Overview

A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps Shakespeare's most popular comedy, and also a profound, archetypal play. The Introduction describes the two main traditions in the stage history, one emphasising charm and innocence, the other stressing darker suggestions of violence and sexuality, and relates them to similar traditions in critical interpretation, showing that both are necessary to a full understanding of the play. For this updated edition the editor has added a new section to the Introduction which takes account of the number of important professional theatre productions and the large output of scholarly criticism on the play which have appeared in recent years. The Reading List has also been revised and augmented.