The Comedy of Errors (c. 1594)
Introduction This is the story of a stranger in a strange land. His name is Antipholus and with his servant Dromio – visitors to Ephesus from Syracuse – he is forced to face a sequence of unpredictable and inexplicable events before, through a further sequence of improbable co-incidences, everything finally makes sense. Antipholus of Syracuse […]
Pericles (1608)
Introduction In the century in which it was written, “Pericles” seems to have been among Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Its first publication in 1609 announced it had been performed at the Globe Theatre “diverse and sundry times”. For readers (as opposed to theatre-goers), the printed edition in quarto went through five reprints. The play’s popularity […]
The Winter’s Tale (1611)
Introduction This is a play of two halves. The first three acts, roughly the first half of the play, take place in Sicily, and are dominated by Leontes’s irrational suspicions of his wife, his jealousy and its repercussions. In the process of finding out that his mistrust of Hermione is a grievous mistake, he loses […]