The general comic scheme may be outlined as follows: Act I. Introduction of Plot Elements.

Act II. Independent Development of these Elements. Entanglement.

Act III.

Notice the relation of the scenes as developing an artistic introductory act. The first scene is devoted to the Duke, the second to Viola, the third to Olivia's household; the fourth brings the Duke and Viola together; the fifth shows the relations of all the characters and explains the triangular love complication.

SCENE 1. This scene has two, possibly three, dramatic purposes. What are they? Is the Duke's love affected or real? What particular passages support your conclusion? Explain the play upon words in lines 17 ff. Does the Duke shift his metaphor?

SCENE 2. Explain the plays upon words. Are Scenes i and ii comic? If not, what kind of scenes are they? What particular lines indicate Viola's character?

SCENE 3. Explain the tricks of language. Point out incongruous traits in the characters of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew. Explain the comic effects of character contrasts. SCENE 4. Even this small scene is carefully planned with an introduction, a situation, and a conclusion.

SCENE 5. The main exposition scene. What points of plot does it develop? Analyze the comic elements. Ex

plain all the word play of the clown. Wherein is Sir Toby comic? Wherein is the dialogue between Viola and Olivia "unexpected and incongruous"? Why does the author change from prose to verse? Where is the climax of the scene? What is the purpose of the last ten lines of the scene?

Act II

The different elements of the plot are treated in separate scenes. There are, as yet, no marked entanglements. We have a poetical romantic love story running side by side with a comic intrigue. This is typical Romantic comedy.

SCENE 1. Critics say, "This scene is clearly misplaced." Find out why. It has to do with the time sequence of the play. Explain the plot significance of this scene, especially lines 44-48.

SCENE 2. We knew before that Olivia loved Viola and that she sent the ring. In what way, then, does this scene advance the story? What is the effect upon Viola?

SCENE 3. Analyze for comic effects the dialogue, the character contrasts, the situation. How does the scene affect the plot?

SCENE 4. This scene has been called the finest in the play. Why? What are the most poetic passages? Where is the pathos most touching? Do we learn anything new about the character of Viola or of the Duke?

SCENE 5. Analyze the comic effects, explaining especially wherein the situation itself is comic. Explain what makes Malvolio a comic character.

Act III

SCENE 1. Why are Sir Toby and Sir Andrew brought into this scene? Trace the development of the scene toward an emotional climax. What is the effect of beginning with a

conversation between Viola and the clown? Where, in this scene, is a good description of the clown or fool of Shakespeare's time?

SCENE 2. Explain how this scene prepares for an entanglement between the main plot and the minor plots. SCENE 3. How does this scene advance the plot?

SCENE 4. This is one of the principal complication scenes. Explain in detail how the various threads of plot are here brought together and entangled. What is the purpose of the first three lines? What makes the conversation between Malvolio and Olivia amusing? Be sure not to miss any of the double meanings and unexpected quirks of language (e.g., line 175). Try to visualize the scene. No one reads drama well until he can imagine the action. Determine how you would act the part of Sir Andrew or of Viola throughout the scene.

Act IV

Explain how, in this act, both the main plot and the minor plot are still further developed and entangled. Has Scene i been prepared for earlier in the play?

Act V

SCENE 1. The systematic structure of this readjustment scene should be carefully analyzed. Its purpose is to disentangle the various threads of plot. After an introductory conversation between Duke and Clown, the Antonio plot episode is introduced and its complication emphasized. At the climax of this little scene, Olivia enters to emphasize the misunderstandings of the main plot. When this has reached its height, Sir Andrew rushes in with a bloody coxcomb, followed by Sir Toby, thus bringing into the scene the comic underplot. When everything is thus ready for the adjustment, Sebastian enters. The bringing of Sebastian and

Viola together upon the stage at once clears up all the difficulties. To round off the scene and the play, Malvolio is released and comes upon the stage for a moment. All the incidents are thus brought to a conclusion, and all the characters disposed of. Are there any inconsistencies? If so, do they interfere with the dramatic effect?

Twelfth Night has more songs and fragments of songs than any other of Shakespeare's plays. Was this to be expected? Compare the title and the season.

SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS AND REPORTS

1. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, a Character Contrast.
2. The Character of Malvolio illustrated from the Play.

3. A Visit to an Elizabethan Theater.

4. The Festival of Twelfth Night.

5. Tragedy and Comedy compared.

6. The Most Comic Situation in Twelfth Night.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

A Midsummer Night's Dream is not a regular romantic comedy like Twelfth Night. Scholars are very well agreed that it was written originally not for presentation on the public stage, but for private performance at a wedding or similar festive occasion; and the occasion gives a clew to the interpretation of the play. Naturally the poet adapted his material to the time and place, and produced not a conventional stage play, but a court performance with many of the characteristics of the court mask. It is, indeed, a mask play.

The mask had long been a popular court entertainment. It originated in the early masquerade dance which was “one of the ordinary diversions of all European courts, the English among the rest." An early form is described as follows:

"The 'disguisers' were to be introduced into the hall by torchbearers, and on their entrance the minstrels were to begin to play : if there were women disguisers, they were to dance first, and then stand aside; then the men were to dance 'suche daunces as they be appointed,' and stand upon the other side. After this, 'the Morris to come in incontinent as is apointed, yf any be ordeynid. And when the saide Morris arrives in the midist of the hall, then the said minstrallis to play the daunces that is appointid for theim.' This done, 'than the gentillmen to com unto the women to taike oon by thand, and daunce suche base (slow and stately) daunces as is apointed theym; and that done, than to daunce such rounds as shall be appointed them to daunce togeder by the maister of the revills."

The disguisers were the ladies and gentlemen of the court. They danced the slow and stately dances which later became the dignified mask proper. The Morris dancers were professionals. They danced the lively galliards and corantos which developed later into the comic antimask. Definite stage settings were introduced by wheeling into the hall a pageant wagon converted into a castle, mountain, or ship, as the scene required. The disguisers came to represent definite characters, who furnished a story, usually mythological, for the scene. The result was a dignified mask proper of pageantry, dancing, singing, and poetic recital, presented by the ladies and gentlemen of the court, and a comic antimask often farcical, serving to set off by contrast the dignity and beauty of the mask proper.

A Midsummer Night's Dream has the general effect of a mask. The center of interest lies not so much in the story of the lovers as in the contrast between the dancing, singing, pageantry, and poetry of the fairies and the low comedy of Bottom and his fellow-tradesmen. The fairies produce the effect of a beautiful mask proper; Bottom and