Bottom, the unwitting butt of a cruel, fantastical fairy prank, experiences a moment of transcendence that echoes some of the most famous scriptural words about the promises of the hereafter. This talk considers why Shakespeare takes up the key biblical text on the doctrine of resurrection, Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians, at this critical point of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and what this says about Shakespeare’s approach to imaginative power. It suggests that the mysterious resurrection envisaged by Paul informs both the preposterous change experienced by Bottom (with his ass’s head) and the perspectival shift the play prompts in its audience. The play’s references to both Paul and to Erasmus’s Praise of Folly help us to understand why it is the base and foolish Bottom that opens an imaginative gateway to newness of life.

Nicholas Luke is an Associate Professor in the School of English at HKU. His work includes Shakespearean Arrivals: The Birth of Character (Cambridge, 2018), Shakespeare’s Political Sprit: Negative Theology and the Disruption of Power (Cambridge, 2024), and papers in journals such as Modern Philology, Shakespeare Survey, Law and Literature, and Literature and Theology. He is currently working on a third monograph, “Resurrection Events in Late Shakespeare” (funded by the UGC), which re-examines the vexed question of Shakespeare’s engagement with religion through the idea of resurrection.