"Cliff Notes - Midsummer Night's Dream, A" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
(III, i, 25)

"mistook" for "mistaken":

And the youth mistook by me,
(III, ii, 112)

and "writ" for "wrote":

Marry, if he that writ it had played
Pyramus...
(V, i, 348)

3. Archaic verb forms sometimes occur with "thou" and with third person subjects:

Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
(III, i, 144)

Music, ho! Music such as charmeth sleep!
(IV, 1, 82)

And all their minds transfigured so together,
More witnesseth than fancy's images,
(V, i, 24-25)

^^^^^^^^^^A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: PRONOUNS

Shakespeare and his contemporaries had one extra pronoun, "thou," which could be used in addressing a person who was one's equal or social inferior. "You" was obligatory if more than one person was addressed, so "you" is used when Puck addresses the audience:

Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here,
(V, i, 414-15)

but it could also be used to indicate respect. Lysander and Hermia show their respect for each other by using "you":

LYS. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
.......
HER. Be it so, Lysander; find you out a bed,
For I upon this bank will rest my head.
(II, ii, 41ff)

Frequently, a person in power used "thou" to a child or a subordinate but was addressed "you" in return, as when Oberon speaks to Puck:

OBE. And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
PUCK Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
(II, i, 267-68)

but if "thou" was used inappropriately it could cause grave offense. Oberon intended to offend Titania when he addressed her as "thou":