A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written around 1594 to 1596. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers, a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke of Athens, Theseus, the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, written in approximately 1595 or 1596, is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare.

Contents

• 1 Act I
• 2 Act II
• 3 Act III
• 4 Act IV
• 5 Act V
• 6 External links

Act I

• Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights; Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like to a silver bow New bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities.
  • Hippolyta, scene i

• But earthly happier is the rose distill’d Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
  • Theseus, scene i

• Ay me! for aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth.
  • Lysander, scene i

• O, hell! to choose love by another’s eye.
  • Hermia, scene i

• Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man hath power to say, — Behold! The jaws of darkness do devour it up: So quick bright things come to confusion.
  • Lysander, scene i

• Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
  • Helena, scene i

• Masters, spread yourselves.
  • Bottom, scene ii

• This is Ercles’ vein.
  • Bottom, scene ii

• Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming
  • Flute, scene ii

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Fri Sep 3 05:14:31 2010