A Midsummer Night's Dream (New Folger Library Shakespeare)

Book Description

Each edition includes:

• Freshly edited text based on the best early

printed version of the play

• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

• Scene-by-scene plot summaries

• A key to famous lines and phrases

• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

• An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books

Essay by Catherine Belsey

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs.

Customer Reviews:

What we needed.......2007-08-29

My daughter needed this for a school assignment. It worked out well for her, good price.

"The course of love never did run smooth.".......2007-06-26

I recently re-read A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM prior to attending The Colorado Shakespeare Festival's performance of this play under the summer stars here in Boulder. Shakespeare (1552-1616) produced this romantic comedy between 1595 or 1596 and published it in the First Folio in 1623. It follows the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors under the influence of fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is Shakespeare's most popular and is widely performed across the world.

It play tells three stories connected by the wedding celebration of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta. In the opening scene, Hermia rejects her father Egeus's request that she marry Demetrius. Rather than facing death or lifelong chastity as a nun, Hermia and her lover Lysander decide to elope. Hermia tells her best friend Helena of her plan. Helena, who has been recently rejected by Demetrius, tells him of Hermia's plan to elope. Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius all escape into the forest where they become romantically entangled under the influence of fairies.

Oberon (King of the Fairies), and his queen, Titania, arrive in the same forest. Oberon enlists the mischievous Puck (aka "Hobgoblin" and "Robin Goodfellow") to apply the magical juice from a flower to Titania's eyes while she is sleeping. The juice makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing he or she sees upon awakening. Oberon also instructs Puck to spread some juice on Demetrius's eyes. Instead, Puck puts the juice on Lysander's eyes, causing him to fall in love with Helena. To correct the error, Oberon then orders Puck to apply the juice to Demetrius's eyes, causing him to also fall in love with Helena, much to her confusion (now having two suitors).

Meanwhile, in a subplot, a band of "rude mechanicals" have been preparing a play in the forest about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding. Puck transforms the head of one actor, Nick Bottom, into that of an ass. When Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing, she immediately falls in love with him. Puck eventually restores Bottom's head, and lifts the spell from Lysander, but leaves Demetrius in love with Helena. The lovers conclude the night's events must have been a dream. Puck ends the play with a soliloquy.

G. Merritt

The dream of romance is lighthearted laughter .......2006-01-24

The spirit of one of Shakespeare's richest plays is lighthearted laughter. The great impressario of the proceedings is Puck who in giving the 'love potion' to the wrong person, sets up the chaos of both Demetrius and Lysander loving Helena. There are numerous networks of parallel and contrast through the work , between the worlds of the royal humans, the fairies, and the craftsmen. The motif of dreaming and imagination play a strong part in the play. And the resolution in all the couples finding themselves in love and harmony at last is a supreme happy ending.
This is one of Shakespeare's most delightful and amusing works, one of the richest comically in all the world of theater.

Ill met by moonlight, proud reader?.......2005-12-29

I must say that until I saw a simple, highschool play of this particular work, I was deathly afraid of SHakespeare, thinking it boring and only something for people over fifty to discuss and teach. WEll, i was wrong.
This particular story brings in classical characters from Greek Mythology, such as Theseus and Hyppolita (sorry if I butcher her name...lol) as well as the regal Titania and Oberon, and of course, the humorous and jovial puck and bottom.
Books like this are presented in the media to be boring but they truly are intersting and worthwhile reads. Without titles such as this, I highly doubt many writers of fantasy and romance would be the same today.
Very highly recommend as a start to Shakespeares works, though seeing it is even better!

Shakespeare at his absolute best.......2005-09-07

Midsummer Night's Dream is the bards most fantasical play in the true sense of the word. The language is absolutely beautiful and the plot is so creative and wonderful. This is a play that can be enjoyed over and over again for a lifetime. In some respects this is the perfect play to introduce young people to Shakespeare and hopefully inspire a lifelong love of his work.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Signet Classics)

Average customer rating:

"The course of true love never did run smooth."
A Masterpiece
Shakespeare's Done It Again
"...reason and love keep little company together nowadays..."

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Signet Classics)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0451526961

Customer Reviews:

"The course of true love never did run smooth.".......2007-06-26

A Masterpiece.......2006-10-20

This play was one of Shakespeares best. It was beautiful,magical and it made me laugh.The fairies were the perfect piece of magic to make this play work. I loved how Shakespeare combined the real world and the spiratual world together. My favourite character of all of Shakespeares character was definately Helena. She reminded me of myself. Shakespeare was great at showing how the course of true love never does run smooth with the four characters. I recommend this play to everyone. It was simply beautiful.

Shakespeare's Done It Again.......2006-06-23

I must say this book has really touched me, right down to my soul. I sure know that my husband loved it as well; Bill has officially become a true fan of Shakespeare's work! After reading this heartwarming comedy, my husband always manages to find a little time in his extremely busy day to settle in and take to a good book. And let me tell you, I will stand by my man!

Throughout the entire script, Shakespeare uses fine vocabulary, and incredible detail to craft a truly engaging story of love, loss, and ultimate triumph. A Midsummer Night's Dream has honestly changed me, in person and in soul; I think I'll become a Republican.

...On second thought, no.

"...reason and love keep little company together nowadays...".......2005-08-02

Even though in most of his comedies the entertainments are punctured by sarcastic comments and comic relief, Shakespeare, who has demonstrated keen devices of opposites, from long dignified prose to comic verse, strives not to repeat himself. Shakespeare seems to have enjoyed playing variation on a theme, dwelling on an idea (further developing an idea) hinted at in other parts of a play or in another play. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM embodies both. The play sets in Athens, in the midst of summer, which is associated traditionally (and surreptitiously) to magic. Immediately the opening act sets the romantic plot and whimsical air in motion by presenting the conflict between the young lovers and their elders.

The interesting thing is that it seems A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM could be a swinger: the situation as it stands could validly issue in either tragedy (similar circumstances in ROMEO AND JULIET, in which families thwarted what meant-to-be love) or comedy. Shakespeare quickly resolves the dilemma and provides light to the darkness of the situation. He nudges the story to a direction in which the style does not involve the audience too snuggly in the lovers' emotions. The love entanglement engenders enough body and reference to larger concepts to be viewed as image of some universal human experience: one so true-to-life that it inevitably and in no time provokes sympathy. The lovers' lines are not completely out of place in a romantic comedy because the lines are generalized: because soon after the crisis Lysander brings forward a plan by which he and Hermia may get out of their difficult situation. Hermia will neither be forced to marry Demetrius or perpetrate defiance of the pre-arranged marriage that surely promises prosecution. So the hints of pathos and possibility of tragedy echo ROMEO AND JULIET.

One of the recurring themes in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, as well as in TWELFTH NIGHT, and in LOVE LABOUR'S LOST, concerns the irrationality of love. In TWELFTH NIGHT, the gender disguise causes the confusion of love and identity of twins, and magic adopts the same course in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM as the King of Fairy decides to squeeze love juice onto Demetrius whom he has mistaken for Lysander. The idea of the tension between what people ought reasonably to feel and what in fact they do feel further gravitates to make a lasting impression. What is meant to make Demetrius requite the hapless Helena's passion takes an unexpectedly convoluted turn to anoint Lysander's eyes and he feels madly in love with Helena. Ironically he attributes this novel affection to his reason, which a mechanical later brings up in a sarcastic manner the antithesis between love and reason, whereas we know that the change has been effected by Puck's juice.

Variation of a theme that is hinted at in other parts of play is no more quintessential than the seemingly irrelevant speech that demonstrates poetic merit. The exquisite speech on irrational weather bears significance that is otherwise easily dismissed as mere decoration. So much Titania might have alluded to the inclement weather, the passionate tirade provides the ground for the idea that quarrel between the young lovers causes confusion in the seasons. For in the height of Helena's agony, she speaks about the danger of disaster and malevolent forces of nature and the caprice and irrationality of love. An atmosphere of a spell of illusion persists throughout the play, redolent of a recurrent notion of a dislocation between the senses, and between the senses and the brain. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, shrouded by comic confusions, sheds light on lovers' failure to reason and to keep pace with their emotions.

A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun!)

Average customer rating:

Midsummers Night's Dream
A Magical and Cheerful Story
Stop Kidding Yourselves
Unexpected enchantment

A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun!)
Lois Burdett
Manufacturer: Firefly Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Romeo and Juliet : For Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun series)
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Twelfth Night : For Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun series)

ASIN: 1552091244

Book Description

"Who is William Shakespeare?" For more than 20 years, Lois Burdett has asked that question of her elementary school students in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, leading them on a voyage of discovery that brings the Bard to life for boys and girls ages seven and up.

A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids, written in rhyming couplets is suitable for staging as class plays as well as reading aloud.

Customer Reviews:

Midsummers Night's Dream.......2005-05-23

This book was great. I was unsure of how to introduce my children to Shakespeare. These books are the key. Midsummer Night's Dream is such a funny story. Well done.

A Magical and Cheerful Story.......2003-04-07

When I read, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", I thought it was a very happy story. The story takes place in Athens, Greece and the king is about to become engaged to a queen. The story is about love and many magical events. I think "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is an extremely happy and cheerful story and I recommend it to other people.

Stop Kidding Yourselves.......2002-04-03

Retelling Shakespeare's stories is a valid activity. (Shakespeare after all retold others' stories when he wrote his plays.) Telling kids that they're learning Shakespeare when their taught retellings of the stories in his plays, however, is a terrible practice and should be avoided at all costs.

Unexpected enchantment.......2000-09-12

I love the works of Shakespeare but I've always thought that children under the age of 11 or 12 wouldn't be able to grasp the complexity both of the stories and of the language. Well, thank goodness Lois Burdett has come to our rescue! It has been her labor of love to rewrite the stories in rhyming couplet. She is quite an accomplished poet and a delight to read.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is extremely funny. Throughout the book Ms Burdett has included pictures and statements relating to the story that were made by her students. Clearly she makes Shakespeare come alive. I was so impressed with her rendition of this story that I couldn't wait to try it out on my eight year old. He loved it! We have a new Shakespeare fan in our house. I am extremely grateful that these books are available. I plan to purchase them all.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Arden Shakespeare: Second Series)
Average customer rating:

Excellent publication

Magical and funny play in a fine edition

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Arden Shakespeare: Second Series)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Arden
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1903436605

Book Description

The Arden Shakespeare is the established edition of Shakespeare's work. Justly celebrated for its authoritative scholarship and invaluable commentary, Arden guides you a richer understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare's plays. This edition of A Midsummer Nights Dream provides, a clear and authoritative text, detailed notes and commentary on the same page as the text, a full introduction discussing the critical and historical background to the play and appendices presenting sources and relevant extracts.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent publication.......2007-09-21

The Arden series was requested as a gift and by someone who knows it well. Shakespearean students will appreciate this publication.

Magical and funny play in a fine edition.......2004-11-22

There are many reasons for the popularity of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", not the least among them is the almost unique joining of the humorous misuse of language (by the tradesman actors) and the utter beauty of language and expression (by Puck, Oberon, and Titania). One usually gets a farce of language or an attempt at the sublime. Here the music of the two enriches both.

How can one put together these four disparate plotlines into such a wonderful whole? The quartet of lovers and their mixed and varied attentions forms the basis of the plot in the comedy and it is a delightful enough farce. The squabble of Demitrius and Lysander over Hermia while Helena pines over Demitrius, Oberon and Titania's argument over one of her servants and Oberon's use of Puck to manipulate Titania's affections including Puck's mistaken application of Oberon's potion to Lysander's eyes, the pending marriage of Thesus and Hippolyta, and the wonderfully, magically awful play being put on by the tradesman for the nobles. Putting all this into a wonderful whole is an achievement that I believe is unmatched.

I do want to say that this play has suffered a great deal in our sex obsessed age. We have foisted on this play an eroticism that it does not claim for itself nor display. While the "adult" couples (Thesus & Hippolyta, Oberon & Titania) interact and talk in ways that include that aspect of their lives, the youthful couples always talk and act in ways that are concerned with propriety and modesty. Bottom is hardly the lust blinded brute depicted in modern productions. He is much more interested in eating and chatting with his Fairy friends than Titania. It is Titania who is under the influence of the magic flower who is infatuated with Bottom while he remains quite oblivious to her desires.

In any case, this is a fine edition of the work with many helps for the reader. Almost half the book is filled with introductory essays that provide background on the play and its text. The play itself is full of notes to help the reader understand idioms and definitions of words that are obscure, unique to Shakespeare, or that have changed meaning since 1596. There are four Appendices that cover source materials for the play, realigned text that the editors believe were corrupted in the sources we have for the play and the last one is the prologue to the play that Peter Quince butchers to the amusement of the nobles. The appendix provides us with the prologue with correct punctuation, as Quince should have read it.

All the background material is interesting and enriches our understanding of the play. But it is the play that matters and is so much fun to read.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare Made Easy)

Average customer rating:

Kid Friendly Shakespeare
Hermia is the best character
Great Translation that Makes Shakespeare More Accessable
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Fun and Frivolous

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare Made Easy)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Barron's Educational Series
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Picture This! Shakespeare)
Hamlet (Shakespeare Made Easy)
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Made Easy)

ASIN: 0812035844

Book Description

Here are the books that help teach Shakespeare plays without the teacher constantly needing to explain and define Elizabethan terms, slang, and other ways of expression that are different from our own. Each play is presented with Shakespeare's original lines on each left-hand page, and a modern, easy-to-understand "translation" on the facing right-hand page. All dramas are complete, with every original Shakespearian line, and a full-length modern rendition of the text.

Customer Reviews:

Kid Friendly Shakespeare.......2007-04-10

I am currently reading this version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with my fifth grade class. They are able to understand the story as we (as a class) tackle the more difficult Shakespearian verse. They appreciate the writing of Shakespeare more because his style is not interfering with their understanding of the story. It has been a great experience for all!!!

Hermia is the best character.......2006-09-22

In my school, we read he book a midsummernight's dream and now we are doing the play at school. We read the original not this, but I still love it. My favorite character is Hermia because she is pretty and spunky and I am going to play her! This play rockz! Go Sherwood Middle School.

Great Translation that Makes Shakespeare More Accessable.......2003-12-27

I purchased many titles in the "Shakespeare Made Easy" series. It has a modern English translation side by side with the original text. It helped tremendously when it came to school assignments.

A Midsummer Night's Dream.......2003-04-14

A Midsummer Night's Dream is certainly one of the most popular Shakespearean plays. Few other dramas display such a combination of theatrical appeal: comedy and dance, music and fairies, rustics and the moonlit woods. This unit examines the enchanting play and its theme of love and love's folly. A Midsummer Night's Dream contains some wonderfully lyrical expressions of lighter Shakespearean themes, most notably those of love, dreams, and the stuff of both, the creative imagination itself.
I believe that Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream as a light entertainment to accompany a marriage celebration.

Fun and Frivolous.......2003-04-03

On the first read, I thought this was really silly stuff, but on the second read I thought it had some of Shakespheare's best romantic poetry in it.

This story contains yet another authoritarian father of Shakespheare's creation, Egeus, telling his daughter Hermia who she will marry (Demetrius) and not marry (Lysander). There is also her sister Helena who is in love with Demetrius, but Demetrius does not love her. Enter the fairies, mainly Oberon and his servant Puck who muck things up further by enchanting Lysander and Demetrius into falling in love with Helena instead of their previous darling girl Hermia. Tension ensues as Helena thinks that she is being mocked and Hermia thinks that Helena has stolen away her men. Puck and the fairies eventually right things by enchanting Demetrius to match up with Hermia and Lysander with Helena.

There is a subplot with working class rustics who try to put on a play of Pyramus and Thisbe, two lovers that die tragically. (Imagine construction workers putting on a romantic play, for modern day comparison.) The leader Snug and his company of Bottom, Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling prepare a play at night in the woods and the mischievous fairy Puck attaches a donkey's posterior to Bottom's head and makes the queen fairy Titania fall in love with him and his fine feature. Eventually, Puck reverses this predicament before the night is over.

Bottom and company put on the play in the last act for the nobles of city who are Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his company of the soon to be married nobles Demetrius and Hermia and Lysander and Helena, among others. The play is so bad it's comical. The usual tragic romantic deaths in plays like Romeo and Juliet are parodied in this act. In fact, this play seems to be what Romeo and Juliet would have been if it were turned into a comedy.

Book Description

The works of William Shakespeare are timelessand they are time-consuming. Too valuable to be passed over by todays younger generation, Shakespeares plays are, nonetheless, all too often avoided by students and teachers alike. Author Cass Foster, who has been involved in all aspects of theatre for over 35 years, has provided a solution. The Sixty-Minute Shakespeare series is an ideal alternative for those who lack the time to tackle the unabridged versions of the worlds most widely read playwright. Foster has condensed the Bards language, but has left the integrity of Shakespeares writings intact so that students can experience the thrill of his stories as well as the beauty of his prose. In addition, the author has provided footnotes explaining some of the more arcane words and phrases so that the reader can better understand and, therefore, enjoy the plays. This new series contains Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, A Midsummer Nights Dream, and Hamlet. Foster, is quick to point out that The Sixty-Minute Shakespeare series is intended to be merely a stepping stone in the study of Shakespeare, not a substitute for the original works. He urges readers, Go beyond the Sixty-Minute versions, using the appreciation and self-confidence you gained to go further. The more you read, the more you gain. An ideal companion piece, Shakespeare: To Teach or Not to Teach was co-authored by Foster and Lynn G. Johnson. This manual helps teachers prepare and present the teachings of Shakespeare from as early as second grade all the way through high school. Foster is the director of a theatre program in a small college in central Arizona and currently the fight choreographer for the Grand Canyon Shakespeare Festival. He has directed shows and staged fights at theatres and universities throughout the country.

Customer Reviews:

A disappointment.......2000-12-07

I saw the other reviews of this book,and I have to wonder if the reviewers really read this abridged version of the play. This is one of our family's favorite plays, and I bought this book to allow us to do a living room performance of it in one evening. I was disappointed. First, the copy has many errors in it that make performing it confusing. For instance, in Act I, Scene 1, when Egeus brings Hermia and Demetrius and Lysander before Theseus, there is a stage direction that says "Demetrius exit and Helena follow." although Helena has not appeared (in this or any other version of the play) until later in the scene. Second, every person who has to make cuts in this play does it differently, but Cass Foster has cut some parts that I really miss, especially Bottom's playing the "tyrant" in Act I, Scene 2, and the rest of Thisby's death speech in Act V. Those scenes seem wooden and hurried without those lines. If I had known what this book was like, I would have ordered a different book with the full text and cut out lines myself. It would be easier than going through this text and correcting typos and adding lines that I feel need to be there.

A letter from a customer in Baku, Azerbaijan.......1999-03-07

March 5, 1999

Dear friends at Five Star Pub.,

We have a small school on the other side of the planet from you in a country called Azerbaijan. It's kind of a home school coop. Two years ago we performed your version of Romeo and Juliet and last year, A Midsummer Night's Dream. We really enjoy your versions because of the suggestions for staging (we're all rookies) and your notes of explanation on difficult phrases. I have to admit that the kids liked the Romeo and Juliet notes the best because there were more of them but we also like the new layout of Midsummer. It's easier to use.

Thanks for your help,

Book Description

No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of A Midsummer Night's Dream on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.

Each No Fear Shakespeare contains

· The complete text of the original play

· A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language

· A complete list of characters with descriptions

· Plenty of helpful commentary

Customer Reviews:

Very Helpful Book.......2005-10-20

This book is great. It does a great job of breaking down the text of "Midsummer" and telling what it really means. On one page is the actual text of the play; On the direct opposite page is the translation. The only translation I've found so far that is way out there is the translation of "Tary rash wanton...." The translation is "Wait a minute, you brazen hussy...." Now, HOW is that an understandable translation?? This is the only thing that puts a damper on a perfect score. While I was in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," our director frequently had us refer to the book to figure out what in the world we were saying. I highly reccommend buying this book.

Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth

Average customer rating:

This best Shakespeare teaching guide available
"Shakespeare Set Free" set my imagination free!

Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth
Teaching Shakespeare Institute
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Hamlet and Henry IV Part I (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Twelfth Night and Othello (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Teaching Shakespeare: A Handbook for Teachers (Cambridge School Shakespeare)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cambridge School Shakespeare)
Ready-To-Use Activities for Teaching Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare Teacher's Activity Library)

ASIN: 0743288505

Book Description

FOLGER Shakespeare Library

THE WORLD'S LEADING CENTER FOR SHAKESPEARE STUDIES

The Folger Shakespeare Library is one of the world's leading centers for scholarship, learning, and culture. The Folger is dedicated to advancing knowledge and increasing understanding of Shakespeare and the early modern period; it is home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection and one of the leading collections of books and materials of the entire early modern period (1500-1750). Combining a worldclass research library and scholarly programs; leadership in curriculum, training, and publishing for K-12 education; and award-winning performing arts, exhibitions, and lectures, the Folger is Shakespeare's home in America.

This volume of the Shakespeare Set Free series is written by institute faculty and participants, and includes the latest developments in recent scholarship. It bristles with the energy created by teaching and learning Shakespeare from the text and through active performance, and reflects the experience, wisdom, and wit of real classroom teachers in schools and colleges throughout the United States.

In this book, you'll find the following:

Clearly written essays by leading scholars to refresh teachers and challenge older students

Michael Tolaydo's brilliant and accessible technique for classroom teaching through performance

Day-by-day teaching strategies that successfully and energetically immerse students of every grade and skill level in the language and in the plays themselves -- created, taught, and written by real teachers

Customer Reviews:

This best Shakespeare teaching guide available.......2007-07-17

I have used this book to teach Macbeth to 7th graders, and I know several high school teachers who swear by it for grades 9 - 12. It contains helpful critical articles to keep teachers up to date on the latest research in the field, as well as day by day lesson plans. Each unit plan is for about 30 days and contains a variety of performance, film analysis, and close reading lessons as well as quizzes, project topics, and final assignments. Lessons can be easily adapted to fit any grade level, required lesson plan structure, or set of state standards. This is the only book you need to buy.

"Shakespeare Set Free" set my imagination free!.......2007-03-22

Do you have HS students who just don't get Shakespeare? Don't even bother because of the language? Here's the book to break the Shakespeare language barrier. I bought this book for a "secondary English class" at college, since then I have bought one for a friend who teaches drama and I have suggested it to all the 9th and 10th grade English teachers at my high school. The three Shapespeare plays this lesson book covers: Midsummer's Night Dream, MacBeth, and Romeo and Juliette. The authors set it up nicely with a calendar for each selection and approximately 22 lessons in each selection. They provided the objective, the materials list, the lesson, any handouts, homework ideas and questions for reflection. All lessons are formated to include some form of kinesiology, i.e. the students wll have to get out of their seats and move around. Some of my favorites...tossing lines, yelling insults, building a shoebox set and stressing the subtext. There are also many essays in the beginning to help the teacher discover more about the connection to main themes and ideas within the Shakespeare experience.

And the best thing was...I am now using some of the ideas for other text which are difficlt for the HS student!

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cliffs Complete)

Average customer rating:

Shakespeare for the timid!!!

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cliffs Complete)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Cliffs Notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Shakespeare's Hamlet (Cliffs Complete)

ASIN: 0764587250

Book Description

In the CliffsComplete guides, the novel's complete text and a glossary appear side-by-side with coordinating numbered lines to help you understand unusual words and phrasing. You'll also find all the commentary and resources of a standard CliffsNotes for Literature.

CliffsComplete A Midsummer Night’s Dream has long been one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Its magical atmosphere, farcical plot, hilarious play-within-a-play, and general air of celebration have been enjoyed by nearly every generation since it was written.

Everything is not what it seems in this play. Stay on top of what’s really going on — and save valuable studying time — all at once. Enhance your reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with these additional features:

A summary and insightful commentary for each act
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A look at the historical context and structure of the play
Discussions on the play’s symbols and themes
A character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the characters
Review questions, a quiz, discussion topics (essay questions), activity ideas
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Download Description

Shakespeare wrote this romantic comedy to show that "love hath no law but his own." The story of young lovers being toyed with by forest sprites is purely an entertaining fantasy, neither realistic nor tragic, and a popular drama the world over.

Customer Reviews:

Shakespeare for the timid!!!.......2004-07-09

I have tried to read the traditional versions of the play and only got confussed. The print of this is easy to read and it features definitions for words that maybe confussing. This is a complete version of the play with infomation added along. You WILL understand the play when you are done with this book!!!!

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Dover Thrift Editions)

Average customer rating:

" What mortal fool we are"
Lo, What Fools These Mortals Be
SA-WEET
Dare To Dream
isn't love WONDERFUL?! :)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Dover Thrift Editions)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 048627067X

Book Description

Among the most popular of all Shakespeare's comedies, this play humorously celebrates the vagaries of love. With its several pairs of lovers, on-again, off-again romances, magic spells, fairies, and a bumbling troupe of would-be actors, the play continues to enchant audiences. Unabridged reprint of an authoritative British edition, complete with explanatory footnotes.

Customer Reviews:

" What mortal fool we are".......2004-12-10

A midsummer Night's Dream has a lot of spunk!! I think it was a little difficult to understand all of what they were saying sometimes but watching the movie really put in prospective for me. I thought is was one of those mudhy ushy love stories where they fall in love and kiss but it had a lot of twists and turns. My teacher, Mr. Paden, told us to do a scene from shakespear. I thought it was the same but he added a twist to it, we had to use only 15 props and that counted costumes. We had to eluminate the whole stage with something or do it outside. We could not change the words around either. We did outside in the rain and my skit was under a hang over while the audience stood in the rain. It was like the real thing because we had to do it outside and we were under the hangover just like in shakespeare time. I understood it after we watched the movie with each scene and do a skit on a scene. I think shakespeare moral is we are fools when we are in love. Just like Puck says. We make promises we can not keep when we are in love and overlook the facuities of the other person. The faries made a little mistakes and had to fix it so Lysander loves Hermia and Demetrius loves Helena again. It is funny and exciting with romantic, actors, and faries.

Lo, What Fools These Mortals Be.......2004-12-10

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, four different people constantly fall in and out of love, all the while being confused and toyed with by some fairies. The story is good for a laugh, as well as being a rather clever insight into some of the nuances of love.
At the start of the play, there is a dilemma. Egeus' daughter Hermia is in love with Lysander, who is in love with her. But her father believes she should marry Demetrius, another courter. To complicate matters, Hermia's friend Helena has slept with Demetrius before, and is completely enamored with him. By a strange turn of events, all four end up in the woods late at night, when the fairies are about. Oberon, the king of the fairies, sends his number one servant Puck, to bewitch Demetrius to fall in love with Helena. But Puck makes a mistake, and instead makes Lysander fall in love with Helena. Attempting to correct things, Puck makes Demetrius also fall in love with her, leaving poor Hermia confused and angry. Helena thinks everyone is playing a trick on her, Lysander and Demetrius are professing their love for Helena, and Hermia is trying to claw out Helena's eyes. The scenes are most amusing, but are also rather pointed. In this altered state, Lysander says things to his beloved Hermia that he would never have said otherwise, calling her short and shrewish. It leaves one to wonder if this is what he truly thought of her sometimes, but was afraid to say. Eventually, Puck and Oberon clear everything up by putting everyone to sleep, and when they wake up, Hermia and Lysander are in love, as are Helena and Demetrius. There are two weddings, and everyone is happy, except Egeus.
In this play, there is a rather funny view of love represented. Although normally they are the picture of happiness and kindness to each other, Lysander and Hermia become violently at odds once the spell is cast upon them by Puck. They say terrible things, insult each other, and generally act like school children. On the other hand, Hermia is so desperate to have Demetrius back again, but once she actually gets him, she doesn't believe his love is true and real, because she has so convinced herself that he can never love her. It's a funny story, but it has reflections into real life as well. When in love, people are oftentimes so enamored with each other that they overlook, gloss over, or pretend that one another's flaws don't exist. But once that veil of initial emfatuation is removed, then they start to be honest about each other's imperfections. On the other hand, Hermia's experience is quite normal as well. Sometimes, a person can be so entranced, and want someone so badly, that they conjure up an image of the person that is unrealistic. Then, when they finally can have the person, they find out that they don't measure up to expectations or fantasies, and the grass truly isn't greener on the other side of the fence.
I think that this play was excellent. Shakespeare never fails to disappoint in being able to capture his reader's attention, and I loved this play. It was clever and witty, and I would recommend it as a good read, if for no other reason than to get exposure to some of Shakespeare's lighter writings.

SA-WEET.......2004-12-09

This play is so fantastic to me because of two things. Thanks to my mom I am a huge fan of romantic comedies. You can poke fun if you wish but they are the best plays (or movies) out there. And the other reason I loved this play is because there where fairies in it. Who doesn't love fairies? I always enjoy a good fairy tale. And trust me this is a great fairy tale.
I have read a few little stories written by Shakespeare in books and things. This is the first real Shakespeare play I've read. I must say I was completely taken by this play. It takes you away from our world and brings you into a completely different where love is everywhere and anywhere, fairies float about happily and things sort of fall into place.
I think Shakespeare really shows different the aspects of love. He shows how strong it is. Lysander was willing to do absolutely anything for his dear Hermia. It was also shown when Helena refused to give up on her love for Demetrius. In the end love conquered all. They all got what they wanted except Hermia's father, who of course got the short straw. His daughter married the man he hated and the man he did like married someone else.
He also shows how fickle it is. When Puck squirted the flower juice on Lysander's eyes everything changed for him and Hermia. In (literally) the blink of an eye his love changed between to girls. It's so funny to me how Lysander speaks so romantically to Hermia then not 5 minutes later he is trying to hit on Helena.
I've learned a few things from different characters. I've learned from Helena to never give up. She didn't give up on Demetrius and she was rewarded for her diligence. She got the man she wanted and she lived happily ever after.
The thing I've learned from Demetrius is to be kind. I should be kind to everyone, but especially girls. Because the person I'm being mean to could became my best friend or my brother-in-law. I should be REALLY nice to girls because I could end up marrying her or one of her friends. And we all know how girls tell each other everything.
From Puck I've learned to be very careful. I have to be careful what I do and say around certain people. Because if I don't I might screw my life or more importantly someone else's reputation.
And from Lysander I've learned to just hold on because love is a roller coaster. Love is like the wind. One minute it's strong enough to knock you off your feet. But the next minute you can't even feel it. So just be prepared for the craziness of love.

Dare To Dream.......2004-12-09

Love is a powerful emotion that even Shakespeare was mystified by. It often makes you do crazy things, which is brilliantly displayed in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The story of four young lovers and their conflicting interests in each other are revealed as we are taken on an enchanted journey into the woods. Shakespeare is captivating as he shares the lovers' experiences in the wonder, beauty, and folly that love creates.
Although comedic, A Midsummer Night's Dream conveys a timeless message to readers of all ages. Shakespeare skillfully displays the passion and power of love. Love blinds us, shielding lovers from all faults and blemishes of their devoted. The night is controlled by the fairies, symbolizing the magic and passion that the lovers' feel in the night. Lovers live in a world of fantasies and illusions and are separated from all state of reason. Regardless of how foolish one acts when in love, it is a magical dream that no one wishes to wake from.
Living in a world where love is commonly spoken without meaning, reduces the power of love to everyday and ordinary. Shakespeare shows us how there is nothing "ordinary" about love. People in love live a life that has been drastically altered, and forever changed. I believe there is beauty and sanctity in love, it is a gift which is not to be wasted but to be embraced, and takes a lifetime to appreciate.
This celebration of love spoke volumes to me, as it will to you. The value and follies of love is beautifully illustrated and humorously delivered. This sarcastic depiction of love is very realistic and communicates the passion and desire that everyone longs for. A Midsummer Night's Dream allows you to experience your wildest dreams and imagine a world beyond, where the magic of the fairies fill the night.

isn't love WONDERFUL?! :).......2004-12-09

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a wonderful comedy about the confusion of love. William Shakespeare wrote this play to point out the fact that, no matter how hard you try, you can't control your future. Although this play is a little 'far-fetched' when it comes to the story line, with faries and such, it is the truth! The only one who has control of our lives is God, and the god being played in this story is the fairy Puck. Puck has the ability to make people fall inlove with other people and do crazy things without them realizing they've changed.
I've learned that you can't base your life on the things you want to happen. What you desire is not always what comes true. As Lysander says, "The course of true love never did run smooth." In the play, Hermia and Lysander are inlove, Demetrius loves Hermia and Helena is inlove with Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander's plan was to run away and get married, but after taking a trip through the woods near Athens their plans changed drasticly. After some intervention of the fairys, Lysander and Demetrius both ended up loving Helena, and Hermia was left all alone. Hermia was heartbroken because she was determined to marry Lysander. This is a good example that you can't control your future. Anything can come and intervene with your plans, and cause you to be lost and confused like Hermia.
I would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys reading plays! The play is extremely funny and keeps your interest. All though it is written in the language of 'thy' and 'thou' it isn't difficult to understand. As you read, you will find yourself getting frustrated with the confusion going on, and at the end, feeling relieved with the conclusion.

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