"Midsummer Night's Dream" (Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition) Book

The most delightful and magical of Shakespeare's comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream was an instant success with its Elizabethan audiences and critics, who were particularly entertained by the broad comedy of the tradesmen and the jokes and tricks of the fairy kingdom. One measure of the play's popularity has been its value to other poets and playwrights as a model for imitation and a source for borrowing. In this volume, the Introduction describes the critical response to A Midsummer Night's Dream from around 1598 to the present day, while the documentary section runs from 1775 to 1920 and includes work by British, American, and European critics. This includes eighty five separate items, providing a comprehensive review of the critical literature. Contents include: The criticism of Malone, Steevens, Schlegel, Hazlitt, Coleridge, Ruskin, Taine, Dowden, Swinburne, Shaw, Brandes, Beerbohm, Chesterton, Bjornson and Croce.Read More