quotes, notes, timelines & more

Home » Essays and Notes

Essays and Notes

These brief essays and notes examine a variety of issues in some of the passages drawn from Shakespeare's works. Some essays and notes reference multiple passages. All are searchable by keyword and other categories such as character, theme, etc.

Tinker, Soldier, Broker, Bridegroom

Read the Note

Most metaphors are obvious, as when Buckingham speaks of Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII:

This butcher’s cur is venomed-mouthed, and I
Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
Not wake him in his slumber.” 

But Shakespeare sometimes more subtly invoked metaphor through the selective choice of vocabulary. 
… continue reading this note

This Note references:
Source(s):
, ,
Character(s):
, ,
Themes:
, , ,

What a Difference a Word Makes

Read the Note

If Hamlet’s first words in the play, “A little more than kin and less than kind,” are an aside, as most editors indicate by prefacing the line with the stage direction, “aside,” then this line would be Hamlet’s first and shortest soliloquy. At the very least, it would be the first time any character in the play spoke directly to the audience,
… continue reading this note

This Note references:
Source(s):
Character(s):
Themes:
,
Figures of Speech:
, ,

Beatrice’s Sonnet

Read the Note

Beatrice closes Act 3 scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing, speaking a sonnet.* Shakespeare occasionally used sonnets in his plays, for example, in Romeo and Juliet and Richard III, which were examined in previous essays. He didn’t insert these sonnets arbitrarily. He intended to achieve effects,
… continue reading this note

This Note references:
Source(s):
Character(s):
, ,
Themes:
,

The Architecture of Sonnet and Song

Read the Note

Let’s begin by stipulating that Ira Gershwin is not William Shakespeare. However, despite the gulf that separates their talents, they share some writing techniques that are useful tools for aspiring writers. For example, Shakespeare’s sonnet, That Time of Year, and Gershwin’s song, They Can’t Take That Away from Me*, are variations on a common template,
… continue reading this note

This Note references:
Source(s):
Themes:
,
Figures of Speech:
, , , , , ,

The Forms of Things Unknown

Read the Note

For all the power of his poetry, volume of his vocabulary and sheer prolific output, Shakespeare seemed intent on telling us that we cannot know, truly know, what we most want to know, or even think we already know. We know this on several levels.

We’re frustrated enough that he left no correspondence, no diary, no memoir, no hand-written manuscripts.
… continue reading this note

Characters, Actors and Figurative Language

Read the Note

Early in Henry VIII, Anne Bullen, young and beautiful, considers the prospect of a prosperous future. In the same scene, Anne’s companion, the old lady, sardonically remarks on her lost youth and unfulfilled aspirations for wealth and position at court. The contrast of these two characters is clear, but Shakespeare uses more than casting, makeup, costumes, or even the subject matter of their opening dialogue,
… continue reading this note

Video: Lo! She is one of this confederacy

Read the Note

From Peter Hall’s film (January 30, 1968) of A Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring Michael Jayston, Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg, and David Warner.

… continue reading this note

This Note references:
Source(s):
Character(s):
, , ,

Politics and the People

Read the Note

Shakespeare often wrote about politics but most often he dealt with political infighting at court. Two of his Roman plays, however, deal specifically with politicians’ relationship with the people, the fickle masses. Julius Caesar and Coriolanus offer interesting observations about these fraught relationships, which are as true today as they were both in Elizabethan and Roman times. In both plays,
… continue reading this note

This Note references:
Source(s):
,
Character(s):
, , , ,
Themes:
, ,

Richard, Romeo, Juliet and the Sonnet

Read the Note

Two of Shakespeare’s earliest playsRichard III and Romeo and Juliet, open with sonnets and then employ variations on the sonnet’s structure for dramatic and poetic effect, which is not surprising. At this point in Shakespeare’s life he seems to have had dual career goals. First, he wanted to make money, which he could accomplish through theatre.
… continue reading this note

Shakespeare and the Casting Couch

Read the Note

Stories about women summoned as supplicants to the portals of men with the power to grant their wishes, for a price, are common across professions, across countries, across millennia. Shakespeare dramatized the dilemmas some of these women faced in more than one of his plays.

In both Henry VI Part 3 and Measure for Measure, for example,
… continue reading this note