‘This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle’: so begins probably the most famous speech from Richard II, William Shakespeare’s 1590s history play about the fall of the Plantagenet king. These words are spoken by the dying John of Gaunt, and the phrases he uses – from ‘this royal throne […]
‘If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly’: so begins one of the most famous and revealing soliloquies in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The words, spoken by Macbeth himself as he considers whether he can go through with the murder of Duncan, appear in […]
‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ is a song taken from Shakespeare’s play As You Like It, and its leafy theme is in keeping with the setting for this romantic comedy, the Forest of Arden. Here’s the text of ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ followed by a few brief words of comment and […]