A midsummer night's dream
()
About this ebook
Full edition with an interactive table of contents.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.
Read more from William Shakespeare
The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare Quotes Ultimate Collection - The Wit and Wisdom of William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomeo & Juliet & Vampires Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shakespeare's First Folio Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare in Autumn (Seasons Edition -- Fall): Select Plays and the Complete Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespeare's Love Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A midsummer night's dream
Related ebooks
A Midsummer Night's Dream Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Nights Dream - William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midummer Nights Dream Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: Including The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night's Dream: New Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night's Dream (Dream Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night's Dream (Silver Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night’s Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer-Night's Dream - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham: llustrated by Arthur Rackham Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night's Dream: Including "The Life of William Shakespeare" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Shakespearean Classic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night's Dream | The Pink Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream: Illustrated and AUGMENTED REALITY enabled Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespeare's Comedy of A Midsummer-Night's Dream - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Comedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Nights Dream: "The course of true love never did run smooth" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMidsummer Nights Dream: Bilingual Edition (English – Hungarian) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Nights Dream In Plain and Simple English (A Modern Translation and the Original Version) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Aeschylus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJane Shore: A Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHippolytus; The Bacchae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Love Poems of John Donne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHis Lady of the Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhaedra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Macbeth (new classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Importance of Being Earnest: A Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2020 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Dolls House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Woman Is No Man: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale / A Bright New Boise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A midsummer night's dream
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A midsummer night's dream - William Shakespeare
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
William Shakespeare
© 2018 Synapse Publishing
Contents
ACT I
Scene I. Athens. A room in the Palace of THESEUS
Scene II. The Same. A Room in a Cottage
ACT II
Scene I. A wood near Athens
Scene II. Another part of the wood
ACT III
Scene I. The Wood. The Queen of Fairies lying asleep
Scene II. Another part of the wood
ACT IV
Scene I. The Wood
Scene II. Athens. A Room in QUINCE'S House
ACT V
Scene I. Athens. An Apartment in the Palace of THESEUS
Scene II.
Persons Represented
THESEUS, Duke of Athens
EGEUS, Father to Hermia
LYSANDER, in love with Hermia
DEMETRIUS, in love with Hermia
PHILOSTRATE, Master of the Revels to Theseus
QUINCE, the Carpenter
SNUG, the Joiner
BOTTOM, the Weaver
FLUTE, the Bellows-mender
SNOUT, the Tinker
STARVELING, the Tailor
HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus
HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander
HELENA, in love with Demetrius
OBERON, King of the Fairies
TITANIA, Queen of the Fairies
PUCK, or ROBIN GOODFELLOW, a Fairy
PEASBLOSSOM, Fairy
COBWEB, Fairy
MOTH, Fairy
MUSTARDSEED, Fairy
PYRAMUS, THISBE, WALL, MOONSHINE, LION; Characters in the Interlude performed by the Clowns
Other Fairies attending their King and Queen
Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta
SCENE: Athens, and a wood not far from it
ACT I
SCENE I. Athens. A room in the Palace of THESEUS
[Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants.]
THESEUS
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon; but, oh, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager,
Long withering out a young man's revenue.
HIPPOLYTA
Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.
THESEUS
Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals—
The pale companion is not for our pomp.—
[Exit PHILOSTRATE.]
Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And won thy love doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.
[Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS.]
EGEUS
Happy be Theseus, our renownèd duke!
THESEUS
Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?
EGEUS
Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.—
Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her:—
Stand forth, Lysander;—and, my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child.
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchang'd love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;
And stol'n the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats,—messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth;—
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart;
Turned her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness.—And, my gracious duke,
Be it so she will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,—
As she is mine I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death; according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.
THESEUS
What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that compos'd your beauties: yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure, or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
HERMIA
So is Lysander.
THESEUS
In himself he is:
But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
HERMIA
I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
THESEUS
Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
HERMIA
I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts:
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
THESEUS
Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun;
For aye to be shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless moon.
Thrice-blessèd they that master so their blood
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage:
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
HERMIA
So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
Unto his lordship, whose unwishèd yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
THESEUS
Take time to pause; and by the next new moon,—
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me
For everlasting bond of fellowship,—
Upon that day either prepare to die