Philostrate

Philostrate
A Midsummer Night's Dream character
Created by	William Shakespeare
Date(s)	c. 1590–1596

Philostrate (meaning "lover of battle") is a fictional character in a number of literary works, including William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596). In that play, he is the Master of Revels at Theseus' court, meaning he is in charge of his lord's entertainments, making recommendations to Theseus, as well as altering the text of some of the plays performed in his court. Shakespeare may have used this character to poke fun at play censorship in London at the time. In early performances of the play, the actor who played this character probably also played the part of Egeus, Hermia's strict father. There is only one scene in Act V where both Egeus and Philostrate are present, and in this scene Egeus' character would have taken all of Philostrate's lines as his own.

As Theseus's head guard, Philostrate is asked to defend his Lord and also makes recommendations for plays to help while away the time. Theseus rejects all of the plays except "Pyramus and Thisbe", which Philostrate has given a particularly bad review. He advises the betrothed king not to choose "The Mechanicals'" (the workers') play because it is badly rehearsed:

I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world,
Unless you can find sport in their [The Mechanicals'] intents,
Extremely stretched, & conned [learnt] with cruel pain,
To do you service.

Theseus, eager to please his fiancee, Hippolyta, and the rest of his court, chooses Pyramus and Thisbe despite Philostrate's efforts. Because of its amateurishness, the play turns out to be humorous.

In most contemporary performances Philostrate's name is usually pronounced: FILL-uh-straight, (to rhyme with "illustrate") with a short "uh" rather than a long "oo" because the medial vowel is unaccented.

However, a variation to this would be based on the conventions of classical Greek. In this case, the final "e" would be pronounced (as an "ee" or "aye"), giving the name four syllables, and the accent would shift from the first syllable, to either the second or third syllable, depending on whether the medial syllables are considered short or long. It would then be pronounced: fill-uh-STRA-tay.

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