A Midsummer Night''s Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, suggested by "The Knight''s Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer''s The Canterbury Tales, written around 1594 to 1596. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare''s most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.