Egeus.
Philostrate.
Lysander.
Demetrius.
Helena.
Hermia.

2. Bottom. The grotesque plot, with the interlude
Quince. of _Pyramus and Thisbe_.
Snug.
Flute.
Snout.
Starveling.

3. Oberon. The fairy plot.
Titania.
Puck.
Fairies.

It may be observed that for these three plots Shakespeare draws
respectively on literature, observation, and oral tradition; for we shall
see, I think, that while there can be little doubt that he had been reading
Chaucer, North's Plutarch and Golding's Ovid, not to mention other works,
probably including some which are now lost, it is also impossible to avoid
the conclusion that much if not all of his fairy-lore is derived from no
literary source at all, but from the popular beliefs which must have been
current in oral tradition in his youth.

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