Robin Starveling

Robin Starveling is a character in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596), one of the Rude Mechanicals of Athens who plays the part of Moonshine in their performance of Pyramus and Thisbe. His part is often considered one of the more humorous in the play, as he uses a lantern in a failed attempt to portray Moonshine and is wittily derided by his audience. Scholars have argued that his amateur performance communicates many of the problems Shakespeare would have been familiar with in the theatre: heckling, lack of adequate props, and amateur acting abilities.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. Peter Quince decides to entertain her and hires a group of actors nicknamed the Rude Mechanicals to perform Pyramus and Thisbe, a love story. Robin is one of the Rude Mechanicals, the tailor, who gathers with his colleagues to prepare their production. Robin at first is told to play the part of Thisbe's mother, but Peter Quince points out that a love story needs moonlight shining on the lovers to have any real effect on the audience. After Nick Bottom suggests looking in the almanac for a time when the Moon might shine on their performance, the players apparently decide that they will just have Robin act as Moonshine. Robin's role as Moonshine in The Mechanical's performance of Pyramus and Thisbe before Theseus' court is often highlighted by scholars as among the funnier parts of the play. Although the court makes fun of all the players, Starveling is mocked the most by Hippolyta, who is very vocal in her opinion that his attempt to be moonshine is a ridiculous failure, although very humorous. He is also the only mechanical to be cut off in his monologue as opposed to being mocked afterwards, causing him to fluster and summarize his lines rather than giving them. This summary is usually played angrily or irritably, but has also been performed as the climax of Starveling's potential stage fright. Starveling is the member of the group that seems to be afraid of just about anything. Starveling is the most ambiguous in taking sides in the power struggle between Bottom and Quince. While Snout affirms whatever Quince says and Flute always looks to Bottom for the final word on something (Snug is too slow to be bothered), Starveling seems to try to agree completely with both, as impossible as it is to do so.

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