著者

宮本 正和

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

no.21, pp.75-87, 1991-06-01

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In the Middle Ages " a fool's glass" was used as a tool for self-reflection. Shakespeare handled it skillfully in his works. In A Midsummer night's Dream, that skill is found in the way which is quite immature. Let us look at that handling of the fool's glass in some other works before we search that skill in " A Midsummer night's Dream." And Comparing the result of our discussing with it, we conclude it as follows : Shakespeare uses a fool's glass as the means which can pass into another world. In Hamlet that another world is the world of Death. And when the gap of time arises, the gate between two worlds is opened. In Macbeth wWeird Sisters come into our world from their supernatural world. They place the gate and make it open like this. "When shall we three meet again?" In Hamlet the fool's glass is Ophelia's eyes. Hamlet can enter into another world-death world-through her eyes. Hamlet can enter into another world-death world-through her eyes. His reflected figure on her eyes is his own another self. the name of Hamlet means "fool". When he gazes his own figure, he gazes his foolish self. His father's name is Hamlet. dead Yorick he speaks to was once a court fool. ophelia's pupils are a fool's glass and function as the passing gate of some supernatural existance. In " A Midsummer Night's Dream", we can observe the immature origin of those elements. Through the hole of Wall, Pyramus and Thisby meet each other. they are fools. But they are not those who appear in Shakespeare's later works. They are not educated, so they appear to be foolish in the eye of Theseus Hippolyta and us. Their foolishness is not so serious, compared with that of Hamlet. Bottom's group think themselves as great actors, so they are foolish. The audience notice them foolish, but Bottom's group don't and never try to notice it. Hamlet asks himself what he and torments himself. So the foolishness of Bottom's group is more supericial. In Macbeth, Weird Sisters enter on the stage by using a placed time, When we search A Midsummer Night's Dream, we find the same situation, but in this play, the word "when" equals "if". The definite word of time becomes more vague and fantastic. And such a fantastic and vague word "if" introduces supernatural element into the stage. And so the hole of Wall opens, as Birnam wood moves.In this way, we observe the beginning of using a fool's glass in A Mid summer Night's Dream.