The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers' Company on 8 October 1600 by the bookseller Thomas Fisher, who published the first quarto edition later that year.[6] A second quarto was printed in 1619 by William Jaggard, as part of his so-called False Folio.[6] The play next appeared in print in the First Folio of 1623. The title page of Q1 states that the play was "sundry times publickely acted" prior to 1600.[7] According to Sukanta Chaudhuri, editor of the 2017 Arden edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, "The only firm evidence for the date of Dream is its mention in Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia, which appeared in 1598" (p. 283). Chaudhuri's exhaustive investigation of its original date of performance points to 1595 or 1596 (likely for the wedding of either William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby to Elizabeth de Vere, or Thomas Berkeley, son of Henry Lord Berkeley, to Elizabeth Carey) (p. 284-5). Further consolidations of this late Elizabethan date are provided by "Oberon's unmissable compliment to Queen Elizabeth (2.1.155-164)" (Chaudhuri), and Titania's description of flooded fields and failed crops which occurred through England in the years 1594-1597/8 (2.1.84-121). The first court performance known with certainty occurred at Hampton Court on 1 January 1604, as a prelude to The Masque of Indian and China Knights.[8]
This content is from Wikipedia. GradeSaver is providing this content as a courtesy until we can offer a professionally written study guide by one of our staff editors. We do not consider this content professional or citable. Please use your discretion when relying on it.
