[Vaughn outlines the narrative composition of A Midsummer Night's Dream and presents a summary of the plot. Characterizing the comedy as an eminently poetic work, this critic discusses Shakespeare's language, with particular attention to eye imagery, such as the blindness of love, which "suggests and reinforces thematic concerns about love, the principal subject of the comedy." He then provides a brief historical overview of memorable productions of Shakespeare's play, focusing on Peter Brook's famous 1970 rendition. According to Vaughn, "through the visual austerity and actor-centered focus of his production, Brook was able to redirect the audience's attention to Shakespeare's text-to its lyricism, its imagery, its fantasy. "]

One could hardly imagine a more unlikely combination of comic plot materials than that of classical Greek mythology, English fairy lore, Italianate love intrigue, and Elizabethan amateur theatricals. Yet that is precisely the mélange that Shakespeare concocted in A Midsummer...