SOURCE: Barton, Anne. “The Synthesizing Impulse of A Midsummer Night's Dream.” In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, edited by Harold Bloom, pp. 7-13. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.

In the following essay, originally published in 1974, Barton comments on A Midsummer Night's Dream's “preoccupation with the idea of imagination” and contends that the products of imagination, including “dreams, the illusions of love, poetry and plays,” are central to the play.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was first printed in a quarto edition in 1600. The comedy was first mentioned by Meres in 1598, but 1595-96 is usually accepted as the date of composition. It has certain stylistic affinities with Richard II and Romeo and Juliet, plays which must have been written at about the same time. More importantly, it seems to consolidate and conclude Shakespeare's first period of experiment with comic form. The synthesizing impulse characteristic of A Midsummer Night's...