A Midsummer Night’s Dream written in 1595 or 1596 is a romantic and fanciful comedy where William Shakespeare emphasizes the role and the power of imagination and shows how the feeling of love often derives from unrealistic motives. In a so-called “purple patch”, Theseus, Duke of Athens, often seen as the voice of reason in the play, recognizes, after being told about the mesmerizing night the lovers have spent, “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains_, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends._ The lunatic, the lovers, and the poet Are of imagination all compact.”_ (_V, 1, 4-8) Using a rhythmic ternary expression “the lunatic, the poet, the lover”, he thus emphasizes the prominent role of imagination, showing how the three are similar. Indeed he pronounces this last word not less than three times in his response to his wife to be, Hippolyta. What do these three categories of people have in common? Are they idealistic, even naive, or victims of their imagination? Why should we put side-by-side lunatics – in other words madmen – and lovers, and not include the poets? Surely because poets are often considered naturally and unsurprisingly irrational and imaginative in order to create something really unusual and original, while lovers and madmen need external circumstances to let their unrealistic vision spread. Let us say that this remark is an obvious wink from the author Shakespeare to his reader, a meta-poetic moment about his work as a playwright. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a madman is someone (i) “mentally ill”, (ii) “temporarily or apparently deranged by violent sensations, emotions or ideas; (iii) angry and resentful, lacking restraint or reason; (iv) marked by extreme excitement, confusion, or agitation”. We will investigate how these definitions apply to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and what kind of lovers and madmen Shakespeare presents us. How does Shakespeare illustrate love