- published: 29 Oct 2010
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A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play by William Shakespeare. Believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596, it portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of 6 amateur actors, who are manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.
The play features three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, and set simultaneously in the woodland, and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.
In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to follow her father Egeus's instructions to marry Demetrius, whom he has chosen for her. In response, Egeus quotes before Theseus an ancient Athenian law whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity worshiping the goddess Diana as a nun.
Video SparkNotes: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream summary
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" presented by Rice University Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture Op.21 by Masur, LGO (1997)
A vision...
For perhaps we may yet enjoy the freedom or clear waters.
We may yet see, and acknowledge, the true warmth of the sun,
Listen, and hear the sound of natures music,
And walk, barefoot, once more upon the surface of mother earth.
Strong...wild...and free.
A sense of security.
Truth.
The bosom of life, is that of animal and flower, and of woman and man.
Unity, harmony, and spirit.
Tears of happiness replace those of pain.
For all, and eternity,
Dream on...
Dream on, and breath...new life.
We fly...one the wings, of hope.
Where spiral thoughts enduring flow
Within all numerous images of the wistful mind.
And subtle tinted variations of colour become all so clear
Turns to vapour, and rises, become rain, all divinity falls
Then becomes spring, brook, river, the constant changes
Anew, thus freshly flows anew forever on,
Like the echo enhanced with a sound,
Like the song of a thousand voices
Raindrops shed manifest tears of joy
upon the lamenting petals of the evergreen
The tenacious entwining of branches,
Through the shade of the sallow wood
Sparkle verdant prismatic colourations in the absorbent sun
That sets to rise upon another refluent day
And to feel steadfast, the bosom of life
In the air that passes, is that of animal and flower
And that of woman and man
And every fruit and pleasure tastes
Is that of sweetness
"The pure," so pure essence of growth
Flourished upon fertile ground,
And to see the serenity of souls
In rural pastures that feed the living land,
Fester radiant smiles of harmonious spirits.
A compassionate sky opens to breath countless existence
"All emotions grasp swiftly"
Above and below the seasons pass by
All windsome delusions flicker, distant, and so far
Rustling leaves drift, where shallows streams linger,
Pathed with cobble stones...so smooth...
So smooth from the trickling flow of cleanliness.
I hear a soft breeze passing now.
The sounds mingles with that of perpetual beauty
But silently fades within the depths