Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
“It may be said of Shakespeare, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence. He has been imitated by all succeeding writers; and it may be doubted whether from all his successors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules of practical prudence can be collected than he alone has given to his country.” --Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
The writings of Shakespeare have been justly termed “the richest, the purest, the fairest, that genius uninspired ever penned.”
Shakespeare instructed by delighting. His plays alone (leaving mere science out of the question), contain more actual wisdom than the whole body of English learning. He is the teacher of all good-- pity, generosity, true courage, love. His bright wit is cut out “into little stars.” His solid masses of knowledge are meted out in morsels and proverbs, and thus distributed, there is scarcely a corner of the English-speaking world to-day which he does not illuminate, or a cottage which he does not enrich. His bounty is like the sea, which, though often unacknowledged, is everywhere felt. As his friend, Ben Jonson, wrote of him, “He was not of an age but for all time.” He ever kept the highroad of human life whereon all travel. He did not pick out by-paths of feeling and sentiment. In his creations we have no moral highwaymen, sentimental thieves, interesting villains, and amiable, elegant adventuresses--no delicate entanglements of situation, in which the grossest images are presented to the mind disguised under the superficial attraction of style and sentiment. He flattered no bad passion, disguised no vice in the garb of virtue, trifled with no just and generous principle. While causing us to laugh at folly, and shudder at crime, he still preserves our love for our fellow-beings, and our reverence for ourselves.
Shakespeare was familiar with all beautiful forms and images, with all that is sweet or majestic in the simple aspects of nature, of that indestructible love of flowers and fragrance, and dews, and clear waters--and soft airs and sounds, and bright skies and woodland solitudes, and moon-light bowers, which are the material elements of poetry,--and with that fine sense of their indefinable relation to mental emotion, which is its essence and vivifying soul--and which, in the midst of his most busy and tragical scenes, falls like gleams of sunshine on rocks and ruins--contrasting with all that is rugged or repulsive, and reminding us of the existence of purer and brighter elements.
E. Nesbit
William Shakespeare
---
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
THE TEMPEST
QUOTATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE
Coriolanus -- III. 2.
As You Like It -- II. 1.
King Lear -- II. 4.
Timon of Athens -- II. 2.
Hamlet -- I. 3.
Macbeth -- V. 3.
Hamlet -- II 2.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
King Henry VIII. -- I. 1.
The Merchant of Venice -- I. 1.
King Lear -- IV. 6.
Measure for Measure -- II. 2.
Measure for Measure -- III. 1.
Much Ado About Nothing -- IV. 1.
All's Well that Ends Well -- IV. 3.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 2.
Hamlet -- III. 1.
Measure for Measure -- III. 2.
Timon of Athens -- I. 2.
Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.
Idem -- II.
Merchant of Venice -- V. 1.
Hamlet -- III. 1.
King Henry VI., Part 3d - III. 1.
King Lear -- II. 4.
Coriolanus -- III. 1.
King Henry VIII. -- II. 3.
Julius Caesar -- II. 2.
Hamlet -- III. 4.
Idem -- I. 4.
King Henry VI., Part 1st -- III. 2.
Julius Caesar -- II. 2.
Hamlet -- III. 1.
Measure for Measure -- III. 1.
Cymbeline -- V. 5.
Merchant of Venice -- I. 3.
Hamlet -- I. 2.
King John -- IV. 2.
Hamlet -- IV. 7.
Hamlet -- III. 4.
Othello -- II. 3.
Macbeth -- III. 4.
Measure for Measure -- I. 3.
All's Well that Ends Well -- I. 1.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.
Midsummer Night's Dream -- II. 3.
Othello -- II. 3.
Two Gentlemen of Verona -- III. 2.
King Henry VI., Part 2d -- V. 2.
King Richard II. -- III. 2.
Comedy of Errors -- III. 1.
King Lear -- I. 4.
Idem -- I. 4.
Coriolanus -- IV. 1.
King Henry VI., Part 3d -- III. 3.
King John -- III. 4.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
Twelfth Night -- II. 5.
As You Like It -- V. 2.
King Henry VI., Part 2d -- V. 1.
Hamlet -- II. 2.
Love's Labor Lost -- IV. 3.
Hamlet -- I. 5.
Troilus and Cressida -- IV. 4.
Winter's Tale -- II. 1.
Othello -- III. 3.
Idem.
Love's Labor Lost -- V. 2.
Romeo and Juliet -- II. 2.
King Henry VIII, -- III. 1.
Macbeth -- V. 5.
The Tempest -- IV. 1.
Twelfth Night -- III. 2.
King Richard II. -- III. 2.
Julius Caesar -- II. 2.
Midsummer Night's Dream -- I. 1.
Idem.
Twelfth Night -- II. 4.
The Merchant of Venice -- II. 6.
Hamlet -- II. 2.
Merchant of Venice -- IV. 1.
Merchant of Venice -- II. 9.
Much Ado About Nothing -- II. 3.
Love's Labor's Lost -- I. 1.
King Richard III. -- I. 4.
King Richard II. -- I. 1.
Merchant of Venice -- V. 1.
Romeo and Juliet -- II. 2.
Othello -- III. 3.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.
Othello -- I. 1.
Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 7.
Julius Caesar -- IV. 3.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
King Henry IV., Part 2d -- I. 3.
Othello -- II. 3.
King Henry IV., Part 2d -- IV. 2.
Timon of Athens -- V. 5.
King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.
Two Gentlemen of Verona -- V. 4.
As You Like It -- II. 7.
Hamlet -- III. 2.
King Henry V. Part 3d -- V. 2.
The Merchant of Venice -- I. 2.
King Richard III. -- I. 4.
Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.
King Henry VI., Part 2d -- III. 2.
Othello -- II. 3.
King Richard III. -- IV. 4.
King Richard II. -- I. 1.
King Lear -- V. S.
King Henry V. -- IV. 1.
All's Well that Ends Well -- IV. 6.
Troilus and Cressida -- IV. 5.
King John -- III. 1.
Julius Caesar -- I. 2.
All's Well that Ends Well -- I. 1.
Midsummer Night's Dream -- V. 1.
Winter's Tale -- II. 2.
Much Ado About Nothing -- II. 1.
Cymbeline -- III. 4.
Macbeth -- II. 2.
Cymbeline -- III. 4.
As You Like It -- II. 3.
Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.
Cymbeline -- III. 4.
King Henry IV., Part 1st -- V. 4.
Antony and Cleopatra -- III. 2.
King Henry VI., Part 1st -- I. 4.
King Henry IV., Part 1st -- I. 2.
Othello -- II. 3.
Othello -- II. 3.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.
Hamlet -- III. 3.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 2.
Merchant of Venice -- I. 1.
Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.