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Students will be able to identify key biographical facts about William Shakespeare and explain the basic plot elements of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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9.4.1.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

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Why has Shakespeare's work remained relevant for over 400 years? Share your thoughts in the class Padlet wall.

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Watch this engaging video introduction to Shakespeare's life and times. Take notes on three interesting facts.

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Why Shakespeare loved iambic pentameter - David T. Freeman and Gregory Taylor

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Interactive presentation of A Midsummer Night's Dream's main plot points. Students will use the annotation tools to highlight key characters and relationships.

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THESEUS

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour

Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in

Another moon. But oh, methinks how slow

This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,

5 Like to a stepdame or a dowager

Long withering out a young man's revenue.

THESEUS

Our wedding day is almost here, my beautiful Hippolyta. We'll be getting married in four days, on the day of the new moon. But it seems to me that the days are passing too slowly-the old moon is taking too long to fade away! That old, slow moon is keeping me from getting what I want, just like an old widow makes her stepson wait to get his inheritance.

HIPPOLYTA

Four days will quickly steep themselves in night.

Four nights will quickly dream away the time.

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

10 New bent in heaven, shall behold the night

HIPPOLYTA

No, you'll see, four days will quickly turn into four nights. And since we dream at night, time passes quickly then. Finally the new moon, curved like a silver bow in the sky, will look down on our wedding celebration.

THESEUS

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments.

Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth.

Turn melancholy forth to funerals.

15 The pale companion is not for our pomp.

THESEUS

Go, Philostrate, get the young people of Athens ready to celebrate and have a good time. Sadness is only appropriate for funerals. We don't want it at our festivities.

Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword

And won thy love doing thee injuries.

But I will wed thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.

Hippolyta, I wooed you with violence, using my sword, and got you to fall in love with me by injuring you. But I'll marry you under different circumstances-with extravagant festivals, public festivities, and celebration.

THESEUS

What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid:

To you your father should be as a god,

One that composed your beauties, yea, and one

To whom you are but as a form in wax,

50 By him imprinted and within his power

To leave the figure or disfigure it.

Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

THESEUS

What do you have to say for yourself, Hermia? Think carefully, pretty girl. You should think of your father as a god, since he's the one who gave you your beauty. To him, you're like a figure that he's sculpted out of wax, and he has the power to keep that figure intact or to disfigure it. Demetrius is an admirable man.

THESEUS

In himself he is.

But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,

55 The other must be held the worthier.

THESEUS

You're right, Lysander's admirable too. But since your father doesn't want him to marry you, you have to consider Demetrius to be the better man.

HERMIA

I do entreat your grace to pardon me.

I know not by what power I am made bold

60 Nor how it may concern my modesty

In such a presence here to plead my thoughts,

But I beseech your grace that I may know

The worst that may befall me in this case,

If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

HERMIA

Your grace, please forgive me. I don't know what makes me think I can say this, and I don't know if speaking my mind to such a powerful and noble person as yourself will damage my reputation for modesty. But please, tell me the worst thing that could happen to me if I refuse to marry Demetrius.

HERMIA

So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,

80 Ere I will yield my virgin patent up

Unto his lordship, whose unwishèd yoke

My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

HERMIA

I'd rather wither away than give up my virginity to someone I don't love.

THESEUS

Take time to pause, and by the next new moon-

The sealing day betwixt my love and me

85 For everlasting bond of fellowship-

Upon that day either prepare to die

For disobedience to your father's will,

Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,

Or on Diana's altar to protest

90 For aye austerity and single life.

THESEUS

Take some time to think about this. By the time of the next new moon-the day when Hippolyta and I will be married-be ready either to be executed for disobeying your father, to marry Demetrius as your father wishes, or to take a vow to spend the rest of your life as a virgin priestess of the moon goddess.

DEMETRIUS

Relent, sweet Hermia-And, Lysander, yield

Thy crazèd title to my certain right.

DEMETRIUS

Please give in, sweet Hermia.-And Lysander, stop acting like she's yours. I've got more of a right to her than you do.

LYSANDER

You have her father's love, Demetrius.

Let me have Hermia's. Do you marry him.

LYSANDER

Her father loves you, Demetrius. So why don't you marry him and let me have Hermia?

EGEUS

95 Scornful Lysander, true, he hath my love,

And what is mine my love shall render him.

And she is mine, and all my right of her

I do estate unto Demetrius.

EGEUS

It's true, rude Lysander, I do love him. That's why I'm giving him my daughter. She's mine, and I'm giving her to Demetrius.

LYSANDER

How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale?

How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

LYSANDER

What's going on, my love? Why are you so pale? Why have your rosy cheeks faded so quickly?

HERMIA

130 Belike for want of rain, which I could well

Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.

HERMIA

Probably because my cheeks' roses needed rain, which I could easily give them with all the tears in my eyes.

LYSANDER

Ay me! For aught that I could ever read,

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth.

135 But either it was different in blood-

LYSANDER

Oh, honey! Listen, in books they say that true love always faces obstacles. Either the lovers have different social standings-

LYSANDER

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,

War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,

Making it momentary as a sound,

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,

145 Brief as the lightning in the collied night;

That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth,

And ere a man hath power to say "Behold!"

The jaws of darkness do devour it up.

So quick bright things come to confusion.

LYSANDER

Or, even if the lovers are a good match, their love might be ruined by war, death, or sickness, so that the affair only lasts an instant. Their time together might be as fleeting as a shadow or as short as a dream, lasting only as long as it takes a lightning bolt to flash across the sky. Before you can say "look," it's gone. That's how intense things like love are quickly destroyed.

HERMIA

150 If then true lovers have been ever crossed,

It stands as an edict in destiny.

Then let us teach our trial patience,

Because it is a customary cross,

As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,

155 Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.

HERMIA

If true lovers are always thwarted, then it must be a rule of fate. So let's try to be patient as we deal with our problem. It's as normal a part of love as dreams, sighs, wishes, and tears.

LYSANDER

A good persuasion. Therefore, hear me, Hermia.

I have a widow aunt, a dowager

Of great revenue, and she hath no child.

From Athens is her house remote seven leagues,

160 And she respects me as her only son.

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee.

And to that place the sharp Athenian law

Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,

Steal forth thy father's house tomorrow night.

165 And in the wood, a league without the town-

LYSANDER

That's the right attitude. So, listen, Hermia. I have an aunt who is a widow, who's very rich and doesn't have any children. She lives about twenty miles from Athens, and she thinks of me as a son. I could marry you there, gentle Hermia, where the strict laws of Athens can't touch us. So here's the plan. If you love me, sneak out of your father's house tomorrow night and meet me in the forest a few miles outside of town.

Where I did meet thee once with Helena

To do observance to a morn of May-

There will I stay for thee.

You remember the place-I met you there once with Helena to celebrate May Day.-I'll wait for you there.

HERMIA

I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow,

170 By his best arrow with the golden head,

By the simplicity of Venus' doves,

By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,

And by that fire which burned the Carthage queen

When the false Troyan under sail was seen,

175 By all the vows that ever men have broke

(In number more than ever women spoke),

In that same place thou hast appointed me,

Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee.

HERMIA

Oh, Lysander, I swear I'll be there tomorrow. I swear by Cupid's strongest bow and his best gold-tipped arrow, by the Goddess of Love's innocent doves, by everything that ties lovers together, by the bonfire where Queen Dido burned herself to death when her lover Aeneas jilted her, and by all the promises that men have broken (and men have broken more promises than women have ever made). I give you my word, I will meet you at that spot tomorrow.

HELENA

Call you me "fair"? That "fair" again unsay.

Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!

Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue's sweet air

More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear

185 When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.

Sickness is catching. Oh, were favor so,

Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go.

My ear should catch your voice. My eye, your eye.

My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.

190 Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,

The rest I'd give to be to you translated.

HELENA

Did you just call me "beautiful"? Take it back. You're the beautiful one as far as Demetrius is concerned. Oh, you're so lucky! Your eyes are like stars, and your voice is more musical than a lark's song is to a shepherd in the springtime. Sickness is contagious-I wish beauty were contagious too! I would catch your good looks before I left. My ear would be infected by your voice, my eye by your eye, and my tongue would come down with a bad case of your melodious speech. If the world were mine, I'd give it all up-everything except Demetrius-to be you.

O, teach me how you look and with what art

You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.

Oh, teach me how you look the way you do, and which tricks you used to make Demetrius fall in love with you.

HERMIA

Take comfort. He no more shall see my face.

Lysander and myself will fly this place.

Before the time I did Lysander see

205 Seemed Athens as a paradise to me.

Oh, then, what graces in my love do dwell,

That he hath turned a heaven unto a hell!

HERMIA

Don't worry. He won't see my face ever again. Lysander and I are running away from here. Before I saw Lysander, Athens seemed like paradise to me. But Lysander's so attractive that he's turned heaven into hell!

LYSANDER

Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.

Tomorrow night when Phoebe doth behold

210 Her silver visage in the watery glass,

Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass

(A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal),

Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.

LYSANDER

Helena, we'll tell you about our secret plan. Tomorrow night, when the moon shines on the water and decorates the grass with tiny beads of pearly light (the time of night that always hides runaway lovers), we plan to sneak out of Athens.

HERMIA

(to HELENA) And in the wood where often you and I

215 Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie,

Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,

There my Lysander and myself shall meet.

HERMIA

(to HELENA) In the woods where you and I used to lounge around on the pale primroses, telling each other sweet secrets-that's where Lysander and I will meet.

And thence from Athens turn away our eyes

To seek new friends and stranger companies.

220 Farewell, sweet playfellow. Pray thou for us.

And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!-

Keep word, Lysander. We must starve our sight

From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.

From then on we'll turn our backs on Athens. We'll look for new friends and keep the company of strangers. Goodbye, old friend. Pray for us, and I hope you win over Demetrius!-Keep your promise, Lysander. We need to stay away from each other until midnight tomorrow.

225 As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!

Goodbye, Helena. I hope Demetrius comes to love you as much as you love him!

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

245 So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight.

Then to the wood will he tomorrow night

Pursue her. And for this intelligence

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.

250 But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his sight thither and back again.

But when he got all hot and bothered over Hermia, his promises melted away. I'll go tell Demetrius that Hermia is running away tomorrow night. He'll run after her. If he's grateful to me for this information, it'll be worth my pain in helping him pursue my rival Hermia. At least I'll get to see him when he goes, and then again when he comes back.

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No Fear Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 1 Scene 1 | SparkNotes

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THESEUS Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in Another moon. But oh, methinks how slow This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires, 5 Like to a stepdame or a dowager Long withering out a young man's revenue. THESEUS Our wedding day is almost here, my beautiful Hippolyta.

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In breakout rooms of 3, create a digital character map showing relationships between characters. Use Padlet's collaboration features to share your work.

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For advanced students: Compare and contrast the love triangle in MSND with modern romantic comedies. Create a Venn diagram.

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For students needing additional support: Watch this simplified animated version of the play with closed captions.

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Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM | CliffsNotes Video Summary

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Monitor student understanding through chat responses and digital annotations during the lesson.

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Quick 5-question digital quiz on Shakespeare's life and basic plot elements of MSND.

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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BIOGRAPHY | 290 plays | Quizizz

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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BIOGRAPHY quiz for KG students. Find other quizzes for History and more on Quizizz for free!

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Submit in chat: 1) One thing you learned about Shakespeare 2) One question you still have about the play

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Share what makes you most excited about studying this play.

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Read Act 1, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream using the No Fear Shakespeare version online.

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Create a modern social media profile for one character from the play. Include at least 3 posts they might make.

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Access to audio version of Act 1, Scene 1 for students who benefit from audio support.

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Explore themes such as love, dreams, and reality, and their effects on the play's characters and plot.

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For lower-level students: Watch this storytelling video summarizing A Midsummer Night's Dream to grasp the main story.

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Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM | CliffsNotes Video Summary

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Explore this infographic to learn about the significance and structure of Elizabethan theater during Shakespeare's time.

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Participate in this quick poll: Choose your favorite Shakespearean character or play and share why it stands out to you.

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The Cultural Olympiad is preparing to stage all his plays