A Midsummer Night's Dream

This comedy, written in the mid-1590s, is set in Athens and in a wood beyond the city on the night before Duke Theseus marries Hippolyta. Egeus demands that his daughter Hermia marry Demetrius; she flees with Lysander, pursued by Demetrius and by Helena, who loves him. In the same wood Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, quarrel over a changeling boy, and the servant Puck applies a love-juice that disorders both the mortals and Titania. Bottom the weaver and his fellow craftsmen rehearse a play for the court wedding. The action is the sorting of these crossed desires before dawn.

Bound in green cloth blocked with a design in black and gold. 8 leaves of colour plates. Mottled grey slipcase.