莎劇賞析 之一：
《仲夏夜之夢》
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
董崇選
中山醫大應用外語系教授
「懂更懂學習英文網站」負責人
網址：http://dgdel.nchu.edu.tw
I. The Plot:
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Type: Romantic comedy (浪漫喜劇)
Time: Remote antiquity (遙遠的古代)
Locale: Athens (雅典)
First presented: 1595
II. Principal Characters:
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Theseus: Duke of Athens 雅典公爵
Hippolyta: Theseus’ bride 其新娘
Oberon: King of the fairies 仙王
Titania: Queen of the fairies 仙后
Puck: a merry, mischievous elf 精靈
Egeus: a nobleman, Hermia’s father 貴族
Lysander and Hermia: 一對年輕戀人
Demetrius and Helena: 另一對年輕戀人
Peter Quince: a carpenter 木工
Nick Bottom: a weaver 織工
III. The Story:
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第一幕: Theseus is planning to wed Hippolyta. Egeus
brings Hermia in and asks the Duke to use the law
against his daughter because she disobeys her father by
choosing Lysander instead of Demetrius for marriage.
The Duke orders Hermia to obey her father. She and
Lysander plan to escape to a wood outside of Athens.
Meeting Helena, she tells her their plan. Helena decides
to inform Demetrius of the plan. Meanwhile, a company
of artisans (Quince, Bottom, etc.) are planning to present
“The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of
Pyramus and Thisby” for the Duke’s wedding.
III. The Story:
• 第二幕: Oberon and Titania quarrel over an
Indian boy. Oberon asks Puck to find a magic
flower and anoint Titania’s eyes with its juice.
Demetrius comes to the wood, pursued by
Helena. Seeing Demetrius’ lack of love for
Helena, Oberon orders Puck to use the magic
on him, too. Lysander and Hermia come in and
rest for the night. Puck misapplies the juice on
Lysander’s eyes. Helena comes to awaken him,
and he loves her immediately, deserting Hermia.
The Story:
• 第三幕: The artisans are rehearing their play.
Puck comes, gives Bottom an ass’s head, and
frightens the men away. Titania wakes up and
falls in love with Bottom. Oberon finds that Puck
has used the flower on the wrong Athenian and
wants Puck to redress it. Demetrius is then
charmed with the juice. Now, the situation is:
Both Lysander and Demetrius are asking Helena
for love, and it causes a bicker between the two
girls. Finally, Puck lures the young men away to
set everything right.
The Story:
• 第四幕: Oberon gets the Indian boy,
releases Titania from the charm, and
restores Bottom to his normal state.
Theseus and others enter the wood for a
hunt. They find the four loves sleeping
there. Learning their true hearts, Theseus
decrees that the two couples shall be
married company with himself and
Hippolyta. Bottom awakens and believes
he has had a dream.
The Story:
• 第五幕: The three pairs of lovers are
married. Theseus asks Bottom and others
to perform the interlude. The rustics enact
“Pyramus and Thisby” and make a bungle
of it quite comically. It provides an
amusing finale to an evening of delight.
IV. Famous Lines:
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“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
--Lysander to Hermia
“Sickness is catching; O were favor so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go.”
--Helena to Hermia
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind;
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste:
Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste,
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.”
--Helena to Hermia
IV. Famous Lines:
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“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
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“And think no more of this night’s accidents
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.” --Oberon
--Puck to Oberon
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“I never heard so musical a discord, such sweet
thunder.” --Hippolyta
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“’A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisby, very tragical mirth’?
Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?
That is hot ice, and wondrous strange snow!
How shall we find the concord of this discord?”
--Theseus
IV. Famous Lines:
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“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold;
That is the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to
heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.” --Theseus
V. Discussion:
– What is Shakespeare’s view of love and
marriage as suggested in the play?
– How is the moon imagery related to the
theme of this play?
– Why is the play called a “midsummer night’s
dream”?
– Does the play suggest fatalism in that fairies
control human acts?