William Shakespeare

Poems
Shakespeare is widely recognised as the greatest English dramatist in
the world. But he also penned 154 sonnets, two long narrative
poems and a few other minor poems in his very productive career.
In Shakespeare's active era or the Elizabethan age (1564-1616), it
was not profitable but very fashionable to write poetry. It appears
that writing poetry was an activity that he greatly enjoyed and did
primarily for himself at times when he was not consumed with
writing or acting in a play. It also gave credibility to his talent as a
writer and facilitated to enhance his social standing as a great literary
personality.
The two longest works that scholars agree were written by
Shakespeare are entitled “Venus and Adonis” and “The Rape of
Lucrece”. Both the poems were dedicated to the Honorable Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, who seems to have acted as a
patron and benefactor of Shakespeare's work for a brief time.
Both of these poems comment on the degeneracy of unsolicited
sexual advances, exhibiting themes of uncontrollable lust, guilt, and
moral confusion. In “Venus and Adonis” (1693), an innocent Adonis
must reject the sexual advances of Venus. Conversely in “The Rape of
Lucrece” (1694), the honorable and virtuous wife Lucrece is raped a
character overcome with lust, Tarquin. The dedication to
Wriothesley is much warmer in the second poem, suggesting a
deepening of their relationship and Shakespeare's appreciation of his
support.

1|Page
 Venus and Adonis

“Venus and Adonis” was published in 1593 and is probably the first
publication by Shakespeare. It recounts the tale of Venus, the
goddess of Love- of her attempted seduction of Adonis, a handsome
young man, who would rather go hunting and her unrequited love.
The poem consists of 199 stanzas or 1,194 lines. Its stanzas are
written in sestet form (six lines) of iambic pentameter with rhyme
scheme ABABCC. Today this stanza structure is known as Sesta Rima
or the Venus and Adonis stanza. This form was later even used
by Edmund Spenser and Thomas Lodge in their poems.
It was published originally as a quarto pamphlet. The printer
was Richard Field, who, like Shakespeare, was from Stratford. It was
written when the London theatres were closed for a time due to the
plague. It was reprinted fifteen times before 1640.
The poem begins with a brief dedication to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd
Earl of Southampton. It finds its inspiration from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Venus is the goddess of love. Adonis is the
most beautiful young man in the world, but he has no interest in
love; he would rather spend his time hunting. When Venus sees
Adonis for the first time, she falls in love with him and comes down
to earth to meet him. When they meet, Adonis is about to set out on
a hunt. She wants him to get down from his horse and talk to her for
a little while, but he is not interested in doing so. She forces him to
get off the horse, and all Venus wants is for Adonis to kiss her. All
Adonis wants is for Venus to leave him alone so that he can go
hunting. Almost when he is about to leave, Adonis's horse becomes
interested in a mare and the two animals gallop off together, ruining
Adonis's plans to go hunting.
Venus sees this as the right opportunity and she walks over to Adonis
and starts talking to him again about love. He listens for a while but
is not interested in having a conversation with her and turns away.

2|Page
Heartbroken over Adonis's apathy, Venus faints. Looking at her in
this condition, He kneels down and, succumbs to her and eventually
kisses her. She gains consciousness at the feel of his kiss, and she
asks for one kiss more, which also Adonis reluctantly gives.
Venus wants to see Adonis again, but he refuses because he has to
go hunting for a wild boar. Venus sees a vision in which Adonis is
killed by the boar that he is hunting. She tells him of her vision and
warns him not to go out on the hunt, but he dismisses her.
The following morning, scared due to her vision, she searches the
woods for Adonis. She hears dogs and hunters in the distance and
assumes it is his hunting party. But it doesn’t take her long to find
Adonis's hunting dog lying severely injured on the ground. Adonis lies
a little way away from his dog; he is dead, killed by the wild boar
afterall.
Because she is the goddess of love, she decrees that from that
moment on love will be tormented with suspicion, jealousy, sadness,
and pain. Adonis's blood has dyed the flowers around him dark
purple. She leaves the earth to return to the heavens, bereaved and
filled with sadness.

The Rape of Lucrece

“The Rape of Lucrece” (1594) begins with a prose dedication
addressed to the Earl of Southampton, which begins as, "The love I
dedicate to your Lordship is without end." The dedication is followed
by "The Argument", a prose paragraph that summarizes the
historical context of the poem. The poem contains 1,855 lines,
divided into 265 stanzas of seven lines each. The metrical structure
of the poem is iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme for each
stanza is ABABBCC, also known as rhyme royal. The poem is set in

3|Page
509 BCE and the locations are Rome, Ardea and Collatium. Composer
Benjamin Britten based an opera on the poem in 1946.
Soldier Collatine of Collatium had bragged about the beauty of his
wife Lucrece before his fellow soldier and friend Tarquin. One day,
Tarquin feels the urge to behold her so while Collatine was away
Tarquin sneaks into his house. He tells Lucrece about his stories of
the battle-field and gathers her attention. He decides to spend the
night at Lucrece's place.
Tarquin is overcome with lust at night; therefore, he enters Lucrece's
chamber at night. On his first touch, Lucrece's awakens and is
frightened to see him. He asks her to give herself to him or else he
would kill her and defame her by showing that she was sleeping with
one of the slaves and thus Tarquin killed them both. Lucrece pleads
for mercy but Tarquin doesn't accept. He rapes her and leaves her
place.
Lucrece is overcome with shame and anger. She writes a letter to her
husband and asks him to come home soon. She narrates her
predicament to him. Overcome by grief and guilt, she stabs herself
with a knife and dies. Collatine wants to die as well in the grief of his
wife but he decides to avenge his wife's dishonor and death. He has
Tarquin and his family banished from the kingdom at last.

A Lover’s Complaint

A third and shorter narrative poem, “A Lover's Complaint”. It was

printed in the first collection of Shakespeare's sonnets in the 1609
quarto, published by Thomas Thorpe. The poem narrates the tale of
a young woman who is driven to misery by a persuasive suitor's
attempts to seduce her. The poem contains 47 seven-line stanzas
written in rhyme royal (rhyme scheme ABABBCC) of iambic
pentameter lines.

4|Page
The poem begins with a description of a young woman weeping at a
river banks, into which she throws such tokens of love as torn-up
letters and rings. An old man approaches the woman and asks the
reason for her mourning. She tells him of a former lover who
pursued her but eventually abandoned her. The narrative of the
poem is basically the speech her lover gave her which led to her
falling for him. She concludes her tale by confessing that if it came to
that, she would fall for his false love again.

The Phoenix and The Turtle

Another short poem is “The Phoenix and the Turtle”, an allegorical
poem, which despairs the death of a legendary phoenix and his
faithful lover, the bird turtle(dove). It is an allegorical poem that
suggests the death of true love in a widely superficial world.
The phoenix is a mythical bird that burns into flames every 500 years
and rises again from its own ashes. The turtle (dove) is a bird that is
symbolic of love and loyalty. The poem begins with a number of birds
like owl, eagle, swan, crow, etc. gathering to commemorate the
Phoenix and the Turtle. The screech-owl and other birds of prey are
banned from the gathering because they symbolize death.
The next section of the poem is an “Anthem” that recounts the
mystical and ideal love of the Phoenix and the Turtle. In the third and
last section of the poem, Reason, in personified, form sings a
“Threnos” (funeral elegy) for the lovers. Reason cannot understand
the mystery of how the Phoenix and the Turtle managed to be two
and one at the same time. A love like theirs will never be possible
again. With their death, loyalty, devotion and the rarity of love have
also escaped this mortal world. Reason asks the mourners to say a
little prayer for the canonized lovers, who are now immortalized in
an urn.

5|Page
 The Sonnets
154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets are included in the volume
Shakespeare’s Sonnets, published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. They
are followed by the long poem 'A Lover's Complaint', which first
appeared in that same volume after the sonnets. Six additional
sonnets appear in his plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's
Labour's Lost. These sonnets focus on the themes of love and life.
Shakespeare writes to a young man and a dark woman, who may or
may not be attainable, but they arouse feelings of desire and aw in
the speaker at the same time.

The first 126 are directed to a young man (fair youth) who is the
speaker’s object of desire. The last 28 sonnets are addressed to an
older woman (dark lady). However, many of the sonnets appear
gender-neutral as well.

What is now known as the Shakespearian sonnet is the English

sonnet form brought into England by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
and Sir Thomas Wyatt. This is composed of fourteen lines of iambic
pentameter. The stanza break is as such- three quatrains (four lines
each) and a couplet (two lines). Before the couplet, a change of tone
or idea occurs, that is known as caesura.

Within the sonnets, there seems to appear two deliberate series:

one describing his all-consuming lust for a married woman with a
dark complexion, and one about his confused love feelings for a
handsome young man.
The Passionate Pilgrim
 Published in 1599
 An anthology of 20 poems- only five are considered
Shakespearean
 Published by William Jaggard

6|Page
  Poems-
o “When my love swears that she is made of truth”- later
appears as Sonnet 138
o “Two loves I have, of comfort and despair”- later appears
as Sonnet 144
o “Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye”- appears in
Love’s Labour Lost
o “If love makes me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?” -
appears in Love’s Labour Lost
o “On a day (alack the day)- appears in Love’s Labour Lost

7|Page
William Shakespeare- Phases & Sources

Sources

 Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland

(1577)- King Lear, Macbeth and Cymbeline.
• Holinshed’s Chronicles on Scotland- Macbeth.
• Daemonologie by King James and Discovery of Witchcraft by
Reginald Scott- The Trio of Witches in Macbeth.
• Holinshed’s Chronicle + Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia
Regum Britannia + Bodel’s Matter of Britain + Albion’s England
(1589)- King Lear
• Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia- subplot of King Lear (Earl of
Gloucester, Edmund and Edgar).
• Thomas Kyd’s Ur Hamlet and The Spanish Tragedy- Hamlet.
• Saxxo The Grammarian’s Historia Danica ‘History of Amleth’
(13th C)- Hamlet
• Thomas Lodge’s ‘Wit’s Miseries and World’s Madness’- Hamlet
• Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s The Lives of Noble
Grecians and Romans or Lives (1579)- Antony and Cleopatra,
Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus and
Coriolanus.
• Edward Hall’s “The union of two noble families of Lancasters
and Yorks” (1547)- for History plays.
• Ovid’s Metamorphosis (tl. By Arthur Golding 1567)- Tempest,
Midsummer Night’s Dream and Titus Andronicus.
1|P ag e
 • Arthur Brooke’s The Tragic History of Romeus and Julius
(1562)- Romeo and Juliet.
• Boccaccio’s Decameron- The Winter’s Tale (Robert Greene’s
Pandosto), All’s Well that Ends Well, The Two Gentlemen of
Verona, Cymbeline and Othello.
• Matteo Boiordo’s Orlando Innamarto- “Fountain of Head” and
“Garden of Ardenne” as Forest of Arden in As You Like It.
• Matteo Bandello’s Certain Tragical Discourses (tl. By Geoffrey
Phenton 1567)- Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night.
• Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta- The Merchant of Venice.
• John Gower’s Confessio Amantis- Pericles.
• Plautus’ Menaechmi- The Comedy of Errors.
• Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde- As You Like It
• Jorge de Montemarjo’s Diana Enamorada- The Two Gentlemen
of Verona.

2|P ag e
 Literary Phases

 Ist Phase- This was the upbeat period of initial vigour in his
career, displaying the exuberance of youthful love and
imagination. It sarted off with his History Plays, Poems, and
some initial Comedies. The plays that were written during this
period were Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, A
Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II and
Richard III. 26 sonnets and 7 plays were written in total. Venus
and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece are popular poems of this age.
These were probably all composed before 1595. This phase
shows influence of Christopher Marlowe.
 IInd Phase- The second period runs from 1595 to 1601. It
shows progress in his dramatic calibre as there is less
exaggeration, more power in plot and diction, and a deeper
insight into human nature. There also appears first evidence of
philosophy and a vein of sadness in his characters, e.g. the
sayings of Jaques in As You Like It. Because by this time he was
at the peak of his career and was enjoying immense
professional and financial success, he wrote such happy
Comedies. In fact, most of his great romantic comedies are
from this period. He also continued writing his History Plays.
Among the plays of this period are The Merchant of Venice,
Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, The Merry Wives of
Windsor, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night (tragi-
comedy), Richard II, Henry IV Parts I and II, Henry V.

 IIIrd Phase- This period runs from 1601 to 1608. It was a period
of hardships in his life, that reflected on the kind of plays that
he was writing. His father died in 1601, after great
disappointments. His best friends suffered what he calls,

3|P ag e
 in Hamlet, "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." In
1601 Elizabeth executed the Earl of Essex for treason, and on
the same charge also punished the Earl of Southampton.
Rumour mill has it that perhaps even Shakespeare himself may
have been suspected. The impact of these events on his work
was that he produced his Great Tragedies during this period.
They were Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear,
Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. Additionally, he wrote
his Dark Comedies during a particularly Dark Phase of his life
(1601-1604). They were- All’s Well that Ends Well and Measure
for Measure.

 4th Phase- The plays of his fourth period (1608-161) are

remarkable for calm, composure and sweetness. The fierceness
of his erstwhile tragedy plays like Othello and Macbeth is left
behind. In 1608 Shakespeare's mother died. The vivid
recollection of her love may have been influential in causing
him to look on life with kinder eyes. This phase boils down to
tranquillity, just like his own life. The greatest plays of this
period are Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The
Tempest.

4|P ag e
 William Shakespeare- Plays

Settings of the Plays

As You Like It
Setting: Forest of Arden

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Setting: Athens, and a wood nearby

The Merchant of Venice

Setting: Partly in Venice, and partly at Belmont, the seat of Portia on
the Continent

All's Well that Ends Well

Setting: Rousillon, Paris, Florence, and Marseilles

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Setting: Windsor

The Tempest
Setting: The Sea; afterwards an Island

Timon of Athens
Setting: Athens

Antony and Cleopatra

Setting: Parts of the Roman Empire

Hamlet
Setting: Elsinore

1|Page
Julius Caesar
Setting: Rome; afterwards, Sardis and near Philippi

King Lear
Setting: Britain

The Comedy of Errors

Setting: Ephesus

Coriolanus
Setting: Rome, Corioli, and Antium

Cymbeline
Setting: Britain, Italy

Love's Labour's Lost

Setting: Navarre

Macbeth
Setting: Scotland and England

Measure for Measure

Setting: Vienna

Much Ado about Nothing

Setting: Messina

Othello
Setting: Venice (for first act) and a sea-port in Cyprus

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Setting: various countries

Romeo and Juliet

Setting: Verona and Mantua

2|Page
The Taming of the Shrew
Setting: Sometimes in Padua, and sometimes in Petruchio's home in
the country.

Heroines

 Beatrice and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing

• Cordelia, Goneril and Regan in King Lear
• Desdemona in Othello
• Gertrude and Ophelia in Hamlet
• Titania, Hippolyta, Hermia and Helena in Midsummer Night’s
Dream
• Imogen in Cymbeline
• Celia and Rosalind in As You Like It
• Bianca and Katherine in Taming The Shrew
• Hermione in A Winter’s Tale
• Isabella in Measure for Measure
• Miranda in the Tempest
• Viola and Olivia in Twelfth Night
• Portia in The Merchant of Venice
• Tamora in Titus Andronicus
• Volumnia in Corilanus

Fools
• Falstaff in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2
• Feste in Twelfth Night
• Costard in Love’s Labour Lost
• Nick Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream
• The Fool in King Lear
• The Gravediggers in Hamlet

3|Page
 • Touchstone in As You Like It
• Trinculo in The Tempest
• Pompey in Measure for Measure

All Plays’ Summaries

1) All’s well that ends well

Bertram is summoned to the court of the King of France in Paris.

Helena, daughter of a famous physician, uses the King’s incurable
illness as an excuse to follow Bertram, with whom she is in love.
Using her father’s secret prescription, she wagers her own life that
the King will recover within 24 hours. He is cured, and as a reward
allows Helena to choose a husband from the noblemen at the
court. She picks Bertram, who is ordered to marry her. He runs
away to war in Italy before their marriage is consummated, refusing
to acknowledge Helena as his wife until she has his ring and is
carrying his child. Helena becomes a pilgrim In Florence.
Helena chances upon Bertram wooing Diana. She changes
places with Diana in the night, so that Bertram makes love to his
wife instead of his lover. Helena and Bertram exchange rings. Back
in France, Bertram is engaged to Lord Lafew’s daughter, and gives
her Helena’s ring. Thought to have murdered his former wife and
stolen her ring, he is only saved by Helena’s timely reappearance.
2) Antony and Cleopatra

Mark Antony, war hero and ruler of the entire Roman Empire with
drunkard Lepidus and officious Octavius, is bewitched by the
beautiful Queen Cleopatra in Egypt, Torn back to the realities of
Roman life by political intrigue and the death of his wife Fulvia,
4|Page
 Antony cynically secures a pact with Octavius by marrying his sister
Octavia. Soon afterwards, the allure of Cleopatra and their
luxurious life in Egypt draws him back.
In the ensuing war, Antony’s uncharacteristic lack of
judgement and Cleopatra’s panic give the victory to Octavius.
Tricked by Cleopatra, Antony believes she is dead and falls on his
sword. Discovering she is still alive, Antony is carried to her and
dies in her arms With Antony gone, and unwilling to be part of an
ignominious parade of captives in Rome, Cleopatra dresses herself
in her royal finery and presses a poisonous asp to her bared breast.

3) As you like it

Rosalind escapes from her uncle, the usurper Duke Frederick, with
her cousin Celia and Touchstone, the court jester. Orlando, who
loves Rosalind, flees the duchy to evade his murderous brother
Oliver. In the forest of Arden, Duke Senior and his court (with the
exception of the jaundiced philosopher Jaques) enjoy life among
the courting shepherds Orlando is discovered hanging love poems
on trees by Rosalind, who is disguised as Celia’s brother
“Ganymede”. To curb Orlando of his lovesickness, “Ganymede”
pretends to be Rosalind to allow Orlando to practise courting.
Setting their differences aside, Orlando saves his brother from a
lion, Oliver and Celia fall in love, while Touchstone furiously courts
Audrey, a simple country girl. Orlando tells “Ganymede” he can
bear the pretended courtship no longer, and “Ganymede”
promises to summon Rosalind by magic to Oliver and Celia a
wedding. She warns Phebe, who has fallen in love with
“Ganymede”, that as “Ganymede” will never marry a woman,
Phebe should be content with her shepherd lover Silvius. Rosalind
then reveals her true identity and marries Orlando. Duke Frederick
is converted by a holy man and retires to a monastery, where
Jaques joins him.

4) The comedy of errors

5|Page
 Egeon, a merchant, loses his wife and one of his infant twins in a
shipwreck. His remaining son Antipholus sets out to find his
brother, accompanied by Dromio, a servant who also lost his twin
in the wreck. Egeon follows Antipholus to Ephesus, only to discover
that as a stranger his life is forfeit unless he pays a huge ransom
The lost son (also named Antipholus) has settled in Ephesus,
married Adriana and taken Dromio’s lost brother (also named
Dromio) into his service. Both sets of brothers get hopelessly mixed
up. The Antipholuses are arrested and thought mad, and the
Dromios are repeatedly beaten unjustly. Antipholus of Ephesus, so
enraged he has to be restrained, is carried off home Antipholus and
Dromio of Syracuse appear and everyone runs away from them,
believing the Ephesians have escaped and are seeking revenge The
Syracusans then flee into the Priory. The Duke arrives with Egeon,
who is about to be beheaded. Ephesian Antipholus and Dromio
escape, and the Abbess arrives with the other Antipholus and
Dromio. In the general amazement at the meeting of both sets of
twins, the Abbess recognizes Egeon as her long lost husband.

5) Corialanus

The Roman general Caius Marcius honoured with the surname

Coriolanus after his outstanding victory against the Volscians is
nominated for consul on a wave of public acclaim. Unwilling to
conceal his contempt for the ordinary citizens of Rome, he
alienates his supporters and is exiled. Joining his enemy , the
Volscian leader ruling Tullius Aufidus, he raises an army against
Rome. At the walls of the city , he is met by old friends who sue for
peace but are rebuffed. Eventually the Romans send his mother
Volumnia, his gentle wife Virgilia and his son to plead with him.
Aware that it is likely to mean his death, he nonetheless signs a
peace treaty that secures good terms for a Volscian retreat. Back
in the Volscian camp at Antium he is accused of treachery by Tullius
Aufidus and executed.

6) Cymbeline
6|Page
 èImogen, daughter of Cymbeline, King of Britain, marries the
commoner Posthumus in secret instead of her stepbrother, Cloten.
The queen, Cloten’s mother, has Posthumus banished to Rome,
where he wagers Iachimo his ring that Imogen will remain faithful.
Iachimo convinces Posthumus that he has seduced her, and wins
the ring. Posthumus orders his servant to kill Imogen, but the
servant, believing in Imogen’s fidelity , helps her to escape. Imogen
disguises herself as a page ( “Fidele” ) and escapes to a Welsh cave
with Belarius and Cymbeline’s lost sons, Guiderius and Arviragus.
Fidele falls ill and is left for dead, only to recover next to Cloten’s
headless body, whom she mistakes for her husband.
Captured by the Roman invasion force, Fidele enters Lucius’s
service, and is nearly executed by Cymbeline after Belarius and a
disguised Posthumus defeat her new master. Posthumus,
mistaken for a Roman soldier, is also imprisoned. Her life spared by
Lucius’s intercession, Imogen uncovers Iachimo’s plot. Posthumus
realizes that his wife, whom he feared dead, did not betray him,
and Cymbeline is reunited with his daughter and his lost sons.

7) Hamlet

Hamlet, profoundly upset by the death of his father and his

mother’s hasty re-marriage to his uncle Claudius, sees his father’s
ghost The ghost accuses Claudius of murder, and calls for revenge.
Hamlet pretends to be mad. Polonius, the king’s Lord
Chamberlain, thinks the prince is lovesick for his daughter, Ophelia,
until Hamlet violently rejects her, shouting “Get thee to a
nunnery”. Convinced of Claudius’s guilt when the king stops a
performance of The Murder of Gonzago, Hamlet still
procrastinates. Then in Queen Gertrude’s bedchamber, mistaking
Polonius for the king, the prince kills him. Banished to England,
Hamlet discovers Claudius has ordered his execution. With
uncharacteristic decisiveness, he escapes back to Denmark.
Ophelia has gone insane and drowned herself Claudius and
Laertes, Polonius’s son, plans fencing match between Hamlet and
7|Page
 Laertes (who will carry a poisoned foil). The prince accepts the
challenge. Winning the first bout, Hamlet is offered poisoned wine
but declines, Gertrude drinks instead Laertes hits Hamlet, loses his
foil, and is struck with the poisoned tip himself. As the queen dies,
Laertes reveals the king’s plot. Hamlet stabs Claudius with
Laertes’s foil, and forces him to drink the wine. Laertes and Hamlet
are reconciled, then die.

8-9) Henry IV, Parts I and II

The Hentry IV play is centred not on the ailing Henry IV, but on his
son, Prince Hal. Throughout Part I the dissipated Hal is contrasted
with the impulsive rebel Hotspur (Henry Percy), son of the Earl of
Northumberland, who has just returned from victories in Scotland.
While insurgents gather around Hotspur, Hal drinks and brawls
with Falstaff and his cronies in a tavern, the Boar’s Head at
Eastcheap. After stealing the proceeds of a highway robbery from
Falstaff (who later constructs wonderful tales of his misfortune), the
prince is summoned to oppose the Percys at Shrewsbury , where
he valiantly defeats Hotspur in single combat. Falstaff, feigning
death for most of the battle, then stabs the corpse and claims he
killed Hotspur himself.
In Part II, Henry IV is dying. Falstaff gleefully involves himself
in corrupt army recruitment, while Hal’s brother Prince John puts
down the continuing revolt. Henry is reconciled to his reformed
son on his deathbed, and Hal is crowned Henry V. In keeping with
his new status, Hal harshly dismisses the eager Falstaff from his
coronation with a meagre pension.
(A part of a historical tetralogy starting with Richard II and
ending with Henry V.)

10) Henry V

To the surprise of his courtiers, the riotous Prince Hal, now

crowned as King Henry V, has become a noble statesman

8|Page
 overnight. He promptly arrests three traitors and, taunted by a gift
of tennis balls from the Dauphin, lays claim to the French throne
under Salic law and invades France. The outnumbered English
capture the town of Harfleur and again beat the French against
overwhelming odds at Agincourt, after Henry delivers a rousing
speech “Cry `God for Harry, England, and St George!’“.
Henry V is not just an account of the doughtiness of the English in
time of war With Falstaff a reported death early in the play , and
informal scenes of the soldiers life in prip (the disguised king
passes among his fearful troops before Agincourt), the jingoistic
rhetoric is given a sombre hue The play finishes not in the thunder
of battle, but with the comedy of awkward love, Henry, who speaks
no French, is left to court Princess Katherine, who speaks only
French, aware that their marriage would finalize a peace
agreement. The Chorus closes the play with a reminder that Henry
V’s death precipitated the Wars of the Roses.
(the last part of the Henry IV tetralogy.)

11-13) Henry VI, Parts I, II and III

The three parts of Henry VI cover more than 60 years of the Wars
of the Roses from the death of Henry V in 1422 almost up to the
Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Part I dealswith the wars in France
where the valiant Talbot is locked in combat with Joan of Arc (La
Pucelle), finally perishing with his son near Bordeaux. The play ends
with Henry VI’s marriage to Margaret of Anjou, the daughter of the
King of Naples, engineered by the Earl of Suffolk to further his own
political aims.
Parts II and III reveal Henry VI as a weak and ineffective king,
under whose rule England collapses into civil war through Cade’s
Rebellion and the intense rivalry of the nobles. It also charts the rise
to power and subsequent murder of Richard, Duke of York. Henry
is captured and Edward IV becomes king, ensuring the Yorkist
succession by his victories at Barnet and Tewkesbury Richard, Duke
of Gloucester (later King Richard III) murders Henry VI in the Tower.
(Part of an historical tetralogy that finishes with Richard III.)
9|Page
 14) Henry VIII

Henry, tricked by a malign Cardinal Wolsey, executes the innocent

and forgiving Duke of Buckingham. Worrying that he has sinned in
marrying his brother’s widow, Katherine of Aragon, Henry fears he
will be graced with no heirs. Meeting Anne Bullen (Boleyn), a
virtuous Protestant, Henry falls in love and decides to divorce
Katherine and marry Anne. By chance, Henry also uncovers
Wolsey’s corrupt financial dealings, and, realizing the Cardinal
opposes his marriage to Anne, punishes him, although he spares his
life. Now relying on the Protestant Archbishop Thomas Cranmer as
his chief adviser, Henry protects him from the villainous Bishop
Gardiner. The play ends with the birth and christening of Anne’s
daughter, with Cranmer looking forward to her glorious reign as
Elizabeth I.
(Also known as Half is true, a performance in April 1613 of
that year caused the Globe Theatre fire.)

15) Julius Caesar

Fearing Julius Caesar will become a popular tyrant, Brutus

and Cassius plot to assassinate him. On the day agreed for the
assassination, Caesar is nearly persuaded to stay at home by his
wife Calphurnia’s fateful dreams. He decides go to the Senate,
ignoring a soothsayer’s warning and a letter that names all the
conspirators, and is stabbed. Brutus calms the crowd attending
Caesar’s funeral and spares Mark Antony, Caesar’s trusted
companion, who then makes a speech that stirs up the crowd
against the assassins. Antony makes a pact with Octavius and
Lapidus to seize control of the Roman Empire while the mob riot
and burn the conspirators houses, and Brutus and Cassius flee to
raise an army. Overruling Cassius, Brutus decides to march against
Antony and Octavius and into a weaker position at Philippi. He
attacks Octavius and wins, but Cassius panics, mistaking friendly
forces for his foes, and orders his servant to kill him. Cursed by the
10 | P a g e
 ghost of Caesar, the battle turns against Brutus, who runs onto his
sword.

16) King John

King Philip of France demands that King John surrender the throne
of England to his nephew, Arthur. John invades France,
accompanied by Philip Faulconbridge, Richard I’s illegitimate son.
At Angiers, the French king, his son Lewis, and the Archduke of
Austria oppose John. A marriage is proposed between Lewis and
John’s Spanish niece Blanche, under the terms of which Philip
recognizes King John’s rule in England, and John cedes some
territory to France. However, John is then excommunicated over a
dispute between the pope and the archbishop of Canterbury, and
Philip forced to take up arms against him John is victorious,
capturing Arthur, Faulconbridge decapitates the Archduke and
returns home to loot the monasteries. John gives an order to have
Arthur’s eyes burned out, but his wishes are not carried out The
outraged nobles suspect murder when Arthur falls from a high wall
trying to escape from the castle. As John attempts to reconcile
himself with the pope, his nobles desert to Lewis. Suffering from a
fever, John retreats to Swinstead Abbey, the French
reinforcements are lost at sea, their army retreats, and the
disaffected nobles, hearing that Lewis plans to execute them after
the battle, rally to their dying king.

17) King Lear

Old King Lear rashly decides to divide his kingdom between his
three daughters Goneril, Regan, and his favourite and youngest
daughter, Cordelia. Goneril and Regan make exaggerated
declarations of love for Lear, but Cordelia refuses to flatter him.
She is disinherited and given in marriage to the King of France
without a dowry. Lear then divides his kingdom equally between
Goneril and Regan, but is thrown out on to the moor in the middle
of a raging storm with only the Fool for company. The Earl of
11 | P a g e
 Gloucester, turned against his faithful son Edgar by the cunning
slanders of his illegitimate son Edmund, is blinded by Goneril’s
husband Cornwall. Edgar, disguised as the madman Tom of
Bedlam, rescues Gloucester, while Lear, mad with grief and anger,
is led to Cordelia in the French army camp at Dover.
After squabbling over Edmund’s affection, Goneril poisons
Regan, then takes her own life. The French are defeated by the
English army under Edmund and Albany (Goneril’s husband). Lear
and Cordelia are captured, and Cordelia hanged on Edmund’s
orders. Edmund, mortally wounded by Edgar, repents too late, and
Lear, finally broken by grief, dies with Cordelia’s body in his arms.

18) Love’s labour’s lost

The King of Navarre orders that his court forego female company
for three years, and dedicate themselves to study. Longaville and
Dumaine readily agree, but Berowne reminds them that the
Princess of France is expected at the court. She arrives with three
ladies in waiting. Maria who admires Longaville, Katharine who
prefers Dumaine, and Rosaline who loves Berowne. They are asked
to stay in tents outside the court, and the king is berated by the
princess for his poor hospitality. Berowne writes Rosaline a love
letter that falls into the hands of the king. Meanwhile, Berowne
overhears the king, Dumaine and Longaville reciting love poems for
their beloveds. Berowne pretends he has not broken his oath, but
when shown his letter to Rosaline, confesses his love and
persuades the king to revoke his decree. Courting the ladies
disguised as a delegation of Russians, each suitor is tricked into
professing his love to the wrong woman. Suddenly it is announced
that the king of France is dead. The teasing stops and each suitor
(including the king himself) is required to undergo some form of
monastic discipline for a year until his beloved returns from France.

19) Macbeth

12 | P a g e
 Returning from battle, Macbeth and Banquo meet three witches
who tell them their future. The first part of the prophecy comes
true. Macbeth is made Thane of Cawder by King Duncan.
Emboldened by Lady Macbeth, the new Thane takes the second
part of the prophecy into his own hands, murdering Duncan (who
is staying with Macbeth at Dunsinane) and crowning himself king
of Scotland. Remembering that the witches also predicted Banquo
would be the father of kings, though never one himself, Macbeth
orders him and his son George be killed. Banquo is slain but Fleance
survives.
Haunted by Banquo’s ghost, Macbeth returns to the witches.
They warn him against Macduff but also tell him no man `of woman
born’ shall kill him and he cannot be defeated until Burnam Wood
comes to Dunsinane. Hearing that Duncan’s son, Malcolm, has
joined forces with Macduff, Macbeth kills Macduff’s wife and
children. Lady Macbeth goes mad with guilt and dies. Meanwhile,
Macbeth’s enemies close in on him at Dunsinane, covered with
branches cut out from Burnam Wood. Macbeth is slain by Macduff
who reveals he was not born naturally but from his mother’s womb
untimely ripped. Malcolm a declared king.

20) Measure for measure

Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, surrenders his power to the puritanical

deputy, Angelo, and an old councillor, Escalus, hoping to reform his
corrupt state without having to play the tyrant himself. Claudio has
been arrested for getting Juliet, to whom he is betrothed,
pregnant. His irrepressible friend Lucio summons Claudio’s sister
Isabella from her nunnery to plead with Angelo for mercy. Instead,
Angelo proposes she have sex with him in exchange for her
brother’s life. She refuses, and is furious when Claudio tries to
persuade her. The Duke, disguised as a friar, intervenes: Mariana,
who had been abandoned by Angelo, takes Isabella’s place. Angelo
secretly brings forward the execution of Claudio. The friar saves
him by substituting another prisoner’s head for Claudio’s.
The Duke reappears to hear the people’s grievances in public.
13 | P a g e
 Angelo’s crimes are exposed and he is married to Mariana. Claudio
is freed to wed Juliet, Isabella accepts the Duke’s hand, and Lucio
is forced to marry his mistress in penance for the lewd actions he
unwittingly confessed while slandering the `absent’ Duke to a
disguised Vincentio.

21) Merchant of Venice

Bassanio asks for a loan from his friend, Antonio, to help him woo
the rich heiress Portia. They go to the Jewish moneylender Shylock,
despite Antonio’s contempt for Jews. Shylock offers the loan
interest-free for three months, but asks for a pound of flesh as
security. Antonio agrees.
Portia is to marry the suitor who correctly chooses from three
baskets (gold, shiver, and lead) the one which contains her picture,
the suitor who chooses wrongly must pledge he will never marry.
The Princes of Morocco and Arragon seek Portia’s hand. Morocco
wishes “to gain what many men desire” (gold), Arragon selects “as
much as he deserves” (silver), but Bassiano decides “to give and
hazard all he hath” (lead) and finds the portrait. Meanwhile,
Antonio has been bankrupted, all his money invested in a wrecked
ship. Deserted by his daughter and his servant, Shylock vows he
will be revenged and demands his pound of flesh from Antonio.
Portia offers to pay Antonio’s debt, but Shylock refuses. Pretending
to be a lawyer, she awards Shylock his pound of flesh on condition
he take it without drawing blood. He is accused of attempted
murder, and half his possessions are confiscated.

22) The merry wives of Windsor

Falstaff, the jovial antihero of Henry IV (popularly thought to have

been revived for this play at Queen Elizabeth’s personal request),
deludes himself into thinking that Mistress Page and Mistress Ford
are in love with him, and writes identical love letters to them. His
dismissed servants immediately tell their husbands of Falstaff’s

14 | P a g e
 plot. Mistress Page’s daughter, Anne Page, is being courted by shy
Slender, the French doctor Caius, and the young aristocrat Fenton.
Ford, in disguise, pays Falstaff to seduce his wife. When Ford tries
to catch them together, Falstaff hides in a laundry basket, and is
dumped in a muddy ditch; a second time Falstaff, disguised as the
old woman of Brainford, is beaten from the house by Ford himself.
Finally Falstaff is tricked into dressing up as Herne the Hunter and
is pinched and burnt by children disguised as elves and fairies, led
by Anne Page, while the adults mock him in his distress. Caius and
Slender both try to snatch Anne, but she is saved by Fenton and
they elope together. A chastened Falstaff is invited to the
celebrations.

23) A midsummer’s night dream

Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta are to be wed. Egeus’s

daughter, Hermia, refuses to marry Demetrius (the suitor her
father has chosen for her) because she loves Lysander Theseus
reluctantly invokes a law against Hermia that forces her to obey
her father on pain of death or banishment to a nunnery. Lysander
and Hermia meet in the forest, planning to elope. Helena (Hermia’s
friend) tells Demetrius, hoping to regain his love.
In the forest, Oberon, King of the Fairies, has his servant Puck
bewitch his queen Titania, with whom he has quarrelled, to fall in
love with the first living thing she sees, hearing Demetrius reject
Helena, he tries the same magic but charms Lysander by accident.
Lysander sees Helena and falls in love, forgetting Hermia. An
artisan, Bottom is rehearsing a play in the wood, Puck turns his
head into an ass’s head. Titania sees him and falls in love.
Attempting to correct his earlier mistake, Puck charms
Demetrius, but when all of the lovers meet, they come to blows.
Oberon and Puck separate them in a magical fog and bring Lysander
and Titania back to normal. Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus discover
the lovers, Egeus demands that Lysander be executed. Demetrius
intervenes, declaring his new love for Helena. The three couples
15 | P a g e
 are wed. The play ends with a riotous performance of the tragedy
of Pyramus and Thisbe, given by Bottom and his fellow tradesmen
(first performed for a courtly wedding.)

24) Much ado about nothing

Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, his illegitimate brother Don John, his
friend Claudio, and a courtier Beredick, visit Leonato, governor of
Messina.Claudio falls desperately in love with Leonato’s daughter
Hero. Benedick tells Don Pedro, who courts Hero on Claudio’s
behalf at the Mosque that evening. Overheard by a servant, Don
Pedro is believed to want Hero for himself. The malicious Don John
tells Claudio that Don Pedro is in love with Hero. Don Pedro
explains himself, and a marriage is arranged for Claudio.
Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato persuade the sardonic
Benedick that Beatrice loves him. Hero lets Beatrice overhear talk
of Benedick’s passion for her. Meanwhile, Don John persuades
Hero’s waiting woman, Margaret, to impersonate her mistress and
let Domino into her bedroom through a window. Claudio assumes
Hero is having an affair and announces her infidelity at their
wedding. Hero faints. Thinking Hero is dead, Claudio is betrothed
to her cousin as penance.
Domino is arrested by the ludicrous constable Dogberry and
confesses. Don John flees. At the church the veiled cousin is
revealed as Hero herself, and Benedick and Beatrice, after one last
round of jibes, pledge their troth.

25) Othello

Othello, a Moor, is accused of stealing Brabantio’s daughter

Desdemona, but the Senate approves their marriage and appoints
Othello to lead the Venetian army in Cyprus against the Turks.
Promoting Cassio to lieutenant for his help in the courtship of
Desdemona, Othello ignores lago’s claim to the post. lago

16 | P a g e
 persuades Roderigo, an unsuccessful suitor of Desdemona, to fight
the happily drunken Cassio, who is discharged. lago then befriends
Cassio and has him beg Desdemona to plead for him with Othello.
At the same time lago warns Othello that Cassio is having an affair
with his wife. Brilliantly manipulating Othello’s jealousy and rising
anger, lago has his wife, Desdemona’s serving woman Emilia, steal
a handkerchief Othello gave his bride at their wedding, and plants
it on Cassio. Convinced of her infidelity, Othello smothers his
beloved wife in their marriage bed lago then kills Roderigo (for
failing to murder Cassio) and Emilia. But he’s too late: Emilia has
already proven lago’s guilt and Desdemona’s innocence to Othello.
Othello stabs lago (who’s now under arrest), but fails to kill him,
and commits suicide.
(First performed for James I at Whitehall in 1604.)

26) Pericles

John Gower, on whose poem Confessio Amantis the story is based,

presents the play. Pericles solves the riddle of King Antiochus’s
incestuous relationship with his daughter, and flees. He survives a
shipwreck, and wins the hand of King Simonide’s daughter Thaisa.
Hearing that Antiochus is dead, Pericles sails for Tyre with his new
wife. In a storm, Thaisa gives birth to Marina, faints and is believed
dead. Her burial basket is washed to Ephesus where the physician
Cerimon revives her. Fearing her husband is dead, she becomes a
priestess of the goddess Diana.
Pericles leaves Marina at Tarsus, a city which he had saved
from famine, with Cleon and his wife Dionyza. Fearing rivalry with
her own daughter, Dionyza tries to kill Marina, but Marina is
captured by pirates and sold to a Myteline brothel. There, the
governor Lysimachus, recognizes her virtue and releases her.
Summoned to Tarsus by a vision of the false tomb Cleon and
Dionyza built for Marina, Pericles stops by chance in Mytilene and
he and Marina are reunited. Ecstatic, he sees Diana calling him to
Ephesus, where he and Marina find Thaisa. Cleon and Dionyza are

17 | P a g e
 burnt to death by the people of Tarsus for their crimes.
(Written probably in collaboration with John Day and
Thomas Heywood for the first two acts.)

27) Richard II

Thomas Mowbray defends himself against Henry Bolingbroke’s

charges of treason by calling for trial by combat. Fearing
Bolingbroke’s popularity, King Richard banishes them both, then
departs for Ireland to quell a rebellion. Short of funds, the king
resorts to dubious means to finance his campaign, confiscating the
estate of John of Gaunt (Bolingbroke’s dead father) Bolingbroke
gathers an invasion force to reclaim his lands. The Duke of York,
left as regent without money or an army, goes to meet
Bolingbroke. Fearing Richard is dead in Ireland, his supporters fall
away, Richard begins to suffer bouts of depression and, when he
hears York has joined Bolingbroke, surrenders to his fate. Despite
warnings of civil war, Bolingbroke accepts the crown from the
imprisoned Richard and banishes the queen to France. Believing
the new king wants Richard dead, Sir Pierce of Exton murders him.
He is rebuked by Bolingbroke when he arrives at the court with the
coffin, and Bolingbroke (now Henry IV) resolves to go on a Crusade
to atone for the murder.

28) Richard III

The lame hunchback Richard, Duke of Gloucester, convinces the

dying Edward IV that the Duke of Clarence is treasonous.
Gloucester pretends to be on Clarence’s side, but has him stabbed
and drowned in a barrel of Malmsey wine. He woos Lady Anne at
the funeral of her father-in-law Henry VI, whom Gloucester helped
to murder, by claiming he also murdered her husband but out of
love for her. Captivated, she marries him. Gloucester and
Buckingham capture the young Prince of Wales and his brother, the
Duke of York, and lock them in the Tower of London. Gloucester is
crowned as King Richard II and persuades Tyrell to murder the
18 | P a g e
 princes. Armies are raised against Richard by Buckingham and the
Earl of Richmond, but when Richmond’s fleet is scattered,
Buckingham is caught and executed. After a night of ghostly
visitations that confront Richard with his guilt and promise
Richmond the victory, battle is joined at Bosworth Field. Richard
and Richmond meet in single combat, and Richard is killed.
Richmond is crowned Henry VII on the battlefield, and vows to
unite the country.

29) Romeo and Juliet

The Montgues and the Capulets are the two most important
families in Verona. Romeo is a Montague, but Juliet is a Capulet,
and their families are involved in a bitter feud. Romeo loves chaste
Rosaline. Discovering Rosaline has been invited to a Capulet
banquet, Romeo attends in disguise, but falls in love with Juliet.
They kiss, initially not realizing their families are enemies, they
exchange professions of love at Juliet’s open window, they meet in
secret and decide to wed. Romeo encounters Tybalt and an
exchange of insults escalates into a brawl. Mercutio, Romeo’s
friend is mortally wounded by Tybalt. Romeo kills Tybalt then flees
to Mantua.
Capulet orders Juliet to marry Paris within three days. She
feigns suicide, so that she and Romeo can meet in the family crypt
and elope. In Mantua, Romeo hears of Juliet’s death. Not receiving
a letter of explanation from Friar Laurence, who married them and
helped them to escape, Romeo believes that Juliet is truly dead and
resolves to die beside her. He is seen breaking into the Capulet
crypt by Paris. They fight beside Juliet’s body and Paris is killed.
Romeo drinks poison and dies. Laurence comes to wake Juliet, and
discovers the carnage. Juliet grabs Romeo’s dagger, kisses him, and
kills herself.

30) The Taming of the Shrew

19 | P a g e
 Baptista, Kate’s father, will not allow his gentle younger daughter
Bianca to marry until the fiery Kate is wed. Petruchio arrives,
looking for a wife. Hortensio, disguised as a music teacher, and
Lucentio, as a language tutor, secretly court Bianca. Petruchio
pretends Kate’s insults and blows are affectionate and asks for
Kate’s hand. Baptista agrees and offers Bianca to the wealthiest
suitor. Tranio (pretending to be his master Lucentio) outbids the
other suitors, while Bianca accepts the real Lucentio’s suit.
Hortensio leaves to marry an enthusiastic widow. Tranio
persuades a pedant to impersonate Vincentio (Lucentio’s father).
They convince Baptista to sign a marriage contract.
Petruchio arrives late to his wedding in a ludicrous outfit and
refuses to stay for the banquet. He abuses his new wife, starving
her and insisting she agree with every word he says, no matter how
ridiculous. Vicentio arrives at Lucentio’s house only to be arrested
as a fraud. Lucentio and Bianca, now husband and wife, return.
Baptista, realises now, the real Vicentio will, despite everything,
honour the marriage contract and outside Petruchio and Kate kiss.
At a celebration banquet, the apparently tamed Kate proves
herself the most obedient wife of the women present.
31) The tempest

Too occupied with his occult studies, Prospero loses the duchy of
Milan to his brother Antonio. Saved by the courtier Gonzalo,
Prospero is cast adrift with his daughter, Miranda, and arrives on a
lonely island, previously inhabited only by the witch Sycorax her
monstrous son Caliban, and various imprisoned spirits, including
Ariel. Having defeated Sycorax Prospero enslaves Caliban and takes
Ariel into his service. Summoning up a tempest, Prospero wrecks a
ship on the island. While Antonio and Sebastian plot against
Adonso (Sebastian’s brother and the King of Naples) and Gonzalo,
Ferdinand (Adonso’s son) falls in love with Miranda. Caliban meets
the butler Stephano and a jester Trinculo, vainglorious with stolen
wine, and persuades them to attack Prospero. Meanwhile,
Prospero tests Ferdinand’s love, making him fetch and carry logs,
20 | P a g e
 then blesses the lovers with a magical masque. Through a series of
illusions, Prospero soon has the conspirators in his power, but
spares them. Breaking his magic staff, Prospero then frees Ariel
and returns to Milan. Caliban is a left alone on the island.
(Probably written in 1611, first performed for King James I at
Whitehall in the same year)

32) Timon of Athens

Timon is a rich man, an Atheman noble who ruins himself through

his generosity. Realizing that he has fallen victim to flatterers and
parasites, he turns to his men friends for help, but they desert him.
He invites all his acquaintances to a banquet, at which he serves
them only warm water, then curses the city and retires to a bitter
and solitary life in a cave. Searching for roots to eat, he uncovers a
hoard of gold, but no longer has use for money and rails against
those who are drawn to him by his new found wealth. When the
Athenians seek his help against the army of the exiled Alcibiades
he shows them his fig tree and tells them to seek solace by hanging
themselves from it. He dies alone, leaving only a vitriolic epitaph
on a tomb by the sea ‘Seek not my name: a plague consume you
wicked caitiffs left!’.
(Probably written in collaboration with Thomas Middleton)

33) Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus, a popular general and patriot, returns from a

successful campaign against the Goths, bringing as captives their
Queen, Tamora and her three sons, one of whom Titus kills. Titus
has to settle a succession dispute between the emperor’s sons,
Saturninus and Bassianus. Titus nominates the elder, Saturninus.
They fight over Titus’s daughter, Lavinia, and Titus kills one of his
own sons. Bassianus marries Lavinia, Saturninus dismisses Titus
and marries Tamora who loves Aaron, a Moor. Aaron persuades
Tamora’s sons, Demetrius and Chiron, to kill Bassianus and rape

21 | P a g e
 Lavinia, and frames Titus’s sons, Martius and Quintus. He tells Titus
that his sons will be spared if he sends the Emperor his severed
hand as ransom. Titus’s hand is returned to him with his sons
heads, the promise has been broken.
Titus’s brother Marcus Andronicus discovers Lavinia, who has
had her tongue and hands out off but is still able to communicate
the truth of what has been done to her. Increasingly unpredictable,
Titus raises an army of Goths against Rome. Titus’s only surviving
son Lucius captures Aaron, Titus seizes Demetrius and Chiron and
bakes them into a pie. Titus kills his raped daughter and, showing
famous the heads of her sons in the pie she is eating, stabs her.
Bassianus kills Titus, Lucius kills Saturninus and is elected emperor.
Aaron, still glorying in his evil, is buried up to his chest in sand.
(Shakespeare’s earliest tragedy, may have been written as
early as 1590.)

34) Troilus and Cressida

The Trojan Prince Troilus is lovesick for Cressida, whose father

Calchas has deserted to the Greeks. Cressida refuses to tell Troilus
she loves him too. He pledges his undying love to Cressida, but it is
Pandarus who promises Cressida’s love to Troilus. After spending
a night of love with Troilus, and pledging to remain faithful forever,
a heartbroken Cressida is taken into the Greek camp in exchange
for a Trojan prisoner of war.
Arguments are beginning to take hold within the Greek and
Trojan camps after seven years of fruitless combat. Troilus’s
brother Hector suggests returning Helen (whose abduction by
Paris caused the war) to the Greeks, but, despite Cassandra’s
prophetic warnings, Troilus and Paris deem it a dishonourable
suggestion.
At a banquet in the Greek camp, Troilus sees Cressida make
a rendevous with Diomedes. He refuses to read a letter Pandarus
brings from her, and tries to revenge himself on her new lover in
the following day’s fighting. The battle ends with the sordid death

22 | P a g e
 of Hector, caught as he tries on some captured armour.

35) Twelfth night

Look-alike twins Sebastian and Viola are separated in a shipwreck.

Viola, disguised as the boy Cesario, is made intermediary for Duke
Orsino in his unrequited love affair with Olivia. Olivia falls in love
with Cesario, but the mortified ‘Youth’ has fallen for the Duke.
Challenged to a duel by another of Olivia’s frustrated suitors, Sir
Andrew Aguecheek, Cesario (the disguised Viola) is saved by the
arrival of Antonio, a sea captain who mistakes Cesario for
Sebastian whom he rescued. Olivia, coming across Sebastian and
mistaking him for Cesario, drags him to her home and marries him.
Thinking Cesario has betrayed his trust, Orsino calls Antonio and
Olivia before him. Sebastian appears and clears up the confusion,
and the Duke, at last appreciative of her love for him, marries
Viola.
The subplot contrasts Malvolio, Olivia a mean-spirited and
ambitious steward, with the self indulgent, uproarious Sir Toby
Belch, who demands `Dost thou think because thou art virtuous,
there shall be no more cakes and ale?` Malvolio is tricked into
believing Olivia, his mistress, is in love with him, leading him into
dreadful humiliation at the hands of Maria and Fabian, two
servants of Olivia, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Feste, a jester, all of
whom bear grudges against Malvolio. Malvolio’s bitter departure,
humiliated but unrepentant, reveals a brutality beneath the
humour.
(First recorded performance at Middle Temple in February
1602.)

36) Two noble kinsmen

Theseus, King of Athens, defeats the tyrannical Creon of Thebes,

capturing Creon a nephews, Palamon and Arcite. Seeing Emilia,
daughter of Queen Hippolyta from their prison window, both

23 | P a g e
 knights fall in love and decide to fight for her when they are free.
Arcite is freed and banished from Athens on pain of death, but
stays in disguise to woo Emilia. Theseus’s daughter falls in love
with Palamon and helps him to escape. Mad with grief at
Palamon’s departure, she is cured by a low-born suitor who
seduces her disguised as Palamon.
Meeting by chance in a wood, Palamon and Arcite renew their
argument. Theseus discovers them and orders a contest. Each
combatant must force the other against a pillar erected for the
purpose, the victor wins Emilia’s hand, the loser will be executed
Arcite is victorious, but as Palamon awaits execution, his cousin is
trampled by a horse and bequeaths Emilia to Palamon with his
dying breath.
The prologue acknowledges Geoffrey Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale
as the source of the play, the only major addition to the story is the
gaoler’s daughter.
(First published in 1634, it did not appear in the First Folio
edition, largely written by John Fletcher.)

37) Two gentlemen of Verona

Proteus (pining for the love of Julia) and Valentine go to the court
of Milan. Valentine falls in lofve with the Duke’ sdaughter Silvia and
plans to elope with her. Proteus also falls so much in love with her
that he betrays his friend to the Duke. Valentine in banished;
Proteus gains only Silvia’s scorn. Julia arrives, disguised as a page
called Sebastian. Overhearing Proteus tell Silvia the lie that
Valentine and Julia are both dead, she offers her services as a go-
between Silvia flees in search of Valentine (now captain of an
outlaw band), and is chased by the Duke, Thurio (the Duke’s
chosen husband for Silvia), Proteus and ‘Sebastian’. Proteus
rescues Silvia from the outlaws and demands her love, when she
refuses he tries to rape her, but is stopped by Valentine, who is so
moved by Proteus’s pleas for forgiveness that he offers Silvia to
him anyway. ‘Sebastian’ faints. Realizing that ‘Sebastian’ is Julia,
Proteus falls in love with her again. Thurio arrives to claim Silvia, but
24 | P a g e
 declines a duel with Valentine. Valentine is pardoned and he and
Silvia marry.

38) A winter’s tale

èSuspecting his virtuous wife Hermione is having an affair with

Polixenes, an old friend and the King of Bohemia, Leontes tries to
poison him and, when he escapes, imprisons his wife. Hermione
gives birth to Perdita. Ignoring a Delphian oracle that confirms
Hermione’s innocence, Leontes orders Antigonus to maroon the
baby on a barren shore. Antigonus obeys, leaving her in a remote
part of Bohemia, and is eaten by a bear. Leontes’s son Mamillius
dies, and Hermione faints and is assumed to be dead.
Brought up by a shepherd for 16 years, Perdita is noticed by
Polixenes’s son Florizel. They are soon enraptured. Polixenes is
furious when he finds out, and Florizel, Perdita and her adoptive
father all flee to Leontes’s court. There Perdita is recognized as the
lost princess, and Leontes persuades Polixenes to let their children
marry. Antigonus’s widow, Paulina, now takes Leontes who has
sworn not to remarry, to see a statue that is an exact likeness of
his dead wife. Overcome by grief, he repents of his injustices, and
the ‘statue’ of Hermione comes to life she has been in hiding all
the time her husband thought she was dead.

25 | P a g e
 William Shakespeare

Famous Quotes

 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”.–Sonnet 18

 There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

–Hamlet

 There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are
dreamt of in your philosophy.
-Hamlet

 Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
-Hamlet

 To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and, by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub.

1|P ag e
 For in this sleep of death what dreams may come….
-Hamlet

 Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.

-Hamlet
 God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.
-Hamlet

 Conscience doth make cowards of us all.

-Hamlet

 One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

-Hamlet

 The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

-Hamlet

 Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.

–Romeo and Juliet

 Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be

morrow.
-Romeo and Juliet

 By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.
-Macbeth

 Lord, what fools these mortals be!

-A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,

Men were deceivers ever,-
One foot in sea and one on shore,
2|P ag e
 To one thing constant never.
-Much Ado About Nothing

 Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.

-Much Ado About Nothing

 All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exists and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
-As You Like It

 The course of true love never did run smooth.

-A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
-Julius Caesar

 Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
-Julius Caesar

 Men at some time are masters of their fates.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that
we are underlings.
-Julius Caesar

3|P ag e
  Et tu, Brute?
-Julius Caesar

 O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;

It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
-Othello

 All that glisters is not gold;

Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
-The Merchant of Venice

 The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

-The Merchant of Venice

 Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.

-The Merry Wives of Windsor

 But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
-Romeo and Juliet

 To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
4|P ag e
 Signifying nothing.
-Macbeth
 What’s done cannot be undone.
-Macbeth

 Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!
-Macbeth

 Stars, hide your fires;

Let not light see my black and deep desires.
-Macbeth

 The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself
to be a fool.
-As You Like It

 Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

-The Tempest

 Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve

greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them
-Twelfth Night

 Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

-All’s Well That Ends Well

 If music be the food of love, play on,

Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
-Twelfth Night

 We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life
5|P ag e
 Is rounded with a sleep.
-The Tempest

 What’s past is prologue.

-The Tempest

 Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it

promises.
-All’s Well That Ends Well

 Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and
venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.” – As You
Like It

 Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” – Henry IV Part II

 Nothing can come of nothing.”- King Lear

 Though she be but little, she is fierce - Midsummer Night’s

Dream

 Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge- Titus Andronicus

 With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”- The Merchant
of Venice

 Boldness be my friend- Cymbeline

 Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without

merit, and lost without deserving- Othello

 The fault…is not in our stars, but in ourselves- Julius Caesar

6|P ag e
  And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in
trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and
good in everything- As You Like It

 Brevity is the soul of wit- Hamlet

 Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets
his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing-
Macbeth

 One may smile, and smile, be a villain- Hamlet

 For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; lillies that

fester smell far worse than weeds- Sonnet 94

 April hath put a spirit of youth in everything- Sonnet 98

 Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move.
Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love- Hamlet

 I am one who loved not wisely but too well- Othello

 Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore
is winged Cupid painted blind- A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. Then

your love would also change- Romeo and Juliet

 Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw
true beauty till this night- Romeo and Juliet

 Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out
even to the edge of doom- Sonnet 116
7|P ag e
  Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds- Sonnet
116

 Love comforteth like sunshine after rain- Venus and Adonis

 Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak-

The Merchant of Venice

 There’s many a man has more hair than wit- The Comedy of
Wits

 What a piece of work man is- Hamlet

 Some rise by sin, some by virtue fall- Measure for Measure

Important Facts to Remember

1. Hamlet-

 The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

 Longest Play of Shakespeare
 Opening scene: Ghost of Hamlet’s Father
 Play within Play is used: Murder of Gonzago or The
Mousetrap Play.
 Hamlet gets a chance to kill Claudius in a Prayer
scene (Act III Scene iii) but he doesn’t because he
doesn’t want his uncle to go to heaven.
 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Hamlet’s Oxford
companions

8|P ag e
  Ghost- Act I and Act III
 Ophelia’s death told by the Gravediggers- Act V
Scene i
 “To Be or Not To Be” and Nunnery Scene (he knows
Claudius and Polonius are spying on him so he uses
his madness as an advantage)- Act III Scene i.
 Hamlet is killed by Laertes’ poisoned sword in Act V.

2. King Lear-

 3 daughters- Goneril (Duke of Albany), Regan

(Duke of Cornwall) and Cordelia (King of
France)
 Earl of Kent is also banished (maintains a
disguise)
 Earl of Gloucester has 2 sons- illegitimate
Edmund and Edgar.
 Gloucester dismisses Edgar who disguises as
Poor Tom
 Gloucester is proved traitor by Edmund and his
eyes are plucked out.
 Storm scene- Act III Scene i
 Dover Cliff Scene- Act IV Scene vi
 Fool- The Fool

3. Othello-

 Iago- Machiavellian character

 Handkerchief scene- Act III Scene iv (When
Othello demands his handkerchief but
Desdemona couldn’t produce it because it was
stolen by Emilia.)
 Strangling scene- Act V scene ii
 Both Desdemona and Emilia will die
 Emilia’s dying song- “Willow”

9|P ag e
 4. Macbeth-

 Banquet Scene Act III Scene iv- Macbeth

arranges for a banquet for Scottish
Thanes. He gets the news that Banquo is
killed but his son Fleance escaped.
 Here he sees the ghost of Banquo sitting
on the table and is horrified.
 Macbeth is ultimately, killed by Macduff
who was cut out of his mother’s belly.
 Malcolm will become the king.
 Witches appear 4 times in the play-
o Act I Scene i
o Act II Scene iii
o Act III Scene v
o Act IV scene i

5. Richard II-

 Considered as the most lyrical play of

Shakespeare’s.
 Reference of Peasant’s Revolt and Black Death
in the play.

6. Henry V-

 Prologue: Dramatic use of Prologue to make an

apology for the size of Renaissance Theatre.

7. The Taming of the Shrew-

 Induction Scene I and II

8. Love’s Labour Lost-

 Ends with the song “The Owl and the Cuckoo”

9. A Midsummer Night’s Dream-

10 | P a g e
  Play within Play technique is used- “Pyramus
and Thisbe”.
 The play ends with an epilogue.

10. The Merry Wives of Windsor

 Old Oak Tree in Windsor Forest where the 3

ladies will have children dressed as pinching
fairies and pinch and burn Falstaff.

11. As You Like It-

 Forest of Arden setting.

 Jacques the Melancholic- “Seven Ages of Man”
poem (Act II Scene vii)
 Touchstone the Fool will criticize the Forest of
Arden.
 Duke Senior- “Tongues in Treed Books in
Brooks” poem (Act II Scene i)
 Song “Under the Greenwood Tree”- (Lyrical
song) Title of a novel by Thomas Hardy

12. Romeo and Juliet-

 First Romantic-Tragedy by Shakespeare

 Prologue- calls the lovers “star-crossed”
 There are three Sonnets in this play- (ABAB
CDCD EFEF GG) (Iambic Pentameter)
 1st sonnet- Prologue:

“Two households, both alike in dignity

(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
11 | P a g e
 Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage—
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.”

 2nd sonnet- (Act 1 scene V) the scene of the

lover’s first kiss. It is spoken by two individual
voices. But, it is a sonnet just the same:

“If I profane with my unworthiest hand

This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray — grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.”

 3rd sonnet- the prologue to Act II. This third

sonnet reviews the action of act one, and
prepares the audience for act two of Romeo
and Juliet.

12 | P a g e
13 | P a g e
 William Shakespeare

Miscellaneous

Songs in Plays

 "Under the Greenwood Tree" in As You Like It', (Act II, scene 5)
 "It Was a Lover and His Lass" in As You Like It (Act V, scene 3)
 "O Mistress Mine" in Twelfth Night, (Act II, scene 3)
 "The Wind and the Rain" in Twelfth Night, (Act V, scene 1)
 "Where the Bee Sucks" in The Tempest, (Act V, scene 1)
 "Full Fathom Five" in The Tempest, (Act I, scene 2)
 "Sigh No More" in Much Ado About Nothing,(Act II, scene 3)
 "Take, O Take Those Lips Away" in Measure for Measure, (Act IV,
scene 1)
 "Willow song" in Othello, (Act IV, scene 3)
 "How Should I Your True Love Know?" in Hamlet (Act IV, scene 5)
 "Then They for Sudden Joy Did Weep" in King Lear, (Act I, scene 4)
 "When Griping Griefs" in Romeo and Juliet, (Act IV, scene 5)

Plays with Prologue

 Romeo and Juliet- before Act I and Act II

 Troilus and Cressida
 Henry VIII
 Henry V
 Richard III
 Henry IV Part 2
 Pericles- before every Act
 Macbeth- given by the three witches
1|P ag e
  The Two Noble Kinsmen
 The Taming of the Shrew- the Induction scene

Plays with Epilogue

 Romeo and Juliet- spoken by Prince Escalus

 Henry VIII
 The Tempest- Prospero requests that the audience free him
 Henry IV Part 2- It offers an apology for the "badness" of the
play and requests applause from the audience followed by a
prayer for the Queen and promises the audience a sequel to
the play that will feature Falstaff
 As You Like It- Rosalind says that the play is breaking theatrical
norms by allowing a female character to perform the epilogue.
Hence, she gives the epilogue.
 Henry V- The Chorus reminds the audience that Henry died very
young, leaving the kingdom to his infant son, during whose
reign France was lost and England did “bleed.”
 The Two Noble Kinsmen
 All’s Well that Ends Well
 Henry V
 Pericles
 A Midsummer Night’s Dream- dance performance
 Twelfth Night- Feste song

The Passionate Pilgrim

 Published in 1599
 An anthology of 20 poems- only five are considered
Shakespearean
 Published by William Jaggard

2|P ag e
  Poems-
o “When my love swears that she is made of truth”- later
appears as Sonnet 138
o “Two loves I have, of comfort and despair”- later appears
as Sonnet 144
o “Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye”- appears in
Love’s Labour Lost
o “If love makes me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?” -
appears in Love’s Labour Lost
o “On a day (alack the day)- appears in Love’s Labour Lost

3|P ag e
 William Shakespeare

Critical comments on Shakespeare

 Robert Greene- The first reference or criticism to Shakespeare

as an actor / playwright was in the year 1592 in a pamphlet,
written by a Robert Greene, a well-known poet and playwright
of the times. Robert Greene was one of the university wits - a
member of the of Cambridge/Oxford trained literary scholars
along with Thomas Lodge, John Lyly, Thomas Nashe, George
Peele, etc. The pamphlet was called the 'Groatsworth of Wit' in
which Robert Greene attacked William Shakespeare as:

“Yes, trust them not, for there is an upstart crow,

beautified with our feathers, that, with his Tygers
heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes he is as well
able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of
you; and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in
his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a
countrie."

 Ben Jonson-
o “He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature;
had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle
expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that
sometime it was necessary he should be stopped… His wit
was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so
too. Many times he fell into those things, could not
escape laughter… But he redeemed his vices with his
virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to
be pardoned.” (Timber, or Discoveries (1630))

1|P ag e
 o He also wrote a sonnet on Shakespeare in The First Folio
called- “To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr.
William Shakespeare”. In the poem he uses these famous
phrases-
 “Soul of the age!”
 “The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage”
 “Thou art a monument without a tomb”
 “And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek”
 “He was not of an age but for all time!”
 “Nature herself was proud of his designs/And joy'd
to wear the dressing of his lines”
 “Sweet Swan of Avon!”
 “star of poets”
 “My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room.”

 John Milton-
o "On Shakespeare" is a 16-line epigram and was Milton's
first published poem. It appeared (anonymously) in the
2nd folio of plays of Shakespeare (1632) as "An Epitaph on
the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W.SHAKESPEARE”:

“Thou in our wonder and astonishment

Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.”

o “Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child,

Warble his native wood-notes wild.”
(L'Allegro)

 Samuel Pepys- In his diary entry for 29 September, 1662, he

wrote for A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

"To the King's Theatre, where we saw "Midsummer's

Night's Dream, which I had never seen before, nor shall

2|P ag e
 ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that
ever I saw in my life.”

 John Dryden- In his famous critical essay “Essay of Dramatic

Poesy” he wrote:

"…he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps

Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive
soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him,
and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he
describes anything, you more than see it, you feel it
too…he needed not the spectacles of Books to read
Nature; he look'd inwards, and found her there."

 Joseph Adison- “Among the English, Shakespeare has

incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of
fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified
him to touch... his reader's imagination, and made him capable
of succeeding, where he had nothing to support him besides
the strength of his own genius.”

 Alexander Pope- The “Preface to Shakespeare” first appeared

in Volume 1 of The Works of Shakespeare, in 6 volumes (1725).
He used following commentaries for Shakespeare-
o His Characters are so much Nature her self that 'tis a sort
of injury to call them by so distant a name as Copies of
her.
o that he is not more a master of the Great than of
the Ridiculous in human nature;
o So that he seems to have known the word by Intuition, to
have look'd thro' humane nature at one glance
o He writ to the People;
o he scarce ever blotted a line

3|P ag e
  Dr. Samuel Johnson-
o "To the unities of time and place he has shewn no
regard”
o “The form, the characters, the language, and the
shows of the English drama are his”
o “…the composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in
which oaks extend their branches, and pines tower
in the air…”
o “…Shakespeare opens a mine which contains gold
and diamonds in unexhaustible plenty…”

 Charles Lamb-
o “Shakespeare is one of the last books one should
like to give up, perhaps the one just before the
Dying Service in a large Prayer book.”
o “he fetched those images of virtue and of
knowledge, of which every one of us recognizing a
part, think we comprehend in our natures the
whole…”

 William Wordsworth- “Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have

frowned,/Mindless of its just honours; with this key
Shakespeare unlocked his heart.”

 Samuel Taylor Coleridge- “Our myriad-minded Shakespeare.”

 Thomas Carlyle-
o “Here, I say, is an English King, whom no time or
chance, Parliament or combination of Parliaments,
can dethrone!”
o “This King Shakespeare, does not he shine, in
crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest,
gentlest, yet strongest of rallying-signs;
indestructible; really more valuable in that point of
4|P ag e
 view than any other means or appliance
whatsoever?”
o “We can fancy him as radiant aloft over all the
Nations of Englishmen, a thousand years hence.”
o “If I say that Shakespeare is the greatest of
intellects, I have said all concerning him. But there is
more in Shakespeare’s intellect than we have yet
seen. It is what I call an unconscious intellect; there
is more virtue in it that he himself is aware of.”

 D.H. Lawrence-
“When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder
that such trivial people should muse and thunder
in such lovely language”

 W.H. Auden- “He is holding the mirror up to nature…

Shakespeare never takes himself too seriously.”

 T.S. Eliot-
o “Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world
between them, there is no third”
o In his Essay “Hamlet” published in Sacred Woods:
Essays on Poetry and Criticism (1920), Eliot deems
Hamlet an “artistic failure” adding that the play
represents a “primary problem” and that there is a
certain weakness in the play as a whole.
o From here he devises the theory of “Objective
Correlative”- emotion in art be expressed through
an equivalent because it cannot be expressed
directly (objects, situation, chain of events, etc.). In
Hamlet, Hamlet’s true emotions are unknowable
because they don’t find an equivalent objective
correlative in the play.

5|P ag e
 o “Hamlet is dominated by an emotion which is
inexpressible, because it is in excess of the facts as
they appear.”
o “We can say of Shakespeare, that never has a man
turned so little knowledge to such great account.”
o “I do not believe that any writer has ever exposed
this bovarysme, the human will to see things as they
are not, more clearly than Shakespeare.”

 Dame Ellen Terry – “Wonderful women! Have you ever thought

how much we all, and women especially, owe to Shakespeare
for his vindication of women in these fearless, high-spirited,
resolute and intelligent heroines?”

 Harold Bloom- “Shakespeare is the Canon. He sets the standard

and the limits of literature”

 Victor Hugo- He calls Shakespeare “Shekespeare: the ocean.”

 Thomas de Quincey- “O, mighty poet Thy works are…like the

phenomena of nature, like the sun and the sea, the stars and
the flowers,—like frost and snow, rain and dew, hail-storm and
thunder…”

 Thomas More-“And one wild Shakespeare, following Nature’s

lights,/Is worth whole planets, filled with Stagyrites.”

 William Hazlitt- “If we wish to know the force of human genius

we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the
insignificance of human learning we may study his
commentators.”

 George Bernard Shaw-“Hamlet’s experience simply could not

have happened to a plumber.”

6|P ag e
  Ralph Waldo Emerson- “He breathed upon dead bodies and
brought them into life. Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit
and sum of Shakespeare’s wit.”

 Elizabeth Barrett Browning- “There Shakespeare, on whose

forehead climb/ The crowns o’ the world; oh, eyes sublime
With tears and laughter for all time!”

 Robert Browning- “With this same key

Shakespeare unlocked his heart' once more!
Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!”

 George Dawson- “When, too, it is found that his judgment is

equal to his genius, and that his industry is on a par with his
inspiration, it becomes impossible to wonder or to admire too
much.”

 Laurence Olivier- “Shakespeare - The nearest thing in

incarnation to the eye of God.”

 William A. Quayle-
o “He is as a mountain, whose majesty and
multitudinous beauty, meaning, and magnitude and
impress, must be gotten by slow processes in
journeying about it through many days.”
o “Shakespeare can not be measured”
o “His genius is penetrative as cold midwinter entering
every room, and making warmth shiver in ague fits. I
think Shakespeare never errs in his logical sequence
in character. He surprises us, seems unnatural to us,
but because we have been superficial observers;
while genius will disclose those truths to which we
are blind.”

7|P ag e