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William Shakespeare
The Chandos portrait, likely depicting Shakespeare, c. 1611
Born	c. (1564-04-23)23 April 1564 Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Died	23 April 1616(1616-04-23) (aged 51–52) Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Resting place	Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon
Occupations	Playwright poet actor
Years active	c. 1585–1613
Era	Elizabethan Jacobean
Organisations	Lord Chamberlain's Men King's Men
Works	Shakespeare bibliography
Movement	English Renaissance
Spouse	Anne Hathaway ​(m. 1582)​
Children	Susanna Hall Hamnet Shakespeare Judith Quiney
Parents	John Shakespeare Mary Arden
Writing career
Language	Early Modern English
Genres	Play (comedy history tragedy) Poetry (sonnet narrative poem epitaph)
Signature

William Shakespeare (c. 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in English. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Life

Early life

Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in 1616. He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the "complaints bill" of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will. Little evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year:

... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ on the exact meaning of Greene's words, but most agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Greene himself (the so-called "University Wits"). The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", clearly identify Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers to a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Theatre, in Shoreditch, only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new King James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.

All the world's a stage,
and all the men and women merely players:
they have their exits and their entrances;
and one man in his time plays many parts ...

In 1599, a partnership of members of the company built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that his association with the company made him a wealthy man, and in 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in 1605, invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning in 1594, and by 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) and Sejanus His Fall (1603). The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone, although one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It, and the Chorus in Henry V, though scholars doubt the sources of that information.

Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames. He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the same year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there. By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There, he rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear.

Later years and death

Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by Samuel Johnson, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor in London in 1608; in an answer to the sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing the lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Henry Evans, the King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, it is perhaps relevant that the bubonic plague raged in London throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610), which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare continued to visit London during the years 1611–1614. In 1612, he was called as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March 1613, he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November 1614, he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall. After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the Globe Theatre burned down during the performance of Henry VIII on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died. Half a century later, John Ward, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon / From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."

He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day, Thomas Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, both of whom had died during childbirth. Thomas was ordered by the church court to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one-third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:

Some time before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published. Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI, written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty. The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca. The Comedy of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it has an identical plot but different wording as another play with a similar name. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear to approve of rape, the Shrew's story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic The Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences. The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, Part 1 and 2, and Henry V. Henry IV features Falstaff, rogue, wit and friend of Prince Hal. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death; and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced a new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".

In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called "problem plays" Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and All's Well That Ends Well and a number of his best known tragedies. Many critics believe that Shakespeare's tragedies represent the peak of his art. Hamlet has probably been analysed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins "To be or not to be; that is the question". Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, Othello and Lear are undone by hasty errors of judgement. The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves. In Othello, Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him. In King Lear, the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter, Cordelia. According to the critic Frank Kermode, "the play...offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty". In Macbeth, the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot. Eliot wrote, "Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British Museum."

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest, as well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day. Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, probably with John Fletcher.

Classification

Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as comedies, histories, and tragedies. Two plays not included in the First Folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the canon, with today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both. No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio.

In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romances, and though many scholars prefer to call them tragicomedies, Dowden's term is often used. In 1896, Frederick S. Boas coined the term "problem plays" to describe four plays: All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and Hamlet. "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may, therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays." The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though Hamlet is definitively classed as a tragedy.

Performances

It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. After the plagues of 1592–93, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch, north of the Thames. Londoners flocked there to see the first part of Henry IV, Leonard Digges recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest ... and you scarce shall have a room". When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the Globe Theatre, the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark. The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with Julius Caesar one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear.

After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the King's Men in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new King James. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604, and 31 October 1605, including two performances of The Merchant of Venice. After 1608, they performed at the indoor Blackfriars Theatre during the winter and the Globe during the summer. The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In Cymbeline, for example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."

The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in Romeo and Juliet and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, among other characters. He was replaced around 1600 by Robert Armin, who played roles such as Touchstone in As You Like It and the fool in King Lear. In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton recorded that Henry VIII "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony". On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision.

Textual sources

In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men, published the First Folio, a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time. The others had already appeared in quarto versions—flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves. No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies".

Alfred Pollard termed some of the pre-1623 versions as "bad quartos" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory. Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the others. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers. In some cases, for example, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, and Othello, Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of King Lear, however, while most modern editions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.

Poems

In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chester's 1601 Love's Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.

Sonnets

Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends". Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate ...

The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication. Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.

Style

Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical—written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus, in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in The Two Gentlemen of Verona has been described as stilted.

However, Shakespeare soon began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of Richard III has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays. No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with Romeo and Juliet perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles. By the time of Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.

Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony. Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as Julius Caesar and Hamlet. Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind:

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—
And prais'd be rashness for it—let us know
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well ...

— Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2, 4–8

After Hamlet, Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic A. C. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical". In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included run-on lines, irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length. In Macbeth, for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.35–38); "... pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air ..." (1.7.21–25). The listener is challenged to complete the sense. The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity.

Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre. Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed. He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting, and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. As Shakespeare's mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances, he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.

Legacy

Influence

Shakespeare's work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre. Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events, but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes." John Milton, considered by many to be the most important English poet after Shakespeare, wrote in tribute: "Thou in our wonder and astonishment/ Hast built thyself a live-long monument."

Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melville's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick is a classic tragic hero, inspired by King Lear. Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works, including Felix Mendelssohn's overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet. His work has inspired several operas, among them Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff, whose critical standing compares with that of the source plays. Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites, while William Hogarth's 1745 painting of actor David Garrick playing Richard III was decisive in establishing the genre of theatrical portraiture in Britain. The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated Macbeth into German. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular, that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature. Shakespeare has been a rich source for filmmakers; Akira Kurosawa adapted Macbeth and King Lear as Throne of Blood and Ran, respectively. Other examples of Shakespeare on film include Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Laurence Olivier's Hamlet and Al Pacino's documentary Looking For Richard. Orson Welles, a lifelong lover of Shakespeare, directed and starred in Macbeth, Othello and Chimes at Midnight, in which he plays John Falstaff, which Welles himself called his best work.

In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English. Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his A Dictionary of the English Language, the first serious work of its type. Expressions such as "with bated breath" (Merchant of Venice) and "a foregone conclusion" (Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.

Shakespeare's influence extends far beyond his native England and the English language. His reception in Germany was particularly significant; as early as the 18th century Shakespeare was widely translated and popularised in Germany, and gradually became a "classic of the German Weimar era;" Christoph Martin Wieland was the first to produce complete translations of Shakespeare's plays in any language. Actor and theatre director Simon Callow writes, "this master, this titan, this genius, so profoundly British and so effortlessly universal, each different culture – German, Italian, Russian – was obliged to respond to the Shakespearean example; for the most part, they embraced it, and him, with joyous abandon, as the possibilities of language and character in action that he celebrated liberated writers across the continent. Some of the most deeply affecting productions of Shakespeare have been non-English, and non-European. He is that unique writer: he has something for everyone."

According to Guinness World Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.

Critical reputation

He was not of an age, but for all time.

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English playwrights as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. The authors of the Parnassus plays at St John's College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower, and Spenser. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", although he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art" (lacked skill).

Between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. Thomas Rymer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and critic John Dryden rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare". He also famously remarked that Shakespeare "was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there." For several decades, Rymer's view held sway. But during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and, like Dryden, to acclaim what they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790, added to his growing reputation. By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet, and described as the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). In the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were the writers Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal, and Victor Hugo.

During the Romantic era, Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the critic August Wilhelm Schlegel translated his plays in the spirit of German Romanticism. In the 19th century, critical admiration for Shakespeare's genius often bordered on adulation. "This King Shakespeare," the essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote in 1840, "does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible". The Victorians produced his plays as lavish spectacles on a grand scale. The playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw mocked the cult of Shakespeare worship as "bardolatry", claiming that the new naturalism of Ibsen's plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.

The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the avant-garde. The Expressionists in Germany and the Futurists in Moscow mounted productions of his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht devised an epic theatre under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic T. S. Eliot argued against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern. Eliot, along with G. Wilson Knight and the school of New Criticism, led a movement towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery. In the 1950s, a wave of new critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for post-modern studies of Shakespeare. Comparing Shakespeare's accomplishments to those of leading figures in philosophy and theology, Harold Bloom wrote, "Shakespeare was larger than Plato and than St. Augustine. He encloses us because we see with his fundamental perceptions."

Speculation

Authorship

Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Several "group theories" have also been proposed. All but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe theory, with only a small minority of academics who believe that there is reason to question the traditional attribution, but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century.

Religion

Shakespeare conformed to the official state religion, but his private views on religion have been the subject of debate. Shakespeare's will uses a Protestant formula, and he was a confirmed member of the Church of England, where he was married, his children were baptised, and where he is buried.

Some scholars are of the view that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when practising Catholicism in England was against the law. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by his father, John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. However, the document is now lost and scholars differ as to its authenticity. In 1591, the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse. In 1606, the name of William's daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter communion in Stratford.

Other authors argue that there is a lack of evidence about Shakespeare's religious beliefs. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism, Protestantism, or lack of belief in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove.

Sexuality

Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical, and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love. The 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.

Portraiture

No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare. That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, re-paintings, and relabelling of portraits of other people.

Some scholars suggest that the Droeshout portrait, which Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness, and his Stratford monument provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance. Of the claimed paintings, art historian Tarnya Cooper concluded that the Chandos portrait had "the strongest claim of any of the known contenders to be a true portrait of Shakespeare". After a three-year study supported by the National Portrait Gallery, London, the portrait's owners, Cooper contended that its composition date, contemporary with Shakespeare, its subsequent provenance, and the sitter's attire, all supported the attribution.

See also

• Outline of William Shakespeare
• English Renaissance theatre
• Spelling of Shakespeare's name
• World Shakespeare Bibliography
• Shakespeare's Politics
• Shakespeare's sonnets
• Shakespeare's plays

References

Notes

1. The belief that Shakespeare was born on 23 April is a tradition and not a verified fact; see § Early life below. He was baptised 26 April.
2. Dates follow the Julian calendar, used in England throughout Shakespeare's lifespan, but with the start of the year adjusted to 1 January (see Old Style and New Style dates). Under the Gregorian calendar, adopted in Catholic countries in 1582, Shakespeare died on 3 May.
3. The crest is a silver falcon supporting a spear, while the motto is Non Sanz Droict (French for "not without right"). This motto is still used by Warwickshire County Council, in reference to Shakespeare.
4. Inscribed in Latin on his funerary monument: AETATIS 53 DIE 23 APR (In his 53rd year he died 23 April).
5. Verse by James Mabbe printed in the First Folio.
6. Charles Knight, 1842, in his notes on Twelfth Night.
7. In the scribal abbreviations ye for the (3rd line) and yt for that (3rd and 4th lines) the letter y represents th: see thorn.
8. The "national cult" of Shakespeare, and the "bard" identification, dates from September 1769, when the actor David Garrick organised a week-long carnival at Stratford to mark the town council awarding him the freedom of the town. In addition to presenting the town with a statue of Shakespeare, Garrick composed a doggerel verse, lampooned in the London newspapers, naming the banks of the Avon as the birthplace of the "matchless Bard".
9. Grady cites Voltaire's Philosophical Letters (1733); Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795); Stendhal's two-part pamphlet Racine et Shakespeare (1823–25); and Victor Hugo's prefaces to Cromwell (1827) and William Shakespeare (1864).
10. For example, A.L. Rowse, the 20th-century Shakespeare scholar, was emphatic: "He died, as he had lived, a conforming member of the Church of England. His will made that perfectly clear—in facts, puts it beyond dispute, for it uses the Protestant formula."

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Sources

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• Bryant, John (1998). "Moby-Dick as Revolution". In Levine, Robert Steven (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 65–90. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521554772. ISBN 978-1-139-00037-6. OCLC 37442715 – via Cambridge Core.
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Articles and online

• Casey, Charles (1998). "Was Shakespeare gay? Sonnet 20 and the politics of pedagogy". College Literature. 25 (3): 35–51. JSTOR 25112402.
• Fort, J.A. (October 1927). "The Story Contained in the Second Series of Shakespeare's Sonnets". The Review of English Studies. Original Series. III (12): 406–414. doi:10.1093/res/os-III.12.406. ISSN 0034-6551 – via Oxford Journals.
• Hales, John W. (26 March 1904). "London Residences of Shakespeare". The Athenaeum. No. 3987. London: John C. Francis. pp. 401–402.
• Jackson, MacDonald P. (2004). Zimmerman, Susan (ed.). "A Lover's Complaint revisited". Shakespeare Studies. XXXII. ISSN 0582-9399. Archived from the original on 23 March 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2017 – via The Free Library.
• Mowat, Barbara; Werstine, Paul (n.d.). "Sonnet 18". Folger Digital Texts. Folger Shakespeare Library. Archived from the original on 23 June 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
• "Bard's 'cursed' tomb is revamped". BBC News. 28 May 2008. Archived from the original on 15 September 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
• "Did He or Didn't He? That Is the Question". The New York Times. 22 April 2007. Archived from the original on 23 March 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
• "Shakespeare Memorial". Southwark Cathedral. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
• "Visiting the Abbey". Westminster Abbey. Archived from the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.

External links

• Online books
• Resources in your library
• Resources in other libraries

• Online books
• Resources in your library
• Resources in other libraries

Digital editions

• William Shakespeare's plays on Bookwise
• Internet Shakespeare Editions
• The Folger Shakespeare
• Open Source Shakespeare complete works, with search engine and concordance
• The Shakespeare Quartos Archive
• Works by William Shakespeare in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
• Works by William Shakespeare at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about William Shakespeare at the Internet Archive
• Works by William Shakespeare at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Exhibitions

• Shakespeare Documented an online exhibition documenting Shakespeare in his own time
• Shakespeare's Will from The National Archives
• The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
• William Shakespeare Archived 23 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine at the British Library

Music

• Works by William Shakespeare set to music: free scores in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Works by William Shakespeare set to music: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Education

• Shakespeare at Home an online resource providing free educational resources on William Shakespeare and the Renaissance world. Activities are dyslexia friendly and suitable for all ages.

Legacy and criticism

• Records on Shakespeare's Theatre Legacy from the UK Parliamentary Collections
• Winston Churchill & Shakespeare – UK Parliament Living Heritage

v t e William Shakespeare
Plays	Comedies All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre ✻ The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen ✻ The Winter's Tale Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Histories King John Edward III ✻ Richard II Henry IV 1 2 Henry V Henry VI 1 ✻ 2 3 Richard III Henry VIII ✻ Early editions Quarto publications First Folio Second Folio Related Problem plays Late romances Henriad Characters A–K L–Z Ghost character Chronology Performances Settings Scenes
Poems	Shakespeare's sonnets comparison to Petrarch A Lover's Complaint The Phoenix and the Turtle The Rape of Lucrece Venus and Adonis
Apocrypha	Plays Arden of Faversham The Birth of Merlin Cardenio ✻† Double Falsehood Edmund Ironside Fair Em Locrine The London Prodigal Love's Labour's Won † The Merry Devil of Edmonton Mucedorus The Puritan The Second Maiden's Tragedy Sejanus His Fall Sir John Oldcastle Sir Thomas More ✻ The Spanish Tragedy Thomas Lord Cromwell Thomas of Woodstock Ur-Hamlet † Vortigern and Rowena A Yorkshire Tragedy Poems The Passionate Pilgrim To the Queen
Life and works	Birthplace Bibliography Complete Works Translations Coat of arms Collaborations Editors English Renaissance theatre Globe Theatre Handwriting Lord Chamberlain's Men/King's Men The Theatre Curtain Theatre Music New Place Portraits Religious views Sexuality Spelling of his name Stratford-upon-Avon Style Will Grave
Legacy	Attribution studies Authorship question Bardolatry Festivals Gardens Influence Memorials Screen adaptations Shakespeare and Star Trek Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien Works titled after Shakespeare Institutions Folger Shakespeare Library Shakespeare Quarterly Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Shakespeare Theatre Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Shakespeare's Globe (replica) Shakespeare Institute
Family	Anne Hathaway (wife) Susanna Hall (daughter) Hamnet Shakespeare (son) Judith Quiney (daughter) Elizabeth Barnard (granddaughter) John Shakespeare (father) Mary Arden (mother) Gilbert Shakespeare (brother) Joan Shakespeare (sister) Edmund Shakespeare (brother) Richard Shakespeare (grandfather) John Hall (son-in-law) Thomas Quiney (son-in-law)
✻ Shakespeare and other authors † Lost Category

Links to related articles

v t e Early editions of William Shakespeare's works Folios and quartos Foul papers List of Shakespeare plays in quarto Quarto Folio Bad quarto First Quarto First Folio Second Folio False Folio Early editors John Heminges Henry Condell Edward Knight Publishers Robert Allot William Aspley John Benson Edward Blount Cuthbert Burby Nathaniel Butter Philip Chetwinde Richard Hawkins Henry Herringman William Leake Richard Meighen Thomas Millington Thomas Pavier John Smethwick Thomas Thorpe Thomas Walkley John Waterson Andrew Wise Printers Edward Allde Thomas Cotes Thomas Creede George Eld Richard Field William Jaggard Augustine Matthews Nicholas Okes James Roberts Peter Short Valentine Simmes William Stansby Shakespearean tragedy v t e William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra Stage adaptations The False One (c.1620) All for Love (1677) Opera Antony and Cleopatra (1966) Antony and Cleopatra (2022) On screen 1908 1913 1959 (TV) The Spread of the Eagle (1963; TV) 1972 1974 (TV) Zulfiqar (2016; film) Related List of cultural depictions of Cleopatra Cultural depictions of Augustus Salad days Asp Thomas North Cleopatra (1912) Cleopatra (1917) Roman Tragedies (2007) Category v t e William Shakespeare's Coriolanus Characters Historical Caius Martius Coriolanus Menenius Agrippa Cominius Titus Lartius Sicinius Velutus Junius Brutus Tullus Aufidius Fictional Volumnia Virgilia Sources Roman Antiquities Parallel Lives Ab Urbe Condita Policraticus A Mervalious Combat of Contrarieties (William Averell) Adaptations Coriolanus (1953) The Spread of the Eagle (1963; TV) The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1984; TV) Coriolanus (2011) Related Veturia Thomas North Roman Tragedies (2007) v t e William Shakespeare's Cymbeline Characters Cymbeline Queen Imogen Posthumus Leonatus Cloten Belarius Guiderius Arvirargus Jupiter Sources Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) The Decameron (c. 1353) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) Adaptations Cymbeline (1982; TV) Cymbeline (2014) Related Shakespeare's late romances Philaster (c.1609) Deus ex machina Milford Haven v t e William Shakespeare's Hamlet Characters Hamlet Claudius Gertrude Ghost Polonius Laertes Ophelia Horatio Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Fortinbras The Gravediggers Yorick Soliloquies "To be, or not to be" "Mortal coil" "What a piece of work is a man" "Speak the speech" Words and phrases "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" "Thy name is" Terminology Dumbshow Induction Quiddity Substitution Sources Criticism Legend of Hamlet The Spanish Tragedy Ur-Hamlet Critical approaches Bibliographies Saxo Grammaticus House of Gonzaga Damon and Pythias Influence Common phrases from Hamlet Cultural references to Hamlet Cultural references to Ophelia Language of flowers Human skull symbolism Performances Moscow Art Theatre (1911–1912) Richard Burton (1964) On screen 1900 1907 1908 1912 1913 1917 1921 1935 1948 1954 1961 1964 1969 1974 1990 1996 2000 2011 Adaptations Films The Rest Is Silence (1959) The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Ophelia (1963) Johnny Hamlet (1968) One Hamlet Less (1973) The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet (1977) Strange Brew (1983) Hamlet Goes Business (1987) The Lion King (1994) Let the Devil Wear Black (1999) The Banquet (2006) Doubt (2009) Karmayogi (2012) Haider (2014) Hamlet A.D.D. (2014) Hemanta (2016) Ophelia (2018) The Lion King (2019) Novels Hamlet Had an Uncle (1940) Too, Too Solid Flesh (1989) Gertrude and Claudius (2000) Dating Hamlet (2002) The Dead Fathers Club (2006) Something Rotten (2007) Hamlet's Father (2008) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (2008) Plays Hamletmachine (1977) Dogg's Hamlet (1979) Fortinbras (1991) Musicals Rockabye Hamlet (1973) Television Hamlet (Australian TV, 1959) Hamlet at Elsinore (BBC, 1964) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (BBC, 1980) Hamlet (BBC 2, animated, 1992) Hamlet (BBC 2, 2009) Parodies 15-Minute Hamlet The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern I, Hamlet The Klingon Hamlet "Lyle the Kindly Viking" To Be or Not to Be: That is the Adventure "Tales from the Public Domain" The Skinhead Hamlet Songs "My Robin is to the greenwood gone" (16th century) "Pull Me Under" (1992) "Song for Athene" (1997) Opera/classical Hamlet (Thomas) Amleto (Faccio) Hamlet (Tchaikovsky) Tristia (Berlioz) Die Hamletmaschine (Rihm) Hamlet (Dean) In popular culture Films To Be or Not to Be (1942) A Performance of Hamlet in the Village of Mrduša Donja (1973) To Be or Not to Be (1983) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) Last Action Hero (1993) Renaissance Man (1994) In the Bleak Midwinter (1995) War (2002) Hamlet 2 (2008) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) Three Days (2012) Plays Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) Stage Blood (1974) I Hate Hamlet (1991) To Be or Not to Be (2008) Novels Hamlet, Revenge! (1937) Theatre of War (1994) "The Undiscovered" (1997) The Shakespeare Stealer (1998) Interred with Their Bones (2007) Hamnet (2020) Television "The Producer" (1966) "The Conscience of the King" (1966) "Born to Be King" (1983) "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" (2001) Slings & Arrows (2003) Video games Last Action Hero (1993) Hamlet (2010) Elsinore (2019) Books Asterix and the Great Crossing The Seagull Sharpe's Havoc Art Ophelia (Millais) Ophelia (Cabanel) Affe mit Schädel Ophelia (Waterhouse) Polish Hamlet. Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski The River Bank (Ophelia) Related Hamlet and Oedipus Hamlet and His Problems Hebenon Hamlet Q1 Ostalo je ćutanje The Chronicles of Amber "Symphony No. 65" (Haydn) The Hobart Shakespeareans Gertrude – The Cry Poor Murderer Something Rotten! Sons of Anarchy v t e William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Sources Parallel Lives Screen adaptations Julius Caesar (1914 film) Julius Caesar (1950 film) Julius Caesar (1953 film) The Spread of the Eagle (1963; TV) Julius Caesar (1970 film) BBC Television Shakespeare (TV) Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (TV) Inspired work La morte di Cesare (1788) The Assassination of Julius Caesar (Sullivan) Shakespeare Writing "Julius Caesar" (1907) Caesar (1937) Die Ermordung Cäsars (1959) Dead Caesar (2007) The Karaoke King (2007) Roman Tragedies (2007) Julius Caesar (overture, 1851) Zulfiqar (2016) Quotes "The dogs of war" "Et tu, Brute?" "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" "Greek to me" Related Cultural depictions of Julius Caesar Assassination of Julius Caesar Caesar's Comet Ides of March Battle of Philippi Me and Orson Welles (2008) Caesar Must Die (2012) Category v t e William Shakespeare's King Lear Characters King Lear Cordelia Goneril Regan Edmund The Fool Sources Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) The Mirror for Magistrates (1555) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) King Leir (1594) "Water and Salt" Related Llŷr Leir of Britain Cordelia of Britain Adaptations Plays The History of King Lear (1681) The Yiddish King Lear (1892) Safed Khoon (1907) Lear (1971) King Lear (1978) Novels La Terre (1887) A Thousand Acres (1991) Fool (2009) Operas Re Lear (Libretto only) (1896) Lear (1978) Vision of Lear (1998) Kuningas Lear (2000) Films King Lear (1910) King Lear (1916) Gunasundari Katha (1949) King Lear (1971 USSR) King Lear (1971 UK) Ran (1985) King Lear (1987) A Thousand Acres (1997) Gypsy Lore (1997) King Lear (1999) My Kingdom (2001) Lear Rex (TBA) Television King Lear (1953) BBC Television Shakespeare (1982) King Lear (1983) King of Texas (2002) Second Generation (2003) King Lear (2008) King Lear (2018) Story within a story The Dresser (1980 play) The Dresser (1983 film) The Dresser (2015 film) Other Tiriel (1789, poem) The Prince of the Pagodas (1957, ballet) The Tragedy of King Lear (screenplay) v t e William Shakespeare's Macbeth Characters Macbeth Lady Macbeth Banquo Macduff King Duncan Malcolm Donalbain Three Witches Fleance Lady Macduff Macduff's son Third Murderer Young Siward Inspirations Macbeth, King of Scotland Gruoch of Scotland Duncan I of Scotland Malcolm III of Scotland Donald III of Scotland Siward, Earl of Northumbria King James VI and I Sources Daemonologie (1597) The Witch (play) Holinshed's Chronicles Darraðarljóð Film 1908 1909 (French) 1909 (Italian) 1911 1913 1915 1916 1922 1948 Unfinished 1971 2006 2015 The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) accolades Television 1954 1960 US TV 1960 Australian TV 1961 1979 1982 1983 1992 2010 TV / film adaptations The Real Thing at Last (1916) Marmayogi (1951) Joe MacBeth (1955) Throne of Blood (1957) Marmayogi (1964) Macbeth (Verdi opera) (1987) Men of Respect (1990) Scotland, PA (2001) Makibefo (2001) Maqbool (2003) 2005 The Last King of Scotland (2006) Shakespeare Must Die (2012) Thane of East County (2015) Veeram (2016) Joji (2021) Plays Khwab-e-Hasti (1909) Voodoo Macbeth (1936) MacBird! (1967) uMabatha (1970) Macbett (1972) Cahoot's Macbeth (1979) MacHomer (1995) Just Macbeth! (2008) Sleep No More (2009) Dunsinane (2010) Sleep No More (2011) Operas Macbeth (1847, Verdi) discography Macbeth (1910, Bloch) Literary adaptations Wyrd Sisters (1988) The Last King of Scotland (1998) Macbeth (2018) Albums Music from Macbeth (1972) Macbeth (1990) Thane to the Throne (2000) Shakespeare's Macbeth – A Tragedy in Steel (2003) Lady Macbeth (2005) Art Pity (1795) The Night of Enitharmon's Joy (1795) Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers (1812 painting) Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889) Lady Macbeth (1905 sculpture) Scenes and speeches "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" (1823) Sleepwalking Scene (5.1) "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" Words and phrases "What's done is done" "Crack of doom" The Scottish Play Thane of Cawdor In popular culture Novels, film and theatre We Work Again Light Thickens The Deadly Affair Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine The Scottish Play Burke & Hare Television "A Witch's Tangled Hare" (1959, Looney Tunes) "The Bellero Shield" (1964, The Outer Limits) "The Movies" (1975, The Goodies) "Sense and Senility" (1987, Blackadder the Third) "Sleeping with the Enemy" (2004, The Simpsons) "The Coup" (2006, The Office) "Dial 'N' for Nerder" (2008, The Simpsons) "Four Great Women and a Manicure" (2009, The Simpsons) "The Shower Principle" (2012, 30 Rock) "The Understudy" (2014, Inside No. 9) Other Macbeth (Johann Strauss) The Scottish Play Piano Trios, Op. 70 (Ludwig van Beethoven) The Ruins of Cawdor House of Cards (UK, 1990) House of Cards (US, 2013–2018) Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) v t e William Shakespeare's Othello Characters Othello Desdemona Iago Cassio Emilia Bianca Roderigo Brabantio Source Della descrittione dell’Africa (1550) by Leo Africanus "Un Capitano Moro" from Gli Hecatommithi (1565) by Cintio Stage adaptations The Duke of Milan (1623) Love's Sacrifice (1633) Masquerade (1835) Othello (1951) Catch My Soul (US; 1969) Catch My Soul (UK; 1970) Desdemona (2011) Opera and ballet adaptations Otello (1816; opera by Rossini) Otello (1887; opera by Verdi) Othello (1892; overture) The Moor's Pavane (1949; ballet) Othello (1998; ballet score) Bandanna (1999; opera) Films 1922 1951 1955 1965 1995 TV 1964 Australia 1981 1990 1994 2001 Film adaptations Jubal (1956) All Night Long (1962) Catch My Soul (1974) Kaliyattam (1997) O (2001) Souli (2004) Omkara (2006) Jarum Halus (2008) From Verdi Otello (1906; film) Othello Ballet Suite/Electronic Organ Sonata No. 1 (1967; ballet suite) Otello (1986; film) The Othello Syndrome (2008; album) Paintings Othello Phrases "Beast with two backs" Related Othello error Filming Othello Story within a story Carnival (1921 film) Carnival (1931 film) The Deceiver (1931) Men Are Not Gods (1936) A Double Life (1947) Saptapadi (1961) The Dresser (1980 play) The Dresser (1983 film) Goodnight Desdemona (1988) An Imaginary Tale (1990) Red Velvet (2012 play) The Dresser (2015 film) Related Cultural references to Othello v t e William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Characters Romeo Juliet Mercutio Tybalt Benvolio Friar Laurence Nurse Paris Rosaline Queen Mab Sources The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet Pyramus and Thisbe Palace of Pleasure Troilus and Criseyde Ephesiaca Ballets Romeo and Juliet (1938, Prokofiev) Romeo and Juliet (1962, Cranko) Romeo and Juliet (1965, MacMillan) Romeo and Juliet (1977, Nureyev) Romeo and Juliet (1965, Lavery) Radio and Juliet (2005) Romeo + Juliet (2007, Martins) Romeo and Juliet (2008, Pastor) Operas Romeo und Julie (1776, Benda) Giulietta e Romeo (1796, Zingarelli) Giulietta e Romeo (1825, Vaccai) I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830, Bellini) Gloria (1874, Cilea) Roméo et Juliette (1867, Gounod) A Village Romeo and Juliet (1907, Delius) Romeo und Julia (1940, Sutermeister) Romeo und Julia (1943, Blacher) Musicals The Belle of Mayfair (1906) West Side Story (1957) Once on This Island (1990) Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour (2001) Giulietta e Romeo (2007) & Juliet (2019) Classical Beethoven's String Quartet No. 1 (c. 1800) Roméo et Juliette (1839, Berlioz) Romeo and Juliet (1870, Tchaikovsky) On screen Films 1900 1908 1916 Metro 1916 Fox 1936 1940 1953 1954 1955 1964 1967 (TV) 1968 1978 (TV) 1992 (TV) 1996 2006 2013 TV series Ronny & Julia (2000) Skin (2003) Romeo × Juliet (2007) Romeo y Julieta (2007) Harina de otro costal (2010) Star-Crossed (2014) Romil & Jugal (2017) Still Star-Crossed (2017) A Infância de Romeu e Julieta (2023) Plays Romanoff and Juliet (1956) People's Romeo (2010) Romeo and Juliet (2013) Songs "Montagues and Capulets" (1935) "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" (1968) "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (1976) "Angelo" (1978) "Romeo and Juliet" (1978) "Romeo and Juliet" (1981) "Cherish" (1989) "Amor Prohibido" (1994) "Kissing You" (1996) "Starcrossed" (2004) "Peut-être toi" (2006) "Mademoiselle Juliette" (2007) "Love Story" (2008) "Love Me Again" (2013) Albums Romeo and Juliet (1968) Romeo + Juliet (1996) Romeo & Julia (2006) Tragic Lovers (2008) Star-Crossed (2021) Rosaline (2022) Literature Les Chouans (1829) The Wandering Jew (1844) The Stolen Dormouse (1941) The Faraway Lurs (1963) The Destruction of Faena (1989) Ronny & Julia (1995) Romiette and Julio (2001) New Moon (2006) Warm Bodies (2010) Art Romeo and Juliet: the Tomb Scene (1790) Romeo and Juliet (1978) Phrases A plague o' both your houses! A rose by any other name would smell as sweet Star-crossed Story within a story Nicholas Nickleby 1912 film 1947 film 1980 play 2001 film 2002 film The Picture of Dorian Gray 1910 film 1913 film 1915 film 1916 film 1917 German film 1917 Hungarian film 1945 film 1976 TV special 2009 film Harlequinade W Juliet "Nothing Broken but My Heart" Panic Button Bare: A Pop Opera Bolji život The Sky Is Everywhere Pay as You Exit The White Mercedes She Died a Lady "Moonshine River" Rendez-vous Fame "I Am Unicorn" The Frog Prince Molly Smart Girls Get What They Want Tumbleweeds "The Thief of Baghead" The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke Prince Charming Km. 0 Phileine Says Sorry Hamateur Night "Say You'll Be Mine" Into the Gauntlet Wandering Son K-On! Other Such Tweet Sorrow Romeo and Juliet effect Romeo and Juliet laws After Juliet "Upper West Side Story" (2012) Millennium Dome Show Inge Sylten and Heinz Drosihn Boys Don't Cry My Wedding and Other Secrets Donkey in Lahore Upside Down Letters to Juliet Sherlock Gnomes Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo v t e William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens Characters Timon Alcibiades Apemantus Sources Palace of Pleasure (1566) Adaptations Timon (1973) Timon of Athens (1981) Revisions The History of Timon of Athens the Man-hater (1677) Related Thomas Middleton v t e William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus Characters Titus Andronicus Tamora Aaron Lavinia Emperor Saturninus Marcus Lucius Sources Ab Urbe Condita (c.26 BC) Metamorphoses (c.AD 8) Thyestes (first century AD) Gesta Romanorum (late third century AD) Adaptations Titus Andronicus (1985; TV) Titus (1999) "Scott Tenorman Must Die" (2001; TV) The Hungry (2017) Related Peacham drawing Authorship question Themes "Titus Andronicus' Complaint" George Peele Philomela Thyestes Revenge play Grand Guignol Gorboduc (1561) Edmund Ironside (1590) Jan Vos Titus (soundtrack) v t e William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida Characters Trojans Priam Hector Deiphobus Helenus Paris Troilus Cassandra Andromache Aeneas Pandarus Cressida Calchas Helen Greeks Agamemnon Menelaus Nestor Ulysses Achilles Patroclus Diomedes Ajax Thersites Myrmidons Sources Troilus and Criseyde Troy Book Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye Adaptations The Face of Love (1954, TV) Troilus and Cressida (1981, TV) Related Trojan War Trojan War in popular culture Troilus and Cressida (Dryden play) Achilles and Patroclus Shakespearean problem play Shakespearean comedy v t e William Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well Characters Bertram Countess of Roussillon Helen Rinaldo Lavatch Paroles King of France Lafeu Duke of Florence Widow Diana Mariana Sources The Decameron (c.1353) Palace of Pleasure (1566) Adaptations All's Well That Ends Well (1981; TV) Related Shakespearean problem play Diana Alazôn Bed trick v t e William Shakespeare's As You Like It Characters Rosalind Orlando Celia Jaques Touchstone Screen 1912 1936 Sollu Thambi Sollu (1959) 1978 (TV) 1991 1994 (TV) 2006 Related "All the world's a stage" v t e William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors Sources Menaechmi Amphitryon Apollonius of Tyre Opera and musicals Gli equivoci (1786) The Boys from Syracuse (1938) Pozdvižení v Efesu (1943) The Comedy of Errors (1976) The Bomb-itty of Errors (2000) Film/TV The Boys from Syracuse (1940) Bhranti Bilas (1963) Do Dooni Chaar (1968) Angoor (1982) The Comedy of Errors (1983; TV) Big Business (1988) Ulta Palta (1997) Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998) Dam Dama Dam (1998) Ulta Palta (1998) Heeralal Pannalal (1999) Ambuttu Imbuttu Embuttu (2005) Baa Bega Chandamama (2008) Double Di Trouble (2014) Cirkus (2022) Related Gesta Grayorum (1688) v t e William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost Characters Costard Adaptations 1920 animated short 1973 opera TV, 1985 2000 film Related Love's Labour's Won Honorificabilitudinitatibus Nine Worthies The School of Night Robert Tofte The Princess (poem; 1847) v t e William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure Characters Angelo Sources Hecatommithi by Cinthio Promos and Cassandra by George Whetstone Theatrical adaptations The Law Against Lovers (1662) Das Liebesverbot (1834) Round Heads and Pointed Heads (1936) Desperate Measures (2004) Film adaptations Measure for Measure (1943) Measure for Measure (1979; TV) Measure for Measure (2020) Related Thomas Middleton Mariana (Tennyson) Mariana in the South (Tennyson) Bletting Bed trick Shakespearean problem play Mariana (Millais) v t e William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice Characters Shylock Antonio Bassanio Portia Jessica Sources Gesta Romanorum Il Pecorone The Jew of Malta On screen 1914 1916 1923 Shylock (1940) 1953 1961 1969 1980 (TV) 2004 Music Incidental music: Shylock (1889) Opera: Le marchand de Venise (1935); The Merchant of Venice (1982) Musical: Shylock (1987) Adaptations Serenade to Music (1938) The Merchant (1976) Shylock (1996) Yasser (2001) The Maori Merchant of Venice (2002) Related "All that glitters is not gold" "Between you and I" "The quality of mercy" v t e William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor Characters Falstaff Mistress Quickly Ancient Pistol Bardolph Robert Shallow Corporal Nym Film/Television The Merry Wives of Windsor (1950) Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor (1953) The Merry Wives of Windsor (1982; TV) Opera/Musical Falstaff (1799) The Merry Wives of Windsor (1849) Falstaff (1893) Sir John in Love (1929) Lone Star Love (2004) Related "You Banbury cheese!" v t e William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Characters Lovers Theseus and Hippolyta Oberon and Titania Hermia and Lysander Helena and Demetrius Mechanicals Nick Bottom Peter Quince Francis Flute Robin Starveling Tom Snout Snug Others Puck Egeus Philostrate Productions Film 1935 1959 1968 1999 2017 Television 1969 1981 1992 2016 Stage 1970 Adaptations Film A Midsummer Night's Dream (1909, silent) Wood Love (1925) Dream of a Summer Night (1983) Get Over It (2001) A Midsummer Night's Rave (2002) Midsummer Dream (2005) Were the World Mine (2008) 10ml Love (2012) Strange Magic (2015) Literature A Midsummer Tempest (1974) Lords and Ladies (1992) A Midsummer Night's Gene (1997) A Midsummer's Nightmare (1997) The Great Night (2011) Music A Midsummer Night's Dream (1842, Mendelssohn) "Wedding March" Three Shakespeare Songs (1951) Symphony No. 8 (1992, Henze) Il Sogno (2004) Opera The Fairy-Queen (1692) Pyramus and Thisbe (1745) Puck (1949) A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960, opera) The Enchanted Island (2011) Stage The Triumph of Beauty (1646, masque) St. John's Eve (1852, play) The Park (1983, play) The Donkey Show (1999, musical) The Dreaming (2001, musical) The Lovers (2022, musical) Comics The Sandman: Dream Country (1991) Auberon Faerie Titania Art Hermia and Lysander The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream Titania and Bottom Ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962) The Dream (1964) Television "Fascination" (1994, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1994, ShakespeaRe-Told) A Midsummer's Nightmare (2017) Related Love-in-idleness Pyramus and Thisbe (8 CE) Dead Poets Society (1989) The Apartment (1996) Wicker Park (2004) v t e William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing Characters Beatrice Don Pedro Dogberry Hero Adaptations Screen 1984 (TV) 1993 2005 (TV) 2012 Opera Béatrice et Bénédict (1862) Much Ado About Nothing (opera) (1901) Musical Much Ado (1995) The Boys Are Coming Home (2005) Adaptations The Law Against Lovers (1662) Dil Chahta Hai (2001) Imogen Says Nothing (2017) Anyone but You (2023) Related Dogberryism "Curiosity killed the cat" Pleaching v t e William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre Characters John Gower Diana Sources Confessio Amantis (1390) The Pattern of Painful Adventures (1576) Adaptations Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1984; TV) Related George Wilkins Shakespeare's late romances Shakespeare apocrypha Apollonius of Tyre The Pattern of Painful Adventures (2008; radio) First water The Porpoise v t e William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew Characters Kate Petruchio Bianca Minola Christopher Sly Stage adaptations The Woman's Prize (c1611) Catharine and Petruchio (1754) Las bravías (1896) Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung (1872) Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato (1927) Kiss Me, Kate (1948) The Taming of the Shrew (1953) Ukroshchenye Stroptivoy (1957) Christopher Sly (1963) Direct adaptations 1908 1929 1962 (TV) 1967 1980 (TV) 1994 (TV) Other adaptations Daring Youth (1924) You Made Me Love You (1933) Second Best Bed (1938) The Taming of the Shrew (1942) Enamorada (1946) Kiss Me Kate (1953) Abba Aa Hudugi (1959) Gundamma Katha (1962) Manithan Maravillai (1962) McLintock! (1963) Arivaali (1963) Kiss Me Kate (1968) Pattikada Pattanama (1972) The Taming of the Scoundrel (1980) Nanjundi Kalyana (1989) Banarasi Babu (1997) 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) O Cravo e a Rosa (2000; TV) Deliver Us from Eva (2003) The Taming of the Shrew (2005; TV) Frivolous Wife (2008) 10 Things I Hate About You (2009; TV) Isi Life Mein...! (2010) Related The Taming of the Shrew in performance The Taming of the Shrew on screen Shrew (stock character) Vinegar Girl (2016) v t e William Shakespeare's The Tempest Characters Prospero Miranda Ariel Caliban Sycorax Ferdinand Gonzalo Stephano Sources A True Reportory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight Decades of the New World Montaigne's Essays Ovid's Metamorphoses (Of Cannibals) Erasmus's Naufragium Commedia dell'arte Sea Venture Films 1908 1911 1960 1963 1979 1980 1992 2010 Adaptations Music Three Shakespeare Songs (Vaughan Williams) The Tempest (Sullivan) The Tempest (Sibelius) The Tempest (Tchaikovsky) The Tempest (ballet) (Nordheim) "Don't Pay the Ferryman" (1982) Screen Yellow Sky (1948) Forbidden Planet (1956) Tempest (1982) The Journey to Melonia (1989) Prospero's Books (1991) The Tempest (1998) Shakespeare's Shitstorm (2020) Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (2022-2023) Painting Scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest (c, 1736-1738, Hogarth) Ferdinand Lured by Ariel (1850, Millais) Musicals Beach Blanket Tempest Return to the Forbidden Planet Amaluna Plays The Tempest (Dryden) The Sea Voyage The Mock Tempest (1674 Duffet) Une Tempête (1969 Césaire) The Sea (play) (1973) I'll Be The Devil (2008) Opera The Tempest (1756 Smith) Die Geisterinsel (libretto 1796) Die Geisterinsel (1798 Reichardt) Die Geisterinsel (1805 Zumsteeg) Der Sturm (1955 Martin) Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs (1991 Nyman) The Tempest (Adès 2004) The Enchanted Island (2011 Sams) Poetry and prose fiction "Caliban upon Setebos" (Browning) "The Sea and the Mirror" (Auden) Indigo (Warner) A Midsummer Tempest (Anderson) Island (Rogers) Hag-Seed (Atwood) Video Games The Book of Watermarks (1999) Phrases "Ariel's Song" "Full fathom five" "Sea change" "What's past is prologue" Sculpture The Tempest (1966) v t e William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Characters Viola Orsino Olivia Sebastian Malvolio Maria Sir Toby Belch Sir Andrew Aguecheek Feste On screen 1933 1955 1966 (TV) 1970 (TV) 1980 (TV) 1986 1988 (TV) 1992 (TV) 1996 Musical Your Own Thing (1968) Music Is (1976) Play On! (1997) Illyria (2004) All Shook Up (2004) Adaptations Kanniyin Kathali (1949) Just One of the Guys (1985) Motocrossed (2001) She's the Man (2006) Dil Bole Hadippa! (2009) Opera Viola (unfinished) v t e William Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona Characters Valentine Proteus Julia Silvia Launce Speed Crab Sources The Boke Named the Governour (1531) Los Siete Libros de la Diana (1559) Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit (1578) The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (1580) Theatrical adaptations Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971) Screen adaptations A Spray of Plum Blossoms (1931) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (TV; 1983) Related Proteus Jorge de Montemor Stuart Draper "An Sylvia" (1826) Shakespeare in Love (1998) The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002) v t e William Shakespeare's The Two Noble Kinsmen Characters Theseus Hippolyta Emilia Pirithous Palamon Arcite Hymen Lafeu Artesius Valerius Jailer Doctor Gerald Nell Timothy Sources "The Knight's Tale" The Canterbury Tales Related Shakespeare apocrypha Shakespeare's late romances John Fletcher Creon William Davenant Stoolball The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn (1613) v t e William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale Characters Leontes Perdita Florizel Sources The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (c.1580) Pandosto (1588) Oberon, the Faery Prince (1611) Adaptations The Winter's Tale (1910) The Winter's Tale (1967) The Winter's Tale (1981) "The Winter's Tale" (1994) Stage works Hermione (1872 opera) Perdita (1897 opera) The Winter's Tale (2014 ballet) The Winter's Tale (2017 opera) Shakespearean history v t e William Shakespeare's King John Characters King John Queen Eleanor Prince Henry Blanche of Castile Earl of Essex Earl of Salisbury Earl of Pembroke Lord Bigot Philip Faulconbridge King Philip of France Louis the Dauphin Lady Constance Arthur Cardinal Pandulf Hubert Sources Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) The Troublesome Reign of King John (c.1589) Adaptations King John (1899) Said-e-Havas (1936) The Life and Death of King John (1984; TV) Related King Johan Cultural depictions of John, King of England Anglo-French War (1213–1214) v t e William Shakespeare's Edward III Characters English Edward III Queen Philippa Edward the Black Prince Earl of Salisbury Countess of Salisbury Earl of Warwick Sir William Montague Earl of Derby Lord Audley Lord Percy Robert of Artois Lord Montfort French King John II of France Prince Charles Prince Philip Duke of Lorraine King of Bohemia Scottish King David of Scotland Sir William Douglas Sources Froissart's Chronicles (c.1370) Palace of Pleasure (1566) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) Related Shakespeare apocrypha Thomas Kyd George Peele Robert Greene Hundred Years' War Battle of Halidon Hill Siege of Calais Battle of Crécy Battle of Poitiers v t e William Shakespeare's Henriad Richard II Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part 2 Henry V On screen Richard II King Richard II (1954; TV) An Age of Kings (1960; TV) The Life and Death of King Richard II (1960; TV) King Richard the Second (1979; TV) Richard the Second (2001) The Hollow Crown: Richard II (2012; TV) Henry IV, Part 1 An Age of Kings (1960; TV) Chimes at Midnight (1966) Henry the Fouth, Part I (1979; TV) The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part 1 (2012; TV) The King (2019) Henry IV, Part 2 An Age of Kings (1960; TV) Chimes at Midnight (1966) Henry the Fourth, Part II (1979; TV) The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part 2 (2012) The King (2019) Henry V Henry V (1944) An Age of Kings (1960; TV) Chimes at Midnight (1966) Henry the Fifth (1979; TV) Henry V (1989) The Hollow Crown: Henry V (2012) The King (2019) Characters Ancient Pistol Bardolph Charles VI Corporal Nym Doll Tearsheet Falstaff Fluellen Henry IV Henry V Prince Hal Owain Glyndŵr Owen Glendower Poins Nell Quickly Richard II Robert Shallow Sources Holinshed's Chronicles The Famous Victories of Henry V (c.1585) Thomas of Woodstock (c.1593) Related plays The Merry Wives of Windsor (c.1597) Sir John Oldcastle (1599) Falstaff's Wedding (1760) Related music Falstaff (1913) At the Boar's Head (1925) Suite from Henry V (1963) v t e William Shakespeare's first historical tetralogy Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Henry VI, Part 3 Richard III Characters and events 1 Henry VI Henry VI Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester Duke of Exeter Lord Talbot Duke of Bedford Richard, Duke of York Bishop of Winchester Earl of Suffolk Duke of Somerset (conflation of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset and Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset) Earl of Warwick Earl of Salisbury John Talbot Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March (conflation of Sir Edmund Mortimer and Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March) Sir John Fastolf Charles the Dauphin Joan la Pucelle Margaret of Anjou Reignier, Duke of Anjou Duke of Alençon Bastard of Orléans Duke of Burgundy Jacques d'Arc Siege of Orléans Battle of Patay 2 Henry VI Henry VI Queen Margaret Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester Richard, Duke of York Earl of Salisbury Earl of Warwick Cardinal of Winchester Duke of Suffolk Duke of Buckingham Jack Cade Duke of Somerset (conflation of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset and Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset) Duchess of Gloucester Edward Plantagenet Richard Plantagenet Lord Clifford Young Clifford Margery Jourdayne Lord Saye Lord Scales First Battle of St Albans Peasants' Revolt 3 Henry VI Henry VI Queen Margaret Richard, Duke of York Earl of Warwick Edward IV Richard, Duke of Gloucester George, Duke of Clarence Edward, Prince of Wales Lord Clifford Lady Grey Montague Earl of Oxford Duke of Somerset (conflation of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset and Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset) Lord Hastings Sir William Stanley Earl of Northumberland Duke of Exeter Duke of Norfolk Earl of Westmorland Lord Rivers Edmund, Earl of Rutland Henry, Earl of Richmond Louis XI of France Bona of Savoy Prince Edward Earl of Pembroke Lord Stafford Lord Bourbon Battle of Towton Battle of Barnet Battle of Wakefield Second Battle of St Albans Battle of Tewkesbury Richard III Richard III Duke of Buckingham Queen Elizabeth Duchess of York Queen Margaret Lady Neville George, Duke of Clarence Edward IV Lord Hastings Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond Sir William Catesby Sir Richard Ratcliffe Lord Rivers Marquis of Dorset Sir James Tyrrell Lord Richard Grey Prince Edward Richard, Duke of York Earl of Warwick Countess of Salisbury Duke of Norfolk Archbishop of Canterbury Archbishop of York Earl of Surrey Sir Thomas Vaughan Sir Christopher Robert Brackenbury Lord Lovel Ghost of Henry VI Ghost of Edward, Prince of Wales Lord Mayor of London Earl of Oxford Sir James Blunt Sir William Brandon Bishop of Ely Sheriff of Wiltshire Wars of the Roses Princes in the Tower Battle of Bosworth Field On screen Tetralogy An Age of Kings (1960; TV) The Wars of the Roses (1965; TV) BBC Television Shakespeare (1983; TV) The Hollow Crown Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Richard III (2016; TV) Richard III The Life and Death of King Richard III (1912) Richard III (1955) "The Foretelling" (1983; TV) "King Richard III" (1994; TV) Richard III (1995) Looking for Richard (1996) Richard III (2007) Sources The Mirror for Magistrates (1559) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) Richardus Tertius (1580) The Spanish Tragedy The True Tragedy of Richard III (c.1590) Historical context Hundred Years' War Wars of the Roses House of Plantagenet House of York House of Lancaster Related "Let's kill all the lawyers" "Even a worm will turn" The Tragical History of King Richard the Third (1699) David Garrick as Richard III (1745) v t e William Shakespeare's Henry VIII Characters Henry VIII Cardinal Wolsey Queen Katherine Anne Bullen Duke of Buckingham Thomas Cranmer Stephen Gardiner Lord Chamberlain Duke of Norfolk Duke of Suffolk Earl of Surrey Cardinal Campeius Capucius Thomas Cromwell Lord Sands Lord Abergavenny Lord Chancellor Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Lovell Henry Guildford Nicholas Vaux Anthony Denny Dr. Butts Garter King-of-Arms Sources Thomas Wolsey, Late Cardinall, his Lyffe and Deathe (1558) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) Adaptations Henry VIII (1911) The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight (1979) Related John Fletcher Cultural depictions of Henry VIII Cultural depictions of Anne Boleyn Globe Theatre Category v t e William Shakespeare's family tree   Direct ascendants and descendants of William Shakespeare are shown with a blue background   Shakespeare's siblings are shown with a red background   Anne Hathaway and ascendants are shown with a yellow background   People related to Shakespeare only through marriage are shown with a green background   Relations whose identity is not known are shown with a dashed border Years given are usually approximate and typically reflect baptismal and burial years, rather than birth and death. For remarriages, the number in parentheses after the name indicates the order of the marriages. Richard Shakespeare (1490–before 1561) (unknown) (unknown) Robert Arden (died 1556) John Shakespeare (c. 1531–1601) Mary Arden (c. 1537–1608) (unknown) (1) Richard Hathaway (–1581) Joan Hathaway (2) (–1599) Joan (1558–1558) Margaret (1562–1563) Gilbert Shakespeare (1566–1612) Joan Shakespeare (1569–1646) William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Anne Hathaway (1555–1623) Anne (1571–1579) Richard (1574–1613) Edmund Shakespeare (1580–1607) John Hall (1575–1635) Susanna Hall (1583–1649) Judith Quiney (1585–1662) Thomas Quiney (1589–1662) Hamnet Shakespeare (1585–1596) Thomas Nash (1) (1593–1647) Elisabeth Barnard (1608–1670) John Barnard (2) (1604–1674) Shakespeare Quiney (1616–1617) Richard Quiney (1618–1639) Thomas Quiney (1620–1639) Sources Chambers, E. K. (1930). William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. Vol. I 11–12, 18, Vol. II 8–9. OCLC 353406. Schoenbaum, S. (1977). William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 292. ISBN 0195051610. v t e Portraits, sculptures and memorials to William Shakespeare Portraits Chandos portrait Droeshout portrait Disputed Ashbourne portrait Cobbe portrait Flower portrait Sanders portrait Sculptures Shakespeare's funerary monument Heminges and Condell Memorial Statues Central Park, New York Leicester Square, London British Library Memorials Boydell Shakespeare Gallery Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare v t e The "Beaumont and Fletcher" Canon Francis Beaumont John Fletcher Philip Massinger Nathan Field William Shakespeare James Shirley Thomas Middleton William Rowley John Ford Ben Jonson George Chapman John Webster Plays (some attributions conjectural) Beaumont The Knight of the Burning Pestle The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn Beaumont and Fletcher The Woman Hater Cupid's Revenge The Coxcomb Philaster The Captain The Maid's Tragedy A King and No King Love's Pilgrimage The Scornful Lady The Noble Gentleman Fletcher The Faithful Shepherdess The Woman's Prize Valentinian Bonduca Monsieur Thomas The Mad Lover The Chances The Loyal Subject Women Pleased The Humorous Lieutenant The Island Princess The Pilgrim The Wild Goose Chase A Wife for a Month Rule a Wife and Have a Wife Fletcher and Massinger †Barnavelt The Little French Lawyer The False One The Double Marriage The Custom of the Country The Lovers' Progress The Spanish Curate The Prophetess The Sea Voyage The Elder Brother †A Very Woman Fletcher and others with Beaumont & Massinger Thierry and Theodoret Beggars' Bush Love's Cure with Massinger & Field The Honest Man's Fortune The Queen of Corinth The Knight of Malta with Field Four Plays, or Moral Representations, in One with Shakespeare †Henry VIII The Two Noble Kinsmen with Shirley The Night Walker Wit Without Money with Rowley The Maid in the Mill with Massinger, Chapman & Jonson Rollo, Duke of Normandy with Massinger, Ford & Webster The Fair Maid of the Inn Others The Nice Valour (Middleton) Wit at Several Weapons (Middleton & Rowley) The Laws of Candy (Ford) The Coronation (Shirley) Performance and publication English Renaissance theatre King's Men Beaumont and Fletcher folios Humphrey Moseley Humphrey Robinson Related †The History of Cardenio (Shakespeare & Fletcher?) †Double Falsehood (possibly based on Cardenio) † = Not published in the Beaumont and Fletcher folios