Shakespeare's Italian Dream
Cinquecento sources for A Midsummer Night's Dream(1)
by
Robert W. Leslie
 
[Copyright 1995 - I have no objection to anyone citing this article but
would like to be credited - naturally! - and informed]
 
In the light of Shakespeare's extensive use of Italian settings and
nomenclature, and his adaptations of plot-lines ultimately stemming from
Boccaccio (Cymbeline), Giraldi Cinthio (Othello and Measure for Measure)
and the novelle   (Romeo and Juliet), it is surprising that the Italianate
character of A Midsummer Night's Dream has not been generally noted. Most
commentators(2) see the play as drawing from a pool of classical,
traditional and romance sources which include Plutarch, Chaucer, the
romance Huon of Bordeaux, Ovid, and Apuleius while Judith M. Kennedy is
convinced that Book I of Jorge de Montemayor's Diana (c.1559, Yong's
English translation 1598) furnished Shakespeare with the principal action
of the play.(3) This last has a certain credibility since it is
indisputable that Shakespeare used  Montemayor's Felismena/Felix story in
Two Gentlemen of Verona and Book I certainly contains a similar pattern of
changing love relationships and rustic setting. However, the strongly
Italianate character of Montemayor's Diana and the generic rather than
precise nature of the similarities noted by Judith Kennedy do suggest that
more exact parallels may be found in the literature of Italy. Hugh M.
Richmond(4) appears exceptional in identifying a possible Italian source in
Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi II.8 (see Appendix 1 for summary). It would
be apposite here  to examine the description given in the novella's
head-word:
 
Possidonio, & Peronello amano Ginevra, ella ama Possidonio, & h=E0 in odio
Peronello, il quale =E8 amato da una altra Giovane detta Lisca, Egli non ama
lei, Lisca =E8 promessa dal Padre a Possidonio, & Ginevra similmente =E8
promessa a Peronello; & nel volere celebrare le nozze , per nuovo accidente
Ginevra divien di Possidonio, & Lisca di Peronello.
 
  (Possidonio and Peronello love Ginevra. She loves Possidonio and detests
Peronello who is himself loved by another young woman named Lisca. He does
not love her. Lisca is betrothed to Possidonio by her father. Ginevra is
similarly promised to Peronello but, on their way to celebrate the
nuptials, through an unforeseen event,  Ginevra becomes the bride of
Possidonio and Lisca that of Peronello.)(5)
 
The shifting relationships of the Lovers and the conflict with paternal
wishes (which is not present in Montemayor), taking into account
Shakespeare's other instances of mining Giraldi for plots, demand our
consideration while Richmond sees other parallels in Possidonio's
denunciation of the obstacles to true love (cf. Lysander's similar listing
in I.i), the removal to a rustic setting (in this case to complete the
betrothals by marriage), an imbroglio involving danger and confusion which
serves to re-align the love relationships and is ascribed to supernatural
influence, and the challenging and overruling of parental opposition by a
wiser authority. In addition to these structural details, Richmond also
notes a common underlying theme of the superseding of archaic, patriarchal
attitudes to marriage which is emphasised by the use of both supernatural
and magisterial intervention to deny parental severity.
    A full reading of the text, nevertheless, somewhat weakens Richmond's
arguments. The bare description given by the head-word is, in fact, the
only part which immediately suggests that here we may have the central
matter of A Midsummer Night's Dream  - although Shakespeare's
unquestionable use of Giraldian sources favours the view that he was at
least aware of the Ginevra story.  The close resemblance which we find
between Giraldi's original stories and the plots of Othello and Measure for
Measure  is simply not present here, as I shall demonstrate.
    There is no framing action of a wedding of important personages and
neither is there any suggestion of legal recourse on the part of Ginevra's
parents to enforce their choice of a son-in-law. While the old farmer who
has tended the injured lovers claims to have a right to resolve their
amatory problems, it is a right conferred by special circumstance rather
than by law. His claim is presented through lengthy persuasion and argument
while Shakespeare simply has Theseus say "Egeus, I overbear your will"
(AMN'sD IV.i.176) to resolve the issue. The supernatural element is, apart
from one brief reference to the Gods, completely compatible with a
non-pagan monotheism and has no personification within the action. The
rustic setting is the relatively humdrum world of peasant farmers rather
than a threatening wood and the one instance of natural danger comes from a
river in spate rather than from magical intervention and the presence of
wild beasts. The river episode, in any case, occupies a considerably
smaller part of the narrative than that taken up by the Athenian woods in
Shakespeare's play; in fact, most of the action described takes place
either in the fortress of Mirandola or in the home of the old farmer.
Lastly, and this is admittedly a subjective point, the quality of writing
in the Ginevra story is poor, being repetitive, sketchy in its
characterisation, and bereft of comic moments such as lighten the perceived
dangers of Shakespeare's Athenian wood. Aesthetically, the two works could
not be more dissimilar.
    While, as I have indicated,  Shakespeare's use of other Giraldi plots
suggests that he was probably aware of  Hecatommithi II.8, the number of
direct and significant correspondences between it and A Midsummer Night's
Dream seem, therefore, insufficient to claim it as anything more than a
minor contributory source. Much closer parallels may be found in the world
of the Italian pastoral drama and, in particular,  Guarini's best-seller Il
pastor fido (published in London in 1591 and translated into English in
1602) which prefigures a number of key points of Shakespeare's plot and
setting.  For non-Italianists who may be unfamiliar with the work, I
provide a plot-summary in Appendix 2.
    With regard to Il pastor fido, Lady Politic Would-be's comments in
Jonson's Volpone  indicate a general availability of the text,
 
Here's  Pastor fido...All our English writers,
I mean such as are happy in the Italian,
Will deign to steal out of this author, mainly:
Almost as much as from Montaigne (III.iv)
 
while Shakespeare's mining of the Italian drama and novelle  probably
identifies him as one who is "happy in the Italian."(6). His debt to
Montaigne is beyond question. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to suppose
the most successful playwright of the English public theatre to be one who
"steal[s] from out of this author".  A generic resemblance to Pastor fido
may, in fact,  be noted in any of Shakespeare's "Green World" plays, but
only A Midsummer Night's Dream goes beyond a superficial borrowing of the
scenery of the pastorale.
    Like the Pastor fido, A Midsummer Night's Dream, poses its human
characters a number of problems, in a world of inflexible custom, whose
resolution is dependent to some extent on the placating of supernatural
forces. Structurally, the progression court-wood-court in A Midsummer
Night's Dream mirrors the temple-wood-temple movement of Il pastor fido and
both court and temple represent stability and law. There is a mutual
emphasis on legality and the background to both plays is the impending
marriage of persons of some importance. The central action is dominated by
two pairs of lovers of whom one male is initially ill-disposed to the
female who follows him through the woods. Both plays are set in Greece, a
woodland setting frames their central actions, and the principal love plots
of each are both comically mirrored and directed, to some extent, by
mythical figures. Their dramatic infrastructures depend on the observance
of Diana's rites and Montano and Theseus, as leaders of their respective
communities, are charged with ensuring compliance with her decrees and
traditional practices.
    In the pastorale, the continued well-being of Arcadia necessitates a
yearly sacrifice to appease the slighted moon-goddess whose oracle has
stated
 
=ABChe si sacrasse allora e poscia ogn'anno
vergine o donna a la sdegnata dea
che'l terzo lustro empiesse ed oltre al quarto
non s'avanzassa; e cos=ED d'una il sangue
l'ira spegnesse apparecchiata a molti=BB (I.ii.pg.27)
 
("That there then be sacrificed each year
to the offended goddess a virgin
or dame past puberty but still youthful.
In this way shall the blood of one  assuage
The wrath which was prepar'd for the many")
 
While, at Theseus's court , the Duke himself has to accommodate his nuptial
plans to her rituals.  As the play begins we find him complaining that his
marriage to Hippolyta cannot be consummated until the next new moon, four
days away  - and already there is a suggestion that the presiding deity is
not entirely benevolent:
 
... O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager,
Long withering out a young man's revenue. (I.i.3-6)
 
    The frame of Il pastor fido is the impending marriage of a
god-descended couple - again decreed by Diana's oracle:
 
=ABNon avr=E1 prima fin quel che v'offende,
che duo semi del ciel congiunga Amore;
e di donna infedel l'antico errore
L'alta piet=E1 d'un pastor fido ammende=BB (I.ii.pg.27)
 
("There shall be no end to your woe unless
love's god conjoin two of divine descent;
and that old error of a faithless dame
compassion of a faithful shepherd mend")
 
Similarly, in A Midsummer Night's Dream,  we celebrate the marriage of
Hippolyta, who, as  leader of the warlike Amazons, descends from Ares,(7)
and Theseus who, according to Plutarch's Lives ,  is also, if only by
repute,  of divine descent (I quote Sir Thomas North's translation - a
principal source for Julius Caesar et al.):
And Pitheus  [the grandfather of Theseus] also had given it out abroad,
that he was begotten of Neptune(8)
 
It is tempting to speculate that the Silvio character's obvious modelling
on the classical chaste hunter, Hippolytus, perhaps suggested, by an
etymological resonance, the use of Hippolyta's marriage as the framing
device.
    In Athens, the right of disposal of a daughter in marriage is governed
by custom, herein vested in the father, as the determinedly litigious Egeus
affirms:
 
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
As she is mine I may dispose of her; (I.i.41-2)
 
And the unlucky Hermia is thus faced with three unwelcome choices: to marry
Demetrius, to die, or to become an unwilling votress of that very moon
which delays the Duke's own marriage. In Il pastor fido, the shepherd
Ergasto credits Titiro, the father of the pastorale's Amarilli,  with a
severity akin to that of Egeus:
 
Misera lei, se risapesse il padre,
ch'ella a prieghi furtivi avesse mai
inchinate l'orecchie (I.ii.pg.22)
 
(Woe to her if e'er her father heard that
she to furtive prayers had bent an ear)
 
And Amarilli too is  faced with an unchangeable ritual and a suitor,
Silvio, whom she has no wish to marry. Her love for Mirtillo, like that of
Hermia for Lysander, places her at risk of death; for the oracle has
decreed Diana's law to be
 
 ...=ABChe qualunque
donna o donzella abbia la f=E9 d'amore,
come che sia, contaminata o rotta,
s'altri per lei non muore, a morte sia
irremissibilmente condannata=BB. (I.ii.pg.27)
 
(..."That any maid or dame, whate'er her name,
who fouls or somehow breaks her vows of love,
must then be irredeemably condemn'd
if surrogate will not die in her place.")
 
The Fairy King's greeting "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania" (II,i,60)
again invokes the moon as a symbol of disharmony, a disharmony centred on
Titania's refusal to present a changeling boy to her husband.  The world of
the play is in turmoil as a result of Oberon's and Titania's displeasure
and again the moon is participant:
 
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air
That rheumatic diseases do abound. (II.i.103-105)
 
Arcadia too has known disruption as Diana's fury caused mayhem and disease
 
...ella [Diana]  prese
l'arco possente e saett=F2 nel seno
de la misera Arcadia non veduti
strali ed inevitabili di morte. (I.ii.pg.25)
 
(...she [Diana] took
her mighty bow and in the wretched breast
of Arcady sent arrows unperceiv'd
of death from which there could be no reprieve)
 
and here it is perhaps fitting to point out yet another parallel between
the two works: Ovid, in Metamorphoses III.173,(9) specifically uses the
matronymic Titania in referring to the bathing Diana.  Both in
characterisation (as a powerful woodland spirit) and name, therefore,
Titania stands revealed as an avatar of Diana and in both plays we see a
destructive chaos occasioned by her wilfulness. The Moon/Diana/Phoebe is
referred to forty-eight times in the course of Shakespeare's play while the
equation Titania=3DDiana augments that presence not only by reference but by
direct characterisation. As far as I have been able to discover, Il pastor
fido has no precedent, either literary or mythological, for its depiction
of  Diana's wrath occasioning a general affliction and Shakespeare's use of
the same device, taken in conjunction with the other structural
resemblances, surely argues a connection.
    The love themes too are structurally similar. Initially, the marriage
of Mirtillo and Amarilli, like that of Shakespeare's Lysander and Hermia,
is forbidden by law; and the pursuit of Silvio by Dorinda in Il pastor fido
finds a parallel in Helena's wooing of Demetrius. In the latter instance,
both plays show the nymph/woman facing not just initial rejection but
outright scorn:
 
Silvio: N=E9 t'ho cara n=E9 t'amo, anzi t'ho in odio,
brutta, vile, bugiarda ed importuna! (II.iii.pg.63)
 
(I hold you neither dear nor lov'd but loath'd
you craven, foul and importunate liar!)
 
demetrius: Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
=46or I am sick when I do look on thee. (II.i.211-212)
 
Helena and Dorinda brave the dangers of the woods to be with the unwilling
recipients of their love (AMN'sD II.i/Il p.f. IV.ii). Helena's reward for
this is to be threatened with violence by Demetrius,
 
...let me go;
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. (II.i.235-237)
 
while Dorinda is, in fact, wounded by Silvio's arrow (IV.viii.pg.155).
 
    The satyr is the visible manifestation of the mythic in Il pastor fido
and Puck, as a non-human anarchic element, principally fills that niche in
the dramatic ecology of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Puck's role as the
mischievous sower of love and creator of confusion also hints at another
supernatural force normally resident within the world of pastoral: the love
god, Cupid. Torquato Tasso's Aminta (1573) opens with a boy-actor as Cupid
who, having run away from his mother, Venus, is going to have fun sowing
love among the mortals:
 
Io, che non son fanciullo se ben ho
volto fanciullesco ed atti,
voglio dispor di me come a me piace  (Prologo. 23-25)
 
(Although in face and gesture I may seem
a boy, yet know that I am not so young,
and will proceed where'er my pleasure leads)
 
In form and characterisation, Tasso's Cupid has perhaps more in common with
Puck than does Guarini's unseen love-god who tardily confirms his presence
in Il pastor fido's Arcadian wood by engaging in a mocking dialogue with
Silvio in which he pretends to be an echo (IV.viii). This unseen
participation in events, however, prefigures Puck's voice directing the
lovers in the darkness laid upon them - which occurs at the same point, Act
IV, of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
    Puck differs from the satyr in that he does not display the latter's
exaggerated sexuality - perhaps because the role was played by a boy (cf.
Tasso's Cupid), but, like the satyr,  he plagues womankind:
 
   ...Are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery (II.i.34-5)
 
The grotesquely comic sexuality of the satyr is, however, represented in
Shakespeare's cast in the character of Bottom. In Il pastor fido, the
principal love themes are caricatured by the sub-plot involving the
half-human satyr and the wood-nymph Corisca. A similar mirroring occurs in
A Midsummer Night's Dream, but comically reversed, as Bottom, rendered
part-animal, is pursued by the female woodland spirit Titania. Titania's
powers of attraction being, by definition, greater than those of the satyr,
her advances have a positive outcome.
    A final resemblance is, of course, the epithalamium - a topos  mutual
to both plays. In Il pastor fido, this is sung by the Chorus whose
interjections throughout the work, although mainly non-musical, provide the
same type of dramatic punctuation supplied by the numerous  songs in A
Midsummer Night's Dream.
    With regard to other Italianate elements not present in Il pastor fido,
Puck has a satiric attribute which may indicate another part-source: like
Satiro in Beccari's Sacrificio (1554), he is possessed of a magical
substance which, when applied to the victim's eyes, causes transformation.
In the case of Satiro the substance is a combination of soporific and
truth-serum while Puck's flower-juice evokes or cancels love; it is
nevertheless interesting to note the similarity of application and the fact
that both the satyr and Puck induce their victims to sleep. The characters
of Oberon and Puck may also owe something to the improvised pastorali of
the commedia dell'arte. Ferdinando Neri, in his Scenari delle maschere di
Arcadia (Citt=E0 di Castello, 1913), cites a number of scenari  which may
have inspired Shakespeare. While Neri's intent is to identify links between
the commedia  and The Tempest, the combination of directing Mage and
servitor Sprite which he notes in Locatelli's island pastoral  Li tre
satiri recalls Oberon and Puck as much as it does Prospero and Ariel. Among
the available entertainments listed by Theseus is one which perhaps has as
its suggestion Poliziano's Orfeo (circa 1480),
 
'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.' (V.i.48-9)
 
while the 'rude mechanicals' and their ludicrous version of 'Pyramus and
Thisby' suggest the Zanni  of the commedia dell'arte..  Anne Barton sees
them as simply "plain Elizabethan workmen"(10) but Bottom's offer of a
"Bergomask dance" (V.i.344) surely implies at least a measure of
identification with the original Zanni  characterisation as the uncouth
porter from Bergamo.
    These minor details apart, it is Il pastor fido which most commends
itself as a direct Italian inspiration for A Midsummer Night's Dream. While
the central plot lines of the plays differ in some respects, their
constituent elements display remarkable similarities. The strong presence
of Diana/Moon in both plays and the way in which she afflicts not just an
Actaeon figure but the whole community  most firmly indicate Guarini's play
as a source while the shared elements of song, choric interlude, comedy,
implied danger, woodland setting and mythic backdrop confirm that Il pastor
fido and A Midsummer Night's Dream inhabit the same aesthetic world. Taking
into consideration the additional points of similarity in plot and
characterisation, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that much of A
Midsummer Night's Dream is a contaminatio  of identifiable Italian elements
which derive in the main from Giovanni Battista Guarini's pastorale, Il
pastor fido.
___________________________________________________________
 
Appendix 1:
 
Giraldi Cinthio, Giovanbattista De gli Hecatommithi  (Girolamo Scotto,
Vinegia 1566)  Novella  VIII pp.240-246
 
Plot Summary:
 
In the town of Mirandola, a young woman, Ginevra, loves Possidonio who
returns her affections. Peronello also loves Ginevra and, because he is
wealthier than his rival, is betrothed to her by her parents. Lisca loves
Peronello but is, in turn, betrothed to Possidonio. Ginevra's wedding is to
take place at her father's farm and Possidonio decides to seize Ginevra at
the river-crossing en route. The river suddenly sends a wave which sends
the boat out of control and Ginevra and Lisca, who is one of her
attendants, are washed overboard. Possidonio plunges in to rescue them and,
more dead than alive, the three young people finally reach the shore well
downstream in Modenese territory where they are pulled out by some peasants
who take them home and summon an old farmer who has medical knowledge. He
nurses them to health and a message is sent to their families informing
them that their children, believed drowned, have survived. The parents
arrive with Peronello and it is suggested that the weddings take place on
the spot. Possidonio threatens violence and the old farmer intervenes.
After much persuasion, he convinces Peronello that Providence has decreed
that Lisca be his bride and that Possidonio marry Ginevra. The parents
finally agree to bless the unions and the weddings take place in the old
farmer's house.
 
Appendix 2:
 
Guarini, Giovanni Battista Il pastor fido a cura di  Gioachino Brognoligo
(Laterza, Bari, 1914)
 
Plot Summary:
 
Prior to the action of the play, Aminta, a priest of Diana, loved Lucrina.
She forsook him for another and Aminta asked his goddess to avenge him.
Diana unloosed a plague on Arcadia which the oracle stated would have no
end unless Lucrina, or someone who would take her place, were sacrificed.
Aminta, appointed executioner, stabbed himself at the altar and Lucrina,
stricken with guilt, followed suit. Diana, still angry, renewed the plague
and the oracle made three pronouncements: that a young woman must be
sacrificed each year to abate the plague; that any faithless woman should
die unless a voluntary substitute were found; and that the preceding should
be valid until Love united two people of divine ancestry.
    The chief priest, Montano, is the theocratic hierarch of Arcadia. His
son, Silvio, is descended from Hercules and, in order to end the curse, is
betrothed to Amarilli who is descended from Pan. They do not love each
other. Mirtillo, lately arrived in Arcadia, loves Amarilli and she, albeit
chastely, loves him. Dorinda loves Silvio and follows him through the
woods. Initially he despises and threatens her but the shock of
accidentally wounding her awakens his love. Previously this has been
forecast by a mischievous Cupid in the role of an informative echo.
    Corisca, a wayward nymph, is pursued by a satyr whom she comically
teases. She is jealous of Amarilli and Mirtillo and arranges that Amarilli,
although innocent, be found in an apparently adulterous situation. This
done, Amarilli is condemned by the theocracy who govern Arcadia but
Mirtillo confounds Corisca's plan by offering to bear the penalty himself.
As he is about to be sacrificed, his adoptive father, just arrived in
Arcadia, interrupts the ceremony and Mirtillo is identified as Silvio's
long-lost brother and therefore eligible to marry Amarilli. Corisca repents
and, at the wedding celebrations which follow, the Chorus sing an
epithalamium.
 
Bibliography
 
Beccari, Agostino Il sacrificio (in National Library of Scotland, no
publisher or date indicated)
Bullough, Geoffrey Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare Vol.1
(Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1957)
Carrara, Enrico  La poesia pastorale  (Dottor Francesco Vallardi, Milano 195=
1)
Giraldi Cinthio, Giovanbattista De gli Hecatommithi (Girolamo Scotto,
Vinegia 1566)
Guarini, Giovanni Battista Il pastor fido a cura di  Gioachino Brognoligo
(Laterza, Bari, 1914)
Greg, Walter W. Pastoral Poetry and Drama (A.H. Bullen, London 1906)
Jonson, Ben Volpone  in Three Comedies ed. Michael Jamieson (Penguin,
Harmondsworth 1966)
Montemayor, Jorge de and Gil Polo A Critical Edition of Yong's Translation
of George of Montemayor's DIANA and Gil Polo's ENAMOURED DIANA trans.
Bartholomew Yong ed. Judith M. Kennedy (Oxford University Press, London
1968)
Muir, Kenneth The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays (Methuen, London 1977)
Neri, Ferdinando Scenari delle maschere di Arcadia (S. Lapi, Citt=E0 di
Castello 1913)
Ovid Metamorphoses  trans. F.J. Miller for Loeb Classical Library
(Heinemann, London 1916)
Plutarch The Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans trans. Sir Thomas North.
(George Sawbridge, London 1676)
Poliziano, Angelo L'Orfeo a cura di Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti (Antenore,
Padova 1986)
Shakespeare, William Complete Works of William Shakespeare ed. Peter
Alexander (Collins, Glasgow 1994)
Shakespeare, William The Riverside Shakespeare (Houghton Mifflin, Boston 197=
4)
Smith, William A Smaller Classical Dictionary ed. E.H. Blakeney (Everyman,=
 London 1910)
Tasso, Torquato Aminta  ed. B.T. Sozzi (Liviana, Padova 1957)
Theatre of the English and Italian Renaissance  ed. J.R. Mulryne and M.
Shewring (Macmillan, Basingstoke 1991)
Yates, Frances A. John Florio (CUP, London 1934)
 
=46ootnotes:
1 A shorter, Italian version of this article is to appear in Biblioteca
teatrale (probably in the Spring '96 edition).
2 E.g. Geoffrey Bullough in his Narrative and Dramatic Sources of
Shakespeare Vol.1 (London 1957), Anne Barton in her introduction to the
play in The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston 1974)  and Kenneth Muir in The
Sources of Shakespeare's Plays (London 1977)
3  See her critical edition  of Yong's translation, pg.xlvii.
4 Richmond, Hugh M. "Shakespeare's Verismo and the Italian Popular
Tradition" in Theatre of the English and Italian Renaissance pp.179-203.
5 All translations are my own.
6 Not to mention his quoting of "Venetia, chi non ti vede non ti pretia"
from John Florio's Italian phrase book First Fruits (1578) in Love's
Labours Lost (IV.ii.91-2). Vis-=E0-vis Shakespeare's linguistic abilities,
Robert Ball's article comparing Epitia and Measure for Measure makes a
strong case for his having at least a reading knowledge of Italian (see
Bibliography for publishing details).
7 See William Smith's A Smaller Classical Dictionary ed. E.H. Blakeney
(London 1910) pp.265 and 532-534.
8 Plutarch The Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans trans. Sir Thomas
North. This quotation is from pg.3 of the 1676 edition published by George
Sawbridge, London.
9 Loeb edition.
10 Riverside Shakespeare pg.218