The scene begins in the wee hours of the morning; it is still dark night. Titania is entertaining Bottom, but he has an exposition of sleep come upon him, so they go to sleep. Oberon unjuices her and wakes her up, and shortly thereafter Puck says "Fairy King, attend and mark! I do hear the morning lark!" The sun is coming up and it will soon be day. At dawn Theseus and his hunting party come upon the young lovers and he remarks sarcastically to Egeus, "No doubt they rose up early to observe the rite of May . . ." and greets them "Good morrow". But as the conversation continues, Theseus says, "for the morning now is something worn", suggesting that it is getting close to noon when he and the lovers return to the palace. This is a good example of compressed time: in this short scene which takes minutes to play, Shakespeare has compressed the events of seven or eight hours, from about 3 a.m. to 10 or 11 a.m.
Titania,Bottom,and the 4 lovers.
In A Midsummer Nights Dream Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, has been defeated by Theseus, the king of Athens. Theseus has fallen in love with Hippolyta, and plans to marry her. The main action of the play takes place during the preparation for this wedding.
1589
It takes place somewhere in Athens...
It does take place throughout mid-summer, but Midsummer Night's Eve is when all the fairies are believed to come out and "play". Playing tricks on people walking through the woods, some haunting passing travelers, a night for them to have fun. So it is based then so the use of the fairies can be used with no questioning in that time.
It took place in Athens, Greece.
A Midsummer Night's Dream takes place in Athens and the woods nearby.
In Athens and in the wood outside Athens.
No particular era. Theseus and Hippolyta come from ancient Greek legend, but he is given the modern title of "Duke". The rude mechanicals have jobs appropriate to contemporary England and have English names. The fairies are out of Germanic legend except Puck, who is Celtic. Clearly the setting of the play is irrelevant, both as to place and time. In any case in modern productions, directors do not feel bound to a particular era even when the plays are historical, and certainly not in a play like this.
Oh this was performed ages ago before everyone one of us was born.This was performed thousands and thousands ago.
It's supposed to be on a full moon and four days after the play begins...but there isn't ever an exact date that Shakespeare gives you.
There are three weddings in William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The play surrounds the festival that Theseus, the Duke of Athens, plans to celebrate his marriage to Hippolyta. His daughter, Hermia, marries her love, Lysander at the end of the place, while her former suitor, Demetrius, marries his new love, Helena.
This spoken by Lysander to Hermia in Act 1 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream."The course of true love never did run smooth" was said in the Shakespearean play A Midsummer Night's Dream by Lysander (Act 1 - Scene 1).