Shakespeare’s Sources for Midsummer
Unlike many of his other plays, there are no specific sources for Midsummer. Many scholars think that the play was written for a wedding, likely of Elizabeth Carey, for which Queen Elizabeth was likely in attendance.
Below are likely sources which influenced Midsummer.
Unlike many of his other plays, there are no specific sources for Midsummer. Many scholars think that the play was written for a wedding, likely of Elizabeth Carey, for which Queen Elizabeth was likely in attendance.
Below are likely sources which influenced Midsummer.
- Plutarch, translated by Sir Thomas North, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes (1579). This translation includes Theseus and Hippolyta.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Knight’s Tale’ from the Canterbury Tales. There are some language similarities and we also see a married Theseus and Hippolyta in this soure. Shakespeare definitely read ‘The Knight’s Tale’ because he and Fletcher go on to adapt it in Two Noble Kinsmen.
- Also Chaucer’s Merchant's Tale has the fairy King and arguing over a mismatched pair of mortal lovers.
- Also Chaucer’s Merchant's Tale has the fairy King and arguing over a mismatched pair of mortal lovers.
- Ovid, translated by Arthur Golding, The .XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis (1567). This includes the story of Pyramus and Thisbe as well as a hunting scene similar to that at the top of Act 4.
- The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeuxe (1534), translated by John Bourchier, Lord Berners. Shakespeare’s Oberon was influenced by this source.
- Apuleius, translated by William Adlington, The. XI. Bookes of the Golden Asse (1566). In The Golden Ass, a homely man is transformed into an ass as a young woman falls madly in love with him.
- Reginald Scot, The Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584). Puck is mentioned in this Elizabethan best-seller and this book lists transforming humans into animals as one of the misdeeds of witches.
- Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender (1579). Fairies are friendly not evil in this text. The Faerie Queene (1596) is the most famous depiction of fairies. It shows them to be complex creatures.
- Seneca His Tenne Tragedies (1581), edited by Thomas Newton. We see some elements of Helena and Demetrius in Seneca’s plays—particularly Medea and Hippolytus .
- Robert Greene, The Scottish History of James the Fourth (probably written in 1590), where Oberon (drawn from Duke Huon listed above) is seen observing and occasionally intervening in mortal affairs.
- St Paul's letter to the Corinthians
1 Corinthians 2 (1-10)
1557 Geneva Bible
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of words, or of wisdom, For I esteemed not to know anything among you. And I was among you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
“Neither stood my word, and my preaching in the enticing speech of man’s wisdom, but in plain evidence of the Spirit and of power, That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
“And we speak wisdom among them that are perfect; not the wisdom of this world, neither of the princes of this world, which come to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hid wisdom, which God had determined before the world, unto our glory. Which none of the princes of this world hath known; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
“But as it is written,
“The things which eye hath not seen, neither ear hath heard, neither came into man’s heart, are, which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the bottom of God’s secrets.”