A Midsummer Night’s

I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. Bottom (4.1.36-37)Bottom tells the fairies he really wants to sleep now, so do not bother him.
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!Methought I was enamoured of an ass. Titania (4.1.71-75)Titania tells Oberon that she had the strangest dream; she fell in live with a donkey.
I have had a dream, past the wit of man toSay what dreams it was Bottom (4.1.202-203)Bottom tells everyone he had such a weir dream, he cannot even describe it.
The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen,Man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive,Nor his heart to report, what my dreams was. Bottom (4.1.207-210)Bottom basically says, “No eye has ever heard, no ear has ever seen, no hand has tasted, or tongue felt, or heart described what my dream was like.”
The lunatic, the lover, and the poetAre the imagination all compact.One sees more devils than vast he’ll can hold,That si the madmen: the lover, al as frantic,Sees Helena’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 forthThe forms of things unknown, the poet’s penTurns then to shapes, and gives to airy nothingA local habitation and a name.Such tricks hath strong imagination,That if it would but apprehend some joy;It comprehends some bringer of that joy;Or in the nigt, imaginating some fear,How easy is a bush supposed a bear! Theseus (5.1.6-22)Theseus is basically talking about seeing and prerceiving. Theseus and everyone else see the same events, people, things, etc.; however, Theseus perceives what he sees more rationally than others.
Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. Thesues (5.1.58-59)Theseus uses oximorons to describe the play Pyramus and Thisbe: hot ice & strange snow.
To show our simple skill,That is the true beginning of our end. Quince (5.1.110-111)Quince is saying the actors’ intentions are to show off a little bit of their talent, which might lead to their executions.
Whereat wig blade, with bloody blameful blade,He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast. Quince (5.1.145)Quince utilizes a lot of alliteration in his plologue, where he explains how Pyramus will commit suicide after assuming Thisbe, his lover, is dead.
August 3, 2019