A Midsummer Night's Dream. William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream

p>William Shakespeare’s

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

‘True love is never easy,’ says Lysander. The four young Athenians in this story – Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena – find this out. And so, looking for answers to their difficulties, they run away to the forest outside Athens.

But Shakespeare’s forest is a place where wildly impossible things happen … The young people chase each other around the forest, but who is in love with whom, and why does love change so quickly? And they are not the only people in the forest that night. A group of workmen from the city are meeting to rehearse their play for the Duke of Athens. What extraordinary thing happens to one of the workmen? Why do his friends run from him in fear?

Because on this midsummer night, there are also fairies in the forest, spirits of the night, unseen by human eyes. They are everywhere – watching, laughing, singing, dancing, arguing. Where there are fairies, there is magic. And where there is magic, anything can happen …

Or perhaps everything that happens is just a dream – a wonderful, midsummer night’s dream …

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countriesThis simplified edition © Oxford University Press 2014The moral rights of the author have been assertedFirst published in Oxford Bookworms 201410 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1No unauthorized photocopyingAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this workISBN: 978 0 19 478613 3A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is available in an audio pack ISBN: 978 0 19 478597 6Printed in ChinaWord count (main text): 11,167For more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library,visit www.oup.com/elt/gradedreaderswww.oup.com/elt/gradedreadersACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Illustrations by: Fausto Bianchi/Beehive Illustratione-Book ISBN 978 0 19 463028 3e-Book first published 2014

PEOPLE IN THIS STORY

THE ATHENIANS

Theseus, Duke of Athens

Hippolyta, soon to become Theseus’s wife and Duchess of Athens

Egeus, an Athenian lord

Hermia, Egeus’s daughter, in love with Lysander

Lysander, in love with Hermia

Demetrius, in love with Hermia

Helena, in love with Demetrius

THE ACTORS

Peter Quince, who reads the Prologue

Nick Bottom, who plays Pyramus

Francis Flute, who plays Thisbe

Tom Snout, who plays Wall

Snug, who plays Lion

Robin Starveling, who plays Moonshine

THE FAIRIES

Oberon, the fairy King

Titania, the fairy Queen

Puck, fairy servant to Oberon

CHAPTER 1

Young love

Athens, on a summer night. The air is soft and warm. In the sky the moon shines, throwing its bright silvery light over the old city and the dark forest beyond. There are faces at a window in the great palace on top of the hill. It is Theseus, Duke of Athens, and the beautiful Hippolyta, looking up at the moon …

‘Hippolyta, my love,’ said the Duke, ‘our wedding day comes closer. In four happy days there will be a new moon.’ He took Hippolyta’s hand and pulled her towards him. ‘But how slow this old moon is!’ He sighed. ‘Why can’t it hurry away and bring our wedding day faster.’ He kissed Hippolyta’s hand, and she laughed.

‘Four days will quickly end in nights,’ she said softly, ‘and four nights will quickly pass in dreams. And then the new moon will shine on our celebrations.’

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A Midsummer Night's Dream. William Shakespeare