A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 1

by William Shakespeare
In this comedy, two Athenian couples and a troupe of actors become unwitting pawns in a squabble between a fairy king and queen. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act I, Act II, Act III, Act IV, Act V

Here are links to our lists for other plays by William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Othello
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. nuptial
    of or relating to a wedding
    Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
    Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in
    Another moon. But, O, methinks how slow
    This old moon wanes!
  2. apace
    rapidly; in a speedy manner
    Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
    Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in
    Another moon. But, O, methinks how slow
    This old moon wanes!
  3. vexation
    anger produced by some annoying irritation
    Full of vexation come I, with complaint
    Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
  4. filch
    make off with belongings of others
    With cunning hast thou filched my daughter’s heart,
    Turned her obedience (which is due to me)
    To stubborn harshness.
  5. entreat
    ask for or request earnestly
    I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
  6. befall
    become of; happen to
    But I beseech your Grace that I may know
    The worst that may befall me in this case
    If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
  7. abjure
    formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief
    Either to die the death or to abjure
    Forever the society of men.
  8. cloister
    residence that is a place of religious seclusion
    Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
    Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
    Whether (if you yield not to your father’s choice)
    You can endure the livery of a nun,
    For aye to be in shady cloister mewed,
    To live a barren sister all your life,
    Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
  9. austerity
    self-denial, especially refraining from worldly pleasures
    Upon that day either prepare to die
    For disobedience to your father’s will,
    Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,
    Or on Diana’s altar to protest
    For aye austerity and single life.
  10. extenuate
    lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or degree of
    For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
    To fit your fancies to your father’s will,
    Or else the law of Athens yields you up
    (Which by no means we may extenuate)
    To death or to a vow of single life.
  11. beguiled
    filled with wonder and delight
    And therefore is Love said to be a child
    Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
    As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
    So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.
  12. waggish
    witty or joking
    And therefore is Love said to be a child
    Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
    As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
    So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.
  13. interlude
    a brief show between the sections of a longer performance
    Here is the scroll of every man’s name which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the Duke and the Duchess on his wedding day at night.
  14. lamentable
    bad; unfortunate
    Marry, our play is “The most Lamentable Comedy and most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe.”
  15. extempore
    without prior preparation
    You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
Created on Thu Oct 24 11:46:13 EDT 2013 (updated Tue Jul 15 15:43:51 EDT 2025)

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