A midsummer night's dream / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom ; volume editor, Janyce Marson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bloom, Harold.

Marson, Janyce.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Bloom's Shakespeare through the ages

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Midsummer night's dream.

Shakespeare, William.

Physical Description:

xii, 260 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Bloom's Literary Criticism, [2008]

Summary:

A Midsummer Night's Dream's complexities are extraordinary. This ethereal fantasy involves four different levels of representation that intermingle but never wholly fuse. This invaluable new study guide to one of Shakespeare's greatest plays contains a selection of the finest criticism through the centuries on A Midsummer Night's Dream, including commentaries by such important writers as John Milton, Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, G. K. Chesterton, C. L. Barber, and many others. Students will also benefit from the additional features in this volume, including an introduction by Harold Bloom, an accessible summary of the plot, an analysis of several key passages, a comprehensive list of characters, a biography of Shakespeare, essays discussing the main currents of criticism in each century since Shakespeare's time, and more.

Contents:

Biography of William Shakespeare 1

Summary of A Midsummer Night's Dream 5

Key Passages in A Midsummer Night's Dream 17

List of Characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream 39

Criticism Through the Ages 43

Sources of A Midsummer Night's Dream 45

A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Seventeenth Century 47

1633-from "L'Allegro" / John Milton 49

1692-from The Diary of Samuel Pepys / Samuel Pepys 51

1692-(attributed to Elkanah Settle), from The Fairy Queen / Anonymous 52

A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Eighteenth Century 53

1708-from Roscius Anglicanus / John Downes 54

1765-from Reliques of Ancient English Poetry / Thomas Percy 54

1765-"A Midsummer Night's Dream," from Notes on Shakespeare's Plays / Samuel Johnson 55

A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Nineteenth Century 61

1809-from A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, tr. John Black / August Wilhelm von Schlegel 63

1817-"The Midsummer Night's Dream," from Characters of Shakespear's Plays / William Hazlitt 64

1838-from "Shakspeare" / Thomas DeQuincey 66

1845-"Midsummer-Night's Dream," from Shakespeare Commentaries / G.G. Gervinus 67

1872-from Shakspere: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art / Edward Dowden 80

1880-"A Midsummer Night's Dream," from Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters / H.N. Hudson 81

A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Twentieth Century 95

1904-"A Midsummer Night's Dream," from Chesterton on Shakespeare / Gilbert Keith Chesterton 98

1939-"A Midsummer Night's Dream," from Shakespeare / Mark Van Doren 105

1951-"A Midsummer-Night's Dream," from The Meaning of Shakespeare / Harold Goddard 111

1959-"May Games and Metamorphoses on a Midsummer Night," from Shakespeare's Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and its Relation to Social Custom / C.L. Barber 118

1974-"A Midsummer Night's Dream," from Shakespeare's Comedy of Love / Alexander Leggatt 154

1980-"Fancy's Images," from Comic Transformations in Shakespeare / Ruth Nevo 176

1986-"The Bottomless Dream," from Northrop Frye on Shakespeare / Northrop Frye 190

1987-"Introduction," from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations) / Harold Bloom 203

1998-"The Carnivalesque in A Midsummer Night's Dream," from Shakespeare and Carnival After Bakhtin / David Wiles 208

A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Twenty-first Century 227

2003-"'When Everything Seems Double': Peter Quince, the Other Playwright in A Midsummer Night's Dream," from Shakespeare Survey, vol. 56 / A.B. Taylor 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-247) and index.

ISBN:

9780791095959

0791095959

OCLC:

191882098