In the beginning of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is counting down the seconds until he is to wed his new "trophy" Hippolyta, the Amazonian Queen. Hippolyta is also counting down the seconds, but she has a much more negative outlook on the matter. While these individuals are pondering how much time really exists between that very moment and the time it will take for the next four moons to come and go, Theseus hears a dispute between Egeus, and his daughter Hermia. Hermia is in love with Lysander, but Egeus is behaving like Bottom, who is an ass, and wishes his daughter to wed a man named Demetrius, for no clear logical reason. After a series of events the characters arrive in the woods along with Oberon, the fairy king, as well as Puck, his mischievous fairy helper. Oberon then happens to overhear a conversation between Helena, and the man she loves, Demetrius. After Demetrius makes it painfully obvious that he has absolutely no positive feelings for Helena, Oberon decides he is going to intervene by having Puck anoint Demetrius's eyes with a flower that was struck by Cupid's arrow causing him to fall in love with the first thing he lays his eyes upon after awakening. However, when Puck, without knowing better, anoints Lysander's eyes rather than those of Demetrius, it sets the stage for a great deal of chaos. It is amongst this chaos that Puck says to Oberon:.
"Captain of our fairy band,.
Helena is here at hand:.
And the youth, mistook by me,.
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?.
Lord, what fools these mortals be" (Shakespeare, 3.2.110-115).
That is quite possibly the most powerful and philosophical statement in the play. When Puck declares "Lord, what fools these mortals be" (3.2.115), he is clearly drawing attention to what the play is all about. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Shakespeare included another play within a play by creating the Rude Mechanicals, a group of simpletons who decide to provide the entertainment for Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding; but Shakespeare also included another element to the play where the Athenian lovers are also performing for the fairies.
