Editing The Sandman: The Wake (section)

==Synopsis==
The first three issues of the volume, "Chapter One, Which Occurs in the Wake of What Has Gone Before", "Chapter Two, In Which a Wake is Held", and "Chapter Three, In Which We Wake", comprise the wake and funeral held for [[Dream (DC Comics)|Morpheus]], who dies at the end of the ninth collection ''[[The Sandman: The Kindly Ones|The Kindly Ones]]'' amidst the attack of the [[List of The Sandman characters#Three|Furies]] when [[Fury (DC Comics)|Lyte Hall]] thought that he kidnapped her child when it was actually Loki who did it. It is attended by "dreamers and guests", "celebrants and mourners"; many have played recurrent roles in the preceding volumes.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gaiman|first=Neil|title=The Sandman: The Wake|year=1997|publisher=DC Comics|location=New York, NY|isbn=1-56389-279-0|pages=37}}</ref> A series of speakers, of which the last is Death, reflect on the life and death of the late Dream King. Meanwhile, the new aspect of Dream, previously the child [[Daniel Hall (comics)|Daniel]], starts relationships with the inhabitants of [[The Dreaming (comics)|the Dreaming]].

Issue 73, "The Wake: An Epilogue Sunday Morning", serves as [[epilogue]] to both the wake and the friendship between [[Hob Gadling]] and Morpheus, in which Gadling visits a renaissance festival with current girlfriend Guenevere and is visited by [[Death (DC Comics)|Death]]. Issues 74 and 75 resonate thematically and tonally with the first three issues; in terms of plot, they are placed achronologically.

==="An Epilogue, Sunday Mourning"===
"Sunday Mourning" follows the immortal [[Hob Gadling]] and his girlfriend Gwen at a [[Renaissance fair]] in twentieth-century America. Hob, who lived through this period of history, dismisses the Faire as ridiculous even as it brings back painful memories of other lives he has lived. He escapes his memories by getting drunk alone in an empty pub. [[Death (DC Comics)|Death]] visits him and confirms that Hob's recent dream of attending Morpheus's funeral was true. Hob admits that the idea of leaving behind yet another lifetime and the inevitable loss of Gwen troubles him. Death promises that if the burden is ever too great, she will come for him, offering to take him right now. After some consideration, Hob decides he is not ready. He then falls asleep and dreams of meeting Morpheus and [[Destruction (DC Comics)|Destruction]] on a beach, where the Dream King reconfirms his death and his companions laugh. The three walk off together, and Hob, waking, returns to his girlfriend.

In ''The Sandman Companion,'' Gaiman mentions that he wanted to write a story of Hob visiting a Ren Faire for a long time, stating that he himself has never liked American Ren Faires but found the idea of a medieval man confronted with a Ren Faire to be full of potential humor.

==="Exiles"===
"Exiles" is something of a companion to a story from ''[[The Sandman: Fables and Reflections|Fables and Reflections]]'', "Soft Places". It features an adviser to the Emperor of China, sent into exile after his son allied himself with the [[White Lotus Rebellion]]. While travelling across the desert, the man becomes separated from the group during a sandstorm. His only companion is a white kitten (called Walks The Night Alone) he has rescued. Attempting to find his group again, he encounters others who are lost in the sandstorm. Their statements and appearance give the impression that these men are from various other times and places through history. Eventually the old man meets Morpheus, who ask him a hypothetical question about the death of a son, establishing that this version of Dream comes from a time immediately after the death of his son Orpheus in ''Brief Lives'' (which Gaiman later confirmed in ''The Sandman Companion''). The old man answers that even though his son betrayed the Emperor, resulting in the old man's exile, he still loves him. Continuing through the desert, the old man encounters Dream a second time, this time in the form of [[Daniel Hall (comics)|Daniel Hall]]. As a reward for sharing his precious water with the white kitten, rather than abandoning it, the second Dream puts the old man on a path that reunites him with his guide.

==="The Tempest"===
"The Tempest" concludes the bargain struck between Dream and [[William Shakespeare]] in "Men of Good Fortune" and featured in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". "The Tempest" sources less from its namesake than "A Midsummer Night's Dream" though Gaiman's tale reflects the Bard's continually. Gaiman sees "The Tempest" as a play about "stories and endings" and thus thought it a fitting end to the series, even though he had initially planned to place the issue long before.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bender|first=Hy|title=The Sandman Companion|year=2000|publisher=Titan Books Ltd|isbn=1840231645|pages=224}}</ref>