Shakespeare died at Stratford on the 23rd of April, 1616. His father had died before him, in 1602, and his mother in 1608. His wife survived him till August, 1623. His so Hamnet died in 1596 at the age of eleven years. His two daughters survived him, the eldest of whom, Susanna, had, in 1607, married a physician of Stratford, Dr. Hall. The only issue of this marriage, a daughter named Elizabeth, born in 1608, married first Thomas Nasbe, and afterwards Sir John Barnard, but left no children by either marriage. Shakespeare's younger daughter, Judith, on the 10th of February, 1616, married a Stratford gentleman named Thomas Quincy, by whom she had three sons, all of whom died, however, without issue. There are thus no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's fellow-actors, fellow-dramatists, and those who knew him in other ways, agree in expressing not only admiration of his genius, but their respect and love for the man. Ben Jonson said, “I love the man, and do honor his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature.” He was buried on the second day after his death, on the north side of the chancel of Stratford church. Over his grave there is a flat stone with this inscription, said to have been written by himself:

Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased heare: Blest be ye man yt spares these stones, And curst be he yt moves my bones.

CONTENTS

PAGE PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A BRIEF LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM . . . . . . . . . . . 19 THE TEMPEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 AS YOU LIKE IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 THE WINTER'S TALE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 KING LEAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 TWELFTH NIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 ROMEO AND JULIET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 PERICLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 HAMLET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 CYMBELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 MACBETH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 THE COMEDY OF ERRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 TIMON OF ATHENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 OTHELLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 THE TAMING OF THE SHREW . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 MEASURE FOR MEASURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL . . . . . . . . . . . 272 PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF NAMES . . . . . . . . 286 QUOTATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . . . . . 288

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE TITANIA: THE QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES . . . . . . . 20 THE QUARREL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 HELENA IN THE WOOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 TITANIA PLACED UNDER A SPELL . . . . . . . . . 30 TITANIA AWAKES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 PRINCE FERDINAND IN THE SEA . . . . . . . . . . 36 PRINCE FERDINAND SEES MIRANDA . . . . . . . . . 39 PLAYING CHESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 ROSALIND AND CELIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 ROSALIND GIVES ORLANDO A CHAIN . . . . . . . . 47 GANYMEDE FAINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 LEFT ON THE SEA-COAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 THE KING WOULD NOT LOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 LEONTES RECEIVING FLORIZEL AND PERDITA . . . . 60 FLORIZEL AND PERDITA TALKING . . . . . . . . . 62 HERMOINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 CORDELIA AND THE KING OF FRANCE . . . . . . . . 67 GONERIL AND REGAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 CORDELIA IN PRISON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 VIOLA AND THE CAPTAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 VIOLA AS “CESARIO” MEETS OLIVIA . . . . . . . . 76 “YOU TOO HAVE BEEN IN LOVE” . . . . . . . . . . 78 CLAUDIA AND HERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 HERO AND URSULA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 BENEDICK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 FRIAR FRANCIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 ROMEO AND TYBALT FIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 ROMEO DISCOVERS JULIET . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 MARRIAGE OF ROMEO AND JULIET . . . . . . . . . 111 THE NURSE THINKS JULIET DEAD . . . . . . . . . 115 ROMEO ENTERING THE TOMB . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 PERICLES WINS IN THE TOURNAMENT . . . . . . . . 122 PERICLES AND MARINA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 THE KING'S GHOST APPEARS . . . . . . . . . . . 131 POLONIUS KILLED BY HAMLET . . . . . . . . . . . 135 DROWNING OF OPHELIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 IACHIMO AND IMOGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 IACHIMO IN THE TRUNK . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 IMOGEN STUPEFIED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 IMOGEN AND LEONATUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 THE THREE WITCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 FROM “MACBETH” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 LADY MACBETH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 KING AND QUEEN MACBETH . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 MACBETH AND MACDUFF FIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . 163 ANTIPHOLUS AND DROMIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 LUCIANA AND ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE . . . . . . 175 THE GOLDSMITH AND ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE . . . 178 AEMILIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 ANTONIO SIGNS THE BOND . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 JESSICA LEAVING HOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 BASSANIO PARTS WITH THE RING . . . . . . . . . 192 POET READING TO TIMON . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 PAINTER SHOWING TIMON A PICTURE . . . . . . . 197 “NOTHING BUT AN EMPTY BOX” . . . . . . . . . . 200 TIMON GROWS SULLEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 OTHELLO TELLING DESDEMONA HIS ADVENTURES . . . 211 OTHELLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 THE DRINK OF WINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 CASSIO GIVES THE HANDKERCHIEF . . . . . . . . 222 DESDEMONA WEEPING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 THE MUSIC MASTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 KATHARINE BOXES THE SERVANT'S EARS . . . . . . 232 PETRUCHIO FINDS FAULT WITH THE SUPPER . . . . 235 THE DUKE IN THE FRIAR'S DRESS . . . . . . . . 244 ISABELLA PLEADS WITH ANGELO . . . . . . . . . 247 “YOUR FRIAR IS NOW YOUR PRINCE” . . . . . . . 253 VALENTINE WRITES A LETTER FOR SILVIA . . . . . 258 SILVIA READING THE LETTER . . . . . . . . . . 259 THE SERENADE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 ONE OF THE OUTLAWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 HELENA AND BERTRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 HELENA AND THE KING . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 READING BERTRAM'S LETTER . . . . . . . . . . . 281 HELENA AND THE WIDOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

LIST OF FOUR-COLOR PLATES

PAGE WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece TITANIA AND THE CLOWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 FERDINAND AND MIRANDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 PRINCE FLORIZEL AND PERDITA . . . . . . . . . . 54 ROMEO AND JULIET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 IMOGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 CHOOSING THE CASKET . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 PETRUCHIO AND KATHERINE . . . . . . . . . . . 228

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Hermia and Lysander were lovers; but Hermia's father wished her to marry another man, named Demetrius.

Now, in Athens, where they lived, there was a wicked law, by which any girl who refused to marry according to her father's wishes, might be put to death. Hermia's father was so angry with her for refusing to do as he wished, that he actually brought her before the Duke of Athens to ask that she might be killed, if she still refused to obey him. The Duke gave her four days to think about it, and, at the end of that time, if she still refused to marry Demetrius, she would have to die.

Lysander of course was nearly mad with grief, and the best thing to do seemed to him for Hermia to run away to his aunt's house at a place beyond the reach of that cruel law; and there he would come to her and marry her. But before she started, she told her friend, Helena, what she was going to do.

Helena had been Demetrius' sweetheart long before his marriage with Hermia had been thought of, and being very silly, like all jealous people, she could not see that it was not poor Hermia's fault that Demetrius wished to marry her instead of his own lady, Helena. She knew that if she told Demetrius that Hermia was going, as she was, to the wood outside Athens, he would follow her, “and I can follow him, and at least I shall see him,” she said to herself. So she went to him, and betrayed her friend's secret.

Now this wood where Lysander was to meet Hermia, and where the other two had decided to follow them, was full of fairies, as most woods are, if one only had the eyes to see them, and in this wood on this night were the King and Queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania. Now fairies are very wise people, but now and then they can be quite as foolish as mortal folk. Oberon and Titania, who might have been as happy as the days were long, had thrown away all their joy in a foolish quarrel. They never met without saying disagreeable things to each other, and scolded each other so dreadfully that all their little fairy followers, for fear, would creep into acorn cups and hide them there.