A Midsummer Night's Dream

Shakespeare is the author of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. The drama takes place in Athens and revolves around the wedding of Hippolyta and Theseus. A subplot includes a quarrel between four lovers from Athens. Another subplot follows a troupe of six novice actors as they rehearse the play they will perform at the wedding. Both parties ended up in a woodland populated by manipulative fairies involved in their own personal drama.

The play is considered one of the most popular and often performed by Shakespeare. On the basis of topical connections - and a reference to Edmund Spenser's famous work Epithalamion - A Midsummer Night's Dream's releases year is often dated between 1595 and 1596.

Some have hypothesized that the play was written for a noble wedding (such as that of Lady Berkeley and Elizabeth Carey) while others have suggested that it was composed for the Queen herself to mark the festival day of St. John. However, there is no evidence to support any of these hypotheses.

Although A Midsummer Night's Dream is neither a translation nor a reworking of any older material, it seems it was inspired by works of similar tropes such as The Knight's Tale by Chaucer and Metamorphoses by Ovid.

Year of Release: 1595

Goodreads Score: 3.95/5