Background on A Midsummer Night's Dream Written in the mid-1590s, probably shortly before Shakespeare turned to Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of his strangest and most delightful creations, and it marks a departure from his earlier works and from others of the English Renaissance.

Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the 1590’s, around the time that he was also writing Romeo and Juliet. Unlike Romeo and Juliet though, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy that parodies the traditional love stories and dramas of Shakespeare’s time.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is thought to have been written to celebrate the wedding of Elizabeth Carey, the daughter of an English nobleman. The bride’s grandfather was Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain, patron of Shakespeare’s theatre company. The play was probably first performed at the London home of the Carey family and later at court.