A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Name: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Author: William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

free · 17,311 words · 2 h 12 m audiobook, read by volunteers for LibriVox · first published 1600

text from Standard Ebooks

scroll plz ↓continue ↓

(start over)

Dramatis Personae

Theseus, Duke of Athens
Egeus, father to Hermia
Lysander, in love with Hermia
Demetrius, in love with Hermia
Philostrate, master of the revels to Theseus
Quince, a carpenter
Snug, a joiner
Bottom, a weaver
Flute, a bellows-mender
Snout, a tinker
Starveling, a tailor
Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus
Hermia, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander
Helena, in love with Demetrius
Oberon, king of the fairies
Titania, queen of the fairies
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow
Peaseblossom, fairy
Cobweb, fairy
Moth, fairy
Mustardseed, fairy
Other fairies attending their king and queen. Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta

Scene: Athens, and a wood near it

Act I

restoring your place…

fetching the rest…

More by William Shakespeare

All’s Well That Ends Well
Helena chases a man who plainly doesn't deserve her, and the play knows it, which is what makes it interesting. If you like your comedies uneasy, with a bed trick and an ending that only half convinces, this one will stick with you.
Antony and Cleopatra
These two aren't young lovers, they're middle-aged, vain, magnificent messes who keep wrecking empires over each other, and you half want to shake them. Stay for Enobarbus, the dry-eyed friend whose barge speech about Cleopatra is worth the whole play.
As You Like It
Once everyone escapes to the Forest of Arden, the play just relaxes, and you get Rosalind in disguise coaching her own lovestruck suitor in how to woo her. She runs the whole show, wittier than anyone around her, and the melancholy Jaques grumbling nearby only sweetens it.

Dramatis Personae

Theseus, Duke of Athens

Egeus, father to Hermia

Lysander, in love with Hermia

Demetrius, in love with Hermia

Philostrate, master of the revels to Theseus

Quince, a carpenter

Snug, a joiner

Bottom, a weaver

Flute, a bellows-mender

Snout, a tinker

Starveling, a tailor

Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus

Hermia, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander

Helena, in love with Demetrius

Oberon, king of the fairies

Titania, queen of the fairies

Puck, or Robin Goodfellow

Peaseblossom, fairy

Cobweb, fairy

Moth, fairy

Mustardseed, fairy

Other fairies attending their king and queen. Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta

Scene: Athens, and a wood near it

More by William Shakespeare

All’s Well That Ends Well

Helena chases a man who plainly doesn't deserve her, and the play knows it, which is what makes it interesting. If you like your comedies uneasy, with a bed trick and an ending that only half convinces, this one will stick with you.

Antony and Cleopatra

These two aren't young lovers, they're middle-aged, vain, magnificent messes who keep wrecking empires over each other, and you half want to shake them. Stay for Enobarbus, the dry-eyed friend whose barge speech about Cleopatra is worth the whole play.

As You Like It

Once everyone escapes to the Forest of Arden, the play just relaxes, and you get Rosalind in disguise coaching her own lovestruck suitor in how to woo her. She runs the whole show, wittier than anyone around her, and the melancholy Jaques grumbling nearby only sweetens it.