Literary Commentary

Briggs, K. M. "Shakespeare's Fairies." In her The

Anatomy of Puck: An Examination of Fairy Beliefs among Shakespeare's Contemporaries and Successors, pp. 44-55. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959.

Suggests that the diminutive size of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream was Shakespeare's invention, but demonstrates that folklore frequently presented these figures as very small.

Bryant, J. A, Jr. "Hippolyta's View." In his Hyppolyta's View: Some Christian Aspects of Shakespeare's Play, pp. 1-18. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1961.

Asserts that Shakespeare's view of poetry in A Midsummer Night's Dream is expressed not by

Theseus but by Hippolyta, specifically, in her "something of great constancy" speech (V. i. 23-7). Bryant contends that this passage also contains echoes of the playwright's Christian view of life.

Clemen, Wolfgang. "Shakespeare's Art of Preparation. A Preliminary Sketch: A First Scene as an Example, A Midsummer Night's Dream...