A Midsummer Night’s Dream



I have to admit I have never read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but I was very excited to see a performance by a local drama group last week. The children performing the play were between 7 and 14 years old, and they did a terrific job, especially considering that the play was done in the original old English. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written by William Shakespeare, a poet, actor and playwright who lived from 1564 (the recorded date of his baptism, as no birth records have been found) to 1616. During his lifetime he wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems. Some of his most famous are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare was also a successful businessman whose home was said to be the second largest in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare lived at a time when the black plague caused many theaters to close. It was at this time that he wrote many of his sonnets. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Shakespeare wrote close to a tenth of the most quoted lines ever written or spoken in English. He also invented many words which are still commonly used in the English language today such as cold-blooded, dishearten, eventful, eyeball, belonging and addiction!

A couple of quotes from Shakespeare for you to enjoy:


William Shakespeare, As You Like It

William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night


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