...backwards and watch others watching the action : — Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. —More strange than true : I never may believe These...apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. (V. i. r-6) And not content with likening a lover's truth to that of a madman, Theseus equates these...

...is 'of imagination all compact': A phrase from Theseus's speech in vi of A Midsummer Night's Dream: 'Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, | Such...comprehends. | The lunatic, the lover and the poet | Are of imagination all compact' (4-8). 27-8. the great sins of the world ... in the brain: W is remembering...

...refusing to believe that the things which the lovers report about their adventures actually happened. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such...apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. (V, i, 4-6) We have witnessed the strange adventures and know that Theseus is being unnecessarily sceptical,...

...attitudes. Though his work is full of scepticism, his stance is never that of Theseus the sceptic, who says: More strange than true. I never may believe These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. (Vl 2-3) It is much more that of Hippolyta, who remains in a state of undecidability and ruminates...

...Philostrate, lords, and attendants HIPPOLYTA 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. THESEUS More strange than true. I never may believe These...compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. 10 That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt. The poet's...

...and in one of the play's most remembered speeches philosophizes on the fallacies of the imagination: I never may believe These antique fables, nor these...comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact. (5.1 .2—8) (Theseus himself is so antique and fabulous a hero that...

...driven by fancy or imagination (both terms are largely synonymous in those pre-Coleridgean times) : Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such...comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact. What is being stated here, in the final phase of an Elizabethan comedy,...

...the middle. "'I may never believe these antic fables, nor these fairy toys,'" Louis read out loud. "'Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such...that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends — ' " Charlie interrupted. "'The lunatic, the lover, the poet, are of imagination all compact. One...

...Theseus, that these lovers JL speak of. THESEUS. More strange than true: I never may believe These antick If you did, I care not. CASSIUS. When Caesar lived...me. MARCUS BRUTUS. Peace, peace! you durst not so Jiell can hold, — That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of...

...Night's Dream (Vi1-8, 14-17): HIPPOLYTA: 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. THESEUS: More strange than true. I never may believe These...comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact. . . . And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown,...