MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, A

comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, produced in 159596 and published in 1600 in a quarto edition from the author's fair copy. The version published in the First Folio was taken from a second quarto edition, with some reference to a promptbook. One of the great, or middle, comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream, with a multilayered examination of love and its vagaries, has long been one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays. Theseus, duke of Athens, has conquered Hippolyta, the Amazon queen, and is about to wed her. Meanwhile, two lovers, Hermia and Lysander, hide in the woods when Hermia's father demands that she marry Demetrius. Hoping to win his favour, Helena tells Demetrius of their whereabouts, and the two go to the woods in search of the fugitives. The forest is also full of fairies who have come for the duke's wedding. After their king, Oberon, argues with his queen, Titania, he tells his servant Puck to drop magic juice into her eyes as she sleeps. The magic juice will make her love the first person she sees when she awakes. He also tells Puck to drop the juice into Demetrius' eyes, but Puck confuses Lysander with Demetrius and as a result Lysander falls in love with Helena. So does Demetrius, when Oberon tries to correct Puck's mistake. In the same woods a group of artisans are rehearsing a play for the duke's wedding. Ever playful, Puck gives one of the mechanicals, Nick Bottom, an ass's head; when Titania awakens, she falls in love with Bottom. After some general confusion and comic misunderstanding, Oberon's magic restores Titania and the four lovers to their original states. The duke invites the two couples to join him and Hippolyta in a triple wedding. The wedding celebration features Bottom's troupe in a comically inept performance of their play, The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe.