The Poor Man's Comfort
$18
»
The Poor Man's Comfort
Gisbert leaves the pastoral world to pursue justice in an urban society riddled with political and sexual corruption. Only the return of the rightful king, previously languishing in exile, can restore justice and make amends for Gisbert's wrongs. Published five years before the restoration of Charles II, this Jacobean tragicomedy offered its audience an arresting fusion of violence and bawdy, shipwrecked princesses, lovesick shepherds, corrupt lawyers and murderous prostitutes.
Drama
Hamlet
$18
»
Hamlet
Shakespeare's classic tragedy of love, madness, and revenge was first enacted in London in 1602. Young Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is in mourning for his dead father, is visited by his father's ghost telling him that he was murdered by his own brother, Claudius, who then assumed the throne and married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Intent on revenge, Hamlet feigns madness and plots to kill Claudius. When he accidentally stabs Polonius, Claudius's counselor, Hamlet is sent into exile--and Polonius's
daughter, Ophelia, who had been in love with Hamlet, goes mad from grief and drowns herself. In the climax of the play, old scores are settled at last, and Hamlet's speaks his famous last words: The rest is silence. Considered one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, HAMLET is part of the well-established tradition of revenge tragedies that were popular at the end of the Elizabethan era, but the play transcends all its influences in its examination of justice and duty, and as a subtle portrait of a sensitive young man torn between righteous revenge and his duty as a moral man.
Drama
Richard III
$18
»
Richard III
Preceded by HENRY VI: Parts I, II, and III, RICHARD III concludes Shakespeare's four-part dramatic series chronicling the end of the Plantagenet family as rulers of England. Upon the defeat of Richard, the hunchbacked Duke of Gloucester, at the battle of Bosworth field in 1485, the Plantagenets are replaced by the Tudors, marking the end of a long period of civil war in England. RICHARD III is an early play in Shakespeare's oeuvre, probably written in 1591 when the century-old events it portrays were still part of the collective memory of the audiences at the Globe Theatre. The ruthless and self-destructive Richard, who rises to power solely by means of a succession of horrific murders, is portrayed as a particularly evil and bloodthirsty villain, Shakespeare's worst--a characterization that subsequent scholarship has seen as possibly unfair. In the play, written in a period when a physical deformity was often considered an emblem of a moral defect, Richard's vileness is seen as arising from his hunchback, his revenge against Nature for making him too ugly to be loved. Shakespeare took some liberties with history and geography--Richard, for example, takes part in a battle that occurred when he was two years old--and RICHARD III (like much of Shakespeare) is rife with anachronisms. The play also shows the influence of medieval morality plays, in which good and evil stood in stark contrast as a way of showing how human nature could be corrupted by temptation and sin. Whatever the sources and inaccuracies of the play, what interested Shakespeare was the study of character, and the events of RICHARD III as he saw them afforded him an opportunity to explore evil and its consequences in one of his most fascinating works.
Drama
Henry IV
$18
»
Henry IV
While King Henry IV rightly laments that his heir, the young Prince Hal, has not distinguished himself in battle, Hal is up to no good at the Boar's Head Tavern with his rotund cohort, Falstaff. With a rebellion rising against the throne at home, Hal lives it up in the ale houses of London, associating with petty schemers and masterminding practical jokes instead of military strategies. When his father sends a messenger to fetch his delinquent son, will Hal rally to the call? Written prior to 1596, this much-loved play is referred to in multiple memoirs and documents of the day and in subsequent decades, including Samuel Pepys's diary, attesting to its impact and popularity. Blending action that takes place at court with scenes of city life, HENRY IV PART 1 marks a turning-point in Shakespeare's oeuvre, as action unfolds simultaneously in diverse locations, lending texture and variety to the drama, and involving characters drawn not only from the ranks of court, but from London's seedier byways. The sway of chaos and order, the perennial theme of Shakespeare's histories, is present here in the juxtaposition of the political realm with the Epicurean.
Drama
King Lear
$18
»
King Lear
Shakespeare probably wrote KING LEAR in 1605, but the action of the play takes place in the eighth century B.C. Lear, the elderly king of Britain, is ready to cease his rule and divide his kingdom among his three daughters. But his heart hardens against his youngest daughter, Cordelia, who refuses to give him the glib flattery he seeks, and he capriciously disowns her. Cordelia marries the king of France, leaving the kingdom to her two unsavory sisters, Goneril and Regan, who promptly begin scheming to strip Lear of not only his authority but his dignity. The old king, devastated by their insulting treatment of him, begins to lose his reason. Forced to flee, he wanders into the wilderness, accompanied by his devoted Fool and by Kent, a nobleman in disguise who stays true to him. As Lear faces a devastating storm and encounters a variety of men, both noble and depraved, his daughters take revenge on anyone who tries to help him, including his old friend Gloucester, who is cruelly blinded before he too is turned out into the wild. Eventually, all these characters make their way to Dover, where Cordelia has landed with the French army under the command of her husband in an attempt to save her father's kingdom. As more blood is shed and the two evil sisters are finally vanquished, one of Shakespeare's saddest endings closes the play, as Lear gives into his grief after Cordelia's death, realizing that it was she who, after all, loved him the best. In KING LEAR, with its bleak vision of the human life, Shakespeare deals with questions of justice and injustice, and whether the world is indifferent to the fate of mankind. The play is interesting for its depictions of madness in several characters, from the professionally nonsensical Fool to Lear's own ravings in the depths of his confusion. KING LEAR is also a probing examination of family and its implications, and of a proud man who is brought low before he is able to understand, too late, what constitutes true goodness...
Drama
