ESEUS

"And out of olde bokes, in good feith,
Cometh al this newe science that men lere."
_Chaucer_.

* * * *

I

As the play opens with speeches of Theseus and Hippolyta, it is convenient
to treat first of these two characters. Mr. E.K. Chambers has collected (in
Appendix D to his edition) nine passages from North's Plutarch's _Life of
Theseus_, of which Shakespeare appears to have made direct use. For
example, Oberon's references to "Perigenia," "Aegles," "Ariadne and
Antiopa" (II. i. 79-80) are doubtless derived from North; and certainly the
reference by Theseus to his "kinsman Hercules" (V. i. 47) is based on the
following passage:--

... "they were near kinsmen, being cousins removed by the mother's
side. For Aethra was the daughter of Pittheus, and Alcmena (the mother
of Hercules) was the daughter of Lysidice, the which was half-sister to
Pittheus, both children of Pelops and of his wife Hippodamia."

In modern phraseology, Theseus and Hercules were thus second cousins.

Of the Amazon queen North says:--

"Touching the voyage he [Theseus] made by the sea Maior, Philochorus,
and some other hold opinion, that he went thither with Hercules against
the Amazons, and that to honour his valiantness, Hercules gave him
Antiopa the Amazon. But the more part of the other Historiographers ...
do write, that Theseus went thither alone, after Hercules' voyage, and
that he took this Amazon prisoner, which is likeliest to be true."

At this point we should interpolate the reason why Hercules went against
the Amazons. The ninth (as usually enumerated) of the twelve labours of
Hercules was to fetch away the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, a gift
from her father Ares, the god of fighting. Admete, the daughter of
Eurystheus (at whose bidding the twelve labours were performed) desired
this girdle, and Hercules was sent by her father to carry it off by force.
The queen of the Amazons was Hippolyta, and she had a sister named Antiopa.
One story says that Hercules slew Hippolyta; another that Hippolyta was
enticed on board his ship by Theseus; a third, as we have seen, that
Theseus married Antiopa. It is not easy to choose incidents from these
conflicting accounts so as to make a reasonable sequence; but, as North
says, "we are not to marvel, if the history of things so ancient, be found
so diversely written." Shakespeare simply states th