A Midsummer Night's Dream: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:28, 21 January 2015

This article is about Shakespeare's play. For other uses, see A Midsummer Night's Dream (disambiguation).

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of William Shakespeare's plays, Shakespeare stages the workings of love. Theseus and Hippolyta, about to marry, are figures from mythology. In the woods outside Theseus' Athens, two young men and two young women sort themselves out into couples—but not before they form first one love triangle, and then another.

Also in the woods, the king and queen of fairyland, Oberon and Titania, battle over custody of an orphan boy; Oberon uses magic to make Titania fall in love with a weaver named Bottom, whose head is temporarily transformed into a donkey by a hobgoblin or "puck," Robin Goodfellow. Finally, Bottom and his companions ineptly stage the tragedy of "Pyramus and Thisbe."

Shakespeare probably wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s. The play was published as a quarto in 1600. The main plot has no obvious sources, but sources for Pyramus and Thisbe include Ovid's Metamorphoses. Shakespeare may also have drawn on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Thomas North's English translation of Plutarch's Lives.^[1]

Productions at the Folger

Helen Hayes Awards

Wins: "Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play" for Kate Eastwood Norris

Nominations: "Outstanding Costume Design, Resident Production" for Kate Turner-Walker, "Outstanding Supporting Actor, Resident Play" for Ralph Cosham, and "Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play" for Stephanie Burden

Early editions

First Folio

LUNA: First Folio: N1r - O3v

Hamnet: STC 22273 Fo. 1 no. 68

Second Folio

LUNA: Second Folio: N1r - O3v

Hamnet: STC 22274 Fo. 2 no. 07

First Quarto

LUNA: First Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22302

Second Quarto

LUNA: Second Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22303 Copy 1

The title page of A Midsummer Night's Dream printed in the 1600 First Quarto. STC 22302.
The Title page of A Midsummer Night's Dream printed in the 1623 First Folio. STC 22273 Fo. 1 no.68.

Modern editions

A Midsummer Night's Dream can be read online with Folger Digital Texts and purchased from Simon and Schuster. The play can also be purchased in Three Comedies, a collection that also includes The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night.

Hamnet link to Folger Edition: PR2753 .M6 2004 copy 2 v.25

In popular culture

Translations

Performance materials

Other media

Audio edition

A Midsummer Night's Dream Audio Edition from Simon & Schuster available on CD and as an audio download.

CAST
Puck	Louis Butelli
Oberon	Cody Nickell
Titania	Rachael Holmes
Helena	Karen Peakes
Hermia	Katie deBuys
Demetrius	Tim Getman
Bottom	Ian Merrill Peakes
Lysander	Andrew Schwartz
Peter Quince	Tom Story

Other parts were played by members of the cast.

Directed by Robert Richmond.

Original music composed by Anthony Cochrane.

In partnership with Simon & Schuster Audio.

Luminary app

The Folger Luminary Shakespeare App can be purchased on iTunes.

Notes

↑ Adapted from the Folger Library Shakespeare edition, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. © 1993 Folger Shakespeare Library.

[1] Adapted from the Folger Library Shakespeare edition, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. © 1993 Folger Shakespeare Library.

[1]

@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 :LUNA: [http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/62l0il/ Second Quarto]
 :Hamnet: [http://shakespeare.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=163931/ STC 22303 Copy 1]
+<gallery>
+File:STC 22302 title page.jpg|The title page of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' printed in the 1600 First Quarto. STC 22302.
+File:STC 22273 Fo. 1 no. 68 N1r.jpg|The Title page of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' printed in the 1623 First Folio. STC 22273 Fo. 1 no.68.
+</gallery>
 == Modern editions ==