A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakepeare's plays.  It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the enchantment begins.

Simple and engaging on the surface, it is none the less a highly original and sophisticated work, remarkable for both its literary and its theatrical mastery. It is one of the very few of Shakespeare's plays which do not draw on narrative sources, which suggests that it reflects his deepest imaginative concerns to an unusual degree.

In his introduction Peter Holland pays particular attention to dreams and dreamers, and to Shakespeare's construction of a world of night and shadows. Both here and in his commentary he explores the play's extensive performance history to illustrate the wide range of interpretations of which it is capable.

Find the eBook on VitalSource.

Features

• A highly original and sophisticated work, remarkable for both its literary and its theatrical mastery.
• One of the very few of Shakespeare's plays which do not draw on narrative sources.

New to this Edition

• Includes an introduction that looks at dreams and dreamers, tracing the materials out of which Shakespeare constructs his world of night and shadows.

ABOUT THE SERIES

For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

PREFACE
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
INTRODUCTION
Dreams
Dreams and Dreaming
Renaissance Dreams
Dramatic Dreams
Fairies
Robin
Theseus and Hippolyta
The Lovers
Bottom
'Pyramus and Thisbe'
Shapes
Date
The Text
EDITORIAL PROCEDURES
ABBREVIATIONS AND REFERENCES
THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY
APPENDIX: SHAKESPEARE'S REVISIONS OF ACT 5
INDEX

William Shakespeare

Peter Holland is Wilson University Lecturer in Drama at the Faculty of English, Cambridge University. He is also a drama reviewer for BBC radio and the TLS, a Syndic of Cambridge University Press, and a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company; he has published widely on theatre generally and Shakespeare in particular.

`The commentary is admirably lucid and undogmatic on textual variants ... The introduction is of the kind that ponders and explores. Holland's method is to take each aspect or element of the play and consider it in the light of earlier traditions ... his critical position emerges unobtrusively but persuasively from the attested facts.' - M.M. Mahoud, YES, 27, 1996