Get even more from the Folger - The Folger SHAKESPEARE

1 Get even more from the FolgerYou can get your own copy of this text to keep. Purchase a full copyto get the text, plus explanatory notes, illustrations, and more . Buy a copyFolger SHAKESPEARE the Director of the Folger ShakespeareLibraryTextual IntroductionSynopsisCharacters in the PlayACT 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 ContentsMichael WitmoreDirector, Folger SHAKESPEARE LibraryIt 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 feelingsin language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason,new.

2 We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think amile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resourcefor study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classictexts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as TheFolger SHAKESPEARE (formerly Folger Digital Texts), we place atrusted resource 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.

3 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 arichness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. 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 the Director of the Folger ShakespeareLibraryUntil 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.

4 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. In somecases, the plays have come down to us in multiple publishedversions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the greatcollection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the FirstFolio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions ofHamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and choose which version to use as their base text, and thenamend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the otherversions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more editorial decisions involve choices about whether anunfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of theperiod or whether it should be changed; decisions about words thatmade it into SHAKESPEARE s text by accident through four hundredyears of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based oncultural preference and taste.

5 When the Moby Text was created,for example, it was deemed improper and indecent for Mirandato chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See TheTempest, : 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, editors of the Moby SHAKESPEARE produced their text longbefore scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which tomake the thousands of decisions that SHAKESPEARE editors face. TheFolger Library SHAKESPEARE Editions, on which the FolgerShakespeare texts depend, make this editorial process as nearlytransparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby ,which hide editorial interventions.

6 The reader of the FolgerShakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorialinterventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, fromOthello: If she in chains of magic were not bound, ), half-squarebrackets (for example, from Henry V: With blood and sword andfire to win your right, ), or angle brackets (for example, fromTextual IntroductionBy Barbara Mowat and Paul WerstineHamlet: O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you? ). Atany point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket formore 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 tomarry Demetrius, and Theseus supports the father s right. All fouryoung Athenians end up in the woods, where Robin Goodfellow,who serves the fairy king Oberon, puts flower juice on the eyes ofLysander, and then Demetrius, unintentionally causing both to loveHelena. Oberon, who is quarreling with his wife, Titania, uses theflower juice on her eyes. She falls in love with Bottom, who now,thanks to Robin Goodfellow, wears an ass s the lovers sleep, Robin Goodfellow restores Lysander s love forHermia, so that now each young woman is matched with the manshe loves.

8 Oberon disenchants Titania and removes Bottom s ass shead. The two young couples join the royal couple in gettingmarried, and Bottom 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 THESEUSHIPPOLYTATHESEUSP hilostrate Theseus, Hippolyta, and Philostrate, with others.

9 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 1 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 0020209A Midsummer Night s DreamACT 1.

10 SC. 1 EGEUSTHESEUSEGEUSTHESEUSE nter Egeus and his daughter Hermia, and Lysander and Demetrius. Happy be Theseus, our renown d duke! 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.