SparkNotes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act I, scene ii A Midsummer Night’s Dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare Act II, scene i Summary In another part of Athens, far from Theseus’s palace, a group of common laborers meets at the house of Peter Quince to rehearse a play that the men hope to perform for the grand celebration preceding the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Quince, a carpenter, tries to conduct the meeting, but the talkative weaver Nick Bottom continually interrupts him with advice and direction. Quince tells the group what play they are to perform: The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, which tells the story of two lovers, separated by their parents’ feud, who speak to each other at night through a hole in a wall. In the play, a lion surprises Thisbe one night and tatters her mantle before she escapes. When Pyramus finds the shredded garment, he assumes that the lion has killed Thisbe; stricken with grief, he commits suicide. When Thisbe finds Pyramus’s bloody corpse, she too commits suicide.

Quince assigns their parts: Bottom is to play Pyramus; Francis Flute, Thisbe; Robin Starveling, Thisbe’s mother; Tom Snout, Pyramus’s father; Quince himself, Thisbe’s father; and Snug, the lion. As Quince doles out the parts, Bottom often interrupts, announcing that he should be the one to play the assigned part. He says that his ability to speak in a woman’s voice would make him a wonderful Thisbe and that his ability to roar would make him a wonderful lion. Quince eventually convinces him that Pyramus is the part for him, by virtue of the fact that Pyramus is supposed to be very handsome. Snug worries that he will be unable to learn the lion’s part, but Quince reassures him that it will be very easy to learn, since the lion speaks no words and only growls and roars. This worries the craftsmen, who reason that if the lion frightens any of the noble ladies in the audience, they will all be executed; since they are only common laborers, they do not want to risk upsetting powerful people.

Bottom says that he could roar as sweetly as a nightingale so as not to frighten anyone, but Quince again convinces him that he can only play Pyramus. The group disperses, agreeing to meet in the woods the following night to rehearse their play. Analysis The most important motif in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and one of the most important literary techniques Shakespeare uses throughout the play, is that of contrast. The three main groups of characters are all vastly different from one another, and the styles, moods, and structures of their respective subplots also differ. It is by incorporating these contrasting realms into a single story that Shakespeare creates the play’s dreamlike atmosphere. Almost diametrically opposite the beautiful, serious, and love-struck young nobles are the clumsy, ridiculous, and deeply confused craftsmen, around whom many of the play’s most comical scenes are centered. Where the young lovers are graceful and well spoken—almost comically well suited to their roles as melodramatically passionate youths—the craftsmen often fumble their words and could not be less well suited for acting.

This disjunction reveals itself as it becomes readily apparent that the craftsmen have no idea how to put on a dramatic production: their speeches are full of impossible ideas and mistakes (Bottom, for example, claims that he will roar “as gently / as any sucking dove”); their concerns about their parts are absurd (Flute does not want to play Thisbe because he is growing a beard); and their extended discussion about whether they will be executed if the lion’s roaring frightens the ladies further evidences the fact that their primary concern is with themselves, not their art (II.i.67–68). The fact that the workmen have chosen to perform the Pyramus and Thisbe story, a Babylonian myth familiar to Shakespeare’s audiences from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, only heightens the comedy. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is highly dramatic, with suicides and tragically wasted love (themes that Shakespeare takes up in Romeo and Juliet as well). Badly suited to their task and inexperienced, although endlessly well meaning, the craftsmen are sympathetic figures even when the audience laughs at them—a fact made explicit in Act V, when Theseus makes fun of their play even as he honors their effort.

The contrast between the serious nature of the play and the bumbling foolishness of the craftsmen makes the endeavor all the more ridiculous. Further, the actors’ botched telling of the youthful love between Pyramus and Thisbe implicitly mocks the melodramatic love tangle of Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander. Who wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream? Can you provide some background about the author? | eNotes Who wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream? Can you provide some background about the author? booboosmoosh | High School Teacher | (Level 3) Educator Emeritus Posted on December 1, 2011 at 10:48 AM The play A Midsummer Night's Dream was written (around 1594 to 1596) by William Shakespeare, one of the world's greatest playwrights—if not the best! Born in 1564 and he died fifty-two years later just after the turn of the century. He attended school, finishing the eighth grade.

but William studied difficult subjects in school and was a seemingly bright young man, based upon what he would later accomplish: [William] would have studied primarily Latin rhetoric, logic, and literature. It was not until Shakespeare was about 21 or so that he began his dramatic career in London—something that would define him for the remainder of his life and for hundreds of years after his death. He took some stories that were old even at that time—like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, and breathed new life into them in a way only the Bard could do. He also wrote historical plays, comedies, and even a play for his new King, James I, called Macbeth, which praised one of James' ancestors. What seems most appealing about Shakespeare's plays is first the wonderful way he wrote. Hamlet itself is one of the most quoted of Shakespeare's plays, giving us "To be or not to be," "Unto thine own self be true," and "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," to name a few. The other appealing aspect of Shakespeare's work is that he was able to capture a common sense of the human condition so that even today, his heroes and villains still speak to a modern audience.

Shakespeare's work has permeated every corner of society. The Taming of the Shrew was put to music in Kiss Me Kate by Cole Porter in the 1940s. Sesame Street , the PBS program for children, has a famous "spoof" of Hamlet's "To be or not to be," performed by Patrick Stewart (a renowned Shakespearean actor). Whereas Hamlet struggles as to whether or not to live, the "Sesame" version studies what is a "B" and what is not, in the segment called "B or not a B." Disney movies have been influenced by Shakespeare. For instance, The Lion King has been closely compared to Hamlet; Beauty and the Beast includes a quote straight from Macbeth: "screw your courage to the sticking place"—a line Gaston sings as he pursues the beast with the villagers. Could the Bard ever have imagined he would still be puzzling critics and audiences today with his works? Could he have visualized that modern audiences still laugh uproariously at A Midsummer Night's Dream when performed live on stage? (I have seen this!) Shakespeare began as an actor, playing the Ghost in Hamlet.

However, it was with the pen that he was most gifted. It is assumed that the young Shakespeare left school around fifteen years of age. He may have worked for his father to help his sire through financial difficulties. In his lifetime, William Shakespeare performed for Queen Elizabeth I, and later for her heir to the throne, James I (formerly James VI of Scotland and Elizabeth's cousin). In this capacity, Shakespeare was a member of the Chamberlain's Men (for the Queen) and the King's Men (for James). Shakespeare's son died when he was eleven, but his daughter Susanna survived and married. She was heir to Shakespeare's relatively vast holdings upon her father's death. Shakespeare's last play was Henry VIII. It was not until his death that friends of the dramatist collected his plays and printed them in the First Folio. Not only was he a popular playwright, but he was admired by many of his peers. Sources: About A Midsummer Night's Dream About A Midsummer Night's Dream Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List Introduction A Midsummer Night's Dream was written in a highly creative period in Shakespeare's career, when he was moving away from the shallow plots that characterized his earlier drama and discovering his more mature style.

Most critics believe the play was written for and performed at an aristocratic wedding, with Queen Elizabeth I in attendance. Scholars estimate the play was written in 1595 or 1596 (when Shakespeare was 31 or 32 years old), at approximately the same time as Romeo and Juliet and Richard II. Obvious plot links exist between A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, and critics disagree about which play was written first. Not only do both dramas emphasize the conflict between love and social convention, but the plot of "Pyramus and Thisbe," the play-within-the-play of A Midsummer Night's Dream, parallels that of Romeo and Juliet. Critics have wondered if Romeo and Juliet is a serious reinterpretation of the other play, or just the opposite: Perhaps Shakespeare is mocking his tragic love story through the burlesque of "Pyramus and Thisbe." Sources and Allusions Unlike most of Shakespeare's dramas, A Midsummer Night's Dream does not have a single written source. The story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" was originally presented in Ovid's The Metamorphosis, making it one of many classical and folkloric allusions in the play.

Other allusions include Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding, which is described in Chaucer's "Knight's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales, while the theme of a daughter who wants to marry the man of her choice despite her father's opposition was common in Roman comedy. The fairies that dance and frolic throughout this play were most likely derived from English folk tradition. On the one hand, these creatures have a sinister side — Puck, for example, is also known as Robin Goodfellow, a common name for the devil — but they can also be viewed as fun-loving nature spirits, aligned with a benevolent Mother Nature. The interaction of this eclectic array of characters — from the classically Greek royalty such as Theseus (derived from Plutarch's tale of "Theseus" in his Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans) to more traditionally Celtic fairies such as Puck — emphasizes Shakespeare's facility in using elements of the old to create something completely new.

Performance History The first Quarto edition of the play, printed in 1600, announces that it was "sundry times publickely acted, by the Right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants." Indeed, this drama has seen "sundry" performances over the past 400 years. Its spectacle and its emphasis on dance and magic and song have led it to be interpreted and performed in a variety of ways. For example, numerous composers have been inspired by Shakespeare's Dream. In 1692, Purcell wrote an operatic version, The Fairy Queen, although it contains little of Shakespeare's original story line. In 1826, Mendelsohn composed an overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is still popular. The play has also seen many famous, and often infamous, interpretations. For example, the 1900 Beerbohm Tree production had live rabbits hopping around the stage, while Peter Brook's 1970 production was presented on a bare stage that looked like a big white box. Most modern productions of the play, including the 1999 film, emphasize its erotic, savage undertones.

Structure of the Play Showing his usual dexterity in creating coherent dramatic frameworks, Shakespeare here interweaves four separate plots and four groups of characters. Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons and Theseus' fiancée, are the first characters introduced. Theseus is a voice of law and reason in the play, as shown by Egeus' entrance into the drama: Egeus needs Theseus to adjudicate a dispute he is having with his daughter, Hermia. The second plot features Hermia and her three friends, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander. These young lovers stand on the boundaries of the law; like many adolescents, Lysander and Hermia rebel against authority, in this case, by refusing to accept Theseus' laws and, instead, planning to escape from Athenian tyranny. Although the lovers have one foot in the conventional world of Athens, the play forces them to confront their own irrational and erotic sides as they move temporarily into the forest outside of Athens. By the end of the play, though, they return to the safety of Athens, perhaps still remembering some of the poetry and chaos of their night in the forest.

This irrational, magical world is the realm of the play's third group of characters: the fairies. Ruled by Titania and Oberon, the enchanted inhabitants of the forest celebrate the erotic, the poetic, and the beautiful. While this world provides an enticing sojourn for the lovers, it is also dangerous. All of the traditional boundaries break down when the lovers are lost in the woods. Finally, the adventures of Quince, Bottom, and the other amateur actors compose the play's fourth plot layer. Shakespeare dexterously weaves these four worlds together, by having characters wandering in and out of each other's world, by creating echoes and parallels among the different groups. For example, the themes of love and transformation reverberate through all levels of the play, creating coherence and complexity. Coherence is also produced by the play's emphasis on time. The action is associated with two traditional festivals — Midsummer Eve and May Day — both allied with magic, mayhem, and merriment. To emphasize further the connections between the different groups, many modern directors of the play cast the same actor for the roles of Theseus and Oberon, and for those of Hippolyta and Titania.

Theme While the play rejoices in the magical power of love to transform our lives, it also reminds us of love's excesses and foolishness. More ominously, it tells of the violence often perpetrated in the name of lust: Mythological references to the tales of Philomela and Perogina, for example, remind us that desire results not only in happy, consensual union, but also in rape. In addition to love's combat with violence, the play shows passion's conflict with reason. For example, Egeus' rigid, patriarchal view of the world clashes with his daughter's notion of love and freedom. Another important theme is the duality between fantasy and reality. Indeed, the play highlights the imagination and its inventions: dreams, illusions, and poetry. One of the central quotes in the play is Theseus' statement that lovers, madmen, and poets share the same propensity to fantasize (V.1, 7-8). Shakespeare is concerned with the relationship between imagination and reality and with the way our emotions alter our perceptions.

Early in the play, for example, Egeus accuses Lysander of bewitching Hermia with love charms and intriguing songs (I.1, 27-32), but the perceptive reader knows this is simply Egeus creating a fantastic excuse to justify his cruel treatment of his daughter. Similarly, Helena recognizes love's blindness and fickleness when she argues that strong emotions such as love can make the vile beautiful (I.1, 232-236) — our perceptions are too often skewed by capricious emotion. Besides weaving together various themes, the play is also intriguing as a spectacle of dance, music, and costume. Numerous critics have noted the important role of dance in this drama, suggesting that the rhythm of the play's poetry and the movement of the characters in and out of scenes have an underlying dance rhythm. The Elizabethan Theater Attending the theater in Shakespeare's time was quite unlike attending a professional performance today. First, the theaters were of two distinct kinds: public and private. The government closely regulated both, but particularly the public theaters. Public theaters such as the one in which Shakespeare made his livelihood were fairly large open-air structures, able to hold about 3,000 people.

In order to compete with rival theaters, as well as the popular pastimes of bullbaiting and bearbaiting, acting troupes changed their show bills often, generally daily. They introduced new plays regularly, helping partially explain why about 2,000 plays were written by more than 250 dramatists between 1590 and the closing of the theaters in 1642. Public performances generally started in the mid-afternoon so spectators could return home by nightfall. Because of weather, plague, Puritan opposition, and religious observances, theaters often advertised on a day-to-day basis (unlike today when we know in advance the dates a show will run). One of the most memorable advertising techniques troupes employed involved running a specific flag atop the theater to signal a performance that day (a black flag for a tragedy, a red flag for a history, and white flag for a comedy). Scholars estimate that during the first part of the seventeenth century, performances in public theaters took place about 214 days (about 7 months) each year.

Although we commonly associate elaborate lighting and scenery with producing plays, in the public playhouses of Elizabethan England, the only lighting came from natural sources. All action took place in front of a general three-tiered façade, eliminating the need for elaborate sets. Public theaters varied in shape (circular, octagonal, square), yet their purpose was the same: to surround a playing area in such a way as to accommodate a large number of paying spectators. Most theaters had tree-roofed galleries for spectators, one above the other, surrounding the yard. Each theater was also made up of three distinct seating areas, each increasingly more expensive: the pit (standing room only, used primarily by the lower classes), the public gallery (bench seats for the middle classes), and the box seats (appropriate for the Puritan aristocracy). The private theaters of Shakespeare's day offered a definite alternative to the more common public playhouse. These venues were open to the public, but special considerations made it unusual for commoners to attend. First, the private playhouses accommodated only about 300 spectators. In addition, they provided actual seats for patrons, helping to justify a considerably higher admission than the public theaters.

Unlike the open-air theaters, private theaters were roofed and lit by candles, allowing for evening performances (a time when most commoners needed to be doing chores around their own homes). During performances, too, the private theaters would often separate the acts with musical interludes rather than performing the entire play without any intermissions, as they did in the public theaters. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare in quarto A Midsummer Night's Dream Creation of the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream was probably created in 1595 or 1596. The play cannot be earlier than the baptismal feast for Prince Henry, eldest son of James VI of Scotland, in 1594. An account of the celebrations, A True Repertorie, was entered on the Stationers’ Register the same year and became one of Shakespeare’s sources. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is mentioned by Francis Meres in Palladis Tamia, published in 1598, and must have been performed by then. It is usually dated to the same period in the mid-1590s as Shakespeare’s Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, and Loves’s Labour’s Lost, all of which are similar in style.

Early performances The title-page of the first quarto of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, published 1600, states that the play ‘hath been sundry times publickley acted’ by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men . Its first public performances were probably at the Theatre . However, it is generally agreed that the play was created to celebrate a wedding in a noble household. There are two such occasions appropriate for this first performance. One is the wedding in 1595 of Elizabeth Vere, Lord Burghley’s granddaughter, to William Earl of Derby at Greenwich Palace. The other, considered more likely, is the wedding in 1596 of Elizabeth Carey to Thomas, son of Lord Berkeley at the Blackfriars house of the bride’s father, Sir George Carey. Elizabeth Carey was the granddaughter of Henry, Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. Lord Hunsdon was the patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Shakespeare’s company. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was probably performed at court on 1 January 1604. Publication in quarto and folio A Midsummer Night’s Dream appeared in four editions before 1642.

First quarto, 1600. Thought to have been printed from the final state (rather than a fair copy) of Shakespeare’s foul papers. Second quarto, dated 1600 on the title-page but published in 1619. Printed from the first quarto. First Folio, 1623. Printed from the second quarto, apparently annotated from a promptbook. Second Folio, 1632. Printed from the first folio. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was entered on the Stationers’ Register by Thomas Fisher on 8 October 1600. It was printed for him by Richard Bradock that same year. The second quarto appeared with the imprint ‘printed by Iames Roberts’ dated 1600. It was, in fact, one of a group of ten plays printed by William Jaggard for Thomas Pavier in 1619. These were apparently intended to form a collection of plays attributed to Shakespeare. The King’s Men may have protested against Pavier’s intentions, for the Lord Chamberlain subsequently wrote to the Stationers’ Company demanding that no more plays belonging to them should be printed except with their consent.

British Library copies of A Midsummer Night's Dream contains detailed bibliographic descriptions of all the quarto copies of the play. Shakespeare’s sources There are no specific sources for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but Shakespeare did draw on several works for various aspects of the play. Plutarch, translated by Sir Thomas North, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes (1579). Shakespeare took both Theseus and Hippolyta from this translation of Plutarch. Theseus, Duke of Athens, Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes, 1579. British Library, C.38.k.24, p.1 Larger image Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Knight’s Tale’ from the Canterbury Tales, in The Workes of Geffrey Chaucer (1561). Shakespeare drew on Chaucer for some of his language, as well as the characters of Theseus and Hippolyta. Ovid, translated by Arthur Golding, The .XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis (1567).

This includes the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, and was also a source for the hunting scene in act 4. The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeuxe (1534), translated by John Bourchier, Lord Berners. Shakespeare’s Oberon was influenced by this source. Apuleius, translated by William Adlington, The. XI. Bookes of the Golden Asse (1566). This provided Shakespeare with some aspects of Bottom’s transformation with an Ass’s head, and Titania’s infatuation with him. Reginald Scot, The Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584). The source for Shakespeare’s Puck, and some aspects of Bottom’s transformation. Robin Goodfellow, or Puck. Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584. British Library, C.123.c.10, p. 85. Larger image Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender (1579). Spenser’s work influenced Shakespeare’s language and his depiction of the friendly (rather than evil) fairies.

Seneca His Tenne Tragedies (1581), edited by Thomas Newton. Shakespeare used Seneca’s plays Medea and Hippolytus in particular for aspects of the Helena and Demetrius love-plot. Story of the play Note: the links below will take you to the page in the quarto where each act begins, according to standard modern editions. (The quartos themselves have no act divisions.) The quarto shown for each play is always the earliest in the Library's collection - unless it is a 'bad' quarto in which case it is the earliest 'good' quarto. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in Athens and the surrounding woods. ( Act 1 ) In Athens, Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, look forward to celebrating their marriage. Theseus decrees that Hermia must marry Demetrius, although she is in love with Lysander. Hermia and Lysander agree to run away together in secret. Helena loves Demetrius, although he is in love with Hermia. She learns of the plans of Hermia and Lysander and decides to tell Demetrius.

Bottom the weaver and his fellow craftsmen rehearse the play about Pyramus and Thisbe that they hope to present during the marriage celebrations. ( Act 2 ) In the woods outside Athens, night falls. The King and Queen of the Fairies have quarrelled. Oberon sends Puck for a love-potion, with which he can take revenge on Titania. He sees Helena unhappily pursuing Demetrius, and instructs Puck to use the love-potion on him. While Titania sleeps, Oberon uses the love-potion on her so that she will fall in love with the first creature she sees on waking. Hermia and Lysander are lost in the woods. Tired, they sleep and Puck uses the love-potion on Lysander by mistake. He awakes, sees Helena and instantly falls in love with her. John Gielgud as Oberon, 'I know a bank where the wild thyme blows', Listen A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act 3, Scene 2 . British Library Sound Archive, 1931 ( Act 4 ) Titania dallies with Bottom, still wearing his ass’s head. They fall asleep together.

Oberon uses the antidote to the love-potion on Titania. She awakes and is repelled by Bottom. Oberon and Titania are reconciled. Day breaks as Theseus and Hippolyta arrive with a hunting party. They discover and awake the sleeping pairs of lovers. Theseus decrees that Hermia will marry Lysander, and Helena will marry Demetrius. Bottom, restored by Puck to his natural appearance, awakes. He is convinced that his amorous adventures with Titania were a dream. ( Act 5 ) Back in Athens, the three couples, Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius have each been married. Bottom and his fellow craftsmen play the story of Pyramus and Thisbe before the newly-weds. The three couples leave to enjoy their wedding-nights. Oberon, Titania, and Puck come to bless the house and all its occupants.

Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture - Classic FM Schedule Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture Felix Mendelssohn wrote his A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture when he was only 17, but he didn't finish the job until 16 years later… Almost unbelievably, Felix Mendelssohn wrote this zipping overture when he was just 17 years old. The wunderkind was sure to include all sorts of special effects too - ones that are completely in keeping with Shakespeare's original play. So, you'll hear the scuttling feet of fairies as they scamper about the stage, and even the braying of poor Bottom, who is turned into an ass. Legend has it that Mendelssohn had to battle through a ferocious snow storm to even attend the overture's premiere in 1827. It was his first public appearance, and surely marked the dawning of a major new musical talent in Europe. Even if he wasn't 17 years old when he wrote it, it's a remarkably sophisticated work - broadly romantic in sound, it actually adheres to a more old-fashioned, classical structure.

Strangely, it wasn't until 16 years later in 1842 that Mendelssohn wrote the incidental music for a production of the play, by which time you'd expect him to have evolved his compositional style somewhat. However, it's perfectly common to hear an orchestral suite of not only the Overture, but several highlights from the incidental music too. Mendelssohn News The History of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream The History of Shakespeare's A Midsummer-Night's Dream From Shakespeare's Comedy of A Midsummer-Night's Dream. Ed. Katharine Lee Bates. Boston: Leach, Shewell, & Sanborn. When was A Midsummer-Night's Dream written? Three hundred years ago nobody cared, and so today nobody knows. It was printed in 1600. It was mentioned in 1598. Is there any way of tracing it farther back?

The Queen of Fairyland plumes herself with comical complacency on the cold, wet summer, followed by a poor harvest, which has befallen Attica (alias England) because of her tiny Majesty's domestic wrangle with "jealous Oberon." At this hint the scholars have ransacked Elizabethan literature, from almanac to sermon, in the effort to locate this calamitous season. The year 1595 fell under suspicion, 1597 was challenged, but the bulk of testimony points to 1594. Yet while it is quite possible that, in case the play was written and presented during an exceptionally stormy period, Shakespeare might have alluded to the bad weather, it by no means follows that poetical fogs and frosts within the theatre are proof of literal fogs and frosts without. If we knew from other sources that A Midsummer-Night's Dream was acted in 1594, it would be sound criticism � supposing, what some critics deny, that weather and description tally � to recognize in Titania's boast, protracted as it is, a reference to the times; but the reverse does not hold good.

It cannot be maintained that this much-disputed passage has established the date of the comedy. Neither can anything more solid than conjecture be raised upon the lines, � "The thrice-three Muses, mourning for the death Of Learnings late deceas'd in beggary." although there may well be in these saucily syllabled verses both a reminiscence of the alliterative Spenser's somewhat despondent poem, "The Teares of the Muses," 1591, and, with this, a haunting, not unkindly memory of poor, brilliant, unstable Robert Greene, "Master of Arts in both Universities," who had worked with Shakespeare, and envied Shakespeare, and had died a profligate's death in 1592. A Midsummer-Night's Dream has something to the effect of a bridal masque.

It is easy to see in imagination a stately Elizabethan hall thronged with applauding gentles, while the young poet, still in the dress of Lysander, receives with becoming modesty the thanks of a noble bridegroom, and bends his knee to the imperial smile of the "fair vestal throned by the west." Again the critics have recourse to the Elizabethan annals, and again the fruits of research are confusion and disappointment, although two weddings within the decade have excited especial interest. The Earl of Essex espoused the widow of Sir Philip Sidney in April, 1590. It was a private marriage which, when divulged, brought down upon the young husband the hot wrath of the queen. A private marriage, however, might admit of private festivities. Shakespeare was then a "poor player" of twenty-six, seeking a patron. There is, apparently, a loyal reference to Essex, who was three years Shakespeare's junior, in Henry V. (Prologue to Act V., lines 29-34), and it is probable that sooner or later the two men were personally acquainted.

If the play was acted on or near May Day, the plot becomes significant, while the title, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, usually understood, like Twelfth Night, as indicating the time when the comedy was first brought upon the stage, may have been added for a later public presentation in a London theatre. The other wedding about which much wistful curiosity has played is that of the Earl of Southampton and Elizabeth Vernon in 1598. This, too, was a secret marriage, and one peculiarly unwelcome to the queen. To the Earl of Southampton Shakespeare had dedicated, in formal terms, his Venus and Adonis in 1593, and, this time with words of strong affection, his Lucrece in 1594. Neither wedding date is satisfactory. How could Shakespeare write so well in 1590? How could he write so ill in 1598?

The likelihood is that we have in A Midsummer-Night's Dream a boyish comedy of clowns and fairies and bewildered lovers, hastily retouched and enlarged for some high occasion upon which the figures of Theseus and Hippolyta, and the exquisite flattery of the queen, had a direct bearing; but likelihood is not fact. We do not know. There was one Francis Meres living in London at the turn of the century, a scholar younger than Shakespeare by a year and destined for the pulpit and the ferule. He had artistic longings in him, however, and gave an unusual attention to contemporary authors, painters, and musicians of his own nation.

He counted Shakespeare the best dramatist, both in comedy and tragedy, of the English stage, and it is to him we owe the precious list of Shakesperean plays known in 1598: "for comedy, witnes his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love's Labors Lost, his Love Labour's Wonne, his Midsummers Night Dreame, and his Merchant of Venice; for tragedy, his Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet." The publishers of London were not far behind the critic in learning of these plays, and, before 1600 was over, eight of the twelve had been issued in sixpenny quartos. In October of that year, when Thomas Heyes obtained from the Master Wardens of the Stationers' Company a license to print The Merchant of Venice, � already printed, perhaps without authority, by the prominent and slippery stationer, James Roberts, � Thomas Fisher registered for A Midsummer-Night's Dream.

In the same year, 1600, but probably later, Roberts, without a license, printed the play more attractively and less correctly. Fisher's edition is known as the First Quarto (Q1), and Roberts' as the Second Quarto (Q2). The third original text, that of the First Folio (F), 1623, was taken from the Second Quarto slightly revised � apparently from a copy which had been used in Shakespeare's theatre, and into which stage directions had been somewhat minutely written. The Folio is the only one of these three texts which indicates the division into acts. It was left for later hands to mark out the scenes. The play, in one guise or another, has held the stage ever since it was first produced. It is suspected of being the comedy which brought the Bishop of Lincoln into disgrace in 1631. Scandal whispers that the prelate, with guests, had witnessed in his own house on a Sunday evening a play in which one of the characters wore an ass-head.

The unlucky actor was compelled by the growing power of the Puritans to sit for twelve consecutive hours "in the Porters Lodge at my Lords Bishopps House, with his feete in the stocks and attyred with his asse head, and a bottle of hay sett before him, and this subscription on his breast:� 'Good people, I have played the beast, And brought ill things to passe. I was a man, but thus have made My selfe a silly Asse.'" In 1661 was published a droll taken from A Midsummer-Night's Dream, and entitled The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom, the Weaver. It was evidently a popular performance, that held its own, even during the suppression of the theatres, when the strictest Puritanic vigilance could not entirely exclude such side-shows from the public fairs, nor banish their exhibition from the merry conclaves of London prentices. This droll was copied in Germany under the title of Herr Peter Squentz.

"And thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges." After the Restoration, A Midsummer-Night's Dream was revived at the King's Theatre, where it had the mischance, in September of 1662, to number among its spectators Mr. Pepys. This worthy promptly confided to his famous Diary that it was "the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life." In 1692 it was worked over into an opera called The Fairy Queen in which Shakespeare's creations are supplemented by fauns and nymphs, swans and dragons, three drunken poets, four savages, six monkeys, a Chinese man, a Chinese woman, and Hymen. The eighteenth century three times tapped A Midsummer-Night's Dream in Leveridge's Comick Masque of Pyramus and Thisbe, 1716; in Garrick's opera of The Fairies, 1755; and in Colman's afterpiece, A Fairy Tale, 1777. Our own century has contributed to Shakespeare's magic comedy appreciative study, Mendelssohn's music and, on the whole, successful performances.

It is true that until the elfin troops themselves "Come from the farthest steep of India" to join theatrical companies, the fancy of the audience must bear an active part in the representation. But why not? The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them." How to cite this article: Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Comedy of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. Katharine Lee Bates. Boston: Leach, Shewell, & Sanborn, 1895. Shakespeare Online. 20 Dec. 2009. (date when you accessed the information) < >. _____ A Midsummer Night's Dream A Midsummer Night's Dream or browse other Shmoopers' Questions In A Nutshell Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Girl loses boy when mischievous fairy sprinkles love "juice" on boy's eyelids, making him fall for another girl. Girl wins boy back (with the help of a little fairy magic). No, it's not the latest romantic comedy to hit theaters near you; it's a play that was dreamed up by William Shakespeare toward the end of the 16th century.

Like the modern-day romantic comedy genre it's helped to shape and influence, A Midsummer Night's Dream features young lovers who fall comically in and out of love in a ridiculously brief period of time (over the course of a single, enchanted midsummer night). A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595) was written around the same time Shakespeare whipped up his famous play about two "star-cross'd" lovers, Romeo and Juliet . In Dream, a group of craftsmen (the "Mechanicals") bumble their way through a ridiculous performance of Pyramus and Thisbe (a story taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses ). The Mechanicals' play is widely considered to be Shakespeare's light-hearted and silly mock-up of Romeo and Juliet. Over the years, there's been a lot of speculation about the occasion for which Shakespeare might have written the play. Did he write Dream to be performed at a nobleman's big, fancy wedding? Some scholars think so. This is a nice idea and it makes sense because plays were often commissioned for these kinds of fancy shindigs.

(In the play itself, a group of amateur actors puts together a performance to celebrate the marriage of the Duke Theseus and Hippolyta.) It's too bad there's no real evidence to support the idea. Still, it's fun to imagine that Shakespeare created the piece to help a couple of happy newlyweds "dream away the time" before their much-anticipated wedding night (1.1.8). Why Should I Care? … and after the teenagers chased each other around the woods for a night, they all lived happily ever after in perfect marital bliss. The End. Call us crazy, but does anyone out there wonder whether true happiness in this play exists? Happiness seems to arrive only with the help of magic. Let's examine: Peace between the four lovers is restored only because Demetrius remains drugged up on magic and infatuated with Helena. Bottom adores being loved by Titania so much (even with the whole donkey-transformation thing) that he delivers a monologue about it (and a famous one at that). Stormy Titania is happy as a clam (happier than we've ever seen her) with Bottom-turned-donkey in her bower.

We want to be satisfied with this play's happy ending, but enchantment gets in the way. So now we turn to you, Shmoopster. Help us out. What is true happiness, and is it real if it's induced by magical potions?

Question: Who wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?
Answer: William Shakespeare