Simon Kwak

One Conversation

Benchmark One

First entry: A Midsummer Night 's Dream

10/21

1. Cultural/Historical context: I discovered that the play was written by William Shakespeare around 1590-1597. The reason why publish date is not clear is due to some information about Shakespeare and his works were not recorded properly, but there are few facts and theories that are clear. One important event that may be related to why this play was written might have been it was for an aristocratic wedding of Lady Berkeley, or Elizabeth Carey. This theory is significant as since William Shakespeare was asked to write a play related to the wedding, he would have written a wedding between Theseus and Hippolyta in his work to make his play related to Elizabeth Carey, or Lady Berkeley’s wedding. We, however, have no real evidences of what I just mentioned for when and why this play was published. These theories are not just a random guess, but when facts about one of a famous person is not known well; it does bother me as I want to become like him. What is known for certain is the play would be performed at The Theatre and The Globe. It is also thought that inspiration of the play came from Chaucer 's "The Knight 's Tale" and Ovid 's Metamorphoses. (“Hunter, John (1870). A Midsummer Night 's Dream. London: Longmans, Green and Co.”) The play 's plot of four lovers having love drama in the woods was to illustrate Der Busant which is a style of Middle High German poem. (“Twyning, John