Shakespeares English

The multi-award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. Full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Hear "A little touch of Harry" whenever you want to! Examine and appreciate the powerful language of leadership in this guided history play, considered to be Shakespeare's greatest creative statement about war.

A greater emphasis on situations than characters (this numbs the audience's connection to the characters, so that when characters experience misfortune, the audience still finds it laughable) A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty, often presented by elders Separation and re-unification Deception among characters (especially mistaken identity) A clever servant Disputes between characters, often within a family Multiple, intertwining plots. Use of all styles of comedy (slapstick, puns, dry humour, earthy humour, witty banter, practical jokes) Pastoral element (courtly people living an idealized, rural life), originally an element of Pastoral Romance, exploited by Shakespeare for his comic plots and often parodied therein for humorous effects Happy Ending.

When Kev Macbeth returns from battle a hero, the whole of Scotland is proud. Loyal, quiet, and brave, he’s the kind of leader people trust. But everything changes the day he meets three very odd witches on a rainy hilltop. They whisper of power, of crowns, of kingship. And from that moment, something inside Kev begins to shift...

William Shakespeare didn’t just write plays. He rewrote the code of English itself. This isn’t a textbook. It’s an autopsy. Of the man. The myth. The infection. From Stratford’s dirty streets to the echoing rafters of the Globe, Shakespeare: The Man Who Infected English unpacks how one playwright didn’t just survive history—he rewrote it.

Duke Vincentino, the ruler of Vienna, fears that under his mild sovereignty, the people may have become lazy and lax. He decides to “go over cover” in the disguise of a monk and appoint his deputy, Angelo, who is a reputed paragon of virtue, as temporary ruler. On assuming power, Angelo inaugurates draconian provisions regarding sexual propriety. One of the first victims of this new regime is young Claudio, who has impregnated his lover Juliet, and is accordingly sentenced to death.

From critically acclaimed author Mikita Brottman, a true “psychological thriller as intricately organized as a Hitchcock movie” (Madison Smartt Bell, author All Souls’ Rising) about sex, religion, and murder in the deep South. Mike and Denise Williams had a tight knit, seemingly...

A Catskills resort's production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet takes a wickedly ironic turn when the leading lady, Lauren Richmond, is first poisoned and then stabbed. Who would extinguish the life of such a beautiful young thespian? It seems like just about everyone had a motive to pull the ropes on her final curtain call. At the center of this Shakespearean tragedy is Charlotte Fairfax, formerly the costume mistress of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Luisa Villareal has worked her entire life to find a place in academia. Her love of Shakespeare has driven her, since middle school, to higher and higher levels of scholarship. Now, in April 2014, she finally has her chance to make it at an Ivy League institution. After convincing a renowned association and her university, Assistant Professor Villareal prepares to host the association's annual Shakespeare symposium. Moreover, 2014 marked the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death, giving the event added mystique.

Here is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Soak up the atmosphere of ancient Rome. Decide for yourself whether Caesar's power and ambition was a threat to the Republic, and whether assassination can ever be justified.

The Death of Shakespeare is a novel of historical fiction that imagines how the plays attributed to William Shakespeare were written by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, with occasional help from the Bard himself. William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon appeared in London in 1590 at the age of 26 and is believed by many to have begun writing the greatest plays the world has ever seen. There is no record of his education, if he had any.

In 1612, William Shakespeare gave evidence in a court case at Westminster; it is the only occasion on which his actual spoken words were recorded. The case seems routine - a dispute over an unpaid marriage dowry - but it opens an unexpected window into the dramatist's famously obscure life. Using the court testimony as a springboard, acclaimed nonfiction writer Charles Nicholl examines this fascinating period in Shakespeare's life.

Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s most compelling Roman plays. The plot against Caesar and the infamous assassination scene make for unforgettable listening. Brutus, the true protagonist of the play, is mesmerizing in his psychological state of anguish, forced to choose between the bonds of friendship and his desire for patriotic justice.

Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston star in Shakespeare's tragedy of love and power. As part of BBC Radio 3's celebration of the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston star in this brand-new production. Lovers, politicians, superstars... Antony & Cleopatra is Shakespeare’s late and epic tragedy of mature love, and the catastrophic fall from grace and power that it brings about.

After the death from cancer of his husband, Antony Sher, Greg Doran stepped down from his role as artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio, and inspired by the surprising history of the company's own copy, he set out to see how many of these important volumes he could find. The journey took him to Japan, where Doran met the emperor, and to New Zealand and South Africa where the legacy of Shakespeare has become entwined with the story of colonialism.

In today’s world, the rules of dating, relationships, and self-improvement have shifted. For young men navigating these challenges, understanding hypergamy—the natural inclination of women to seek partners of higher value—is essential. But this book isn’t just about relationships; it’s about becoming the best version of yourself. Hypergamy: A Young Man’s Guide is a transformative roadmap for men who want to reclaim their purpose, build confidence, and live with intention.

Patsy Rodenburg uses practical exercises and textual analysis to hone in on your dramatic resonance, breathing and placement in order to unlock your potential for playing these iconic characters. Combining clear practical, textual and imaginative work with a brilliant analysis of scenes and speeches from the whole range of Shakespeare's plays, this is an essential and inspiring guide for anyone working on his plays today.

Depicting a once-great ruler's descent into madness, King Lear is one of the most powerful tragedies ever staged. King Lear divides his kingdom among the two daughters who flatter him and banishes the third one who loves him. His eldest daughters both then reject him at their homes, so Lear goes mad and wanders through a storm. His banished daughter returns with an army, but they lose the battle and Lear, all his daughters and more, die.

In this lively study of both modern film and stage productions of Shakespeare, Samuel Crowl provides fascinating insights into the ways in which these productions have been influenced by one another as well as by contemporary developments in critical approaches to Shakespeare's plays. Written in a style which places a premium on capturing the vivid and often dazzling moments of stage and film performances of Shakespeare, Crowl's study will be of interest to the avid film and theatergoer as well as to the scholar and student.

Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare's more brilliantly populated plays and remains among the most widely read. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom investigates Macbeth's interiority and unthinkable actions with razor-sharp insight, agility, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character. The book also becomes an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity.

Shakespeare and the Catholic Faith is not only a biography of William Shakespeare, but more importantly, it’s about William Shakespeare’s faith and how his faith is reflected, not only in his poems and plays but in all the mysterious parts of his life that nobody could make sense of until now.. For example, why did Shakespeare leave Stratford shortly after the birth of twins Judith and Hamnet and live most of his adult life in London when he could’ve just written his plays from the comfort of his own home in Stratford?