Richard, Duke of Gloucester - the bitter, deformed brother of the King - is secretly plotting to seize the throne of England. Charming and duplicitous, powerfully eloquent and viciously cruel, he is p
First staged in 1599, Shakespeare's history of Henry V's remarkable victory over the French at Agincourt and the subsequent peace between the two nations is also a study of war and kingship. From his
Dark and violent, Macbeth is also the most theatrically spectacular of Shakespeare's tragedies. Promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by three sinister witches, Macbeth murders the king to ens
The Merchant of Venice is most associated not with its titular hero, Antonio, but with the complex, unforgettable figure of the money-lender, Shylock. It is Shylock who finances Antonio's friend Bassa
Othello is an intense drama of love, deception, jealousy and destruction. Desdemona's love for her husband Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice; but his trusted ensign, the envious Iago, con
Controversial and sexually charged, The Taming of the Shrew is possibly Shakespeare's first play, and certainly among the most performed. Is it an examination of brute male domination or a passionate
Gorgeous, strange and magical, A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakespeare's plays. A young woman flees Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and her
The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, a cycle of 154 linked poems, were first published in 1609. Filled with ideas about love, beauty and mortality, the sonnets are written in the same beautiful and inn
A young prince meets with his father's ghost, who alleges that his own brother, now married to his widow, murdered him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feignin
Separated from her twin brother Sebastian after a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the Duke of Illyria. Wooing a countess on his behalf, she is stunned to find herself the object o
In Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare uses the most notorious murder in classical history to tell a tragic tale of friendship, ambition and betrayal. As the greatest figures of the Roman Republic are
Undoubtedly the greatest love story ever written, Romeo and Juliet has spawned a host of imitators on stage and screen and been adapted countless times. A young man and woman meet by chance and instan
In this thrilling and hugely influential tragedy, ageing King Lear makes a capricious decision to divide his realm between his three daughters according to the love they express for him. When the youn
This re-set edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare contains all the plays and poems; the plays are arranged in the chronological order of their composition, not gathered into comedies,
Othello is the definitive play on the theme of jealousy. In this remorseless tragedy, first performed in 1604, William Shakespeare's most malevolent villain, Iago, aide to Othello, plants the seed of
A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakespeare's plays. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the magic begins. A young woma
Dark and violent, Macbeth is also the most theatrically spectacular of Shakespeare's tragedies. Promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by three sinister witches, Macbeth murders the king to ens
A young prince meets with his father's ghost, who alleges that his own brother murdered him, and the prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild madness while pl
A young man and woman meet by chance and fall instantly in love, but their families are bitter enemies, and in order to be together the two lovers must be prepared to risk everything, in a drama that
Four hundred years ago, on May 20th 1609, the publisher Thomas Thorpe entered at Stationers’ Hall perhaps the most famous group of poems ever written: The Sonnets of William Shakespeare. This annivers
