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THE COLLEGE NEWS

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Frolic in the Dream



Play Written in Celebration
Of Noble Marriage Which
_ Elizabeth Attended



HERE SINCE 1910



For the play: of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream to be performed on
May Day seems at first, a little inap-
propriate, and yet actually no play
could be found more appropriate to
the season. The flowers and dew, the
courtly show and rustic antics of the
first of May are all included here; the
duke Theseus himself goes with his
Bride Hippolyta “in the vaward of the
day” to observe the May rites in the
woods; and the marriage of these two
repeats the fairy custom of wedding
one another in the first nine days of
May. It is true that Oberon and
Puck perform their tricks during the
night, the hours of June magic, while
the May festival needs the sun; but
there is no need on this account to
suppose a gap in time. By far the
simpler way, the. way which anyone
who believes in the play follows with-
out a thought, is to count the night of
midsummer as the eve of May Day
and the events -brought on by the
spells of. June as solving themselves
naturally when the light of May Day
dawns. Then nothing could be more
suitable to this morning than the act-
ing of a play. called A Midswmmer
Night’s Dream.

Because of the royal wedding in it
and the two pairs of lovers who wan-
der in the forest, because of its brev-
ity, too, and its end with the fairies’
blessing, the play is as suitable to a
marriage celebration as to May Day.
It must have.been produced to honor
some noble marriage entertainment,
probably that of the Earl of Derby in
1595 or that of Sir Thomas Berkeley
in 1596. At Derby’s wedding, Queen
Elizabeth was present, and it is very
likely that she was at Berkeley’s also
if it was this ceremony that the
Dream was meant to celebrate, for
the comedy contains several flattering
allusions to her power and her chas-
tity. Yet in spite of references to
marriages and queen, it is not really
for these that Shakespeare wrote the
play. He wrote it for the fairy crea-
tures in it, the awkward rural artis-
sans, and the feeling of an English
May.

Exotic Origin of Names

Although there’ are no known
sources for the story of the Dream,
the origin of its fairy names and
characters can be traced quite clearly.
The name “Oberon” which Shake-

from an old French tale, Huon of
Bordeaux, and from this tale likewise
comes Oberon’s association with some
eastern region, some place of “Indian
steppes.” For the name of his queen,
“Titania,” Shakespeare had no pre-
cedent in fairy literature, but chose it
from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, who
uses it for Diana. “Puck,” as the
jester and mischievous ambassador of
these two sovereigns is called, was a
word commonly used by the country
folk to denote the whole race of fairies
whether of high or low degree. Among
the country folk, indeed, was a great
store of knowledge as to the doings
both of Puck and of his master and
mistress; so that Shakespeare had no
need of books to tell him what pranks
the tiny spirits played. He took the
tradition familiar to his own War-
wickshire and to all of England, and
by refining and concentrating he made
his Puck, Titania and Oberon the very
embodiment of the tradition. Now

”



COME TO —
HAVERFORD COURT

“Montgomery Avenue at
Gray’s Lang

for
Comfortable Accommodations

and Delicious Meals

*

~ speare gives to his elfin king comes’ }yeted along any slant fancied by the





that we have them, we need no other
fairies.

‘When May Day was first celebrated
at Bryn Mawr, these really indispens-
able figures were neglected but by
1910 the error of such an omission
wa3 lized. Ever since then, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream has. been
one of the plays prescribed for Big
May Day. Because the time for pre-
senting it is so short, it has neces-
sarily been cut in a drastic way; the
troubles of the four lovers in the for-
est have been discarded entirely until
only the scenes withthe fairies and
artisans and the last scene at Theseus’
court remain,to be the Dream. Even
when so shortened, however, it re-
tains with its merry Puck, its comical
interlude of Pyramus and Thisbe, and
its final display of wealth and splen-
dor, all its original May Day spirit.
In spite of the modern difficulties its
actors here encounter when rehears-
ing, such as the necessity to shout
above the roar of airplanes or through
an ice cream cone, when they present
it on May Day itself, they have all the
far-famed gaiety and vigor of the
Elizabethans. Airplanes then no
longer_exist; only the galleys of Sir
Francis Drake and the river boats of
the Thames.



Miss Josephine Petts
Prefers Modern Dance



1936 Marks Second Time as Chief
Director of the Greene



For the second time Miss Josephine
Petts, head of the Bryn Mawr de-
partment of Physical Education, is the
chief director of the Greene for Big
May Day. Miss Petts has had experi-
ence in teaching all fields of physical
education, but her specialty is modern
dancing.

Miss Petts has been excéedingly for-
tunate in having the rare opportunity
of «studying with Elizabeth Duncan
personally for six summers, for Miss
Duncan herself will work with only
the favored few. Miss Petts has often
danced in recitals abroad and she,
with a group of other experts, once
danced in a Max Reinhart production
of Midsummer Night’s Dream. She
now has the honor of being one of the
ten authorized teachers of Elizabeth
Dunean’s dancing and is,Miss Dun-
can’s Philadelphia representative.

Dancing, like all other art, Miss

‘Petts feels, must grow out of the

period in which we live. We must find
the fundamental technique which is
eternally correct and which grows out
of life, and use that technique to bring
out all modern feeling. This “funda-
mental technique” comprises certain
principles which must be adhered to;
but these principles may be inter-

individual.

The human body and the human
spirit are the mediums through ‘which
the art of dancing is expressed. Cer-
tain physical and: social laws govern
that medium and we must conform to
those laws. Since we are modern peo-
ple, the dancing which grows out of
us must of necessity be modern art.
All art, and dancing especially; must
inspire both oneself and one’s audi-
ence.

Miss Petts in teaching dancing
never gives any set rules as to what
to do or how to do it. She tries to
make the students look within them-
selves and bring out what is in them.
“That,” she says, “is art and that is
education.” @



Part as Actors

Animals Play Speechless But Important |

or Beasts of Burden





Horses, Mules, Cocks and Dogs
Are Invaluable Additions
To Procession



CALLING - WHITE - OXEN!!



Among the many non-speaking or
walk-on parts in May Day, few ‘are
more important than those played by

the numerous animals. There are, of

course, the oxen, who supply both
decoration and usefulness, in that they
carry the Maypole in the procession
and to its place on the Greene. Be-
sides these there are: a mule named
Therese (who is the proud parent of
an offspring named Papillon); a

white horse who carries the May

Queen; two Scotch fighting cocks; a

falcon; horses for riding and cart-
pulling purposes 4nd various dogs.

On February 12 a triumphant an-
nouncement was made that four white
oxen had been found. When these
unfortunately developed broken ankles
and perishing hips and shoulders, it
was found necessary to send out a call
for more. As the situation grew des-
perate, a plea was made over the
National Farm and Home Hour, as
well as through advertisements in
farm journals. Responses proved
that white oxen reside in regions from
Nova Scotia to Louisiana and from
New England to South Dakota. They
come in varying degrees of whiteness,
and “with and without barn itch.” On
April 8 a pair was at last discovered
in Massachusetts and reserved for
May Day; and on April 29 the wel-
come news was received from Mr.
Fuller, who got the first pair, that
another yoke had been found at Tun-
bridge, Vermont.

Originally there were two falcons
to be carried by the Queens’ courtiers
and provided by Mr. Daniel Mannix.
One of the birds escaped recently, how-
ever, and as efforts to find another
have been unsuccessful, the remaining
one rides in solitary splendor, wear-
ing an elegant hood adorned with gold
leaf and pheasant feathers. °

The -two “fighting » cocks, “borne
aloft” in their cages, are provided by
Mr. Colin Campbell and come from
his native Scotland. They represent
a sport as popular in sixteenth cen-
tury England as falconry.

Besides the white horse, Eleanor B.,
a show horse, fourteen years old and
owned by Frances Schaeffer, which
carries Maid Marian, there are ten
other riding horses in the pageant,
provided by the Fox Livery Stables in
Wayne, four of which carry charac-
ters in Robin Hood and six of which
carry pages. Eleanor has been ac-
commodated at the Baldwin School
stable through the courtesy of Miss
Johnson, while the others are brought
back and forth from their home each
day. Therese, the donkey who carries
Frier Tuck in Robin Hood, belongs to
Sarah and Mary Meigs and comes
from Radnor, Pennsylvania.

The goat which follows Silenus in
the Masque, is owned by Jane Morris
and led by her in the procession. Dur-
ing its stay at college, it has been
quartered in the college garage be-
hind the Gymnasium. The three little
lambs which accompany the shepherds
are owned by: Ellen Scattergood; and
after their triumphant eperformance







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in the pageant, plan to return home
to become mutton.

The three dogs in the pageant are
of very different ancestry, experience
and appearance. The Cairn, Bocker,
which is led by Starveling in A Mid-

summer Night’s came. to

America from the Highlands of Scot-
land, where he was born six years
ago, and is owned by Miss Ellenor
Morris. The Dalmatian attached to
the court of Elizabeth bears the name
“Poppaea” »-(Nero’s wife in ancient
Romg).- She is a year old. and was
bought by her present owners, Dr.
and Mrs. Cameron, from a horse farm
in Vermont, where she was the only
survivor of a stable fire in which all

Dream,



the horses were killed. The Great:
Dane, Sigurdson of Erindane, at-:
tached to the court of A M idsummer |
Night’s Dream, was given to Isabelle
Seltzer by the owner of the Erindane
kennels; he is:a seven-year-old show |
dog and doubtless enjoys the excite-
ment of the crowd.



Students Represented |
By Eleanor Fabyan, ’36





Ranking Daughter of Boston Alumna |
Was Junior President |



Eleanor Fabyan, of the Cldss of |
1936, is this year’s President of the!
Undergraduate Association and ex.
officio Undergraduate Representative '
on the May Day Executive Committee. |
A graduate of the Winsor School and '
a resident~of Boston, she has a strong’,
Bryn Mawr tradition behind her, for |
her mother was Eleanor McCormick,
of the Class of 1904, and her aunt
Mrs. F. Louis Slade, of the Class of
1897, is chairman of the Fiftieth An-
niversary Fund Drive.

' Since Miss Fabyan entered college.
her interests and. her honors have
been .widespread and numerous. In
her freshman year she was elected
to the Self-Government Board, and
she was instrumental in founding the,
‘International Relations Club, of which
she was president during bhe next
two years. j

In her sophomore year she was a
member of the League Board as head
of the Industrial Group. At the ses-
sion of the Bryn Mawr Summer
School in 1934 she was one of the two
undergraduate assistants.

She was president of the Junior



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835 Lancaster Avenue
Bryn. Mawr, Pa.

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Class and as First Junior Member of
the Undergraduate Association she
was Chairman of the Cut Committee.
Last spring she was*elected president
of the Undergraduate Association, an

| office especially important in the May *

Day year. She has been associated

awith Mrs. Collins in casting the plays
and arranging the complicated sched-
ules and has done a vast number of
odd jobs connected with the pageant.

- Academitally she ranks high, hav-
ing,maintained her cum laude average
since the middle of her sophomore
year. She is majoring in economics
and politics, taking honors this year
in economics. She is greatly interested
in Mexico and China. In the summer
of 1931 she accompanied her aunt,
Mrs. Slade, to the Far East, and in.
1933 went with her to Banff to the
conference of the Institute of Pacific
Relations.

Miss Fabyan has been particularly
impressed by the cooperation andes

| willingness of the undergraduates in

preparation for May Days She is
most interested in the generous use
this year and in the new
plays which are being given for the
first time—Gammer Gurton’s Needle

and the two wagon plays.





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Bryn Mawr 2060









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