Egeus is Hermia's furious father, a comedic obstacle demanding patriarchal law.

Who they are

Egeus embodies rigid Athenian authority, insisting his daughter marry Demetrius or face death. His absurdly inflexible rage provides comic tension, which dissolves when the lovers' confusion is resolved. He appears only in two scenes, serving as the blocking figure whose stubbornness is ultimately overruled by Theseus.

Playing them

Play Egeus with upright, indignant physicality—imagine a tight collar and a chronic frown. Use sharp, clipped rhythms in speech, especially on 'vexation' and 'complaint.' In Act 4, his baffled capitulation can land as a deflated, petulant whimper, rewarding the audience for laughing at his earlier tyranny.

Worth knowing

Egeus reflects the early modern legal reality of absolute paternal authority, later satirized as a humorless killjoy. His name echoes the Athenian king Aegeus—a subtle tragic parallel that Shakespeare undercuts with comedy.

Where they appear

Act 1, Scene 1 4 speeches
Act 4, Scene 1 3 speeches

Shakespeare the way it was meant to be had — out loud

These plays were written to be performed, not silently read. Yorick is a rehearsal app that lets you perform them: you take a part in any of Shakespeare’s 38 plays, and Yorick reads every other role aloud, listens while you speak your lines, keeps your place, and prompts you the moment you dry.

It is built for the person who has to be off book by tech week — school and college productions, community theatre, festivals, drama students and classical auditions — and for anyone who wants to hear a scene rather than skim it. Alongside the performance you get a plain-English translation of every speech, scene context, performance notes, and the ability to ask about any line and get an answer that already knows the play, the scene and who is speaking.

The text is the public-domain Cambridge/Globe edition. Translations and notes are AI-generated rehearsal aids for actors and students, not a scholarly apparatus. Yorick runs in a browser with nothing to install, and on iPhone and Android.