Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.”
- Date
- c. 1595
- Local voice
- Fictional character · Theseus
Meaning of “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are…”
Theseus links three states through imagination, treating creative perception as the power to see forms and meanings beyond ordinary calculation.
Where does it come from?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene 1; Theseus skeptically groups the lunatic, lover and poet through imagination. Verified in the scan-backed 1918 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Willard Higley Durham; direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act V transcription.
Why the local voice matters
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Theseus speaks this in his skeptical response to the lovers’ account of the night’s events.
