MIDNAPUR 



5399 



MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 



Midnapur. Dist. and town of 



India. Ill tin- r.llld\\an lll\l-K>M. 



lies to theS.W 

 il ; tip K. portion i allu- 

 vial ]ilain .UK! deii-ely populated; 

 tin- \V i- jungle ini'l sparsely 

 peopled. Tin- dud crop is rice. 

 The town i- an important rly. 

 jimi-tioii on tin- Kasai river, W. of 

 Calcutta. 1" which it 18 joined liy 



a navigable canal. District area, 

 5,186 sq.rn. I 1 . .p. 2,821,200. Town 



pop. :i2,7i>o. 



Midnight Sun. Appearance of 



tin- sun aliovc tin- horizon at mid 

 ui^lit. It may In- witnessed at any 

 point on the Arctic Circle on mid- 

 Mi mm T day, June 21, and on the 

 Antarctic Circle on the S. mid- 

 summer day, Dec. 21. Within 

 these circles the length of time the 

 sun is in the sky without setting 

 gradually increases, being 65 days 

 in lat. 70 J , and KM days in lat. 80, 

 whilst the sun does not set for six 

 months at the poles. Tourists visit 

 the N. of Norway about midsum- 

 mer to witness the phenomenon. 



The phenomenon of the mid- 

 night sun is due to the inclination 

 of the earth's axis, and to the fact 

 that the axis points in the same 

 direction during the whole period 

 of the earth's yearly revolution 

 round the sun. Similar conditions 

 obtain within the Antarctic Circle 

 on Dec. 21, the southern mid- 

 summer day. 



Midrash. Ancient Hebrew 

 commentary on the O.T., consist- 

 ing of a vast number of comments 

 by various authors, mixed with 

 tales and folklore. The term is also 

 plied to the edifying tales in the 

 illustrating religious truths, 

 Midi as the books of Ruth and 

 Jonah. It was the storehouse 

 from which the Rabbis drew most 

 of their teaching. See Mishna. 



Midshipman. In the British 

 navy, a junior officer between the 

 ranks of naval cadet and sub- 

 lieutenant. 

 The name is 

 derived from 

 the fact that 

 the quarters 

 of the " young 

 gentlemen " 

 qualifying for 

 commissions 

 were situated 

 amidships on 

 the lower 

 deck. A naval 

 cadet begins 

 his training 

 between the 

 ages of 12 and 

 13, and after 

 passing 

 the courses in the prescribed 

 trainingcolleges becomes a midship- 

 man, and goes to sea. The pay is 5s. 



Midnight Sun. Photograph with eight exposures at intervals ot 45 minutes, 

 showing that the sun during this period is not setting. See text 



Midshipman's uni- 

 form, British Navy 



a day. Besides pursuing his studies 

 under a naval instructor, the mid- 

 shipman, or " snotty," takes part 

 in the daily routine of the ship, 

 passing the word of command to 

 the crew, seeing that orders are 

 carried out, taking charge of boats, 

 etc. Midshipmen mess in the gun- 

 room. Their distinguishing badge 

 is a white tab on the collar of their 

 jacket, and for side arms they 

 carry a dirk instead of a sword. 



Midshipman Easy, MR. Novel 

 by Captain F. Marryat, first pub- 

 lished in 1836. It tells the story of 

 a midshipman whose father be- 

 lieves in natural equality, and who 

 gets into many scrapes by his 

 literal interpretation of his father's 

 teaching before winning his way 

 to success. The book long enjoyed 

 considerable popularity as an ad- 

 venture story characterised by a 

 rather elementary humour. 



Midsomer Norton. Urban 

 dist. of Somerset. It is 12 m. from 

 Bath on the G.W. and Somerset 

 and Dorset Rlys., and the little river 

 Somer. The chief building is the 

 Perpendicular church of S. John the 

 Baptist, rebuilt in the 19th century. 

 The Somerset coalfield is in the 

 neighbourhood. Pop. 7.300. 



Midsummer Day. June '24, 

 popularly the middle day of sum- 

 mer. Astronomically the period of 

 the summer solstice (about June 

 21) is the beginning of summer. 

 Midsummer Day is the feast of the 

 Nativity of S. John the Baptist 

 (nee John, Eve of S.), and is an 

 English quarter day. In some 

 English towns and villages, stools 

 decorated with flowers stuck in clay 

 were placed by the house-doors 

 or at cross-roads on this day, a 

 custom possibly derived from the 

 Roman festival in honour of the 



deities of the cross-roads. The 

 term " midsummer madness " may 

 refer to the wild festivities of Mid- 

 summer Eve, or to the supposed 

 effect of the midsummer moon. 

 " Midsummer Man " is the plant 

 orpine (Sedum telephium) used by 

 girls on Midsummer Eve as a test 

 of their lovers' fidelity. 



Mids ummer Nigh t 'sDr earn , A 

 Fairy comedy by Shakespeare. The 

 background is provided by the 

 Athenian celebration of the nup- 

 tials of Duke Theseus and Hippoly- 

 ta, queen of the Amazons, during 

 which some artisans perform a 

 kind of travesty of the story of 

 Pyramus and Thisbe. Another 

 pair of lovers, Hermia and Lysan- 

 der, enter the wood of the fairies, 

 whither they are followed by 

 Demetrius, in love with Hermia, 

 and Helena, in love with Deme- 

 trius. They become involved in a 

 quarrel between Oberon, king of 

 the fairies, and his consort Titania. 

 By means of the juice of the little 

 flower called love-in-idleness, ap- 

 plied to their sleeping eyelids by 

 Puck, Titania falls in love with 

 Bottom the weaver, and Lysander 

 with Helena. The errors are re- 

 paired and all ends happily. 



Written in 1594 and first pub- 

 lished in quarto form in 1600, this 

 play is an example of Shakespeare's 

 unrivalled fertility of invention. Of 

 its 2,251 lines 878 are in blank 

 verse and 441 in prose, while the 

 pentametric rhymes number 731. 

 Of modern revivals in London the 

 following are noteworthy : at Her 

 Majesty's, Jan. 10, 1900, when 



IScerljohm Tree was Bottom. 



Lewis Waller Lysander, Julia 

 Neilson Oberon, Mrs. Tree Titania, 

 Louie Freear Puck, and Dorothea 

 Baird Helena ; Adelphi, Nov. 25, 



