Quince assures Snug that the role of the lion is 'nothing but roaring.' Quince then ends the meeting telling his actors 'at the Duke's oak we meet'. Snug remarks that he needs the Lion's part because he is 'slow of study'. Bottom is told by Quince that he would do the Lion so terribly as to frighten the duchess and ladies enough for the Duke and Lords to have the players hanged. Bottom would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles. Quince insists that Bottom can only play the role of Pyramus. Nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time. Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them on the players. Peter Quince and his fellow players Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout and Snug plan to put on a play for the wedding of the Duke and the Queen, 'the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe'. Desperate to reclaim Demetrius's love, Helena tells Demetrius about the plan and he follows them in hopes of finding Hermia. Hermia tells their plans to Helena, her best friend, who pines unrequitedly for Demetrius, who broke up with her to be with Hermia. Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity as a nun worshipping the goddess Diana, but they both deny his choice and make a secret plan to escape into the forest for Lysander's Aunt's house, in order to run away from Theseus. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus, whereby a daughter needs to marry a suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus is confronted by Egeus and his daughter Hermia, who is in love with Lysander, resistant to her father's demand that she marries Demetrius, whom he has arranged for her to marry. Theseus was not happy about how long he had to wait while Hyppolyta thinks it's a dream.

The play opens with Theseus and Hyppolyta who were four days away from their wedding. The play consists of five interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, which are set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon. Hermia and Helena by Washington Allston, 1818

12.1 Editions of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Dream day wedding collection