Thoughts on Midsummer Night's Dream and Shakespeare's jokes

[watervole]

The humour in Shakespeare is often difficult for a modern audience. The language is archaic and what was a joke or pun in Shakespeare's time is not always so in the modern day. I've put a section of text below the cut and added my own thoughts. I'd be interested to know which jokes other people found funny. I'd also be particularly interested in comments from anyone who has read Shakespeare in another language who could tell me how the translator approached this passage in particular and passages with puns in general. Do the translators try and translate the line verbatim (which would usually remove the joke) or do they try and substitute an equivalent joke in their own language)

Moonshine

This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;--

(lanthorn = lantern) (horned moon = crescent moon)

DEMETRIUS

He should have worn the horns on his head.

(ie.  he's a cuckold - his wife is sleeping with someone else)

THESEUS

He is no crescent, and his horns are
invisible within the circumference.

(He's fat - you'd lose the horns inside the rest of him)

Moonshine

This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.

THESEUS

This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man
should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the
man i' the moon?

(needs no explanation - the joke still works)

DEMETRIUS

He dares not come there for the candle; for, you
see, it is already in snuff.

(already in snuff = it's alight.  ie. would need snuffing out)

HIPPOLYTA

I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!

(change = change phase from waxing to waning or vice versa)

THESEUS

It appears, by his small light of discretion, that
he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all
reason, we must stay the time.

(wane = going from full to crescent, getting dimmer)

LYSANDER

Proceed, Moon.

Moonshine

All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the
lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this
thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

(see my comments yesterday)

DEMETRIUS Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all
these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.

(the joke still makes sense)