s well worthy
of observation, that of the three groups of characters in the play, the
country folk--a class whose manner and appearance had most vividly
reflected themselves upon the camera of Shakspere's mind--are by far the
most lifelike and distinct; the fairies, who had been the companions of
his childhood and youth in countless talks in the ingle and ballads in
the lanes, come second in prominence and finish; whilst the ostensible
heroes and heroines of the piece, the aristocrats of Athens, are
colourless and uninteresting as a dumb-show--the real shadows of the
play. This is exactly the ratio of impressionability that the three
classes would have for the mind of the youthful dramatist. The first is
a creation from life, the second from traditionary belief, the third
from hearsay. And when it has been said that the fairies are a creation
from traditionary belief, a full and accurate description of them has
been afforded. They are an embodiment of a popular superstition, and
nothing more. They do not conceal any thought of the poet who has
created them, nor are they used for any deeper purpose with regard to
the other persons of the drama than temporary and objectless annoyance.
Throughout the whole play runs a healthy, thoughtless, honest, almost
riotous happiness; no note of difficulty, no shadow of coming doubt
being perceptible. The pert and nimble spirit of mirth is fully
awakened; the worst tricks of the intermeddling spirits are mischievous
merely, and of only transitory influence, and "the summer still doth
tend upon their state," brightening this fairyland with its sunshine and
flowers. Man has absolutely no power to govern these supernatural
powers, and they have but unimportant influence over him. They can
affect his comfort, but they cannot control his fate. But all this is
merely an adapting and elaborating of ideas which had been handed down
from father to son for many generations. Shakspere's Puck is only the
Puck of a hundred ballads reproduced by the hand of a true poet; no
original thought upon the connection of the visible with the invisible
world is imported into the creation. All these facts tend to show that
when Shakspere wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream," that is, at the
beginning of his career as a dramatic author, he had not broken away
from the trammels of the beliefs in which he had been brought up, but
accepted them unhesitatingly and joyously.

123. But there is a gradual toning down of