Distinctions made between the gaining of understanding by means of immediate perceptions or by the process of judicial consideration - through the faculties of apprehension or comprehension - are first traced through several historical texts. They are then considered in relation to a close reading of the presentations of Duke Theseus in both A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Two Noble Kinsmen. This leads to an argument that Theseus is portrayed in both those Shakespearian plays as undergoing very similar psychic changes. In support of that argument several dramatic passages, and especially two enigmatic lines spoken by Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream, are very closely observed and elucidated within their complex contexts. A resulting discovery of some unexpected aspects of the two Shakespearian demonstrates how the merging of apprehension and comprehension may mutually sharpen both modes of understanding, and may even bring to light otherwise obscured meanings. Finally this observation is brought to bear on questions of communication and receptivity in relation to both dramaturgy and psychoanalytic practice.