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Arts
 Tragedy

Othello 
Othello (The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice) is a tragedy by William
Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603. It is based on the story Un Capitano
Moro ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. The
story revolves around its two central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army
and his unfaithful ensign, Iago. Given its varied and enduring themes of racism, love, jealousy,
betrayal, revenge and repentance, Othello is still often performed in professional and community
theatre alike, and has been the source for numerous operatic, film, and literary adaptations.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about
two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was
among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his
most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young
lovers. Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity.
The plot is based on an Italian tale translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and
Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562 and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in
1567.

Hamlet
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet (/ˈhæmlɪt/), is
a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set
in Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his
uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet. Claudius had murdered his own
brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brother's widow. Hamlet is
Shakespeare's longest play, and is considered among the most powerful and influential works
of world literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by
others".

Macbeth
 Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to have been first performed
in 1606.[a] It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on
those who seek power for its own sake. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign
of James I, who was patron of Shakespeare's acting company, Macbeth most clearly reflects the
playwright's relationship with his sovereign. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly
from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy.A brave Scottish general
named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of
Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King
Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia.
Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon
becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.

King Lear 
King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It depicts the gradual descent
into madness of the title character, after he disposes of his kingdom by giving bequests to two of
his three daughters egged on by their continual flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all.
Derived from the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king, the play has
been widely adapted for the stage and motion pictures, with the title role coveted by many of the
world's most accomplished actors. The first attribution to Shakespeare of this play, originally
drafted in 1605 or 1606 at the latest with its first known performance on St. Stephen's Day in
1606, was a 1608 publication in a quarto of uncertain provenance, in which the play is listed as
a history; it may be an early draft or simply reflect the first performance text.
 Comedy

The Comedy of Errors 

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and
one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and
mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is, along with The
Tempest, one of only two Shakespearean plays to observe the Aristotelian principle of unity of
time—that is, that the events of a play should occur over 24 hours. It has been adapted for opera,
stage, screen and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. In the centuries following its
premiere, the play's title has entered the popular English lexicon as an idiom for "an event or
series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout".

Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have
been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas
season. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck.
Viola (who is disguised as Cesario) falls in love with Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with
the Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her thinking she is a
man. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion,
[1]
 with plot elements drawn from the short story "Of Apollonius and Silla" by Barnabe Rich,
based on a story by Matteo Bandello. The first recorded performance was on 2 February 1602,
at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the year's calendar. The play was not published
until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio.

As You Like It 

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been
written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is
uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility. As
You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court,
accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In
the forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy
traveller Jaques who speaks many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches (such as "All the
world's a stage", "too much of a good thing" and "A fool! A fool! I met a fool in the forest").
Jaques provides a sharp contrast to the other characters in the play, always observing and
disputing the hardships of life in the country.

Love's Labour's Lost 

Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have
been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. It
follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to swear off the company
of women for three years of study and fasting. Their subsequent infatuation with the Princess
of France and her ladies makes them forsworn. In an untraditional ending for a comedy, the play
closes with the death of the Princess's father, and all weddings are delayed for a year. The play
draws on themes of masculine love and desire, reckoning and rationalisation, and reality versus
fantasy. Though first published in quarto in 1598, the play's title page suggests a revision of an
earlier version of the play. While there are no obvious sources for the play's plot, the four main
characters are loosely based on historical figures. The use of apostrophes in the play's title varies
in early editions, though it is most commonly given as Love's Labour's Lost.

The Merchant of Venice 

The Merchant of Venice is a 16th-century play written by William Shakespeare in which
a merchant in Venice (Antonio) must default on a large loan provided by a Jewish
moneylender, Shylock. It is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1599. Though
classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's
other romantic comedies, the play is most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and it is best
known for Shylock and the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech on humanity. Also notable
is Portia's speech about "the quality of mercy". Critic Harold Bloom listed it among
Shakespeare's great comedies.
 satyr

The Theban Plays

The Theban plays consist of three plays: Oedipus Rex (also called Oedipus
Tyrannus or Oedipus the King), Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. All three plays concern the
fate of Thebes during and after the reign of King Oedipus. They have often been published under
a single cover. Sophocles, however, wrote the three plays for separate festival competitions,
many years apart. Not only are the Theban plays not a true trilogy (three plays presented as a
continuous narrative) but they are not even an intentional series and contain some inconsistencies
among them. He also wrote other plays having to do with Thebes, such as the Epigoni, of which
only fragments have survived.

Lysistrata
Lysistrata. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian
War between Greek city states by denying all the men of the land any sex, which was the only
thing they truly and deeply desired. Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities
to withhold sexual privilegesfrom their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to
negotiate peace—a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is
notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society. Additionally,
its dramatic structure represents a shift from the conventions of Old Comedy, a trend typical of
the author's career.[2] It was produced in the same year as the Thesmophoriazusae, another play
with a focus on gender-based issues, just two years after Athens' catastrophic defeat in
the Sicilian Expedition. At this time, Greek theatre was a profound form of entertainment, which
was extremely popular for all audiences as it addressed political issues relevant to that time.

Oedipus Rex
Oedipus Rex, also known by its Greek title, or Oedipus the King, is
an Atheniantragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC.[1] Originally, to the
ancient Greeks, the title was simply Oedipus (Οἰδίπους), as it is referred to by Aristotle in
the Poetics. It is thought to have been renamed Oedipus Tyrannus to distinguish it from another
of Sophocles' plays, Oedipus at Colonus. In antiquity, the term “tyrant” referred to a ruler, but it
did not necessarily have a negative connotation. Of his three Theban plays that have survived,
and that deal with the story of Oedipus, Oedipus Rex was the second to be written. However, in
terms of the chronology of events that the plays describe, it comes first, followed by Oedipus at
Colonus and then Antigone.

The Frogs 
The Frogs tells the story of the god Dionysus, who, despairing of the state of
Athens' tragedians, travels to Hades (the underworld) to bring the playwright Euripidesback from
the dead. (Euripides had died the year before, in 406 BC.) He brings along his slave Xanthias,
who is smarter and braver than Dionysus. As the play opens, Xanthias and Dionysus argue over
what kind of jokes Xanthias can use to open the play. For the first half of the play, Dionysus
routinely makes critical errors, forcing Xanthias to improvise in order to protect his master and
prevent Dionysus from looking incompetent—but this only allows Dionysus to continue to make
mistakes with no consequence.

Antigone
Prior to the beginning of the play, brothers Eteocles and Polyneices, leading opposite
sides in Thebes' civil war, died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes
and brother of the former Queen Jocasta, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and
Polyneices will be in public shame. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites
and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals like worms and vultures, the
harshest punishment at the time. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices and
Eteocles. In the opening of the play, Antigone brings Ismene outside the palace gates late at night
for a secret meeting: Antigone wants to bury Polyneices' body, in defiance of Creon's edict.
Ismene refuses to help her, not believing that it will actually be possible to bury their brother,
who is under guard, but she is unable to stop Antigone from going to bury her brother herself.