Early Texts of A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream was first printed late in 1600 with the following title page:

A midsommer nights dreame. As it hath beene sundry times publickley acted, by the Right Honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare.
Imprinted at London: [By Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde at his shoppe, at the signe of the White Hart, in Fleetestreete, 1600.

It was entered in the Stationers' Register on October 8 of that year by the same "Tho. Fysher". 

The second quarto was printed in 1619 as part of the Pavier collection and falsely dated 1600 to circumvent an action on the part of the King's Men attempting to block surreptitious printing of their properties.  The second quarto reprints the first, with additional stage directions.  The First Folio reprints the second quarto and includes Act divisions.

Because Dream is a relatively short play (fourth shortest) it is often claimed that it was initially written for private performance rather than for the stage.  It is often suggested that the occasion was an aristocratic wedding, and various weddings of the 1590s have been suggested, though Stephen Greenblatt, editor of The Norton Shakespeare, reminds us that "...there is not a shred of actual evidence that A Midsummer Night's Dream was ever performed at, let alone written expressly for, such a wedding" (805).

It appears in the list of Shakespeare's plays in Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia in 1598.  The play was most likely written 1594-1595.

The illustration above displays the rude mechanics rehearsing their play, taken from the 1903 edition of William J. Rolfe.

Here are links to early versions of Dream available on the Internet, through the Fourth Folio of 1685. 

• The 1600 1st quarto of A Midsummer Night's Dream from the British Library.
• A copy of the 1600 1st quarto of A Midsommer nights dreame from The Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
• Another copy of the 1600 1st quarto of A Midsommer nights dreame from The Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
• The 1600 1st quarto from The Rare Book Room (Octavo) in Shakespeare Old Quartos, Malone volume IV from a volume held by The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
• Another version of the 1600 1st quarto of A Midsummer Night's Dream from the Shakespeare Internet Editions from the volume held by the British Library.
• Two examples of the 1619 2nd quarto  (dated 1600 - see The Pavier Collection) of A Midsummer Night's Dream from the British Library, the first originally possessed by Garrick, the second by George III:  1  2.
• Another example of the 1619 2nd quarto (dated 1600) from The Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by University of Edinburgh Library.
• Another example of the 1619 2nd quarto (dated 1600) from The Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the National Library of Scotland.
• A Midsommer Nights Dreame facsimile reprint of the text of the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount), with introduction and notes by Henry Johnson, 1888.
• A Midsommer Nights Dreame in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount) from The Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the Folger Shakespeare Library.
• A Midsommer Nights Dreame in the First Folio of 1623 from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial (Shakespeare) Library, SCETI, University of Pennsylvania.
• A Midsommer Nights Dreame in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount),  from the Perseus Garner, part of the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, from a volume held by Brandeis University Library.
• A Midsommer Nights Dreame in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount),  from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by Brandeis University Library.
• A Midsommer Nights Dreame in the First Folio of 1623 (Jaggard and Blount),  from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by the State Library of New South Wales.
• A Midsommer Nights Dreame in the Second Folio of 1632 (Cotes and Allot) from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by the State Library of New South Wales.
• A Midsummers nights Dream from the Third Folio of 1664 (Chetwinde) from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by the State Library of New South Wales.
• A Midsummers nights Dream from the Fourth Folio of 1685 (Herringman) from Internet Shakespeare Editions (University of Victoria) from a volume held by the State Library of New South Wales.