A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where we understand 

the magic of
the love potion, mistakenly applied by Puck to Lysander’s eyes, and
can relish not only the love talk he spouts to Helena, but her
befuddlement. When Puck, in an effort to remedy his mistake,
squeezes the juice onto Demetrius’s eyes and he, waking to see
Helena, also pours forth professions of love for her, we hear how
easily and eloquently men can think they love one woman or
another. Hermia, who thought that Lysander loved her, is furiously
jealous while Helena is convinced that there is a conspiracy to
deceive her. We laugh at their perplexity because we know that the
magic that produced it will eventually resolve it and ensure a happy
ending. The lovers will return from the forest, that place of confusion
and transgression, to the institution of marriage.
As ever in Shakespeare’s comedies, it takes mistakes to teach
characters the truths of their own hearts.
all women must be played by young male actors – becomes a kind of
artistic freedom, enabling the characters to switch their sexual
identities
Several of Shakespeare’s comedies have such highly imaginary
settings – the magical wood outside Athens in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream or the Forest of Arden in As You Like It. Only one, The Merry
Wives of Windsor, is set in England, and this is an opportunistic piece,
written to exploit the popularity of the character of Falstaff.
Shakespeare was unusual in invariably finding foreign (and timeless)
locations for his comedies. In his day, stage comedy frequently had a
contemporary and English (often London) setting. Tragedies took
place in Spain, France or Italy; comedies nearer to home.
Shakespeare’s best-known rival dramatist, Ben Jonson, set Every
Man in His Humour (first performed in 1598) in Italy, but later
revised it and relocated it to London, partly in response to popular
taste.