King Lear has perhaps the most expansive cosmic scope of any of Shakespeare’s tragedies. In this play, Shakespeare retells the story of an aging king from Britain’s ancient past who divides his kingdom among his daughters, only to have them turn against him. This story originally had a redemptive, tragi-comic ending; Shakespeare takes that story and changes it to create an almost scandalously shocking tragedy. In this course, you’ll learn the story of King Lear, hear the play’s key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars, and watch Shakespeare strip the world down to nothing. In Part 1, you’ll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Simon Palfrey, Professor of English at the University of Oxford. You’ll see how Shakespeare structured his play around parallel storylines and characters to draw out its key themes, and how he used the character of “Poor Tom” — a beggarly madman whose words are often dismissed as nonsense — to take the play into unexpected metaphysical territory. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

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Part 3 features close-readings of some of the play’s most significant speeches, with Professor Stephen Foley. Through Henry’s private soliloquy, we trace his moments of insight and blindness. In the Chorus’s inspiring invitation to the audience to recreate the Battle of Agincourt in their minds, and in Henry’s stirring speech to his own troops before the battle, we see how Shakespeare’s words shape history, and how history is reshaped in the act of being remembered. Speeches and Performers: Chorus, Prologue, “O, for a Muse of fire …” (Anton Lesser) Henry V, Act 4, “What infinite heart’s ease …” (Ruth Page) Henry V, Act 4, “If we are marked to die … Saint Crispin’s Day.” (Paterson Joseph)

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Part 2 opens with a discussion of the history play genre and of how history shapes and constrains the plays’ protagonists. With Professor Stephen Foley, we then explore the complex character of Henry himself, asking why this figure has given rise to so many conflicting interpretations and how Henry’s unique political role should influence the way we judge him. Finally, we trace the arc of the play, from its moral crisis in battle to its sudden shift to romantic comedy, to ask what redemption can be found after the tragic suffering of war.

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Henry V is one of the most celebrated of Shakespeare’s history plays. In the 1590s, Shakespeare wrote a series of eight plays based on English chronicle history, telling the stories of civil wars and wars abroad, of the rise and fall of kings. Henry V was an English monarch who won great military victories in France in the early 1400s, and Shakespeare dramatizes his famous victory at Agincourt. In this play, Shakespeare gives us the most heroic of his kings — while also showing us the process by which history and heroes are created. In this course, you’ll learn the story of Henry V, hear the play’s key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars, and learn what makes Henry V one of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic heroes. In Part 1, you’ll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Stephen Foley, Associate Professor of English and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University. You’ll learn the historical context behind the play and see how Shakespeare structured this war story both to scrutinize the English king and to offer a view of English society as a whole. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

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In Part 3, Professor Tiffany Stern offers close-readings of some of the play’s most significant speeches. You’ll discover the surprising biblical resonances in a speech by the foolish Bottom and see how the epilogue shifts the play from a story about magic to a magic spell placed on the audience itself. Speeches and Performers: Titania, 2.1, “Set your heart at rest: The Fairyland buys not the child …” (Amanda Harris) Bottom, 4.1, “When my cue comes, call me …” (Dame Harriet Walter) Oberon, 5.1, “Now, until the break of day …” and Puck, “If we shadows have offended …” (Kelly Hunter, MBE)

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Part 2 addresses the play's central questions about comedy, tragedy, and passion by examining its language and plot motifs. Professor Tiffany Stern will guide you through the play’s sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, but always honest exploration of love — where it comes from and why it doesn’t always make sense. You’ll also discover how A Midsummer Night’s Dream reflects the way that Shakespeare’s own company performed his plays, and why that knowledge can help you become a better reader of Shakespeare.

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most popular romantic comedies. At the same time, it’s a play that explores the darker and more dangerous side of love. Four young lovers flee into the forest where their romantic entanglements become even more entangled thanks to the magic of the fairy king, Oberon — who also puts a spell on his wife, Titania, so she falls in love with Bottom, a man with an enchanted donkey’s head. In this course, you’ll learn the story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, discover how the play’s fantastical elements actually represent universal issues in our everyday lives, and hear the play’s key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars. In Part 1, you’ll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Tiffany Stern, Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at the Shakespeare Institute. Professor Stern discusses the play’s context, structure, and distinctive mix of comedy and tragedy, as created by the “play-within-a-play” — the “tragic” story of Pyramus and Thisbe performed by one group of characters to celebrate the others’ weddings. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

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In Part 3, Professor Michael Dobson offers close-readings of some of the play’s most important speeches, including Brutus’s deliberation over Caesar’s assassination and the rival speeches given by Brutus and Antony to “Friends, Romans, countrymen” at Caesar’s funeral — speeches that display the potential power of rhetoric. Speeches and Performers: Brutus, 2.1, “It must be by his death …” (Anton Lesser) Caesar, 3.1, “I could be well moved …” (“I am as constant as the Northern Star”) (Andrew Woodall) Brutus, 3.2, “Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause …” (Anton Lesser) Antony, 3.2, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears …” (Mark Quartley)

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Part 2 focuses on the play’s key interpretive questions: how we are invited to judge the central characters. Is Caesar, in Shakespeare’s story, really a tyrant who needed to be killed? Is Brutus a noble political hero or a misguided egoist? With Professor Michael Dobson, you’ll discover how Shakespeare restructured this familiar story to make easy judgments impossible. Professor Dobson also discusses the Roman values that the characters strive to embody and how these values generate friendships, rivalries, and violence.

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Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, telling the story of one of history’s most famous events. In this tense political thriller, the Roman senator Brutus must decide whether to assassinate the powerful military general Julius Caesar in order to save Roman Republic — and the audience must decide whether Brutus made the right choice. In this course, you’ll learn how Shakespeare dramatized the historical event of Caesar’s assassination in 44 BCE, and particularly how he linked refined political rhetoric, aspiration toward Roman ideals, and acts of savage violence. You’ll also hear the play’s key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars. In Part 1, you’ll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon and Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Birmingham. Professor Dobson discusses the Roman history behind Julius Caesar and the cultural role of classical Rome during the Renaissance, when Shakespeare was writing. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

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