Robert Huskisson. The Midsummer Night's Fairies. 1847.
Scene I
When the play starts, Theseus, the Duke of of Athens has just conquered the kingdom of Amazons, and is going to marry the queen he captures, Hippolyta. Theseus's asks , Philostrate to prepare for the entertainment of his coming wedding. Egueus, Theseus's subject, confronts Theseus and asks for the exertion of his father's privilege to enforce his daughter, Hermia, to marry the Demetrius, for Hermia, who is in love with another young man, Lysander, is not willing to obey his father. Theseus gives Hermia the options according the the Athenian law. She has to obey his father, or she has to die or to be a cloistered nun. To escape from the chain of the Athenian law, Lysander and Hermia decide to enter the woods, and marry at Lysander's aunt's house. Before they leave, they tell Helena their plan, another Athenian girl who is in love with Demetrius. Helena was engaged to Demetrius but was abandoned after he met Hermia. To win Demetrius's love, Helena decides to tell Demetrius Lysander and Hermia's plan of elopement and follow him into the woods.
Scene II
Some Athenian craftsmen are rehearsing a new play "Pyramus and Thisbe" which they want to perform on Theseus's wedding day. To avoid other Athenians, they decide to rehearse their play in the woods next night.
Scene I
Within the woods, there is a fairy world unknown to human being . The King of the Fairies, Oberon, and the Queen Titania, are having a quarrel over an Indian boy. Oberon asks Titania for the boy to be his henchman, but Titania refuses for the boy's dead mother's sake. . Seeking revenge, Oberon asks his attendant, Puck, to fetch him the herb named "love in idleness", which makes he or she who is affected by its power crazily fall in love with the very first thing that he or she see. Oberon wants Titania to fall in love with whatever she sees at her first sight after her awakening, so that he can humiliate her and claims for the boy.
Helena follows Demetrius into the woods. Helena asks for Demetrius's pity for her, but is rejected. Demetrius cruelly threatens Helena not to follow him and leaves her in the dark woods alone. Oberon overhears them. Taking pity on Helena, he asks Puck also to drop the juice on the young man in the Athenian costume to make him will fall in love with Helena.
Francis Danby. Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. 1832.
Sir Joseph Noel Paton. The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania. (1849).
Scene II
Puck fetches the flower and Oberon drops the juice on Titania's eyelids. Hermia and Lysander enter the woods afterwards. While they fall, Puck mistakes Lysander in Athenian rope for Demtetrius, and spreads the juice on him. Helena accidentally sees Lysander in sleep and wakes him. At his first sight after awakening, Lysander sees Helena and falls in love with Her. To chase after Helena, he leaves Hermia in sleep alone in the woods.
Richard Dadd. Titania Sleeping. c. 1841.
Scene I
The Athenian craftsmen enter the woods to rehearse their play. Puck watches their rehearsal, and want to plays the trick on them. He transforms one of the craftsmen, Nick Battom, into an ass. Awakened by Bottom's singing, Titania sees Bottom and falls in love with him. With an ass head, Bottom was attended by Titania's fairies and brought into her bower in the woods.asks
Scene II
Oberon and Puck's mistake brings the chaos among the Athenian lovers. Hermia awakes without seeing Lysander. She meet Demetrius and accuses him of murdering Lysander. Demetrius decides not to follow her in her bad temper and falls in sleep. To make up theirs mistake, Oberon spreads the juice on Demetrius and bids Puck to find Helena and lead her to his sight. Demetrius thus falls in love with Helena after he awakes,too. Lysander and Demetrius, who both are in love with Helena now, compete for Helena's love. Hermia seeks Lysander by his voice in the darkness, but find him changed and rejecting her because of Helena. In anger she blames Helena for stealing away Lysander's heart. Helena, who is hurt and believes that both men's pursuit for her is the conspiracy to disgrace her, also blames Hermia for her joining the two men's device to mock her. Lysander and Demetrius decide to fight for Helena's love. Oberon asks Puck to mimic their voices and lead them astray. When they fall in sleep out of tiredness, he drops on Lysander another herb which undoes the magic power.
Henry Fuseli. Titania, Bottom and the Fairies. (1793-4).
Joseph Noel Paton. Titania. 1850.
Subjective to the magic power of flower, Titania crazily loves Bottom and consents to give Oberon the boy. Oberon release Titania by another herb. The King and the Queen of the fairies reconcile and together are going to bless Theseus's coming wedding.
The morning comes. While Theseus and Hippolyta go out to the forest to hear the music of hounds, the four Athenian young men are found sleeping in the woods. As awakened from the dreams, Demetrius claims his love for Helena and Lysander for Hermia. Theseus by his authority consents the four lovers's matching and proclaims on the very day will be the two couples' and his wedding.
Bottom wakes from his dreams, too, unknowing what he had at night is real or not.
Henry Fuseli. Titania Awakening. (1785-89).
Sir Joseph Noel Paton. The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania. (1847).
The three couples' wedding is held. During the celebration the craftsmen represent their tragedy of "Pyramus and Thisbe." The craftsmen's simple and farcical presentation wins the Athenian noblemen's laughter. After the celebration, the King and the Queen together bless their marriages.
William Blake. Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. c. 1785.