Performance history A Midsummer Night's Dream
1 performance history 1.1 17th , 18th centuries 1.2 victorian stage 1.3 20th , 21st centuries performance history the first page printed in second folio of 1632 17th , 18th centuries during years of puritan interregnum when theatres closed (1642–60), comic subplot of bottom , compatriots performed droll. drolls comical playlets, adapted subplots of shakespearean , other plays, attached acts of acrobats , jugglers , other allowed performances, circumventing ban against drama. when theatres re-opened in 1660, midsummer night s dream acted in adapted form, many other shakespearean plays. samuel pepys saw on 29 september 1662 , thought insipid, ridiculous play ever saw ... after jacobean/caroline era, midsummer night s dream never performed in entirety until 1840s. instead, heavily adapted in forms henry purcell s musical masque/play fairy queen (1692), had successful run @ dorset garden theatre, not revived. richard leveridge turned pyramus , thisbe scenes italian opera burlesque, ac...