THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

1.1 The Elizabethan Context: An Overview

In 1558 Elizabeth I assumed the crown of England. This inaugurated a period of relative peace, commercial and imperial expansion and growing national confidence, lasting until her death in 1603. It was also a period overshadowed by continuing religious frictions that were often extreme, sometimes violent. A Midsummer Night's Dream (hereafter called Dream), written in the mid-to-late 1590s, is therefore Elizabethan though its values reflect those of the late Middle Ages intermixed with those of the Renaissance.

In the wider European literary and political contexts, the period is the High Renaissance. Historians today call it Early Modern because many features of it are recognizably modern while being early in the evolution that shaped our world, but medieval views (particularly as regard conduct, the pervasiveness of religion and attitudes to sin and virtue) endured and coexisted with the Humanism of influential writers like Baldassare Castiglione and Erasmus that had originated on the continent.

Elizabeth, of the Tudor family, much loved, respected and feared, was a strong ruler, indeed strong enough to suppress the addressing of many problems which by her successor's time had become irresolvable. At times a sharply incisive intellect drove her political decisions. At others, caprice and temper made her a dangerous and unreliable force, all the more feared because of her cruelty and absolutism. She could be irritatingly resistant to making important decisions, but always knew where her best interests lay. The peace of her reign was constantly overshadowed by fears of Catholic outrage – against the queen herself or against society in general – or foreign invasion. Externally, the Spanish posed a considerable but diminishing threat to her tenure of the crown. Internally, Catholic opposition had been increased after the Pope declared Elizabeth a bastard and heretic and tacitly encouraged individual assassination attempts against her or state military action. Thisopposition had outwardly been blunted by the defeat of the Armada (1588), but the great bane of her reign was the claim of Mary Queen of Scots to have a stronger right to the throne of England than her cousin.

Associated with Mary's claim was the constant, very real fear of assassination plots for she provided a focus for discontented Catholics and a ready replacement on the throne. Perhaps with reluctance on Elizabeth's part, but certainly with relief, Mary was eventually executed in 1587 after implication in the Babington plot.

The Tudors (Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I) ruled from 1485 to 1603. Though dysfunctional and brutally absolutist, they successfully brought stability after the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses (though there were various short-lived rebellions against them). Questions of succession, the nature of rulers, the use and limits of monarchical power, the precariousness of power, the influence of court and the qualities of courtiers were matters that concerned people throughout the period. These matters hardly affect the mood of Dream, which is a largely festive mix of many sorts of comedy, but there are some issues around leadership and maintaining order. These emerge through the conduct of Oberon, through Theseus and his handling of Egeus's harsh patriarchy, and through Egeus's attitude to disposing of his daughter in marriage or to death. They are parodied in the problems Peter Quince has curbing Bottom's anarchic enthusiasms and Oberon's inept control of Puck's irrepressible mischievousness. The limited effects reason and balanced judgement can have on unrestrainable passions and the extent to which paternal rule may be allowed before it becomes unreasonable and cruel, were ongoing, much-debated problems of the time and would continue to be so into the next century. They are pushed to the margins of the play as the madcap happenings in the woods take over and the happy ending banishes all qualms.

Religion was a major conflict area, with Dissenters fighting for freedom from tight central control by the newly established English Church and Catholics trying to avoid the threats to their worship and, in some cases, actively seeking to topple the Protestant monarch. The religious fractures of the age have no place in the crazy jollity of this piece, but biblically originated religious-moral values do. Carnival, misrule, mistakes and entanglements drive the play, but the use of magic does raise the problem of the Anglican Church's view of superstition and its opposition to entrenched beliefs in a world of spirits, goblins and witches. The effects on society and individual morality of the wealth that the new capitalism and the expansion of trade were creating, were also beginning to worry Elizabethan writers. This new individualism and the accompanying greed it promoted have no place either in Dream, but in the clash between the wilful self-regard both of romance and paternal authoritarianism (evident in the clash between Hermia and her father) we can see the beginnings of the crumbling of old ways and the embryonic emergence of new individualism. But in its overall effect Dream is a holiday from all the pressing anxieties of the day. Almost – for there are some shadows.

Henry VIII's great achievement (and cause of trouble) was breaking with the Catholic Church of Rome and setting up the Church of England. This inaugurated a period of seismic change called the English Reformation. There was some limited alliance with the continental Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther, but in many ways the English went their own way. Monasteries and convents were dissolved and the infrastructure of Catholicism banished. Altars were stripped of ornaments (leaving only the cross and flanking candles and sometimes not even these), churches emptied of statues and relics, and many murals whitewashed over, scratched out or defaced. New church services and prayers were conducted in English rather than Latin. New English translations of the Bible began to appear and there was a Book of Common Prayer to be used in all parish churches. Holy shrines and saints' days were done away with as idols and superstitions. The vicar was to be the only intermediary between a person and God. After the nine-day reign of Lady Jane Grey and a brief fiery and bloody return to Catholicism under Mary I (1553–8), Elizabeth succeeded and bedding in the new church continued. But the...