POINTS 1. Explain 'It shall be written in eight and sixe,' III. i. 23-4. 2. The custom in Shakespeare's day as to the women's parts. Would it have been as amusing to the audience then as it would be to us when Quince says 'Robin Starveling, you play Thisbies mother'? 3. Pyramus and Thisbe. This may have been derived from Ovid, or from Chaucer's "Legend of Good Women," or C. Robinson's "Handful of Pleasant Delights." (1504.) 4. Explain 'Two of the first like coats in heraldry,' III. ii. 220. 5. Describe the personal appearance of the heroines from the references made. QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Is Puck or Bottom the presiding genius of this act? Does the jangling between the two women belittle them as heroines, and is it, therefore, a blot upon the beauty of the play? ACT IV HARMONIZING EFFECTS OF OBERON'S SPELL Trace throughout this act the smoothing-out process. Why does Oberon himself release Titania while Puck is made to minister to the other victims of the charm? Is Oberon's explanation of the Fairy Queen's sudden change of heart about the changeling quite satisfactory, or does it simply appear so by a sort of artistic sleight-of-hand characteristic of Shakespeare in small touches at the close of a plot? Show how poetically suitable as a stage effect the entry of Theseus and his huntsmen is,--shedding the first rays of morning on the night-enchanted lovers. Why is Bottom made to waken last? Perhaps because he helps to denote the prose of broad daylight. Show what relation scene ii. has to the completion of the smoothing-out process. POINTS. 1. 'I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,' IV. i. 126. What relation had Hippolyta to these Greek heroes? 2. Account of May-day rites. 3. Traditions of St. Valentine. 4. Rites of Midsummer Eve. QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Why is the choice of Hermia's father for her no longer supported by the Duke? Does this imply a criticism on the inconsistency of allowing men their choice, and their brides none, with which Shakespeare was in sympathy, or is this only apparent to some modern minds? ACT V THE THREEFOLD MASK If the central action of the play be considered as virtually concluded with the fourth Act, what office is performed by the fifth Act? Notice that in it the three groups of characters constituting the play--the court group with the lovers; the 'rude mechanicals' and their 'tedious brief scene,' and the fairy train--are in this Act all brought upon the stage, the whole spectacle being set in the palace at Athens, in celebration of the wedding festivities of the ducal pair, which, as before noticed, is used as a sort of decorative frame for the play as a whole. Examine the working-out of this unified presentation of all the personages. How are we to account for the silence of the women who were made to do so much towards the institution of the action? Show the poetic reasons for the entrance of Puck and the fairies last of all, and when the stage is empty.