four stories from Shakespeare and stories from Shakespeare beautiful stories from Shakespeare william Shakespeare and summary of beautiful stories from Shakespeare
Dr.LeonBurns,New Zealand,Researcher
Published Date:21-07-2017
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TWENTY BEAUTIFUL STORIES
FROM SHAKESPEARE
A BRIEF LIFE OF
SHAKESPEARE
IN the register of baptisms of the parish
church of Stratford-upon-Avon, a market town in
Warwickshire, England, appears, under date of April
26, 1564, the entry of the baptism of William, the
son of John Shakspeare. The entry is in Latin—
“Gulielmus filius Johannis Shakspeare.”
The date of William Shakespeare’s birth has
usually been taken as three days before his baptism,
but there is certainly no evidence of this fact.
The family name was variously spelled, the
dramatist himself not always spelling it in the same
way. While in the baptismal record the name is
spelled “Shakspeare,” in several authentic autographs
of the dramatist it reads “Shakspere,” and in the first
edition of his works it is printed “Shakespeare.”
Halliwell tells us, that there are not less than
thirty-four ways in which the various members of
the Shakespeare family wrote the name, and in the
council-book of the corporation of Stratford, where
it is introduced one hundred and sixty-six times
during the period that the dramatist’s father was a
member of the municipal body, there are fourteen
different spellings. The modern “Shakespeare” is not
among them.
Shakespeare’s father, while an alderman at
Stratford, appears to have been unable to write his
name, but as at that time nine men out of ten were
content to make their mark for a signature, the fact
is not specially to his discredit.
The traditions and other sources of
information about the occupation of Shakespeare’s
father differ. He is described as a butcher, a wool-
stapler, and a glover, and it is not impossible that he
may have been all of these simultaneously or at
different times, or that if he could not properly be
called any one of them, the nature of his occupation
was such as to make it easy to understand how the
various traditions sprang up. He was a landed
proprietor and cultivator of his own land even
before his marriage, and he received with his wife,
who was Mary Arden, daughter of a country
gentleman, the estate of Asbies, 56 acres in extent.
William was the third child. The two older than he
were daughters, and both probably died in infancy.
After him were born three sons and a daughter. For
ten or twelve years at least, after Shakespeare’s birth
his father continued to be in easy circumstances. In
the year 1568 he was the high bailiff or chief
magistrate of Stratford, and for many years
afterwards he held the position of alderman as he
had done for three years before. To the completion
of his tenth year, therefore, it is natural to suppose
that William Shakespeare would get the best
education that Stratford could afford. The free
school of the town was open to all boys, and like all
the grammar-schools of that time, was under the
direction of men who, as graduates of the
universities, were qualified to diffuse that sound
scholarship which was once the boast of England.
There is no record of Shakespeare’s having been at
this school, but there can be no rational doubt that
he was educated there. His father could not have
procured for him a better education anywhere. To
those who have studied Shakespeare’s works without
being influenced by the old traditional theory that he
had received a very narrow education, they abound
with evidences that he must have been solidly
grounded in the learning, properly so called, taught
in the grammar schools.
There are local associations connected with
Stratford which could not be without their influence
in the formation of young Shakespeare’s mind.
Within the range of such a boy’s curiosity were the
fine old historic towns of Warwick and Coventry,
the sumptuous palace of Kenilworth, the grand
monastic remains of Evesham. His own Avon
abounded with spots of singular beauty, quiet
hamlets, solitary woods. Nor was Stratford shut out
from the general world, as many country towns are.
It was a great highway, and dealers with every variety
of merchandise resorted to its markets. The eyes of
the poet dramatist must always have been open for
observation. But nothing is known positively of
Shakespeare from his birth to his marriage to Anne
Hathaway in 1582, and from that date nothing but
the birth of three children until we find him an actor
in London about 1589.
How long acting continued to be
Shakespeare’s sole profession we have no means of
knowing, but it is in the highest degree probable that
very soon after arriving in London he began that
work of adaptation by which he is known to have
begun his literary career. To improve and alter older
plays not up to the standard that was required at the
time was a common practice even among the best
dramatists of the day, and Shakespeare’s abilities
would speedily mark him out as eminently fitted for
this kind of work. When the alterations in plays
originally composed by other writers became very
extensive, the work of adaptation would become in
reality a work of creation. And this is exactly what
we have examples of in a few of Shakespeare’s early
works, which are known to have been founded on
older plays.
It is unnecessary here to extol the published
works of the world’s greatest dramatist. Criticism has
been exhausted upon them, and the finest minds of
England, Germany, and America have devoted their
powers to an elucidation of their worth.
Shakespeare died at Stratford on the 23d of
April, 1616. His father had died before him, in 1602,
and his mother in 1608. His wife survived him till
August, 1623. His son 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
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 1
THE TEMPEST 13
AS YOU LIKE IT 23
THE WINTER’S TALE 31
KING LEAR 43
TWELFTH NIGHT 49
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING 59
ROMEO AND JULIET 75
PERICLES 87
HAMLET 95
CYMBELINE 105
MACBETH 116
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS 128
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 140
TIMON OF ATHENS 150
OTHELLO 165
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW 179
MEASURE FOR MEASURE 190
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA 201
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 215
PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF NAMES 227
QUOTATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE 230
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
1 BEAUTIFUL STORIES FROM SHAKESPEARE
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 fol-
low 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
TITANIA: THE QUEEN OF
THE FAIRIES have been as happy
2 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
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.
So, instead of keeping one happy Court and
dancing all night through in the moonlight as is
fairies’ use, the King with his attendants wandered
through one part of the wood, while the Queen with
hers kept state in another. And the cause of all this
trouble was a little Indian boy whom Titania had
taken to be one of her followers. Oberon wanted the
child to follow him and be one of his fairy knights;
but the Queen would not give him up.
On this night, in a mossy moonlit glade, the
King and Queen of the fairies met.
“Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania,” said
the King.
“What jealous, Oberon?” answered the
Queen. “You spoil everything with your quarreling.
Come, fairies, let us leave him. I am not friends with
him now.”
“It rests with you to make up the quarrel,”
said the King.
“Give me that little Indian boy, and I will
again be your humble servant and suitor.”
“Set your mind at rest,” said the Queen.
“Your whole fairy kingdom buys not that boy from
me. Come, fairies.”
3 BEAUTIFUL STORIES FROM SHAKESPEARE
And she and her train rode off down the
moonbeams.
“Well, go your
ways,” said Oberon.
“But I’ll be even with
you before you leave
this wood.”
Then Oberon
called his favorite
fairy, Puck. Puck
was the spirit of
mischief. He used
to slip into the
dairies and take
the cream away,
and get into the
THE QUARREL
churn so that the
butter would not come, and turn the beer sour, and
lead people out of their way on dark nights and then
laugh at them, and tumble people’s stools from
under them when they were going to sit down, and
upset their hot ale over their chins when they were
going to drink.
“Now,” said Oberon to this little sprite,
“fetch me the flower called Love-in-idleness. The
juice of that little purple flower laid on the eyes of
those who sleep will make them, when they wake, to
love the first thing they see. I will put some of the
juice of that flower on my Titania’s eyes, and when
she wakes she will love the first thing she sees, were
4 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
it lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, or meddling monkey, or
a busy ape.”
HELENA IN THE WOOD
While Puck was gone, Demetrius passed
through the glade followed by poor Helena, and still
she told him how she loved him and reminded him
of all his promises, and still he told her that he did
5 BEAUTIFUL STORIES FROM SHAKESPEARE
not and could not love her, and that his promises
were nothing. Oberon was sorry for poor Helena,
and when Puck returned with the flower, he bade
him follow Demetrius and put some of the juice on
his eyes, so that he might love Helena when he woke
and looked on her, as much as she loved him. So
Puck set off, and wandering through the wood
found, not Demetrius, but Lysander, on whose eyes
he put the juice; but when Lysander woke, he saw
not his own Hermia, but Helena, who was walking
through the wood looking for the cruel Demetrius;
and directly he saw her he loved her and left his own
lady, under the spell of the purple flower.
When Hermia woke she found Lysander
gone, and wandered about the wood trying to find
him. Puck went back and told Oberon what he had
done, and Oberon soon found that he had made a
mistake, and set about looking for Demetrius, and
having found him, put some of the juice on his eyes.
And the first thing Demetrius saw when he woke
was also Helena. So now Demetrius and Lysander
were both following her through the wood, and it
was Hermia’s turn to follow her lover as Helena had
done before. The end of it was that Helena and
Hermia began to quarrel, and Demetrius and
Lysander went off to fight. Oberon was very sorry to
see his kind scheme to help these lovers turn out so
badly. So he said to Puck—
“These two young men are going to fight.
You must overhang the night with drooping fog, and
lead them so astray, that one will never find the
other. When they are tired out, they will fall asleep.
6 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Then drop this other herb on Lysander’s eyes. That
will give him his old sight and his old love. Then
each man will have the lady who loves him, and they
will all think that this has been only a Midsummer
Night’s Dream. Then when this is done, all will be
well with them.”
So Puck went and did as he was told, and
when the two had fallen asleep without meeting each
other, Puck poured the juice on Lysander’s eyes, and
said:—
“When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye:
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill.”
Meanwhile Oberon found Titania asleep on a
bank where grew wild thyme, oxlips, and violets, and
woodbine, musk-roses and eglantine. There Titania
always slept a part of the night, wrapped in the
enameled skin of a snake. Oberon stooped over her
and laid the juice on her eyes, saying:—
“What thou seest when thou wake,
Do it for thy true love take.”
Now, it happened that when Titania woke the
first thing she saw was a stupid clown, one of a party
of players who had come out into the wood to
7 BEAUTIFUL STORIES FROM SHAKESPEARE
rehearse their play. This clown had met with Puck,
who had clapped an ass’s head on his shoulders so
that it looked as if it grew there. Directly Titania
woke and saw this dreadful monster, she said, “What
angel is this? Are you as wise as you are beautiful?”
“If I am wise enough to find my way out of
this wood, that’s enough for me,” said the foolish
clown.
TITANIA PLACED UNDER A SPELL
“Do not desire to go out of the wood,” said
Titania. The spell of the love-juice was on her, and
to her the clown seemed the most beautiful and
delightful creature on all the earth. “I love you,” she
8 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
went on. “Come with me, and I will give you fairies
to attend on you.”
So she called four fairies, whose names were
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed.
“You must attend this gentleman,” said the
Queen. “Feed him with apricots and dewberries,
purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries. Steal
honey-bags for him from the bumble-bees, and with
the wings of painted butterflies fan the moonbeams
from his sleeping eyes.”
“I will,” said one of the fairies, and all the
others said, “I will.”
“Now, sit down with me,” said the Queen to
the clown, “and let me stroke your dear cheeks, and
stick musk-roses
in your smooth,
sleek head, and
kiss your fair
large ears, my
gentle joy.”
“Where’s
Peaseblossom?”
asked the clown
with the ass’s
head. He did not
care much about
TITANIA AWAKES
the Queen’s affect-
tion, but he was very proud of having fairies to wait
on him. “Ready,” said Peaseblossom.
9 BEAUTIFUL STORIES FROM SHAKESPEARE
TITANIA AND THE CLOWN
10 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
“Scratch my head, Peaseblossom,” said the
clown. “Where’s Cobweb?” “Ready,” said Cobweb.
“Kill me,” said the clown, “the red bumble-
bee on the top of the thistle yonder, and bring me
the honey-bag. Where’s Mustardseed?”
“Ready,” said Mustardseed.
“Oh, I want nothing,” said the clown. “Only
just help Cobweb to scratch. I must go to the
barber’s, for methinks I am marvelous hairy about
the face.”
“Would you like anything to eat?” said the
fairy Queen.
“I should like some good dry oats,” said the
clown—for his donkey’s head made him desire
donkey’s food—“and some hay to follow.”
“Shall some of my fairies fetch you new nuts
from the squirrel’s house?” asked the Queen.
“I’d rather have a handful or two of good
dried peas,” said the clown. “But please don’t let any
of your people disturb me; I am going to sleep.”
Then said the Queen, “And I will wind thee in
my arms.”
And so when Oberon came along he found
his beautiful Queen lavishing kisses and endearments
on a clown with a donkey’s head.
And before he released her from the
enchantment, he persuaded her to give him the little
Indian boy he so much desired to have. Then he
took pity on her, and threw some juice of the
11 BEAUTIFUL STORIES FROM SHAKESPEARE
disenchanting flower on her pretty eyes; and then in
a moment she saw plainly the donkey-headed clown
she had been loving, and knew how foolish she had
been.
Oberon took off the ass’s head from the
clown, and left him to finish his sleep with his own
silly head lying on the thyme and violets.
Thus all was made plain and straight again.
Oberon and Titania loved each other more than
ever. Demetrius thought of no one but Helena, and
Helena had never had any thought of anyone but
Demetrius.
As for Hermia and Lysander, they were as
loving a couple as you could meet in a day’s march,
even through a fairy wood.
So the four mortal lovers went back to Athens
and were married; and the fairy King and Queen live
happily together in that very wood at this very day.
12
PROSPERO, the Duke of Milan, was a
learned and studious man, who lived among his
books, leaving the management of his dukedom to
his brother Antonio, in whom indeed he had
complete trust. But that trust was ill-rewarded, for
Antonio wanted to wear the duke’s crown himself,
and, to gain his ends, would have killed his brother
but for the love the people bore him. However, with
the help of Prospero’s great enemy, Alonso, King of
Naples, he managed to get into his hands the
dukedom with all its honor, power, and riches. For
they took Prospero to sea, and when they were far
away from land, forced him into a little boat with no
tackle, mast, or sail. In their cruelty and hatred they
put his little daughter, Miranda (not yet three years
old), into the boat with him, and sailed away, leaving
them to their fate.
But one among the courtiers with Antonio
was true to his rightful master, Prospero. To save the
duke from his enemies was impossible, but much
13
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