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Curated playlist

Shakespearean comedies

  • The TempestIn Shakespeare's The Tempest, a girl weeps for a shipwreck her father arranged. Prospero calls up the storm himself.
  • As You Like ItShakespeare's comedy As You Like It opens with a wrestling match, not a battle.
  • Twelfth NightShakespeare's Twelfth Night opens with a shipwreck and a woman who thinks her twin brother drowned.
  • All's Well That Ends WellIn All's Well That Ends Well, Helena tricks the husband who rejected her into bed.
  • Measure for MeasureIn Measure for Measure, a man is sentenced to death because his betrothed became pregnant.
  • Much Ado About NothingBeside the title of Much Ado About Nothing, in his own copy of the Second Folio, Charles I wrote two names: Benedick and Beatrice. He did not write Claudio or Hero, the other pair of lovers in William Shakespeare's comedy. The king's pen…
  • The Winter's TaleThe Winter's Tale, a play by William Shakespeare, contains the most famous stage direction in all of his work: "Exit, pursued by a bear." That single line has long overshadowed a drama of jealousy, grief and apparent resurrection. The…
  • The Merchant of VeniceIn The Merchant of Venice, a pound of flesh was first offered as a joke. By the court scene, no one is laughing.
  • Shakespearean comedyThe First Folio filed Cymbeline as a tragedy, though modern scholars widely regard it as a comedy.
  • A Midsummer Night's DreamIn A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck gives a weaver a donkey's head and a fairy queen falls for him.
  • CymbelineGeorge Bernard Shaw called Cymbeline "stagey trash" and then rewrote its final act.
  • The Taming of the ShrewThe Taming of the Shrew begins with a prank on a drunken tinker. Servants dress him as a lord and stage a play.
  • The Two Noble KinsmenTwo cousins turn from friends to rivals the moment they see one woman. This is Shakespeare's The Two Noble Kinsmen.
  • Pericles, Prince of TyrePericles, Prince of Tyre was a hit play that the First Folio left out. It was reprinted five times before 1635.
  • The Comedy of ErrorsShakespeare doubled the twins in The Comedy of Errors. A Roman play had one pair, so he wrote two.
  • The Two Gentlemen of VeronaShakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona may be his first play. No other play of his has a smaller cast.

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