William Shakespeare

His life, plays, and poetry

William Shakespeare

All About Shakespeare

• William Shakespeare (Encyclopedia)
  • About His Life
  • About the Plays
  • About the Poetry
  • Critical Opinion
• Famous Quotes from Shakespeare
• Quiz: Famous Quotes from Shakespeare's Plays
• Quiz: Shakespeare's Life and Times

Related Links

• Famous Shakespearean Actors
• Table of Shakespeare's Plays
• Shakespeare on Film
• Royal Shakespeare Company
• Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare

Text of Shakespeare's Plays

• All's Well That Ends Well
• Antony and Cleopatra
• As You Like It
• The Comedy of Errors
• Coriolanus
• Cymbeline
• Hamlet
• Henry the Fourth, I
• Henry the Fourth, II
• Henry the Fifth
• Henry the Sixth, I
• Henry the Sixth, II
• Henry the Sixth, III
• Henry the Eighth
• Julius Caesar
• King John
• King Lear
• Love's Labor's Lost
• Measure for Measure
• Macbeth
• The Merchant of Venice
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Much Ado about Nothing
• Othello
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre
• Richard the Second
• Richard the Third
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Tempest
• Timon of Athens
• Titus Andronicus
• Troilus and Cressida
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will
• Two Gentlemen of Verona
• Winter's Tale

Text of Shakespeare's Sonnets

• From fairest creatures we des...
• When forty winters shall besi...
• Look in thy glass and tell th...
• Unthrifty loveliness, why dos...
• Those hours, that with gentle...
• Then let not winter's ragged ...
• Lo! in the orient when the gr...
• Music to hear, why hear'st th...
• Is it for fear to wet a widow...
• For shame! deny that thou bea...
• As fast as thou shalt wane, s...
• When I do count the clock tha...
• O! that you were your self; b...
• Not from the stars do I my ju...
• When I consider every thing t...
• But wherefore do not you a mi...
• Who will believe my verse in ...
• Shall I compare thee to a sum...
• Devouring Time, blunt thou th...
• A woman's face with nature's ...
• So is it not with me as with ...
• My glass shall not persuade m...
• As an unperfect actor on the ...
• Mine eye hath play'd the pain...
• Let those who are in favour w...
• Lord of my love, to whom in v...
• Weary with toil, I haste me t...
• How can I then return in happ...
• When in disgrace with fortune...
• When to the sessions of sweet...
• Thy bosom is endeared with al...
• If thou survive my well-conte...
• Full many a glorious morning ...
• Why didst thou promise such a...
• No more be griev'd at that wh...
• Let me confess that we two mu...
• As a decrepit father takes de...
• How can my muse want subject ...
• O! how thy worth with manners...
• Take all my loves, my love, y...
• Those pretty wrongs that libe...
• That thou hast her it is not ...
• When most I wink, then do min...
• If the dull substance of my f...
• The other two, slight air, an...
• Mine eye and heart are at a m...
• Betwixt mine eye and heart a ...
• How careful was I when I took...
• Against that time, if ever th...
• How heavy do I journey on the...
• Thus can my love excuse the s...
• So am I as the rich, whose bl...
• What is your substance, where...
• O! how much more doth beauty ...
• Not marble, nor the gilded mo...
• Sweet love, renew thy force; ...
• Being your slave what should ...
• That god forbid, that made me...
• If there be nothing new, but ...
• Like as the waves make toward...
• Is it thy will, thy image sho...
• Sin of self-love possesseth a...
• Against my love shall be as I...
• When I have seen by Time's fe...
• Since brass, nor stone, nor e...
• Tired with all these, for res...
• Ah! wherefore with infection ...
• Thus is his cheek the map of ...
• Those parts of thee that the ...
• That thou art blam'd shall no...
• No longer mourn for me when I...
• O! lest the world should task...
• That time of year thou mayst ...
• But be contented: when that f...
• So are you to my thoughts as ...
• Why is my verse so barren of ...
• Thy glass will show thee how ...
• So oft have I invoked thee fo...
• Whilst I alone did call upon ...
• O! how I faint when I of you ...
• Or I shall live your epitaph ...
• I grant thou wert not married...
• I never saw that you did pain...
• Who is it that says most, whi...
• My tongue-tied Muse in manner...
• Was it the proud full sail of...
• Farewell! thou art too dear f...
• When thou shalt be dispos'd t...
• Say that thou didst forsake m...
• Then hate me when thou wilt; ...
• Some glory in their birth, so...
• But do thy worst to steal thy...
• So shall I live, supposing th...
• They that have power to hurt,...
• How sweet and lovely dost tho...
• Some say thy fault is youth, ...
• How like a winter hath my abs...
• From you have I been absent i...
• The forward violet thus did I...
• Where art thou Muse that thou...
• O truant Muse what shall be t...
• My love is strengthen'd, thou...
• Alack! what poverty my Muse b...
• To me, fair friend, you never...
• Let not my love be call'd ido...
• When in the chronicle of wast...
• Not mine own fears, nor the p...
• What's in the brain, that ink...
• O! never say that I was false...
• Alas! 'tis true, I have gone ...
• O! for my sake do you with Fo...
• Your love and pity doth the i...
• Since I left you, mine eye is...
• Or whether doth my mind, bein...
• Those lines that I before hav...
• Let me not to the marriage of...
• Accuse me thus: that I have s...
• Like as, to make our appetite...
• What potions have I drunk of ...
• That you were once unkind bef...
• 'Tis better to be vile than v...
• Thy gift, thy tables, are wit...
• No, Time, thou shalt not boas...
• If my dear love were but the ...
• Were't aught to me I bore the...
• O thou, my lovely boy, who in...
• In the old age black was not ...
• How oft when thou, my music, ...
• The expense of spirit in a wa...
• My mistress' eyes are nothing...
• Thou art as tyrannous, so as ...
• Thine eyes I love, and they, ...
• Beshrew that heart that makes...
• So, now I have confess'd that...
• Whoever hath her wish, thou h...
• If thy soul check thee that I...
• Thou blind fool, Love, what d...
• When my love swears that she ...
• O! call not me to justify the...
• Be wise as thou art cruel; do...
• In faith I do not love thee w...
• Love is my sin, and thy dear ...
• Lo, as a careful housewife ru...
• Two loves I have of comfort a...
• Those lips that Love's own ha...
• Poor soul, the centre of my s...
• My love is as a fever longing...
• O me! what eyes hath Love put...
• Canst thou, O cruel! say I lo...
• O! from what power hast thou ...
• Love is too young to know wha...
• In loving thee thou know'st I...
• Cupid laid by his brand and f...
• The little Love-god lying onc...