...Apartment in the Palace of THESEUS. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTKATE, Lords and Attendants. Hip. "Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. The....story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigur'd so together, More witnesseth than fancy's images, And grows to something of great constancy...

...shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination 20 That, if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends...imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear. Hippolyta But all the story of the night told over, 25 And all their minds transfigured so together,...

....Night's Dream, deals with in elaborate and colourful detail: The lunatic, the lover and the poet Arc of imagination all compact. One sees more devils than...imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear! ( Vi)10 True enough, Elizabethan aestheticians were fond of invoking familiar commonplaces such as...

...and memorably-ironic, speeches in the whole of Shakespeare is uttered by Theseus in the final act: I never may believe These antique fables, nor these...imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear! One obvious function of this speech is to vent scepticism — not just the character's, but the audience's...

...their savours. (II, ii) E1L; FaPON; GN; InvP; NOBE; OBEY; OBSC; TrGrPo 127 The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact. One sees...imagining some fear. How easy is a bush supposed a bear! (V, i) 128 Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon; Whilst the heavy ploughman snores....

...out-run the Judgment. 5 Or finally, Shakespeare, again through the mouth of Theseus: Such tricks halh strong imagination. That, if it would but apprehend...imagining some fear How easy is a bush supposed a bear! < ' The operation of this suspicion is not, however, simply an operation at a distance. The suspicion...

...Philostrate, attendants.') HIPPOLYTA. It's strange, good Theseus, what these lovers speak of. THESEU& More strange than true; I never may believe These...imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear! Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. (Enter Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena) Joy, my...

...Midsummer-Night's Dream (Act V): The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact: . . . Such tricks hath strong imagination, That, if it would...imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear! Thus, our mental images are far from being passive residents in our mind. They actively influence us....

...darker tragedy. At the end of the play, Theseus disparages imagination's power to metamorphose reality: Such tricks hath strong imagination, That if it would...the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush suppos'da bear! (5.ll 8-22) Theseus engages in his own magisterial act of meiosis, denying the reciprocity...

...imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to aery nothing A local habitation and a name. Such tricks...imagining some fear. How easy is a bush supposed a bear! (5. 1 .2-8; 14-22) So speaks the voice of "cool reason," for Theseus is hardly endorsing a belief in...