Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare. William Shakespeare

       THE NURSE THINKS JULIET DEAD

       ROMEO ENTERING THE TOMB

       PERICLES WINS IN THE TOURNAMENT

       PERICLES AND MARINA

       THE KING'S GHOST APPEARS

       POLONIUS KILLED BY HAMLET

       DROWNING OF OPHELIA

       IACHIMO AND IMOGEN

       IACHIMO IN THE TRUNK

       IMOGEN STUPEFIED

       IMOGEN AND LEONATUS

       THE THREE WITCHES

       FROM “MACBETH"

       LADY MACBETH

       KING AND QUEEN MACBETH

       MACBETH AND MACDUFF FIGHT

       ANTIPHOLUS AND DROMIO

       LUCIANA AND ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

       THE GOLDSMITH AND ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

       AEMILIA

       THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO

       ANTONIO SIGNS THE BOND

       JESSICA LEAVING HOME

       BASSANIO PARTS WITH THE RING

       POET READING TO TIMON

       PAINTER SHOWING TIMON A PICTURE

       "NOTHING BUT AN EMPTY BOX"

       TIMON GROWS SULLEN

       OTHELLO TELLING DESDEMONA HIS ADVENTURES

       OTHELLO

       THE DRINK OF WINE

       CASSIO GIVES THE HANDKERCHIEF

       DESDEMONA WEEPING

       THE MUSIC MASTER

       KATHARINE BOXES THE SERVANT'S EARS

       PETRUCHIO FINDS FAULT WITH THE SUPPER

       THE DUKE IN THE FRIAR'S DRESS

       ISABELLA PLEADS WITH ANGELO

       "YOUR FRIAR IS NOW YOUR PRINCE"

       VALENTINE WRITES A LETTER FOR SILVIA

       SILVIA READING THE LETTER

       THE SERENADE

       ONE OF THE OUTLAWS

       HELENA AND BERTRAM

       HELENA AND THE KING

       READING BERTRAM'S LETTER

       HELENA AND THE WIDOW

      LIST OF FOUR-COLOR PLATES

       WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

       TITANIA AND THE CLOWN

       FERDINAND AND MIRANDA

       PRINCE FLORIZEL AND PERDITA

       ROMEO AND JULIET

       IMOGEN

       CHOOSING THE CASKET

       PETRUCHIO AND KATHERINE

      TITANIA AND THE CLOWN

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

       Table of Contents

       Hermia and Lysander were lovers; but Hermia's father wished her to marry another man, named Demetrius.

      Now, in Athens, where they lived, there was a wicked law, by which any girl who refused to marry according to her father's wishes, might be put to death. Hermia's father was so angry with her for refusing to do as he wished, that he actually brought her before the Duke of Athens to ask that she might be killed, if she still refused to obey him. The Duke gave her four days to think about it, and, at the end of that time, if she still refused to marry Demetrius, she would have to die.

      Lysander of course was nearly mad with grief, and the best thing to do seemed to him for Hermia to run away to his aunt's house at a place beyond the reach of that cruel law; and there he would come to her and marry her. But before she started, she told her friend, Helena, what she was going to do.

Helena had been Demetrius' sweetheart long before his marriage with Hermia had been thought of, and being very silly, like all jealous people, she could not see that it was not poor Hermia's fault that Demetrius wished to marry her instead of his own lady, Helena. She knew that if she told Demetrius that Hermia was going, as she was, to the wood outside Athens, he would follow her, “and I can follow him, and at least I shall see him,” she said to herself. So she went to him, and betrayed her friend's secret.

      Now this wood where Lysander was to meet Hermia, and where the other two had decided to follow them, was full of fairies, as most woods are, if one only had the eyes to see them, and in this wood on this night were the King and Queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania. Now fairies are very wise people, but now and then they can be quite as foolish as mortal folk. Oberon and Titania, who might have been as happy as the days were long, had thrown away all their joy in a foolish quarrel. They never met without saying disagreeable things to each other, and scolded each other so dreadfully that all their little fairy followers, for fear, would creep into acorn cups and hide them there.

      So, instead of keeping one happy Court and dancing all night through in the moonlight as is fairies' use, the King with his attendants wandered through one part of the wood, while the Queen with hers kept state in another. And the cause of all this trouble was a little Indian boy whom Titania had taken to be one of her followers. Oberon wanted the child to follow him and be one of his fairy knights; but the Queen would not give him up.

      On this night, in a mossy moonlit glade, the King and Queen of the fairies met.

      “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania,” said the King.

      “What! jealous, Oberon?” answered the Queen. “You spoil everything with your quarreling. Come, fairies, let us leave him. I am not friends with him now.”

      “It rests with you to make up the quarrel,” said the King.

      “Give