10. Antony and Cleopatra
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
Antony and Cleopatra is a great sprawling masterpiece of a play, rich in poetry, vast in imaginative power, in depth of characterization, in psychological penetration, in ...
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5. Character
Bart van Es
in Shakespeare's Comedies: A Very Short Introduction
In his 1927 study, Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster divided characters into two categories: ‘flat’ and ‘round’. Shakespeare’s ability to create distinct, memorable characters has long ...
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7. Classical plays
Stanley Wells
in William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction
Shakespeare’s grammar school education gave him a thorough grounding in Latin, and possibly some Greek, and in the writings of classical authors. He drew on and developed this knowledge at ...
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11. Coriolanus
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
For what is believed to be his last tragedy, Shakespeare turned once again to Ancient Rome. He chose to write a political and personal drama about a great Roman warrior of the 5th century ...
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Endings
Bart van Es
in Shakespeare's Comedies: A Very Short Introduction
Did Shakespeare write any comic plays after All’s Well That Ends Well (1604–5)? The conventional story has been that Shakespeare’s comedy ended early in the 17th century, despite having ...
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Epilogue
Stanley Wells
in William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction
Shakespeare’s plays and poems have had, and continue increasingly to have, a major impact on many areas of human life. Fellow poets from Ben Jonson onwards have written appreciatively of ...
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Epilogue: why might we enjoy tragedies?
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
‘Epilogue: why might we enjoy tragedies?’ considers why we pay good money to subject ourselves to displays of misery, cruelty, suicide, murder—even cannibalism. Perhaps central to the ...
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5. Further patterns and irruptions in the Sonnets
Jonathan F. S. Post
in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems: A Very Short Introduction
Along with the passions they voice, there are important recurring motifs in the Sonnets, lending a special rhythm to the whole. One of the most resonant is that of Time’s inexorable march, ...
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5. Hamlet
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
‘Hamlet’ explains the textual fluidity of the play and how it has therefore been subject to a wider range of interpretation than most; it is different every time it is acted. Though every ...
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Introduction
Bart van Es
in Shakespeare's Comedies: A Very Short Introduction
What is a Shakespearean comedy? Nearly half of Shakespeare’s plays could be described as comedies of some kind, but more restrictive criteria would whittle the number to just half a dozen ...
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Introduction: what is a tragedy?
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
Around half of Shakespeare’s plays are tragedies in the most basic sense of the word, with the death of their central character or characters. The Introduction explains that just as ...
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4. Julius Caesar
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
Many tragedies of Shakespeare’s time are concerned with the fall from power, and eventual death, of great men of the past. In writing about the assassination of Julius Caesar, perhaps the ...
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8. King Lear
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
‘King Lear’ explains that for readers, as well as for performers, the play may seem a daunting intellectual and emotional challenge. It tells a deeply tragic story, a story of national and ...
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3. Love
Bart van Es
in Shakespeare's Comedies: A Very Short Introduction
Shakespearean comedy is about getting the girl or the boy, but it is also about love, and one ingredient that makes this possible is the sonnet. ‘Love’ argues that love is not only a ...
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6. A Lover’s Complaint and ‘The Phoenix and Turtle’
Jonathan F. S. Post
in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems: A Very Short Introduction
‘A Lover’s Complaint and “The Phoenix and Turtle” ’ considers two poems that are, in many ways, outliers among Shakespeare’s poems and fascinating for being so. A Lover’s Complaint was ...
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7. Macbeth
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
When Macbeth was first seen, around 1606, its subject matter was highly topical. King James I was on the throne. The use of the supernatural, and of conventions associated with the ...
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4. On first looking into Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Jonathan F. S. Post
in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems: A Very Short Introduction
Shakespeare’s Sonnets are generally regarded as the finest collection of sonnets in the English language, and ‘On first looking into Shakespeare’s Sonnets’ seeks to offer yet one more ...
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6. Othello
Stanley Wells
in Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction
Like Romeo and Juliet, Othello is a fictional love tragedy focusing on two private individuals whose lives are not bound up with the fate of nations. The play is based on an Italian tale—a ...
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4. Plays of the 1590s
Stanley Wells
in William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction
During the first decade of Shakespeare’s career he wrote a series of closely inter-related plays based on English history drawing heavily on Holinshed’s Chronicles and other accounts. These ...
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1. Poet and playwright
Jonathan F. S. Post
in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems: A Very Short Introduction
‘Poet and playwright’ explains that, in many regards, the single most important point about Shakespeare’s double life as poet and playwright is how fruitful this generic crisscrossing was ...
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