Table of Contents
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
