A Midsummer Night's Dream

OCTOBER 2008

Introduction

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – it’s all about Wales, is it?

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, along with The Tempest and Love’s Labours Lost, is one of only three of Shakespeare’s plays which doesn’t have an obvious source on which it is based. Celtic folklore would appear to have a significant influence on the plot however and the primary influence is arguably the mythology of the Welsh.

Four miles from the market town of Abergavenny runs the river Clydach. We are now someway north of the Brecon beacons where three industrial villages – Clydach, Gilwern, and Llanelly – are all associated with iron production on a grand scale. Remember this - it becomes significant as we follow the story through. Within these parishes is a farm called Trebarried. In 1595 a mansion stood on this ground, originally the property of Bois, Lord of Trebois. Local legend has it that Shakespeare stayed here sometime that year. There is no evidence to back up the claim, but we won’t let that get in the way of a good yarn.

We know Shakespeare enjoyed the countryside – he was raised in Stratford upon Avon and makes frequent allusions to rural matters. One of the finest walks in this part of Breconshire is along the Clydach gorge. It is said Shakespeare embarked on just such a walk and found himself in a part of the gorge called “Fairy Glen”. It would be romantic to think of Shakespeare sat in the Glen, a copy of the Mabinogion (the medieval book of Welsh folklore) in hand. He catches a glimpse of a glint of light in the mist – a will o’ the wisp – and quickly flicks through his fairy book – concluding that this was actually a brief sighting of Pwca, or Puck, the mischevious Welsh hobgoblin, who can change his form at any time. This would however be an unlikely scenario, since the Mabinogion was not translated into English until the 19^th century, and Pwca gets no name-check in this particular document. Nonetheless, legend has it that this is where Shakespeare sat and put his quill to parchment composing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which he intended for the wedding of a friend. Indeed one cave in the gorge is now named “Shakespeare’s Cave”

My own brief research does already throw up a significant problem with the romantic notion of fairies inhabiting a picturesque glen on the bank of the Clydach. Anyone who knows anything about the “Y Tylwyth Teg” (the authentic Welsh name for the fairy community) knows that they are absolutely terrified of iron. For an “Y Tylwyth Teg” to live in close proximity of Clydach and its surrounding villages, would be akin to Clark Kent setting up residence next to a kryptonite mill.

So who were the “Y Tylwyth Teg”? Translated into English as “The Fair Folk” and also known as "Mother's Blessings", they were beautiful beings with fair skin and golden hair. They lived much longer than human beings and lacked souls. Sometimes they would kidnap fair-haired young children snatching them from their beds. So to ward off these hobgoblins, concerned parents would hang iron pokers over the cradles of their young ones. (A practice which, weighing up the balance of probabilities, most likely led to the loss, by impalement, of considerably more infants than abduction by fairies.) Occasionally one of the fair folk would take a human lover, but entering fairy land was perilous to humans who were obliged to remain forever if they ate or drank there. It was important to keep these spirits on side - hence they were given the pleasant titles discussed above (Fair Folk, Mother's Blessings), even if not strictly true.

Great distinction was made between solitary and social fairies. The solitary fairy elected to wear red, brown, or grey instead of the customary green. He or she avoided large gatherings and preferred to be left by himself or herself, disdaining the unbridled gaiety of social fairies. They called themselves Bwci – which in modern parlance would be akin to a sort of medieval Emo…

In distinction from other Celtic fairies, the fair folk were often associated with lakes. They also had magical cattle. According to Wikipedia, the most famous of these is the Speckled Cow of Hiraethog. Pretty famous…

The king of the Fair Folk was Gwynn ap Nudd. From the welsh: Gwynn meaning white or fair. He had a black face. (Oddly). This could be our precursor for Oberon. He was the ruler of the otherworld, and led a pack of fairy dogs.

The queen of the Fair Folk was Queen Mabb (explored in some depth in Romeo and Juliet). She tormented people by making them dream of what they could not have. Not only was she a Queen. She was also a midwife. Pretty down to earth then... Mabb is considered to be the same fairy as the Irish Queen Maeve, who personified the heights of feminine power. Her name means "intoxicated woman”. She was known for her long golden hair, fiery temper and strong will. As evidence of her feminine power, battles would pause while she menstruated. She boasted that she could sexually exhaust thirty men each night, and she ruled over sexual magic. (Possibly giving Shakespeare a suitable excuse to load the “Queen Mab” speech with more innuendo than any other in the canon.) This could be our precursor for Titania.

Gwynn’s illegitimate son was Pwca or Puck. Son to the king of the fair folk, he had a human mother. He was a solitary fairy – hung about on his own a lot, causing mischief. He was a Bwci. Pwca’s real name was Robin Goodfellow. But sometimes he called himself Gwarwyn a Throt (for short?). His favourite trick was to lead parties of travellers with a lantern and blow it out when they reached the edge of a cliff causing the whole party to fall off and perish. He lavished gifts on humans, but there were dire consequences if they were accepted. He liked to have milk and bread left out for him, and played pranks if it wasn’t done. His trademark laugh was “Ho Ho Ho” – think of him as a sort of twisted Father Christmas.

Mix in a bit of Chaucer, in the form of Theseus and Ypolita (Hippolyta) from The Knight’s Tale and a parody of Shakespeare’s own recent hit, Romeo and Juliet, in the Pyramus and Thisbe scenes, and so we have a starting point for the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

  Cast