A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1 FrontMatterFrom the Director of the Folger ShakespeareLibraryTextual IntroductionSynopsisCharacters in the PlayACT 1 scene 1 scene 2 ACT 2 scene 1 scene 2 Folger Shakespeare 3 scene 1 scene 2 ACT 4 scene 1 scene 2 ACT 5 scene 1It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since theircomposition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare s plays and poemshave traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works tomake them their of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing processof taking up Shakespeare, finding our own thoughts and feelings inlanguage 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 milea minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. Theseexpertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource forstudy, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment.

2 By making the classic textsof the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as The FolgerShakespeare (formerly Folger Digital Texts), we place a trustedresource in the hands of anyone who wants New Folger Editions of Shakespeare s plays, which are the basisfor the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of theirorigin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is thesingle greatest documentary source of Shakespeare s works. Anunparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, andartwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger s holdings have beenconsulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editionsalso reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance ofShakespeare s works in the Folger s Elizabethan want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and PaulWerstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare sworks, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with aFrom the Director of the Folger ShakespeareLibraryMichael WitmoreDirector, Folger Shakespeare Libraryrichness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging.

3 Readerswho want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can followthe paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting theFolger either in-person or online, where a range of physical anddigital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. Icommend to you these words, and hope that they now, with the release of The Folger Shakespeare (formerlyFolger Digital Texts), readers in search of a free online text ofShakespeare s plays had to be content primarily with using theMoby Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version ofthe plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume thatthere is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. ButShakespeare s plays were not published the way modern novels orplays are published today: as a single, authoritative text.

4 In somecases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions,represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection puttogether by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). Thereare, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of KingLear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose whichversion to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words,lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in theirjudgment, make for a better or more accurate editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliarword could be understood in light of other writings of the period orwhether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it intoShakespeare s text by accident through four hundred years ofprintings and misprinting; and even decisions based on culturalpreference and taste.

5 When the Moby Text was created, forexample, it was deemed improper and indecent for Miranda tochastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, : Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt nottake,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied ). All Shakespeareeditors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to herfather, IntroductionBy Barbara Mowat and Paul WerstineThe editors of the Moby Shakespeare produced their text longbefore scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to makethe thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The FolgerLibrary Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Shakespeare textsdepend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as ispossible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby , which hideeditorial interventions.

6 The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knowswhere the text has been altered because editorial interventions aresignaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: If she inchains of magic were not bound, ), half-square brackets (forexample, from Henry V: With blood and sword and fire to winyour right, ), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: Ofarewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you? ). At any point inthe text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for the Folger Shakespeare texts are edited in accord withtwenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare s texts, the Folgerhere provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors,and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of theplays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the studyand enjoyment of A Midsummer Night s Dream , residents of Athens mix with fairiesfrom a local forest, with comic results.

7 In the city, Theseus, Duke ofAthens, is to marry Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Bottom theweaver and his friends rehearse in the woods a play they hope tostage for the wedding young Athenians are in a romantic tangle. Lysander andDemetrius love Hermia; she loves Lysander and her friend Helenaloves Demetrius. Hermia s father, Egeus, commands Hermia to marryDemetrius, and Theseus supports the father s right. All four youngAthenians end up in the woods, where Robin Goodfellow, who servesthe fairy king Oberon, puts flower juice on the eyes of Lysander, andthen Demetrius, unintentionally causing both to love Helena. Oberon,who is quarreling with his wife, Titania, uses the flower juice on hereyes. She falls in love with Bottom, who now, thanks to RobinGoodfellow, wears an ass s the lovers sleep, Robin Goodfellow restores Lysander s love forHermia, so that now each young woman is matched with the man sheloves.

8 Oberon disenchants Titania and removes Bottom s ass s two young couples join the royal couple in getting married, andBottom rejoins his friends to perform the , duke of AthensHIPPOLYTA, queen of the AmazonsEGEUS, father to HermiaPHILOSTRATE, master of the revels to TheseusNICK BOTTOM, weaverPETER QUINCE, carpenterFRANCIS FLUTE, bellows-menderTOM SNOUT, tinkerSNUG, joinerROBIN STARVELING, tailorOBERON, king of the FairiesTITANIA, queen of the FairiesROBIN GOODFELLOW, a puck, or hobgoblin, in Oberon s serviceA FAIRY, in the service of TitaniaLords and Attendants on Theseus and HippolytaOther Fairies in the trains of Titania and OberonCharacters in the Playfour loversHERMIALYSANDERHELENADEMETRIUS fairies attending upon TitaniaPEASEBLOSSOMCOBWEBMOTEMUSTARDSEED ACT 19A Midsummer Night s DreamACT 1. SC.

9 1 THESEUSHIPPOLYTATHESEUSP hilostrate Theseus, Hippolyta, and Philostrate, with others. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in Another moon. But, O, methinks how slow This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires Like to a stepdame or a dowager Long withering out a young man s revenue. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night; 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. 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. Hippolyta, I wooed 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 Egeus and his daughter Hermia, and Lysander and Demetrius.

10 Happy be Theseus, our renown d duke! scene 1 FTLN 0001 FTLN 0002 FTLN 0003 FTLN 0004 FTLN 00055 FTLN 0006 FTLN 0007 FTLN 0008 FTLN 0009 FTLN 001010 FTLN 0011 FTLN 0012 FTLN 0013 FTLN 0014 FTLN 001515 FTLN 0016 FTLN 0017 FTLN 0018 FTLN 0019 FTLN 002020 FTLN 002111A Midsummer Night s DreamACT 1. SC. 1 EGEUSTHESEUSHERMIATHESEUS Thanks, good Egeus. What s the news with thee? 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 bewitched the bosom of my child. Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes And interchanged 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, gauds, conceits, Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats messengers Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth.