clothing (and lifestyle)
73 aye always
73 mewed confined
78 earthlier happy i.e. more happy on earth
78 distilled whose essence is extracted for perfume 80 single blessedness i.e. celibacy
82 Ere before
82 virgin patent privilege of virginity
83 his lordship i.e. Demetrius
86 sealing day i.e. wedding day
90 would wishes
91 Diana Roman goddess of chastity and the moon
91 protest vow
92 aye ever
94 crazed flawed/unsound/mad
94 title claim
96 Do i.e. why don't
98 render give to
100 estate unto bestow upon
101 derived descended
102 possessed propertied, i.e. affluent
103 fairly nobly/equally
104 with ... Demetrius' superior to those of Demetrius 107 prosecute pursue
108 avouch declare
108 head i.e. face
109 Made love to wooed
109 Helena perhaps named after Helen of Troy
110 dotes is infatuated
112 spotted (morally) stained
115 self-affairs personal matters
116 lose forget
118 schooling admonition/advice
119 look be sure
119 arm prepare
120 fancies desires
122 extenuate moderate
125 go come
127 Against in preparation for
128 nearly that that closely
132 Belike probably
133 Beteem grant
134 aught anything, whatever
137 blood rank
138 cross hindrance/vexation
139 misgraffed mismatched
141 stood depended
141 merit Folio's emendation of Quarto's "friends" (meaning "relatives"); some editors assume that both texts are wrong and that the line should read "Or merit stood upon the choice of friends"
143 sympathy agreement
145 momentary fleeting
147 collied blackened
148 spleen fit of temper
148 unfolds reveals
149 ere before
151 quick living/brief
151 confusion ruin
154 trial experience of this trial
157 fancy's love's
158 persuasion opinion
161 seven leagues about twenty-one miles
162 respects considers
167 without outside
169 do ... May i.e. celebrate May Day
170 stay wait
172 Cupid Roman god of love
173 best ... head i.e. one causing love (Cupid's lead arrows were supposed to induce loathing) 174 simplicity innocence
174 doves symbols of fidelity, these birds drew the goddess of love's chariot 175 knitteth binds together
176 Carthage queen Dido, who committed suicide on a pyre when Aeneas deserted her 177 false Troyan the Trojan Aeneas
183 fair beautiful/fair-complexioned
185 happy favored, lucky
186 lodestars guiding stars
186 air melody
187 tuneable harmonious
188 green fresh, new
189 favour good looks/a favorable attitude
190 catch seize
193 bated omitted (with play on "baited, hooked")
194 translated transformed
200 move arouse
203 none i.e. no fault
206 fly flee
212 Phoebe another name for the Roman moon goddess
213 glass mirror (i.e. water)
215 still always
218 faint pale
218 wont accustomed
219 counsel inmost thoughts/advice
222 strange foreign, new
229 o'er other some more than others
232 all everyone else
235 quantity value/substance/proportion (to what love makes them into) 236 form ordered, attractive appearance/substance
238 blind Cupid was traditionally depicted as a sightless child
239 of ... taste the least bit of reason
240 figure symbolize
242 beguiled deceived, misguided
243 waggish playful, mischievous
243 game jest/play
243 themselves forswear break their word
245 eyne eyes
251 intelligence information
252 dear expense effort worth making/high price to pay (as Demetrius will pursue Hermia)/begrudging gratitude (from Demetrius) Act 1, Scene 2
1.2 Quince probably from "quines" or "quoins," a carpenter's wooden wedges 1.2 Snug close-fitting; a good name for a joiner (craftsman who makes furniture) 1.2 Bottom the core onto which the weaver's yarn was wound, or a ball of thread; did not have modern sense of "arse" Flute suggests the fluted pipes of a church organ operated by bellows; perhaps Flute also has a reedy, high voice 1.2 Snout possibly Snout has a large nose (some editors suppose a reference to the spout of a kettle, which a tinker would have to mend, but sixteenth-century kettles did not have spouts) 1.2 Starveling tailors were proverbially thin 2 generally malapropism for "severally" (i.e. individually) 3 scrip scrap of paper/script (i.e. what is written down; the word did not have its modern theatrical sense) 5 interlude short play
7 treats on deals with, is about
8 grow ... poi
nt approach a conclusion
10 Marry by the Virgin Mary
14 spread yourselves spread out
20 ask require
22 condole express great sorrow
23 humour inclination
23 Ercles i.e. the Greek hero Hercules
23 rarely magnificently, exceptionally
24 tear ... in rant and bluster
24 split go to pieces
26 shivering shattering
29 Phibbus' car the chariot of Phoebus, the sun god
31 mar ruin
32 Fates three goddesses in control of human destiny
33 lofty grandiose, exalted, impressive
34 vein temperament
38 wand'ring i.e. on a mission
42 That's all one it doesn't matter
43 small high-pitched
43 will can
44 An if
52 Thisbe's ... Thisbe's father these characters never actually appear 57 fitted equipped, provided for (perhaps maintaining the language of joinery) 60 do it extempore improvise
70 discretion sound judgment
71 aggravate malapropism for "moderate"
72 roar roar for
72 sucking dove conflation of "sitting dove" and "sucking lamb," both proverbially quiet and gentle 72 an 'twere as if it were
75 proper handsome
81 discharge perform
81 your i.e. you know the sort
82 orange-tawny yellowish-brown
82 purple-in-grain dyed red
83 French-crown-coloured i.e. the gold color of the French coin 84 crowns heads; baldness was an effect of syphilis ("the French disease") 87 con learn
90 devices plans
91 draw draw up
91 bill list
94 obscenely malapropism, perhaps for "seemly" or "obscurely"
94 courageously spiritedly
94 perfect word perfect
96 hold ... bowstrings archers' saying, possibly meaning "stand firm and fight, or cut your bowstrings in preparation for capture"
Act 2, Scene 1
2.1 Location: a wood near Athens Robin Goodfellow name traditionally given to a mischievous hobgoblin 2.1 Puck a kind of mischievous goblin
4 park enclosed hunting ground
4 pale fenced-in area
5 Thorough through
7 sphere stars and planets were thought to be contained within revolving hollow spheres 9 orbs i.e. fairy rings (dark circles in the grass) 10 pensioners bodyguards
12 favours tokens of favor
13 savours (sweet) scent
16 lob country bumpkin
17 anon soon
20 passing fell excessively fierce
20 wrath angry
23 changeling child taken by the fairies (usually exchanged for a fairy child) 25 trace traverse
26 perforce forcibly
29 fountain spring
29 sheen brightness
30 square quarrel
32 making physical appearance
32 quite entirely
33 shrewd cunning
35 villagery villages
36 Skim take the cream off
36 quern churn; also a mill for grinding corn
37 bootless in vain
38 barm yeasty froth on top of fermenting ale
39 mislead i.e. with false fire that moves from place to place 46 bean-fed well-fed
47 filly female
48 gossip's old friend's
48 bowl i.e. drinking cup
49 crab crab apple
51 dewlap loose fold of skin hanging at the neck
52 aunt old woman
55 "tailor" cry of surprise; possibly because she ends up sitting on the floor (customary posture for tailors), or because she sits on her "tail" (i.e. bum) 56 quire company
57 waxen increase
57 neeze sneeze
58 wasted spent
59 room make way
59 Oberon name often given to the King of Fairies
59.1 Titania used by Ovid to refer to Diana (moon goddess) and Circe (enchantress) 64 Tarry stay
64 wanton willful one, perhaps also with sense of "promiscuous"
64 lord husband
65 lady wife
67 Corin conventional pastoral name
68 corn straw
68 versing composing/uttering verses of
69 Phillida conventional pastoral name
70 step limit
71 forsooth in truth
71 bouncing big, strapping (perhaps with sexual connotations) 72 buskined wearing high hunting boots ("buskins")
76 Glance at refer to/cast aspersions on
76 credit favor
78 glimmering twinkling, shimmering
79 Perigenia (sometimes spelled "Perigouna") Theseus slept with her after he killed her robber father 79 ravished carried off/seized/raped
80 Aegles nymph loved by Theseus
81 Ariadne she helped Theseus find his way out of the labyrinth; he then abandoned her 81 Antiopa Amazon seduced or abducted by Theseus before being abandoned by him 83 middle summer's spring i.e. beginning of midsummer 84 mead meadow
85 paved with a pebbly base
85 rushy edged with rushes
86 in on
86 beached covered with shingle
86 margent margin, edge
87 ringlets circular fairy dance
88 brawls quarrels/noise; also lively French dance (contrasts with calmer ringlets) 88 sport recreation
89 piping whistling
91 Contagious pestilential/harmful
92 petty small
92 proud swollen
93 overborne their continents exceeded their boundaries (i.e. flooded) 94 stretched strained at/pulled
95 lost wasted
96 ere ... beard before developing the awn (bristly growth) 97 fold animal pen
98 murrion infected
99 nine men's morris ground marked out for a game involving nine pegs ("men") 100 quaint elaborate
100 mazes pattern of paths cut in the turf
100 wanton green lush grass
102 want ... blessed i.e. though the weather is wintry, there are no winter festivities (some editors emend "here" to "cheer") 104 Therefore i.e. because of our dispute
104 floods tides
105 washes saturates, renders moist
106 rheumatic diseases illnesses involving watery discharge, such as colds 107 distemperature poor weather/disorder
108 hoary-headed white-haired
110 Hiems personification of winter
111 chaplet garland
113 childing fertile
114 wonted customary
114 mazed confused/dumbstruck/terrified
115 increase produce
117 debate discord
117 dissension discord
118 original point of origin
122 henchman squire, page
125 votress female follower, bound by a vow
127 Full very
128 Neptune Roman god of the sea
129 Marking observing, noting
129 th'embarked traders sailing merchants or their ships 129 flood sea
131 wanton playful/lustful
132 swimming gait smooth, graceful motion
137 of that boy i.e. in childbirth
141 Perchance perhaps
142 patiently calmly
142 round circular dance
144 spare avoid
147 chide quarrel
147 downright utterly
148 from go from
151 Since when
151 promontory headland
153 dulcet sweet
153 breath i.e. song
154 rude rough
155 certain surely/particular
160 all fully
160 certain accurate/specific
161 vestal woman vowed to chastity, here assumed by most commentators to be an allusion to Queen Elizabeth I (the imperial votress) 163 As as if
164 might could
167
fancy-free unaffected by love
168 bolt arrow
170 purple blood-colored
171 love-in-idleness pansy or heartsease
174 or either
177 leviathan sea monster
178 girdle belt
194 The ... stayeth i.e. I will confront Lysander; it is Hermia who is preoccupying me (some editors emend to "slay ... slayeth") 196 wood angry/mad (puns on "wooed")
199 draw attract (magnetically)
199 adamant hard magnetic substance
201 Leave you give up
203 you fair favorably, kindly to you
209 but only
210 leave permission
218 impeach discredit
222 desert desolate, isolated
224 privilege safeguard
224 for that because
231 brakes bushes
235 Apollo ... chase a reversal of the myth in which Daphne, being chased by Apollo, was spared rape by being turned into a laurel tree 236 griffin mythical beast, part lion part eagle
236 hind female deer
237 Bootless pointless
239 stay wait for
244 set ... sex make me behave in a way that disgraces womankind 248 upon by/at
254 blows blossoms
255 oxlips flowers resembling both cowslip and primrose 256 Quite completely
256 woodbine honeysuckle
257 musk-roses wild climbing roses
257 eglantine sweetbriar, a sweetly scented rose
258 sometime at some time or other
260 throws sheds
261 Weed garment
271 fond on infatuated with
1 roundel circulardance
3 cankers wormsthatdestroyplants
4 reremice bats
4 leathern leathery
7 quaint strange/dainty
8 offices duties
9 double i.e. forked
11 blind-worms adders
13 Philomel nightingale; Philomela was transformed into a nightingale after being raped by her brother-in-law 18 nigh near
24 etc. indicates chorus is to be repeated
26 aloof at a distance
26 sentinel guard
30 ounce lynx
31 Pard leopard/panther
36 troth truth
38 tarry ... day wait till the cooler part of the day 42 troth pledge (of love)/faith
45 take the sense i.e. interpret correctly
46 Love ... conference i.e. love allows lovers to understand one another 52 lie mislead (you) (puns on "lie down")
53 prettily charmingly/cleverly
54 beshrew curse
56 friend lover
57 human polite/courteous
59 Becomes befits
65 wisher's eyes i.e. Lysander's
65 pressed i.e. closed in sleep
68 approve test
78 Churl villain/scoundrel
79 owe own
80 forbid ... eyelid prevent you from sleeping
85 charge command
85 haunt pursue/hang around
86 darkling in the dark
88 fond foolish/doting
89 grace favor
90 lies is/resides
96 marvel wonder
97 as as if (from)
98 glass mirror
99 sphery eyne heavenly eyes
104 Transparent radiant/see-through
104 art skill (allowing him to see through Helena's body) 109 What though what of it (if)
115 will inclination (plays on sense of "sexual desire/penis") 118 ripe not i.e. was not mature enough
119 point peak
119 skill discernment