About The Series
  About This Volume
  List of Illustrations
    
  Introduction
    
PART I: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM (EDITED BY DAVID BEVINGTON)
    
PART II. CONTEXTUAL READINGS
    
  1. Popular Festivals and Court Celebrations
    The Rites of May
       John Stow,From A Survey of London
       Henry Machyn,From Diary of a Resident in London
       Philip Stubbes,From The Anatomy of Abuses
    
    The Ballad
       The Fetching Home of May
    Court Entertainments
       Kenilworth and Coventry
       Robert Laneham, From A Letter Descibing the Entertainment of the Queen at Kenilworth
       Coventry Records of the Hock Tuesday Play
       The Fairy Queen
       From Entertainment at Elvetham
       Edmund Spencer, From The Shepheardes Calendar
    
  2. The Making of Men
    The Ranks of Men: William Harrisons Of Degrees of People
       William Harrison, From The Description of England
    The Formation of the Ruler: Plutarchs Life of Theseus
       Plutarch, From The Lives of Nobles Grecians and Romans
    The Formation of the Gentleman: Sir Thomas Elyot and Rodger Ascham
       Sir Thomas Elyot, From The Book Named the Governor
       Rodger Ascham, From The Schoolmaster
    Working Men
       The Statute of Artificers
       From The Statute of Artificers
       Royal Proclaimation Regulating Chester Wages
    The New Man: Simon Formans Dreams
       Simon Forman, From The Autobiography of Simon Forman
    
  3.Female Attachments and Family Ties
    Amazons
       Christine de Pizan, From The Book of the City of Ladies
       Sir Walter Raleigh, From The History of the World
       John Knox, From The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiments of Women
       Queen Elizabeth I, Address to the Troops at Tilbury
    Gossips
       Edward Gosynhyll, From The Schoolhouse of Women
    Nuns
       Richard Layton, A Letter, Certifying the Incontinency of the Nuns of Syon
       Desiderius Erasmus, From A Maid Hating Marriage
    The Virgin Queen
       Queen Elizabeth I, From Speech to Parliment on Marriage and Succession
       William Camden, From The Annals of Queen Elizabeth
    A Poet and Her Patron
       Amelia Lanyer, From The Description of Cooke-ham
    Family Ties
       Thomas Becon, From A New Catechism
       Henry Bullinger, From The Christian Statue of Matrimony
       William Gouge, From Of Domestical Duties
       Philip Stubbes, From A Crystal Glass for Christian Women
    
  4. Natural and Supernatural
    Bad Weather and Dearth
       John Stow, From The Annals of England
    Metamorphosis and Monstrosity
       Ovid and Reginald Scot
       Ovid, From Metamorphoses, Book 14
    Bestiality and Monstrosity
       Prosecuting Buggery
       From Calendar of Assize Records
    Monsters and Prodigies
       Ambroise Paré, From Of Monsters and Prodigies
    Fairy Belief
       John Aubrey,Collecting Fairy Lore
       Richard Corbett, The Fairies Farewell
       The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow
       ICorinthians 2:1--16
    
    
  Bibliography
  Index
    
ILLUSTRATIONS
    
    1. Title Page of the Quarto A Midsummer Nights Dream
    2. Woodcuts fo City and Woods from the Roxburghe Ballasd
    3. Morris Dancers from the WIndow of a Gentlemana House
    4. Maypole DAnce from Michael Drayton;s Poly-Olbion
    5. Woodcut Illustrating the Ballas "The Crost Couple"
    6. Queen Elizabeth I on a Hunt
    7. The Entertainment at Elvetham
    8. The Queen and Her Court, from Edmund Spencers The Shepheaardes Calandar
    9. Page from Plutarchs The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
    10. Title Page from A Catechism
    11. Title Page from George Tubervilles The Noble Art of Venery
    12. Manuscript Page from The Autobiography of SImon Forman
    13. Lascivious and Threatening Amazons from Sir Walter Raleighs The Discovery of Guiana
    14. Amazons, Each with a Breast Removed, from John Bulwers Anthropometamorphosis
    15. Queen Elizabeth I as an Amazon
    16. Frontispiece from Samuel Rowlands Tis Merry When Gossip Meet
    17. Woodcut from Christine de Pizans The Book of the City of Ladies
    18. Circe Transforming Ulysses Sailor into Animals
    19. Monster, Half-Man, Half-Pig, from Ambroise Pares Of Monsters and Prodigies
    20. Title Page from Robin Good-fellow, His Mad Pranks