The Folger's collection includes a lot of editions of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Some copies of those editions have their unique stories. Which of these beautiful books matches your personality? Take our quiz to find out.
You're a doer. A take-charge kind of person. A problem solver. You're David Garrick's 1734 prompt copy [PROMPT M.N.D. 06]. This heavily annotated copy belonged to David Garrick, the 18th-century actor-manager who helped cement Shakespeare's popularity. This prompt copy was part of his 1734 production of the play.
A prompt copy is a "production's Bible." It's a script marked up for performance. A prompt copy might record actors' cues, blocking, or lines. It might reflect the way a director has cut or rearranged Shakespeare's text. "They are often our only surviving source for learning how a particular production was staged," writes Folger Curator of Manuscripts Heather Wolfe, "with details about cuts, additions, rearrangements, and stage directions, and sometimes details about lighting, music, props, and costumes as well." The Folger's collection includes numerous promptbooks. You can see over 1,000 of them online with a subscription to Shakespeare in Performance. Or, take a closer look at this book in our Digital Collections.
You're the original. The OG. You appreciate history and tradition. You're set in your ways? Sure: that's because you know that you got it right the first time. You're the 1600 first quarto (Q1) edition [STC 22302], and all these other editions of Midsummer are copies of you.
The Q1 edition is the very first published edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Most modern editions—including the Folger editions—are based on the Q1 text. Visit our website to learn more about the earliest printed editions of the play.
You're a letter-writer. A tea-drinker. A comfortable-chair-sitter. You may be a little bit old-fashioned, but you appreciate beauty, craftsmanship, and dedication. You're the 1914 Henry Holt and Company edition, with illustrations by the great W. Heath Robinson [PR2827 1914b Sh.Col.].
Heath Robinson was known for his exquisite draftsmanship, as well as for the elaborate contraptions he drew that earned him his reputation as the "British Rube Goldberg." Learn more about Heath Robinson (and see more of his sumptuous illustrations) on our blog, Shakespeare & Beyond.
You're a rebel and a dreamer. You aren't afraid to color outside the lines. You're Pinckney Marcius-Simon's illustrated copy [ART Vol. a71].
In 1908, American painter Pinckney Marcius-Simons took an old French translation of Midsummer and painted over every single page with gorgeous watercolor and gouache illustrations. Learn more about this magical artist's book.
We're sorry, you don't seem to be A Midsummer Night's Dream at all. We think you might be another Shakespeare play. Maybe you're Coriolanus, Shakespeare's tragedy of war, politics, and the tensions of democracy, first published in the 1623 First Folio. Learn a little more about that play on our website and see what you think. Did we get it wrong? Take the quiz again and see if you're Midsummer the next time.
You're garrulous, generous, good at parties, and something of a storyteller, which is what makes you this fantastic 1868 edition of the play.
This edition features beautiful cut-paper images by Paul Konewka (engraved by Albert Vogel), and it has a great story behind it. The book was a Christmas gift to notable 19th-century British illustrator John Tenniel from his friend, C.L. Dodgson—AKA Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "As Dodgson was preparing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for publication in 1865, he was virtually nobody," writes Folger cataloger Sarah Hovde, "while Tenniel was a well-established artist. Dodgson, wanting high-quality illustrations for his book, hired Tenniel with funds out of his own (relatively small) pocket, a gamble that ultimately paid off." Read more about this edition, and the relationship between Tenniel and Dodgson, on our Shakespeare & Beyond blog.
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