Faerie Continuity

On Neil Gaiman's adaptation of William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream into comic form and the influence on his comic book series The Sandman

Contents:

• Caveat

1. Introduction
2. Neil Gaiman, Charles Vess, and The Sandman
   - Background Information
3. Strategies of Adaptation - Comics as a Means of Presentation for Theatrical Plays
4. Gaiman's Use of the Medium
5. Textual Comparison
6. Structural Parallels
7. Puck's Destruction of the Structure
8. Doubling and Mirroring
9. Intertextuality: Shakespeare
10. Mixing Mythologies
11. Robin Goodfellow’s present whereabouts are unknown
12. The Changeling Situation
13. Sons and Fathers (Mixing Mythologies II)
14. Tricksters, Actors and Playwrights
15. Epilogue: The Wake

• Appendix I: Works Consulted
• Appendix II: Illustrations

0. Caveat

The structure of this essay may seem somewhat haphazard at first glance, but the continually and subtle disintegration of the civilised order of the first chapters into digressions (that aren't as superfluous as they may seem at first) and seemingly overboarding cross references is a purposeful attempt to reflect on the structure of both Shakespeare's play and Gaiman's comic. At the end of my text the reader may think he had had a dream, but as Shakespeare's Bottom and Gaiman's version of Shakespeare had had only a tiny glimpse into the world of Faerie, it is not possible for me to give my readers a comprehensive insight into the world of The Sandman, a comic series bordering on a four-digit page count, or the even more voluminous works of William Shakespeare. In both cases I can only scratch the surface, but attempt to draw flesh or at least blood.

1. Introduction

In this essay I will examine issue #19 of Neil Gaiman’s comic series The Sandman, titled A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was the first (and only¹ ) comic to win the World Fantasy Award for „best short story“ in 1991² .

Sandman #19 is the middle part of a trilogy concerning William Shakespeare. In Sandman #13 the title character (the godlike Lord of Dreams and Prince of Stories, subsequently called Morpheus for clarity purposes) meets Shakespeare for a few panels and a Faustian contract is indicated. Later we get to know that Morpheus promised the unsucessful playwright „what he thinks he most desires“ (SM 19:11:4)³ in exchange for two plays he has to pen for Morpheus, one at the start of the poet's career, one near the end.

In Sandman #19 we see the first performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream before an audience including Morpheus and some friends of his, namely Faerie folk like Oberon, Titania, Puck and Peaseblossom, to list only those who appear also in Shakespeare’s play. In the last issue of Sandman, #75, Shakespeare fulfills the second half of the contract, and Gaiman examins the second play born out of the contract, The Tempest⁴ (see also Appendix II: Illustrations 1+2).

I will try to analyse how Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is reproduced in part in Sandman #19, has influenced the comic, what other (chiefly literary) influences can be traced, how themes and topics of the play resurface in the comic, how Gaiman changes the characters and builds on them, how the medium comic can achieve a faithful interpretation of a play by using its unique means, and in how far intertextuality between Shakespeare and Gaiman is of interest. My focus will be on the play and comic titled A Midsummer Night’s Dream but I will also be refering to other works by both authors concerning similar themes and situations.

Apart from Shakespeare’s play, the comic and some sources of secondary literature, I will support some of my points with quotations from Gaiman’s original script, on which the comic was based, and an extensive interview of the author on the issue in question⁵ . Gaiman himself quotes Erasmus Fry’s „Writers are liars“ in the collection in which Sandman# 19 was reprinted⁶ , but these pre- and post-texts illuminate a lot of points.

2. Neil Gaiman, Charles Vess, and The Sandman
- Background Information

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman was a critical success of the 1990's, a monthly comic book series published by DC⁷ Comics in New York, then one of the two major publishers⁸ of comic books. Gaiman is one of several creators often described as part of „the second wave of the British invasion“. The first wave consisted mainly of Alan Moore, whose revamp of the little-known horror title Swamp Thing transformed a mock-incrusted monstrosity into an environmentally aware plant god. More important was of course the intellectual appeal of a comic that wasn’t „just for kids anymore“⁹ and was now labelled „Sophisticated Suspense“.

After the enormous success of Swamp Thing and other works by Moore¹⁰ , his American editor Karen Berger went to England to recruit other talents, among whom were Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Dave McKean, Jamie Delano and Peter Milligan, whose comics for „mature readers“ were later summarized under the umbrella title „DC Vertigo“¹¹ .

Although introduced as an ongoing monthly, Gaiman’s Sandman was at first tentatively planned to run for eight issues, possibly to be continued up to #12. But the obscure comic from unknown creators featuring a new version of the little-known DC character Sandman not only quickly developed a following of fans, the series was also critically acclaimed. An extensive article in the American music magazine Rolling Stone helped substantially to make The Sandman possibly the bestselling non-superhero comic book ever, the complete 75-issue run is still readily accessible in ten paperpacks collections.

One of the main selling points of The Sandman was the intellectual scope of the series. While being a horror and fantasy series concerning godlike creatures¹² like Morpheus and his „family“, The Endless¹³ , Gaiman built his story on a many-faceted foundation of influences. As The Sandman not only tries to examine the power and sources of dreams, but can be interpreted as an essay on the art of storytelling, Gaiman makes use of his knowledge of literature, and even lets literary greats appear in the pages of The Sandman, for example (to name only those of interest for English philologists) Geoffrey Chaucer, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and a curious person looking exactly like G. K. Chesterton and calling himself Gilbert. Gaiman also used a large cast of DC property characters, first better-known ones like Batman, the Martian Manhunter or Mr. Miracle, later on more obscure creations like Element Girl, Brute and Glob or the „teenage president of the USA“ known as Prez. Historical figures like Caesar Augustus, Marco Polo and Robespierre also appeared in the pages of The Sandman as well as an aged version of John Belushi from some parallel universe. And Gaiman especially used several mythologies and religions to cast his supporting characters like the muse Calliope, a former love of Morpheus and mother of his son Orpheus. Thor and Loki visit Morpheus, Lucifer gives him the key to Hell, and two early men (and a woman) of the Christian genesis share some secrets and mysteries¹⁴ .

It may seem far-fetched to reproduce big chunks of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and adapt parts of the play into the medium comic, but Neil Gaiman is a creator at ease with many art forms. Mainly known as comic book writer and novelist¹⁵ , Gaiman also wrote screenplays, a children book, poems, and song lyrics, and he even was responsible for the English language text of the Japanese anime Princess Mononoké. Several of Gaiman’s works were adapted by other creators, some of his short stories were turned into comics, some of his comics were transformed into theatrical production or radio plays, and there also exists a screenplay for a Sandman movie on the internet¹⁶ .

Charles Vess created illustrations for a Donning/Starblaze edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream¹⁷ before Gaiman's comic version, he also wrote and painted the Spider-Man hard cover Spirits of the Earth. After Sandman #19, he continued to work with Gaiman on several projects, most notably the illustrated novel Stardust. Vess also wrote the comic book adaptation of the Steven Spielberg movie Hook (fairies again), and his latest publication is the three-part Rose, a prequel to Jeff Smith's Bone comic series.

3. Strategies of Adaptation - Comics as a Means of Presentation for Theatrical Plays

Inconceivably (at least for the present writer), the art of comics is still no generally accepted academic subject per se. The medium comic is sometimes analysed as part of media studies, but since it has some similarities to „real“ books, open-minded scholars of literature also increasingly concern themselves with soundwords and word balloons.

The possibilities of the comic medium to interpret theatrical plays have so far been neglected, not only by academics, but mostly by the creators of comics themselves. Most Classics Illustrated only plagiarize works of literature as a means to find subjects like Treasure Island that could interest both young readers (and, let's face it, the main circle of comic readers consists of male adolescents) and their parents who in these cases at least accept the adaptations to get their children interested in „real“ books. And, sadly, there are only a few comic adaptations of works of literature of similar merit¹⁸ as the „originals". But this is essentially a problem of the adaptation process itself, since most movie novelizations probably also would be regarded as a poor topic for literary studies.

While only few readers would complain about illustrations „enriching“ a book¹⁹ , the comic medium still baffles the older generations. Though comic preceded film as a medium (at least in its early forms), it still lacks a similar cultural acceptance.

The process of creating a comic book is a lengthy, strenuous one, and it rarely happens that a comic creator wants to transform a piece of literature into comic form out of respect for the original text. Fight scenes between superheroes are less complicated and sell better. I can only think of one example of a comic adaptation of a longer literary work that doesn't omit parts of the text, Oscar Zarate's version of Othello which gives the complete text in word balloons with the artists interpretations of Shakespeare's characters in the pictures.

4. Gaiman's Use of the Medium

Neil Gaiman's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Sandman #19) is not a straight adaptation of Shakespeare's play of the same name, but recounts the events of a (fictional) presentation of the play. About one fourth of the comic consists of depictions of scenes from the play²⁰ , as performed by Shakespeare himself and some of his contemporaries like Will Kemp or Richard Burbage.

These parts of the comic are only of secondary importance for this essay, but since they're nearest to the Shakespearean source material, I will start by discussing the accuracies and liberties of Gaiman's depiction of an historical presentation of the play.

Most points worth mentioning about the play (as we see it performed throughout the comic) are in clear relation to the story Gaiman wants to tell. Gaiman lets Shakespeare himself play Theseus²¹ and starts with the actor's startled discovery of his otherworldly audience on page 7, which seems to temporarily let him forget his opening lines until his son interferes as a prompter²² . This page already gives ample proof of how Gaiman uses the medium comic to its strenghts. In SM 19:7:1 a tiny word balloon with only three dots is an active way to show Shakespeares speechlessness in view of the Faerie²³ audience. In SM 19:7:7 the partial boundaries of the word balloon make clear that Hamnet is whispering.

The first actual lines from the play are enacted in a rather down-to-earth way, showing Theseus and Hippolyta with no background at all, while the last panel of the page already shows us how Gaiman uses Shakespeare's text to illustrate his story, the juxtaposition of „pale companion“ (I.1.15, pg. 133) with Morpheus' chalk-coloured face (SM 19:7:8) is only the first of many such intertextual references.

„I think if I ever staged the play myself, I'd have Puck costumed as a serpent"²⁴ , Gaiman reflects on Hermia's line upon awakening, „Methought a serpent ate my heart away"²⁵ . In a way, Gaiman as author is also the director/producer of the comic representation of the play, and he takes some liberties for the sake of his story. He refrains from letting the same actor portray Theseus and Oberon (which is a commonly accepted way of staging the play) to let Shakespeare have the possibility to speak with his son Hamnet backstage while Burbage performs as Oberon. Gaiman lets Hamnet play the Indian boy, even though most theatrical directors wouldn't even think about including this character not listed in the cast of characters. Gaiman uses an intermission to have the chance to let actors mingle with parts of the audience. For all these points Gaiman defends himself in a detailed interview with Hy Bender concerning his Dream, but there are other points worth mentioning.

The detailed scenery on large movable screens, behind which the wagons of the theatre troupe are hidden, seems inconsistent with the present-day understanding of Elizabethan theatre. But since it illustrates details of the play which would be difficult to comprehend for comic readers not familiar with the play, it is a necessary concession to the less enlightened members of his readership.

He makes near perfect use of the comic form in several instances. The discussion between Helena in Hermia in SM 19:8:6 wins through the interlocking word balloons, the artisans acting as actors really look unconvincing in SM 19:9:1 (as they should), though Bottom’s demonstration of lion (SM 19:9:6) roars especially well because of Todd Klein's elaborate lettering. The boy-actors look perfectly female (e.g. SM 19:12:6) and even add a bit of sexual stamina to some scenes (as SM 19:10:1), the lively ass' head proofs again that comics have no special effects budget (SM 19:14:1), and Steve Oliff's coloring delights with the slowly fading daylight (even though this is not part of Shakespeare's play but of Gaiman's story).

5. Textual Comparison

A detailed analysis of the „material taken from the play"²⁶ also shows some inconsistencies: in SM 19:8:1 Lysander says „momentany as any sound", where all my text sources state „as a sound“ (I.1.143, pg. 141). Only one small syllable, but the iambic pentameter is disturbed²⁷ . A similar thing happens in SM 19:22:1, where Theseus tells us „The iron tongue of midnight hath tolled twelve", which of course has the same sound as the original „told"²⁸ (V.1.354, pg. 252) and so couldn't be distinguished in an oral presentation, but it seems worth mentioning. Gaiman may have thought these improvements of Shakespeare's text, or maybe these are only typos²⁹ .

But one instance where Gaiman improves the textual context is in SM 19:20:6, where not Theseus himself or Lysander talks of „The riot of the tipsy bacchanals“ (V.1.48, pg. 234), but an balding actor presumably portraying Philostrate or Egeus. In connection with a thorough analysis of the importance of this sentence for Morpheus (see chapter „Sons and Fathers") there may be a reason for this change.

An interesting (but inconsequential) example of how comics can alter time³⁰ is page 19, where Morpheus and Titania have a lengthy conversation while at the same time only about two lines (IV.1.205-207, pg. 227) of Bottom's famous monologue are omitted.

While these slight alterations are worth mentioning, they seem not to represent negligent handling on Gaiman's behalf or interpretational intentions of interest.

6. Structural Parallels

The structure of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream has some special features mirrored in Gaiman's comic.

Acts I and V are located in Athens, the middle part takes place in the woods. This represents a frame of civilization and order around the wilder happenings in the woods³¹ involving the fairies. Gaiman also uses this framing device on the pages quoting from Shakespeare's play. Pages 8-12 & 17-21 all work with a six panel grid starting and ending with portions of the play, framing mostly  discussions between various parts of the audience and backstage reflections of the actors. Thus, the Shakespearean text becomes the representation of „civilisation and order", while the parts added by Gaiman seem „wilder", which would also apply to a reading that concentrates on differences of cultural acceptance.

The first six and the last page of the comic also frame Shakespeare's play, which gives not only an additional layer to the play-in-play theme³² Shakespeare used so cunningly, but negates the aforementioned atmosphere of „civilisation and order“ that Shakespeare's play represents. The play is completely incorporated into the comic³³ .

7. Puck's Destruction of the Structure

Starting with the involvement of Gaiman's version of Robin Goodfellow, who assumes the role of the actor portraying him, Shakespeare's play slowly and subtly loses the aforementioned order. Puck and his „shadows of another kind“ seem already to „infect“ Oberon/Burbage's shadow in the first panel involving the real hobgoblin (SM 19:17:1). On page 22 and 23 Gaiman even manages to improve Shakespeare’s ending. In the play, Puck adresses the audience, and implies that the whole play may have been a dream as the title suggests (especially if some spectators were not satisfied by the play). The Sandman as a comic about dreams cannot allow to waste the chance of a similar ambiguous ending. The last panel of page 22 breaks apart the structure, the pretense of a play being performed. The stage direction „exeunt all but Puck“ is taken quite literally, it’s not a question of actors leaving the stage, all characters leave the story, Puck is left alone, no spectators, no actors, no Shakespeare is to be seen on page 23, where Puck has given up the pretense of being the actor Dick Cowley while reciting his concluding monologue. The lights of the midsummer night that have perpetually been dimmed during the story are giving way to a totally black panel at the end of Page 23, again a very literal interpretation of the stage direction „exit“.

8. Doubling and Mirroring

Apart from the aforementioned Russian doll effect of the play-in-play and the commonly practised double roles³⁴ of Theseus/Oberon, Hippolyta/Titania and Philostrate/Puck (which Gaiman neglects because he doesn’t have to pay for his actors), there are other Doppelgängers like the two young couples. While the girls Helena and Hermia have similar sounding names, at least there are some physical differences between them. Lysander and Demetrius on the other hand are nearly indistinguishable³⁵ . Through magical intervention the affections of the four young lovers are perpetually diverted, creating a merry-go-round of mirrored, paralleled and contrary emotions. „The more I love, the more he hateth me.“ (I,1,119; SM 19:8:6).

Since it would be impossible to squeeze the whole play into a 24-page comic page concerned with a new framing narration, Gaiman had to edit Shakespeare’s lines to the core, while preserving the narrative structure, so that normal comic readers (and not only Shakespeare scholars) would be able to follow the major plotlines. Therefore, he „needed characters who could periodically explain what was going on in Shakespeare’s story“³⁶ . These characters are separated in two groups: Morpheus invited the inhabitants of Faerie to witness the play. Oberon, Titania and Puck are among the spectators who sit on special places³⁷ , while there is also a „peanut gallery“³⁸ of curious creatures, namely the giant Bevis³⁹ , the tiny goatfaced female Skarrow and Peaseblossom⁴⁰ . Thus we have two more groups concisting of three characters⁴¹ similar to the three actors in double roles. And there are also at least four spectators who are also represented in the play.

Gaiman repeatedly plays with this doubling effects, most prominently at the beginning of the intermission, on page 15 of the comic. On the first panel we see Titania with Henry Condell, the actor impersonating her, still in costume. Puck visits his human counterpart in panel 2 and 6, and Richard Burbage, the leader of Lord Strange’s Men who plays Oberon in the play, seems a vastly inferior copy of the real king of Faerie, but won’t be intimidated by the glorious appearance of Oberon and asks him for gold, which -of course- later will turn into yellow leaves⁴² .

Another doubling effect concerns the group of actors performing Pyramus and Thisbe. Shakespeare names all six of them, and Gaiman also names six actors: William Shakespeare (Theseus), Richard Burbage (Oberon), Will Kemp (Bottom), Henry Condell (Titania), Tommy Nash (Hermia), and Dick Cowley (Puck). Shakespeare's son Hamnet portrays the Indian boy, but since this „role“ is an addition by Gaiman (for obvious reasons that I will examine later), a mere visual presence and technically an „extra“, he can’t be counted as a real actor.

Most of Gaiman's actors double character traits of their roles, and even if they are professionals (unlike the Shakespearean craftsmen), they show a lot of weaknesses concerning their performances. Burbage is a bit full of himself⁴³ , Kemp like Bottom is mostly interested in enlarging his role and building in jokes⁴⁴ . Especially the actor portraying Puck lacks professionality, which Gaiman subtly works into his narrative: We first only hear him practising his lines (badly) in SM 19:4:4, then he is the only actor whose mask reveals part of his face (SM 19:10:3). During the intermission no other actor seems concerned with further practising of his lines (SM 19:15:1-2), and the real Puck's compliment „You played me well, mortal"⁴⁵ is wasted on the unconcious performer (SM 19:15:6). Only when Puck plays himself we learn the name of the actor not acting anymore: „Dick Cowley acts well today. [ …] He seems almost two-thirds hobgoblin.“ (SM 19:17:4). Gaiman maybe wants to hint at the possibility that Shakespeare's craftsmen in the play were not as ironic in their lack of skills as modern readers would assume.

On the last page of the comic Shakespeare as well as his son Hamnet take the possibility into account that they only dreamt the strange events of the last night, which is mirroring Bottom's dream⁴⁶ , but after Puck's Epilogue, thus even confirming the hobgoblin's suggestion.

9. Intertextuality: Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream shows some connections to other plays by Shakespeare, and Gaiman's version of the Dream builds on some of the inherent themes, on which I want to reflect shortly. Gaiman uses the year 1593⁴⁷ for his performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is as early as credibility allows for, but his reasons (to build on the plague in London and the death of Christopher Marlowe) are plausible⁴⁸ . Since Gaiman’s presentation would be the very first (even preceding known public performances), and there are no hard facts proving the opposite, I won’t start nitpicking here.

Most Shakespeare scholars assume that Romeo and Juliet preceded the Dream, but some think the opposite possible. That both plays were written at about the same time is undebatable. Henry Alonzo Myers states the following:

Shakespeare's first great comedy and tragedy were penned at the same time and deal with the same topic. In Romeo and Juliet the Liebestod of the title characters is tragic and moving, in the artisans' production of  The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe⁵⁰ the same topic (and destiny) is a laughing matter, „the silliest stuff that ever I heard“ (V.1.209, pg. 243, resp. SM 19:21:6). Through more or less „divine“ intervention A Midsummer Night's Dream ends with a triple wedding, a triple happy ending, which in itself could mark the distinction between comedy and tragedy⁵¹ in Elizabethan times.

When Burbage recounts his wish to play „a lover most tragical“ (SM 19:3:3), the reference to Romeo is obvious⁵² , and the queen of the fairies and the subject of dreams are also the topic of Mercutio's famous „Queen Mab"-speech.

At the heart of Gaiman's story, Shakespeare's neglected son tells us, that his twin sister Judith „once joked that if I died, he'd just write a play about it. 'Hamnet.'", and there are indeed theories on the autobiographical inspiration of Hamlet⁵³ .

10. Mixing Mythologies

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a good example for Shakespeare's „strong digestive imagination"⁵⁴ , „his perfect assimilation of his raw material"⁵⁵ .

Edgar I. Fripp calls it „the loveliest thing he has yet attempted or perhaps ever will"⁵⁶ :

Building on Freudian dream interpretation, Peter Holland even compares Shakespeare's „thoroughly digested“ sources of A Midsummer Night's Dream with the „day-residue", the sources which fed common dreams⁵⁸ . In context with further examination of Gaiman's use of Titania and Puck, I want to state some of Shakespeare's source material for these characters. Shakespeare's Athens (or at least the woods nearby) bursts with very English fairies and craftsmen sounding not at all Greek. This mixing (or „digestion", to use Briggs's term) is also evident in those two characters.

Peter Holland explains that before A Midsummer Night's Dream

Holland sees a similar development in the origin of Titania:

Holland also interprets Puck's identification as „we fairies that do run / By the triple Hecate's team

While we should keep in mind Titania's (or more correctly: Diana's) connection to Proserpina (or Persephone, the Greek version of the name) and the Hecate, another point I want to make is that, according to Holland, Shakespeare

11. „Robin Goodfellow’s present whereabouts are unknown“

In Shakespeare's play the fairies' connection with mortals „is revealed as unfailingly beneficient and altruistic"⁶³ . Only Robin Goodfellow is „employed [ …] to frighten and misled mortals"⁶⁴ . According to Minor White Latham, an expert on fairies⁶⁵ , Shakespeare „introduced“ Puck to the fairies. „He was no fairy, if the records of his history before 1594 be true, and this was his first inclusion in fairyland."⁶⁶ Additionally,

Gaiman’s version of Puck seems at first to correspond with this interpretation. In SM 19:6:2 the Puck jestingly questions Morpheus' immortality, is reprimanded by his master in SM 19:6:3 ("Mind your manners"), and Morpheus reflects on the „fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak⁶⁸ „ (SM 19:6:4). But it quickly becomes evident that Gaiman's Puck is more than a mere mischiefmaker and jester. Gaiman's versions of the fairies seem also to be a lot more dangerous than Shakespeare’s. This is particularly obvious after the first appearance of Puck in the play, when the „real“ Peaseblossom repeats one of the better-known lines of Puck to reflect on it:: „ ‘I am that merry wanderer of the night’? I am that giggling-dangerous-totally-bloody-psychotic-menace-to life-and-limb, more like it.“ --- „Shush, Peaseblossom. The Puck might hear you!“ (SM 19:10:4). Even the giant Bevis seems afraid of the hobgoblin.

Apart from the extremely dangerous nature of Titania and Puck which I will analyze in detail, Skarrow seems preoccupied with eating human flesh (SM 19:8:3-5, SM 19:14:4-5) and Peaseblossom reacts angrily and agressively to Bottom’s request to the play’s version of him:

As I mentioned before, during the intermission Puck overcomes Dick Cowley, the actor impersonating him, and pretends to be „the actor playing Puck“⁶⁹ .

While in Shakespeare's play Oberon, the „king of shadows“ (III.2.347, pg. 206) reshapes the plot⁷⁰ by ordering Puck to perform magic, in the comic the hobgoblin takes the initiative and even makes the reader the sole observer of the play's end, thus destroying the first public performance for the Faerie audience.

Starting with the moment of the „real“ Puck's inclusion into the play, Burbage's Oberon may seem more threatening for the audience (SM 19:17:1), but it's obvious that Puck is indirectly playing a prank on his „master“ and seems less and less controllable.

A line from Shakespeare astonishingly not surfacing in Gaiman's comic is Oberon's „But we are spirits of another sort.“ (III,2,388, pg. 207). David Bevington explains Oberon's reference to his and Puck's disassociation from the other fairies, „the spirits of the dark"⁷¹ , and we may speculate that Shakespeare's line might have inspired the hobgoblin to refrain from returning to Faerie at the end of the story. The last words of the comic book are „Robin Goodfellow’s present whereabouts are unknown“ (SM 19:24:7).

Let's take a look at Gaiman's inspirations⁷² for his version of Puck, for which we return to the very first caption of the comic, which reads „June 23rd, 1593“ (SM 19:1:1). The location shown is part of the Sussex downs (Cf. SM 19:3:5), beneath the Long Man of Wilmington (SM 19:1:1; SM 19:5:1-3), a giant chalk outline of unknown origin. In the story Morpheus reveals Wendel’s Mound⁷³ as a outdoor theatre of long tradition (SM 19:2:5-7). While choosing this location, Gaiman not only had in mind the convenient gatekeeper Wendel or the comfortable fact that the place was only a ten-mile drive from his home at that time⁷⁴ , should he have to shoot reference photos of the site for his American artist.

He also thought of Rudyard Kipling who’d written that „the fairies had left our cities a long time ago“⁷⁵ and who used a spot nearby for his Puck stories. In Puck of Pook’s Hill the hobgoblin meets two children, Dan and Una, who perform a shortened version⁷⁶ of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Pook’s Hill.

„[I]n the middle of the bend lay a large old Fairy Ring of darkenend grass, which was the stage“⁷⁷ . After performing the play thrice, Puck sets in with Shakespearean lines of Puck, the character: „What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy Queen?“⁷⁸ . It would perfectly fit into the continuity that the Gaiman comic suggests that Puck knows the play⁷⁹ , the reference to the „cradle of the fairy Queen“ is in lieu of the spot where we see Gaiman’s Titania, and, as an added bonus, Puck still⁸⁰ seems to be fond of acting as himself, as he continues: „What, a play toward? I’ll be an auditor; An actor, too, perhaps, if I see cause.“⁸¹

Furthermore, the date is of interest. The night before June 24th is midsummer’s night⁸² , which is of course not the correct date concerning the action of Shakespeare’s (taking place between April 29th and May 1st⁸³ ), but presumably the day the play was first performed⁸⁴ (if not necessarily in the year 1593). But both Kipling⁸⁵ and Gaiman state the 23rd of June, Gaiman even takes the whole night and thus the comic’s title A Midsummer Night’s Dream couldn’t be more accurate.

Of course, Kipling's version of Puck, just as Shakespeare's, is not as malicious as Gaiman's, but that could be explained by the apparent differences between comic plays, children books and horror comics.

Puck, who was the first character of the Sandman series to imply that Morpheus might be mortal (“They say the seven Endless are for ever, mighty Dream. You and the other six, until the end of time itself. What say you to that, king of the riddle-realms?“, SM 19:6:2), reappears⁸⁶ in the penultimate storyline of The Sandman, The Kindly Ones, and is one of the beings responsible for Morpheus's death.

After Puck's partner-in-crime, the Norse trickster Loki⁸⁷ has been overcome in Sandman # 66, Puck quotes William Butler Yeats' poem The Second Coming: 'Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loose[d] upon the world.' That's me. Ex-Jester to the King of Faerie.“ (SM 66:1:7). It may seem strange that Puck isn't quoting Shakespeare or Kipling, authors that made him „immortal“ in a cultural sense. My interpretation would be that Puck is not satisfied with the watered-down depictions of Shakespeare's play and Kipling's children books, „that painty-winged, wand-waving, sugar-and-shake your head set of impostors"⁸⁸ , but instead chooses to recognize himself in ghastly verses⁸⁹ of an author who really believed in fairies⁹⁰.

12. The Changeling Situation

In Shakespeare’s play the „Indian boy“, a servant of Titania’s who awakes Oberon’s jealousy, is the main reason for Oberon to manipulate his emperess into falling in love with preferably „some vile thing“ (II,2,40, pg. 172).

My remarks at the end of the preceding chapter, concerning the depiction of Puck in the writings of Shakespeare and Kipling, also concern the depiction of changelings. Katherine M. Briggs points out that Kipling's Cold Iron is „the first story since A Midsummer Night's Dream to treat the changeling traffic from the fairies' point of view."⁹¹ In both cases the fairies have an „affectionate motive"⁹² , they want to protect orphaned humans. White Minor Latham remarks that this „unfailingly beneficient and altruistic"⁹³ attitude of Shakespeare's Titania is „vastly different from that of Diana, 'the goddesse of the Pagans' associated with witches“ in The Discovery of Witchcraft"⁹⁴

The traditional belief regarding fairies stealing human children had little to do with the friendly motivations of Shakespeare's and Kipling's fairies⁹⁵ , as Katherine M. Briggs explains:

Gaiman builds on this premise⁹⁷ when Titania notices the Indian boy played by Shakespeare’s son Hamnet and she’s „looking at the child as if she wants him - possessively, acquisitively, hungrily“ (SCRIPT SM 19:11:3).

On page 4 of the comic Hamnet complements Henry Condell, who plays Titania in the play, on his looks and is promised a strawberry (SM 19:4:3). This foreshadows a conversation between Titania and Hamnet during the intermission, when she hands him some Faerie fruit (SM 19:16:7).

Shortly before this scene, on page 13, „arguably the heart of the story“⁹⁹ , Gaiman shows us Hamnet’s sad perspective of his father’s career. Gaiman would have liked to enhance the doubling effect¹⁰⁰ , but Hamnet can only confess his discontent with his father’s preoccupation with art to Nash who is acting in a „totally unresponsive“¹⁰¹ way.

After Titania has told Hamnet of the land of „summer’s twilight“¹⁰² (SM 19:16:7), he tries repeatedly to tell his father of this encounter, but Shakespeare has no time for „foolish fancies“ (SM 19:24:5), because he’s encompassed into his play. His attempt to play down the encounter with Morpheus and the fairies by suggesting it could have been a dream (SM 19:24:3) is also paralleled by lines he performs as Theseus. While standing before an otherworldly audience with menacing red-glowing eyes (SM 19:20:2), he declares „The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. That is the madman.“ (V,1,7-10, pg. 231)¹⁰³ . For Gaiman, „[p]age 20 demonstrates one of the most powerful feature of the comics medium: ironic counterpoint between words and pictures.“¹⁰⁴ Theseus/Shakespeare continues in the next panel: „The lover, all as frantic, sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.“(V,1,10-11, pg. 231) and pictured is Hamnet „goofy with love for Titania“¹⁰⁵ (SM 19:20:3).

In the final panel of Sandman #19 we receive the historically accurate information „Hamnet Shakespeare died in 1596, aged eleven.“ But in Books of Magic Vol. 1#3, Land of Summer’s Twilight (also by Gaiman and Vess), a story which takes place about 1990, we will meet him again, as servant of Titania. He is adressed as Hamnet, clearly recognisable, and even is dressed in the same „Indian boy“ costume (Books of Magic 3:35:3, subsequentially abbreviated to BOM, see also Appendix II, Ill. 5+6) As additional treat for attentive readers, again strawberries are mentioned. In the same comic we also get to know about the danger of accepting a gift from inhabitants of Faerie, when Titania tricks Tim Hunter¹⁰⁶ into catching a key (BOM 3:34:3-4), and wants to keep him as a page also, but he has to be released because of lucky circumstances.

The term „changeling“ describes not only the fairies' captives, as in the case of Shakespeare's Indian boy, but also describes the substitutes the fairies leave in place of the stolen children.

In the context of Gaiman's story we are to assume that the buried son of Shakespeare was such a changeling taken to be the kidnapped Hamnet.

13. Sons and Fathers (Mixing Mythologies II)

Very early in the writing process Gaiman realized that he „was not just going to be telling Shakespeare’s story but also Hamnet’s; and that at heart this was going to be a story about the relationship, and the emormous gulfs, between a father and his son.“ An important similarity between Shakespeare and Morpheus, the main heroes of Sandman #19, is their responsibility for their sons' deaths, in Morpheus' case even directly. While the particular circumstances of the shedding of his son’s blood and how this brought about his own demise are not the topics of this essay, the death of Orpheus is of interest as there are several references concerning these actions during A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and these are not restricted to the comic, but also involve Shakespeare’s play, as if the poet had also used „additional material by Neil Gaiman".

„The riot of the tipsy bacchanals / Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage“ (SM 19:20:5, V,1,48-49, pg. 234) is one of the possible diversions Philostrate offers his lord Theseus for his wedding. This is one of four alternative theatrical entertainments, three of which have their source in Ovid's Metamorphoses¹⁰⁸ , which Shakespeare had available in the translation of Arthur Golding of 1567.

The first one, „The battle with the centaurs, to be sung / By an Athenian eunoch to the harp.“ (V,1,44-45, pg. 233) is equally inappropriate, since the carnage took place at a wedding feast¹⁰⁹ .

The Sandman Special #1: The Song of Orpheus tells us in detail the story Shakespeare only hints at, and Morpheus' face in SM 19:20:5 seems to reflect the remembrance of his son's wedding with Eurydice. Gaiman's version of the dismemberment (Sandman Special 1:44-46, subsequently abbreviated to SMS, see also Appendix II, Ill. 7) is no less drastic than Goldings words:

Again we are reminded of the Actaeon myth, and an interesting question comes up: Is Diana (aka Titania aka Proserpina, whom Gaiman calls Persephone) again involved? Gaiman's Titania also allows us to draw a connection with Persephone, when she reacts to A Midsummer Night's Dream in SM 19:10:5. „It seems to me that I heard this tale sung once, in old Greece, by a boy with a lyre", which is a rather obvious reference to Orpheus, and thus an indication Persephone and Titania are indeed the same. In BOM 3:46 we also see several „aspects“ of Titania and throughout the Sandman series she seldom appears twice in the same form.

Orpheus also once calls Persephone „Kore“ (SMS 1:16:2), another name which is also the Greek word for „maiden"¹¹¹ , which brings us, at last, to the triple goddess, the Hecate, whose various aspects in the Sandman series also encompass (among others) three relatively harmless looking witches, who were the hosts of another 1970's DC Comics horror anthology called The Witching Hour, the Furies or Eumenides, bringing doom to anyone spilling his family's blood, and, last but by no means least, the three witches from Macbeth¹¹² . They are also identified as „maiden", „mother“ and „crone". The maiden aspect reminds us not only of the translation of „Kore", but can also easily be connected with Diana, known for her chastity¹¹³ . But when both Persephone and the Furies appear in The Song of Orpheus, this clarifies that Gaiman is not interested in losing his ambiguity. In SMS 1:35:5 (see also Appendix II, Ill. 8) Persephone may or may not speak of an aspect of herself in third person.

If we now remember Shakespeare's connection of Titania with the triple goddess when Puck says: „And we fairies, that do run / By the triple Hecate's team“ (V,1,375-376, pg. 253), another parallelism between Gaiman and Shakespeare is established.

But back to parallels between Morpheus and Gaiman's version of Shakespeare. Right from the start of the story, Hamnet's „But father“ (twice in SM 19:1:2, once in SM 19:2:1) is turned into a running gag that becomes less and less funny. When Hamnet eats the forbidden Faerie fruit (SM 19:16:7), Will is concerned with the play, when the boy later wants to tell him about the „pretty lady“ that „said such things to me", Shakespeare again has no time for his son (SM 19:17:5) and Puck comments with the lines from the play „Lord, what fools these mortals be!“ (SM 19:17:6, resp. III,2,115, pg. 195). But mortals aren't the only fools¹¹⁴ .

Morpheus is too involved in his petty rules and a sense of duty to try to keep harm away from his son or later help him. Again the „But father“ is ignored (SMS 1:16:3 and SMS 1:48:2). And when Morpheus at last sees sense and breaks one of the rules to show his son mercy, he seals his own demise at the hands of the furies.

Peter Holland reveals another parallel regarding Theseus (played by Shakespeare): Soon after the fairies' blessing

14. Tricksters, Actors and Playwrights

„[C]haracteristics of a Trickster, which are important in The Sandman, include being a shape-shifter and rhetorician.  Gaiman uses and mentions many different trickster characters in The Sandman.  The most notable is Loki of Norse mythology.  Puck or Robin Goodfellow from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a known faerie trickster. These two team up and help cause the demise of Dream. [ …] Even Dream himself can be considered a trickster because many call him Lord Shaper and he does change shape many times.  Also, he is the Prince of Stories and, therefore, a rhetorician.“¹¹⁶

If we start out from Michael Niederhausen’s partly definition of a trickster, it is selfevident that Shakespeare himself qualifies as a trickster, because he is a playwright (and thus, a rhetorician) and an actor, a profession which at least shows some similarities to „shape-shifters“. Niederhausen continues that the trickster is „someone who brings laughter and pain“, which perfectly reminds us of the fact, that the Shakespeare of that particular period was just proving himself with his first great comedies and tragedies¹¹⁷ .

Shakespeare’s version of Oberon is probably the most outstanding rhetorician of the play and while Gaiman’s version only tricks Burbage with the Faerie gold¹¹⁸ , Shakespeare’s Oberon is much more of an active trickster, who first observes secretly (“But who comes here? I am invisible; And I will overhear their conference“, II,1,186-187, pg. 164-165) and later manipulates to bring laughter and pain, even if he not always gets the desired results because of misunderstandings with Puck.

Thus the motif of the trickster is a theme connecting both Shakespeare and Gaiman, and in the second play Shakespeare supposedly writes for Morpheus (and thus gives Gaiman the chance to reflect on), The Tempest, this motif is even more evident.

Gaiman himself as comic author is one rhetorician who lets his words be interpreted by artists and thus „Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name.“ (V,1,16-17, pg. 231)

15. Epilogue: The Wake

Gaiman's The Sandman series ended with a double-size issue concerning The Tempest thus paralleling the end of Shakespeare's active career as sole writer¹¹⁹ . The last words Morpheus speaks in the series are „But I thank you.“ towards Shakespeare in a dream (SM 75:37:1), which may also express Gaiman's gratitude. Shakespeare then awakes and is as relieved as Gaiman probably were: „It is over.“ (SM 75:37:3) „All of it. The burden of words. I can lay it down now. Let it rest.“ (SM 75:37:5).