A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play by William Shakespeare. The exact date the play was written is unknown. It is generally accepted that the play was written in 1595 or 1596. It was first printed in 1600. In 1623, the play was printed in the First Folio, a collection of all of Shakespeare's plays. 

Shakespeare's sources include works by Plutarch, Apuleius, Ovid,  Geoffrey Chaucer, and Edmund Spenser. He found a description of Puck in Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584). It is generally believed that the play was written for the festivities surrounding the aristocratic marriage of either Elizabeth Vere, Lord Burghley’s granddaughter, in 1595, or Elizabeth Carey, daughter of Sir George Carey, in 1596.

The play is about four confused young lovers, a group of clumsy workmen, the royal court of Duke Theseus, and the royal fairy court of King Oberon and Queen Titania.  The play is set mostly at night in the woods near Athens. 

The play has been made into movies on numerous occasions. One movie stars Mickey Rooney as the fairy Puck. Benjamin Britten wrote an opera based on the play, George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton have both made ballets about it, and Felix Mendelssohn wrote many pieces of music for the play which include an "Overture" and a "Wedding March".

Characters

The Court at Athens:
 Theseus, Duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta
 Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, engaged toTheseus 
 Philostrate, Master of the Revels at the Court
 Egeus, father of Hermia

The Lovers:
 Hermia, Egeus' daughter; loved by Lysander
 Lysander; loved by Hermia
 Helena; loves Demetrius
 Demetrius; loves Hermia, whose father wants them to marry

The Fairies:
 Oberon, King of the Fairies
 Titania, Queen of the Fairies
 Puck, Oberon's servant
 Peaseblossom, a fairy serving Titania
 Moth, a fairy serving Titania
 Cobweb, a fairy serving Titania
 Mustardseed, a fairy serving Titania

The Rustics:
 Nick Bottom, a weaver
 Peter Quince, a carpenter
 Robin Starveling, a tailor
 Francis Flute, a bellows mender
 Snug, a joiner
 Tom Snout, a tinker

Story
Egeus wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. Hermia does not want to marry him. She loves another man named Lysander. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away. Demetrius follows them. Helena, Hermia's best friend, is in love with Demetrius. She follows him. All four become lost in the woods near Athens.
 
Meanwhile, Oberon and Titania are having an argument. Oberon decides to teach Titania a lesson. He puts a love potion into her eyes while she is asleep. This potion will make her fall in love with the first thing she sees when she wakes.  

Oberon finds Helena and Demetrius. He tells Puck to give Demetrius some of the love potion so that he will love Helena. Puck makes a mistake and puts the potion in Lysander's eyes. When Lysander wakes up, he loves Helena instead of his real sweetheart Hermia. 

The workmen are practicing a play in the woods for the upcoming marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. Puck plays a trick on Nick Bottom by giving him a donkey head. The other actors run away, so Bottom goes to sleep. He is sleeping near Titania. After Oberon puts love potion in her eyes, she wakes up and falls in love with him.

Oberon realises everything is all mixed up. He gives some of the love potion to Demetrius. Now Demetrius and Lysander both love Helena. Sad and confused, all the lovers fall asleep. At last, Puck rights all the wrongs. He makes Lysander love Hermia again, and makes Demetrius love Helena. Everyone is happy.

The workmen perform their play for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Lysander and Hermia also get married, and so do Demetrius and Helena. Titania once again loves Oberon, not the donkey-headed Nick Bottom. They are happy with each other again. The fairies use their magic to bless all the lovers.

References

Other websites 

 David Strathairn Online: A Midsummer Night's Dream
 MIT html version .
 First Folio Facsimile  – HTML diplomatic transcription of 1623 text.
 Midsummer Night's Dream – plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg.
 The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 1908 publication compiled by Frank Sidgwick, from Project Gutenberg.

Plays by William Shakespeare
1590s plays