More general notes:

1. Rude Mechanicals: the name given the clown-like comic characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

2. Rhyming couplets: two rhymed lines of blank verse. Shakespeare often used these at the ends of scenes to alert the audience to a scene change. The lovers use these, especially in Act I.

3. Elizabethan World Picture: the Elizabethans (the folks alive during Shakespeare's time, also called the Renaissance) had a common understanding of the world in which they lived. They believed the world had an order to it, with God at the head, and all other creature in order from greatest to least beneath Him. Visually, this could be represented as a "ladder of Life". Within each category was a sub-category, wherein all was ordered as well, from first to last. So, God was at the top, then angels, then man, animals, plants, and so on. Each of these categories was then organized from greatest to least. A disruption in the order caused chaos all along the ladder, and within each category. We see this illustrated in Titania's speech in Act I where she describes the quarrel between her and Oberon resulting in contagious fogs, flooding, cattle deaths, and loss of recreational places for humans.

Questions for Act III

Scene 1:

1. What are the rude mechanicals discussing at the start of this scene?

2. Find an example of a malaprop in Bottom's speech in lines 33 - 42.

3. State briefly why Shakespeare does not use blank verse at this point in the play.

4. What malaprop spoken by Bottom does Quince correct in line 75?

5. What mischief does Puck play on Bottom in this scene? How do Bottom's buddies react to his change?

6. What does Titania say about Bottom's singing after he awakens her? (lines 127 - 128). What else does she say about him in this speech?

7. What does Titania command her fairies to do for Bottom? (lines 152 - 161)

8. Note the use of blank verse and prose in these two characters' conversation.

Scene 2:

9. In lines 6 to 34, what story does Puck tell Oberon?

10. Hermia and Demetrius enter. What does Hermia think Demetrius has done to Lysander?

11. How does Oberon intend to correct Puck's mistake? (lines 94 - 99)

12. What new sport does Puck tell Oberon they are about to enjoy? (lines 110 - 121)

13. What happens when Demetrius awakes? What is Helena's reaction?

14. What does Helena believe is happening at this point in the action? (lines 192 - 194) Of what does Helena accuse Hermia? (lines 222 - 235)

15. Of what, in turn, does Hermia now accuse Helena? (lines 289 -298)

16. What plan does Oberon come up with to bring peace back to the lovers? (lines 354 - 373) What is Puck's part in this plan?

17. In what condition are the lovers at the end of the scene?

Act IV

Scene 1:

1. What love scene is being played out at the start of this scene? Name three delicacies Bottom wishes to eat.

2. What does Oberon say Titania has done in lines 56 - 60? What two things does Oberon decide to do as a result?

3. What does Oberon say the lovers and Bottom will think of the night's activities in lines 65 -68?

4. What does Oberon call the antidote for the love potion?

5. Who enters the scene at line 102? Why have these people come to the woods?

6. What does Theseus ask the lovers in lines 140 - 144?

7. What does Demetrius declare in lines 163 - 175? What is Theseus's reaction to this news (lines 178 - 180)

8. Explain the use of malaprops in Bottom's speech at the end of this scene. (lines 209 - 212)

Scene 2:

9. What does Starveling say has happened to Bottom? (lines 3 - 4)

10. What do the men say will happen to their play now that Bottom has gone missing?

11. What good news does Bottom give the men in line 35?

12. Why does Bottom say for them not to eat "onions nor garlic"?

Act V

1. What does Theseus say about "lovers and madmen"? (lines 4 - 6)

2. What is a masque?

3. What four choices do the newly-weds have for entertainment? (lines 44 - 57) What does Theseus choose?

4. What writing technique is used in lines 196 - 202? (See your notes from Act I)

5. What famous play by Shakespeare ends in a similar fashion to the one the "rude mechanicals" present?

6. Who appears after the lovers go to bed?

7. What blessings does Oberon wish for the newly-weds? (starting at line 394)

8. In what two ways could Puck's line at 428 be taken?