About the lecture

In this module, we explore the various associations that a "Midsummer Night" would have evoked for the original Elizabethan audience. We begin by exploring the idea that Summer was considered a particularly dangerous time for the Elizabethan audience, before going on to think about the relationship between "Midsummer" and the Saint's Day of John the Baptist, which took place at this time of year.

About the lecturer

Diane Purkiss is a Professor at Keble College, Oxford. She has published two books on the English Civil War - 'The English Civil War: A People's History' (2006) and 'Literature, Gender, and Politics during the English Civil War' (2005).