Certain New Elucidations of Shakespeare 39 



Come, my Hippolyta, — zvhat cheer, my love? 

 ' How is it with you ? What is the matter? ' 



Here Shakespeare's wreathing of the parts begins. He makes 

 Lysander and Hermia resolve to flee, and they arrive, for the first 

 stage, no farther than the haunting grounds of the fairies. It is 

 a clever but not an astonishing stroke to let Puck blunder, and 

 pour the idealizing juice on the wrong e3'es, which will prove right 

 ones for the relief of Hippolyta's trepidation. Helena is brought 

 into the scene, we suspect, as the appointed match for Demetrius. 

 At any rate, Hermia will not be punished for marrying Demetrius, 

 or for further trying to elope with him. So our major obstruc- 

 tion is dismissed from the plot, and in the second scene of the 

 Second Act, just where it should be by the rule. 



We return to the construction of the First Act. The Athenian 

 youth have responded to the call of Philostrate. One club or 

 circle are at work upon The Battle with the Centaurs, shaping it 

 into ballad form, to be rendered by a trained singer to the harp. 

 A group of lusty fellows are for reviving an old performance, 

 The Riot of the Tipsy Bacchanals, who rend a Thracian singer 

 in their frenzy. A more literary or refined company are prepar- 

 ing The Thrice Three Muses Mourning for the Death of Learn- 

 ing. Probably other intellectuals are busied similarly, for Athens 

 is no small city, nor is it barren in resources. Then, also, hard- 

 handed working men would do honor to their Duke, and select a 

 cast just like their betters for a play. That Shakespeare makes 

 us look in upon these only, while they in conceit and loutishness 

 discuss their parts, is sufficient intimation that he means to bring 

 out their work. So when we think of Hippolyta and her general 

 dislike of men, even when not redolent of garlic, we are -per- 

 suaded that Theseus's idea was stupid, and that the ' feast in 

 great solemnity,' after the formal wedding, will not be worthily 

 carried through. Thus the minor obstruction, subjective again 

 as in Macbeth but not lifted as in that play from the plot, with 

 its resolvement ends the act.-^ 



21 The construction strikes one as lumbering and heavy for so light a 

 comedy. But Shakespeare seems unable to draft a play except upon this 

 general plan. By it, either or neither of the obstructions may be removed 



141 



