This edition of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" reprints the Bevington edition of the play accompanied by four sets of primary documents and illustrations thematically arranged to offer a richly textured understanding of early modern culture and Shakespeare's work within that culture. The texts, including facsimiles of period documents, conduct literature, county records, reports of court entertainments, and Queen Elizabeth's speeches, contextualize the play's treatment of popular and royal festivity, communities of women (including Amazons, gossips, and nuns), marriage expectations, and the supernatural. Editorial features designed to help students read the play in light of the historical documents include an intelligent and engaging general introduction, an introduction to each thematic group of documents, thorough headnotes and glosses for the primary documents (presented in modern spelling), and an extensive bibliography.

About The Series About This Volume List of Illustrations Introduction PART I: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (EDITED BY DAVID BEVINGTON) PART II. CONTEXTUAL READINGS 1. Popular Festivals and Court Celebrations The Rites of May John Stow,From A Survey of London Henry Machyn,From Diary of a Resident in London Philip Stubbes,From The Anatomy of Abuses The Ballad The Fetching Home of May Court Entertainments Kenilworth and Coventry Robert Laneham, From A Letter Descibing the Entertainment of the Queen at Kenilworth Coventry Records of the Hock Tuesday Play The Fairy Queen From Entertainment at Elvetham Edmund Spencer, From The Shepheardes Calendar 2. The Making of Men The Ranks of Men: William Harrison's Of Degrees of People William Harrison, From The Description of England The Formation of the Ruler: Plutarch's Life of Theseus Plutarch, From The Lives of Nobles Grecians and Romans The Formation of the Gentleman: Sir Thomas Elyot and Rodger Ascham Sir Thomas Elyot, From The Book Named the Governor Rodger Ascham, From The Schoolmaster Working Men The Statute of Artificers From The Statute of Artificers Royal Proclaimation Regulating Chester Wages The New Man: Simon Forman's Dreams Simon Forman, From The Autobiography of Simon Forman 3.Female Attachments and Family Ties Amazons Christine de Pizan, From The Book of the City of Ladies Sir Walter Raleigh, From The History of the World John Knox, From The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiments of Women Queen Elizabeth I, Address to the Troops at Tilbury Gossips Edward Gosynhyll, From The Schoolhouse of Women Nuns Richard Layton, A Letter, Certifying the Incontinency of the Nuns of Syon Desiderius Erasmus, From A Maid Hating Marriage The Virgin Queen Queen Elizabeth I, From Speech to Parliment on Marriage and Succession William Camden, From The Annals of Queen Elizabeth A Poet and Her Patron Amelia Lanyer, From The Description of Cooke-ham Family Ties Thomas Becon, From A New Catechism Henry Bullinger, From The Christian Statue of Matrimony William Gouge, From Of Domestical Duties Philip Stubbes, From A Crystal Glass for Christian Women 4. Natural and Supernatural Bad Weather and Dearth John Stow, From The Annals of England Metamorphosis and Monstrosity Ovid and Reginald Scot Ovid, From Metamorphoses, Book 14 Bestiality and Monstrosity Prosecuting Buggery From Calendar of Assize Records Monsters and Prodigies Ambroise Paré, From Of Monsters and Prodigies Fairy Belief John Aubrey,Collecting Fairy Lore Richard Corbett, The Fairies' Farewell The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow ICorinthians 2:1--16 Bibliography Index ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Title Page of the Quarto A Midsummer Night's Dream 2. Woodcuts fo City and Woods from the Roxburghe Ballasd 3. Morris Dancers from the WIndow of a Gentleman'a House 4. Maypole DAnce from Michael Drayton;s Poly-Olbion 5. Woodcut Illustrating the Ballas "The Crost Couple" 6. Queen Elizabeth I on a Hunt 7. The Entertainment at Elvetham 8. The Queen and Her Court, from Edmund Spencer's The Shepheaardes Calandar 9. Page from Plutarch's The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans 10. Title Page from A Catechism 11. Title Page from George Tuberville's The Noble Art of Venery 12. Manuscript Page from The Autobiography of SImon Forman 13. Lascivious and Threatening Amazons from Sir Walter Raleigh's The Discovery of Guiana 14. Amazons, Each with a Breast Removed, from John Bulwer's Anthropometamorphosis 15. Queen Elizabeth I as an Amazon 16. Frontispiece from Samuel Rowland's 'Tis Merry When Gossip Meet 17. Woodcut from Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies 18. Circe Transforming Ulysses' Sailor into Animals 19. Monster, Half-Man, Half-Pig, from Ambroise Pare's Of Monsters and Prodigies 20. Title Page from Robin Good-fellow, His Mad Pranks