User's Guide

SCRIPT SECTIONS AND THEIR HEADINGS

When you open this edition to a numbered unit, you will see a section heading that looks like this:

Unit 1 (ACT I.i.a 1-19) 19 lines, 1'15"

Location: The royal court of Theseus, Duke of Athens

This short expository scene establishes the impending wedding of Theseus to the Queen of the Amazons, whom he has captured in battle. The scene also introduces major thematic image bodies relating to irrationality and love.

Section headings contain:

The Unit Number

Although suitable for reading or study, the unique quality of this edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream is that it is intended for use in theatrical rehearsals. Unlike traditional editions, therefore, the basic division of the script is into "French scenes" (which change whenever active characters enter or exit) rather than "English scenes" (which change only when all the actors exit and the location changes.)

This creates shorter sections, (the traditional Act I, Scene i, is divided in this edition into five units, for example) but they are the working segments actually used in rehearsal calls. These units are numbered consecutively from 1 to 52 in this edition. A chart showing the breakdown of actors in each scene is included as Appendix 1.

Traditional Act, Scene, and Lines Numbers; Line Count; Spoken Running Time

Next, to provide continuity for those who want to cross-reference other editions of the play, the heading also lists the traditional act and scene designations, plus a running letter designation to show that this is a sub-unit of a traditional scene, along with inclusive running line numbers.

Line numbers are specific to this edition. They will be similar, but not identical, in most modern editions. You should be able to find the line nearby in most cases, although exact lineation, especially of prose scenes, varies.
Shakespeare did not divide his script into acts or scenes. Act divisions first appear in the folio of 1623, seven years after Shakespeare died. Editors imposed scene numbers retroactively in the eighteenth century.

Immediately behind these designations is a count of the total number of lines in the section. Finally, behind that is an approximation of the total speaking time (excluding silent stage business) for the lines in the scene.

This is calculated at 900 lines per hour.
That is faster than normal conversation (which occurs at about 700 lines per hour), but much slower than many professional companies perform Shakespeare (which can be up to 1200 lines per hour.)

Location

No descriptions of fictional locations of scenes are supplied in the quarto or folio texts of this play, so those that appear in this version are editorial. These, of course, should not be imagined as real locations, or even locations represented by realistic scenery. They are, rather, loose indications to help performers understand and play the imaginary context of the unit.

A generalized idea of the location can usually be deduced from the lines of the play, but it is often much less exact than the designations that appear in traditional texts on the authority of Nineteenth Century editors who envisioned anachronistic, realistic scenery. In this, as in many matters, this edition emphasizes theatrical practice over editorial precedent.

Plot Summary

Finally, a brief editorial précis of the plot appears, as well as indications of other important aspects of the scene where applicable.