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156-733: The Shakespeare in the Rose Garden Festival was the first Outdoor Festival set up by Sport For Jove Theatre Company in 2009 and was the brainchild of Damien and Bernadette Ryan. The Festival was renamed The Sydney Hills Shakespeare in 2010. The Sydney Hills Shakespeare in the Park is an outdoor Shakespeare Festival based in the Hills Shire District. Following Shakespeare in the Rose Garden's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2009, Sport For Jove Theatre Company and The Hills Shire Council presented

312-451: A triple goddess , known as Diana triformis : Diana, Luna , and Hecate . According to historian C.M. Green, "these were neither different goddesses nor an amalgamation of different goddesses. They were Diana...Diana as huntress, Diana as the moon, Diana of the underworld." At her sacred grove on the shores of Lake Nemi, Diana was venerated as a triple goddess beginning in the late 6th century BCE. Andreas Alföldi interpreted an image on

468-453: A "sexual radical", but that the play represented a "topsy-turvy world" or "temporary holiday" that mediates or negotiates the "discontents of civilisation", which while resolved neatly in the story's conclusion, do not resolve so neatly in real life. Green writes that the "sodomitical elements", " homoeroticism ", "lesbianism", and even "compulsory heterosexuality"—the first hint of which may be Oberon's obsession with Titania's changeling ward—in

624-612: A Director's talk by director Damien Ryan. Shakespeare in the Rose Garden The Leura Shakespeare Festival The Sydney Hill's Shakespeare Festival The Leura Shakespeare Festival The Sydney Morning Herald Autumn of the Arts Shakespeare in the Park In 2024, Sport for Jove produced a production called I Hate People; or Timon of Athens directed by Margaret Thanos, and starring

780-420: A Marxist scholar and historian, writes that it is for the greater sake of love that this loss of identity takes place and that individual characters are made to suffer accordingly: "It was the more extravagant cult of love that struck sensible people as irrational, and likely to have dubious effects on its acolytes." He believes that identities in the play are not so much lost as they are blended together to create

936-470: A considerable store of imagination in his interaction with the representatives of the fairy world. He also argued that Bottom's conceit was a quality inseparable from his secondary profession, that of an actor. In 1872, Henry N. Hudson, an American clergyman and editor of Shakespeare, also wrote comments on this play. Kehler pays little attention to his writings, as they were largely derivative of previous works. She notes, however, that Hudson too believed that

1092-523: A daughter needs to marry a suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity as a nun worshipping the goddess Diana , but the two lovers both deny his choice and make a secret plan to escape into the forest for Lysander's aunt's house, to run away from Theseus. Hermia tells their plans to Helena , her best friend, who pines unrequitedly for Demetrius, who broke up with Helena to be with her. Desperate to reclaim Demetrius's love, Helena tells Demetrius about

1248-576: A daughter to die if she does not do her father's will is outdated. Tennenhouse contrasts the patriarchal rule of Theseus in Athens with that of Oberon in the carnivalistic Faerie world. The disorder in the land of the fairies completely opposes the world of Athens. He states that during times of carnival and festival, male power is broken down. For example, what happens to the four lovers in the woods as well as Bottom's dream represents chaos that contrasts with Theseus' political order. However, Theseus does not punish

1404-417: A distinct name, like Luna was for her moon aspect. This is due to a seeming reluctance or taboo by the early Latins to name underworld deities, and the fact that they believed the underworld to be silent, precluding naming. Hekate, a Greek goddess also associated with the boundary between the earth and the underworld, became attached to Diana as a name for her underworld aspect following Greek influence. Diana

1560-462: A dream "past the wit of man". At Quince's house, Quince and his team of actors worry that Bottom has gone missing. Quince laments that Bottom is the only man who can take on the lead role of Pyramus. Bottom returns and the actors get ready to put on "Pyramus and Thisbe". In the final scene of the play, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen perform Pyramus and Thisbe in Athens. The mechanicals are so terrible at playing their roles that

1716-467: A forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays. The Athenians: The Mechanicals: The Fairies: The play consists of several interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen Hippolyta . Most of

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1872-416: A golden cloak, purple half-boots, and a belt with a jeweled buckle to hold her tunic together, and wore her hair gathered in a ribbon. By the 5th century CE, almost a millennia after her cult's entry into Rome, the philosopher Proclus could still characterize Diana as "the inspective guardian of every thing rural, [who] represses every thing rustic and uncultivated." Diana was often considered an aspect of

2028-479: A horizontal bar. The iconographical analysis allows the dating of this image to the 6th century at which time there are Etruscan models. The coin shows that the triple goddess cult image still stood in the lucus of Nemi in 43 BCE. Lake Nemi was called Triviae lacus by Virgil ( Aeneid 7.516), while Horace called Diana montium custos nemoremque virgo ("keeper of the mountains and virgin of Nemi") and diva triformis ("three-form goddess"). Two heads found in

2184-532: A huntress and patron of hunters. Later, in the Hellenistic period , Diana came to be equally or more revered as a goddess not of the wild woodland but of the "tame" countryside, or villa rustica , the idealization of which was common in Greek thought and poetry. This dual role as goddess of both civilization and the wild, and therefore the civilized countryside, first applied to the Greek goddess Artemis (for example, in

2340-516: A large copy of an Ephesian Artemis statue for their temple on the Aventine Hill. Diana was usually depicted for educated Romans in her Greek guise. If she was shown accompanied by a deer, as in the Diana of Versailles , this is because Diana was the patroness of hunting. The deer may also offer a covert reference to the myth of Acteon (or Actaeon), who saw her bathing naked. Diana transformed Acteon into

2496-558: A late Republican coin as the Latin Diana "conceived as a threefold unity of the divine huntress, the Moon goddess and the goddess of the nether world, Hekate ". This coin, minted by P. Accoleius Lariscolus in 43 BCE, has been acknowledged as representing an archaic statue of Diana Nemorensis. It represents Artemis with the bow at one extremity, Luna-Selene with flowers at the other and a central deity not immediately identifiable, all united by

2652-477: A liminal "dark of the moon" period full of magical possibilities. This is further supported by Hippolyta's opening lines exclaiming "And then the moon, like to a silver bow New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night of our solemnities."; the thin crescent-shaped moon being the hallmark of the new moon's return to the skies each month. The play also intertwines the Midsummer Eve of the title with May Day , furthering

2808-441: A magical juice derived from a flower called " love-in-idleness ", which turns from white to purple when struck by Cupid's arrow. When the concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower with the hope that he might make Titania fall in love with an animal of the forest and thereby shame her into giving up

2964-512: A new annual program for 2010 at Bella Vista Farm. The Sydney Hills Shakespeare in the Park at the Bella Vista Farm premiered in December 2010 with Sport for Jove Theatre Company performing a repertory season of two Shakespeare plays, Romeo and Juliet & As You Like It. The Leura Shakespeare Festival is an outdoor Shakespeare Festival created by Sport For Jove Theatre Company and supported by

3120-415: A night of no Moon, but Lysander asserts that "there will be so much light in the very night they will escape that dew on the grass will be shining like liquid pearls." Also, in the next scene, Quince states that they will rehearse in moonlight, which creates a real confusion. It is possible that the Moon set during the night allowing Lysander to escape in the moonlight and for the actors to rehearse, then for

3276-436: A pair of divinities, worshiped as the sun and moon . Janus was said to receive sacrifices before all the others because, through him, the way of access to the desired deity is made apparent. Diana's mythology incorporated stories which were variants of earlier stories about Artemis. Possibly the most well-known of these is the myth of Actaeon . In Ovid 's version of this myth, part of his poem Metamorphoses , he tells of

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3432-438: A pool or grotto hidden in the wooded valley of Gargaphie. There, Diana, the goddess of the woods, would bathe and rest after a hunt. Actaeon, a young hunter, stumbled across the grotto and accidentally witnessed the goddess bathing without invitation. In retaliation, Diana splashed him with water from the pool, cursing him, and he transformed into a deer. His own hunting dogs caught his scent, and tore him apart. Ovid's version of

3588-484: A proper decorum . He found that the "more exalted characters" (the aristocrats of Athens) are subservient to the interests of those beneath them. In other words, the lower-class characters play larger roles than their betters and overshadow them. He found this to be a grave error of the writer. Malone thought that this play had to be an early and immature work of Shakespeare and, by implication, that an older writer would know better. Malone's main argument seems to derive from

3744-573: A rite of this sort actually occurred at the sanctuary, and no contemporary records exist that support the historical existence of the Rex Nemorensis . Rome hoped to unify into and control the Latin tribes around Nemi, so Diana's worship was imported to Rome as a show of political solidarity. Diana soon afterwards became Hellenized, and combined with the Greek goddess Artemis , "a process which culminated with

3900-557: A sense of laying down individual identity for the greater benefit of the group or pairing. It seems that a desire to lose one's individuality and find identity in the love of another is what quietly moves the events of A Midsummer Night's Dream . As the primary sense of motivation, this desire is reflected even in the scenery depictions and the story's overall mood. In his essay "Preposterous Pleasures: Queer Theories and A Midsummer Night's Dream", Douglas E. Green explores possible interpretations of alternative sexuality that he finds within

4056-402: A somewhat dark and dangerous connotation, as it metaphorically pointed the way to the underworld. In the 1st-century CE play Medea , Seneca's titular sorceress calls on Trivia to cast a magic spell. She evokes the triple goddess of Diana, Selene, and Hecate, and specifies that she requires the powers of the latter. The 1st century poet Horace similarly wrote of a magic incantation invoking

4212-692: A stag and set his own hunting dogs to kill him. In Campania , Diana had a major temple at Mount Tifata , near Capua . She was worshiped there as Diana Tifatina . This was one of the oldest sanctuaries in Campania. As a rural sanctuary, it included lands and estates that would have been worked by slaves following the Roman conquest of Campania, and records show that expansion and renovation projects at her temple were funded in part by other conquests by Roman military campaigns. The modern Christian church of Sant'Angelo in Formis

4368-474: A temple on the Vicus Patricius , which men either did not enter due to tradition, or were not allowed to enter. Plutarch related a legend that a man had attempted to assault a woman worshiping in this temple and was killed by a pack of dogs (echoing the myth of Diana and Actaeon), which resulted in a superstition against men entering the temple. A feature common to nearly all of Diana's temples and shrines by

4524-411: A text and not acted on stage. In 1863, Charles Cowden Clarke also wrote on this play. Kehler notes he was the husband of famous Shakespearean scholar Mary Cowden Clarke . Charles was more appreciative of the lower-class mechanicals of the play. He commented favourably on their individualisation and their collective richness of character. He thought that Bottom was conceited but good natured, and shows

4680-502: A time when Shakespeare devoted primary attention to the lyricism of his works. The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers' Company on 8 October 1600 by the bookseller Thomas Fisher, who published the first quarto edition later that year. A second quarto was printed in 1619 by William Jaggard , as part of his so-called False Folio . The play next appeared in print in

4836-463: A twin brother, Apollo , though she had an independent origin in Italy . Diana is considered a virgin goddess and protector of childbirth. Historically, Diana made up a triad with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius , the woodland god. Diana is revered in modern neopagan religions including Roman neopaganism , Stregheria , and Wicca . In

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4992-481: A type of haze through which distinction becomes nearly impossible. It is driven by a desire for new and more practical ties between characters as a means of coping with the strange world within the forest, even in relationships as diverse and seemingly unrealistic as the brief love between Titania and Bottom: "It was the tidal force of this social need that lent energy to relationships." The aesthetics scholar David Marshall draws out this theme even further by noting that

5148-450: Is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens , and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta . One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in

5304-484: Is apparently that of the Artemis Tauropolos . The literary amplification reveals a confused religious background: different versions of Artemis were conflated under the epithet. As far as Nemi's Diana is concerned there are two different versions, by Strabo and Servius Honoratus . Strabo's version looks to be the most authoritative as he had access to first-hand primary sources on the sanctuaries of Artemis, i.e.

5460-506: Is born first and will die last. He too gives origin to kingship and the first king, bestowing on him regal prerogatives. Diana, although a female deity, has exactly the same functions, preserving mankind through childbirth and royal succession. F. H. Pairault, in her essay on Diana, qualified Dumézil's theory as " impossible to verify ". Unlike the Greek gods , Roman gods were originally considered to be numina : divine powers of presence and will that did not necessarily have physical form. At

5616-601: Is guilty of "ungrateful treachery" to Hermia. He thought that this was a reflection of the lack of principles in women, who are more likely to follow their own passions and inclinations than men. Women, in his view, feel less abhorrence for moral evil , though they are concerned with its outward consequences. Coleridge was probably the earliest critic to introduce gender issues to the analysis of this play. Kehler dismisses his views on Helena as indications of Coleridge's own misogyny , rather than genuine reflections of Helena's morality. In 1837, William Maginn produced essays on

5772-507: Is in turn supported by the triple statue of Artemis-Hecate. In Rome, Diana was regarded with great reverence and was a patroness of lower-class citizens, called plebeians , as well as slaves , who could receive asylum in her temples. Georg Wissowa proposed that this might be because the first slaves of the Romans were Latins of the neighboring tribes. However, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus had

5928-542: Is not a translation or adaptation of an earlier work, various sources such as Ovid 's Metamorphoses and Chaucer 's " The Knight's Tale " served as inspiration. Aristophanes ' classical Greek comedy The Birds (also set in the countryside near Athens) has been proposed as a source due to the fact that both Procne and Titania are awakened by male characters (Hoopoe and Bottom the Weaver) who have animal heads and who sing two-stanza songs about birds. According to John Twyning,

6084-505: Is recognizably modern criticism." Diana (mythology) Diana is a goddess in Roman and Hellenistic religion , primarily considered a patroness of the countryside and nature, hunters, wildlife, childbirth, crossroads, the night, and the Moon. She is equated with the Greek goddess Artemis , and absorbed much of Artemis' mythology early in Roman history, including a birth on the island of Delos to parents Jupiter and Latona , and

6240-557: Is referred to with the archaic Latin name of deva Cornisca and where existed a collegium of worshippers; at Évora, Portugal; Mount Algidus, also near Tusculum; at Lavinium ; and at Tibur (Tivoli), where she is referred to as Diana Opifera Nemorensis . Diana was also worshiped at a sacred wood mentioned by Livy – ad compitum Anagninum (near Anagni ), and on Mount Tifata in Campania. According to Plutarch , men and women alike were worshipers of Diana and were welcomed into all of her temples. The one exception seems to have been

6396-423: Is their representation in art, where the action is self-reflective. Snider viewed Titania and her caprice as solely to blame for her marital strife with Oberon. She therefore deserves punishment, and Oberon is a dutiful husband who provides her with one. For failing to live in peace with Oberon and her kind, Titania is sentenced to fall in love with a human. And this human, unlike Oberon is a "horrid brute". Towards

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6552-472: Is usually depicted in art wearing a women's chiton, shortened in the kolpos style to facilitate mobility during hunting, with a hunting bow and quiver, and often accompanied by hunting dogs. A 1st-century BCE Roman coin (see above) depicted her with a unique, short hairstyle, and in triple form, with one form holding a bow and another holding a poppy . When worship of Apollo was first introduced to Rome, Diana became conflated with Apollo's sister Artemis as in

6708-625: The Alban Hills near Aricia , where she was worshiped as Diana Nemorensis , or ("Diana of the Sylvan Glade"). According to legendary accounts, the sanctuary was founded by Orestes and Iphigenia after they fled from the Tauri . In this tradition, the Nemi sanctuary was supposedly built on the pattern of an earlier Temple of Artemis Tauropolos, and the first cult statue at Nemi was said to have been stolen from

6864-564: The First Folio of 1623. The title page of Q1 states that the play was "sundry times publickely acted" prior to 1600. According to Sukanta Chaudhuri, editor of the 2017 Arden edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, "The only firm evidence for the date of Dream is its mention in Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia, which appeared in 1598" (p. 283). Chaudhuri's exhaustive investigation of its original date of performance points to 1595 or 1596 (likely for

7020-709: The National Trust . The festival has performed works in two different locations Everglades, Leura and The Norman Lindsay Gallery . The outdoor festival in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney had its inaugural season in 2011. Sport For Jove Theatre Company partnered with The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust and sponsored by The Sydney Morning Herald Autumn Festival of Arts performed two plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It in March. The Festival also included

7176-564: The Rex Nemorensis , was always an escaped slave who could only obtain the position by defeating his predecessor in a fight to the death. Sir James George Frazer wrote of this sacred grove in The Golden Bough , basing his interpretation on brief remarks in Strabo (5.3.12), Pausanias (2,27.24) and Servius ' commentary on the Aeneid (6.136). The legend tells of a tree that stood in the center of

7332-457: The classism of his era. He assumes that the aristocrats had to receive more attention in the narrative and to be more important, more distinguished, and better than the lower class. According to Kehler, significant 19th-century criticism began in 1808 with August Wilhelm Schlegel . Schlegel perceived unity in the multiple plot lines. He noted that the donkey's head is not a random transformation, but reflects Bottom's true nature. He identified

7488-459: The "sexual blood shed by 'virgins'". While blood as a result of menstruation is representative of a woman's power, blood as a result of a first sexual encounter represents man's power over women. There are points in the play, however, when there is an absence of patriarchal control. In his book Power on Display , Leonard Tennenhouse says the problem in A Midsummer Night's Dream is the problem of "authority gone archaic". The Athenian law requiring

7644-415: The 1840s, found that there were many inconsistencies in the play, but considered it the most beautiful poetical drama ever written. In 1849, Charles Knight also wrote about the play and its apparent lack of proper social stratification . He thought that this play indicated Shakespeare's maturity as a playwright, and that its "Thesean harmony" reflects proper decorum of character. He also viewed Bottom as

7800-414: The 3rd century BCE poetry of Anacreon ). By the 3rd century CE, after Greek influence had a profound impact on Roman religion, Diana had been almost fully combined with Artemis and took on many of her attributes, both in her spiritual domains and in the description of her appearance. The Roman poet Nemesianus wrote a typical description of Diana: She carried a bow and a quiver full of golden arrows, wore

7956-662: The Etruscans and the Latins by the 6th and 5th centuries BCE. Evidence suggests that a confrontation occurred between two groups of Etruscans who fought for supremacy, those from Tarquinia , Vulci and Caere (allied with the Greeks of Capua) and those of Clusium . This is reflected in the legend of the coming of Orestes to Nemi and of the inhumation of his bones in the Roman Forum near the temple of Saturn. The cult introduced by Orestes at Nemi

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8112-445: The Roman state religion. In personal or family worship, Diana was brought to the level of other household spirits, and was believed to have a vested interest in the prosperity of the household and the continuation of the family. The Roman poet Horace regarded Diana as a household goddess in his Odes , and had an altar dedicated to her in his villa where household worship could be conducted. In his poetry, Horace deliberately contrasted

8268-545: The Tauri and brought to Nemi by Orestes. Historical evidence suggests that worship of Diana at Nemi flourished from at least the 6th century BCE until the 2nd century CE. Her cult there was first attested in Latin literature by Cato the Elder , in a surviving quote by the late grammarian Priscian . By the 4th century BCE, the simple shrine at Nemi had been joined by a temple complex. The sanctuary served an important political role as it

8424-549: The action occurs in the woodland realm of Fairyland , under the light of the moon. The play opens with Theseus and Hippolyta who are four days away from their wedding. Theseus is unhappy about how long he has to wait while Hippolyta thinks it will pass by like a dream. Theseus is confronted by Egeus and his daughter Hermia , who is in love with Lysander , and resistant to her father's demand that she marry Demetrius, whom he has arranged for her to marry. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus, whereby

8580-449: The ancient, medieval, and modern periods, Diana has been considered a triple deity , merged with a goddess of the moon ( Luna / Selene ) and the underworld (usually Hecate ). The name Dīāna probably derives from Latin dīus ('godly'), ultimately from Proto-Italic *dīwī , meaning 'divine, heavenly'. It stems from Proto-Indo-European *diwyós ('divine, heavenly'), formed with the stem * dyew- ('daylight sky') attached

8736-553: The antiquity of her cult is to be found in the lex regia of King Tullus Hostilius that condemns those guilty of incest to the sacratio to Diana. She had a temple in Rome on the Aventine Hill , according to tradition dedicated by king Servius Tullius . Its location is remarkable as the Aventine is situated outside the pomerium , i.e. original territory of the city, in order to comply with

8892-554: The appearance of Diana beside Apollo [the brother of Artemis] in the first lectisternium at Rome" in 399 BCE. The process of identification between the two goddesses probably began when artists who were commissioned to create new cult statues for Diana's temples outside Nemi were struck by the similar attributes between Diana and the more familiar Artemis, and sculpted Diana in a manner inspired by previous depictions of Artemis. Sibyllene influence and trade with Massilia , where similar cult statues of Artemis existed, would have completed

9048-566: The basis of topical references and an allusion to Edmund Spenser 's Epithalamion , it is usually dated 1595 or early 1596. Some have theorised that the play might have been written for an aristocratic wedding (for example that of Thomas Berkeley and Elizabeth Carey ), while others suggest that it was written for the Queen to celebrate the feast day of St. John , but no evidence exists to support this theory. In any case, it would have been performed at The Theatre and, later, The Globe . Though it

9204-442: The best-drawn character, with his self-confidence, authority, and self-love. He argued that Bottom stands as a representative of the whole human race. Like Hazlitt he felt that the work is best appreciated when read as a text, rather than acted on stage. He found the writing to be "subtle and ethereal", and standing above literary criticism and its reductive reasoning. Also in 1849, Georg Gottfried Gervinus wrote extensively about

9360-570: The caprices of superficial love, and they lack in intellect, feeling, and ethics. Gervinus also wrote on where the fairyland of the play is located. Not in Attica , but in the Indies . His views on the Indies seem to Kehler to be influenced by Orientalism . He speaks of the Indies as scented with the aroma of flowers, and as the place where mortals live in the state of a half-dream. Gervinus denies and devalues

9516-585: The company's artistic director Damien Ryan. The production was reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald as the "pinnacle of Shakespeare in Sydney this century". The production performed at the Everglades, Leura as the 15th anniversary of the festival. Sport for Jove Theatre Company is currently developing its education program Y Shakespeare . A Midsummer Night%27s Dream A Midsummer Night's Dream

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9672-442: The couples are married. Marriage is seen as the ultimate social achievement for women while men can go on to do many other great things and gain social recognition. In The Imperial Votaress , Louis Montrose draws attention to male and female gender roles and norms present in the comedy in connection with Elizabethan culture. In reference to the triple wedding, he says, "The festive conclusion in A Midsummer Night's Dream depends upon

9828-448: The duchess and ladies enough for the Duke and Lords to have the players hanged . Snug remarks that he needs Lion's part because he is "slow of study". Quince assures Snug that the role of the lion is "nothing but roaring." Quince then ends the meeting by telling his actors "At the Duke's oak we meet". In a parallel plot line, Oberon , king of the fairies, and Titania , his queen, have come to

9984-495: The earlier Greek myths, and as such she became identified as the daughter of Apollo's parents Latona and Jupiter. Though Diana was usually considered to be a virgin goddess like Artemis, later authors sometimes attributed consorts and children to her. According to Cicero and Ennius , Trivia (an epithet of Diana) and Caelus were the parents of Janus , as well as of Saturn and Ops . According to Macrobius (who cited Nigidius Figulus and Cicero ), Janus and Jana (Diana) are

10140-459: The early Greek colony of Cumae had a cult of Hekate and certainly had contacts with the Latins ). A theater in her sanctuary at Lake Nemi included a pit and tunnel that would have allowed actors to easily descend on one side of the stage and ascend on the other, indicating a connection between the phases of the moon and a descent by the moon goddess into the underworld. It is likely that her underworld aspect in her original Latin worship did not have

10296-415: The end of the 19th century, Georg Brandes (1895–6) and Frederick S. Boas (1896) were the last major additions to A Midsummer Night's Dream criticism. Brandes' approach anticipates later psychological readings , seeing Oberon's magic as symbolic and "typifying the sorcery of the erotic imagination". Brandes felt that in the play, Shakespeare looks inward at the "domain of the unconscious". Boas eschews

10452-644: The entire world worships my single godhead in a thousand shapes, with divers rites, and under many a different name. The Phrygians, first-born of mankind, call me the Pessinuntian Mother of the gods; the native Athenians the Cecropian Minerva; the island-dwelling Cypriots Paphian Venus; the archer Cretans Dictynnan Diana; the triple-tongued Sicilians Stygian Proserpine; the ancient Eleusinians Actaean Ceres; some call me Juno, some Bellona, others Hecate, others Rhamnusia; but both races of Ethiopians, those on whom

10608-457: The extraordinary effects of magic . Based on this reasoning, Dryden defended the merits of three fantasy plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream , The Tempest , and Ben Jonson 's The Masque of Queens . Charles Gildon in the early 18th century recommended this play for its beautiful reflections, descriptions, similes, and topics. Gildon thought that Shakespeare drew inspiration from the works of Ovid and Virgil , and that he could read them in

10764-455: The fact that she turns darkness into daylight (dies) . She is invoked at childbirth because children are born occasionally after seven, or usually after nine, lunar revolutions ... The persona of Diana is complex, and contains a number of archaic features. Diana was originally considered to be a goddess of the wilderness and of the hunt, a central sport in both Roman and Greek culture. Early Roman inscriptions to Diana celebrated her primarily as

10920-466: The fate of other celestial gods in Indoeuropean religions – that of becoming dei otiosi , or gods without practical purpose, since they did retain a particular sort of influence over the world and mankind. The celestial character of Diana is reflected in her connection with inaccessibility, virginity, light, and her preference for dwelling on high mountains and in sacred woods. Diana, therefore, reflects

11076-445: The flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. As Titania is lulled to sleep by her fairies, Oberon sneaks up and places the flower juice on her eyes, exiting the stage afterwards. Lysander and Hermia enter, lost and exhausted from the journey. Hermia rejects Lysander's advances to sleep together, and the two lie down on different corners. Puck enters and mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having seen either before, and administers

11232-455: The forerunner of all frame gods is an Indian epic hero who was the image ( avatar ) of the Vedic god Dyaus. Having renounced the world, in his roles of father and king, he attained the status of an immortal being while retaining the duty of ensuring that his dynasty is preserved and that there is always a new king for each generation. The Scandinavian god Heimdallr performs an analogous function: he

11388-454: The forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until she has attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman" since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshippers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania. He calls upon Robin " Puck " Goodfellow, his "shrewd and knavish sprite", to help him concoct

11544-474: The forest, near Titania's bower , for their rehearsal. Quince leads the actors in their rehearsal of the play. Bottom is spotted by Puck, who (taking his name to be another word for a jackass ) transforms his head into that of a donkey . When Bottom returns for his next lines, the other workmen run screaming in terror: They claim that they are haunted, much to Bottom's confusion. Determined to await his friends, he begins to sing to himself. Titania, having received

11700-479: The glade. Once they fall asleep, Puck administers the love potion to Lysander again, returning his love to Hermia again, and cast another spell over the four Athenian lovers, claiming all will be well in the morning. Once they awaken, the lovers assume that whatever happened was a dream and not reality. Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania and orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom. The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on

11856-401: The goddess Aphrodite . According to Ovid 's Metamorphoses , Aphrodite took the orphaned infant Adonis to the underworld to be raised by Persephone . He grew to be a beautiful young man, and when Aphrodite returned to retrieve him, Persephone did not want to let him go. Zeus settled the dispute by giving Adonis one-third of the year with Persephone, one-third of the year with Aphrodite, and

12012-506: The goddess of childbirth and ruled over the countryside. Catullus wrote a poem to Diana in which she has more than one alias: Latonia, Lucina , Juno , Trivia, Luna . Along with Mars , Diana was often venerated at games held in Roman amphitheaters, and some inscriptions from the Danubian provinces show that she was conflated with Nemesis in this role, as Diana Nemesis . Outside of Italy, Diana had important centers of worship where she

12168-531: The grove and was heavily guarded. No one was allowed to break off its limbs, with the exception of a runaway slave, who was allowed, if he could, to break off one of the boughs. He was then in turn granted the privilege to engage the Rex Nemorensis, the current king and priest of Diana, in a fight to the death. If the slave prevailed, he became the next king for as long as he could defeat his challengers. However, Joseph Fontenrose criticised Frazer's assumption that

12324-428: The guests laugh as if it were meant to be a comedy, and everyone retires to bed. Afterwards, Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with good fortune. After all the other characters leave, Puck "restores amends" and suggests that what the audience experienced might just be a dream. It is unknown exactly when A Midsummer Night's Dream was written or first performed, but on

12480-556: The halls of the Apuleius restaurant. Later temple dedications often were based on the model for ritual formulas and regulations of the Temple of Diana. Roman politicians built several minor temples to Diana elsewhere in Rome to secure public support. One of these was built in the Campus Martius in 187 BCE; no Imperial period records of this temple have been found, and it is possible it

12636-426: The heavenly world in its sovereignty, supremacy, impassibility, and indifference towards such secular matters as the fates of mortals and states. At the same time, however, she is seen as active in ensuring the succession of kings and in the preservation of humankind through the protection of childbirth. These functions are apparent in the traditional institutions and cults related to the goddess: According to Dumezil,

12792-502: The idea of a confusion of time and the seasons. This is evidenced by Theseus commenting on some slumbering youths, that they "observe The rite of May". Maurice Hunt, former Chair of the English Department at Baylor University , writes of the blurring of the identities of fantasy and reality in the play that make possible "that pleasing, narcotic dreaminess associated with the fairies of the play". By emphasising this theme, even in

12948-605: The juice to the sleeping Lysander. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep. Upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Helena, thinking Lysander is mocking her, runs away. Lysander follows her. When Hermia wakes up after dreaming a snake ate her heart, she sees that Lysander is gone and goes out in the woods to find him. Meanwhile, Quince and his band of five labourers ("rude mechanicals ", as Puck describes them) have arranged to perform their play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus's wedding and venture into

13104-495: The kinds of grand, elevated hymns to Diana on behalf of the entire Roman state, the kind of worship that would have been typical at her Aventine temple, with a more personal form of devotion. Images of Diana and her associated myths have been found on sarcophagi of wealthy Romans. They often included scenes depicting sacrifices to the goddess, and on at least one example, the deceased man is shown joining Diana's hunt. Since ancient times, philosophers and theologians have examined

13260-520: The lands inhabited by Latins. Her primary sanctuary was a woodland grove overlooking Lake Nemi , a body of water also known as "Diana's Mirror", where she was worshiped as Diana Nemorensis , or "Diana of the Wood". In Rome, the cult of Diana may have been almost as old as the city itself. Varro mentions her in the list of deities to whom king Titus Tatius promised to build a shrine. His list included Luna and Diana Lucina as separate entities. Another testimony to

13416-419: The late 2nd century, depicted the goddess declaring: "I come, Lucius, moved by your entreaties: I, mother of the universe, mistress of all the elements, first-born of the ages, highest of the gods, queen of the shades, first of those who dwell in heaven, representing in one shape all gods and goddesses. My will controls the shining heights of heaven, the health-giving sea-winds, and the mournful silences of hell;

13572-543: The legend Orestes founded Nemi together with Iphigenia. At Cuma the Sybil is the priestess of both Phoibos and Trivia. Hesiod and Stesichorus tell the story according to which after her death Iphigenia was divinised under the name of Hecate, a fact which would support the assumption that Artemis Tauropolos had a real ancient alliance with the heroine, who was her priestess in Taurid and her human paragon. This religious complex

13728-431: The literal meaning of "helper" – Diana as Juno Lucina would be the "helper of childbirth". According to a theory proposed by Georges Dumézil , Diana falls into a particular subset of celestial gods, referred to in histories of religion as frame gods . Such gods, while keeping the original features of celestial divinities (i.e. transcendent heavenly power and abstention from direct rule in worldly matters), did not share

13884-404: The little Indian boy. He says, "And ere I take this charm from off her sight, / As I can take it with another herb, / I'll make her render up her page to me." Helena and Demetrius enter, with her continuously making advances towards Demetrius, promising to love him more than Hermia. However, he rebuffs her with cruel insults. Observing this, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from

14040-590: The loss of identity reaches its fullness in the description of the mechanicals and their assumption of other identities. In describing the occupations of the acting troupe, he writes "Two construct or put together, two mend and repair, one weaves and one sews. All join together what is apart or mend what has been rent, broken, or sundered." In Marshall's opinion, this loss of individual identity not only blurs specificities, it creates new identities found in community, which Marshall points out may lead to some understanding of Shakespeare's opinions on love and marriage. Further,

14196-557: The love potion, is awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him. (In the words of the play, "Titania waked, and straightway loved an ass.") She lavishes him with the attention of her and her fairies, and while she is in this state of devotion, Oberon takes the changeling boy. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia. When Demetrius goes to sleep, Oberon condemns Puck's mistake and sends him to get Helena while he charms Demetrius's eyes. Upon waking up, he sees Lysander and Helena and instantly falls for her. Now, under

14352-409: The lovers and by applying a love potion to Queen Titania's eyes, forcing her to fall in love with an ass. In the forest, both couples are beset by problems. Hermia and Lysander are both met by Puck, who provides some comic relief in the play by confounding the four lovers in the forest. However, the play also alludes to serious themes. At the end of the play, Hippolyta and Theseus, happily married, watch

14508-440: The lovers for their disobedience. According to Tennenhouse, by forgiving the lovers, he has made a distinction between the law of the patriarch (Egeus) and that of the monarch (Theseus), creating two different voices of authority. This can be compared to the time of Elizabeth I , in which monarchs were seen as having two bodies: the body natural and the body politic. Tennenhouse says that Elizabeth's succession itself represented both

14664-438: The loyalty of Titania to her friend. He views this supposed friendship as not grounded in spiritual association. Titania merely "delight[s] in her beauty, her 'swimming gait,' and her powers of imitation". Gervinus further views Titania as an immoral character for not trying to reconcile with her husband. In her resentment, Titania seeks separation from him, for which Gervinus blames her. Gervinus wrote with elitist disdain about

14820-442: The mechanicals of the play and their acting aspirations. He described them as homely creatures with "hard hands and thick heads". They are, in his view, ignorant men who compose and act in plays merely for financial reward. They are not real artists. Gervinus reserves his praise and respect only for Theseus, who he thinks represents the intellectual man. Like several of his predecessors, Gervinus thought that this work should be read as

14976-403: The mechanicals understand this theme as they take on their individual parts for a corporate performance of Pyramus and Thisbe. Marshall remarks that "To be an actor is to double and divide oneself, to discover oneself in two parts: both oneself and not oneself, both the part and not the part." He claims that the mechanicals understand this and that each character, particularly among the lovers, has

15132-475: The moon as one and the same. ... the moon (luna) is so called from the verb to shine (lucere) . Lucina is identified with it, which is why in our country they invoke Juno Lucina in childbirth, just as the Greeks call on Diana the Light-bearer. Diana also has the name Omnivaga ("wandering everywhere"), not because of her hunting but because she is numbered as one of the seven planets; her name Diana derives from

15288-539: The myth of Actaeon differs from most earlier sources. Unlike earlier myths about Artemis, Actaeon is killed for an innocent mistake, glimpsing Diana bathing. An earlier variant of this myth, known as the Bath of Pallas , had the hunter intentionally spy on the bathing goddess Pallas (Athena), and earlier versions of the myth involving Artemis did not involve the bath at all. Diana was an ancient goddess common to all Latin tribes. Therefore, many sanctuaries were dedicated to her in

15444-432: The nature of Diana in light of her worship traditions, attributes, mythology, and identification with other gods. Diana was initially a hunting goddess and goddess of the local woodland at Nemi, but as her worship spread, she acquired attributes of other similar goddesses. As she became conflated with Artemis, she became a moon goddess , identified with the other lunar goddesses goddess Luna and Hekate . She also became

15600-429: The original Latin and not in later translations. William Duff , writing in the 1770s, also recommended this play. He felt the depiction of the supernatural was among Shakespeare's strengths, not weaknesses. He especially praised the poetry and wit of the fairies, and the quality of the verse involved. His contemporary Francis Gentleman , an admirer of Shakespeare, was much less appreciative of this play. He felt that

15756-424: The other in the relationship, that drives the rest of the drama in the story and makes it dangerous for any of the other lovers to come together due to the disturbance of Nature caused by a fairy dispute. Similarly, this failure to identify and to distinguish is what leads Puck to mistake one set of lovers for another in the forest, placing the flower's juice on Lysander's eyes instead of Demetrius'. Victor Kiernan,

15912-452: The plan and he follows them in hopes of finding Hermia, his true lover. The mechanicals , Peter Quince and fellow players Nick Bottom , Francis Flute , Robin Starveling , Tom Snout and Snug plan to put on a play for the wedding of the Duke and the Queen, "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe ". Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them on

16068-407: The play about the unfortunate lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, and are able to enjoy and laugh at it. Helena and Demetrius are both oblivious to the dark side of their love, totally unaware of what may have come of the events in the forest. There is a dispute over the scenario of the play as it is cited at first by Theseus that "four happy days bring in another moon". The wood episode then takes place at

16224-538: The play as ethical treatise or psychological study and instead takes a more historicist and literal approach. To Boas the play is, despite its fantastical and exotic trappings, "essentially English and Elizabethan". He sees Theseus as a Tudor noble; Helena a mere plot device to "concentrate the four lovers on a single spot"; and the Pyramus and Thisbe play-within-the-play a parody of a prominent topos of contemporary plays. Summing up their contributions, Kehler writes: "This

16380-492: The play is integrated with a historically specific upper-class celebration." Wiles argued in 1993 that the play was written to celebrate the Carey-Berkeley wedding. The date of the wedding was fixed to coincide with a conjunction of Venus and the new moon, highly propitious for conceiving an heir. David Bevington argues that the play represents the dark side of love. He writes that the fairies make light of love by mistaking

16536-450: The play should be viewed as a dream. He cited the lightness of the characterisation as supporting of his view. In 1881, Edward Dowden argued that Theseus and his reflections on art are central to the play. He also argued that Theseus was one of the "heroic men of action" so central to Shakespeare's theatrical works. Both Horace Howard Furness and Henry Austin Clapp were more concerned with

16692-421: The play's plot of four lovers undergoing a trial in the woods was intended as a "riff" on Der Busant , a Middle High German poem. According to Dorothea Kehler, the writing period can be placed between 1594 and 1596, which means that Shakespeare had probably already completed Romeo and Juliet and was still in contemplation of The Merchant of Venice . The play belongs to the author's early-middle period,

16848-528: The play's quality. In 1887, Denton Jacques Snider argued that the play should be read as a dialectic , either between understanding and imagination or between prose and poetry. He also viewed the play as representing three phases or movements. The first is the Real World of the play, which represents reason. The second is the Fairy World, an ideal world which represents imagination and the supernatural. The third

17004-652: The play. He denied the theory that this play should be seen as a dream. He argued that it should be seen as an ethical construct and an allegory . He thought that it was an allegorical depiction of the errors of sensual love, which is likened to a dream. In his view, Hermia lacks in filial obedience and acts as if devoid of conscience when she runs away with Lysander. Lysander is also guilty for disobeying and mocking his prospective father-in-law. Pyramus and Thisbe also lack in filial obedience, since they "woo by moonlight" behind their parents' backs. The fairies, in his view, should be seen as "personified dream gods". They represent

17160-558: The play. He turned his attention to Theseus' speech about "the lunatic, the lover, and the poet" and to Hippolyta's response to it. He regarded Theseus as the voice of Shakespeare himself and the speech as a call for imaginative audiences. He also viewed Bottom as a lucky man on whom Fortune showered favours beyond measure. He was particularly amused by the way Bottom reacts to the love of the fairy queen : completely unfazed. Maginn argued that "Theseus would have bent in reverent awe before Titania. Bottom treats her as carelessly as if she were

17316-468: The players. Nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time. Quince insists that Bottom can only play the role of Pyramus. Bottom would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles . Bottom is told by Quince that he would do the Lion so terribly as to frighten

17472-531: The poet Ennius . Though the Capitoline Triad were the primary state gods of Rome, early Roman myth did not assign a strict hierarchy to the gods the way Greek mythology did, though the Greek hierarchy would eventually be adopted by Roman religion as well. Once Greek influence had caused Diana to be considered identical to the Greek goddess Artemis , Diana acquired Artemis's physical description, attributes, and variants of her myths as well. Like Artemis, Diana

17628-417: The poetry, the characterisation, and the originality of the play were its strengths, but that its major weaknesses were a "puerile" plot and that it consists of an odd mixture of incidents. The connection of the incidents to each other seemed rather forced to Gentleman. Edmond Malone , a Shakespearean scholar and critic of the late 18th century, found another supposed flaw in this particular play, its lack of

17784-576: The power of both Diana and Proserpina. The symbol of the crossroads is relevant to several aspects of Diana's domain. It can symbolize the paths hunters may encounter in the forest, lit only by the full moon; this symbolizes making choices "in the dark" without the light of guidance. Diana's role as a goddess of the underworld, or at least of ushering people between life and death, caused her early on to be conflated with Hecate (and occasionally also with Proserpina ). However, her role as an underworld goddess appears to pre-date strong Greek influence (though

17940-425: The priest of Artemis Artemidoros of Ephesus. The meaning of Tauropolos denotes an Asiatic goddess with lunar attributes, lady of the herds. The only possible interpretatio graeca of high antiquity concerning Diana Nemorensis could have been the one based on this ancient aspect of a deity of light, master of wildlife. Tauropolos is an ancient epithet attached to Artemis, Hecate , and even Athena . According to

18096-400: The problem of the play's duration, though they held opposing views. Clapp, writing in 1885, commented on the inconsistency of the time depicted in the play, as it should take place in four days and nights and seems to last less than two, and felt that this added to the unrealistic quality of the play. Furness, defending the play in 1895, felt that the apparent inconsistency did not detract from

18252-459: The process. According to Françoise Hélène Pairault's study, historical and archaeological evidence point to the fact that the characteristics given to both Diana of the Aventine Hill and Diana Nemorensis were the product of the direct or indirect influence of the cult of Artemis, which was spread by the Phoceans among the Greek towns of Campania Cuma and Capua , who in turn had passed it over to

18408-447: The proposition that although we encounter A Midsummer Night's Dream as a text, it was historically part of an aristocratic carnival. It was written for a wedding, and part of the festive structure of the wedding night. The audience who saw the play in the public theatre in the months that followed became vicarious participants in an aristocratic festival from which they were physically excluded. My purpose will be to demonstrate how closely

18564-412: The provincial nature of Diana's cult. The poet Statius wrote of the festival: Statius describes the triple nature of the goddess by invoking heavenly (the stars), earthly (the grove itself) and underworld (Hecate) imagery. He also suggests by the garlanding of the dogs and polishing of the spears that no hunting was allowed during the festival. Legend has it that Diana's high priest at Nemi, known as

18720-591: The remaining third where he chose. Adonis chose to spend two-thirds of the year with his paramour, Aphrodite. He bled to death in his lover's arms after being gored by a boar. Mythology has various stories attributing the colour of certain flowers to staining by the blood of Adonis or Aphrodite. The story of Venus and Adonis was well known to the Elizabethans and inspired many works, including Shakespeare's own hugely popular narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , written while London's theatres were closed because of plague. It

18876-422: The same custom of the asylum. Worship of Diana probably spread into the city of Rome beginning around 550 BCE, during her Hellenization and combination with the Greek goddess Artemis. Diana was first worshiped along with her brother and mother, Apollo and Latona , in their temple in the Campus Martius , and later in the Temple of Apollo Palatinus . The first major temple dedicated primarily to Diana in

19032-575: The same time the first temples to Vertumnus (who was associated with Diana) were built in Rome (264 BCE). The misconception that the Aventine Temple was inspired by the Ephesian Temple might originate in the fact that the cult images and statues used at the former were based heavily on those found in the latter. Whatever its initial construction date, records show that the Avantine Temple

19188-442: The sanctuary and the Roman theatre at Nemi, which have a hollow on their back, lend support to this interpretation of an archaic triple Diana. The earliest epithet of Diana was Trivia , and she was addressed with that title by Virgil, Catullus, and many others. "Trivia" comes from the Latin trivium , "triple way", and refers to Diana's guardianship over roadways, particularly Y-junctions or three-way crossroads. This role carried

19344-493: The scene, during an early morning hunt. They find the lovers still sleeping in the glade. They wake up the lovers and, since Demetrius no longer loves Hermia, Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers at first believe they are still in a dream and cannot recall what has happened. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream, as they walk back to Athens. After they exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced

19500-446: The second century CE was the hanging up of stag antlers. Plutarch noted that the only exception to this was the temple on the Aventine Hill, in which bull horns had been hung up instead. Plutarch explains this by way of reference to a legend surrounding the sacrifice of an impressive Sabine bull by King Servius at the founding of the Aventine temple. Diana's worship may have originated at an open-air sanctuary overlooking Lake Nemi in

19656-413: The setting of the play, Shakespeare prepares the reader's mind to accept the fantastic reality of the fairy world and its happenings. This also seems to be the axis around which the plot conflicts in the play occur. Hunt suggests that it is the breaking down of individual identities that leads to the central conflict in the story. It is the brawl between Oberon and Titania, based on a lack of recognition for

19812-479: The spell, the two men have fallen for her. However, Helena is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. Hermia finds Lysander and asks why he left her, but Lysander claims he never loved Hermia, instead loving Helena. This soon turns into a quarrel between the two ladies, with Helena chiding Hermia for joining in the mockery session, followed by the latter furiously charging at her for stealing her true love's heart and blaming her for

19968-430: The story must be considered in the context of the "culture of early modern England" as a commentary on the "aesthetic rigidities of comic form and political ideologies of the prevailing order". Male dominance is one thematic element found in the play. In A Midsummer Night's Dream , Lysander and Hermia escape into the woods for a night where they do not fall under the laws of Theseus or Egeus. Upon their arrival in Athens,

20124-496: The success of a process by which the feminine pride and power manifested in Amazon warriors, possessive mothers, unruly wives, and wilful daughters are brought under the control of lords and husbands." He says that the consummation of marriage is how power over a woman changes hands from father to husband. A connection is drawn between flowers and sexuality. Montrose sees the juice employed by Oberon as symbolising menstrual blood as well as

20280-495: The supposed 'mockery'. Oberon and Puck decide that they must resolve this conflict, and by the morning, none of them will have any memory of what happened, as if it were a dream. Oberon arranges everything so Helena, Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander will all believe they have been dreaming when they awaken. Puck distracts Lysander and Demetrius from fighting over Helena's love by mimicking their voices and leading them apart. Eventually, all four find themselves separately falling asleep in

20436-456: The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe as a burlesque of the Athenian lovers. In 1817, William Hazlitt found the play to be better as a written work than a staged production. He found the work to be "a delightful fiction" but when staged, it is reduced to a dull pantomime . He concluded that poetry and the stage do not fit together. Kehler finds the comment to be more of an indication of the quality of

20592-435: The temple there also offered care of pups and pregnant dogs. This care of infants also extended to the training of both young people and dogs, especially for hunting. In her role as a protector of childbirth, Diana was called Diana Lucina , Diana Lucifera or even Juno Lucina , because her domain overlapped with that of the goddess Juno. The title of Juno may also have had an independent origin as it applied to Diana, with

20748-408: The text of the play, in juxtaposition to the proscribed social mores of the culture at the time the play was written. He writes that his essay "does not (seek to) rewrite A Midsummer Night's Dream as a gay play but rather explores some of its 'homoerotic significations' ... moments of 'queer' disruption and eruption in this Shakespearean comedy." Green does not consider Shakespeare to have been

20904-422: The theatrical productions available to Hazlitt, rather than a true indication of the play's supposed unsuitability to the stage. She notes that prior to the 1840s, all stage productions of this play were adaptations unfaithful to the original text. In 1811–1812, Samuel Taylor Coleridge made two points of criticism about this play. The first was that the entire play should be seen as a dream . Second, that Helena

21060-622: The thematic suffix - yós . Cognates appear in Myceanean Greek di-wi-ja , in Ancient Greek dîos ( δῖος ; 'belonging to heaven, godlike'), and in Sanskrit divyá ('heavenly' or 'celestial'). The ancient Latin writers Varro and Cicero considered the etymology of Dīāna as allied to that of dies and connected to the shine of the Moon, noting that one of her titles is Diana Lucifera ("light-bearer"). ... people regard Diana and

21216-408: The time Rome was founded, Diana and the other major Roman gods probably did not have much mythology per se, or any depictions in human form. The idea of gods as having anthropomorphic qualities and human-like personalities and actions developed later, under the influence of Greek and Etruscan religion. By the 3rd century BCE, Diana is found listed among the twelve major gods of the Roman pantheon by

21372-430: The tradition that Diana was a goddess common to all Latins and not exclusively of the Romans. Being placed on the Aventine, and thus outside the pomerium , meant that Diana's cult essentially remained a foreign one, like that of Bacchus ; she was never officially transferred to Rome as Juno was after the sack of Veii . Other known sanctuaries and temples to Diana include Colle di Corne near Tusculum , where she

21528-400: The vicinity of Rome was the Temple of Diana Aventina (Diana of the Aventine Hill ). According to the Roman historian Livy , the construction of this temple began in the 6th century BCE and was inspired by stories of the massive Temple of Artemis at Ephesus , which was said to have been built through the combined efforts of all the cities of Asia Minor . Legend has it that Servius Tullius

21684-483: The views of Platonism . In his view, Shakespeare implied that human life is nothing but a dream, suggesting influence from Plato and his followers who thought human reality is deprived of all genuine existence. Ulrici noted the way Theseus and Hippolyta behave here, like ordinary people. He agreed with Malone that this did not fit their stations in life, but viewed this behaviour as an indication of parody about class differences. James Halliwell-Phillipps , writing in

21840-541: The voice of a patriarch and the voice of a monarch: (1) her father's will, which stated that the crown should pass to her and (2) the fact that she was the daughter of a king. Dorothea Kehler has attempted to trace the criticism of the work through the centuries. The earliest such piece of criticism that she found was a 1662 entry in the diary of Samuel Pepys . He found the play to be "the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life". He did, however, admit that it had "some good dancing and some handsome women, which

21996-403: The wedding of either William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby to Elizabeth de Vere, or Thomas Berkeley, son of Henry Lord Berkeley, to Elizabeth Carey) (p. 284-5). Further consolidations of this late Elizabethan date are provided by "Oberon's unmissable compliment to Queen Elizabeth (2.1.155-164)" (Chaudhuri), and Titania's description of flooded fields and failed crops which occurred through England in

22152-431: The wench of the next-door tapster." Finally, Maginn thought that Oberon should not be blamed for Titania's humiliation, which is the result of an accident. He viewed Oberon as angry with the "caprices" of his queen, but unable to anticipate that her charmed affections would be reserved for a weaver with a donkey's head. In 1839, the philosopher Hermann Ulrici wrote that the play and its depiction of human life reflected

22308-447: The wood episode to occur without moonlight. Theseus's statement can also be interpreted to mean "four days until the next month". Another possibility is that, since each month there are roughly four consecutive nights that the Moon is not seen due to its closeness to the Sun in the sky (the two nights before the moment of new moon, followed by the two following it), it may in this fashion indicate

22464-710: The worship of Diana by the Romans, beginning around the 2nd century BCE (the beginning of a period of strong Hellenistic influence on Roman religion). The earliest depictions of the Artemis of Ephesus are found on Ephesian coins from this period. By the Imperial period , small marble statues of the Ephesian Artemis were being produced in the Western region of the Mediterranean and were often bought by Roman patrons. The Romans obtained

22620-458: The years 1594-1597/8 (2.1.84-121). The first court performance known with certainty occurred at Hampton Court on 1 January 1604, as a prelude to The Masque of Indian and China Knights . In Ancient Greece , long before the creation of the Christian celebrations of St. John's Day , the summer solstice was marked by Adonia , a festival to mourn the death of Adonis , the devoted mortal lover of

22776-456: Was all my pleasure". The next critic known to comment on the play was John Dryden , writing The Authors Apology for Heroique Poetry; and Poetique Licence in 1677. He was preoccupied with the question of whether fairies should be depicted in theatrical plays, since they did not exist. He concluded that poets should be allowed to depict things which do not exist but derive from popular belief . And fairies are of this sort, as are pygmies and

22932-491: Was built on the ruins of the Tifata temple. In the Roman provinces, Diana was widely worshiped alongside local deities. Over 100 inscriptions to Diana have been cataloged in the provinces, mainly from Gaul , Upper Germania , and Britannia . Diana was commonly invoked alongside another forest god, Silvanus , as well as other "mountain gods". In the provinces, she was occasionally conflated with local goddesses such as Abnoba , and

23088-454: Was given high status, with Augusta and regina ("queen") being common epithets. Diana was not only regarded as a goddess of the wilderness and the hunt, but was often worshiped as a patroness of families. She served a similar function to the hearth goddess Vesta , and was sometimes considered to be a member of the Penates , the deities most often invoked in household rituals. In this role, she

23244-554: Was held in common by the Latin League . A festival to Diana, the Nemoralia , was held yearly at Nemi on the Ides of August (August 13–15 ). Worshipers traveled to Nemi carrying torches and garlands, and once at the lake, they left pieces of thread tied to fences and tablets inscribed with prayers. Diana's festival eventually became widely celebrated throughout Italy, which was unusual given

23400-405: Was impressed with this act of massive political and economic cooperation, and convinced the cities of the Latin League to work with the Romans to build their own temple to the goddess. However, there is no compelling evidence for such an early construction of the temple, and it is more likely that it was built in the 3rd century BCE, following the influence of the temple at Nemi, and probably about

23556-481: Was often considered to be a goddess associated with fertility and childbirth, and the protection of women during labor. This probably arose as an extension of her association with the moon, whose cycles were believed to parallel the menstrual cycle, and which was used to track the months during pregnancy. At her shrine in Aricia, worshipers left votive terracotta offerings for the goddess in the shapes of babies and wombs, and

23712-480: Was often given a name reflecting the tribe of family who worshiped her and asked for her protection. For example, in what is now Wiesbaden , Diana was worshiped as Diana Mattiaca by the Mattiaci tribe. Other family-derived named attested in the ancient literature include Diana Cariciana , Diana Valeriana , and Diana Plancia . As a house goddess, Diana often became reduced in stature compared to her official worship by

23868-465: Was one of the temples demolished around 55 BCE in order to build a theater. Diana also had a public temple on the Quirinal Hill , the sanctuary of Diana Planciana. It was dedicated by Plancius in 55 BCE, though it is unclear which Plancius. In their worship of Artemis, Greeks filled their temples with sculptures of the goddess created by well-known sculptors, and many were adapted for use in

24024-546: Was published in 1593. The wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta and the mistaken and waylaid lovers, Titania and Bottom, even the erstwhile acting troupe, model various aspects (and forms) of love. Both David Wiles of the University of London and Harold Bloom of Yale University have strongly endorsed the reading of this play under the themes of Carnivalesque , Bacchanalia , and Saturnalia . Writing in 1998, David Wiles stated that: "The starting point for my own analysis will be

24180-451: Was rebuilt by Lucius Cornificius in 32 BCE. If it was still in use by the 4th century CE, the Aventine temple would have been permanently closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire . Today, a short street named the Via del Tempio di Diana and an associated plaza, Piazza del Tempio di Diana , commemorates the site of the temple. Part of its wall is located within one of

24336-532: Was syncretised with similar local deities in Gaul , Upper Germania , and Britannia . Diana was particularly important in the region in and around the Black Forest , where she was conflated with the local goddess Abnoba and worshiped as Diana Abnoba . Some late antique sources went even further, syncretizing many local "great goddesses" into a single "Queen of Heaven". The Platonist philosopher Apuleius , writing in

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