William Shakespeare / Arthur Rackham - A Midsummer-night's Dream - 1908

"A Midsummer-night's Dream" by William Shakespeare and illustrated by Arthur Rackham

William Heinemann, London - 1908 first UK edition first printing - 134p, 25cmx20cm - Forty tipped-in color plates with descriptive tissue-guards, thirty black and white drawings by Arthur Rackham - condition: original publisher's tan cloth, front cover pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt, spine lettered in gilts; rubbing to boards, wear to spine lining, some soiling to covers, scattered foxing, all but one of Rackham plates (plate opposite page 24) incl. frontispiece present (39 tipped-in color plates, with descriptive tissue-guards, thirty black and white drawings by Arthur Rackham

Rare first edition of one of the famous Shakespeare titles, and one of the early Rackham works. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta (the former queen of the Amazons). These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanicals) who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.