About this book
Frank Sidgwick's The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' unravels the tangled origins of Shakespeare's enduring comedy with calm, scholarly clarity. Sidgwick traces the play’s three interwoven strands—the sentimental lovers’ plot, the grotesque mechanicals’ subplot, and the fairy machinery—showing how folk tales, classical myth, medieval romance, and contemporary Elizabethan texts fed into Shakespeare’s imaginative craft.
Grounded in literary history, the study examines questions of date and influence, situating the play in the mid-1590s and exploring how cultural beliefs about fairies, pastoral convention, and comic tradition shaped its tone and structure. Sidgwick enriches his argument with illustrative texts, close readings, and critical notes that illuminate Shakespeare’s methods without ever veering into dry antiquarianism.
Ideal for students of literature and drama, directors and actors mounting the play, and anyone passionate about Shakespearean scholarship, this audiobook offers a compact, authoritative guide to the play’s provenance. Listen to deepen your appreciation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a comic masterpiece born of many traditions—and to gain practical insight for performance, teaching, or further study of classic stage comedy.
