The Magic of Midsummer

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a perennial Shakespeare favorite. It’s really got everything – fairies, love triangles, a man who becomes part donkey. But what is Midsummer? And what is its connection to the play?

What is Midsummer?

The timing of celebrating Midsummer varies slightly between cultures. The summer solstice occurs on June 20 or 21 (in 2026 it’s Sunday, June 21 at 4:24 am ET, if you feel the need to celebrate in real time). It marks the midpoint of the growing season and was associated with good fortune, healing, and fertility. Love spells were often cast on Midsummer.

As Christianity spread, Midsummer became associated with the feast of St. John the Baptist, observed on June 24. In Elizabethan England and beyond, it was often celebrated with bonfires—some thought the fires purified the air of sickness. There were parades, which might include Morris dancers and pageants, people on stilts, and hobby horses which were believed to bring good luck to a festival. Craft guilds would march in procession. Dragons—some spitting fire balls, and firework displays made the celebrations noisy.

People also decorated their homes with flowers. 17th-century writer John Stow remembered green birch being hung on all the local signposts: “Every man’s door being shadowed with green birch, long fennel, St John’s Wort, Orpin, white lilies and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers.”

Wreaths of St. John’s Wort, which was believed to protect against evil spirits, were put on the horns of cattle, and their pens and sheds.

Tudor England also viewed Midsummer as a day of feasting, community, and Christian charity, with the wealthy providing cakes and ale for the poor and neighbors at odds encouraged to make up.

The holiday ends a spring cycle of Christian celebration that begins at Easter. Midsummer remains a major national holiday in Sweden and Finland (you may remember director Ari Astor’s 2019 horror movie take on the holiday is set in Sweden).

What is A Midsummer Nights Dream? 

One of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes a seasonally appropriate fantastical look at the workings of love. Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing to marry Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Bottom the weaver and his friends retreat to the wood to rehearse a play they hope to stage for the wedding. Meanwhile, four young Athenians are in a romantic tangle. Lysander and Demetrius love Hermia; she loves Lysander and her friend Helena loves Demetrius. All four end up in the woods, where the hobgoblin or “puck” Robin Goodfellow, who serves the fairy king Oberon, causes both Lysander and Demetrius to fall in love with Helena. Oberon, who is quarreling with his wife, Titania, over a changeling boy, uses the same magic to make her fall in love with Bottom, who now, thanks to Robin Goodfellow, wears an ass’s head. As the lovers sleep, Robin Goodfellow restores Lysander’s love for Hermia, so that now each young woman is matched with the man she loves. Oberon disenchants Titania and removes Bottom’s ass’s head. The two young couples join the royal couple in getting married, and Bottom rejoins his friends to ineptly stage the tragedy of “Pyramus and Thisbe” as part of the celebration.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream was likely written between 1594 and 1596, around the same time Shakespeare was working on Romeo and Juliet and Richard II. The play was first printed in 1600 as a quarto (Q1) and again in 1619 (Q2), which was based on Q1 but with some additional stage directions and some small connections to the text. That text, in turn, was the basis for the 1623 First Folio (F1) with, again, some minor changes, including the substitution of Egeus for Philostrate in the final scene of the play. Most modern editions, like the Folger Shakespeare edition, are based on the Q1 text. See more primary sources related to A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Shakespeare Documented.

What are some of the literary connections in Midsummer?

Adding to the air of the fantastical in Midsummer are the mythic references Shakespeare draws upon. Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta, are drawn from classical mythology. Theseus was a kinsman of Hercules and Hippolyta was the Amazon he defeated in battle. Oberon’s name appears in a medieval French poem. The name Titania and the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe performed by the amateur acting troupe are taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

What are some lines I may recite to impress my beloved?

Midsummer is full of famous lines. Here are just a few:

The course of true love never did run smooth. —Lysander, Act 1, Scene 1

Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
—Helena, Act 1, Scene 1

Lord, what fools these mortals be! —Robin, Act 3, scene 2

Though she be but little, she is fierce. —Helena, Act 3 scene 2

My Oberon, what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamored of an ass.
—Titania, Act 4, Scene 1

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this and all is mended:

That you have but slumbered here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend.

—Robin Goodfellow, Act 5, Scene 1