Introduction

'To be, or not to be: that is the question.' Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, learns that his father was poisoned by his uncle, and hesitates before the duty of revenge; Macbeth, a Scottish general, trusts the witches' prophecy, murders his king and seizes the throne, and is destroyed amid terror and hallucination; old King Lear divides his kingdom between two flattering daughters and banishes the youngest, who truly loves him, and goes mad on the heath in the storm; Othello, the Moorish general, falls into the trap laid by his ensign Iago and strangles his faithful wife with his own hands; and two young lovers from feuding families of Verona love at first sight and die for their love. This volume contains these five greatest plays and all hundred and fifty-four sonnets.