Home > Drama

Two sets of twins, both separated during a shipwreck that occurred 23 years before the present drama unfolds, convolute the absurd plot of Shakespeare's most farcical play. The composition of this, his shortest work, is commonly dated between 1592 and 1594; scholarship has placed its probable first performance on
December 28, 1594 at the Gray's Inn, London. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS was included in the FIRST FOLIO, 1623, and is classified in Shakespeare's oeuvre as a comedy. The action precipitates in the course of a single day in three simple locations: the Phoenix, the Porcupine, and the Priory, buildings in the city of Ephesus. The action begins when Egeon is heavily taxed by the Duke moments after disembarking in Ephesus after five years of wayfaring. The Duke is lenient after hearing the pathetic circumstances that brought Egeon there, which serves as a prologue to the play: Egeon's family--his wife and twin sons, along with a set of twin slave boys--were separated in a shipwreck 23 years earlier. After the wreck he returned home to Syracuse with but one son and one slave; the others were lost. In his 18th year this son, named Antipholus of Syracuse took his slave, Dromio of Syracuse (not to be confused with Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus, twins of the former, now living in Ephesus) to search for his separated twin. Upon the departure of his only remaining son, Egeon, in despair embarks on a journey to find him. Naturally, as the rules of comedy proscribe, all parties land in Ephesus, unbeknownst to one another. Moreover, Aemilia, long-lost wife of Egeon, is also present, along with the sisters Adriana and Luciana, the bride and future bride of each son. The remainder of the play is concerned with reuniting this family.

Presents the comedy of two couples who are happily united with the help of bumbling Constable Dogberry. Includes commentary on each page of the text.

Generally agreed to be Shakespeare's last play, THE TEMPEST was most likely written in 1610. Twelve years before the action begins, Prospero--Duke of Milan--and his daughter, Miranda, were stranded by Prospero's brother, Antonio, on a remote and idyllic island where Miranda has grown up happily among the beasts and flowers, never seeing any man but her father. Many years later, Prospero uses his powers and the help of Ariel, the sprite, to effect a shipwreck--hence the play's title--that brings Antonio to the island, along with the king of Naples and his son, Ferdinand, who promptly falls in love with Miranda. Their love story, juxtaposed with Prospero's revenge on his brother and his final act of mercy, form the basis of a simple plot. A combination of tragedy and romantic comedy, the play includes a happy ending that, finally, leans toward the latter. Unlike Shakespeare's other plays, THE TEMPEST is full of magic and exoticism and what we now think of as special effects, using evocative music and extravagant imagery to create a mood of enchantment that, nonetheless, confronts serious questions about reality and illusion. Some interpretations of the play see Prospero--who, in his dazzling last speech, renounces his magic powers--as the aging Shakespeare bidding farewell to the theater. THE TEMPEST is also interesting because its events take place in a 24-hour period. And it is, of course, the source of a famous phrase: when the sheltered Miranda first lays eyes on Ferdinand, she exclaims, Oh brave new world, that has such people in it!

Description not available.

Description not available.

Description not available.

One of Shakespeare's early plays, written in 1598 or 1599, AS YOU LIKE IT is in many ways a typical Elizabethan romantic comedy, but it is also a satire in which Shakespeare ridicules many of the courtly-love conventions that were still current in his day: love as a disease, for example, and the lover as slave to his imperious mistress. In AS YOU LIKE IT, when these notions rear their heads, they are presented as silly absurdities. Orlando is in thrall to Rosalind, the simple shepherd Silvius is put through mental tortures by Phoebe--but ridiculing such formulaic excesses (Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love) and keeping the play grounded in reality, Shakespeare reminds his audience that true love can bring happiness and is a force for good. In Jaques's famously acerbic soliloquy on the stages of a man's life (which end in a second childhood followed by oblivion), he speaks of the naturalness and inevitability of change--and as the characters in AS YOU LIKE IT enter the Forest of Arden, they undergo changes that will ultimately lead to a transformation in their attitudes. Embittered men are reunited with the brothers they loathed, the rightful Duke is returned to his throne, and four absurdly warring couples are reconciled. The forest provides--as it does in many plays of the period--a pastoral interval in which the characters come to their senses and return to the city better people. In the course of the play, despite its light-hearted tone, Shakespeare does tackle some difficult questions involving love, aging, nature, and the coming of death.

Shakespeare's dark portrait of ambition begins when the eponymous hero, a Scottish soldier, encounters three witches, who mysteriously refer to him as the future king. As, step by step, their prophecy begins to be fulfilled, the seeds of ambition are planted not only in Macbeth but in his scheming wife, who soon is plotting the murder of Duncan, King of Scotland. This murder--and the string of killings that inevitably follow--sets in motion a series of dark deeds that torment Macbeth and Lady Macbeth with guilt, which manifests itself most pointedly when a sleepwalking Lady Macbeth attempts to wash the blood from her hands, famously uttering Out, damn'd spot! MACBETH was probably written between 1603 and 1606; it is the last of Shakespeare's major tragedies and is peculiarly concise, perhaps because Shakespeare had learned of King James's penchant for shorter works. The plot was inspired by the Chronicles of Holinshed's narrative of the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth in Scotland. Richard Burbage, one of the most prominent actors of the Elizabethan stage, is said to have originated the title role.