Richard III

Hamlet

Othello

Macbeth

King Lear

Merchant of Venice

   The play centres in the character of Richard of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III, ambitious and sanguinary, bold and subtle, treacherous, yet brave in battle, a murderer and usurper of the crown. The principal incidents of the play are the imprisonment and murder of Clarence procured by his brother Richard; the wooing of Anne, widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, by Richard as she accompanies the bier of her dead father-in-law; the death of Edward IV and the machinations of Richard to get the crown; the execution of Hastings, Rivers, and Grey; the accession of Richard; the murder of the princes in the Tower; Richard's project of marrying his niece, Elizabeth of York; Buckingham's rebellion in support of the earl of Richmond, his capture and execution; Richmond's invasion, and the defeat and death of Richard at Bosworth (1485).

   A noble king of Denmark has been murdered by his brother Claudius, after Claudius had seduced Gertrude, the king's wife. Claudius has supplanted on the throne the dead man's son, Hamlet, and married with indecent haste the dead man's widow. Hamlet meets the ghost of his dead father, who relates the circumstances of the murder and demands vengeance. Hamlet vows obedience; but his melancholy, introspective, and scrupulous nature makes him irresolute and dilatory in action. He counterfeits madness to escape the suspicion that he is threatening danger to the king. His behaviour is attributed to love for Ophelia (daughter of Polonius, the lord chamberlain), whom he has previously courted but now treats rudely. He tests the ghost's story by having a play acted before the king reproducing the circumstances of the murder, and the king betrays himself. A scene follows in which Hamlet violently upbraids the queen. Thinking he hears the king listening behind the arras, he draws his sword and kills instead Polonius. The king now determines to destroy Hamlet. He sends him on a mission to England, with intent to have him killed there. But pirates capture Hamlet and send him back to Denmark. He arrives to find that Ophelia, crazed with grief, has perished by drowning. Her brother Laertes, a strong contrast to the character of Hamlet, has hurried home to take vengeance for the death of his father Polonius. The king contrives a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, in which the latter uses a poisoned sword, and kills Hamlet; but not before Hamlet has mortally wounded Laertes and stabbed the king; while Gertrude has drunk a poisoned cup intended for her son.

Othello had lately promoted to the lieutenancy Cassia, a young Florentine whom he trusted. By this promotion he had deeply offended lago, an older soldier who thought he had a better claim, and who now plots his revenge. By a device he first discredits Cassia, as a soldier, with Othello, so that Cassia is deprived of his lieutenancy. He instigates the latter to ask Desdemona to plead in his favour with Othello, which Desdemona warmly does. At the same time he craftily instils in Othello's mind suspicion of his wife's fidelity, and jealousy of Cassia. Finally by a trick he arranges that a handkerchief given by Othello to Desdemona shall be found on Cassia. He stirs Othello to such a frenzy of jealousy that the Moor smothers Desdemona in her bed. Shortly afterwards Cassia, whom lago had set Roderigo, one of his associates and dupes, to assassinate, is brought in wounded. But Roderigo has failed in his purpose, and has been killed by lago to prevent discovery of the plot; on him are found letters revealing the guilt of lago and the innocence of Cassia. Othello, thunderstruck by the discovery that he has murdered Desdemona without cause, kills himself from remorse.

   Macbeth and Banquo, generals of Duncan, King of Scotland, returning from a victorious campaign against rebels, encounter the three weird sisters, or witches, upon a heath, who prophesy that Macbeth shall be thane of Cawdor, and king hereafter, and that Banquo shall beget kings though he be none. Immediately afterwards comes the news that the king has created Macbeth thane of Cawdor. Stimulated by the prophecy, and spurred on by Lady Macbeth, Macbeth murders Duncan, who is on a visit to his castle. Duncan's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, escape, and Macbeth assumes the crown. To defeat the prophecy of the witches regarding Banquo, he contrives the murder of Banquo and his son Fleance, but the latter escapes. Haunted by the ghost of Banquo, Macbeth consults the weird sisters, and is told to beware of Macduff, the thane of Fife; that none born of woman has power to harm Macbeth; and that he never will be vanquished till Birnam Wood shall come to Dunsinane. Learning that Macduff has joined Malcolm, who is gathering an army in England, he surprises the castle of Macduff and causes Lady Macduff and her children to be slaughtered. Lady Macbeth loses her reason and dies. The army of Malcolm and Macduff attacks Macbeth; passing through Birnam Wood every man cuts a bough and under this 'heavy screen' marches on Dunsinane. Macduff, who was 'from his mother's womb untimely ripped', kills Macbeth. Malcolm is hailed king of Scotland.

   Lear, king of Britain, a petulant and unwise old man, has three daughters Goneril, wife of the duke of Albany; Regan, wife of the duke of Cornwall; and Cordelia, for whom the king of France and duke of Burgundy are suitors. Intending to divide his kingdom among his daughters according to their affection for him, he bids them say which loves him most. Goneril and Regan make profession of extreme affection, and each receives one-third of the kingdom. Cordelia, self-willed, and disgusted with their hollow flattery, says she loves him according to her duty, not more nor less. Infuriated with this reply, Lear divides her portion between his other daughters, with the condition that himself with a hundred knights shall be maintained by each daughter in turn. Burgundy withdraws his suit for Cordelia, and the king of France accepts her without dowry. The earl of Kent, taking her part, is banished. Goneril and Regan reveal their heartless character by grudging their father the maintenance that he had stipulated for, and finally turning him out of doors in a storm. The earl of Gloucester shows pity for the old king, and is suspected of complicity with the French, who have landed in England. His eyes are put out by Cornwall, who receives a death-wound in the affray. Gloucester's son Edgar, who has been traduced to his father by his bastard brother Edmund, takes the disguise of a lunatic beggar, and tends his father till the latter's death. Lear, whom rage and ill-treatment have deprived of his wits, is conveyed to Dover by the faithful Kent in disguise, where Cordelia receives him. Meanwhile Goneril and Regan have both turned their affections to Edmund. Embittered by this rivalry, Goneril poisons Regan, and takes her own life. The English forces under Edmund and Albany defeat the French, and Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned; by Edmund's order Cordelia is hanged, and Lear dies from grief. The treachery of Edmund is proved on him by his brother Edgar. Albany, who has not abetted Goneril in her cruel treatment of Lear, takes over the-kingdom.

   Bassanio, a noble but poor Venetian, asks Antonio, his friend, a rich merchant, for three thousand ducats to enable him to prosecute fittingly his suit of the rich heiress Portia. Antonio, whose money is all employed in foreign ventures, undertakes to borrow the sum from Shylock, a Jewish usurer, whom he has been wont to upbraid for his extortions. Shylock consents to lend the money against a bond by which, in case the sum is not repaid at the appointed day, Antonio shall forfeit a pound of flesh. Bassanio prospers in his suit. By her father's will Portia is to marry that suitor who selects of three caskets (one of gold, one of silver, one of lead) that which contains her portrait. He makes the right choice-the leaden casket-and is wedded to Portia, and his friend Gratiano to her maid Nerissa. News comes that Antonio's ships have been wrecked, that the debt has not been repaid when due, and that Shylock claims his pound of flesh. The matter is brought before the duke. Portia disguises herself as an advocate, and Nerissa as her clerk, and they come to the court to defend Antonio, unknown to their husbands. Failing in her appeal to Shylock for mercy, Portia admits the validity of his claim, but warns him that his life is forfeit if he spills one drop of blood, since his bond gives him right to nothing beyond the flesh. Pursuing her advantage, she argues that Shylock's life is forfeit for having conspired against the life of a Venetian citizen. The duke grants Shylock his life, but gives half his wealth to Antonio, half to the State. Antonio surrenders his claim if Shylock will turn Christian and make over his property on his death to his daughter, Jessica, who has run away and married a Christian and been disinherited; to which Shylock agrees. Portia and Nerissa ask as rewards from Bassanio and Gratiano the rings that their wives have given them, which they have promised never to part with. Reluctantly they give them up, and are taken to task accordingly on their return home. The play ends with news of the safe arrival of Antonio's ships.