RSC Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream

　　《仲夏夜之夢》本劇敘述雅典城內的一對戀人荷米雅和萊桑德，荷米雅的父親反對他們在一起，他要求公爵下令，若荷米雅不肯嫁給德米崔斯，就要判她死罪。荷米雅深愛萊桑德，又因德米崔斯曾對摯友海蓮娜示愛，所以不願依從父命。荷米雅和萊桑德決定逃出雅典，而熱愛荷米雅的德米崔斯和迷戀德米崔斯的海蓮娜，亦跟隨這對戀人逃進森林。

　　林子裡的仙王歐伯龍為幫助海蓮娜贏取德米崔斯的愛，就命令帕克趁德米崔斯睡著時，把神奇的情水滴在他的眼臉上，待他醒來，就會愛上睜眼後第一個看到的人。未料陰錯陽差，帕克搞錯對象，把情水滴在萊桑德的眼上，使萊桑德愛上海蓮娜。歐伯龍得知後，趕緊把情水滴在德米崔斯的眼裡，讓他也愛上海蓮娜，然後再把解藥倒進萊桑德的眼裡解除魔法，而讓德米崔斯繼續迷戀海蓮娜。荷米雅的父親發現荷米雅和德米崔斯各有意中人後，也就答應了荷米雅和萊桑德的婚事，最後這兩對戀人就雙雙在同一天舉行婚禮。

　　整場戲就情節推演而言，可分三個部分：首先是一條地位崇高卻荒謬無比的律法；其次，他們逃往林子後，精靈的介入使彼此愛的對象混淆，因而產生誤解與衝突；最後，一陣混亂之後，終於恢復理智和諧。本故事發生在仲夏夜晚，故事的主人翁們一度失去自我，事實上在西方文化中，有所謂的仲夏瘋（midsummer madness）和月暈（moonstruck），象徵黎明之時，混亂才能回復秩序，疑惑衝突才會得到解決。

　　另一個對稱的安排是兩兩成雙的戀人，萊桑德和德米崔斯，荷米雅和海蓮娜，他們之間的角色互換，撲朔迷離。

　　本劇看似簡單，實則具有不凡的文學與戲劇價值。另外，在莎翁眾多的劇本當中，《仲夏夜之夢》也是少數極具原創性的劇本，不像其大部分的劇本，取材其他作品而融合改編。

　　From the Royal Shakespeare Company -- a fresh new edition of Shakespeare's most loved comedy. This book includes: * An introduction to A Midsummer Night's Dream by award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate * The play -- with clear explanatory notes on each page * A scene-by-scene analysis * An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre * A rich exploration of approaches to staging the play The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of A Midsummer Night's Dream in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors -- Michael Boyd, Gregory Doran and Tim Supple -- so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible - a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death. www.rscshakespeare.co.uk

About the Author

　　JONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as "the best modern book on Shakespeare." In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'. ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford World's Classics series. He is the General Textual Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions project - one of the most visited Shakespeare websites in the world. For over nine years he has written the annual review of editions and textual studies for the Shakespeare Survey.