A Midsummer Night's Dream
First published AD 1600, written in English
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare between the years 1594 to 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans. The fairies themselves are also in conflict, as the King and Queen of Fairies argue over an Indian changeling boy. A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays.
Your reading
Where it is set
What it draws on
- The Birds
Aristophanes, 413 BC
Some scholars see Aristophanes' Birds behind Shakespeare's wood near Athens: in both a sleeping queen is woken by a singing creature with an animal's head, Titania by Bottom, Procne by the Hoopoe.
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