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Sophia Beck
Prof. Erin Kelly
ENGL441W
5 October 2018
Commonplace Book
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Pages: 1053
Lines: 1.1.226-251

HELENA How happy some o’er other some can be

Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so.
He will not know what all but he do know.
And as errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath love’s mind of any judgement taste,
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is love said to be a child
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.
For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia’s eyne,
He hailed down oaths that he was only mine.
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight:
Then to the wood will he tomorrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.

This passage concludes the first scene of the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and it is
important because it sets up the context for the main conflict between Helena and Hermia. The
passage is composed through rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter. Shakespeare uses the
binding qualities of such a rhyme and meter to emphasize not only the constraints that are on the
society of Athens in the play in terms of love, but also the way that Helena is bound to always
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being the second best in Demetrius’ eye. Speaking of which, Shakespeare utilizes the imagery of
eyes in several instances throughout this passage. He does so in a way that equates the word
‘eye’ to that of the mind’s visions and thoughts. Helena speaks of eyes not in the literal sense,
but as a way to show that vision can be impaired by the faulty judgement of its bearer. In many
ways, this is Helena accusing Demetrius of having a shallow love for Hermia because of the
promises that Hermia’s dad has given him. She also accuses herself of looking upon him in a
similarly foolish way, as she claims she is just as beautiful as Hermia and could go after many
other suitable men. This builds on the recurring theme throughout the play that romantic love is
based on the superficial; assumptions driven by physical attributes take over a person’s
judgement of the person as a whole, whereas the bond between friends is much more about a
person’s true character. Shakespeare furthers this role that vision plays in this passage by
including the allusion of Cupid within her speech. As Helena states, he is often painted blind
which can be read as a nod towards Oberon and Puck in the play who “paint” the lover’s eyes
with juice to make them blinded with their new love. Shakespeare creates the personification of
love as a stylistic approach showing how it can be seen as its own entity in this passage. “Love”
is also referenced as “he” which is not only an allusion to Cupid that is included earlier in the
passage, but also a nod to the way the power dynamic between the men and the women is
depicted in the play.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Pages: 1061-1062
Lines: 2.1.248-267

OBERON I pray thee give it me.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enameled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove.
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes,
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
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More fond on her than she upon her love

And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.

This passage from A Midsummer Night’s Dream depicts the nature of the fairies through
Oberon’s conspiring about how to medel with the love lives of others. For the most part, this
passage is composed of rhyming verse through couplets and iambic pentameter. This is a
strategic move on Shakespeare’s part to show how the fairies are bound by little to no rules due
to their mischievous nature, especially Oberon and Titania because they are the ones that make
them. Shakespeare also utilizes this passage to emphasize how deeply connected the fairies are
with nature. He incorporates the imagery of flowers to show the impermanence of life and all of
the challenges that come with it. Flowers generally bloom and die with the changing seasons, but
in this place where Titania lives, Oberon depicts it as a place where they are preserved and
always blooming. This goes against the natural cycle of things, which relates to how their fight
has disrupted the natural order of the seasons, and seems to be never ending. The meanings of
the flowers relates to the overall description of Titania from Oberon’s point of view, each as its
own discrete metaphor. Through thyme she is courageous, through oxlips and violets she is full
of life and innocence, and through woodbine she is “over-canopied” with the doting eyes of men.
Shakespeare chooses to have Oberon describe Titania through the intrinsic meaning of each of
the flowers, which may seem fond, but taking into consideration the mood of the passage as a
whole, comes off as sarcastic and almost spiteful. This description is most distinctly contrasted
with the image of the “snake throw[ing] her enameled skin” (2.1.255). This is to show that she
may seem beautiful and innocent, but really she is a snake covered by a mesmerizing skin.
Considering what is going on in the passage, Oberon is no saint himself, so Shakespeare set this
up in a way that shows the hypocrisy that Oberon has towards Titania. Shakespeare then makes
use of assonance with the letter “a” later in the poem to juxtapose the tone Oberon takes when
describing Helena and how he is going to “help” her, as the word choice flows off the tongue
easier than the harsh cacophonous sounds used in his description of Titania.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Pages: 1086
Lines: 5.1.2-22

THESEUS More strange than true. I may never believe

These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend more
Than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold;
That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,
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Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.

The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

This passage represents the start of the transformation back to real life after many of the
play’s characters have been disrupted by the shenanigans of the forest. It is different than the first
two passages because it is written in blank verse. Shakespeare does this to show how Theseus,
the Duke of Athens, is bound to no rules because he is the one who makes them and has the
power to challenge existing ones if he pleases. This also might be why he is portrayed as so
unimaginative and biased toward the natural order of the world in this scene. Shakespeare
includes metaphors for the other characters in the play in this piece: “The lunatic, the lover and
the poet” (5.1.7) are representations for Bottom, Helena and the fairies, respectively. It seems as
if Shakespeare uses the lunatic metaphor to describe Bottom to emphasize how he was the only
one of the characters that consciously crossed into the fairy realm and experienced relations with
the fairies. The lover could be a metaphor for Helena, because of the implication that the lover is
able to only see the beauty in the person she loves. Shakespeare alludes to Helen of Troy on line
15 to parallel the story of her in Greek mythology to the quest that Helena embarks on to win
back Demetrius’ love. The poet is a metaphor for the fairies, because within it, Shakespeare uses
words that describe the fairies including: “imagination”, “unknown”, “tricks”, “joy”, and “fear”.
The metaphor describes the poet as having the power to play tricks on the mind with the power
of imagination, which is exactly what the fairies do when they attempt to medel with the lives of
the humans. The image of the poet having the power to glance “from heaven to earth” (5.1.13) is
a reference to Cupid, who was said to have the power to go back and forth between heaven and
Earth. Shakespeare uses this allusion to show how the fairies try to take over this role as Cupid
when they interfere with the lives of others.

The Merchant of Venice

Pages: 1349-1350
Lines: 2.1.1-23

MOROCCO Mislike me not for my complexion,

The shadowed livery of the burnished sun,
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To whom I am neighbor and near bred.

Bring me the fairest creature northward born,
Where Phoebus’ fire scarce thaws the icicles,
And let us make incision for your love
To prove whose blood is reddest—his or mine.
I tell thee, lady, this aspect of mine
Hath feared the valiant; by my love I swear
The best regarded virgins of our clime
Hath loved it too. I would not change it’s hue
Except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen.

PORTIA In terms of choice I am not solely led

By nice direction of a maiden’s eyes.
Besides the lott’ry of my destiny
Bars me the right of voluntary choosing.
But if my father had not scanted me,
And hedged me by his wit to yield myself
His wife who wins me by that means I told you,
Yourself, renowned prince, then stood as fair
As any comer I have looked on yet
For my affection.

This passage kicks into motion the possible suitors that are competing for Portia’s hand
through her father’s test. Morocco speaks in blank verse because there is no rhyme scheme and a
good amount of his lines follow the pattern of iambic pentameter. Although he speaks through
various different images, his dialogue takes a tone that seems more like forced romance than true
love. In the plays we have read so far, it seems as though Shakespeare tends to add rhyme and
meter to the dialogue that represents heartfelt feeling. In Morocco’s part of the passage,
Shakespeare also includes an allusion to the Sun God Phoebus to juxtapose Morocco and Portia’s
point of origin. Morocco is from a place where the sun is always shining, Portia is from a place
where it is not. A key part in this play is the idea of the ‘insiders’ and the ‘outsiders’, and the
differences between the way people who are unfamiliar think. At the tale end of this allusion is
the hyperbolic image: “whose blood is the reddest” (2.1.7). This once again calls attention to the
idea that ‘outsiders’ are fundamentally different than the Christians of Venice, even down to the
way their blood looks. Interestingly enough, Portia’s lines are also in blank verse similar to the
way Morocco’s lines are. Shakespeare uses this effect to show how this interaction is nothing of
love—it is strictly a business transaction. There is also the use of alliteration on line 19 when
portia says “His wife who wins”. The sound of the letter ‘w’ creates a woeful, melancholic tone
attached to these words. The placement of this literary device is crucial to understand the
meaning that Shakespeare was trying to get across with the weight of those words: that Portia
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feels trapped by this process, that she is the wife to be won and has no say in who she loves
regardless of if she likes them or not.

The Merchant of Venice

Pages: 1374-1375
Lines: 3.4.60-78

PORTIA They shall, Nerissa, but in such a habit

They shall think we are accomplished
With that we lack. I’ll hold thee any wager
When we are both accoutered like young men
I’ll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
And speak between the change of man and boy
With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride, and speak of frays
Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies
How honorable ladies sought my love,
Which I denying, they fell sick and died—
I could not do withall! Then I’ll repent
And wish, for all that, that I had not killed them;
And twenty of these puny lines I’ll tell,
That men shall swear I have discontinued school
Above a twelve-month. I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging jacks,
Which I will practice.

At the point in the plot where this passage resides, Portia conspires with Nerissa to cross-dress as
men and show up to court to help out their husbands. Shakespeare writes Portia’s lines in this
passage as blank verse; it is not perfect blank verse, however, as there are a few deviations. This
creates the effect of Portia’s words having a more subtle emphasis and considering the nature of
her words in this passage, it makes sense that Shakespeare would have them come off this way.
Another thing noticeable in this passage is Shakespeare’s use of line breaks; not a single line
ends with a finished thought, except for the last one. This effect helps the reader follow and
distinguish the thought process of the character. It makes it seem like Portia was not certain of
what she was going to say next and her dialogue represents the active process of her thinking
about her plan to cross-dress. Similarly, the repetition of the word ‘and’ throughout the passage
shows how her thoughts are ongoing. Near the end of the passage, Shakespeare includes the
hyperbole, “A thousand raw ticks” (3.4.77), which is obviously an exaggeration of what Portia
plans to do. The effect of this is to dramatize Portia’s plan and to make it known to the audience
that men in the play have many specific traits that they use and may not even know it. This
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passage in general makes fun of the foolish things men do to establish themselves in the play,
and how different this is from how the women go about doing the same thing.