A Midsummer Night's Dream - Globe (3)

BOTTOM

[Sings]
The ousel cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill.

TITANIA

[Awaking]
What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

BOTTOM

[Sings]
The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay.

For, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry 'cuckoo' never so?

TITANIA

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

Reference: A Midsummer Night's Dream.
 

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Globe (2)

HERMIA

O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!
You thief of love! what, have you come by night
And stolen my love's heart from him?

HELENA

Fine, i'faith!
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

HERMIA

Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

HELENA

I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;
I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice:
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.

HERMIA

Lower! hark, again.

HELENA

Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
I evermore did love you, Hermia,
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;
But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:
And now, so you will let me quiet go,
To Athens will I bear my folly back
And follow you no further: let me go:
You see how simple and how fond I am.

HERMIA

Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?

HELENA

A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.

HERMIA

What, with Lysander?

HELENA

With Demetrius.

LYSANDER

Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.

DEMETRIUS

No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.

HELENA

O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!
She was a vixen when she went to school;
And though she be but little, she is fierce.

HERMIA

'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
Let me come to her.

LYSANDER 

Get you gone, you dwarf;

Reference: A Midsummer Night's Dream.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Globe (1)

The language maybe more polite and formal, and the manner may be more distinguished and measured, but with their characters Aden Gillett and Janie Dee play in the same crucible of romantic longing, sexual desire and meddlesome conflict as do the young lovers.  A Midsummer Night's Dream owns a complicated, multi-plot structure, yet it is remarkable that Shakespeare pulls it all off marvelously.

Romeo and Juliet - Globe (2009)

Speaking of Romeo and Juliet at the Globe...

Experience the hugely popular 2009 production of Romeo & Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe, when it is screened in cinemas around the country this Valentine's Day.

This romantic tragedy was my first Shakespearean play, and it stood as my favorite after having read nearly 30 of them.  It still stands as such 36 years later.

Elizabethan Theater (2)

I was a groundling at the Globe about 10 years ago.  I arrived in London early afternoon, the day before a set of business meetings.  The hotel concierge said there were tickets left for that evening's performance of Romeo and Juliet, but only for standing room.  How much?  £5 made it a very easy decision.

Elizabethan Theater (1)

Elizabethan Theater: Shakespeare and the Globe

Learn about theater during Shakespeare's time. Topics include why The Globe, his theater, was located in Southwark, what the theater probably looked like, what sorts of special effects were used, and why it's unlikely Romeo kissed Juliet.

UPDATE: The London Bridge did cross the Thames during this period but people who could afford it still hired boats to cross because the bridge was crowded, slow, and dangerous.  [That's right: The London Bridge actually refers to several different bridges, which date back to the first century.  For example, the Medieval London Bridge was built from 1176 to 1209, and it was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, well after Shakespeare's time.]

Puritans viewed theater as immoral in general, and in particular crude, common, and inappropriate for the delicate sensibility of women.  So they were not allowed on stage, and apparently they were frowned upon if in attendance.  I wonder, though, how young adolescents felt in dressing up as women and playing them on stage.