William Shakespeare

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, discusses the author and the theater of his time, and provides quizzes and other study activities.

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, discusses the author and the theater of his time, and provides quizzes and other study activities.

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

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

This bewitching play, Shakespeare's final work, articulates a wealth of the playwright's mature reflections on life and contains some of his most familiar and oft-quoted lines. The story concerns Miranda, a lovely young maiden, and Prospero, her philosophical old magician father, who dwell on an enchanted island, alone except for their servants - Ariel, an invisible sprite, and Caliban, a monstrous witch's son. Into their idyllic but isolated lives...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with discussion questions, role-playing scenarios, and other study activities.

Antony and Cleopatra (1607) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Inspired by Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives-a series of biographies on influential figures of the ancient world-Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra sometime between 1599 and 1601. Often considered a sequel of sorts to his earlier play Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra has served as source material for countless film and television adaptations. "Let Rome in Tiber melt,...

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

Mercy and Justice-- Measure for Measure is a play that balances Mercy against Justice and pride against humility. Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, tells his people that he is leaving on a diplomatic mission and will leave the city in the care of a judge, Angelo. But the Duke does not leave, he disguises himself and see how his fair city is run in his absence. No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal's...

Believed to have been written in 1591, William Shakespeare's "Richard III" is one of the bards first plays, the first installment in a tetralogy of plays which includes "Henry IV, Part I," "Henry IV, Part II," and "Henry V." One of the longest of Shakespeare's plays and consequently rarely performed unabridged, "Richard III" is the story of the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England. The play begins with...