Shakespeare For All

Titus Andronicus Part III

Shakespeare wrote numerous plays and poems engaged with ancient Roman history. Shakespeare’s Renaissance culture had ancient Rome as its foundation stone. Roman language

Titus Andronicus Part II

Shakespeare wrote numerous plays and poems engaged with ancient Roman history. Shakespeare’s Renaissance culture had ancient Rome as its foundation stone. Roman language

Titus Andronicus Part 1

Shakespeare wrote numerous plays and poems engaged with ancient Roman history. Shakespeare’s Renaissance culture had ancient Rome as its foundation stone. Roman language

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 3

Part 3 starts with a discussion of general reading strategies to help you discover the poetic techniques and insights of any individual sonnet. It concludes with a close-

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 2

Part 2 focuses closely on the two major “characters” to whom the sonnets are addressed: a beautiful young man, and a woman described as black. You’ll learn how the speake

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 1

The sonnet — a 14-line poem with a strict rhyme scheme, conventionally associated with love — was one of the most popular poetic forms in late Elizabethan England. In 160

Shakespeare's "The Tempest" Part 3: The Language

Part 3 features close-readings from Professor Laurie Maguire of some of the play’s key speeches: Caliban’s extraordinarily lyrical description of the island; Prospero’s b

Shakespeare's "The Tempest" Part 2: Characters and Questions

With Professor Laurie Maguire, Part 2 explores the play’s many ambiguities — its uncertain geography, mental space, and genre — and how they reflect the play’s ethical am

Shakespeare's "The Tempest" Part 1: The Story

The Tempest, one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote, draws on themes and stories that fascinated him throughout his career while also taking his art form to unexpected n

Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" Part 3: The Language

In Part 3, Professor Simon Palfrey offers close-readings of some of the play’s most significant scenes. You’ll hear the play’s dark energies emerge through Mercutio’s spe

Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" Part 2: Characters and Questions

With Professor Simon Palfrey, Part 2 looks closely at the play’s characters, and especially at the intelligence and swiftness of Juliet. You’ll see how the lovers apprehe

Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" Part 1: The Story

Children of families who are locked in a fatal feud, Romeo and Juliet risk community, identity, and life to pursue an all-consuming love. Today, Romeo and Juliet is one o

Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" Part 3: The Language

In Part 3, Professor Emma Smith offers close-readings of some of the play’s most important scenes, which dramatize the wide range of relationships and types of love explo

Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" Part 2: Characters and Questions

Part 2 looks at the many instances of inversion and transgression, looking at how characters cross boundaries of gender, status, and social role, and how they are punishe

Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" Part 1: The Story

Twelfth Night, named for the celebration that is both the culmination and the close of the Christmas festivities, is a bittersweet romantic comedy at once melancholy and

Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" Part 3: The Language

In Part 3, Professor Stephen Greenblatt offers close-readings of some of the play’s most significant scenes. You’ll get an in-depth look at the powerful relationship betw

Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" Part 2: Characters and Questions

Part 2 discusses the play’s central characters, their profound bonds of intimacy and animosity, and the effect of money on those bonds. Professor Stephen Greenblatt explo

Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" Part 1: The Story

The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most gripping and challenging plays. Labeled as a comedy in Shakespeare’s First Folio, today it resonates as tragedy as wel

Shakespeare's "King Lear" Part 3: The Language

In Part 3, Professor Palfrey offers close-readings of some of the play’s most significant scenes. You’ll witness the king and the beggar in the heart of a storm; the nake

Shakespeare's "King Lear" Part 2: Characters and Questions

Part 2 explores the way that Shakespeare revised the original Lear story and the way he revised his own play to create a uniquely wrenching form of tragedy. Professor Sim