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The best-known midsummer night's dream is the one dreamt by Bottom in Shakespeare's comedy. A lesser-known midsummer night's dream is that of the young knight Walther in Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nilrnberg. In the Shakespeare play, the dream in the title refers both to Bottom's nighttime vision and to the play itself. In this respect, Shakespeare is but one of many artists who emphasizes the similarity between dreams and poetry. In Wagner's opera, the connection between poetry and the dreamwork is explicitly discussed by the two main characters as Walther recounts his breathtakingly beautiful dream to Hans Sachs, who helps him shape the dream into the prize song that wins the hand of Eva and the title of “Meister” at the climax of the opera.
In 1776, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the rediscoverers of medieval Gothic art, wrote the following poetic “explanation of an old woodcut representing Hans Sachs's poetic vocation” (German text in appendix):
Then, rising on an airy cloud,She enters th' upper room: the proud,Rare Muse, lambently arrayed,Like an image of the Spotless Maid,She endows him with her brightness.With truth of e'er-increasing lightness,She speaks: I come thee to inspire,Take my blessing, and aspire.