From Arden to Zounds: A Fun Friendly Intro to the Bard ©
A picture book by Caroline Gallagher
PO Box 94
South Orleans, MA 02662 USA
Heigh Ho come from far and near come and discover the works of Will Shakespeare!
He was a writer among writers and skilled with a pen; his plays are enjoyed now as much as way back when.
There is much to learn and lots to know when you read about Shakespeare wherever you go.
The words can be challenging but give it a try; you’ll never regret it and that’s no lie.
There’s Romeo and Juliet the Macbeth’s and plenty of Kings. So read on you’ll see what to life Shakespeare brings!
A is for Arden; forest of old, it’s the place where the story of As You Like It is told
“And this our life, exempt from public haunt, find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stone” (II.i.16-17) As You Like It
Bis for Beatrice and Benedick; there’s a merry war between them; a war of wits and word play leading right up to their wedding day!
‘You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signoir Benedick and her; they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them” (i.I61-64)
Much Ado About Nothing
Cis for Cordelia, a daughter of King Lear. She is one of three sisters and is such a dear.
“Obey you, love you, and most honor you…..” (I.i.99) King Lear
Dis for Dogberry, a constable. He’s not too bright. In Much Ado About Nothing he can’t get his words right!
“Well, for your, favor sir, why, give God thanks, and make no boast of it, and for your writing and reading, let that appear when there is no need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lanthorn (III.iii 19-24)
Much Ado About Nothing
E is for Edgar and Edmund, two brothers of different mothers; one good and one bad, caught in the middle is the Earl of Gloucester their dad.
“Thy valor, and thy heart, thou art a traitor, False to thy gods, thy brother and thy father, Conspirant ‘gainst this high illustrious prince, and from the extremest upward of thy head to the descent and dust below thy foot, A most toad-spotted traitor.” (V.iii. 134-139)
King Lear
Fis for Falstaff a man of great wit. He loves life and loves to laugh quite a bit!
“I am not only witty in myself, but the cause of that wit in other men.” (I.ii.9-10)
The Second Part of Henry The Fourth
Gis for George, Duke of Clarence; unlucky to have a name that begins with a G because of a dire prophesy!
“Yea Richard, When I know; but I protest As yet I do not. But, as I can learn, He hearkens after prophecies and dreams, and from the cross-row plucks the letter G, And says a wizard told him that by G his issue disinherited should be; And for my name of George begins with G, It follows in his thought that I am he.” (I.I.52-59)
The Tragedy of Richard The Third
His for Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. “To be or not be: says he!
“To be or not be, that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing, end them.” (III.ii.55-59) Hamlet
Iis for Iago, villain of Othello. He’s one mean and nasty conniving fellow.
“And what’s he then that says I play the villain?” (II.iii 335-3360
Othello
Jis for Jacques, man of his age; he’s the one who proclaims “All the world is a stage”!
“And all the men and women merely players; and they have their exits and their entrances.” (III.vii. 140-141) As You Like It
Kis for King Richard, a ruler so cruel and so mean; he cries out: “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse” in the plays next to last scene.
“Slave, I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die. I think that there will be six Richmonds in the field, Five I have Slain to-day in stead of him. A horse, a horse! My Kingdom for a horse.” (V.v. 9-13)
The Tragedy of Richard The Third
Lis for Love’s Labor’s Lost, the play of that name, where losing at love is the name of the game!
“Our wooing doth not end like and old play; Jack hath not Gill. These ladies’ courtesy Might well have made our sport a comedy.” (V.ii 874-876)
Loves Labor’s Lost
M is for Macbeth and the lady his wife. Together they cause a great deal of strife.
Macbeth: “I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?”
Lady Macbeth: I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry”.
(II.ii. 12-15) Macbeth
Nis for Nick Bottom, He’s such a delight; He’s the one with a dream on a midsummer night!
“I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.” (IV.i.204-206) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Ois for Othello a soldier of might, but in matters of love he’s not too bright!
“Then must you speak of one that lov’d not wisely but too well.” (V.ii343-344)
Othello
Pis for Prospero, using magic and mischief as a part of his plan, he raises a tempest to get back his job as the Duke of Milan.
“I did say so, when I first rais’d the Tempest.” (V.i. 5-6) The Tempest
Q is for Queen of Egypt; Cleopatra a lady who loved and lived large. She sailed all around on her most elegant barge.
“The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne.
Burnt on the water. The poop was beaten gold, Purple the sails, and so
Perfumed that the winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke and made the water which they beat
To follow faster.” (II.ii. 191-197) Antony and Cleopatra
Ris for Romeo: “Where are thou Romeo?” why, he’s in a play of course, a tale of love and woe of Juliet and her Romeo.
“O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name:
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” (II.ii 33-37) Romeo and Juliet
Sis for sonnet or “little song” always, always, fourteen lines long!
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Though art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose passion of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
(sonnet 18)
Tis for Titania, a fairy queen; she meets up with Bottom and makes quite a scene!
“There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, lull’d in these flowers with
Dances and delight, And there the snake throw her enamell’d skin, Weed
wide enough to wrap a fairy in; And with this juice of this I’ll streak her
eyes, and make her full of hateful fantasies.” (II.ii. 253-258)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Uis for Ulysses, he says: “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” Troilus and Cressida is the play he is in.
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” (III.iii. 175)
Troilus and Cressida
Vis for Viola, of Twelfth Night or What You Will, disguised as a man,
She exclaims “I am not what I am!” She is caught between Olivia and Duke Orsino in a crazy love jam!
“O time, thou must untangle this, not I, It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie.”
(II.ii 40-41) Twelfth Night Or What You Will
Wis for The Winter’s Tale, a story of a jealous king and all the misery that he did bring to family and friends and everything!
With the passage of time as the play is ended, all in the kings kingdom is mended.
“I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror of good and bad, that makes
And unfolds error, Now take upon me, in the name of Time, to use my wings.
Impute it not a crime to me, or my swift passage, that I slide O’er sixteen
Years and leave the growth untried of that wide gap, since it is in my pow’r
To o’erthrow law, in one self-born hour to plant and o’whelm custom.”
(IV.i, 1-9) The Winter’s Tale
Xis for Xantippe, wife of Socrates. She was known for being mean through and through; she has a one-line mention in The Taming Of The Shrew.
“As curst and shrowd as Socrates’ Xantippe.” (I.ii. 70-71)
The Taming Of The Shrew
Yis for Yorick. Jester at court, not one to be dull. He makes a minor appearance by way of his skull!
“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio, a man of infinite jest, of most
excellent fancy.” (V.i.184-185) Hamlet
Zis for zounds! Is that really a word you say? It was if you lived back in Shakespeare’s day!
“Zounds! I was never so bethump’d with words since I first call my brothers father dad. ((II.i. 466-467) King John