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A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' 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 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. Characters ''The Athenians'' * Theseus – Duke of Athens * Hippolyta – Queen of the Amazons * Hermia – in love with Lysander * Helena – in love with Demetrius * Lysander – in love with Hermia * Demetrius – suitor to Hermia * Egeus – Hermia's father * Philostrate – Theseus' Master of Revels ''The Mechanicals'' * Peter Quince – a carpenter, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Simmons (painter)
John Simmons (1823–1876) was a British miniature painter and illustrator, known primarily for his watercolours of ethereal fairyland scenes, often illustrating Shakespearian or other literary works (such as his illustrations for ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''). He was one of several popular Victorian artists who together created "a genre of forest idyll" in their fairy paintings. They are often grouped with the Pre-Raphaelites. Simmons lived in Bristol, and also painted portraits.Wood, p. 124. He was elected to membership of the Bristol Academy of the Fine Arts in 1849. He died in November 1876 and is buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery. Fairy painting The typical fairy painting is strongly rooted in the literary influences of Romanticism, as well as in the Victorian cultural period. Among the most significant of these influences were the themes of Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and '' The Tempest''. Other literary works, such as Edmund Spenser's ''The Faerie Queene'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egeus
Egeus is a character in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', the comedy by William Shakespeare. He is an Athenian who tries to keep his daughter, Hermia, from marrying Lysander (the man she loves). In original performances, the actor for his role probably played the part of Philostrate as well. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Role in the play Appearing in Act I, Scene 1 and Act IV, Scene 1, Egeus is the father of Hermia, who disapproves of Hermia and Lysander's love, appealing to Theseus to force Hermia to marry Demetrius. If Hermia refuses to wed Demetrius, she could be put to death, or cloistered in a nunnery for the rest of her life — both sentences supported by Athenian law. Criticism Egeus plays a key part in illustrating the love play's theme of law versus love, and reason versus imagination. Constantly refusing his daughter's plea to marry the man she loves, Lysander, he demands that she be forced to marry Demetrius. He goes so far as to say that if she disobeys, he as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lysander (Shakespeare)
Lysander is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. A handsome young man of Athens, Lysander is in love with Egeus's daughter Hermia. However, Egeus does not approve of Lysander and prefers his daughter to marry a man called Demetrius. Meanwhile, Hermia's friend Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer *Helena, mother of Constantine I Places Greece * Helena (island) Guyana * ... has fallen in love with Demetrius. When Hermia is forced to choose between dying, never seeing a man again or marrying Demetrius by the next full moon, she and Lysander run away into the forest near Athens. After Lysander is put under Puck's spell, being mistaken for Demetrius he falls in love with Helena, but Helena loves Demetrius. Eventually, the spell is reversed and Lysander marries Hermia. There is a party at the end wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairy
A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural. Myths and stories about fairies do not have a single origin, but are rather a collection of folk beliefs from disparate sources. Various folk theories about the origins of fairies include casting them as either demoted angels or demons in a Christian tradition, as deities in Pagan belief systems, as spirits of the dead, as prehistoric precursors to humans, or as spirits of nature. The label of ''fairy'' has at times applied only to specific magical creatures with human appearance, magical powers, and a penchant for trickery. At other times it has been used to describe any magical creature, such as goblins and gnomes. ''Fairy'' has at times been used as an adjective, wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazons
In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'', via Latin ''Amāzon, -ŏnis'') are portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. They were a group of female warriors and hunters, who beat men in physical agility and strength, in archery, riding skills, and the arts of combat. Their society was closed for men and they only raised their daughters, either killing their sons or returning them to their fathers, with whom they would only socialize briefly in order to reproduce. Courageous and fiercely independent, the Amazons, commanded by their queen, regularly undertook extensive military expeditions into the far corners of the world, from Scythia to Thrace, Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands, reaching as far as Arabia and Egypt. Besides military raids, the Amazons are also associated with the foundation of temples and the estab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Master Of The Revels
The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberlain. Originally he was responsible for overseeing royal festivities, known as ''revels'', and he later also became responsible for stage censorship, until this function was transferred to the Lord Chamberlain in 1624. However, Henry Herbert, the deputy Master of the Revels and later the Master, continued to perform the function on behalf of the Lord Chamberlain until the English Civil War in 1642, when stage plays were prohibited. The office continued almost until the end of the 18th century, although with rather reduced status. History The Revels Office has an influential role in the history of the English stage. Among the expenses of the royal Wardrobe we find provision made for ''tunicae'' and ''viseres'' ( shirts and hats) in 1347 for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy (drama)
Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy ending. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, the ''Divine Comedy'' (Italian: ''Divina Commedia''). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. The predominating characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play insti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Renaissance Theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Background The term ''English Renaissance theatre'' encompasses the period between 1562—following a performance of ''Gorboduc'', the first English play using blank verse, at the Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561—and the ban on theatrical plays enacted by the English Parliament in 1642. In a strict sense "Elizabethan" only refers to the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558–1603). ''English Renaissance theatre'' may be said to encompass ''Elizabethan theatre'' from 1562 to 1603, '' Jacobean theatre'' from 1603 to 1625, and '' Caroline theatre'' from 1625 to 1642. Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards the end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shakespearean Comedy
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies; and modern scholars recognize a fourth category, ''romance'', to describe the specific types of comedy that appear in Shakespeare's later works. Plays This alphabetical list includes everything listed as a comedy in the First Folio of 1623, in addition to the two quarto plays (''The Two Noble Kinsmen'' and ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre'') which are not included in the Folio but generally recognised to be Shakespeare's own. Plays marked with an asterisk (*) are now commonly referred to as the '' romances''. Plays marked with two asterisks (**) are sometimes referred to as the '' problem plays''. * '' All's Well That Ends Well**'' * ''As You Like It'' * ''The Comedy of Errors'' * ''Love's Labour's Lost'' * ''Measure for Measure**'' * ''The Merchant of Venice**'' * ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' * ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' * ''Much Ado About Nothing'' * ''Per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Modern English
Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle English, in the late 15th century, to the transition to Modern English, in the mid-to-late 17th century. Before and after the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603, the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland. The grammatical and orthographical conventions of literary English in the late 16th century and the 17th century are still very influential on modern Standard English. Most modern readers of English can understand texts written in the late phase of Early Modern English, such as the '' King James Bible'' and the works of William Shakespeare, and they have greatly influenced Modern English. Texts from the earlier phase of Early Modern English, such as the late-15th-ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
