Curated playlist
Shakespearean tragedies
- MacbethIn Macbeth, three witches tell a Scottish general he will be king. Murder, guilt, and paranoia follow.
- HamletThere is no single, settled Hamlet. Three early versions of Shakespeare's play survive, each with lines the others lack.
- Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet announces in its prologue that the lovers will die.
- OthelloOthello's deadly plot hangs on a handkerchief. Shakespeare's tragedy turns on Iago's forged proof of an affair.
- Troilus and CressidaTwo 1609 printings of Troilus and Cressida disagree on whether it was ever staged.
- Antony and CleopatraIn Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, a boy actor plays Cleopatra imagining a boy playing her.
- King LearFor nearly two centuries, audiences saw King Lear with a happy ending. Nahum Tate's 1681 rewrite cut the Fool.
- CoriolanusShakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus opens with a food riot. Romans blame a soldier for withheld grain.
- Julius Caesar (play)In Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, the hero is Brutus, not Caesar. Brutus kills his friend for the good of Rome.
- Shakespearean tragedyHamlet's fake madness and the spy behind the curtain appeared in a 1582 French book first.
- Titus AndronicusShakespeare's play Titus Andronicus was so brutal that critics doubted he wrote it.