A Midsummer Night's DreamMagic, love spells, and an enchanted wood provide the materials for one of Shakespeare’s most delightful comedies. When four young lovers, fleeing the Athenian law and their own mismatched rivalries, take to the forest of Athens, their lives become entangled with a feud between the King and Queen of the Fairies. Some Athenian tradesmen, rehearsing a play for the forthcoming wedding of Duke Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta, unintentionally add to the hilarity. The result is a marvelous mix-up of desire and enchantment, merriment and farce, all touched by Shakespeare’s inimitable vision of the intriguing relationship between art and life, dreams and the waking world. Each Edition Includes: • Comprehensive explanatory notes • Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship • Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English • Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories • An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography |
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Common terms and phrases
actors Athenian Athens audience Benedict Nightingale blessed Boyd changeling boy characters Cobweb comedy costume court created dance Demetrius Doran dote doth duke editors Egeus Elizabethan Enter Robin Exeunt Exit eyes fair fairies fantasy fear flower Folio forest gentle hath head heart Helena Hermia Hippolyta imagination Jan Kott Jonathan Bate juice ladies Lines lion look lord love's lovers Lysander Lysander's magic Midsummer Night's Dream modern moon Moonshine mortal Mustardseed never night Oberon Oberon and Titania Peaseblossom performance perhaps Peter Brook Peter Brook's Peter Quince Philostrate play play's production prologue Puck Pyramus and Thisbe PYRAMUS BOTTOM Quarto queen rehearse Robin Goodfellow Royal Shakespeare Company running scene sense sexual sleep Snout Snug stage Starveling Supple sweet theater theatrical thee Theseus Theseus and Hippolyta things THISBE FLUTE Thisbe's thou Tim Supple Titania Tragedy transformation wake wall wood