1.

Ovid and Shakespeares A Midsummers Night Dream - Intertextual parallels

Beyond parody or reference to Golding, many examples of direct intertextuality with Ovid
appear in the play. Indeed, the first lines spoken by Theseus and Hippolyta contain
strong echoes of Ovid's version of the Pyramus and Thisbe tale. Shakespeare's
impatient Theseus laments the slow passage of time before his wedding day with these
words:
but 0, methinks how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires... (1.1.3-4)
Hippolyta replies:
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night,
Four nights will quickly dream away the time,
And then the moon...
Shall behold the night
Of our solemnities. (1.1.7-11)
In Ovid's original Latin, once Pyramus and Thisbe decide to meet in the woods after dark
to elope, "the day seems to pass all too slowly" -lux tarde discedere visa (IV.91); then
Praecipitatur aquis et aquis nox exit ab isdem (It quickly steeps itself in water and
from the same water night emerges). Of this parallel, Niall Rudd says, form and
phrasing, though not identical, justify comment, especially when taken in conjunction
with the longing for marriage" (118). Indeed, the original Latin refers to a character's
impatience while awaiting his marriage, but the character so described in Ovid is not
Theseus. Shakespeare's translation here is twofold; he has translated the original Latin
(the gist of it at least) into English (linguistic translation), and moved the reference
from Pyramus and Thisbe to Theseus and Hippolyta (spatial translation). Other
examples of intertextuality may be found in what David Ross calls "Alexandrian
footnotes," words such as memini, ("I remember"), agnosco, ("I recognize"), and
passives of dico, ("it is said" / "they are said") which are sometimes used by Latin
poets to make "voices in the text refer not only to events in their pasts, but also to
works which lie in the text's past" (qtd. In Lyne 151). Many examples of self-
referential statements which serve these purposes may be discovered, but as is typical
of most effects within the playwright's dualistic penchant, the exact texts, or even the
events to which they refer, often remain elusive. For example, when Lysander tries to
lie down next to Hermia, he says:
One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
One heart, one bed; two bosoms and one troth. (2.2.47-8)
This device mirrors a similar one/two motif in Ovid:
"una duos," inquit, "nox perdet amantes." 12 (108)
As in so many other instances, the correlation is striking but not exact, perhaps more an
echo than a direct reference. Again we see a rendering that might better be called a
-presence"' than an influence, not precisely derivative of Ovid, but certainly born of a
mindset similar to that poet's. Another interesting textual parallel exists in Oberon's
description of the magical herb 'love-in-idleness' which he tells puck is: a little western
flower - Before, milk-white: now, purple with love's wound. (2.1.166-7). The account
of this formal translation of a flower echoes Ovid's description of the metamorphosis
of the mulberry tree in his Pyramus and Thisbe tale, just as Shakespeare's text here
mirrors that of Ovid:
...dude porno alba ferebat
ut name nigra feral contactu sanguinis arbor (1V.51-2)
(...how the tree which used to bear white fruit now bears black because it has been stained
by blood). Notably, this echo is part of a larger "Alexandrian footnote" built upon a
mentini ("I
remember") statement by Puck earlier in the scene, although it concerns an event which is
recounted by Oberon. The fairy king reminds Puck of an incident in the past with
which the two are obviously familiar, although Puck's experience of the event seems to
have been limited in some way:
Obe. Thou rememb'rest
12 "one night," he said, "will in loving destroy two."
"See Paulene Kiernan's essay for a more thorough treatment of this term. Since once I sat
upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's music?
Puck. I remember.
Obe. That very time I saw (but thou couldst not),
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd... (2.1.148-56)
Puck's "1 remember" apparently includes only the first part of Oberon's account of an
event which sounds suspiciously like something enacted in a court masque. Critics
such as Edith Rickert and James McPeek have speculated that this account may echo
an actual courtly entertainment'" that members of Shakespeare's audience might either
have witnessed or heard about from others who had been in attendance. The
parenthetical "but thou couldst not" indicates that either because of a poor vantage
point (cheap seats, perhaps?) or an inability to discern or comprehend what must have
been a metaphysical event, Puck did not witness all that took place. While the fairy
king's digression does admittedly serve a necessary function in the plot, it also
reinforces the fact that Puck is a "lob of spirits."' As a provincial (although still
supernatural) being, Puck is presented as a member of a less erudite class whose
members, like him, would neither be expected to fully comprehend the nuances of the
metaphysical, nor likely be present to observe a court masque that might represent
such an event. His classification (at least on some levels) as a bumpkin might also
explain Puck's inability to use the love juice correctly; the erudite Oberon gives his
bungling deputy an order, and Puck fails to tend to the " Rickert favors the 1591
entertainments at Elvetham.
15 "A rustic" or "country bumpkin," according to the OED. subtle but essential details.
Puck's lower status is also underscored by his office as a jester to Oberon's court, since
its mortal axillary, the royal court jester, afforded a rare opportunity for a member of
the lower classes to interact closely with royalty. Puck's identification with those of
lower status among the "royalty" of the fairy king's court participates in numerous
translations and conflations. For example. Puck's status provides a sense of
identification for those in the audience who hail from similar circumstances. As an
outsider among royals, Puck may also serve as an object of ridicule for those of higher
status, mirroring the dynamic between the party of the Duke and the rude mechanicals
during the Pyramus and Thisby play. Finally, at the play's end Puck takes on yet
another persona, that of epilogue and apologist who encourages the audience to think
of the entirety of the play as a dream. Again, Shakespeare has created a frankly
Ovidian character in Puck/Robin Goodfellow, a dualistic and metamorphic
chamaeleon who refuses to adhere to one identity but participates in many through the
course of the play.