Peter Quince

Peter Quince is a character in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is one of the six mechanicals of Athens who perform the play which Quince himself authored, "The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe" for the Duke Theseus and his wife Hippolyta at their wedding. Titania's Fairies also watch from a distance: Moth, Peaseblossom, Cobweb and Mustardseed. His name is derived from "quines" or "quoins", which are wooden wedges used by carpenters.

Characterization

Quince's amateurish playwriting is usually taken to be a parody of the popular mystery plays of the pre-Elizabethan era, which were also produced by craftspeople.[1] His metrical preferences refer to vernacular ballads. Despite Quince's obvious shortcomings as a writer, Stanley Wells argues that he partly resembles Shakespeare himself. Both are from a craftsmanly background, both work quickly and both take secondary roles in their own plays.[2] Robert Leach makes the same point.[3]

In performing the play Quince recites the prologue but struggles to fit his lines into the meter and make the rhymes. The noble audience makes jocular comments, whilst the rest of the mechanicals struggle (except for Bottom, who rather confidently improvises).

Traditionally, Peter Quince is portrayed as a bookish character, caught up in the minute details of his play, but as a theatrical organizer. However, in the 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, he is portrayed by Roger Rees as a strong character extremely capable of being a director. It is he who leads the search party looking for Nick Bottom in the middle of the play.

Cultural references

The character is named in the title of a Wallace Stevens poem, "Peter Quince at the Clavier", which is written in the first person as if spoken by Quince.[4]

References
  1. Montrose 1996, p. 185.
  2. Wells 1990, pp. 60–63.
  3. Leach 2008, p. 119.
  4. Bates 1985, p. 117.

Bibliography
  • Bates, Milton J. (1985). Wallace Stevens: a mythology of self. University of California Press.
  • Montrose, Louis Adrian (1996). The Purpose of Playing: Shakespeare and The Cultural Politics of The Elizabethan Theatre. University of Chicago Press.
  • Wells, Stanley W. (1990). Shakespeare and the Elizabethans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Leach, Robert (2008). Theatre Studies: The Basics. Routledge.
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