new start. Theseus is pining for the moon and commenting on how slowly the moon is progressing, as we see in his lines, "O, methinks, how slow / This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires" (I.i.3-4).

The moon also appears as an image in some of the mechanicals' scenes. Not only do the mechanicals rehearse their play in the forest by moonlight, they also decide that they need an actor to play the part of moonlight in their performance before Duke Theseus. Hence, in Act 5, Starveling comes on stage holding a lantern and with a thorn-bush and a dog in tow. The lantern is supposed to represent the moon while Starveling is the man in the moon, as we in his lines:

All that I have to say is to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man i'the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog. (V.i.256-247)

We also see Helena refer to night imagery in her first speech in the very first scene. When her best friend Hermia greets her as "fair Helena," Helena responds by lamenting that Demetrius thinks Hermia is more fair than she is. She refers to Hermia's eyes as guiding stars, which is night imagery, as we see in her lines, "O happy fair! / Your eyes are lode-stars" (I.i.185-186).

Pictorial elements help us visualize in our mind's eye what is going on in a play. They rely on imagery, what is description which uses the fives senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Pictorial elements rely most fully on visual imagery.

Because the Renaissance stage did not have the resources to do more than gesture at a complete fairy world, Shakespeare uses language to conjure pictures of this enchanted universe. Some of the most compelling pictorial language in the play describes this alternative universe of tiny beings who can fit inside flowers and flit not only around the world, but to other planets.

Two examples of this language are below, both in speeches by Titania in act 2, scene 1. In the first speech, Titania complains to Oberon that his jealousy has ruined the weather for her and the other fairies, bringing "brawls" (or storms with winds and fogs) and disturbing their "sports" (or activities). She paints a vivid picture of the fairies meeting in various natural settings such as valleys (dales) forests by fountains, brooks, or the beach near the sea. We can imagine them wanting to dance in "ringlets"—circles—in these lovely places, but being unable to because of the weather:

And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs

In explaining her strong desire to keep the Indian boy, who Oberon wants for his own retinue, Titania paints pictorial images of her close friendship with the boy's mother. She describes them in India and on the planet Neptune, both places it would be improbable (India) or impossible (Neptune) for the average British person of the time to visit. However, we can picture the two lovely women by night, sitting in the "spiced" air of India or on the yellow beaches in Neptune, watching the billowing sails of the ships on the sea:

And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
Marking the embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind

Shakespeare focuses much of his pictorial energy on the fairy world, as that is what is strange and wondrous, using imagery drawn both from English folklore and Classical mythology. In contrast, we get almost no picture of the human world of Athens, as he would assume that would be familiar to us.