Midsummer Night's Dream, A (Penguin) (Shakespeare, Penguin) [Paperback]

William Shakespeare (Author), Stanley Wells (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Shakespeare, Penguin | Publication Date: December 17, 1981

Change and transformation are central to the action, themes and language of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In this lucid study Helen Hackett shows how the play participates in a widespread 1590s concern with mutability; often, as here, expressed through moon-imagery, and associated with representations of the ageing Virgin Queen. However, it is also very much a play about procreative change, set at one of the 'green hinges' of the year, to use Angela Carter's phrase. The happy ending is marked by multiple marriages; and yet, these marriages have been achieved through conflict and force. Comedy veers close to tragedy, and vice versa in the inset Pyramus and Thisbe performance, illustrating Shakespeare's sense of the innate indeterminacy of genres. It is also Shakespeare's most Spenserian play in its depiction of a supernaturally animated natural world, providing the grounds for the characterization of Shakespeare as a poet of nature which was to prove so influential for Milton and the Romantics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, produced in 1595-96 and published in 1600 in a quarto edition from the author's fair copy. It has long been the most popular of Shakespeare's comedies. Theseus, Duke of Athens, is about to wed Hippolyta, the Amazon queen. Meanwhile, two lovers, Hermia and Lysander, hide in the woods when Hermia's father demands that she marry Demetrius. Hoping to win his favor, 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 mischievous 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," Bottom, an ass's head; when Titania awakens, she falls in love with Bottom. Oberon's magic then 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. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (December 17, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140707026
• ISBN-13: 978-0140707021
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #881,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King's Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Limited Notes in a Good Edition, February 3, 2004

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richard_t "richard_t" (Overseas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midsummer Night's Dream, A (Penguin) (Shakespeare, Penguin) (Paperback)

As with all the plays in the Penguin series, the editors have made good choices where there are textual differences between Quarto and Folio, and there are good little essays on Shakespeare and his times. On the other hand, the text notes are limited and stuck at the end, where only a dedicated browser will find them.