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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help

A Meeting of 2 Kinds of Comedy

I read a book years ago that suggested that "Midsummer" is a blend of two kinds of comedy: the knock-down slapstick comedy of the taverns and innyards from a generation before Shakespeare, and the high, poetical comedy of the "masques" of the courts of Europe.

Bottom & the Mechanicals were characters from the clownish comedy of the taverns & innyards. (The Italian version of this kind of comedy was Commedia dell'Arte.) Oberon, Titania, the Fairies -- and, indeed, Theseus, Hippolyta & the Lovers -- are all characters who belong more in the world of the Masques, masquerades and balls of the nobility.

So when Titania and Bottom got together, it wasn't just a meeting of two characters from different fictional worlds: it was a meeting of two different styles of comedy.

I love this theory -- wish I could remember what book it was -- but where does that leave Puck? Well, I think Puck is a sort of misfit fairy, who wandered into Oberon's world from the world of low comedy. I'm making this up as I go along, but it seems to make sense: when we first meet him, it's clear from the other Fairy that this guy is special, is notorious, doesn't really fit in -- is more mischievous than the other, more polite & obedient Fairies. And his relationship with Oberon is definitely that of a low-class servant to a high-class master. (Hey, this is working!) Finally, there's the fact that he's immediately drawn to the Mechanicals ("What hempen homespuns have we here?").

I haven't got the text in front of me, but it would be interesting to see whether Puck talks in prose while Oberon talks in verse.

Posted by John Lazarus on March 26, 1997 at 23:24:02
 In Reply to "Oberon & Puck" posted by Alice on March 26, 1997 at 15:12:59


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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help