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The play features three interlocking plots, all of which are connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian Hippolyta. Two young Athenian men, Lysander and Demetrius, are both in love with the same woman, Hermia; Hermia herself loves Lysander, but her friend, Helena, is in love with Demetrius. When the father of Hermia forbids her to marry Lysander, the four pursue each other into the woods around the city, losing themselves in the dark and in the maze of their romantic entanglements. As usual with Shakespeare, the comedy has a bitter-sweet note, when Hermia's two lovers both, temporarily, turn against her in favor of Helena.
Meanwhile, Oberon, king of the fairies, and his estranged wife, Titania, arrive in the same woods to attend the upcoming nuptials. Titania refuses to lend her Indian page-boy to Oberon for use as his 'henchman', and Oberon seeks to punish her for her disobedience.
At the same time, a band of 'mechanicals' (lower-class artisans) have arranged to perform a crude pageant on the theme of Pyramus and Thisbe to stage for the wedding festivities, and venture into the forest for their rehearsal. Most notable among them is Bottom the Weaver, one of Shakespeare's most admired comic creations.
Oberon recruits the mischievous Puck (also called Hobgoblin and Robin GoodfellowRobin Goodfellow in English folklore is a euphemistic personification of a half-tamed, troublesome elf or hob-goblin, a prankster who is the domesticated aspect of Puck cf. There is a reference to him in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night’s Dream, ii. Either I) to help him regain Titania's devotion, but his simultaneous attempt to help the young lovers goes wrong, resulting in confusion. Bottom finds his head transformed into that of an ass, and the fairy queen is made to fall in love with him.
It is not known exactly when the play was written or first performed, but it is assumed to be between 1594Events February 27 Henry IV is crowned King of France at Rheims. March 21 Henry IV enters his capital of Paris for the first time. Births February 19 Henry, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James VI of Scotland/ James I of England and Anne of Denma and 1596Events April 9 Spanish troops capture Calais September 17 The Spanish capture Amiens September 20 Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Monterrey, Mexico. First water closet, by Sir John Harrington, is installed in a manor near Kelston in England Births. A Midsummer Night's Dream might have been written as inspired by or to be performed in connection to a royal wedding.
After the English Renaissance, A Midsummer Night's Dream was never performed in its entirety until the 1840sEvents and Trends First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) on February 6, 1840 at Waitangi New Zealand. The treaty between the British Crown and Maori made New Zealand a British colony and is considered the founding point of modern N. Instead, it was heavily adapted in such forms as Henry PurcellHenry Purcell ( c1659 November 21, 1695), was an English Baroque music composer. He is considered to be one of England's greatest composers. Purcell was born in St Ann's Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster. His father, Henry Purcell (or Pursell pronounced w's musical adaptation The Fairy Queen ( 1692Events February 13 Massacre of Glencoe March 1 The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. June 10 Salem Witch Trials: three women hanged for witchcraft. August 19 Salem Witch T), or in shortened versions that turned Bottom into the main character.