What is the early stage of A Midsummer Night's Dream?
Early performances. In its original performances, A Midsummer Night's Dream was presented in daylight on the simple thrust stage of an Elizabethan playhouse, where perhaps the balcony at the rear of the stage provided Titania with her bower.
When was A Midsummer Night’s Dream written?
Probably written between 1594 and 1596, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. It is set across two worlds – the court of Athens and a mystical forest that lies beyond the city’s walls.
What episode of House of mouse is A Midsummer Night's Dream?
An abbreviated version of A Midsummer Night's Dream was made into an animated short (with the same title) by Walt Disney Television Animation in 1999 as part of the Mouse Tales series. It was featured in a 2002 episode of Disney's House of Mouse ("House of Scrooge", Season 3, Episode 34).
How long does midsummer night's dream last?
Examination Questions on A Midsummer Night's Dream Question: How long does the action last in A Midsummer Night's Dream? Answer: Four days, but only one night. It begins April 29th and ends May 1st.
How many pages is a midsummer night's dream play?
192Product DetailsISBN-13:9781586638481Pages:192Sales rank:7,093Product dimensions:5.20(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.50(d)Age Range:12 - 15 Years3 more rows
How long is a midsummer night's dream play at the Globe?
OUR THANKS TO DEUTSCHE BANK. Deutsche Bank has supported an annual Playing Shakespeare production in the Globe Theatre since 2007. The 90-minute production, created especially for a schools audience, is complemented with free workshops and online activities.
How many acts are in A Midsummer night's dream?
five actsA Midsummer Night's Dream, comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1595–96 and published in 1600 in a quarto edition from the author's manuscript, in which there are some minor inconsistencies.
Is a midsummer night's dream a play or a book?
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596.
How many pages is Macbeth?
160 pagesA:160 pages....Macbeth (English, Paperback, Shakespeare William)ImprintMaple PressPublication YearAugust
What is the plot of Midsummer Night's Dream?
A Midsummer Night's Dream Summary. Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen.
How many Shakespeare plays did he write?
Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays and over 150 short and long poems, many of which are considered to be the finest ever written in English.
Where was A Midsummer Night's Dream first performed?
January 1, 1605A Midsummer Night's Dream / First performance
What is the shortest scene in A Midsummer Night's dream?
Analysis. Barely 300 lines long, Act IV is the shortest and most transitional of A Midsummer Night's Dream's five acts.
Is a midsummer night's dream a comedy or a tragedy?
Based on the characteristics of each genre described above, A Midsummer Night's Dream is very clearly a comedy. There are three couples who each encounter trouble in their relationships but in the end are all happily married. Titania and Oberon are an older, already-married couple of fairies who are not getting along.
Why is it called a midsummer night's dream?
The title of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream has both literary and social significance. The title tells the audience right away that the play is going to deal in some way with a sort of dream on a summer night. To dream, a person must be asleep; however, most of the characters are awake throughout the play.
What is the play Absurda Comica based on?
Absurda Comica, oder Herr Peter Squentz by Andreas Gryphius which was probably written between 1648 and 1650 and was published in 1657 is evidently based on the comic episode of Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Why is Titania sentenced to love a human?
For failing to live in peace with Oberon and her kind, Titania is sentenced to fall in love with a human. And this human, unlike Oberon is a "horrid brute". Towards the end of the 19th century, Georg Brandes (1895–6) and Frederick S. Boas (1896) were the last major additions to A Midsummer Night's Dream criticism.
What was George Balanchine's first ballet?
Ballets. George Balanchine 's A Midsummer Night's Dream, his first original full-length ballet, was premiered by the New York City Ballet on 17 January 1962. It was chosen to open the NYCB's first season at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center in 1964.
What is the park based on?
The book was adapted into a film with the same name in 1957. Botho Strauß 's play The Park (1983) is based on characters and motifs from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Neil Gaiman 's comic series The Sandman uses the play in the 1990 issue A Midsummer Night's Dream.
How many times did Max Reinhardt play Midsummer Night's Dream?
A 2010 production of the play at The Doon School, India. Max Reinhardt staged A Midsummer Night's Dream thirteen times between 1905 and 1934, introducing a revolving set. After he fled Germany he devised a more spectacular outdoor version at the Hollywood Bowl in September 1934.
How many times has Shakespeare in the Arb been performed?
Shakespeare in the Arb has produced A Midsummer Night's Dream three times. These performances take place in a 123-acre (50 ha) natural setting, with lush woods, a flowing river, and steep hills. The performance takes place in several places, with actors and audience moving together to each setting.
What was the Puritan interregnum?
During the years of the Puritan Interregnum when the theatres were closed (1642–1660), the comic subplot of Bottom and his compatriots was performed as a droll. Drolls were comical playlets, often adapted from the subplots of Shakespearean and other plays, that could be attached to the acts of acrobats and jugglers and other allowed performances, thus circumventing the ban against drama. When the theatres re-opened in 1660, A Midsummer Night's Dream was acted in adapted form, like many other Shakespearean plays. Samuel Pepys saw it on 29 September 1662 and thought it " the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw ... "
What is the first folio of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream?
The version published in the First Folio of 1623 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 its multilayered examination of love and its vagaries, has long been one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays.
What is all at sixes and sevens?
All is at sixes and sevens. In the same woods a group of artisans are rehearsing an entertainment 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.
Where do Hermia and Lysander go?
Meanwhile, two lovers, Hermia and Lysander, seek refuge in the forest near Athens when Hermia’s father demands that she marry Demetrius. Hoping to win Demetrius’s favour, Helena tells him their whereabouts and follows him to the forest, where he goes in search of Hermia.
When was Midsummer Night's Dream written?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1595–96 and published in 1600 in a quarto edition from the author’s manuscript, in which there are some minor inconsistencies. The version published in the First Folio of 1623 was taken from a second quarto edition, with some reference to a promptbook.
Who played Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream?
Puck and Hermia, as portrayed by Mickey Rooney (left) and Olivia de Havilland, in the film A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1935.
Who reads "I know a bank" in Midsummer Night's Dream?
John Gielgud reading “I know a bank” ( A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, scene 1), about 1930. "Great Shakespeareans," Pearl GEMM 9465. Theseus, duke of Athens, has conquered Hippolyta, the Amazon queen, and is about to wed her. Meanwhile, two lovers, Hermia and Lysander, seek refuge in the forest near Athens when Hermia’s father demands ...
What are the elements of Shakespeare's fantasy?
Elements of Shakespeare’s fantasy are inspired by numerous sources. Theseus and Hippolyta are characters found in Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans and Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale. In Tudor culture fairies and sprites were less benevolent than vaguely menacing, which Shakespeare hints at in the play.
What is the theme of Midsummer Night's Dream?
It is set across two worlds – the court of Athens and a mystical forest that lies beyond the city’s walls. The play is a comedy and explores themes of the irrationality of love, desire, friendship, possession, ...
What happened to Nick Bottom in Titania?
One of the actors, Nick Bottom, undergoes a shocking transformation, and the effect on Titania is anything but expected. Meanwhile, the young lovers are made to suffer the pain of betrayal, but they learn the transformational power of magic and love. In the end all that was brought to confusion is set right again.
Where did the name "Oberon" come from?
The name ‘Oberon’ appears in a medieval French poem, while the name ‘Titania’ and the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe are taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Who plays Snug in Athens?
The actors are earnest if not very skilful, and they, too, make plans to rendezvous in the same wood. Rachel Hannah Clarke as Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2019.
How many songs are there in Shakespeare's play?
Fewer than 600 lines from Shakespeare's original remained but there were an additional 28 songs, some from other plays by Shakespeare and some from other poets, such as Dryden.
When was Oberon and Puck reclaimed?
In 1914 Harley Granville-Barker reclaimed the play for a Shakespearean-style stage. The fast, clear action was played out an apron stage with only two simple sets and the dextrous use of lighting and curtains to vary location. Oberon and Puck were once again played by male actors.
What is the Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom?
The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom was the title of a comic piece taken out from Shakespeare's play and included in Francis Kirkman's The Wits in 1673, 'sundry times Acted In Publique and Private' . The play as a whole did not please the taste of the Restoration theatregoers.
Where was Midsummer Night's Dream presented?
In its original performances, A Midsummer Night's Dream was presented in daylight on the simple thrust stage of an Elizabethan playhouse, where perhaps the balcony at the rear of the stage provided Titania with her bower.
When was the ballet set to Mendelssohn's music?
Likewise, Frederick Ashton's ballet, set to Mendelssohn's music, premiered at Covent Garden in 1964 and has been a popular choice in the ballet repertoire since then. You are in: About Shakespeare. Also in this section. Also in this section. Famous quotes.
Who replaced Mendelssohn in the opera Titania?
Cecil Sharp' s arrangement of traditional English folk music replaced Mendelssohn. However, in order to please the public, traditional approaches to the play continued to be staged. For example, Tyrone Guthrie's Old Vic production (1937) in which Vivien Leigh's ethereal Titania was attended by 22 balletic fairies.
Who played bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream?
A Midsummer Night's Dream on film. 1935: Max Reinhardt's film with James Cagney as Bottom incorporated long balletic sequences similar to those of the nineteenth and early twentieth-century stage productions. Reinhardt himself had staged the play many times between 1903 and 1939.
What is the most important source of inspiration for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?
Shakespeare took inspiration for this play from a rich and varied range of materials. The most significant source is Ovid's Metamorphoses. Shakespeare would have read this long poem in its original Latin while a grammar school boy in Stratford-upon-Avon. Arthur Golding's English translation was published in 1567. This text contained the stories of Daphne and Apollo, Cupid's golden and leaden arrows, the battle of the Centaurs and, most importantly, Pyramus and Thisbe. Ovid's tale of the lovers was a popular subject, having already been treated by Chaucer in his Legend of Good Women, as well as by contemporaries of Shakespeare. The young lovers in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet face the same problems as Pyramus and Thisbe and of course are treated tragically not comically.
What is the name of the Fairy Queen in Shakespeare's play?
Shakespeare takes Titania, the name of his Fairy Queen, from Ovid's Metamorphoses where it means Titan's daughter and is used to refer to various divinities, such as the huntress and moon goddess, Diana, and Circe, the transformer of men into swine.
What powers does Bottom have in his dream?
The dream surpasses Bottom's powers of eye, ear, hand, tongue and heart to apprehend or express , just as Paul acknowledged the gifts of God to be beyond the eye, ear and heart of man.
When was Midsummer Night's Dream published?
A Midsummer Night's Dream was first published in 1600 . According to the title page, it had 'been sundry times publicly acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlain his Servants'.
Who wrote Midas?
Lyly also wrote Midas, printed in the same year, in which Midas's head is changed into that of an ass. Midas's transformation is one of the metamorphoses described by Ovid. Such a change also occurs in Apuleius's The Golden Ass, written in Latin in the second century and translated into English in 1566 by William Adlington.
Who holds captive two noble prisoners who both fall in love with the same girl and escape to a wood?
In Chaucer's tale, Theseus holds captive two noble prisoners who both fall in love with the same girl and escape to a wood where the inevitable quarrels and conflicts ensue.
Who wrote the poem The Faerie Queene?
The most famous literary version of such a tribute was Edmund Spenser' s long allegorical poem The Faerie Queene (1596). Chaucer's Merchant's Tale has the fairy King and Queen (here named Pluto and Proserpina) arguing over a mismatched pair of mortal lovers.
What are the options for Hermia and Lysander?
The couple, Lysander and Hermia plead their case but Theseus lays three options out for Hermia: marry Demetrius as her father wishes; forfeit lover altogether by becoming a nun; or die (according to Athenian law that sentences a disobedient daughter to death).
What does Helena believe about Lysander?
Helena believes she’ s the butt of some sick joke and Hermia can’t believe Lysander’s change of heart. They all bicker bitterly. At Oberon’s orders, Puck leads the Athenian youths out of the forest and applies an antidote to Lysander so his love to Hermia returns. Now all is well: there are two happily in love couples.
Why does Helena decide to double cross Hermia?
Helena decides to double-cross Hermia by sharing this intel with Demetrius, in the hope that he like her more.
Why does Hermia insist on sleeping at a distance?
In spite of Lysander’s pestering, Hermia insists that her lover sleep at a distance to preserve her modesty. But Puck misunderstands.
Why did Theseus and Hippolyta rise early?
In his festive mood (it’s his wedding day after all), Theseus deduces that the youngsters must have risen early to observe the rite of May and meet his hunting party that morning.
What does Puck do to Bottom?
Amused by their incompetence, Puck transforms Bottom’s head into an ass which causes the actors to flee in fear. Titania, who has had the love juice squeezed on her eyes, wakes up, falls in love with Bottom and showers him with praise and gifts.
Where do the Mechanicals gather to rehearse Pyramus and Thisbe?
At this point, the Mechanicals gather to rehearse Pyramus and Thisbe in the forest (close to Titania’s bower in fact). Puck watches, amused at their nonsensical play. In case the ladies are too shocked by Pyramus’s death and too frightened by the lion, they intend to write a disclaimer into the prologue: the play isn’t real and nobody has really died. In place of props, they cast Starveling as Moonshine and Snout as the Wall through which the lovers talk. And Bottom is most inept of all: he forgets his lines, uses malapropisms, and turns the whole rehearsal haywire.
Overview
Themes and motifs
In Ancient Greece, long before the creation of the Christian celebrations of St. John's Day, the summer solstice was marked by Adonia, a festival to mourn the death of Adonis, the devoted mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Aphrodite took the orphaned infant Adonis to the underworld to be raised by Persephone. He grew to be a beautiful young man, a…
Characters
• Theseus—Duke of Athens
• Hippolyta—Queen of the Amazons
• Egeus—father of Hermia
• Hermia—daughter of Egeus, in love with Lysander
Plot
The play consists of five interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, which are set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.
The play opens with Theseus and Hyppolyta who were four days away from thei…
Sources
It is unknown exactly when A Midsummer Night's Dream was written or first performed, but on the basis of topical references and an allusion to Edmund Spenser's Epithalamion, it is usually dated 1595 or early 1596. Some have theorised that the play might have been written for an aristocratic wedding (for example that of Elizabeth Carey, Lady Berkeley), while others suggest that it w…
Date and text
The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers' Company on 8 October 1600 by the bookseller Thomas Fisher, who published the first quarto edition later that year. A second quarto was printed in 1619 by William Jaggard, as part of his so-called False Folio. The play next appeared in print in the First Folio of 1623. The title page of Q1 states that the play was "sundry times publickely act…
Criticism and interpretation
Dorothea Kehler has attempted to trace the criticism of the work through the centuries. The earliest such piece of criticism that she found was a 1662 entry in the diary of Samuel Pepys. He found the play to be "the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life". He did, however, admit that it had "some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my pleasure".
Performance history
During the years of the Puritan Interregnum when the theatres were closed (1642–1660), the comic subplot of Bottom and his compatriots was performed as a droll. Drolls were comical playlets, often adapted from the subplots of Shakespearean and other plays, that could be attached to the acts of acrobats and jugglers and other allowed performances, thus circumventing the ban agai…