ABSTRACT

ENTERED IN THE STATIONERS' Register on 8 October, 16oo, A Midsummer Night's Dream was first printed for Thomas Fisher in that year (Q1). A second Quarto, printed in 1619 but dated 16oo, was taken from Qr. Fr was printed from a copy of Q2. The date of composition has been much disputed. The play was certainly written before September 1598, for it is mentioned in the Palladis Tamia of Francis Meres, fifth among the Comedies. The emphasis on weddings suggests that it was originally written for the marriage of some noble ( cf. Chambers W.Sh. !.35~3). Several names have been proposed inconclusively. Internal evidence, including style, points to composition between Titus Andronicus and The Merchant of Venice. The thin characterization of the young lovers puts it early; but the plot demands that they be no more than puppets. The humorous attitude to them and their passion links A Dream with Love's Labour's Lost and the early scenes of Romeo and Juliet rather than with Two Gentlemen of Verona. It was probably written in 1594 or 1595, though additions may have been made later, possibly for another wedding. Did it originally include Titania's lengthy account of the bad summer of 1594 (II.1.88)? Lines 88-118 might well have been inserted later. In keeping with the hymeneal occasion Shakespeare treats the play as a merry prank, exercising great ingenuity to unify a hotch-potch of material. Surely it was written for a summer wedding in view of the title and the theme of midsummer madness or enchantment. The action takes place on the night before May-day; for when Theseus finds the lovers he says 'No doubt they rose up early to observe The rite of May'. In this Night of Errors Plautine realism is discarded, the mistakes are not mistakes of identity so much as of emotional direction. The comic 'errors' of physical resemblance are replaced by those of magic, itself sometimes erroneously used.