This is just the beginning of your adventure with Shakespeare. Google the bard and there are literally thousands of portals to investigate and enjoy.
My favorite portals for research are:
ABOUT THE BARD
(POETS.ORG) William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, he was probably educated at the King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford, where he learned Latin and a little Greek and read the Roman dramatists. At eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman seven or eight years his senior. Together, they raised two daughters: Susanna, who was born in 1583, and Judith (whose twin brother died in boyhood), born in 1585.
Little is known about Shakespeare’s activities between 1585 and 1592. Robert Greene’s A Groatsworth of Wit alludes to him as an actor and playwright. Shakespeare may have taught at school during this period, but it seems more probable that shortly after 1585 he went to London to begin his apprenticeship as an actor. Due to the plague, the London theaters were often closed between June 1592 and April 1594. During that period, Shakespeare probably had some income from his patron, Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first two poems, Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594). The former was a long narrative poem depicting the rejection of Venus by Adonis, his death, and the consequent disappearance of beauty from the world. Despite conservative objections to the poem’s glorification of sensuality, it was immensely popular and was reprinted six times during the nine years following its publication.
In 1594, Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain’s company of actors, the most popular of the companies acting at Court. In 1599, Shakespeare joined a group of Chamberlain’s Men that would form a syndicate to build and operate a new playhouse: the Globe, which became the most famous theater of its time. With his share of the income from the Globe, Shakespeare was able to purchase New Place, his home in Stratford.
While Shakespeare was regarded as the foremost dramatist of his time, evidence indicates that both he and his contemporaries looked to poetry, not playwriting, for enduring fame. Shakespeare’s sonnets were composed between 1593 and 1601, though not published until 1609. That edition, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, consists of 154 sonnets, all written in the form of three quatrains and a couplet that is now recognized as Shakespearean. The sonnets fall into two groups: sonnets 1–126, addressed to a beloved friend, a handsome and noble young man, and sonnets 127–152, to a malignant but fascinating “Dark Lady,” who the poet loves in spite of himself. Nearly all of Shakespeare’s sonnets examine the inevitable decay of time, and the immortalization of beauty and love in poetry.
In his poems and plays, Shakespeare invented thousands of words, often combining or contorting Latin, French, and native roots. His impressive expansion of the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, includes such words as: arch-villain, birthplace, bloodsucking, courtship, dewdrop, downstairs, fanged, heartsore, hunchbacked, leapfrog, misquote, pageantry, radiance, schoolboy, stillborn, watchdog, and zany.
Shakespeare wrote more than thirty plays. These are usually divided into four categories: histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances. His earliest plays were primarily comedies and histories such as Henry VI and The Comedy of Errors, but in 1596, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, his second tragedy, and over the next dozen years he would return to the form, writing the plays for which he is now best known: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In his final years, Shakespeare turned to the romantic with Cymbeline, A Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest.
Only eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays were published separately in quarto editions during his lifetime; a complete collection of his works did not appear until the publication of the First Folio in 1623, several years after his death. Nonetheless, his contemporaries recognized Shakespeare's achievements. Francis Meres cited “honey-tongued” Shakespeare for his plays and poems in 1598, and the Chamberlain’s Men rose to become the leading dramatic company in London, installed as members of the royal household in 1603.
Sometime after 1612, Shakespeare retired from the stage and returned to his home in Stratford. He drew up his will in January of 1616, which included his famous bequest to his wife of his “second best bed.” He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later at Stratford Church.
LANGUAGE
When looking into the language of 'Will', go to the best. RSC has some fantastic lessons like this one about Iambic Pentameter available on video.
...and of course the great Dame Judy
List of Shakespeare Plays by Genre
Comedies
All’s Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
Comedy of Errors
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Measure for Measure
Merchant of Venice
Merry Wives of Windsor
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Taming of the Shrew
Tempest
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Winter’s Tale
Histories
Henry IV, Part I
Henry IV, Part II
Henry V
Henry VI, Part I
Henry VI, Part II
Henry VI, Part III
Henry VIII
King John
Pericles
Richard II
Richard III
Tragedies
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Cymbeline
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressida
If you are after the full texts, you can find all the plays at https://www.thecompleteworksofshakespeare.com/home
...and another fantastic resource is No Fear Shakespeare https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/
SONNETS
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets published in his ‘quarto’ in 1609, covering themes such as the passage of time, mortality, love, beauty, infidelity, and jealousy. The first 126 of Shakespeare’s sonnets are addressed to a young man, and the last 28 addressed to a woman – a mysterious ‘dark lady’. You can find all of the Bards Sonnets with contemporary translations at No Sweat Shakespeare (A brilliant resource page) https://nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/
MONOLOGUES
If you are looking for some Shakespeare monologues to work on, try my favorite Aussie theatre portal StageMilk https://www.stagemilk.com/shakespeare-monologues/
INSULTS
Here is the top 55 Shakespeare Insults put together by the good people of No Sweat Shakespeare:
1. “A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.”
All’s Well That Ends Well (Act 3, Scene 6)
2. “Away, you starvelling, you elf-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish!”
3. “Away, you three-inch fool! “
The Taming of the Shrew (Act 4, Scene 1)
4. “Come, come, you froward and unable worms!”
The Taming Of The Shrew (Act 5, Scene 2)
5. “Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver’d boy.”
Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 3) Read more quotes from Macbeth
6. “His wit’s as thick as a Tewkesbury mustard.”
Henry IV Part 2 (Act 2, Scene 4)
7. “I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall.”
Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2) Read more Hamlet quotes, or our indepth analysis of ‘To be or not to be’
8. “I am sick when I do look on thee “
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 2, Scene 1)
9. “I must tell you friendly in your ear, sell when you can, you are not for all markets.”
As You Like It (Act 3 Scene 5)
10. “If thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.”
Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1)
11. “I’ll beat thee, but I would infect my hands.”
Timon of Athens (Act 4, Scene 3)
12. “I scorn you, scurvy companion. “
Henry IV Part II (Act 2, Scene 4)
13. “Methink’st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee.”
All’s Well That Ends Well (Act 2, Scene 3)
14. “More of your conversation would infect my brain.”
Coriolanus (Act 2, Scene 1)
15. “My wife’s a hobby horse!”
The Winter’s Tale (Act 2, Scene 1)
16. “Peace, ye fat guts!”
Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 2)
17. “Aroint thee: go away, rump-fed runion: slut”
Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 3)
18. “The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril”
The Merry Wives of Windsor (Act 3, Scene 5)
19. “The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes.”
The Comedy of Errors (Act 5, Scene 4)
20. “There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.”
Henry IV Part 1 (Act 3, Scene 3)
21. “Thine forward voice, now, is to speak well of thine friend; thine backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.”
The Tempest (Act 2, Scene 2)
22. “That trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey Iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years?”
Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)
23. “Thine face is not worth sunburning.”
Henry V (Act 5, Scene 2)
24. “This woman’s an easy glove, my lord, she goes off and on at pleasure.”
All’s Well That Ends Well (Act 5, Scene 3)
25. “Thou art a boil, a plague sore”
King Lear (Act 2, Scene 2)
26. “Was the Duke a flesh-monger, a fool and a coward?”
Measure For Measure (Act 5, Scene 1)
27. “Thou art as fat as butter.”
Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)
28. “Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad.”
Titus Andronicus (Act 4, Scene 3)
29. “Like the toad; ugly and venomous.”
As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 1`)
30. “Thou art unfit for any place but hell.”
Richard III (Act 1 Scene 2)
31. “Thou cream faced loon”
Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 3)
32. “Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch!”
Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4 )
33. “Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat.”
Henry V (Act 4, Scene 4)
34. “Thou elvish-mark’d, abortive, rooting hog!”
Richard III (Act 1, Scene 3 )
35. “Thou leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, knot-pated, agatering, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish pouch!”
Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)
36. “Thou lump of foul deformity”
37. “That poisonous bunch-back’d toad!”
Richard III (Act 1, Scene 3)
38. “Thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows “
Troilus and Cressida (Act 2, Scene 1)
39. “Thou subtle, perjur’d, false, disloyal man!”
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 4, Scene 2)
40. “Thou whoreson zed , thou unnecessary letter!”
King Lear (Act 2, Scene 2 )
41. “Thy sin’s not accidental, but a trade.”
Measure For Measure (Act 3, Scene 1)
42. “Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile.”
Cymbeline (Act 3, Scene 4)
43. “Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon”
Timon of Athens (Act 4, Scene 3)
44. “Would thou wouldst burst!”
Timon of Athens (Act 4, Scene 3)
45. “You poor, base, rascally, cheating lack-linen mate! “
Henry IV Part II (Act 2, Scene 4)
46. “You are as a candle, the better burnt out.”
Henry IV Part 2 (Act 1, Scene 2)
47. “You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe!”
Henry IV Part 2 (Act 2, Scene 1)
48. “You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, you bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish–O for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!”
Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)
49. “Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage.”
As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7)
50. “Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese.”
All’s Well That Ends Well (Act 1, Scene 1)
51. “Villain, I have done thy mother”
Titus Andronicus (Act 4, Scene 2)
52. “Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell”
Othello (Act 4, Scene 2)
53. “Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes.”
Richard III (Act 1, Scene 2)
54. “No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip, she is spherical, like a globe; I could find countries in her.”
The Comedy of Errors (Act 3, Scene 2)
55. “You have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness.”
Much Ado About Nothing (Act 5, Scene 4)
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