In Stratford-upon-Avon, the owners of Shrieves House, the former Three Tunns Tavern and now a museum, claim William Shakespeare based the character Falstaff on William Rogers, one of the Sargeants of the mace and close friend of the Shakespeares.

Shakespeare based Hamlet on the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest.

Shakespeare experts Sir John Gielgud and Kenneth Branagh consider the definitive rendition of the Bard's tragic tale to be the 1964 Russian film Gamlet () based on a translation by Boris Pasternak and directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with a score by Dmitri Shostakovich.

* Open Source Shakespeare — Hamlet A complete text of Hamlet based on Q2.

Richardson said he based his performance of the scheming Francis Urquhart on the way Shakespeare portrayed Richard III.

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story Un Capitano Moro (" A Moorish Captain ") by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565.

He serves as Producing Director for Queens Shakespeare Inc, a new classical repertory company based in Flushing, New York.

Some mainstream academics also argue the Oxford theory is based on simple snobbishness: that anti-Stratfordians reject the idea that the son of a mere tradesman could write the plays and poems of Shakespeare.

Steven May, the reigning authority on Edward de Vere's poetry, argues that Oxfordian attempts to relate the Earl's poetry to Shakespeare are based on ' a hopelessly flawed methodology ', in that Looney assigned to de Vere some poems he had not written.

Scholars have found that the styles of Shakespeare and Oxford, based on a computerised textual comparison developed by the Claremont Shakespeare Clinic, are " light years apart "; it was reported that the odds of Oxford having written Shakespeare are " lower than the odds of getting hit by lightning ".

All references to Romeo and Juliet, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Arden Shakespeare second edition ( Gibbons, 1980 ) based on the Q2 text of 1599, with elements from Q1 of 1597.

Category: Plays and musicals based on works by William Shakespeare

In 2011 the Roundabout Theatre Company produced a Broadway revival based on the 2009 Stratford Shakespeare Festival production featuring Brian Bedford as director and as Lady Bracknell.

Cymbeline (), also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus.

On screen he has been portrayed by Eduard Franz in the film Lady Godiva of Coventry ( 1955 ), George Howe in the BBC TV drama series Hereward the Wake ( 1965 ), Donald Eccles in the two-part BBC TV play Conquest ( 1966 ; part of the series Theatre 625 ), Brian Blessed in Macbeth ( 1997 ), based on the Shakespeare play ( although he does not appear in the play itself ), and Adam Woodroffe in an episode of the British TV series Historyonics entitled " 1066 " ( 2004 ).

Although Shakespeare based many of his characters on existing archetypes from fables and myths ( e. g., Romeo and Juliet on Arthur Brooke's Romeus and Juliet ), Shakespeare's characters stand out as original by their contrast against a complex social literary landscape.

It is one of several Roman plays that Shakespeare wrote, based on true events from Roman history, which also include Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra.

The Shrieves House is one of the oldest still lived in houses in the town and Shakespeare is said to have based his character of Sir John Falstaff on one of the residents, his godson's uncle.

In Shakespeare's own lifetime, a writer known for doing likewise was Matteo Bandello, who based his work on that of writers such as Giovanni Boccaccio and Geoffrey Chaucer, and who could have served as an indirect source for Shakespeare.

All references to Titus Andronicus, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Oxford Shakespeare ( Waith ), based on the Q1 text of 1594 ( except 3. 2, which is based on the folio text of 1623 ).

In 1957, Vissarion Shebalin composed the best known Russian opera based on Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew ( Укрощение строптивой )

In 1953, NBC broadcast an adaptation of the play by Philip Hanson, based on William Dawkins ' production for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The earliest known literary use of the word assassination is in Macbeth by William Shakespeare ( 1605 ).

Shakespeare often used Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland — commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles — as a source for his plays, and in Macbeth he borrows from several of the tales in that work.

Unlike his sources, Shakespeare gives Banquo no role in the King's murder, making it a deed committed solely by Macbeth and his wife.

The playwright William Shakespeare had already used the family history of Northumberland's family in his Henry IV series of plays, and the events of the Gunpowder Plot seem to have featured alongside the earlier Gowrie conspiracy in Macbeth, written some time between 1603 and 1607.

The Tragedy of Macbeth ( commonly called Macbeth ) is a play written by William Shakespeare.

James was a patron of Shakespeare ’ s acting company, and of all the plays Shakespeare wrote during James ’ s reign, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright ’ s relationship with the sovereign.

Macbeth is Shakespeare ’ s shortest and bloodiest tragedy, and tells the story of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland.

Shakespeare's source for the tragedy are the accounts of King Macbeth of Scotland, Macduff, and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles ( 1587 ), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

However, the story of Macbeth as told by Shakespeare bears little relation to real events in Scottish history, as the historical Macbeth was an admired and able monarch.

Second, Shakespeare may have altered Banquo's character simply because there was no dramatic need for another accomplice to the murder ; there was, however, a need to give a dramatic contrast to Macbeth — a role which many scholars argue is filled by Banquo.

Shakespeare may allude to the image when Lady Macbeth says to her husband, " Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't " ( 1. 5. 74-5 ).. And the Porter's speech ( 1. 3. 1 – 21 ), in particular, may allude to the trial of the Jesuit Henry Garnet in spring, 1606 ; " equivocator " ( line 8 ) may refer to Garnet's defence of " equivocation ", and " farmer " ( 4 ) to one of Garnet's aliases.

Facsimile of the first page of Macbeth from the First Folio, published in 1623Scholars also cite an entertainment seen by King James at Oxford in the summer of 1605 that featured three " sibyls " like the weird sisters ; Kermode surmises that Shakespeare could have heard about this and alluded to it with the weird sisters.

Because " Macbeth " traces the root of chaos and evil to women, some critics argue that it is Shakespeare ’ s most misogynistic play.

This opinion recurs in critical literature, and, according to Caroline Spurgeon, is supported by Shakespeare himself, who apparently intended to degrade his hero by vesting him with clothes unsuited to him and to make Macbeth look ridiculous by several nimisms he applies: His garments seem either too big or too small for him – as his ambition is too big and his character too small for his new and unrightful role as king.

* Performances and Photographs from London and Stratford performances of Macbeth 1960 – 2000 – From the Designing Shakespeare resource

* Annotated Text at The Shakespeare Project -– annotated HTML version of Macbeth.

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John Cargill Thompson's play Macbeth Speaks 1997, a reworking of his earlier Macbeth Speaks, is a monologue delivered by the historical Macbeth, aware of what Shakespeare and posterity have done to him.