Complete Works

by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate (Editor), Eric Rasmussen (Editor)

Preface; J.Bate
General Introduction; J.Bate
A User's Guide
Preliminary pages of the First Folio
Foreword; M.Boyd, Artistic Director, Royal Shakespeare Company
WILLIAM COMPLETE WORKS
For each play
Individual introduction by Jonathan Bate
On-page footnote gloss which explains unfamiliar or obsolete words and classical, biblical or contemporary references where WS assumes audience knowledge
Appendices of any significant passages that are not in First Folio
'Key Facts' box plot summary, major roles, date, linguistic medium, sources, textual notes
COMEDIES
The Tempest
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure for Measure
The Comedy of Errors
Much Ado about Nothing
Love's Labour's Lost
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Merchant of Venice
As You Like It
The Taming of the Shrew
All's Well that Ends Well
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
The Winter's Tale
HISTORIES
The Life and Death of King John
The Life and Death of King Richard the Second
The First Part of Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of Henry surnamed Hotspur
The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, containing his Death and the Coronation of King Henry the Fifth
The Life of Henry the Fifth
The First Part of Henry the Sixth
The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Good Duke Humphrey
The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Duke of York
The Tragedy of Richard the Third, with the Landing of Earl Richmond and the Battle at Bosworth Field
The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth
TRAGEDIES
The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
The Tragedy of Coriolanus
The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
The Life of Timon of Athens
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
The Tragedy of Macbeth
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
The Tragedy of King Lear
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
The Tragedy of Cymbeline
PLAYS NOT IN THE FIRST FOLIO
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins
The Two Noble Kinsmen, by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher
POEMS AND SONNETS
Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
'Let the bird of loudest lay' (also known as 'The Phoenix and Turtle')
'To the Queen'
Shakespeare's Sonnets
A Scene from Sir Thomas More
(Introduction, transcription and modernized text by Eric Rasmussen)
CHARTS
Shakespeare's A Conjectural Chronology
Kings and Queens of from the History Plays to Shakespeare's Lifetime
The Houses of Lancaster and A Genealogy
The history behind the a chronology
The history behind the a chronology
Alphabetical Index of Plays and Poems

'This is a glorious edition of one of the world's most important books. It's the essential reference book for anyone who's ever been in love, felt jealousy, hatred, or desire. All human life is here — and every home should have one.'
-Dame Judi Dench

'A splendid edition … the general introduction is among the best 50-page guides to Shakespeare you could hope to find, while the short essays prefixed to each play are informative, thought-provoking and humane. Marginal notes help readers imagine what's happening onstage … the RSC's edition allows you to lose yourself in the wonder of the works.'
-Dr Colin Burrow, Oxford University

'A triumphant addition to our times.'
-Fiona Shaw, The Times

'The scholarly apparatus is discreet, elegant and pertinent. For each play, we get brief accounts of plots, dates and sources … footnotes are found snugly and legibly at the bottom of each page … there is a universe to be found in these the Renaissance world of power and fate, sex and death, language and philosophy … an edition full of endless fascination.'
-Tom Deveson, Times Educational Supplement

'Bate's general introduction to Shakespeare's life, stage and reputation is superb, and the short introductions to individual works are among the best of their kind available … they manage to speak about what really matters about the plays.'
-Professor Michael Dobson, London Review of Books

'Excellent, succinct notes and introductions to each play.'
-John Carey, Sunday Times

'Outstanding … Jonathan Bate writes with as much elegance as insight about the making of theatre and the creation of the plays … an impeccably informative introduction gives a comprehensive theatrical, social, political and biographical context to the plays … exemplary notes at the foot of each page translate verbal and topical obscurities … for actors and directors it will be incomparably useful, but for any curious reader of Shakespeare's plays it provides an invaluable guide to reading them not as novels o...

Genres: Classics, Plays, Poetry, Fiction, Shakespeare, Drama, Reference

2486 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Taka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did it.

38 plays, 2 long poems, and 154 sonnets in 2462 onion-paper pages. I read them all. ALL. I think I deserve a self-congratulation for this. Yes. Good job!

It took me more than two months of intense reading that toughened my wrists and arms from reading it on the train standing, hardened my heart with stony indifference against people's perplexed and peering gazes thrown at me even to the point of leaning in from the side to see what the hell I'm reading, and made me utterly fearless against any future reference to Shakespeare.

From the end of January to today, April 5th, it was a long journey during which time I came out of Shakespearean depths only once to take a quick breather for five days and read one contemporary book. It was a long, long read indeed.

So what do I think of his works? Amazing. If you speak English, read them.

My favorite comedies are The Comedy of Errors, The Midsummer Night's Dream , All's Well That Ends Well, and of course, my absolute favorite, The Merchant of Venice. As for histories, Henry IV part 1&2, Henry V, and Richard III were fascinating and beautiful in myriad aspects. It seems like I'm drawn to wicked villains like Richard III, Shylock, and Barabas (Marlowe's The Jew of Malta), though I didn't absolutely love Iago from Othello for some reason.

And tragedies. Oh man. I read Macbeth and Julius Caesar in high school and middle school respectively, but I can say I understood less than 10% of their artistic merit now that I read them again. Macbeth is just a short, sweet, and wicked play with enchanting poetry, and the speeches in Julius Caesar are just mind-blowing in their poetry and rhetoric.

Romeo and Juliet definitely belongs to one of his greatest works. It's got the engaging story, beautiful language, and comic scenes all rolled in one - everything that makes a work of art entertaining and satisfying to people from all walks of life. Cymbeline is also awesome. The ending just so unrealistic that it's unbelievably satisfying. Hamlet is like a given and I don't think I need to say anything about it other than that it rocks.

Oh and I really liked this minor play, Titus Andronicus, considered by many critics to be one of his inferior plays. Granted, the beginning is just absolute shit at least plot-wise, but man, it's AWESOME with all that bloody murders and plotting and hatred and violence. It may be poetically inferior to other tragedies, but story-wise, it holds its own among his corpus.

I did it!

[Darwin8u · Rating 5 out of 5]

January:
1. Two Gentlemen of Verona (1589–1591) - January 1, 2017
2 The Taming of the Shrew (1590–1591) - January 5, 2017
3 Henry VI, Part 2 (1591) - February 1, 2017

February:
4 Henry VI, Part 3 (1591) - February 3, 2017
5 Henry VI, Part 1 (1591–1592) - January 21, 2017
6 Titus Andronicus (1591–1592) - February 9, 2017

March:
7 Richard III (1592–1593) - March 4, 2017
8. The Comedy of Errors (1594) - March 11, 2017
9. Love's Labour's Lost (1594–1595) - March 27, 2017

April:
10. Richard II (1595) - April 7, 2017
11. Romeo and Juliet (1595) - April 12, 2017
12. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595) - April 21, 2017

May:
13. King John (1596) - May 3, 2017
14. The Merchant of Venice (1596–1597) - May 8, 2017
15. Henry IV, Part 1 (1596-1597) - May 20, 2017

June:
16. The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597) - June 20, 2017
17. Henry IV, Part 2 (1597-1598) - June 24, 2017
18. Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1599) - June 25, 2017

July:
19. Henry V (1599) - July 5, 2017
20. Julius Caesar (1599) - July 10, 2017
21. As You Like It (1599-1600) - July 26, 2017

August:
22. Hamlet (1600-1601)- August 12, 2017
23. Twelfth Night (1601) - August 15, 2017
24. Troilus and Cressida ((1600–1602) - August 29, 2017

September:
25. Measure for Measure (1603-1604) - September 6, 2017
26. Othello (1603-1604) - September 15, 2017
27. All's Well that Ends Well (1604-1605) - September 12, 2017

October:
28. King Lear (1605–1606) - October 19, 2017
29. Timon of Athens (1605–1606) - October 20, 2017
30. Macbeth (1606) - October 28, 2017

November:
31. Antony and Cleopatra (1606) - November 17, 2017
32. Coriolanus (1608) - November 23, 2017
33. The Winter's Tale (1609–1611) - November 25, 2017

December:
34. Cymbeline (1610) - December 11, 2017
35. The Tempest (1610–1611) - December 12, 2017
36. Henry VIII (1612–1613) - December 16, 2017

Other:
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1607–1608) - November 21, 2017
The Sonnets (1609) - December 19, 2017
The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613–1614) - December 19, 2017
The Narrative Poems (1593-1594) - December 23, 2017

[Sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an exquisite edition of one of the greatest works in the Western canon. Armed with an authoritative editorial team, Professor Jonathan Bate has reworked all of Shakespeare's plays, as well as his poems. The footnotes are extensive and cover all meanings of words (including the more salacious ones that many school texts leave out), while also providing informative historical and contextual information.

This edition seeks to give us every word attributed to Shakespeare (although, as it points out at length, we can't really know what he wrote: all of our current versions come from a variety of sources typeset in his later years, and primarily from the First Folio printed after his death. Any work of the Bard's is distorted in some way). With appendices and footnotes, notable textual errors or areas of debate are highlighted.

There is so much to love here. Epic tragedies - Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear - joined by their lesser, but poetically affecting counterparts like Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare plays with and shuffles around comic tropes in his wide variety of comedies: peaks include The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing.

In his more subdued romances, Shakespeare often seems reduced to more typical characters yet imbues than with layer upon layer of subtlety: Measure for Measure and The Winter's Tale are particularly splendid examples. Some of the tragedies and comedies aren't as startling, and some are challenging - such as his part-satire Troilus and Cressida - but every work brims with characters whose opinions, beliefs and motives are individual, and not simply echoing those of an author. Beyond these plays lies a staggering cycle of love poems in The Sonnets, as well as his other various poetry which always makes fascinating, lyrical reading.

Capping all this is Shakespeare's incredible cycle of English history, which details the country's fate from 1199 to 1533, through the stories of the English monarchs: their battles, their loves, their lives and the effect their squabbles have over countless citizens. The cycle begins with the somewhat talky King John (far from my favourite work, but well presented in the BBC Complete Works cycle) and ends with the autumnal King Henry VIII. In between are eight plays (two tetraologies) which encompass the Wars of the Roses, and they are astonishing. From the private thoughts of the monarch to the most unimportant peasant, Shakespeare captures an age.

The introductions on each play detail cultural successes over the centuries, as well as basic historical information. I've seen people suggest other aspects that could improve this - such as a suggestion of ways to double parts (this is defined as the "actor's edition"). Certainly, I can accept that, but as it stands this is already beyond a 5-star piece of work. A place of honour on my shelf, that's for sure.

[RAPHAËL ZÉLA · Rating 5 out of 5]

To read The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works is not to read a book, but to enter a continent. Shakespeare does not offer a single vision of humanity; he offers its full weather system—its tempests and silences, its betrayals and reconciliations, its ambition, tenderness, madness, and grace.

What makes this RSC edition particularly powerful is its sense of theatrical life. These plays are not embalmed monuments; they breathe. The editorial framing—rooted in performance—reminds us that Shakespeare wrote for bodies, voices, and audiences. Meaning here is not abstract; it is spoken, risked, embodied.

Across tragedies, histories, and comedies, one discovers that Shakespeare’s genius lies not in answers but in amplitude. Hamlet does not solve doubt; he inhabits it. Lear does not explain suffering; he exposes its nakedness. Even in comedy, laughter trembles beside cruelty and loss. The human being, in Shakespeare, is never reduced to a thesis.

There is something humbling about holding the complete works in one volume. It confronts the reader with range—linguistic, emotional, philosophical. One moves from the intimacy of sonnets to the vastness of political drama and realizes that the stage, for Shakespeare, was the laboratory of the soul.

This edition does not simplify him; it honors his complexity. And perhaps that is the only honest way to approach Shakespeare: not to master him, but to keep returning

[David]

One of those books that will never finish because its depths of tenderness are inexhaustible. You can stick it forever on a shelf but its own secret life goes on even without you ever picking it up again after a brief dip into it. It's just there for you whenever you want to read it, that's all.

[Victoria Sigsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read The Winters Tale from this edition. It's a very good edition with a very interesting introduction at the beginning and before each play there is a brief synopsis. I wasn't familiar with this one as I had never had reason to read it. I'm hoping to see The Royal Ballet livescreen of this so thought I ought to get the low down beforehand. I personally think it's the easiest one to read and understand and most of the action seems to occur early on. It was quite predictable but a good introduction to Shakespeare. The play itself I gave 4 stars to but if you're looking for a complete works, I recommend this one.

[Eleclyah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In una edizione davvero eccellente, curata niente meno che dalla Royal Shakespeare Company, sono raccolte tutte le opere complete di William Shakespeare.
Il libro è corredato di una dettagliata introduzione, di foto delle pièces teatrali, e note esplicative. Per tutti gli appassionati del Bardo.
Segue l’indice delle opere contenute nel volume.

COMMEDIE:
• The Tempest
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• Measure for Measure
• The Comedy of Errors
• Much Ado about Nothing
• Love's Labour's Lost
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• The Merchant of Venice
• As You Like It
• The Taming of the Shrew
• All's Well that Ends Well
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will
• The Winter's Tale

STORIE:
• The Life and Death of King John
• The Life and Death of King Richard the Second
• The First Part of Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of Henry surnamed Hotspur
• The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, containing his Death and the Coronation of King Henry the Fifth
• The Life of Henry the Fifth
• The First Part of Henry the Sixth
• The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Good Duke Humphrey
• The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Duke of York
• The Tragedy of Richard the Third, with the Landing of Earl Richmond and the Battle at Bosworth Field
• The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth

TRAGEDIE
• The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
• The Tragedy of Coriolanus
• The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus
• The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
• The Life of Timon of Athens The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
• The Tragedy of Macbeth
• The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
• The Tragedy of King Lear
• The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
• The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
• The Tragedy of Cymbeline

DRAMMI non presenti nel First Folio:
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre (di William Shakespeare e George Wilkins)
• The Two Noble Kinsmen (di William Shakespeare e John Fletcher)

POEMI E SONETTI:
• Venus and Adonis
• The Rape of Lucrece
• “Let the bird of loudest lay” (conosciuta anche come “The Phoenix and Turtle”)
• “To the Queen”
• Shakespeare's Sonnets

[Ilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bate’s introduction is like a speedrun of his Soul of an Age, one of the best books on Shakespeare, so a good way to get started on the principal influences that shaped the plays. The volume’s faithfulness to the first Folio versions of the plays is well-argued. The introductions to the individual plays are quite slight, but the short factual breakdown of sources, dating and size of speaking parts is very useful. The explanatory notes are too copious for my tastes – a seasoned reader won’t need a lot of them and on a Kindle they break up the line and obscure punctuation in a way that can be a little irritating.

[LiLi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This edition has really great footnotes and explanations that make the text come alive. It doesn't shy away from the real meanings and double entendres behind Shakespeare's text, and gives a lot of attention to wordplay. Every time I read a play from this edition, I feel like I've gained so much more appreciation for the language than previous attempts with other editions that tried to present it as a "great [and stuffy] work".

[Julie Bozza]

An awesome birthday present from my darling erudite sis. ♥

[Bookish Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this collection of Shakespeare's works.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the plays are considered individually elsewhere, so a summary of my ratings must do (though it needs modifying, on balance), plus a brief account of the two long poems and the sonnets:

Hamlet [1600-1601] 10.17
Tempest [1611], The 9.27
King Lear [1605-1606] 9.2
Romeo and Juliet [1595-1596] 9.03
Winter's Tale [1611], The 9.02
Richard II [1595-1596] 8.4
Macbeth [1605-1606] 7.83
Coriolanus [1608] 7.7
Richard III [1592-1594] 7.7
Twelfth Night [1601] 7.7
Merchant Of Venice [1596-1597], The 7.68
Antony and Cleopatra [1606-1607] 7.6
Henry VI Part III [1591] 7.58
Julius Caesar [1599-1600] 7.57
Othello [1604] 7.57
Measure for Measure [1604] 7.5
Much Ado About Nothing [1598] 7.48
Pericles [1608] 7.45
Cymbeline [1610] 7.43
Taming Of The Shrew [1589-1592], The 7.43
Henry V [1599] 7.35
Midsummer Night's Dream [1595-1596], A 7.17
Titus Andronicus [1591-1592] 7.13
As You Like It [1599] 6.9
Troilus and Cressida [1601-1602] 6.9
Henry VI Part II [1591] 6.88
Henry IV Part I [1596-1597] 6.78
Henry VIII [1613] 6.77
Two Noble Kinsmen [1613], The 6.32
Henry VI Part I [1592] 6.58
Henry IV Part II [1597-1598] 6.53
All's Well That Ends Well [1605] 6.37
Love's Labour's Lost [1595] 6.27
Timon Of Athens [1605] 6.17
Two Gentlemen Of Verona [1591-1592], The 6.13
Comedy Of Errors [1594], The 5.8
King John [1595-1597] 5.8
Merry Wives Of Windsor [1600-1601], The 4.97.

Venus And Adonis [1593] 5.6
The Rape Of Lucrece [1594] 7.7.

Sonnets [1592-1603, pub. 1609] 7.19.

Venus and Adonis (1593), written in a six-line stanza rhyming ababaa, I didn't like at all, and felt it to be an over-elaborate and elongated plaint in love, written in an ardour of youth, and so the style smacked. The Rape Of Lucrece (1594), was, even though only a year later, far more mature and expressive. A seven-line stanza in ababbcc, in iambic pentameter, flowed even better when using monologue, a considerable amount of its content. Here, I felt a sympathy with Lucrece, who, much like Philomel, who is raped and then abused (see Lavinia in Titus Andronicus [1591-2]), is similarly raped, but has still her lamenting tongue (else, the poem would be shorter and less plaintive), yet decides she cannot bear the shame, and opts for suicide. Shakespeare therefore draws on Ovid's tale, but sends it in a different direction, compounding her sorrow. This, I appreciated much more.

The sonnets have traditionally been classified into two nominal categories, the first 126 (of 154) addressing a younger man, sonnets 127-154 to the 'Dark Lady', the last pair indicating the sexual disease consequent on the sexual voracity earlier connoted. They imply a personal if not just a poetic dramatisation of spiritual love for the former and sexual desire for and consummation with the latter, speaking largely with a strong personal voice implying or directly stating the poet's, with sonnets 135 & 6 punning on his own name. Frequently the sonnets discuss a theme or use a motif in pairs, a second (and sometimes a third and fourth, and more, as the first four to eleven do) developing the former theme in different permutations. Some of the sonnets are almost impenetrable (sonnets 35, 94 & 5 and 108 particularly), while there are tonal shifts implicit in others (69 seems to shift from adoration to criticism, but is paired off back to theme in its successor).

But there is also a stylistic difference evident. The 'young man' series becomes metaphysically mature, showing early impersonal abstraction (33-4, the sun imagery), later discussing Time and immortality, but only a few do not directly address its subject, becoming fully abstract, such as the famous 116 ('Let me not to the marriage of true minds') to Love, and 123 ('No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change'), to Time; and end in 126 with the 'silent' (empty) couplet, indicating that Time's claims (death) may be delayed, but cannot be defeated. While the adoration of the 'Dark Lady' escalates to a beseeching imploration (143, 145), a sickening through love (146) turning through hate (147) to a self-disgust (147) and contention (149) where recriminations abound (151-2), they end not with a metaphysical maturity but in the base physical: syphilis (153-4). But these last (28) sonnets, which become progressively more unpleasant to experience, because of their sickening content, also alienate by containing some very structurally clunky offerings (128 & 9), yet even while they physically repel, they eventually demonstrate a maturity of construction (147-52), their best leaving admiration for both beauty (130, 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun') and superb cleverness (138, 'When my love swears that she is made of truth').

[Nathan Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I haven't read the whole thing. This is more a review of the edition, rather than the works themselves.

So far I've read (from this edition---I've read other Shakespeare before):

The Taming of the Shrew: Awkward from a modern feminist perspective, but clever and funny.
The First Part of King Henry IV: Fantastic. A great mix of comedy, drama, and historical education. Gotta love/hate Falstaff.
Venus and Adonis: Fantastic. Unlike a play, this poem is designed to be read, and it turns out Shakespeare is very good at imagery.
The Winter's Tale: A strange story. Frustrating that the clearly crazy Leontes had such unrestricted power. Contains the excellent stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear."
Love's Labour's Lost: Impressive poetry and wordplay, and the "recursive hypocrisy" scene is memorable. Overall, though, the characters and the plot are uninteresting.
As You Like It: Fantastic. Rosalind is amazingly well characterized.
All's Well That Ends Well: I liked it, despite the rather depressing theme that most people are selfish a-holes. The fight between Lafew and Parolles is a treasure trove of Shakespearean insults.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona: A simple story of unfaithful lust.
Measure for Measure: Fantastic. Really delves into ethical issues of excess power and hypocrisy.
The Merry Wives of Windsor: Fantastic; basically a sitcom. Difficult to read due to abundant archaic slang and miscommunication due to accents, but Falstaff remains a great source of laughs.
Troilus and Cressida: Fantastic. Nobody on either the Greek or Roman side is a hero, but their interactions are fascinating. Troilus and Cressida's midnight sundering is tragic and well written.
The Life and Death of King John: The most interesting scenes are the ones between King John and the citizen Hubert.
Antony and Cleopatra: I liked it. Cleopatra is a real firebrand.
Coriolanus: Fantastic. Perhaps my favorite Shakespeare play so far. Every act is action-packed. Coriolanus's tragic flaw is not very subtle, but Volumnia's speech at the end made me cry.
Titus Andronicus: Gruesome. Reminds me of Game of Thrones.
The Life of Timon of Athens: Meh. Nobody needs a reminder to moderate their generosity. Anyway, I blame Flavius.


What I liked

The editorial introduction by Jonathan Bate. Fifty pages of very interesting backstory about Shakespeare's life, the role of the theater in Elizabethan England, theatrical practices, the history of Shakespearean scholarship, and so forth.

Introductory material for each play / poem. The critical essays don't make much sense unless you already know the play, but still.

Exhaustive footnotes. The editors don't let a single bawdy pun or historical reference go by without drawing your attention to it. Truth be told, one could argue there are too many footnotes. It's often more fun to read the text on its own, trying to decipher strange words using context. But it's good to know that the footnotes are there for when you need them.

What I didn't like

The table of contents in the e-book is not very useful. It only links to the beginning of each play. If you want to find Act IV, Scene II, you'll have a lot of page-flipping to do.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cards on the table: I have not finished reading Shakespeare's Complete Works (although I'm working on it)—I'll review those one at a time—I've finished reading the lengthy introduction to the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company)'s version of his Complete Works.

It was extremely interesting (hey, it made me want to read more Shakespeare), well-researched, discussed matters around the circumstances of the writings in a historical context that I was far less familiar with than I would have guessed I had been, and a pleasure to read. And I like their handling of how to edit/amend the texts: they're working from the First Folio rather than the Quartos, using the Quartos only where it seems like there's a printing mistake in the Folio, rather than the other way around which is apparently more common. They understand (as I do—I run a theatre company and write two original scripts a year for them) that plays grow and change and are more collaborative (esp. back then) than people realise. If the Folio text were deemed the Official Version by his collaborators, that's good enough for me.

The plays themselves (I read one, so far, in this version) are copiously footnoted, and in the Kobo version it's so easy to click, then click back. They've also added staging notes for recent productions, if you're curious about how certain moments were handled. I'm not, really.

At a comfortable font size for me ... and I'm working off of the largest Kobo available, about the size of your average hardback book ... this is almost 8,000 pages of material! But the bit I read (the lengthy introduction) only 150 or so.

I'm looking forward to completing my knowledge of Shakespeare's oeuvre. We had a hardback collected Shakespeare in my childhood: I read first his A Midsummer Night's Dream when I was seven, and really enjoyed it. (Fairies are always fun, and Pyramus and Thisbe still holds up). The unfamiliar language didn't really bother me, since so much of whatever I read at that age contained copious amounts of unfamiliar language. As I reach the autumn of my years (I'm 57 1/2), time to finish what I started back in 1972.

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Old-Barbarossa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have the RSC Works and am sauntering through it.
Very good intro and notes to each play, good glosses at the foot of each page.
So far read:-

Henry VI parts 1-3: Carnage and political jockeying for power. Some cracking characters, Joan and Talbot; Margaret; Cade; the future Richard 3rd.

Richard III: I found it odd that after the onstage carnage of the 3 Henry6s there was very little action onstage, the vast majority of bloodletting happening offstage (even the marrige to Anne). I suppose this reflects the more cerebral way the characters are portrayed, more by words than action. Also noted the way Dick was in most scenes and the huge amount of asides compared to the Henry6s, where Henry was a mere shadow of Dick.
As to the "bottled spider", my RSC Works glosses this as: "bottled- swollen with venom, rounded, bottle shaped". So not refering to him being sealed in or trapped, but primed and ready, loaded...in other words Margaret is onto him. Regularly described as "swollen" too, he seems like an evil pustule on legs ready to burst at any point, again refering to his rounded shape.
The initial "Now is the winter etc" I could only hear as dripping with bitter sarcasm...and from that moment on Dick's voice was Ian McKellan (even though I've not seen his fascist take on R3).
Did enjoy this, but a very different "flavour" compared to the H6s and less of an ensemble piece, more of a star vehicle for whoever plays Dick.

[Yngvild · Rating 5 out of 5]

All complete works of Shakespeare are not equal. My RSC Shakespeare is my third complete Shakespeare and by far the best I have owned or read.

I originally endured those dreadful Oxford editions for schools that do terrible things to Shakespeare’s text while leaving the plays as unintelligible to young students as the original text. I am strongly of the opinion that students should either be given the latest and greatest that scholars can produce (currently the Royal Shakespeare Company version), or leave it until they are older.

In addition to erudite choices about text, the RSC version uses modern spelling (the letter ‘u’ is not spelled as ‘v’) and meaningful glosses. Each play has what it calls key facts: percent verse, number of lines per character, plot summary and so on. This is where one can verify, for example, that King John is 100% verse, while The Merry Wives of Windsor are 90% prose.

Am I gushing? Maybe, but this tome – and my hardback copy weighs in 2.2 Kg (4.8 lb) – is one of the best value items on my bookshelves.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perfection! I have read/ seen a few plays before I decided to read through this epic collection and even they didn't prepare me for the complete joy this has given me.

My favourites are mostly tragedies. Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Timon of Athens and my ultimate favourite Julius Caesar. Honourable mentions for Histories are Henry V and Richard III and for Comedies (which were in general my least favourite), The Winter's Tale, Much Ado and the perfection that is A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Shakespeare was an absolute master of the character, an incredible plot creator and a wonderful writer. After reading this, I fail to see how anybody can say that Shakespeare in general is overrated or outdated. It simply isn't. It will always be relevant in the same way as all great literature, the people who are prepared to give it the time and love this incredible piece of writing deserves will always be around.

Thank God for that!

[Michael McGrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished the entire tome, reading introductory materials in January, then doing one play a week with one act per day with a film version over the weekend. It has been an engrossing experience, reading them in the folio order, and quite frankly I have tried to do ot other ways (ie.., chronological) but always found myself bogged down. This was the way to do it, the folio order that is. Finally now in October I just finished the sonnets and the Thomas More excerpt. Along the way, I used the Shakespeare pro app on the ipad to supplement my readings with a concise summa of the play I was about to read.

A brief note on other complete tomes:

I also recommend getting the Pelican tome of Shakespeare's works as those follow the quartos in lieu of the folio, and coupled here with RSC they complement each other well. The Norton, I'm afraid has proven to be too bloated and unwieldy for my taste, but it was the Norton that whetted my appetite to to read Shakespeare's entire oeuvre.

[Andrei Alupului]

this is going to be an ongoing project. i realized i'm trying to write dramatic works and i've only read two of this guy's plays while in high school. i was watching a movie adaptation of hamelt and realized halfway through that i was expecting to see macbeth because i got the two confused. i don't know shit, so i'm gonna read all of these. thing is, i can't really take reading 1200 pages of this uninterrupted so i'm going to be reading modern short story collections and scattering a couple stories in between the plays. i figure i'll not only get to some of those short story writers i've been meaning to but maybe i'll also start taking note of shakespeare's influence and modern relevance as i do this. we shall see.

[David Loveland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love Shakespeare. It get's such a bad name because children are forced to read it at school, but it is much easier to understand than people might think. And the characters and plots are much better than anything you'd see on a soap opera!
I don't really need to elaborate on any specific plays, because when you approach any Shakespeare play you know to expect a rollercoaster ride of deception, subplots and incredible language. A must read, up there with the bible. Plus this addition is particularly accessible, just don't try to read it all in one go!

[Robert Lamb · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plays are of course fabulous.

The introduction and commentaries are a bit "meh", and tbh the production notes don't interest me that much - give it another star if they interest you.

The book is enormously cumbersome. Needs to be read at a table.

The text is very small. The single column layout is highly inefficient given so much of the text is in iambic lines.

It looks lovely, but for every day use I go back to my 1980 Penguin 3 vol set which is also based on the first folio and is a much more comfy companion for an evening's reading!

[Tonya's Turning Pages · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I read it for a literature class, and found myself liking most of the Shakespeare plays. I had read the sonnets before, but only a handful of plays. Twelfth Night was probably my favorite, and I really liked Viola. But I also found myself understanding why Hamlet is still so popular, and why so many of Shakespeare's work get translated into modern movie adaptations. I am still not the biggest fan of Othello though.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology is relatively new and comes highly recommended by the professor of the Shakespeare course I am taking. The clear and concise layout of text alone makes it worth the $60 and Jonathon Bate's introductions to each piece are incredibly insightful and illuminating and make the Bard much more accessible.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

4Q
Antony & Cleopatra
All's Well That Ends Well
Pericles
Coriolanus
The Winter's Tale
King Lear
Cymbeline
The Tempest
Henry VIII
Two Noble Kinsmen
Sonnets 124-154
Passionate Pilgrim
Sonnets to Sundry Notes
Phoenix and Turtle

[Jordan Phizacklea-Cullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

All human life is here. What better can you say?

(aside from superb research, explanatory notes, invaluable historical context in the introduction and well-illustrated. Required for any English-language bookshelf - controversial I know!)

[Candace Whitney Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duh.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS THE ENGLISH BIBLE!

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

My most excellent brother-in-law Mathew procured this beauty for me. One of my most read, re-read, right beside my bedside book-- ever! Much loved.

[David Gleeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working my way through all 36 plays. About 26 down so far, most recently Timon of Athens. Have been saving history plays for last.

[msp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read
The Tempest, 03-15-2009
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, 07-12-2009
The Merry Wives of Windsor, 12-20-2009