The historical basis for “King Lear” comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account of the legendary King Leir of the Britons recorded in the historian’s “History of the Kings of Briton.” King Lear is an elderly man and wishes to retire from power. In the decision to divide up his estate he requests that his daughters profess their feelings for him, vowing to give whomever loves him the most the largest share. His two eldest daughters Regan and Goneril go first and based on their responses are...
Widely regarded as one of the greatest Greek tragedies, ‘King Oedipus’ (or ‘Oedipus Rex’) is the first play in the Oedipus trilogy (followed by ‘Oedipus at Colonus’ and then ‘Antigone’). After defeating the Sphinx and freeing the kingdom of Thebes from her curse, the flawed hero unwittingly fulfills a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother.
William Shakespeare's «King Richard III» is one of the playwright's classic English historical dramas. It the story of Richard's murderous and deceitful plans to ascend to the thrown. A classic and popular play for performance, «King Richard III» is one of Shakespeare's great historical dramas.
One of Shakespeare’s early comedies and most ornately intellectual plays, “Love’s Labour’s Lost” is a mental adventure in hilarity and wit. First published in 1598, the play is filled with lexical puns, literary allusions, and shifting poetic forms, a rich example of the Bard’s linguistic mastery. The play opens with King Phillip of Naverre announcing that the men of his court will devote the coming years to ascetic studies and to reduce distractions, no women will be allowed into the court for...
Greek playwright, Aristophanes, lived during the 5th and 4th century BC and is considered one of the principal authors of the Greek classical period. Of the nearly thirty plays he wrote during his career, eleven are extant. Amongst the most famous of these is “Lysistrata,” a comedy which focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands have left for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the conflict as much as they care about missing their husbands. Its titular character, Lysistrata,...
Greek playwright Aristophanes spins wonderful stories combining politics, satire, and classic Greek gods in this collection of «Lysistrata and Other Plays.» «Lysistrata» focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands leave for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the war as much as they care about missing their husbands; Lysistrata also insists that men rarely listen to women's reasoning and exclude their opinions on matters of the state. In retaliation, the women of Greece...
Greek playwright, Aristophanes, lived during the 5th and 4th century BC and is considered one of the principal authors of the Greek classical period. Of the nearly thirty plays he wrote during his career, eleven are extant. Amongst the most famous of these is “Lysistrata,” a comedy which focuses on the women of Greece whose husbands have left for the Peloponnesian War. The women do not care about the conflict as much as they care about missing their husbands. Its titular character, Lysistrata,...
Set in Scotland, “Macbeth” is the story of its titular character, a general in the army, who conspires with his wife to murder the King and usurp the throne. One of Shakespeare’s most powerful and deeply tragic plays, the work explores the psychological consequences when an immoral path is taken to advance one’s personal position. Among Shakespeare’s tragedies, “Macbeth” is noted for the exceptional simplicity of its plot and the directness of the action. Here there are no subplots to complicate...
A sinner-saint who embraced then renounced sexual and worldly pleasures; a woman who, through her attachment to Jesus, embodied both erotic and sacred power; a symbol of penance and an exemplar of contemplative and passionate devotion: perhaps no figure stood closer to the center of late medieval debates about the sources of spiritual authority and women's contribution to salvation history than did Mary Magdalene, and perhaps nowhere in later medieval England was cultural preoccupation with...