Shakespeare's Christmas gift to Queen Bess in the year 1596 . the lower feSiion reprefents the interior of a royal palace at [Athens Gift to Queen Befs 43 Athens. Three foundings of the cornetannounce the opening of the play with itsJiately dialogue, in which Thefeus, Dukeof Athens, and Hippolyta, ^een of theAmazons, anticipate their approachingnuptials. Egeus enters with his daughterHermia to bring complaint to the Dukethat fhe will not marry Demetrius, thehufband he has feleBed for her, but isbewitched with love for Lyfander. TheDuke reafons with Hermia; but the maiden [is 44 Shakefpeares Ch
Shakespeare's Christmas gift to Queen Bess in the year 1596 . the lower feSiion reprefents the interior of a royal palace at [Athens Gift to Queen Befs 43 Athens. Three foundings of the cornetannounce the opening of the play with itsJiately dialogue, in which Thefeus, Dukeof Athens, and Hippolyta, ^een of theAmazons, anticipate their approachingnuptials. Egeus enters with his daughterHermia to bring complaint to the Dukethat fhe will not marry Demetrius, thehufband he has feleBed for her, but isbewitched with love for Lyfander. TheDuke reafons with Hermia; but the maiden [is 44 Shakefpeares Chriftmas is Jiill obdurate and demands to know theworji that may befall if fhe refuses towed Demetrius, The Duke pronouncesfentence:— . Either to die the death, or to abjureForever the fociety of , fair Hermia, queftion your of your youth, examine well your , if you yield not to your father s choice,Tou can endure the livery of a aye to be infhady cloifter mewd,To live a barren Jifter all your life, [Chanting. Queen Elizabeth liftening to the Play Gift to Queen Befs 45 Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitlefs blefsed they that mafter so their undergo fuch maiden pilgrimage;But earthlier happy is the rofe diftilldThan that which withering on the virgin thornGrows, lives, and dies in Jingle blefsednefs. The tributes to the maiden pilgrimageand Jingle blefsednefs win from theQueens countenance a glow which agehas had no power to diminifh. The high-way to favour with the Virgin ^ueen, as [every 46 Shakefpeares Chriftmas every courtier and every writer knows, liesthrough praifes of her voluntary Jiate ofcelibacy. Thus threatened, Hermia is urged byLyfander to a clandejline marriage:— If thou lovft me then. Steal forth thy father s houfe to-morrow night. And in the wood, a league without the town. Where I did meet thee once with Helena To do obfervance to a morn of May, There will I ftay for thee. [H ermia
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectshakespearewilliam15
