A Midsummer Night’s Dream (play)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (play), comedy by English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, written about 1595. For A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare departed from his usual practice of rewriting an old play or using a well-known story as his source. Instead, he assembled his materials from various sources and blended them into a harmonious whole. The play contains four groups of characters: Theseus of Athens and his bride Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons; the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania; two pairs of young lovers; and a company of Athenian working men headed by Nick Bottom, the weaver. The action centers on a magical spell cast by the mischievous fairy Puck and overseen by Oberon. The spell confuses the desires of the two sets of lovers and causes Titania to fall in love with Bottom, who has been turned into a monster with an ass's head. Oberon eventually releases the hapless victims from the spell, clearing up all mistakes. The play ends with a triple wedding as all three sets of lovers marry.

The play is set in “A Wood outside Athens” and the setting itself is an important character in the comedy. The wood is home to the magical Puck and other fairies, and it is there that reality can be suspended and imagination followed. The wood celebrates love and fancy. This setting is based on classical models, as are most of the play’s characters and the play's complicated intrigue with its deft solution. The homely realism of Bottom and his mates is in the tradition of early English comedy. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Shakespeare's most musical comedy, and it was probably written for performance at a courtly wedding.