WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Read the extract below and answer the question:
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practised accent I their fears,
And in conclusion, dumbly have broken off,
Not paying me a welcome...
The speaker is addressing
The speaker, Theseus, is addressing Hippolyta, his bride-to-be. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theseus is the Duke of Athens, and he is preparing for his wedding to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons.
In this passage, Theseus describes how scholars and intellectuals (great clerks) often become nervous and struggle to speak properly in his presence. This conversation takes place in Act 5, Scene 1, just before the performance of the craftsmen’s play.
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