Shakespeare’s Plays, Sonnets, and Poems

Scene from All's Well That Ends Well: Helena and Count Bertram before the King of France

All’s Well That Ends Well

Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well is the story of its heroine, Helen, more so th...

Antony and Cleopatra: Florence Stone as "Cleopatra"

Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra dramatizes a major event in world history: the founding of the Roman Empir...

As You Like It: Rosalind as Ganymede and Celia as Aliena, with Touchstone in the background

As You Like It

Readers and audiences have long greeted As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brillia...

The Comedy of Errors: The two Dromios encounter each other

The Comedy of Errors

Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is the slapstick farce of his youth. In it, the lost ...

Coriolanus: Volumnia pleading with Coriolanus

Coriolanus

Set in the earliest days of the Roman Republic, Coriolanus begins with the common people, or pl...

Cymbeline: Detail of Imogen Entering the Cave of Belarius

Cymbeline

Cymbeline tells the story of a British king, Cymbeline, and his three children, presented as th...

Hamlet: Hamlet regards a dagger held by a shrouded figure

Hamlet

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most popular, and most puzzling, play. It follows the form of a “re...

Henry IV, Part 1: Prince Henry and Falstaff on plain near Shrewsbury

Henry IV, Part 1

Family relationships are at the center of Henry IV, Part 1. King Henry IV and Prince Hal form o...

Henry IV, Part 2: Prince Hal (i.e., Henry V) attends his father, King Henry IV's deathbed

Henry IV, Part 2

Henry IV, Part 2 is the only Shakespeare play that is a “sequel,” in the modern sense, to a...

Henry V: King Henry V regarding a sword that he holds in front of him

Henry V

Henry V is Shakespeare’s most famous “war play”; it includes the storied English victory ...

Henry VI, Part 1: Richard Plantagenet and the Duke of Somerset plucking roses

Henry VI, Part 1

Henry VI, Part 1 is an uncompromising celebration of early English nationalism that contrasts t...

Henry VI, Part 2: Cardinal Beaufort on his deathbed, raving of his own guilt

Henry VI, Part 2

Henry VI, Part 2 presents a kind of story that was popular before Shakespeare began writing, tr...

Henry VI, Part 3: Battlefield with grieving soldiers

Henry VI, Part 3

Henry VI, Part 3 is dominated by a struggle between two military forces, neither of which can a...

Henry VIII: Portrait of Henry VIII, detail

Henry VIII

In Henry VIII, Shakespeare presents a monarchy in crisis. Noblemen battle with Lord Chancellor ...

Julius Caesar: Depiction of a stage performance of Antony's eulogy for Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Shakespeare may have written Julius Caesar as the first of his plays to be performed at the Globe,...

King John: King John and Hubert conspire to kill young Arthur

King John

Like most of Shakespeare’s history plays, King John presents a struggle for the English crown...

King Lear: Cordelia attends to her father, King Lear

King Lear

Shakespeare’s King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration ...

Love's Labor's Lost: Jaquenetta Approaching Sir Nathaniel with Berowne's Letter

Love’s Labor’s Lost

At first glance, Shakespeare’s early comedy Love’s Labor’s Lost simply entertains an...

Lucrece: Detail of painting depicting a tearful Lucrece in bed

Lucrece

Like his Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare’s Lucrece belongs to the genre of the minor ...

Macbeth: Macbeth and the Witches

Macbeth

In 1603, James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne, becoming James I of England. London was a...

Measure for Measure: Isabella appealing to Angelo, detail

Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure is among the most passionately discussed of Shakespeare’s plays. In it, a...

The Merchant of Venice: Shylock Rebuffing Antonio

The Merchant of Venice

In The Merchant of Venice, the path to marriage is hazardous. To win Portia, Bassanio must pass...

The Merry Wives of Windsor: Mistress Ford and Mistress Page

The Merry Wives of Windsor

In The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare’s “merry wives” are Mistress Ford and Mistress Page...

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Watercolor illustration perhaps depicting the Fairy King Oberon

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare stages the workings of love. Theseus and Hippolyta, abou...

Much Ado About Nothing: Beatrice and Benedick conversing

Much Ado About Nothing

One of Shakespeare’s most frequently performed comedies, Much Ado About Nothing includes...

Othello: Desdemona and Othello (portrayed by Paul Robeson) conversing

Othello

In Othello, William Shakespeare creates powerful drama from a marriage between the exotic Moor ...

Pericles: Marina Singing Before Pericles

Pericles

Pericles tells of a prince who risks his life to win a princess, but discovers that she is in a...

The Phoenix and Turtle

“The Phoenix and Turtle”

Shakespeare’s poem now known as “The Phoenix and Turtle” (or as “The Phoenix and...

Richard II: Richard and his queen say their farewells

Richard II

Shakespeare’s Richard II presents a momentous struggle between Richard II and his cousin...

Richard III: The fall of Richard III

Richard III

In Richard III, Shakespeare invites us on a moral holiday. The play draws us to identify with R...

Romeo and Juliet: The two lovers in the Capulet crypt

Romeo and Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in lov...

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Few collections of poems—indeed, few literary works in general—intrigue, challenge, tantalize, a...

The Taming of the Shrew

Love and marriage are the concerns of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Lucentio’s mar...

The Tempest: abstract depiction of King Alonso's ship caught in a storm

The Tempest

Putting romance onstage, The Tempest gives us a magician, Prospero, a former duke of Milan...

Timon of Athens: Detail of Timon's buried treasure

Timon of Athens

The real Timon of Athens lived there in the fifth century BCE, making him a contemporary o...

Titus Andronicus: Titus, Marcus Andronicus, Lavinia, Young Lucius

Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus is the earliest tragedy and the earliest Roman play attributed to Shakespeare....

Troilus and Cressida: Cressida observing Troilus returning from battle

Troilus and Cressida

For Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan War, Shakespeare turned to the Greek poet Homer...

Twelfth Night: Malvolio with the letter

Twelfth Night

Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night&nbs...

The Two Gentlemen of Verona: The revelation of Sebastian as Julia

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

While the word “gentlemen” suggests that its heroes are adults, The Two Gentlemen of Verona...

The Two Noble Kinsmen: Palamon and Arcite gaze at Emilia from their prison

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen tells the familiar story of a love t...

Venus and Adonis: detail of Venus holding Adonis

Venus and Adonis

With Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare in 1593 launches his career as a poet. The poem is a minor epic, ...

The Winter's Tale: Leontes orders Antigonus to banish baby Perdita

The Winter’s Tale

The Winter’s Tale, one of Shakespeare’s very late plays, is filled with improbabilities. Before ...

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