A Midsummer Night's Dream inspired by the play, that was first performed in 1827. In 1842, partly because of the fame of the overture, and partly because his employer King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia liked the incidental music that Mendelssohn had written for other plays that had been staged at the palace in German translation, Mendelssohn was commissioned to write incidental music for a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that was to be staged in 1843 in Potsdam. He incorporated the existing Overture into the incidental music, which was used in most stage versions through the 19th century. The best known of
A Midsummer Tempest "A Midsummer Night's Dream" are also part of this world. The novel takes place in the era of Cromwell and Charles I, but the characters deal with the English Civil War which is coeval with an Industrial Revolution. The fairy element provides a plot tension with the more advanced technology. Although various plays are alluded to, the plot is chiefly shaped by "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest". As part of the homage to Shakespeare, the nobler characters speak in blank verse and at least one sonnet, printed as prose. Prince Rupert is taken by the Roundheads; held captive