Part IV of V, Stage-craft as State-craft
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream whimsically mirrors the real-life soap opera of Queen Elizabeth I and Hercule Francois, the Duke of Alencon. The Bard turned what actually happened in 1582 on its head to uproarious comic effect for his 16th century audience. Elizabeth’s courtiers knew the story all too well; they had lived it!
Now you, too, can compare his version to actual historic events in this Act IV:
“PEASEBLOSSOM: Ready!
COBWEB: And I!
MOTH: And I!
MUSTARDSEED: And I!
ALL: Where shall we go?
TITANIA: Be kind and courteous to this Gentleman,
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs
And light them at the fiery glow-worm’s eyes,
To have my love to bed, and to arise;
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, III.i
In Act III (Catch up on the first three Acts here: Act I, Act II, Act III), we left Alencon vowing revenge against the Queen and her entire court. Feigning love and dangling marriage and a throne, she had turned his romantic hopes into a fairy-tale farce.
🧳 ACT IV, SCENE I: Making Progress, with Fish and Visitors
By February 1, 1582, after 127 days of feasting and entertainment at Elizabeth’s expense, Alencon and his attendants had overstayed their welcome. Desperate to rid herself of her “frog” prince who had sworn he would waive his hanky (formerly hers in Act I) in a fond farewell by the end of January, Elizabeth devised an audacious plan: to make him leave by removing herself and the entire court from Whitehall’s warm fires onto the roadways in a royal progress to her ships at Dover -- in the middle of winter.
Royal progresses were arduous in the best warm weather conditions. They involved transporting the Queen, all her courtiers, her ambassadors, and their luggage (wardrobes, trunks, beds, mattresses and the royal commode chair) over rutted roads. On this progress, her courtiers and ladies, forced to abandon the convivial warmth of royal palace firesides and slog over frozen roadways while entertaining a despised French duke and his followers, were anything but happy fairies. Like Titania in the quote above, Elizabeth had to encourage her courtiers and ladies to remain courteous to their unwanted guest.
👑 ACT IV, SCENE II: Yet More Thrilling Theatrics in Rochester
On February 2 at the Crown Inn, Rochester, Elizabeth wept publicly and begged Alencon not to go, citing that the Spanish were nearing Antwerp. He gallantly promised to leave so he could return sooner. She swore to marry him in spite of all the opposition, as she slipped him more cash and a diamond cross worth £20,000, which she later claimed was “lost”.
❄️ ACT IV, SCENE III: Yet More Oscar-winning Performances in Sittingborne
The following day, at the George Inn (which still stands today) in Sittingborne, meager fare, cramped lodgings and foul weather mirrored the court’s mood. Alencon begged her to go no further, but she insisted on accompanying him to Canterbury and then on to Dover. Although Dover Castle was not yet ready and there were six houses with plague in town, she claimed nothing would not stop her from spending every last moment by his side.
⛪️ ACT IV, SCENE IV: Parting (Finally) at Canterbury
On February 7, after feasting at the Lord Chief Baron’s house in Canterbury, the Queen bid Alencon a final, teary “Adieu”. With Dover Castle still unprepared, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and 100 other plucky nobles and fully-armed gentlemen (plus 300 serving men) accompanied the Duke from Canterbury to the ships, where Lord Howard, the Lord High Admiral of England personally accompanied Alencon from Dover across the Channel to Flushing, in Zeeland.
💌 ACT IV, SCENE V: Love’s Letters, Lost?
Back home at Greenwich Palace, Elizabeth resumed her tearful assertions that Alencon would return. In April, as England faced mounting danger, she wrote him in Antwerp declaring she would marry him.
He responded, in his own hand, that while he remained “more ready and desirous for it than ever,“ he “had quite despaired of bringing it about”, reminding her that she herself had said that “it would be easier to move the mountains than for her, willingly, to make up her mind to marry”.
He filled the end of the letter with sappy endearments while simultaneously inquiring about the Duke of Florence’s eldest daughter and obtaining her portrait.
💎The Jewel in the Crown
I hope that, having met the real life Bottom, Titania and her fairy courtiers whom Shakespeare knew so very well, you recognize how much the “fairy kingdom” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream reflects actual historical events and personalities in the Elizabethan court. Elizabeth’s real life courtiers would know that setting the play in midsummer was a huge joke – because in the midwinter of 1582, they had personally and painfully experienced it.
This story isn’t over! In Act V, a single jewel – worth more than all Alencon’s initial gifts – holds the key to a stunning and mysterious finale.
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