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.

POINTS. 1. Explanation of all mythical allusions. 2. Account of
theories as to meaning of 'The thrice three muses,' etc., V. i. 59. 3.
What is a 'Bergomask dance'? 4. The date and occasion of the play:
This play appears in Meres's list of 1598 and in the Quartos of 1600.
Titania's description of the unseasonable weather (II. i. 92, foll.)
may refer to the year 1594. Note that Chaucer in the 'Knight's Tale'
speaks of the tempest at Hippolyta's home-coming. Many critics have
believed that the play was written on the occasion of some marriage in
high life, but they do not agree as to whose it was.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION