Midsummer Nights Dream

andlt;Bandgt;Each edition includes:andlt;/Bandgt; andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt; and#149; Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play andlt;BRandgt; and#149; Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play andlt;BRandgt; and#149; Scene-by-scene plot summaries andlt;BRandgt; and#149; A key to famous lines and phrases andlt;BRandgt; and#149; An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language andlt;BRandgt; and#149; An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play andlt;BRandgt; and#149; Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books andlt;BRandgt; Essay by Catherine Belsey andlt;BRandgt; The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs.

By far the first choice for educators, students, and general readers, Folger mass market editions have the largest market share (in units) for every Shakespeare play across all mass market, trade, and hardcover editions, some reaching as high as 49 percent. The numbers for individual titles speak for themselves.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare stages the workings of love. Theseus and Hippolyta, about to marry, are figures from mythology. In the woods outside Theseus's Athens, two young men and two young women sort themselves out into couples--but not before they form first one love triangle, and then another.
Also in the woods, the king and queen of fairyland, Oberon and Titania, battle over custody of an orphan boy; Oberon uses magic to make Titania fall in love with a weaver named Bottom, whose head is temporarily transformed into that of a donkey by a hobgoblin or "puck," Robin Goodfellow. Finally, Bottom and his companions ineptly stage the tragedy of "Pyramus and Thisbe."
The authoritative edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play's famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further reading
Essay by Catherine Belsey
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger Shakespeare Library offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Academic Programs at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, Chair of the Folger Institute, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare's Romances and of essays on Shakespeare's plays and on the editing of the plays.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at King's College and the Graduate School of the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He is the author of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare's plays and was Associate Editor of the annual Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England from 1980 to 1989.