A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a Shakespearean comedy about four Athenian lovers (Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Demetrius) who escape into a magical forest, only to be caught in a quarrel between fairy king Oberon and queen Titania. Guided by the mischievous Puck, magic spells and love potions create chaotic, mistaken romances, ultimately resolved before a happy royal wedding.
Folger Shakespeare Library
http://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org
Front
Matter
From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare
Library
Textual Introduction
Synopsis
Characters in the Play
ACT 1
Scene 1
Scene 2
ACT 2
Scene 1
Scene 2
ACT 3
Scene 1
Scene 2
ACT 4
Scene 1
Scene 2
ACT 5
Scene 1
Contents
Michael Witmore
Director, Folger Shakespeare Library
It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their
composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems
have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to
make them their own.
Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process
of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in
language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason,
new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile
a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These
expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for
study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts
of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger
Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who
wants them.
The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis
for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their
origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the
single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An
unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and
artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been
consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions
also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of
Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater.
I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul
Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s
works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a
richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers
who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow
the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger
either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital
resources exist to supplement the material in these texts. I commend
to you these words, and hope that they inspire.
From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library
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