William Shakespeare

Planning a school or amateur Shakespeare production? The best way to experience the plays is to perform them, but getting started can be a challenge: The complete plays are too long and complex, while scene selections or simplified language are too limited. "The 30-Minute Shakespeare" is a new series of abridgements that tell the "story" of each play from start to finish while keeping the beauty of Shakespeare's language intact. Specific stage directions...

Performed as early as 1611 and published in the "First Folio" in 1623, Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" weaves an elaborate tale of palatial envy and power in Ancient Britain. Cymbeline, King of Britain, commands that his lovely young daughter Imogen marry Cloten, the violent and callous son of the current Queen by her former husband. With her heart already promised to the poor yet heroic Posthumus, Imogen refuses. Disgusted at the prospect of his daughter...

All's Well That Ends Well (1607) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. All's Well That Ends Well was likely inspired by the tale of Giletta di Narbona from Boccaccio's Decameron. Unpopular during Shakespeare's lifetime, the play remains one of his least staged works to this day. Despite this, scholars praise All's Well That Ends Well for its moral ambiguity. "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together, our virtues would be proud...

Shakespeare's tragic drama about a Roman general tested by rioting, war, rejection-and his own all-consuming anger. Enraged by the withholding of food, the common people of the Roman Republic are rebelling against the elite. In this battle between plebeians and patricians, Caius Marcius has little patience for those he considers beneath him and his family. After his military victory in the city of Corioli, Marcius is given the nickname Coriolanus...

Likely written around 1607 or 1608 and attributed at least in part to Shakespeare, "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" is an adventure-filled play that follows the extended sailing journeys of a young prince. Pericles, a young prince from Phoenicia, is forced to flee Antioch when he correctly guesses a riddle that reveals the incestuous activity of King Antiochus. Unable to stay at home in Tyre because of Antiochus' vengeance, he sails away and ends up shipwrecked...

William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," is a classic comedy of mistaken identities, a device employed in a number of the bard's plays, which is believed to have been written sometime between 1601 and 1602. When Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria she is separated from her twin brother Sebastian, who she mistakenly believes to be dead. With the help of the ship captain who rescues her, she enters into the service of Duke Orsino, who has fallen...

Esta, la más importante e inmortal obra de Shakespeare, llega a las más altas cimas de la poesía y de la tragedia. Toda la pieza es un largo dúo de amor cantado con el fondo conflictivo de dos familias rivales –los Montesco y los Capuleto–, donde se combinan la acción dramática con las riñas a espada, el desarrollo azaroso y vivo, el colorido del lenguaje de nobles y plebeyos, lo mundano y lo popular. La muerte de Romeo y Julieta consigue...

Classic Books Library presents this new beautiful edition of William Shakespeare's play, "Henry VI, Part 1", featuring a specially commissioned new biography of William Shakespeare. In the first instalment of a trilogy set during the War of the Roses, Henry VI rises to King following the death of his father, Henry V. As England's military hold in France dwindles, rivalry runs high between the Houses of York and Somerset, leading to Lord Talbot's defeat...

Co-written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, this is a captivating play that explores themes of love, friendship, and rivalry. Set against the backdrop of ancient Greece, the story follows two cousins, Palamon and Arcite, whose close bond is tested by their mutual love for Emilia, a noblewoman. This late Jacobean drama, one of Shakespeare's final plays, combines elements of romance and tragedy, showcasing the playwrights' expertise in...

Without question the most influential, brilliant and beloved writer in the English language, William Shakespeare began as a simple poet and would-be actor, but after joining the Lord Chamberlain's Men acting company in London (later, the King's Men), he began writing plays and his works would go on to become the most performed theatrical pieces on the planet. It is difficult to encapsulate the scope and impact of Shakespeare's writings. Entire...