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  • Published: 9 June 2005
  • ISBN: 9780141922201
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Staged: the origins of YA’s greatest tropes




· Used and recommended by the National Theatre


· Backed by a massive national marketing and publicity campaign - in collaboration with the National Theatre. Kicking off with Shakespeare's birthday on 23rd April and Nick Hytner's new production of Henry IV, Parts One and Two (starring Michael Gambon) at the start of their 2005 £10 season.


· Part of the relaunch of the celebrated Penguin Shakespeare series - with a fresh new look and a wealth of new editorial material.


· The most widely read editions of Shakespeare's plays - offering authoritative, accessible texts to be enjoyed by theatre goers, actors, general readers and students alike.


· Pocket-sized A format editions with a newly designed page, featuring only Shakespeare's words and all critical apparatus appearing at the front and back of the books.

A young woman flees Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and by her best friend. Unwittingly, all four find themselves in an enchanted forest where fairies and sprites soon take an interest in human affairs, dispensing magical love potions and casting mischievous spells. In this dazzling comedy, confusion ends in harmony, as love is transformed, misplaced, and - ultimately - restored.

  • Published: 9 June 2005
  • ISBN: 9780141922201
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224

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About the author

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, and was baptised on 26 April 1564. His father was a glove maker and wool merchant and his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a well-to-do local land owner. Shakespeare was probably educated in Stratford’s grammar school. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway, and the couple had a daughter the following year and twins in 1585.

Shakespeare’s theatrical life seems to have commenced around 1590. We do know that he was part of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company, which was renamed the King’s Company in 1603 when James I succeeded to the throne. The Company acquired interests in two theatres in the Southwark area of London, near the banks of the Thames - the Globe and the Blackfriars.

Shakespeare’s poetry was published before his plays, with two poems appearing in 1593 and 1594, dedicated to his patron Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. Most of Shakespeare’s sonnets were probably written at this time as well.

Records of Shakespeare’s plays begin to appear in 1594, and he produced roughly two a year until around 1611. His earliest plays include Henry VI and Titus Andronicus. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Richard II all date from the mid to late 1590s. Some of his most famous tragedies were written in the early 1600s; these include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Antony & Cleopatra. His late plays, often known as the Romances, date from 1608 onwards and include The Tempest.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. The first collected edition of his works was published in 1623 and is known as ‘the First Folio’.

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