SOURCE: “The Comedy of the Lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream,” in Essays in Literature, Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring, 1985, pp. 15-25.

In the following essay, Comtois asserts that the lovers' contribution to the play is primarily in the realm of farce.

A predilection of older criticism to view the young lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream as romantic protagonists¹ has given way to a general recognition of their comic function in more contemporary criticism.² What should follow is the recognition that the play is not primarily about them, that they do not form a main plot, but that they are just one voice in a four part madrigal of the nobility, lovers, artisans and fairies.³ That voice, until the last act, has been so written as to provide at least as much comedy as is provided by the artisans. The lovers' on-going contribution is principally farce, a form which...