For a century scholars have debated whether A Midsummer Night's Dreamwas written as an occasional play or for the professional theatre: the answer is fundamental to an understanding of Shakespeare's position within the Elizabethan world. David Wiles, arguing for close links between Shakespeare and his aristocratic patrons, maintains that the play was commissioned for the wedding of the granddaughter of Henry Carey, the Lord Chamberlain. To support his argument, he examines the conventions of the wedding masque and demonstrates that astrological allusions are a major feature of the genre; he then shows that A Midsummer Night's Dreamcontains planetary references which fit the date of the wedding. The apparently arbitrary timescheme of the play thus assumes an underlying logic, adding a further dimension to a many-layered text. Such readings are also shown to shed light on the significance of other calendrical references in Shakespeare's plays.DAVID WILESis Reader in Drama at Royal Holloway College, University of London.
- ISBN10 0859913988
- ISBN13 9780859913980
- Publish Date 4 November 1993
- Publish Status Inactive
- Out of Print 28 May 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Imprint D.S. Brewer
- Edition Illustrated edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 217
- Language English