Upon what does the interest of the last Act centre? How does the
ending suit the various threads of the Play?

Is Theseus or Hippolyta the wiser critic of 'the story of the night';
and which of them is the wiser critic of the play of Pyramus and
Thisbe?

SOURCES OF THE PLAY

1. WHERE SHAKESPEARE FOUND SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS MORTALS

In Plutarch's 'Life of Theseus' will be found passages which furnished
Shakespeare with some points for his drama. Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale'
is also said to have given him material. The editor of the "First
Folio Edition" suggests in the introduction that a reading by
Shakespeare of a poem in his day supposed to be Chaucer's, 'The Flower
and the Leaf,' gave him an important hint for his plot. Examine for
yourself, and state what indebtedness you find in any of these
sources. In I. i. 20, Theseus says to Hippolyta, 'I woo'd thee with my
sword.' Compare this with the account given in Chaucer. According to
another version of the story Hercules gave Hippolyta to his kinsman
Theseus in marriage. Compare 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' and the 'Knight's
Tale' with Shakespeare's 'Dreame.'


2. WHERE SHAKESPEARE FOUND SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS FAIRIES

The models in literature from which Shakespeare drew may have been
'Huon of Bordeaux,' where he got little, however, but the name Oberon.
The name Titania may have been derived from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses.'