ACT I QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Upon what does the interest centre in Act I? In the marriage of Hippolyta and Theseus, or the love affairs of the four lovers? Is Hermia, whose determination not to be forced to marry starts the plot, the best-drawn character in the first Act? ACT II THE FAIRIES' QUARREL Show how in this Act a new agency of a fairies' quarrel is devised and set forth. Point out how this is made to crystallize in Oberon's scheme for revenge on Titania, and also how, in the course of disentangling their own love-snarl, it is made to develop the conflict between the crossed lovers. This, it may be emphasized, is the second step in the movement, as Hermia's and Helena's love was the first, and these two main factors of the action are taken up together in this act. Are the other two groups which were introduced in the first act, the Duke's party and Bottom's set, interwoven with the new fairy group in any way in this Act? See if the new fairy element now shows any disposition in the person of Oberon to smooth out the difficulties of the mortals. Oberon's intentions, however, were one thing, and his deeds another. Through Puck as his instrument, his jealousy at once begins to make matters worse instead of better for the lovers. Notice the delicate appropriateness of Oberon's means of influence, namely Puck and the two flowers, the first being 'Cupid's flower,'--Love in idleness--the second 'Dian's bud,' introduced later to correct the influence of the first. The first flower assists in the development of a plot which is to enact the 'momentariness' of 'sympathy in choice.' The cross-purpose, fostered by Puck's mistake, seems to provide the comparatively grosser sort of merriment for this Act which Bottom and his friends supplied for the first; and the dainty humor and sprightly novelty attending the introduction of the fairies on the scene, the description of their quarrel, and the foreshadowing of the influence they are to have on the next stages of the story, may be shown to occupy the chief place in the plot at this period, the crossed lovers, who predominated in the first Act, now falling into a relatively subordinate position.