Who wrote the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

William Shakespeare wrote the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The play is generally dated to the mid-1590s and combines several interlocking stories: the lovers Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena; the fairy rulers Oberon and Titania; and the amateur actors known as the Mechanicals. Its setting near Athens and its enchanted forest give the work its dreamlike midsummer atmosphere.

The title refers to a magical night rather than documenting a particular national festival. Shakespeare uses midsummer as a symbolic season of transformation, disorder, romance, and supernatural activity. The play remains one of his most frequently performed comedies.

The work is sometimes confused with later adaptations or with Shakespeare’s other romantic comedies. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play, not a historical account of the solstice, and the exact date of its first performance is not securely known.