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A Midſummer Night’s Dream, nor that of The Winter’s s Tale, denotes the ſeaſon of the action; the events which are the ſubject of the latter, occurring at the time of ſheep-ſhearing, and the dream, from which the former receives its name, happening on the night preceding May-day.Theſe titles, therefore, were probably ſuggeſted by the ſeaſon at which the plays were exhibited, to which they belong; A Midſummer Night’s Dream having, we may preſume, been firſt repreſented in June, and The Winter’s Tale in December.
Perhaps, then, it may not be thought a very improbable conjecture, that this comedy was written in the ſummer of 1612, and produced on the ſtage in the latter end of that year; and that the author availed himſelf of a circumſtance then freſh in the minds of his audience, by affixing a title to it, which was more likely to excite curioſity than any other that he could have choſen, while at the ſame time it was ſufficiently juſtified by the ſubject of the drama.
Mr. Steevens, in his obſervations on this play, has quoted from the tragedy of Darius by the earl of Sterline, firſt printed in 1603, ſome lines[1] ſo ſtrongly reſembling a cele-
NOTES.
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“Let greatneſs of her gladly ſcepters vaunt,
Not ſcepters, no but reeds, ſoon bruis’d, ſoon broken.
And let this worldly pomp our wits enchant,
All fades, and ſcarcely leaves behind a token.
Thoſe golden palaces, thoſe gorgeous halls,
With furniture ſuperfluouſly fair,
Thofe ſtately courts, thoſe ſky-encount’ring walls,
Evaniſh all like vapours in the air.”
Darius, Act. III. Ed. 1603.
Perhaps it was formerly an eſtabliſhed cuſtom to have plays repreſented at court in the Chriſtmas holydays, and particularly on Twelft Night. Two of Lilly’s comedies (Alexander and Campaſpe, 1591—and Mydas, 1592) are ſaid in their title pages, to have been played befoore the queenes majeſtie on Twelfe-day at night; and ſeveral of Ben Jonſon’s maſques were preſented at Whitehall, on the ſame feſtival. Our author’s Love’s Labour Loſt was exhibited before queen Elizabeth in the Chriſtmas holy-days; and his King Lear was acted before king James on St. Stephen’s night; (the night after Chriſtmas-day.)
