ABSTRACT
The founders of modernism were attempting to create a complete separation between reason and imagination as they understood these terms. In the course of this speech Theseus twice makes a distinction between comprehension and apprehension, and in many ways these are key terms not only for the play, but for theology, and especially perhaps for theology in the present age. Hippolyta goes on to say that there must be some truth in the lover's tale because when they return to it, when it is told over it grows to something of great constancy. Part of the way in which the parts and elements of this play are all organically related to the whole can be seen in the way the structure of the plot develops the meaning of the poetry. The exchange between Theseus and Hippolyta forms an interlude, between the magical transfigurations of the moonlit wood, the ludicrous enactments of Bottom and his friends, the rude mechanicals.
