It's hard to imagine, but Shakespeare wrote all of his plays with a quill pen, a goose feather whose hard end had to be sharpened frequently. How many times did he scrape the dull end to a point with his knife, dip it into the inkwell, and bring up, dripping wet, those wonderful words and ideas that are known all over the world?

In the age of word processors, typewriters, and ballpoint pens, we have almost forgotten the meaning of the word "blot." Yet when I went to school, in the 1930s, my classmates and I knew all too well what an inkblot from the metal-tipped pens we used would do to a nice clean page of a test paper, and we groaned whenever a splotch fell across the sheet. Most of us finished the school day with inkstained fingers; those who were less careful also went home with ink-stained shirts, which were almost impossible to pet clean.......

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April, 1564, and his birthis traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing inhis community. William probably went to the King"s New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway,eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy,Hamnet (who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith,were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London, working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shake-speare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe the Lord Chamberlain"s men (later, under James I, called the King"s men). In 1599 theLord Chamberlain"s men built and occupied the Globe Theatre in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare"s plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe,and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmerf, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape o[ Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more of h.is time to retirement in Stratford,though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VIII until about 1613. He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his lifetime,but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, published the great collection now called the First Folio.

Foreword

The Late Romances

The Playhouse

PERICLES

Introduction

Pericles in Performance

Pericles

Date and Text

Textual Notes

Shakespeare"s Sources

Further Reading

CYMBELINE

Introduction

Cymbeline in Performance

Cyrnbeline

Date and Text

Textual Notes

Shakespeare"s Sources

Further Reading

THE WINTER"S TALE

Introduction

The Winter"s Tale in Performance

The Winter"s Tale

Date and Text

Textual Notes

Shakespeare"s Sources

Further Reading

THE TEMPEST

Introduction

The Tempest in Performance

The Tempest

Date and Text

Textual Notes

Shakespeare"s Sources

Further Reading

Memorable Lines

  Pericles

  Cymbeline

  The Winter"s Tale

  The Tempest