Introduction
This book is designed to assist upper secondary school and university students in their reading and understanding of Shakespeare’s plays. We have selected for discussion plays that students are likely to encounter in their early Shakespearean adventures:
- As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet are discussed in Volume I.
- Twelfth Night, King Lear (publication coming soon) and Macbeth (publication coming soon) are discussed in Volume II.
Each section places the play discussed in Shakespeare’s life story and summarises what is known of its composition, early performances and publication. Interactive exercises are designed to assist students to understand and remember the plays’ characters, plots and structures. Guidance is provided on issues raised by each play, and approaches suggested on which students can build original ideas and insights. The book provides access to free full text copies of the plays. Our aim is to empower students to read Shakespeare’s plays in their original language and form.
Further Reading
I urge you to read (and can’t recommend too highly) Stephen Greenblatt’s engaging scholarly biography, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004): https://www.penguin.com.au/books/will-in-the-world-9781847924520.
Distinguishing meticulously between facts and speculation, this book draws on the author’s knowledge of historical sources and Shakespeare’s writings in a way that illuminates both. Based on Shakespeare’s lived experiences in his Elizabethan and Jacobean worlds, Will in the World provides new insights into most of the plays and poems. Commentaries on the sources researched for each chapter are a guide to major Shakespearean scholarship before 2004.
In 2005 Will in the World was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize in biography.
See more on Shakespeare’s Words at the Shakespeare’s Words webpage, as well as in the videos below: here:
“Why Shakespeare loved iambic pentameter” by Ted-Ed [5:21 mins]
