Here it will
suffice to say shortly that _A Midsummer-Night's Dream_, first published in
1600, must have been acted before or during 1598, as it is definitely
mentioned in Mores' _Palladic Tamia_ of that year. A more exact
determination of its date can only be derived from the internal evidence
supplied by allusions in the text or by metrical and general style. Such
allusions as have been discovered--for example, that reference to "the
death of learning," V. i. 52-3--form here as elsewhere a battle-ground for
critics of all sorts, but do not really assist us to an answer. More
trustworthy testimony, however, is afforded by the general character of the
play, and by Shakespeare's handling of his material; these considerations,
combined with whatever other evidence is available, have caused the play to
be assigned to the winter of 1594-5. So placed, it is the latest of the
early comedies of Shakespeare, who makes an advance on _The Two Gentlemen
of Verona,_ but has not yet attained the firmness of hand which fills the
canvas of _The Merchant of Venice_ with so many well-delineated figures.
Once arrived at this conclusion, we need not let ourselves again be led
away into vagueness or critical polemics by an attempt to find any
aristocratic wedding which this masque-like play seems designed to
celebrate; such theorising, however interesting in other ways, does not
concern and will not avail us now.
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