Some history related to culture and the sun in England, Italy and Japan in the late 1500s and how these ideas related to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

1. Shakespeare, the Sun, the late 1500s around
the world, hieros gamos and
A Midsummer Night’s Dream

2. William Shakespeare(1564-1616)
• Born in Stratford-on-Avon.
• His plays are performed more often than
any other playwright.
• His identity is disputed by some.
• Records show him beginning to be active in
London in 1592.
• His plays are performed all over the world
(more than any other playwright)and
translated into many languages.

3. ウィリアムシェイクスピア(1564～1616)
• ストラトフォードアポンエイボン生まれ。
• 彼の演劇は、他の劇作家よりも頻繁に上演さ
れています。
• 彼の正体はいろいろな説があります。
• 記録は、彼が1592年にロンドンで活動を始め
たと示しています。
• 彼の演劇は、多くの言語に翻訳され、全世界
（他の劇作家よりも多く）で上演されています。

4. Shakespeare is popular—why?
• People choose to perform his plays again and again—
all over the world.
• The key to Darwin's theory of evolution is the survival
of the fittest. Species survive according to their
capacity to adapt, to evolve according to
environmental circumstances.
• As with natural selection, the quality that makes a
really successful, enduring cultural artefact is its
capacity to change in response to new circumstances.
Shakespeare's plays, because they are so various and
so open to interpretation, so lacking in dogma, have
achieved this trick more fully than any other work of
the human imagination. –Professor Jonathan Bate,
Oxford

5. 大衆文化的、人気
• シェイクスピアの劇は世界中で繰り返し上演されている。
•
• ダーウィンの進化論の中核には適者生存という概念がある。生物
の種は環境に適応し、条件に応じて進化する能力によって生き残
ることができる。
•
• 自然淘汰の場合と同様、本当に成功し、持続する文化的事柄に
備わっている特質とは、新しい環境に応じて変化する力である。
シェイクスピアの劇は、非常に多様で、様々な解釈が可能であり、
教義的な教訓は特に見られないので、人類がその想像力によっ
て生みだした他のいかなる産物よりも、この特質を実現していると
いえる。
•
• ジョナサン・ベイト教授、オックスフォード大学

6. Global Shakespeare, popular Shakespeare (Chinese “Hamlet”, Japanese “Titus
Andronicus”, South African “Macbeth”, Takarazuka “Romeo & Juliet”, modern
California “Much Ado About Nothing”, modern USA “Julius Caesar”)

7. “Lacking in dogma”
Shakespeare recognized that human affairs
always embody a combination of permanent
truths and historical contingencies (in his
own terms, "nature" and "custom"). He
grasped the structural conflicts shared by all
societies: religious/secular, country/city,
birth/education, strong leadership/the
people's voice, the code of masculine
honour/the energies of erotic desire. --
Professor Jonathan Bate, Oxford

8. “ドグマがない”
シェイクスピアは、人事は常に永続的真理と
（彼自身の用語、「自然」と「カスタム」で）歴史
的偶発事象の組み合わせを体現していることを
認識しました。彼はすべての社会や共同体で共
有される構造的な矛盾を把握しました。(宗教/
世俗的な、国/都市、生まれ/学歴、強力なリー
ダーシップ/人の声、男性の名誉の意味/好色
願望のエネルギー)= Professor Jonathan
Bate, Oxford

9. In a 1947 essay, George Orwell wrote that "We do not
know a great deal about Shakespeare's religious
beliefs, and from the evidence of his writings it would
be difficult to prove that he had any... The morality of
Shakespeare's later tragedies is not religious in the
ordinary sense, and certainly is not Christian. Only
two of them, Hamlet and Othello, are supposedly
occurring inside the Christian era, and even in those,
apart from the antics of the ghost in Hamlet, there is
no indication of a ‘next world’ where everything is to
be put right."
“…not religious in the ordinary
sense”

10. “…一般的に宗教的でない”
1974年に、 George Orwell は“シェイクスピア
の宗教的信仰について私たちはほとんど何も
知らない。彼の作品から何かあったと証明する
事は難しい。後半に作られた悲劇の道義性は
普通ではない宗教性があり、それは明らかにキ
リストではない。 HamletとOthelloの二つに
限っては、西暦の時を舞台とする可能性はある
が、キリスト的な、全てがよくなるという”次の世
界“のような表現は、ハムレットの亡霊を除けば、
一切ない

11. Shakespeare had a philosophy, but it
was definitely not Christian dogma
What was it?
It must have been something.
It cannot have been “nothing” or “zero”.

12. Allow me to propose an answer!
• Shakespeare used the beauty of the sun
and the earth as the basis for his plays.
• The sun warms the earth and makes life
possible.
• This is a universal concept on our planet,
since the sun shines everywhere.
• It’s lovely and simple!
• It’s cosmic!....and cosmically beautiful!!!

13. The planets circle the sun and receive
its light and heat—we know it’s true!

14. But the Catholic Christian Church’s view of the cosmos was
different at this time—and their power was tied to this model since
the Christian deity (and angels) was in the sphere beyond the stars.

15. The sun and its role was thus in dispute in the
world in the 1500s and early 1600s
• Giordano Bruno proposed thermodynamic
heliocentrism and was executed by the
Catholic Church in 1600 in Rome.
• Pagan nature festivals (based on seasons
& sun) were under attack by Puritans in
England.
• In Japan, in 1587, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and
later in 1614 the Tokugawa Shogunate
became alarmed at missionary’s attacks on
Shinto, a religion of the sun.

16. 太陽とその宇宙における位置は1500～1600年
代にかけて世界中で争われました
• ジョルダルノ・ブルーノは地動説を唱えて1600
年にローマでキリスト教会に処刑されました
• イギリスでは(季節や自然を祭る)前キリスト的
な祭事はピューリタンによって禁止されました
• 日本では1587年に豊臣秀吉が、その後1614
年に徳川家がキリストの神道に対する脅威に
危機を感じました(他にも、宣教師は日本人を
奴隷として売っていました)

17. By the mid 1500s, missionaries had even
reached Japan
• “By 1587, Hideyoshi had become alarmed, not because of too many
converts but rather because the hegemon learned that Christian
lords reportedly oversaw forced conversions of retainers and
commoners, that they had garrisoned the city of Nagasaki, that
they participated in the slave trade of other Japanese and,
apparently offending Hideyoshi's Buddhist sentiments, that they
allowed the slaughter of horses and oxen for food.[15] After his
invasion of Kyushu, Hideyoshi Toyotomi promulgated the Purge
Directive Order to the Jesuits (バテレン追放令 bateren tsuihō rei?)
on July 24, 1587. It consists of 11 articles: "No. 10. Do not sell
Japanese people to the Namban (Portuguese)."[citation needed] Among
the contents were a ban on missionaries.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Christians_of_Japan
• (Retrieved on Oct. 2 2015)

18. Some images of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

19. 1614—Tokugawa Shogunate
• “The Tokugawa shogunate finally decided to ban
Catholicism. In the statement on the "Expulsion of all
missionaries from Japan", drafted by Zen monk Konchiin
Suden (1563–1633) and issued in 1614 under the name of
second shogun Hidetada (ruled 1605-1623), was considered
the first official statement of a comprehensive control of
Kirishitan.[24] It claimed that the Christians were bringing
disorder to Japanese society and that their followers
"contravene governmental regulations, traduce
Shinto..(&etc.)".[25] It was fully implemented and canonized
as one of the fundamental Tokugawan laws.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Christians_of_Japan
• (retrieved Oct. 2, 2015)

20. 徳川将軍 1614年
• この禁教令によって長崎と京都にあった教会は破壊され、翌1614
年11月（慶長19年9月）には修道会士や主だったキリスト教徒がマ
カオやマニラに国外追放された。その中には著名な日本人の信徒
であった高山右近もいた。
• 公的にはキリスト教は禁止になったが、幕府は信徒の処刑といっ
た徹底的は対策は行わなかった。また、依然としてキリスト教の活
動は続いていた。例えば中浦ジュリアンやクリストファン・フェレイラ
の ように潜伏して追放を逃れた者もいたし（この時点で約50名い
たといわれる）、密かに日本へ潜入する宣教師達も後を絶たな
かった。京都には「デウス町」と 呼ばれるキリシタン達が済む区画
も残ったままであった。幕府が徹底的な対策を取れなかったのは、
宣教師は南蛮貿易（特にポルトガル）に深く関与していたためであ
る。幕府による取締りが厳しくなるのはもう少し後の話である。

21. What is Shinto, exactly?
• Basically, it is an ancient nature religion
with many, many nature gods
• One of these gods is the Sun Goddess
Amaterasu

22. Who was Giordano Bruno?
• Giordano Bruno was a philosopher and
natural scientist.
• He used Copernicus’ heliocentric model to
propose a thermodynamic heliocentric
model of the solar system.
• He said the sun was a star.
• He was executed for heresy (burned at the
stake) in Rome on February 17, 1600.
(After a trial that started in 1592 in Venice
and ended in Rome.)

23. ジョルダーノ・ブルーノ
• ジョルダーノ・ブルーノ（Giordano Bruno, 1548
年 - 1600年2月17日）は、イタリア出身の哲学
者、ドミニコ会の修道士。それまで有限と考え
られていた宇宙が無限であると主張し、コペ
ルニクスの地動説を擁護した。異端であると
の判決を受けても決して自説を撤回しなかっ
たため、火刑に処せられた。思想の自由に殉
じた殉教者とみなされることもある。彼の死を
前例に考え、轍を踏まないようにガリレオ・ガ
リレイは自説を撤回したとも言われる。

24. Some images of Giordano Bruno

25. Bruno had come up with a thermodynamic
model of our solar system and…..
• The opening lines of Bruno’s Lo Spaccio della besta trionfionta
(1584) (“The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast”) are all about
the sun:
He is blind who does not see the sun,
foolish who does not recognize it,
ungrateful who is not thankful unto it,
since so great is the light, so great the
good, so great the benefit, through which
it glows, through which it excels, through
which it serves, the teacher of the senses,
the father of substances, the author of
life. (Bruno, Lo Spaccio della besta
trionfante

26. In De Immenso (1582), Bruno wrote:
“The Earth, in the infinite universe, is not
at the center, except insofar as everything
can be said to be at the center. In this
chapter it is explained that the Earth is
not central among the planets. That place
is reserved for the Sun, for it is natural for
the planets to turn towards its heat and
light and accept its law.” (De Immenso,
III.iii)

27. ジョルダノ・ブルーノ
『無限、宇宙および諸世界について』
• 「地球は、無限の宇宙において、中心ではな
い。あらゆるものが中心に成り得るという意
味以外においては。本章において、地球は他
の惑星の中心ではないということが説明され
る。その場所は太陽にある。というのも、惑星
がその熱であり、光に向かい、その法則に従
うのは自然なことだからである。」

28. In other words,
• Thanks to Giordano Bruno (who had
read Copernicus) the science about the
sun was there, the ideas were present.
(Shakespeare could have found these
ideas in books in England---and I believe
he did.)

29. （コペルニクスを読んでいた）ジョルダノ・ブルー
ノのお陰で、太陽についての科学があり、そ
の考えはとの当時あったといえる。（シェイク
スピアはイギリスでこのことについて書物を
通じて知っていたと思える。少なくとも私はそ
う思う。）

30. 文化戦争—culture conflict
• 世界中、文化戦争
• まだ今日でも継続している。
• There are still cultural conflicts---
especially in the West---over the role of
the sun and nature—and the sun’s role
related to both religion and the
environment.

31. 文化戦争
世界中で、文化戦争が今日でも継続している。
特に、西洋では、太陽と自然の役割いついて、
宗教と環境への太陽の役割について、文化
衝突が起きている。

32. How about Shakespeare and the
sun?
• One of his most famous lines is “Juliet is
the sun”

33. 西洋文化の全部の劇の中で、一番有
名なシーンです！
• “The balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet
is the most famous scene in all of
Western drama.”—Park Honan
(Shakespeare scholar and biographer)

34. Couldn’t this be an image of or metaphor
for man on planet Earth and the sun?
• The sun is like a beautiful shining being
providing nature and bounty to mankind
• In the balcony scene, Juliet says “My
bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love
as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I
have, for both are infinite.” (II.iii.132-5)
• Infinity was a concept that Giordano Bruno
was discussing in relation to the cosmos. It
was also a pretty heretical idea at this time.

35. When they meet, there is the heavy use of
religious language….
Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too
much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.
(Read the scene aloud with a partner!)

36. Please watch Act I scene v of
Romeo and Juliet
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYG_wQMheg
• This scene is so beautifully done!
• Notice how the lovers share the scene alone
(through their dialogue) although others are
around.
• This movie was a huge hit! (Actually, I tried to
use a link to the DeCaprio version directed by
Baz Luhrmann but the link was removed
recently, so I changed it to this one which is not
bad either.)

37. Some images from nature religions…notice the sky is part of the scene. Also there
are sun discs on the heads of the Egyptian cat deity statues. The Sumerian female
deity has bird’s feet and wings. The Shinto torii are in Yamaguchi, Japan.

38. All of these religions pre-date
Christianity
• So I think Shakespeare was probably trying, in the party
scene of Romeo and Juliet, to depict in allegory mankind’s
earliest religious ideas.
• The balcony scene probably shows the West getting a bit
separated from the sun (nature religion) through
Christianity= or ‘when the West became ‘the West’’
(maybe?!)
• (Hey, if you can, get ahold of Yves Bonnefoy’s plenary
address (all in French) to the Shakespeare 450 conference
held in 2014 in Paris on the 450th anniversary of
Shakespeare’s birthday. I was a presenter at this
conference and I was there to hear him vaguely corroborate
my theory with a certain phrase he used, but I won’t go
into details here, in the interests of space and time…)

39. これらの宗教は、キリスト教以前に由来する
• 私は、シェイクスピアは『ロミオとジュリエット』
で、キリスト教以前の人類の宗教的考えをア
レゴリー的に描き出そうとしていたのではない
かと考える。
•
• バルコニーの場面は、西洋がキリスト教の影
響を受けて、太陽（自然宗教）から少し離れた
ことを示していると、解釈できる。（あるいは、
西洋が「西洋」になったことを。）

40. Before we leave Romeo and Juliet, allow me to
recommend a wildly popular fan video to you
• True fans can often grasp what is important and
this is true especially of Shakespeare, who was
and is so popular and accessible to ordinary
people.
• Note how this video only includes scenes of the
lovers alone---these scenes make an interesting
sequence about the history of mankind and the
sun.
• For when the lovers are together, they are
almost always totally alone.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU1zJofOY6
0

41. Let us turn our attention to
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Written 1595-6 (the same time as Romeo
and Juliet)
• A comedy with a happy ending for the
lovers in it
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains a
mini-play called “Pyramus and Thisbe”
whose plot resembles Romeo and Juliet

42. Most importantly,
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in
Ancient Athens----long before
Christianity
• （Ａｎｃｉｅｎｔ Ｇｒｅｅｃｅ（Ａｔｈｅｎｓ）に設定されて
います）
• Ancient Greece was the era of nature
worship
• There were gods like Apollo, the sun god,
Zeus, the king of the gods, etc.

43. Some images of Greek Gods

44. What is “Midsummer”(夏至)?
And what was Midsummer?
• Midsummer or夏至 is the Summer
Solstice (around June 20 or so)
• In Pre-Christian times in England it
was a festival time (祭り)

45. In England
• Earliest recorded Midsummer revelries
were lighting fires and dancing, feasting
and singing.
• Puritan (strict Christian) governments
began banning the festivals during the
1500s and by the mid 1600s there were no
more Midsummer festivals in England.
• It is interesting that the late 1500s and
early 1600s were exactly the years when
Shakespeare was artistically active.

46. イギリスでは
• 初期の記録によれば、真夏の夜のお祭りは
饗宴（きょうえん）であった。炎を焚き、踊り、
飲み食いし、歌を歌って楽しんだ。ピューリタ
ン（厳格なキリスト教）は、1500年代から1600
年代の半ばにかけて、祝祭を禁じたために、
イギリスからは真夏のお祭りは消滅した。
•
• 1500年代終わりから1600年代初めは、シェイ
クスピアが丁度活躍した時期でもある。

47. May Festival (another pagan) seasonal festival
is also mentioned in the play
Egeus: My lord, this my daughter here
asleep,
And this Lysander, this Demetrius is,
This Helena, old Nedar’s helena.
I wonder of their being here together.
Theseus: No doubt they rose up early to
observe the rite of May…. (IV.1)

48. The rites of May…(also called
Beltane in Gaelic)
• The rites of May—games, festivities, etc.—
were performed throughout May and June,
(not just on May 1.) "Maying" involved
going into the woods in the early morning
to gather up blooming tree branches (for
decoration) and putting up "Maypoles" to
dance around. In the play, Lysander
mentions that he once met Hermia and
Helena in the wood to "do observance to a
morn of May" (1.1.169).

49. Images of Maypoles..

50. The spirits or fairies in the play
• Reference the “old days” when pagan
festivals---like Midsummer-- were held
freely.
• Like ghosts, the fairies are not visible to
the “mortals” (the human characters) in
the play.
• But the spirits resemble humans in that
they love and hate and have emotions.

51. Gaelic fairies---the aos si
• The aos sí (often referred to as spirits or fairies)
were thought to be especially active at Beltane
(May festivities) and the goal of many Beltane
rituals was to appease them. Most scholars see
the aos sí as remnants of the pagan gods and
nature spirits.
• According to modern revived Beltane, it is a
"spring time festival of optimism" during which
"fertility ritual again was important, perhaps
connecting with the waxing power of the
sun.“(wiki)

52. ゲールの妖精 イース・シ
• イース・シ（しばしば妖精と世場得る）は、ゲール
のベルテイン（メイ・デイ祭り）の時に、特に活発
であると思われていた。多くのベルテインの儀式
は妖精を楽しませることにあった。イース・シは、
ヨーロッパの異教の神々、自然の精霊の名残り
であると見なされている。
•
• 現代において復興されたベルテインによれば、
「これからの時期を楽しむ春の祝祭」であり、「豊
穣の儀礼が、おそらく太陽の成長していく力と関
係して、重要となっている。」と言える。

53. Checking images of “aos si” or “sidhe” on the Internet,
we find….(on the left the figures are the King and Queen
of the fairies)-妖怪に似ています。

54. Once in the play does a fairy
become visible to a mortal
• This occurs when Bottom the Weaver is
transformed. (He receives the head of a
donkey through a magic spell.)
• With this head, he can see and interact
with the fairies.
• Note that he acquires an animal head---
almost like one of the pagan deity
figures in the earlier slide (e.g. the cat
deity statue from Egypt)

55. 劇の中で、妖精が人間に姿を見せる場面がある
• ボトム・ウィーバーが姿を変える場面である。
呪術のためにロバの頭になってしまう場面で
す。この頭のお陰で、妖精が見え、妖精を話
すことが出来るようになる。
• 動物の頭を手に入れていることに気をつけて
ください。おそらく前のスライドのように、異教
の神々の姿のように。例えば、エジプトの猫
の神。

56. How about the SUN? Let’s find out if any character is
associated with the SUN.
• Please read Bottom’s speech in Act I, scene ii, lines 30-41
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P422Qhttww
Bottom: The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates;
And Phibbus’ car
Shall shine from far
And make and mar
The foolish Fates.
“Phibbus”= Phoebus Apollo (the Ancient Greek God of the Sun)

57. “Phibbus’ car”はなんでしょうか？
It is his CHARIOT! (Car=Chariot)

58. Have a look at this one too!
• Here is another version, performed by a
young man in his living room---very fun!
Once again, this video shows how
accessible and popular Shakespeare is.
• 人気、大衆文化的
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4gw
bq5TkYw

59. So, we can conclude that Bottom
is the Sun!
• What does Bottom do that is special?
• He gets together with Titania, the
Queen of the Fairies and they enjoy a
fun romance.
• Here is the scene when Titania opens
her eyes (after waking up) and sees
Bottom for the first time.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSDQjEJT
Pzg

60. As the play opens, Titania has a
problem
• She has a famous speech about her
problem.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbw6Hjj
mf6s
• Her problem is related to the increasing
use of coal (石炭の生産増えた） as
England left the sun economy. （燃料は薪。
問題は薪は足りなかった、人口も増えたし。）
• The problems of coal are in code.

61. Coal in London in late 1500s
• By 1603 coal was #1 fuel （燃料）and wood
was #2.
• An “early industrial revolution”
• Even Queen Elizabeth complained about
the smoke.
• Coal deliveries to London increased 3 times.
(三倍増えました。）
(1580—11,000 tonnes)
(1591---35,000 tonnes)

62. Titania’s speech Act II, scene 1
• These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents:
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,

63. …continued
• And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
The human mortals want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.

64. Before she gets in touch with the sun, Titania
is the troubled land, suffering under coal
smoke (London in late 1500s and 1600s was
very polluted by coal smoke)
• Contagious fogs— a reference to coal smoke,
which made people sick
• The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
The fold stands empty in the drowned field--
Agricultural problems as people left the
countryside and went to the cities, land was
enclosed (sold off to the rich)

65. Coal brought a new booming economy and made people
feel like they should be working all the time (the
Puritans became an influential force)
The nine men's morris is fill'd up with
mud—no more playing; Puritans
discouraged play
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable—no
more playing; Puritans discouraged
play

66. Coal smoke, in coded references
The human mortals want their winter here--city is not
a green space anymore, but land is all developed and
smoky even in the summer
No night is now with hymn or carol blest—Puritans
discouraged singing and caroling
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound---connected to the
coal smoke in the air are the diseases people got from
the pollution

67. Coal smoke harmed plants
• And through this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose---
the flowers and plants couldn’t grow in coal
smoke, the coal smoke made the leaves
gray and wilted like frost
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds -
--the city (London) became warmer in the
winter (like early climate change)

68. Titania and Bottom
They share a romantic interlude.
Do they consummate (完結結婚????) their
union? It is not clear…. （はっきりと言えないね）
This video of the scene is particularly
amusing. Usually Bottom has a donkey’s
head but here we see him dressed like Elvis
Presley. So creative, don’t you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbViregx2Po

69. Hieros Gamos
• “Hieros gamos or Hierogamy (Greek ἱερὸς γάμος,
ἱερογαμία "holy marriage") refers to a sexual
ritual that plays out a marriage between a god
and a goddess, especially when enacted in a
symbolic ritual where human participants
represent the deities.
• The notion of hieros gamos does not presuppose
actual performance in ritual, but is also used in
purely symbolic or mythological context, notably
in alchemy and hence in Jungian psychology.”
(all copied from wiki)

70. It can be thought that Titania and Bottom are symbolically united in hieros
gamos, he a spirit/god, she a fairy (but also the land)—she is put in touch
with the sun, maybe this occurs slowly as coal depletes and the sun is left…
• A passage in Act III, scene 2 echoes the
theme of a hieros gamos with nature:
Oberon: But we are spirits of another sort:
I with the morning's love have oft made sport,
And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.

71. Some beautiful pictures of birds and the
sun…..(since the next topic is birds!)

72. Bottom and Birds….
With his ass’s head, the first thing Bottom does is to
sing about birds. In fact, his song wakes up Titania!!!
Bottom (sings): The woosel cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill---
Titania (awakening): What angel wakes me from my
flowery bed?
Bottom (sings): The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay---

73. The importance of birds
• The topic of birds in Bottom’s song seems
incidental and unremarkable. Yet,
significantly, Bottom has mentioned birds
before. Were he to play the Lion’s part, he
says, in Act I, “I would roar you as gently
as any sucking dove, I will roar you and
‘twere any nightingale” (I.ii.82-3).
• This early association of Bottom with birds
is one signal that there is something
special about birds in relation to him.

74. Aristophanes (446-386 BC) wrote a play called The Birds.
It is no doubt a source for A Midsummer Night’s Dream!!
• First of all, The Birds is set in Athens, like A Midsummer Night’s
Dream.
• Second, in Aristophanes’ comedy, two characters, Euelpides and
Pithetaerus, are looking for a better place to live than Athens
(“not a greater (city), but one more pleasant to live in”), recalling
the miseries with that Titania has listed in her ‘complaint’ speech.
• They are shocked to meet a large Hoopoe, a type of crested bird,
named Epops who used to be a man (like Bottom, he has been
transformed into an animal) and who says, “I have been a man”.
• Pithetaeus says, “When we see a thoughtless man, we ask,
“’What sort of bird is this? And Teleas answers, ‘It is a man who
has no brain, a bird that has lost his head….” In Act IV of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon says, “Robin, take off this
head” (IV.i.80)

75. 古代ギリシアの劇作家アリストファネス（紀元前446年~386年）
は『鳥』という戯曲を書いた。(『真夏の夜の夢』の源泉）
『鳥』の舞台はアテネである。『真夏の夜の夢』のように。
アリストパネスの喜劇の二人の登場人物であるエウエルピデースと
ペイセタイロスは、アテネよりもっと住むのに良い場所を探そうとする。
（もっと大きな都市ではなく、もっと心地良く住める都市）。
タイターニアが「不平」の言葉で並べた惨めさを思い起こさせる。
かつて人間であったヤツガシラという名前のとさかのある鳥
（ボトムのように、動物に変容させられた）で出会って、驚く。
その鳥は、「私はかつて人間だった。」という。
ペイセタイロスはいう。「思慮のない人間に、こいつはどんな鳥だ、
と尋ねるものだ。テレアースは答える。「あいつは脳みそのない人間だ、
頭をなくした鳥だ。」という。『真夏の夜の夢』の第四幕で、
オベロンは言う。「コマドリよ、この頭を取れ。」

76. Images of The Birds by
Aristophanes

77. In The Birds, Procne, like Titania, wakes up to
A SONG ABOUT BIRDS sung by her lover…..
• But the most serious, resonant, and vital
similarity occurs when Epops flies into a
thicket to wake his wife, a nightingale
named Procne.
• Just as Bottom awakens Titania with his
song, so too does Epops wake the sleeping
Procne with his very similar song.
• Both Bottom’s and Epop’s songs both
feature lots of BIRD NAMES!

78. Please watch the video of The Birds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOKPPUj6MtI
• Epop’s song to wake up Procne is at 15:54 of the
video
• It has two parts, just like Bottom’s song which
wakes Titania. The first stanza is a hymn to Apollo
the Ancient Greek Sun God:
“Chase off sleep, dear companion. Let the sacred hymn
gush from thy divine throat in melodious strains; roll
forth in soft cadence…..right up to the throne of Zeus,
where Phoebus listens to you, Phoebus with his golden
hair. And his ivory lyre responds to your plaintive
accents; he gathers the choir of the gods and from
their immortal lips pours forth a sacred chant of
blessed voices.”

79. Procne wakes up…
• Procne wakes up after this first stanza, like Titania in her
play. However, Procne (unlike Titania) is not seen; instead,
to show that she awakens, “the flute is played behind the
scene, imitating the song of a nightingale.” Then, after this
important invocation of Apollo, the sun god, Epops sings
the second and last stanza where he calls MANY BIRDS (I
provide basic parts to show the main idea, but not the
entirety):
• Epopopoi popoi popopopoi popoi, here, here, quick, quick,
my comrades in the air….the mountain birds. Who feed on
the wild olive….you, also, who snap up the sharp-stinging
gnats….and you who dwell in the fine plane of
Marathon….and you, the francolin with speckled wings;
you too, the halcyons….(etc.)

80. プロクネーは眼を覚ます
• タイターニアがそうしたように、プロクネーは
最初の節の後で眼を覚ます。しかし、プロク
ネーは（タイターニアとは異なり）見えない。代
わりに、プロクネーが目覚めたことを示すた
めに、「後ろから、ナイチンゲールの鳴き声に
似せて、フルートが吹かれる。」。太陽神アポ
ロを呼び覚ました後で、ヤツガシラは第二の
そして最後の節を歌い、沢山の鳥を呼ぶ。
• 「 」

81. Bottom and Epops…
• These two stanzas, from Epops’ song in The Birds,
constitute an important core of meaning, some of it
religious, which has been preserved, in disguise, and in a
briefer, more symbolic format, in Bottom’s song.
• Especially, Shakespeare excised the first stanza, with its
invocation to Phoebus.
• But Bottom has already declaimed about “Phibbus’ car”
earlier in the play. Shakespeare has wished to disguise the
role of Bottom as a medium to call forth a Sun God, even
while having Bottom do just this.
• The second stanza of Epop’s song, with its invocation of
many different kinds of birds, a powerful summons which
works immediately (many birds instantly arrive in the
Greek comedy) is, adapted, yet its power is preserved by
Shakespeare (in that Titania awakens).

82. ボトムとヤツガシラ
『鳥』でヤツガシラが歌うこれらの歌には、重要な意
味がある。それらのいくつは宗教的であり、ボトムが
歌う歌で、より短く、より象徴的にされた、偽装され
た形で残されている。特に、シェイクスピアは、最初
の歌を、ポイボス（太陽神）への呼びかけで用いる。
しかし、ボトムは既に「フィビウスの車輪」を放棄し
ている。シェイクスピアは、ボトムはそうしているの
だが、太陽神を呼ぶ媒介（霊媒）としてのボトムの役
割を偽装している。
ヤツガシラの歌の第二節は、多くの種類の鳥を呼ぶ。
ギリシアの喜劇では、多くの鳥が直ぐにやってくる。
これは、シェイクスピアの劇では、タイターニアの目
覚めの場面に継承されている。

83. Bottom becomes a sort of pagan
spirit…
• Shakespeare catalogued bird varieties for the purpose, to
give Bottom metaphorical ‘wings’ and let him soar up,
along with his song and his associations with the sun, and
create a moment where magic will take place and the
negative forces expelled. When Titania wakes to say, so
comically, “What angel wakes me from my flow’ry bed?”,
then, actually, on the hidden level, it is true: Bottom is a
winged angel who, with her (she is now awake) will join the
gods, the ones, like Apollo, who are strictly associated with
natural rituals and older myths and who pre-date
Christianity. Soaring up to the sky gods, metaphorically
speaking, he joins with her in love, and she is cured, which
is to say that she later hands over the “little changeling
boy”, the source of her argument with Oberon.

84. ボトムは異教の精霊になった
• シェイクスピアは多くの鳥を並べたが、それには
理由がある。それは、ボトムに比喩的な意味に
おける「羽」を与え、歌を歌いながら飛び立たせ、
太陽に近づく。そして、マジックが起き、悪しき力
が駆逐される。タイターニアは目覚めて、寝ぼけ
ながら言う。「一体、どこの天使が私の羽毛の
ベッドから私のことを起こしたのだい？」しかし、
隠された次元で、これは正しい。ボトムは、羽の
ついた天使であり、ボトムとともに、アポロのよう
に、自然の儀礼や古い神話、キリスト教以前の
神々の仲間に加わる。天空の神々のもとに昇り、
ボトムはタイターニアと愛で結ばれ、タイターニア
は癒される。後に「取り違えられた男の子」を
巡って、オベロンと言い争うことになっている。

85. Who is the little changeling boy?
• To go return to the theme of coal and
Titania, probably the fact that the little
boy is handed over to Oberon depicts the
depletion of fossil fuels and the
possibility that mankind will live closer
to nature again, and “trace the forests
wild” (II.ii.25) with Oberon.
Shakespeare’s time frame would be
centuries or millennia…

87. Festivals ---祭り
• Looking at the important scene in its entirety, we can
compare it to this passage below, the description of the
religious heart of an agricultural festival, by the historian
of drama Francisco Adrados:
• The (agricultural festival) is a time out of time in which
man puts himself in communication with the divine. All the
limitations of the present disappear. Tears and laughter
are free, foods are different and unlimited, clothes are
different, sexual taboos and other kinds of restriction are
abolished. Power and sanctity may be parodied…it is the
mythical time, conceived of at once as chaos and happiness,
from which other time emerges. The future is conceived as
a happy past, the way is open to all ideas of reform, utopia,
breaking of bounds. (Adrados 1975: 254-5)

89. PUCK, the trickster

90. Puck is a trickster figure….What is a trickster figure?? (below see Captain Jack
Sparrow, Naruto, Puck, Mercury, Brer Rabbit, Takarazuka Puck,
Viola (cross-dressing female trickster character in Twelfth Night))

91. Tricksters
• In mythology, and in the study of folklore
and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess,
spirit, man, woman, or
anthropomorphisation which exhibits a
great degree of intellect or secret
knowledge, and uses it to play tricks or
otherwise disobey normal rules and
conventional behavior.
• Tricksters are archetypal characters who
appear in the myths of many different
cultures.

93. More on tricksters….
• The Trickster is a "boundary-crosser". The Trickster
crosses both physical and often breaks societal rules.
Tricksters "...violate principles of social and natural
order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-
establishing it on a new basis."
• Often, the bending/breaking of rules takes the form
of tricks or thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or
foolish or both. The Trickster openly questions and
mocks authority.
• All cultures have tales of the Trickster, a crafty
creature who uses cunning to get food, steal
precious possessions, or simply cause mischief..
• Oberon is also a sort of trickster…

95. The confused lovers…
Get near to fighting and dying with
swords (like Romeo and Juliet) at the end-
--but Puck distracts them (plays tricks).
Tricksters are clever at using their wits to
avoid tragedy and forge comedies instead.
“So quick bright things come to
confusion”(I.1.149)---the threat that
doesn’t materialize.

96. Theseus and Hippolyta
• First line (“Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour draws on
apace”) is about “nuptials”—recalling the weddings and
unions throughout, including Titania’s and Bottom’s union.
• Hieros Gamos---sacred marriage
• …refers to a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage
between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a
symbolic ritual where human participants represent the
deities.
• The notion of hieros gamos does not presuppose actual
performance in ritual, but is also used in purely symbolic
or mythological context (wiki)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtX3EJ9M4UU
• The link is the whole movie of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream

98. The “rude mechanicals”
• The sun belongs to everyone, accessible
to everyone, no one is left out, even the
lowest…
• Close to gods in the topsy-turvy world of
the play that is like a festival and has a
pagan festival in its very title
(“Midsummer”)
• Peter Quince a stand-in for Shakespeare

99. Here are the Beatles performing
it
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxXk
dYr5JYg

100. “The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of
Pyramus and Thisby”
• This “tragic” play (which refers to
Romeo and Juliet) is “gobbled up” and
turned into a totally powerless farce by
the comedic power of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.
• This is the power of Shakespeare the
trickster!

102. Thank you for watching!