This book explores how Shakespeare uses images of dreams and sleep to
define his dramatic worlds. Surveying Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies,
histories, and late plays, it argues that Shakespeare systematically
exploits early modern physiological, religious, and political
understandings of dreams and sleep in order to reshape conventions of
dramatic genre, and to experiment with dream-inspired plots.
The book discusses the significance of dreams and sleep in early modern
culture, and explores the dramatic opportunities that this offered to
Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It also offers new insights into how
Shakespeare adapted earlier literary models of dreams and sleep -
including those found in classical drama, in medieval dream visions, and
in native English dramatic traditions. The book appeals to academics,
students, teachers, and practitioners in the fields of literature,
drama, and cultural history, as well as to general readers interested in
Shakespeare's works and their cultural context.