A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Arden Shakespeare is the established edition of Shakespeare's work. Justly celebrated for its authoritative scholarship and invaluable commentary, Arden editions guide you to a richer understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare's plays. This edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream provides a clear and authoritative text, detailed notes and commentary on the same page as the text and a full introduction discussing the critical and historical background to the play. The editor brings fresh perspectives on global productions and adaptations of this most loved of Shakespeare's comedies as well as new insights into this most-loved of Shakespeare's comedies.

Sukanta Chaudhuri is Professor Emeritus at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His publications include Infirm Glory: Shakespeare and the renaissance Image of Man (Oxford, 1981), Renaissance Pastoral and Its English Developments (Oxford, 1989) and The Metaphysics of Text (Cambridge, 2010). He has edited the two-volume Pastoral Poetry of the English Renaissance (Manchester, 2016) besides other early modern texts and collections of essays. He was chief co-ordinator of Bichitra, the online variorum of the works of Rabindranath Tagore, and has translated widely from Bengali to English.

List of Illustrations General editors' Preface Preface INTRODUCTION STAGE, SCREEN, ART The play in its time: staging and casting British productions: Restoration to nineteenth century British productions: the twentieth century and after Europe Beyond Europe Other media: cinema, music, art SOURCES AND ANALOGUES: FAIRIES AND MORTALS Fairies and fairy lore Ovid: the classics and the fairies Pyramus and Thisbe Theseus and Hippolyta: Plutarch, Chaucer and Shakespeare THEMES AND DESIGNS Pastoral: the forest Dreamers and Lovers Patriarchy Carnival, class, court Theatre, art and illusion The comedy of compromise LANGUAGE AND VERSE A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Appendix 1: Casting Chart Appendix 2:Date and Occasion Appendix 3: The Text Abbreviations and References Index