§ 2. THE GROTESQUE PLOT 27

§ 3. THE FAIRY PLOT 33

OBERON'S VISION 66

ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS 69

NOTES 188

INDEX 194

* * * * *

THE SOURCES AND ANALOGUES
OF
"A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM"

A study such as the present one does not demand any elaborate investigation
of the date or circumstances of the first production of the play, unless
these throw light on the inquiry into its sources; but in any case it is
always well to base a literary study on literary history. Here it will
suffice to say shortly that _A Midsummer-Night's Dream_, first published in
1600, must have been acted before or during 1598, as it is definitely
mentioned in Mores' _Palladic Tamia_ of that year. A more exact
determination of its date can only be derived from the internal evidence
supplied by allusions in the text or by metrical and general style. Such
allusions as have been discovered--for example, that reference to "the
death of learning," V. i. 52-3--form here as elsewhere a battle-ground for
critics of all sorts, but do not really assist us to an answer. More