Summaries
of Shakespeare’s Plays
Raymond Hickey
English Linguistics
Divisions of Shakespeare’s plays
Phase 1 From the late 1580s to 1594, Shakespeare experimented with different
kinds of comedy in Love’s Labour’s Lost,
The Comedy of Errors, Two Gentlemen
of Verona, and The Taming of the
Shrew. He began to explore
English history in his first `tetralogy’ (a linked sequence of four plays)
comprising Henry VI (in 3 parts) with
Richard III. Titus Andronicus was his
first tragedy.
Phase 2 From 1594 to 1599 Shakespeare continued to concentrate on comedies and
histories. The comedies of this period ö A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor,
The Merchant of Venice, As You Like
It, and Much Ado About Nothing ö
are mainly in his best-loved `romantic’
vein, while his fuller command of histories appears in the second tetralogy: Richard II, Henry IV (2 parts), and Henry
V. This second period also includes the historical King John and a sentimental tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.
Phase 3 In the third period, from 1599 to 1608, Shakespeare abandoned romantic
comedy (except for Twelfth Night) and
English history, working instead on tragedies and on the disturbing ‘dark’
comedies or `problem plays’ Measure for
Measure, All’s Well that Ends Well, and
Troilus and Cressida. The tragedies usually regarded as the four greatest
are King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello, although a second group of
tragic `Roman plays’ includes the
equally powerful Antony and Cleopatra,
along with Julius Caesar and Coriolanus. To this period also belongs
the tragedy Timon of Athens, possibly
written with Middleton.
Phase 4 Shakespeare’s final phase, from 1608 to 1613, is dominated by a new
style of comedy on themes of loss and reconciliation: Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’ s Tale, and The Tempest are
known as his late `romances’.
Shakespeare seems to have interrupted his retirement in 1613 to collaborate
with John Fletcher in Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Most of the fictional stories in Shakespeare’s plays were adapted from earlier plays and
romances, while his historical dramas are derived from Plutarch’s biographies
of Roman statesmen and from Holinshed’s rather slanted account of English
history, the Chronicles (1577).
List of plays with synopses (in alphabetical order)
1)
All’s Well that Ends Well
2)
Antony and Cleopatra
3)
As You Like It
4)
Comedy of Errors, The
5)
Corialanus
6)
Cymbeline
7)
Hamlet
8, 9) Henry IV, Parts I and II
10)
Henry V
11-13) Henry VI, Parts I, II and III
14)
Henry VIII
15)
Julius Caesar
16)
King John
17)
King Lear
18)
Love’s Labour’s Lost
19)
Macbeth
20)
Measure for Measure
21)
Merchant of Venice
22)
Merry Wives of Windsor, The
23)
Midsummer’s Night Dream, A
24)
Much Ado About Nothing
25)
Othello
26)
Pericles
27)
Richard II
28)
Richard III
29)
Romeo and Juliet
30)
Taming of the Shrew, The
31)
Tempest, The
32)
Timon of Athens
33)
Titus Andronicus
34)
Troilus and Cressida
35)
Twelfth Night
36)
Two Noble Kinsmen
37)
Two Gentlemen of Verona
38)
Winter’s Tale, A
1)
All’s
well that ends well
Bertram is summoned to the court of the King of
France in Paris. Helena, daughter of a famous physician, uses the King’s
incurable illness as an excuse to follow Bertram, with whom she is in love.
Using her father’s secret prescription, she wagers her own life that the King
will recover within 24 hours. He is cured, and as a reward allows Helena to
choose a husband from the noblemen at the court. She picks Bertram, who is
ordered to marry her. He runs away to war in Italy before their marriage is
consummated, refusing to
acknowledge Helena as his wife until she has his ring and is carrying
his child. Helena becomes a pilgrim In Florence.
Helena chances upon Bertram
wooing Diana. She changes places with Diana in the night, so that Bertram makes
love to his wife instead of his lover. Helena and Bertram exchange rings. Back
in France, Bertram is engaged to Lord Lafew’s daughter, and gives her Helena’s
ring. Thought to have murdered his former wife and stolen her ring, he is only
saved by Helena’s timely reappearance.
Possibly written in 1598, but
some commentators suggest 1603 / 1604 because of similarities to Measure for Measure.
2)
Antony
and Cleopatra
Mark Antony, war hero and ruler of the entire Roman
Empire with drunkard Lepidus and officious Octavius, is bewitched by the
beautiful Queen Cleopatra in Egypt, Torn back to the realities of Roman life by
political intrigue and the death of his wife Fulvia, Antony cynically secures a
pact with Octavius by marrying his sister Octavia. Soon afterwards, the allure
of Cleopatra and their luxurious life in Egypt draws him back.
In the ensuing war, Antony’s
uncharacteristic lack of judgement and Cleopatra’s panic give the victory to
Octavius. Tricked by Cleopatra, Antony believes she is dead and falls on his
sword. Discovering she is still alive, Antony is carried to her and dies in her
arms With Antony gone, and unwilling to be part of an ignominious parade of
captives in Rome, Cleopatra dresses herself in her royal finery and presses a
poisonous asp to her bared breast.
Probably
written in 1606 / 1607.
3)
As you
like it
Rosalind escapes from her uncle, the usurper Duke
Frederick, with her cousin Celia and Touchstone, the court jester. Orlando, who
loves Rosalind, flees the duchy to evade his murderous brother Oliver. In the
forest of Arden, Duke Senior and his court (with the exception of the jaundiced
philosopher Jaques) enjoy life among the courting shepherds Orlando is
discovered hanging love poems on trees by Rosalind, who is disguised as Celia’s
brother “Ganymede”. To curb Orlando of his lovesickness, “Ganymede” pretends to
be Rosalind to allow Orlando to practise courting. Setting their differences
aside, Orlando saves his brother from a lion, Oliver and Celia fall in love,
while Touchstone furiously courts Audrey, a simple country girl. Orlando tells
“Ganymede” he can bear the pretended courtship no longer, and “Ganymede”
promises to summon Rosalind by magic to Oliver and Celia a wedding. She warns
Phebe, who has fallen in love with “Ganymede”, that as “Ganymede” will never
marry a woman, Phebe should be content with her shepherd lover Silvius.
Rosalind then reveals her true identity and marries Orlando. Duke Frederick is
converted by a holy man and retires to a monastery, where Jaques joins him.
Registered
in 1599, but possibly written earlier.
4)
The
comedy of errors
Egeon, a merchant, loses his wife and one of his
infant twins in a shipwreck. His remaining son Antipholus sets out to find his
brother, accompanied by Dromio, a servant who also lost his twin in the wreck.
Egeon follows Antipholus to Ephesus, only to discover that as a stranger his
life is forfeit unless he pays a huge ransom The lost son
(also
named Antipholus) has settled in Ephesus, married Adriana and taken Dromio’s
lost brother (also named Dromio) into his service. Both sets of brothers get
hopelessly mixed up. The Antipholuses are arrested and thought mad, and the
Dromios are repeatedly beaten unjustly. Antipholus of Ephesus, so enraged he
has to be restrained, is carried off home Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse
appear and everyone runs away from them, believing the Ephesians have escaped
and are seeking revenge The Syracusans then flee into the Priory. The Duke
arrives with Egeon, who is about to be beheaded. Ephesian Antipholus and Dromio
escape, and the Abbess arrives with the other Antipholus and Dromio. In the
general amazement at the meeting of both sets of twins, the Abbess recognizes
Egeon as her long lost husband.
Possibly written as early as 1590, performed at
Gray’s Inn in 1594.
5)
Corialanus
The Roman
general Caius Marcius honoured with the surname Coriolanus after his
outstanding victory against the Volscians is nominated for consul on a wave of
public acclaim. Unwilling to conceal his contempt for the ordinary citizens of
Rome, he alienates his supporters and is exiled. Joining his enemy , the
Volscian leader ruling Tullius Aufidus, he raises an army against Rome. At the
walls of the city , he is met by old friends who sue for peace but are
rebuffed. Eventually the Romans send his mother Volumnia, his gentle wife
Virgilia and his son to plead with him. Aware that it is likely to mean his
death, he nonetheless signs a peace treaty that secures good terms for a
Volscian retreat. Back in the Volscian camp at Antium he is accused of
treachery by Tullius Aufidus and executed.
Probably
Shakespeare’s last tragedy, written in about 1608.
6)
Cymbeline
èImogen,
daughter of Cymbeline, King of Britain, marries the commoner Posthumus in secret
instead of her stepbrother, Cloten. The queen, Cloten’s mother, has Posthumus
banished to Rome, where he wagers Iachimo his ring that Imogen will remain
faithful. Iachimo convinces Posthumus that he has seduced her, and wins the
ring. Posthumus orders his servant to kill Imogen, but the servant, believing
in Imogen’s fidelity , helps her to escape. Imogen disguises herself as a page
( “Fidele” ) and escapes to a Welsh cave with Belarius and Cymbeline’s lost
sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. Fidele falls ill and is left for dead, only to
recover next to Cloten’s headless body, whom she mistakes for her husband.
Captured by the Roman invasion
force, Fidele enters Lucius’s service, and is nearly executed by Cymbeline
after Belarius and a disguised Posthumus defeat her new master. Posthumus,
mistaken for a Roman soldier, is also imprisoned. Her life spared by Lucius’s
intercession, Imogen uncovers Iachimo’s plot. Posthumus realizes that his wife,
whom he feared dead, did not betray him, and Cymbeline is reunited with his
daughter and his lost sons.
Possibly
written 1609 / 1610, performed at the Globe Theatre in April 1611.
7)
Hamlet
èHamlet, profoundly upset by the death of his father and his mother’s
hasty re-marriage to his uncle Claudius, sees his father’s ghost The ghost
accuses Claudius of murder, and calls for revenge. Hamlet pretends to be mad.
Polonius, the king’s Lord Chamberlain,
thinks the prince is lovesick for his daughter, Ophelia, until Hamlet
violently rejects her, shouting “Get thee to a nunnery”. Convinced of
Claudius’s guilt when the king stops a performance of The Murder of Gonzago, Hamlet still procrastinates. Then in Queen
Gertrude’s bedchamber, mistaking Polonius for the king, the prince kills him.
Banished to England, Hamlet discovers Claudius has ordered his execution. With
uncharacteristic decisiveness, he escapes back to Denmark.
Ophelia has gone insane and
drowned herself Claudius and Laertes, Polonius’s son, plans fencing match
between Ham let and Laertes (who will carry a poisoned foil). The prince
accepts the challenge. Winning the first bout, Hamlet is offered poisoned wine
but declines, Gertrude drinks instead Laertes hits Hamlet, loses his foil, and
is struck with the poisoned tip himself. As the queen dies, Laertes reveals the
king’s plot. Hamlet stabs Claudius with Laertes’s foil, and forces him to drink
the wine. Laertes and Hamlet are reconciled, then die.
First version written around 1599, completed in 1601, registered as
having been performed in July 1602.
8-9)
Henry IV, Parts I and II
The Hentry IV
play is centred not on the ailing Henry IV, but on his son, Prince Hal.
Throughout Part I the dissipated Hal
is contrasted with the impulsive rebel Hotspur (Henry Percy), son of the Earl
of Northumberland, who has just returned from victories in Scotland. While
insurgents gather around Hotspur, Hal drinks and brawls with Falstaff and his
cronies in a tavern, the Boar’s Head at Eastcheap. After stealing the proceeds of
a highway robbery from Falstaff (who later constructs wonderful tales of his
misfortune), the prince is summoned to oppose the Percys at Shrewsbury , where
he valiantly defeats Hotspur in single combat. Falstaff, feigning death for
most of the battle, then stabs the corpse and claims he killed Hotspur himself.
In Part II, Henry IV is dying. Falstaff gleefully involves himself in
corrupt army recruitment, while Hal’s brother Prince John puts down the
continuing revolt. Henry is reconciled to his reformed son on his deathbed, and
Hal is crowned Henry V. In keeping with his new status, Hal harshly dismisses
the eager Falstaff from his coronation with a meagre pension.
Written and performed around
1597, part of a historical tetralogy starting with Richard II and ending with
Henry V.
10)
Henry V
To the surprise of his courtiers, the riotous
Prince Hal, now crowned as King Henry V, has become a noble statesman
overnight. He promptly arrests three traitors and, taunted by a gift of tennis
balls from the Dauphin, lays claim to the French throne under Salic law and
invades France. The outnumbered English capture the town of Harfleur and again
beat the French against overwhelming odds at Agincourt, after Henry delivers a
rousing speech “Cry `God for Harry, England, and St George!’“.
Henry V is not just an account of the
doughtiness of the English in time of war
With Falstaff a reported death early in the play , and informal scenes of
the soldiers life in prip (the disguised king passes among his fearful troops
before Agincourt), the jingoistic rhetoric is given a sombre hue The play
finishes not in the thunder of battle, but with the comedy of awkward love,
Henry, who speaks no French, is left to court Princess Katherine, who speaks
only French, aware that their marriage would finalize a peace
agreement. The Chorus closes the play with a reminder that Henry V’s
death precipitated the Wars of the Roses.
Probably written in the spring or
summer of 1599, most famous as a symbol of popular nationalism after the
wartime film version by Laurence Olivier (1944) the last part of the Henry IV tetralogy.
11-13) Henry VI, Parts I, II and III
The three parts of Henry VI cover more than 60 years of the Wars of the Roses from the
death of Henry V in 1422 almost up to the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Part I deals with the wars in France
where the valiant Talbot is locked in combat with Joan of Arc (La Pucelle), finally perishing with his
son near Bordeaux. The play ends with Henry VI’s marriage to Margaret of Anjou,
the daughter of the King of Naples, engineered by the Earl of Suffolk to
further his own political aims.
Parts II and III reveal Henry VI as a
weak and ineffective king, under whose rule
England collapses into civil war through Cade’s Rebellion and the intense
rivalry of the nobles. It also charts the rise to power and subsequent murder
of Richard, Duke of York. Henry is captured and Edward IV becomes king,
ensuring the Yorkist succession by his victories at Barnet and Tewkesbury
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III) murders Henry VI in the
Tower.
Written between 1590 and 1592,
originally believed to be the work of another playwright, but now generally
attributed to Shakespeare himself, part of an historical tetralogy that
finishes with Richard III.
14)
Henry
VIII
èHenry,
tricked by a malign Cardinal Wolsey, executes the innocent and forgiving Duke
of Buckingham. Worrying that he has sinned in marrying his brother’s widow,
Katherine of Aragon, Henry fears he will be graced with no heirs. Meeting Anne
Bullen (Boleyn), a virtuous Protestant, Henry falls in love and decides to
divorce Katherine and marry Anne. By chance, Henry also uncovers Wolsey’s
corrupt financial dealings, and, realizing the Cardinal opposes his marriage to
Anne, punishes him, although he spares his life. Now relying on the Protestant
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer as his chief adviser, Henry protects him from the
villainous Bishop Gardiner. The play ends with the birth and christening of
Anne’s daughter, with Cranmer looking forward to her glorious reign as
Elizabeth I.
Also known as Half is true, probably half written by
John Fletcher in 1613, a performance in April of that year caused the Globe
Theatre fire.
15)
Julius
Caesar
Fearing Julius Caesar will become a popular tyrant, Brutus and Cassius
plot to assassinate him. On the day agreed for the assassination, Caesar is
nearly persuaded to stay at home by his wife Calphurnia’s fateful dreams. He
decides go to the Senate, ignoring a soothsayer’s warning and a letter that
names all the conspirators, and is stabbed. Brutus calms the crowd attending
Caesar’s funeral and spares Mark Antony, Caesar’s trusted companion, who then
makes a speech that stirs up the crowd against the assassins. Antony makes a
pact with Octavius and Lapidus to seize control of the Roman Empire while the
mob riot and burn the conspirators houses, and Brutus and Cassius flee to raise
an army.
Overruling Cassius, Brutus
decides to march against Antony and Octavius and into a weaker position at
Philippi. He attacks Octavius and wins, but Cassius panics, mistaking friendly
forces for his foes, and orders his servant to kill him. Cursed by the ghost of
Caesar, the battle turns against Brutus, who runs onto his sword.
Probably
written and performed 1599.
16)
King John
King Philip of France demands that King John
surrender the throne of England to his nephew, Arthur. John invades France,
accompanied by Philip Faulconbridge, Richard I’s illegitimate son. At Angiers,
the French king, his son Lewis, and the Archduke of Austria oppose John. A
marriage is proposed between Lewis and John’s Spanish niece Blanche, under the
terms of which Philip recognizes King John’s rule in England, and John cedes
some territory to France. However, John is then excommunicated over a dispute
between the pope and the archbishop of Canterbury, and Philip forced to take up
arms against him John is victorious, capturing Arthur, Faulconbridge decapitates
the Archduke and returns home to loot the monasteries. John gives an order to
have Arthur’s eyes burned out, but his wishes are not carried out The outraged
nobles suspect murder when Arthur falls from a high wall trying to escape from
the castle. As John attempts to reconcile himself with the pope, his nobles
desert to Lewis. Suffering from a fever, John retreats to Swinstead Abbey, the
French reinforcements are lost at sea, their army retreats, and the disaffected
nobles, hearing that Lewis plans to execute them after the battle, rally to
their dying king.
Date
uncertain, but most likely between 1591 and 1598.
17)
King Lear
Old King
Lear rashly decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters Goneril,
Regan, and his favourite and youngest daughter, Cordelia. Goneril and Regan
make exaggerated declarations of love for Lear, but Cordelia refuses to flatter
him. She is disinherited and given in marriage to the King of France without a
dowry. Lear then divides his kingdom equally between Goneril and Regan, but is
thrown out on to the moor in the middle of a raging storm with only the Fool
for company. The Earl of Gloucester, turned against his faithful son Edgar by
the cunning slanders of his illegitimate son Edmund, is blinded by Goneril’s
husband Cornwall. Edgar, disguised as the madman Tom of Bedlam, rescues
Gloucester, while Lear, mad with grief and anger, is led to Cordelia in the
French army camp at Dover.
After squabbling over Edmund’s
affection, Goneril poisons Regan, then takes her own life. The French are
defeated by the English army under Edmund and Albany (Goneril’s husband). Lear
and Cordelia are captured, and Cordelia hanged on Edmund’s orders. Edmund,
mortally wounded by Edgar, repents too late, and Lear, finally broken by grief,
dies with Cordelia’s body in his arms.
Written
between 1604 and 1606, performed at Court in 1606.
18)
Love’s
labour’s lost
The King of Navarre orders that his court forego female company for
three years, and dedicate themselves to study. Longaville and Dumaine readily
agree, but Berowne reminds them that the Princess of France is expected at the
court. She arrives with three ladies in waiting. Maria who admires Longaville,
Katharine who prefers Dumaine, and
Rosaline
who loves Berowne. They are asked to stay in tents outside the court, and the
king is berated by the princess for his poor hospitality. Berowne writes
Rosaline a love letter that falls into the hands of the king. Meanwhile,
Berowne overhears the king, Dumaine and Longaville reciting love poems for
their beloveds. Berowne pretends he has not broken his oath, but when shown his
letter to Rosaline, confesses his love and persuades the king to revoke his
decree. Courting the ladies disguised as a delegation of Russians, each suitor
is tricked into professing his love to the wrong woman. Suddenly it is
announced that the king of France is dead. The teasing stops and each suitor
(including the king himself) is required to undergo some form of monastic
discipline for a year until his beloved returns from France.
Probably
written and performed about 1595.
19)
Macbeth
Returning from battle, Macbeth and Banquo meet
three witches who tell them their future. The first part of the prophecy comes
true. Macbeth is made Thane of Cawder by King Duncan. Emboldened by Lady
Macbeth, the new Thane takes the second part of the prophecy into his own
hands, murdering Duncan (who is staying with Macbeth at Dunsinane) and crowning
himself king of Scotland. Remembering that the witches also predicted Banquo
would be the father of kings, though never one himself, Macbeth orders him and
his son George be killed. Banquo is slain but Fleance survives.
Haunted by Banquo’s ghost,
Macbeth returns to the witches. They warn him against Macduff but also tell him
no man `of woman born’ shall kill him and he cannot be defeated until Burnam
Wood comes to Dunsinane. Hearing that Duncan’s son, Malcolm, has joined forces
with Macduff, Macbeth kills Macduff’s wife and children. Lady Macbeth goes mad
with guilt and dies. Meanwhile, Macbeth’s enemies close in on him at Dunsinane,
covered with branches cut out from Burnam Wood. Macbeth is slain by Macduff who
reveals he was not born naturally but from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.
Malcolm a declared king.
Probably
written and first performed at the Globe in 1606.
20)
Measure
for measure
Vincentio,
Duke of Vienna, surrenders his power to the puritanical deputy, Angelo, and an
old councillor, Escalus, hoping to reform his corrupt state without having to
play the tyrant himself. Claudio has been arrested for getting Juliet, to whom
he is betrothed, pregnant. His irrepressible friend Lucio summons Claudio’s
sister Isabella from her nunnery to plead with Angelo for mercy. Instead,
Angelo proposes she have sex with him in exchange for her brother’s life. She
refuses, and is furious when Claudio tries to persuade her. The Duke, disguised
as a friar, intervenes: Mariana, who had been abandoned by Angelo, takes
Isabella’s place. Angelo secretly brings forward the execution of Claudio. The
friar saves him by substituting another prisoner’s head for Claudio’s.
The Duke reappears to hear the
people’s grievances in public. Angelo’s crimes are exposed and he is married to
Mariana. Claudio is freed to wed Juliet, Isabella accepts the Duke’s hand, and
Lucio is forced to marry his mistress in penance for the lewd actions he
unwittingly confessed while slandering the `absent’ Duke to a disguised
Vincentio.
Probably
written in the summer of 1604.
21)
Merchant
of Venice
Bassanio asks for a loan from his friend, Antonio,
to help him woo the rich heiress Portia. They go to the Jewish moneylender
Shylock, despite Antonio’s contempt for Jews. Shylock offers the loan
interest-free for three months, but asks for a pound of flesh as security.
Antonio agrees.
Portia is to marry the suitor who
correctly chooses from three baskets (gold, shiver, and lead) the one which
contains her picture, the suitor who chooses wrongly must pledge he will never
marry. The Princes of Morocco and Arragon seek Portia’s hand. Morocco wishes
“to gain what many men desire” (gold), Arragon selects “as much as he deserves”
(silver), but Bassiano decides “to give and hazard all he hath” (lead) and
finds the portrait. Meanwhile, Antonio has been bankrupted, all his money
invested in a wrecked ship. Deserted by his daughter and his servant, Shylock
vows he will be revenged and demands his pound of flesh from Antonio. Portia
offers to pay Antonio’s debt, but Shylock refuses. Pretending to be a lawyer,
she awards Shylock his pound of flesh on condition he take it without drawing
blood. He is accused of attempted murder, and half his possessions are
confiscated.
Probably
written between 1594 and 1598.
22)
The merry
wives of Windsor
Falstaff,
the jovial antihero of Henry IV
(popularly thought to have been revived for this play at Queen Elizabeth’s
personal request), deludes himself into thinking that Mistress Page and
Mistress Ford are in love with him, and writes identical love letters to them.
His dismissed servants immediately tell their husbands of Falstaff’s plot.
Mistress Page’s daughter, Anne Page, is being courted by shy Slender, the
French doctor Caius, and the young aristocrat Fenton. Ford, in disguise, pays
Falstaff to seduce his wife. When Ford tries to catch them together, Falstaff
hides in a laundry basket, and is dumped in a muddy ditch; a second time
Falstaff, disguised as the old woman of Brainford, is beaten from the house by
Ford himself. Finally Falstaff is tricked into dressing up as Herne the Hunter
and is pinched and burnt by children disguised as elves and fairies, led by
Anne Page, while the adults mock him in his distress. Caius and Slender both
try to snatch Anne, but she is saved by Fenton and they elope together. A
chastened Falstaff is invited to the celebrations.
Possibly written for George Carey’s investiture as a knight of the
Garter on April 23, 1597.
23)
A
midsummer’s night dream
Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta are to be wed. Egeus’s daughter,
Hermia, refuses to marry Demetrius (the suitor her father has chosen for her)
because she loves Lysander Theseus reluctantly invokes a law against Hermia
that forces her to obey her father on pain of death or banishment to a nunnery.
Lysander and Hermia meet in the forest, planning to elope. Helena (Hermia’s
friend) tells Demetrius, hoping to regain his love.
In the forest, Oberon, King of
the Fairies, has his servant Puck bewitch his queen Titania, with whom he has
quarrelled, to fall in love with the first living thing she sees, hearing
Demetrius reject Helena, he tries the same magic but charms Lysander by
accident. Lysander sees Helena and falls in love, forgetting Hermia. An
artisan, Bottom,
is rehearsing a play in the wood, Puck turns his
head into an ass’s head. Titania sees him and falls in love.
Attempting to correct his earlier
mistake, Puck charms Demetrius, but when all of the lovers meet, they come to
blows. Oberon and Puck separate them in a magical fog and bring Lysander and
Titania back to normal. Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus discover the lovers,
Egeus demands that Lysander be executed. Demetrius intervenes, declaring his
new love for Helena. The three couples are wed. The play ends with a riotous
performance of the tragedy of Pyramus and
Thisbe, given by Bottom and his fellow tradesmen
Probably
written about 1595 / 1596, and first performed for a courtly wedding.
24)
Much ado
about nothing
Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, his illegitimate brother Don John, his
friend Claudio, and a courtier Beredick, visit Leonato, governor of
Messina.Claudio falls desperately in love with Leonato’s daughter Hero.
Benedick tells Don Pedro, who courts Hero on Claudio’s behalf at the Mosque
that evening. Overheard by a servant, Don Pedro is believed to want Hero for
himself. The malicious Don John tells Claudio that Don Pedro is in love with
Hero. Don Pedro explains himself, and a marriage is arranged for Claudio.
Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato
persuade the sardonic Benedick that Beatrice loves him. Hero lets Beatrice
overhear talk of Benedick’s passion for her. Meanwhile, Don John persuades
Hero’s waiting woman, Margaret, to impersonate her mistress and let Domino into
her bedroom through a window. Claudio assumes Hero is having an affair and
announces her infidelity at their wedding. Hero faints. Thinking Hero is dead,
Claudio is betrothed to her cousin as penance.
Domino is arrested by the
ludicrous constable Dogberry and confesses. Don John flees. At the church the
veiled cousin is revealed as Hero herself, and Benedick and Beatrice, after one
last round of jibes, pledge their troth.
Probably
written in 1598 / 1599.
25)
Othello
Othello, a Moor, is accused of stealing Brabantio’s
daughter Desdemona, but the Senate approves their marriage and appoints Othello
to lead the Venetian army in Cyprus against the Turks. Promoting Cassio to
lieutenant for his help in the courtship of Desdemona, Othello ignores lago’s
claim to the post. lago persuades Roderigo, an unsuccessful suitor of
Desdemona, to fight the happily drunken Cassio, who is discharged. lago then
befriends Cassio and has him beg Desdemona to plead for him with Othello. At
the same time lago warns Othello that Cassio is having an affair with his wife.
Brilliantly manipulating Othello’s jealousy and rising anger, lago has his
wife, Desdemona’s serving woman Emilia, steal a handkerchief Othello gave his
bride at their wedding, and plants it on Cassio. Convinced of her infidelity,
Othello smothers his beloved wife in their marriage bed lago then kills
Roderigo (for failing to murder Cassio) and Emilia. But he’s too late: Emilia
has already proven lago’s guilt and Desdemona’s innocence to Othello. Othello
stabs lago (who’s now under arrest), but fails to kill him, and commits
suicide.
Written
1602 / 1604, first performed for James I at Whitehall in 1604.
26)
Pericles
John Gower, on whose poem Confessio
Amantis the story is based, presents the play. Pericles solves the riddle
of King Antiochus’s incestuous relationship with his daughter, and flees. He
survives a shipwreck, and wins the hand of King Simonide’s daughter Thaisa.
Hearing that Antiochus is dead, Pericles sails for Tyre with his new wife. In a
storm, Thaisa gives birth to Marina, faints and is believed dead. Her burial
basket is washed to Ephesus where the physician Cerimon revives her. Fearing
her husband is dead, she becomes a priestess of the goddess Diana.
Pericles leaves Marina at Tarsus,
a city which he had saved from famine, with Cleon and his wife Dionyza. Fearing
rivalry with her own daughter, Dionyza tries to kill Marina, but Marina is
captured by pirates and sold to a Myteline brothel. There, the governor
Lysimachus, recognizes her virtue and releases her. Summoned to Tarsus by a
vision of the false tomb Cleon and Dionyza built for Marina, Pericles stops by
chance in Mytilene and he and Marina are reunited. Ecstatic, he sees Diana
calling him to Ephesus, where he and Marina find Thaisa. Cleon and Dionyza are
burnt to death by the people of Tarsus for their crimes.
Written between 1606 and1608,
probably in collaboration with John Day and Thomas Heywood for the first two
acts.
27)
Richard
II
Thomas Mowbray
defends himself against Henry Bolingbroke’s charges of treason by calling for
trial by combat. Fearing Bolingbroke’s popularity, King Richard banishes them
both, then departs for Ireland to quell a rebellion. Short of funds, the king
resorts to dubious means to finance his campaign, confiscating the estate of
John of Gaunt (Bolingbroke’s dead father) Bolingbroke gathers an invasion force
to reclaim his lands. The Duke of York, left as regent without money or an
army, goes to meet Bolingbroke. Fearing Richard is dead in Ireland, his
supporters fall away, Richard begins to suffer bouts of depression and, when he
hears York has joined Bolingbroke, surrenders to his fate. Despite warnings of
civil war, Bolingbroke accepts the crown from the imprisoned Richard and
banishes the queen to France. Believing the new king wants Richard dead, Sir
Pierce of Exton murders him. He is rebuked by Bolingbroke when he arrives at
the court with the coffin, and Bolingbroke (now Henry IV) resolves to go on a
Crusade to atone for the murder.
Probably
written and first performed in 1595.
28)
Richard
III
The lame hunchback Richard, Duke of Gloucester,
convinces the dying Edward IV that the Duke of Clarence is treasonous.
Gloucester pretends to be on Clarence’s side, but has him stabbed and drowned
in a barrel of Malmsey wine. He woos Lady Anne at the funeral of her father
-in-law Henry VI, whom Gloucester helped to murder, by claiming he also
murdered her husband but out of love for her. Captivated, she marries him.
Gloucester and Buckingham capture the young Prince of Wales and his brother,
the Duke of York, and lock them in the Tower of London. Gloucester is crowned
as King Richard
II and persuades Tyrell to murder the princes. Armies are raised against
Richard by Buckingham and the Earl of Richmond, but when Richmond’s fleet is
scattered, Buckingham is caught and executed. After a night of ghostly
visitations that confront Richard with his guilt and promise Richmond the
victory, battle is joined at Bosworth
Field. Richard and Richmond meet in single combat, and Richard is
killed. Richmond is crowned Henry VII on the battlefield, and vows to unite the
country.
Probably
written and first performed in 1593.
29)
Romeo and
Juliet
The Montgues and the Capulets are the two most
important families in Verona. Romeo is a Montague, but Juliet is a Capulet, and
their families are involved in a bitter feud. Romeo loves chaste Rosaline.
Discovering Rosaline has been invited to a Capulet banquet, Romeo attends in
disguise, but falls in love with Juliet. They kiss, initially not realizing
their families are enemies, they exchange professions of love at Juliet’s open
window, they meet in secret and decide to wed. Romeo encounters Tybalt and an
exchange of insults escalates into a brawl. Mercutio, Romeo’s friend is
mortally wounded by Tybalt. Romeo kills Tybalt then flees to Mantua.
Capulet orders Juliet to marry
Paris within three days. She feigns suicide, so that she and Romeo can meet in
the family crypt and elope. In Mantua, Romeo hears of Juliet’s death. Not
receiving a letter of explanation from Friar Laurence, who married them and
helped them to escape, Romeo believes that Juliet is truly dead and resolves to
die beside her. He is seen breaking into the Capulet crypt by Paris. They fight
beside Juliet’s body and Paris is killed. Romeo drinks poison and dies.
Laurence comes to wake Juliet, and discovers the carnage. Juliet grabs Romeo’s
dagger, kisses him, and kills herself.
Probably
written 1595.
30)
The
Taming of the Shrew
Baptista,
Kate’s father, will not allow his gentle younger daughter Bianca to marry until
the fiery Kate is wed. Petruchio arrives, looking for a wife. Hortensio,
disguised as a music teacher, and Lucentio, as a language tutor, secretly court
Bianca. Petruchio pretends Kate’s insults and blows are affectionate and asks
for Kate’s hand. Baptista agrees and offers Bianca to the wealthiest suitor.
Tranio (pretending to be his master Lucentio) outbids the other suitors, while
Bianca accepts the real Lucentio’s suit. Hortensio leaves to marry an
enthusiastic widow. Tranio persuades a pedant to impersonate Vincentio
(Lucentio’s father). They convince Baptista to sign a marriage contract.
Petruchio arrives late to his
wedding in a ludicrous outfit and refuses to stay for the banquet. He abuses
his new wife, starving her and insisting she agree with every word he says, no
matter how ridiculous. Vicentio arrives at Lucentio’s house only to be arrested
as a fraud. Lucentio and Bianca, now husband and wife, return. Baptista,
realises now, the real Vicentio will, despite everything, honour the marriage
contract and outside Petruchio and Kate kiss. At a celebration banquet, the
apparently tamed Kate proves herself the most obedient wife of the women
present.
Probably
written around 1592.
31)
The
tempest
Too occupied with his occult studies, Prospero
loses the duchy of Milan to his brother Antonio. Saved by the courtier Gonzalo,
Prospero is cast adrift with his daughter, Miranda, and arrives on a lonely
island, previously inhabited only by the witch Sycorax her monstrous son
Caliban, and various imprisoned spirits, including Ariel. Having
defeated Sycorax Prospero enslaves Caliban and
takes Ariel into his service. Summoning up a tempest, Prospero wrecks a ship on
the island. While Antonio and Sebastian plot against Adonso (Sebastian’s
brother and the King of Naples) and Gonzalo, Ferdinand (Adonso’s son) falls in
love with Miranda. Caliban meets the butler Stephano and a jester Trinculo,
vainglorious with stolen wine, and persuades them to attack Prospero.
Meanwhile, Prospero tests Ferdinand’s love, making him fetch and carry logs,
then blesses the lovers with a magical masque. Through a series of illusions,
Prospero soon has the conspirators in his power, but spares them. Breaking his
magic staff, Prospero then frees Ariel and returns to Milan. Caliban is a left
alone on the island.
Probably written in 1611, first
performed for King James I at Whitehall in the same year, long thought to be
Shakespeare’s last play for the London stage before his retirement.
32)
Timon of
Athens
Timon is
a rich man, an Atheman noble who ruins himself through his generosity.
Realizing that he has fallen victim to flatterers and parasites, he turns to
his men friends for help, but they desert him. He invites all his acquaintances
to a banquet, at which he serves them only warm water, then curses the city and
retires to a bitter and solitary life in a cave. Searching for roots to eat, he
uncovers a hoard of gold, but no longer has use for money and rails against
those who are drawn to him by his new found wealth. When the Athenians seek his
help against the army of the exiled Alcibiades he shows them his fig tree and
tells them to seek solace by hanging themselves from it. He dies alone, leaving
only a vitriolic epitaph on a tomb by the sea ‘Seek not my name: a plague
consume you wicked caitiffs left!’.
Probably written in about 1607,
possibly in collaboration with Thomas Middleton, but never finished.
33)
Titus
Andronicus
Titus
Andronicus, a popular general and patriot, returns from a successful campaign
against the Goths, bringing as captives their Queen, Tamora and her three sons,
one of whom Titus kills. Titus has to settle a succession dispute between the
emperor’s sons, Saturninus and Bassianus. Titus nominates the elder,
Saturninus. They fight over Titus’s daughter, Lavinia, and Titus kills one of
his own sons. Bassianus marries Lavinia, Saturninus dismisses Titus and marries
Tamora who loves Aaron, a Moor. Aaron persuades Tamora’s sons, Demetrius and
Chiron, to kill Bassianus and rape Lavinia, and frames Titus’s sons, Martius
and Quintus. He tells Titus that his sons will be spared if he sends the Emperor
his severed hand as ransom. Titus’s hand is returned to him with his sons
heads, the promise has been broken.
Titus’s brother Marcus Andronicus
discovers Lavinia, who has had her tongue and hands out off but is still able
to communicate the truth of what has been done to her. Increasingly
unpredictable, Titus raises an army of Goths against Rome. Titus’s only
surviving son Lucius captures Aaron, Titus seizes Demetrius and Chiron and
bakes them into a pie. Titus kills his raped daughter and, showing famous the
heads of her sons in the pie she is eating, stabs her. Bassianus kills Titus,
Lucius kills Saturninus and is elected emperor. Aaron, still glorying in his
evil, is buried up to his chest in sand.
Probably
Shakespeare’s earliest tragedy, may have been written as early as 1590.
34)
Troilus
and Cressida
The Trojan Prince Troilus is lovesick for Cressida,
whose father Calchas has deserted to the Greeks. Cressida refuses to tell
Troilus she loves him too. He pledges his undying love to Cressida, but it is
Pandarus who promises Cressida’s love to Troilus. After spending a night of
love with Troilus, and pledging to remain faithful forever, a heartbroken
Cressida is taken into the Greek camp in exchange for a Trojan prisoner of war.
Arguments are beginning to take
hold within the Greek and Trojan camps after seven years of fruitless combat.
Troilus’s brother Hector suggests returning Helen (whose abduction by Paris
caused the war) to the Greeks, but, despite Cassandra’s prophetic warnings,
Troilus and Paris deem it a dishonourable suggestion.
At a banquet in the Greek camp,
Troilus sees Cressida make a rendevous with Diomedes. He refuses to read a
letter Pandarus brings from her, and tries to revenge himself on her new lover
in the following day’s fighting. The battle ends with the sordid death of
Hector, caught as he tries on some captured armour.
Probably
written in 1602.
35)
Twelfth
night
Look-alike
twins Sebastian and Viola are separated in a shipwreck. Viola, disguised as the
boy Cesario, is made intermediary for Duke Orsino in his unrequited love affair
with Olivia. Olivia falls in love with Cesario, but the mortified ‘Youth’ has
fallen for the Duke. Challenged to a duel by another of Olivia’s frustrated
suitors, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Cesario (the disguised Viola) is saved by the
arrival of Antonio, a sea captain who mistakes Cesario for Sebastian whom he
rescued. Olivia, coming across Sebastian and mistaking him for Cesario, drags
him to her home and marries him. Thinking Cesario has betrayed his trust,
Orsino calls Antonio and Olivia before him. Sebastian appears and clears up the
confusion, and the Duke, at last appreciative of her love for him, marries
Viola.
The subplot contrasts Malvolio,
Olivia a mean-spirited and ambitious steward, with the self indulgent,
uproarious Sir Toby Belch, who demands `Dost thou think because thou art
virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?` Malvolio is tricked into
believing Olivia, his mistress, is in love with him, leading him into dreadful
humiliation at the hands of Maria and Fabian, two servants of Olivia, Sir Toby,
Sir Andrew, and Feste, a jester, all of whom bear grudges against Malvolio.
Malvolio’s bitter departure, humiliated but unrepentant, reveals a brutality
beneath the humour.
Probably written in 1601, first
recorded performance at Middle Temple in February 1602.
36)
Two noble
kinsmen
Theseus, King of Athens, defeats the tyrannical Creon of Thebes,
capturing Creon a nephews, Palamon and Arcite. Seeing Emilia, daughter of Queen
Hippolyta from their prison window, both knights fall in love and decide to
fight for her when they are free. Arcite is freed and banished from Athens on
pain of death, but stays in disguise to woo Emilia. Theseus’s daughter falls in
love with Palamon and helps him to escape. Mad with grief at Palamon’s
departure, she is cured by a low-born suitor who seduces her disguised as
Palamon.
Meeting
by chance in a wood, Palamon and Arcite renew their argument. Theseus
discovers them and orders a contest. Each combatant must force the other
against a pillar erected for the purpose, the victor wins Emilia’s hand, the
loser will be executed Arcite is victorious, but as Palamon awaits execution,
his cousin is trampled by a horse and bequeaths Emilia to Palamon with his
dying breath.
The prologue acknowledges
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale as
the source of the play, the only major addition to the story is the gaoler’s
daughter.
First published in 1634, it did
not appear in the First Folio edition, largely written by John Fletcher.
37)
Two
gentlemen of Verona
Proteus (pining for the love of Julia) and
Valentine go to the court of Milan. Valentine falls in lofve with the Duke’ sdaughter
Silvia and plans to elope with her. Proteus also falls so much in love with her
that he betrays his friend to the Duke. Valentine in banished; Proteus gains
only Silvia’s scorn. Julia arrives, disguised as a page called Sebastian.
Overhearing Proteus tell Silvia the lie that Valentine and Julia are both dead,
she offers her services as a go-between Silvia flees in search of Valentine
(now captain of an outlaw band), and is chased by the Duke, Thurio (the Duke’s
chosen husband for Silvia), Proteus and ‘Sebastian’. Proteus rescues Silvia
from the outlaws and demands her love, when she refuses he tries to rape her,
but is stopped by Valentine, who is so moved by Proteus’s pleas for forgiveness
that he offers Silvia to him anyway. ‘Sebastian’ faints. Realizing that
‘Sebastian’ is Julia, Proteus falls in love with her again. Thurio arrives to
claim Silvia, but declines a duel with Valentine. Valentine is pardoned and he
and Silvia marry.
Probably
written 1592 / 1593.
38)
A
winter’s tale
èSuspecting his virtuous wife Hermione is having an affair with
Polixenes, an old friend and the King of Bohemia, Leontes tries to poison him
and, when he escapes, imprisons his wife. Hermione gives birth to Perdita.
Ignoring a Delphian oracle that confirms Hermione’s innocence, Leontes orders
Antigonus to maroon the baby on a barren shore. Antigonus obeys, leaving her in
a remote part of Bohemia, and is eaten by a bear. Leontes’s son Mamillius dies,
and Hermione faints and is assumed to be dead.
Brought up by a shepherd for 16
years, Perdita is noticed by Polixenes’s son Florizel. They are soon
enraptured. Polixenes is furious when he finds out, and Florizel, Perdita and
her adoptive father all flee to Leontes’s court. There Perdita is recognized as
the lost princess, and Leontes persuades Polixenes to let their children marry.
Antigonus’s widow, Paulina, now takes Leontes who has sworn not to remarry, to
see a statue that is an exact likeness of his dead wife. Overcome by grief, he
repents of his injustices, and the ‘statue’ of Hermione comes to life she has
been in hiding all the time her husband thought she was dead.
Written in 1610 or 1611 first
performed at the Globe in 1611, part of Princess Elisabeth’s wedding
celebrations.
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