A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S FAIRY DAY DREAM

"There Sleeps Titania"

Frederick Howard Michael

**********

I had always thought that the Summer Solstice and Midsummer Night were interchangeable, occurring on the same date, but now I have learned that Midsummer Night can be celebrated as late as June 24, as it is in England. Perhaps that is why June 24 was selected as Fairy Day.

**********

"Titania"

John Simmons

**********

I thought this date would be perfect to share fairy paintings revolving around William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

The main plot of "Midsummer" is a convoluted tale that involves two sets of couples (Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius) whose romantic cross-purposes are complicated still further by their entrance into the play's fairyland woods where the King and Queen of the Fairies (Oberon and Titania) preside and the impish folk character of Puck (or Robin Goodfellow) plies his trade.

Another set of characters—Bottom the Weaver and his bumptious band of "rude mechanicals"—stumble into the main doings when they go into the same enchanted woods to rehearse a play that is very loosely (and comically) based on the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe.

**********

"Titania With Her Fairies"
Arthur Rackham

**********

**********

"Titania Lying Asleep"

Arthur Rackham

**********

**********

"King Oberon's Love"

By Tony DeTerlizzi

**********

**********

"Titania and Bottom"

Arthur Rackham

**********

**********

"Titania, Queen of the Fairies"

Arthur Rackham

*********

**********

"The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania"

Sir Joseph Paton

**********

**********

"Puck and A Fairy"

Arthur Rackham

**********

Notice how many of these paintings were done by Arthur Rackham, one of the most famous fairy painters ever. I will be devoting an entire post to his work soon. He is among the best of the "Midsummer Night's" illustrators, which is why I featured so many of his paintings here.

I was also looking for paintings of Puck and Bottom, and found them in Rackham's work. As part of the plot, the mischievous Puck transforms Nick Bottom's head into that of a donkey. Titiania, who has been put under a spell, immediately falls in love with donkey-headed Bottom. Don't worry - although that's a different play, you might say that "All's well that ends well."

~~~~~~~~~~

BE SURE TO GO TO MY "CICELY MARY BARKER" POST, BELOW, AND ENTER THE DRAWING FOR BARKER'S "RETURN TO FAIRYOPOLIS".