ABSTRACT
Theatre and intersubjective magic share the goal of generating marvels, as well as partly the instruments and the phenomenology. In theatre, both actors and audience know that the marvels occur in play, in the as if perspective, but this does not diminish their entertaining or their edifying dimension, as long as there is meaning to them. In pleading for the marvelous in tragedy, Aristotle explained that "incidents arousing pity and fear have the very greatest effect on the mind when they occur unexpectedly and at the same time in consequence of one another; there is more of the marvelous in them than if they happened of themselves or by mere chance. Out of the impressive semantic richness of the marvelous in his theatre, the following analysis will treat miracle, wonder and amazement principally in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth and The Tempest, but also with reference to All's Well that Ends Well and the historical plays.
