Shakespeare Silent Film Clips on YouTube

• Herbert Beerbohm Tree performs the death scene from King John in the earliest Shakespeare movie (1899).
  
• Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton's 1909 film of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
  
• Scenes from Gerolamo Lo Savio's 1910 film of The Merchant of Venice.
  
• Frederick Warde as Richard seduces Anne in M. B. Dudley's 1912 feature film of Richard III (the best of the two surviving silent Richards).
  
• Johnston Forbes Robertson meets the Ghost in a 1913 version of Hamlet.
  

DISCUSSION: Julie Taymor's Tempest

Detailed Summary of A Midsummer Night's Dream

1.1

In battle, Theseus, duke of Athens, has won Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. He's impatient for their wedding, but Hippolyta assures him that the four days until then will pass quickly. Egeus enters with his daughter Hermia and two young men: Demetrius, who has Egeus's permission to marry Hermia, and Lysander, who has won her heart. The law dictates that Hermia must marry her father's choice or be executed. Theseus provides a third option—she may enter a nunnery—and says she must make her decision by his wedding day.

After the older generation leaves, Lysander and Hermia plan to meet in the woods outside Athens. From there, they will flee beyond the reach of the law. Helena enters, lamenting that her beloved Demetrius loves Hermia; she wishes she could be Hermia. To comfort her, Hermia and Lysander tell her their plan. After wishing her luck in winning Demetrius's love, they leave. Helena contemplates strangeness of love: it make us see things as other than they are and is also capricious—Demetrius swore he loved her then fell in love with Hermia. Helena decides to tell Demetrius about Lysander and Hermia's elopement.

1.2

Some artisans plan a performance for Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. A carpenter, Peter Quince, assigns parts for "Pyramus and Thisbe," a play about lovers kept apart by their parents. Bottom, a weaver, wants to play all the parts, but Quince insists that he play only the male lead. Quince tells his actors to meet that night in the woods outside Athens, where they can rehearse without being watched.

2.1

A servant of the fairy king Oberon warns a servant of the fairy queen Titania to keep her mistress out of Oberon's way: Oberon is angry because Titania stole a human child whom Oberon wants for himself; whenever the king and queen meet, they fight. Titania's servant recognizes Oberon's servant as Puck, a mischief-maker who causes havoc in the countryside. Puck acknowledges this and describes tricks he plays on old women.

Titania, Oberon, and their attendant fairies meet. Titania accuses Oberon of being near Athens to bless the bridal bed of his former lover Hippolyta. Oberon retorts that Titania loves Theseus. Titania says Oberon imagines this because he's jealous. She goes on to describe how their quarrels have disordered the countryside. When Oberon says she could end the quarrels by giving him the child, Titania explains that the boy's mother worshipped her and had taken vows to serve her; the mother died in childbirth, and for her sake Titania is raising the child. Unmoved, Oberon insists that Titania give him the boy. She refuses and leaves with her attendants. Oberon sends Puck to get a flower he can use to charm Titania into falling in love with whatever she sees when she wakes from a sleep; before disenchanting her, Oberon will make her give him the child.

Demetrius enters, followed by Helena, who tells him how much she loves him. Demetrius spurns her and storms off; Helena follows. Oberon says he will reverse this situation. When Puck returns with the magic flower, he tells him to use some of it to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena; Oberon will use the rest to charm Titania.

2.2

Oberon puts the potion on the sleeping Titania's eyelids and leaves. Lysander and Hermia appear and decide to rest. Lysander wants to lie with Hermia, but Hermia tells him to sleep farther away. Puck discovers the sleeping lovers. Thinking they are Demetrius and Helena, he puts the potion on Lysander's eyes. He leaves, and Demetrius appears, followed by an exhausted Helena. Demetrius goes on, but Helena stops to rest. She doesn't see Herm

ia but does see Lysander. Fearing Lysander is dead, she wakes him. Lysander falls in love with her and wants to kill his new rival Demetrius. He says he has grown up: his mature reason tells him he's in love with Helena. Thinking he's mocking her, Helena leaves; after a last look at Hermia, who now disgusts him, Lysander follows. Hermia wakes from a dream in which a snake ate her heart while a smiling Lysander watched; she goes looking for Lysander.

3.1

The artisans prepare to rehearse. They worry that their play's violence will disturb the audience. Bottom comes up with strategies to prevent this: the prologue must explain that no one is really hurt; the lion's costume must be only partial so the audience can see the actor beneath, and the actor must explain that he's not a lion. After debating how to represent moonshine and a wall, the artisans decide that actors will portray both. They begin their rehearsal, watched by Puck. Bottom leaves the stage, and Puck turns his head into the head of ass. When the transformed Bottom makes his entrance, his terrified companions flee, followed by Puck, who will torment them further. Alone, Bottom decides his companions acted that way to frighten him. To show he isn't afraid, he sings. This wakes Titania, who admires Bottom's voice, appearance, and "wise" words. She loves him and won't let him leave the woods; she summons fairies to attend him, feed him fruit, and fan his sleeping eyes with butterfly wings. She has fairies lead him to her bower.

3.2

Puck tells Oberon how he made Titania fall in love with Bottom and how he charmed an Athenian so the man would fall in love with the woman near him. Hermia enters, followed by the infatuated Demetrius, whom she accuses of murdering Lysander. Demetrius denies this, Hermia leaves, and Demetrius lies down to sleep. Realizing that the wrong man has been charmed, Oberon tells Puck to find Helena and bring her to Demetrius. Oberon charms Demetrius so that when he wakes he will fall in love with Helena. Puck returns, saying that Helena is coming. He observes that mortals are fools, and the chaotic scene that follows seems to prove his point.

Lysander, who says his tears show he isn't mocking her, pursues Helena. Their argument wakes Demetrius, who falls in love with Helena. Helena thinks Demetrius has joined Lysander in making fun of her. Both men deny this. Their voices allow Hermia to find the group. Lysander tells Hermia he doesn't love her—he hates her—and Hermia's reaction to this leads Helena to think Hermia has joined in the men's mockery. She accuses Hermia of betraying their friendship. Hermia disputes this, and when Lysander says again how much he loves Helena, Hermia asks him to stop mocking her friend. Lysander affirms his previous words: he loves Helena and hates Hermia. Hermia's astonishment turns into rage; she accuses Helena of stealing Lysander's heart. During the argument that follows, Hermia decides Helena is insulting her for being short. She threatens to claw Hermia's eyes. Helena appeals to the men to protect her. The men argue over who will defend Helena then head deeper into the woods to fight over her. Helena flees Hermia, and Hermia wanders off.

Oberon accuses Puck of creating this mess intentionally. Puck says he made an honest mistake but admits he's enjoying the result. Oberon gives him new orders: he should lead the men around, so they'll think they're chasing one another; when they become exhausted and sleep, he should use an herb to restore Lysander's love for Hermia. Oberon says that when the lovers awake, they will think what happened was a dream. He will go to Titania, ask for the human child and then release her from the charm that makes her love Bottom.

Puck says they should do this quickly because morning is near—ghosts are returning to their graves. Oberon says that fairies are not the same kind of spirits as ghosts—he often moves about at dawn—but nevertheless agrees that they should complete their business before daybreak. Oberon leaves, and Puck speaks in Demetrius's voice, leading Lysander to follow him for a fight. Using Lysander's voice, he does the same with Demetrius.

3.3

One by one, the lovers fall asleep. Puck drops the potion on Lysander's eyes.

4.1

Titania strokes Bottom's cheeks and kisses his ears. Bottom sends a fairy to fetch a bee's honey-bag and has others scratch him. He asks to hear rustic music, talks of how he'd like to eat hay, and falls asleep. After Titania falls asleep as well, Oberon tells Puck he pities her. He met her earlier, when she was gathering flowers to decorate Bottom. When he chastised her for doting on Bottom, she begged his forgiveness and agreed to give him the child. Now that Oberon has the boy, he uncharms Titania, who says she loathes Bottom's ass-head. Puck removes it. Titania calls for music that puts Bottom and the four lovers into a deeper-than-normal sleep. The fairy king and queen have resolved their differences and will dance in Theseus's house, blessing it. Puck hears the morning lark. The fairies leave.

Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and Theseus's followers enter, ready for a hunt. Theseus praises his hounds then notices the sleeping lovers. He has his huntsmen wake them and asks Lysander and Demetrius how they can sleep near each other when they're enemies. Lysander explains that he came there with Hermia, hoping to escape the law. The enraged Egeus asks that Lysander be punished and looks to Demetrius for support. Demetrius explains that Helena told him about Hermia and Lysander's flight; he followed them, and Helena followed him. Somehow, his love for Hermia has disappeared, and he loves Helena; his love for Hermia was a sickness, and he is now restored to health.

Theseus says the couples shall be married and calls off the hunt. He and his company leave, and the lovers talk about how the night's events seem unreal. They leave. Bottom wakes and comically soliloquizes about his "dream"; he will get Peter Quince to write a ballad about it, and he will sing it at the end of the artisan's play or maybe after Thisbe's death.

4.2

The artisans talk about how they won't be able to perform their play without Bottom. Bottom appears and at first says he will describe what happened to him, then says he won't: Theseus has dined—they need to prepare their play.

5.1

Hippolyta observes that the lovers' story is strange. Theseus dismisses their tale as resulting from their imaginations. Hippolyta responds that, though strange, the story holds together—all of the lovers had the same vision.

The lovers enter, and Theseus asks how they will entertain themselves for the three hours before bedtime. Egeus (Philostrate in some editions) gives Theseus a list of entertainments. Theseus rejects several before settling on the artisan's play. Egeus argues against Theseus's choice, saying that though the artisans' play is meant to be tragic, it made him laugh. Theseus says he wants to hear it anyway. He tells Hippolyta that the players' good intentions will make up for their lack of skill.

The play begins with Peter Quince ruining his prologue by pausing in the wrong places, unintentionally turning courtesies into insults. The other players enter, and Quince tells the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from start to finish. The players leave except for the actor portraying Wall. Bottom as Pyramus enters and curses Wall from keeping him from Thisbe. In the audience, Theseus comments that since the wall is alive, it should curse back. Hearing this, Bottom breaks character to explain that the wall shouldn't curse back; instead, Thisbe should come on stage. Thisbe appears. Wall makes a hole with his fingers, and Thisbe and Pyramus talk through it, agreeing to meet at "Ninny's tomb." After they leave the stage with Wall, Hippolyta comments on the play's absurdity. Theseus says, "[t]he best in this kind are but shadows."

Lion and Moonshine enter. Lion tells the women in the audience not to be afraid—he's simply Snug, a carpenter. Moonshine starts to explain in verse what he represents then, after the audience interrupts, reverts to prose and explains himself. Thisbe enters. After Lion roars, she drops her mantle and runs away. Lion worries the mantle, drops it, and exits. Pyramus enters, sees the mantle, despairs, and commits suicide with a ridiculous speech. Thisbe enters, despairs, and commits suicide with an equally ridiculous speech. Bottom asks Theseus if he'd like to hear an epilogue or watch a dance. Theseus chooses the dance.

5.2

Puck tells us night has fallen: ghosts have left their graves, and fairies are ready to frolic. He will sweep Theseus's house and make sure nothing disturbs it. Oberon and Titania appear with their train. Oberon tells the fairies to sing; they will dance through the house, blessing the bridal beds so the couples' children will be lucky and without physical flaws.

Epilogue

Puck says that if the play offends us, we should imagine it was a dream. He bids us goodnight and asks for applause.

DISCUSSION: Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It

DISCUSSION: Roman Polanski's Macbeth

"To Be or Not to Be" Smackdown

Who does it best? Vote on the right.

Branagh:

Gibson:



Hawke:




Olivier:

The ShakespeareFlix List of Shakespeare Movies on DVD

We hope to make this the web's most complete list of Shakespeare films on DVD. Please help us by adding a comment, telling us what we've got wrong or missed. (A couple of films may have been accidentally deleted from the last list.)

FILMS OF THE PLAYS

Antony and Cleopatra (1606)

• Jon Scoffield's 1974 television film with Richard Jonson as Antony, Janet Suzman as Cleopatra, and Patrick Stewart as Enobarbus.

As You Like It (1599-1600)

• Kenneth Branagh's 2006 film with Kevin Kline as Jacques, Brian Blessed as Duke Frederick and Duke Senior, Alfred Molina as Touchstone, Janet McTeer as Audrey, Adrian Lester as Oliver, Romola Garai as Celia, David Oyelowo as Orlando, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Rosalind.

Hamlet (1600-01)

• Michael Almereyda's 2000 film with Ethan Hawke as Hamlet, Kyle MacLachlan as Claudius, Diane Venora as Gertrude, Julia Stiles as Ophelia, Bill Murray as Polonius, and Sam Shepard as the Ghost.
• Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film with Branagh as Hamlet, Derek Jacobi as Claudius, Julie Christie as Gertrude, and Kate Winslet as Ophelia.
• Kevin Kline directs and stars in a 1990 PBS television production.
• Franco Zeffirelli's 1985 film with Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, and Helena Bonham-Carter as Ophelia.
• Grigori Kozintsev's 1964 film with Innokenty Smoktunovsky as Hamlet. Translation by Boris Pasternak and music by Dmitri Shostakovich.
• Bill Colleran and John Gielgud direct Richard Burton in a 1964 stage production.
• Laurence Olivier's 1948 version with Olivier as Hamlet, Basil Sydney as Claudius, Eileen Herlie as Gertrude, and Jean Simmons as Ophelia.

Henry IV, Part One (1596-97); Henry IV, Part Two (1597-98); Henry V (1598-99)

• Orson Welles's The Chimes at Midnight (1965), with John Gielgud as Henry IV, Keith Baxter as Prince Hal/Henry V, and Welles as Falstaff. Available as a Brazilian import.

Henry V (1598-99)

• Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film with Branagh as Henry, Derek Jacobi as the Chorus, and Emma Thompson as Catherine.
• Laurence Olivier's 1944 film with Olivier as Henry, Leslie Banks as the Chorus, and Renée Asherson as Catherine.

Julius Caesar (1599)

• Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1953 film, with James Mason as Brutus, John Gielgud as Cassius, Louis Calhern as Caesar, and Marlon Brando as Antony.

(1 hr. 44 min) tell 6:05, start 6:06. No subtitles; use closed caption. Widescreen s(2 hr, 40 min [162 min]); start 5:08 Skip through annoying previews. Subtitles

King Lear (1604-05)

• Michael Elliott directs Laurence Olivier in a 1983 television film.
• Edwin Sherin directs James Earl Jones in a 1974 New York Shakespeare Festival production.
• Orson Welles's 1953 television production. Available on a DVD with Welles's The Stranger.

Love's Labour's Lost (1594-95)

• Kenneth Branagh's 2000 musical version, with Alessandro Nivola as the King of Navarre, Alicia Silverstone as the Princess of France, Natascha McElhone as Rosaline, Branagh as Berowne, Timothy Spall as Don Armado, and Nathan Lane as Costard.

Macbeth (1605-06)

• Geoffrey Wright's 2006 Australian gangster version.
• Philip Casson directing Trevor Nunn's 1979 television version, with Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth.
• Roman Polanski's 1971 film with Jon Finch as Macbeth and Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth.
• Orson Welles's 1948 film. Available as a South Korean import.

The Merchant of Venice (1596-97)

• Michael Radford’s 2004 film starring Al Pacino as Shylock, Jeremy Irons as Antonio, Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio, and Lynn Collins as Portia.
• Trevor Nunn's 2001 Royal National Theatre production with Henry Goodman as Shylock.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

• Bo Bergstrom directs the Virus Theater, from Silver City, New Mexico, in a 2010 film.
• Michael Hoffman's 1999 film with Calista Flockhart as Helena, Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania, and Kevin Kline as Bottom.
• Adrian Noble's 1996 film derived from his Royal Shakespeare Company stage production.
• Peter Hall's 1968 film with Diana Rigg as Helena, Helen Mirren as Hermia, and Paul Rogers as Bottom.
• Max Reinhart's 1935 film with Mickey Rooney as Puck and Jimmy Cagney as Bottom.

Much Ado About Nothing (1598)

• Kenneth Branagh's 1993 film with Emma Thompson as Beatrice and Branagh as Benedick.
• Nick Havinga's 1972 television production, with Sam Waterston as Benedick and Kathleen Widdoes as Beatrice.

Othello (1603-04)

• The 2008 Globe Theatre production with Eamonn Walker as Othello, Tim McInnerny as Iago, and Zoe Tapper as Desdemona.
• Oliver Parker's 1995 film with Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Irène Jacob as Desdemona, and Kenneth Branagh as Iago.
• Trevor Nunn's 1990 Royal Shakespeare Company production with Willard White as Othello, Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona, and Ian McKellan as Iago.
• A 1988 South African stage production directed by Janet Suzman.
• Stuart Burge directs Laurence Olivier in the 1965 film.
• Orson Welles's 1952 film with Welles as Othello, Michael MacLiammoir as Iago, and Suzanne Cloutier as Desdemona. Available as a South Korean import.

ago, heart on his sleeve, Oth on wooing, (121 minutes, start 5:49)

Richard III (1592-93)

• Richard Loncraine's 1995 film of the play with Ian McKellan as Richard, Nigel Hawthorne as Clarence, Kristin Scott Thomas as Anne, Maggie Smith as the Duchess of York (with lines from Margaret of Anjou), Annette Benning as Elizabeth, and Robert Downey, Jr. as Rivers.
• Laurence Olivier's 1955 film with Olivier as Richard, John Gielgud as Clarence, and Claire Bloom as Anne.

Romeo and Juliet (1595)

• Baz Luhrman's 1997 Romeo + Juliet, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
• Joan Kemp-Welch directs Christopher Neame and Ann Hasson in a 1976 television film.
• Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey.
• The 1936 film directed by George Cukor, with Leslie Howard as Romeo, Norma Shearer as Juliet, and John Barrymore as Mercutio.

The Taming of the Shrew (1592)

• American Conservatory Theater's 1976 stage production.
• Franco Zeffirelli's 1967 film with Richard Burton as Petruchio and Elizabeth Taylor as Katharina.

The Tempest (1611)

• Julie Taymor's 2011 film with Helen Mirren as Prospera will be out in September.
• William Woodman's 1983 television film with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Prospero.

Titus Andronicus (1592)

• Julie Taymor's Titus (2000), with Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus, Jessica Lange as Tamora, and Harry J. Lennix as Aaron.

Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1601-2)

• Trevor Nunn's 1996 film, with Imogen Stubbs as Viola, Ben Kingsley as Feste, and Helena Bonham-Carter as Olivia.

The Winter's Tale (1609)

• The Royal Shakespeare Company's 1999 stage production, directed by Robin Lough, with Anthony Sher as Leontes.

COLLECTIONS

• BBC Shakespeare Comedies: Television productions of As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant of Venice.
• BBC Shakespeare Histories: Television productions of Richard II; Henry IV, Part One; Henry IV, Part Two; Henry V; Richard III.
• BBC Shakespeare Tragedies I: Television productions of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Othello.
• BBC Shakespeare Tragedies II: Television productions of Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, King Lear, Timon of Athens, and Titus Andronicus.
• Silent Shakespeare: Silent films of King John, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, and Richard III. Collected and restored by the British Film Institute.
• The Thames Shakespeare Collection: Television productions of Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night.

LOOSE ADAPTATIONS AND OTHER FILMS OF INTEREST TO SHAKESPEARE LOVERS

• Elizabeth I (2006): A television series directed by Tom Hooper, with Helen Mirren as Elizabeth and Jeremy Irons as Robert Dudley.
• Forbidden Planet (1956): A science-fiction version of The Tempest directed by Fred M. Wilcox, with Walter Pidgeon as the Prospero-like Dr. Morbius, Anne Francis as the Miranda-like Altaira, and Leslie Nielsen as the Ferdinand-like Commander John J. Adams. Dr. Morbius's servant Robby the Robot has the Ariel role.
• The Hobart Shakespeareans (2005): Documentary about a fantastically talented teacher and his students in a Los Angeles elementary school.
• In Search of Shakespeare (2004): Michael Wood narrates a television documentary on Shakespeare's life and times.
• Kiss Me Kate (1953): Cole Porter's musical of The Taming of the Shrew.
• The Legend of the Black Scorpion (2006): Feng Xiaogang's martial-arts adaptation of Hamlet, with Danien Wu as the Hamlet-like Wu Luan and Zhang Ziyi as the Gertrude-like Empress Wan.
• Looking for Richard (1996): Al Pacino in a documentary about producing Richard III. Available in a three-DVD package called Pacino: An Actor's Vision.
• O (2001): Tim Blake Nelson's modern adaptation of Othello, with Mekhi Phifer as the Othello/Odin, Josh Hartnett as the Iago/Hugo, and Julia Stiles as the Desdeomona/Desi.
• Otello (1986): Franco Zeffirelli directs Plácido Domingo and Katia Ricciarelli in Giuseppe Verdi's opera.
• Othello (2001): A loose television adaptation directed by Geoffrey Sax, with Eamonn Walker as John Othello and Keeley Hawes as Dessie Brabrant.
• Prospero's Books (1991): Peter Greenaway's adaptation of The Tempest with John Gielgud as Prospero.
• Ran (1985): Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of King Lear, with Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Lear), Shinnosuke Ikehata as Kyoami (the Fool) and Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede (Edmund).
• The Reduced Shakespeare Company (2000): "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)."
• Renaissance Man (1994): Penny Marshall directs Danny DeVito teaching Shakespeare in a boot camp.
• The Revenger's Tragedy (2004): Alex Cox directs Christopher Eccleston, Derek Jacobi, and Eddie Izzard in a version of Thomas Middleton's play.
• Romeo and Juliet Got Married (2005): Bruno Barreto directs a Brazilian comedy with the Romeo and Juliet setup.
• Scotland, PA (2001): Billy Morrissette directs James LeGros and Maura Tierney in an adaptation of Macbeth.
• Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992-94): Stop-action and cartoon versions.
• Shakespeare in Love (1998): Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman's screenplay, directed by John Madden, with Rupert Everett as Christopher Marlowe, Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola De Lesseps, and Joseph Fiennes as Shakespeare. Numerous allusions to the plays, scenes from Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and a recitation of Sonnet 18.
• Shakespeare Behind Bars (2006): A documentary about prisoners putting on a production of The Tempest. Directed by Hank Rogerson.
• Shakespeare Retold (2005): Modern adaptations of Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.
• Shakespeare Wallah (1965): Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay. James Ivory directs this film about a Shakespeare troupe in India.

• She's the Man (2006): Directed by Andy Flickman, with Amanda Bynes as Viola Hastings. The cross-dressing setup from Twelfth Night.
• Slings and Arrows (2003-2006): TV series about a fictional Shakespeare festival.
• Tempest (1982): Paul Mazursky's loose adaptation of The Tempest, with John Cassavetes in the Prospero role, Molly Ringwald in the Miranda role, Susan Sarandan in the Ariel role, and Raul Julia in the Caliban role.
• The Tempest (1998): An adaptation set in the Civil War with Peter Fonda as the Prospero character and Harold (Waaalt!) Perrineau as Ariel. (In the U.S., this is only available on VHS.)
• Throne of Blood (1957): Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of Macbeth, with Toshiro Mifune as Washizu (Macbeth) and Isuzu Yamada as Asaji (Lady Macbeth).
• West Side Story (1961): Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood in a musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Which Shakespeare Plays Do Students Read in High School?

I surveyed the students in my upper-division college Shakespeare course to find out which plays they had read in high school.

Most had read Romeo and Juliet (70%) and Hamlet (68%); fewer than half had read Macbeth (39%) or Julius Caesar (36%). Three plays brought up the rear: Othello (31%), A Midsummer Night's Dream (24%), and—surprisingly—The Taming of the Shrew (21%).

The other thirty canonical plays were untouched or had been read by one or two students.

Summary of the First Two Scenes of Richard III

In the first scene, Richard tells us that the Yorks have beaten the Lancasters and put his brother Edward on the throne, ending the Wars of the Roses. Peace doesn't agree with Richard, who is too deformed to practice the arts of love. He's determined to be a villain and has plotted against brother Clarence, letting the king hear a prophecy that implies Clarence will murder Edward's heirs. When Clarence appears, under guard, Richard greets him and says that the king's wife, Elizabeth, is behind his downfall, just as she was behind the recent imprisonment of Lord Hastings. Only the queen's relatives and those with influence on the king's mistress are safe in the new order.

Richard tells Clarence he will do what he can to help him, and, after Clarence is led off, meets newly released Hastings. They discuss the king's illness, which Richard attributes to Edward's decadent way of life. After Hastings leaves, Richard tells us that the king will die soon. Because Richard wants Clarence to die first, he will make sure the king executes Clarence before another day goes by. When both brothers are dead, Richard will marry Lady Anne, even though he killed her husband Prince Edward of Lancaster and her father-in-law Henry VI.

The second scene begins with Lady Anne following Henry VI's funeral procession. She asks men carrying the coffin to set it down, then laments the dead king and curses his killer, who also killed her husband. The men pick up the coffin, ready to continue the procession, but are interrupted by Richard, who makes them set the body down again.

Anne calls Richard a devil and uncovers Henry's body, saying its wounds bleed afresh because it's near its murderer. Richard tries to explain what he's done. When he claims that he didn't kill Anne's husband, Anne says that her mother-in-law Margaret of Anjou saw him with his sword covered in Edward's blood; Richard would have killed Margaret as well if his brothers hadn't stopped him. Anne asks Richard if he's also going to deny killing Henry VI. Richard admits killing Henry but says he was simply helping Henry get to heaven: the pious Henry was more fit for heaven that earth. Anne retorts that Richard is most fit for hell. Outrageously, Richard responds by saying he is more fit for Anne's bedroom. He goes on to argue that her beauty caused the death of her husband and father-in-law. Anne says that if she thought that she would rip the beauty from her cheeks.

When Richard says he killed her husband to give her a better one—himself—Anne spits at him and tells him to get out of her sight: he infects her eyes. Richard says that her eyes have drawn tears from his own and gives her his sword; if she wants revenge she should go ahead and kill him. She can't do it. She drops the sword, and Richard picks it up, saying that, if she can't kill him, she should command him to kill himself. When she says she already did that, he tells her that that was when she was enraged. He says that just as he killed others for her love, he will now kill himself for it. Anne says he's a liar but tells him to put away his sword. Richard offers her a ring, and she takes it, saying that it's meaningless. She agrees to go to his house, where he will meet her after he's finished mourning Henry.

Anne leaves, and Richard orders that Henry's body be taken to the Blackfriars' priory. He exults that he has successfully wooed Anne, despite having killed her husband and father-law, despite her hating and cursing him, and despite Henry's bleeding corpse being nearby. Anne has replaced her handsome husband with the deformed Richard, who has now discovered that he's handsome; he'll have to buy a mirror and get tailors to make him clothes. As soon as he gets Henry buried, he'll go to Anne.

Edwin Austin Abbey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne (1896)

Yale University Art Gallery

Olivier's Richard III: Title Sequence and Opening Scenes

Laurence Olivier opens his 1955 Richard III with stirring tympani and trumpets and titles reading "Laurence Olivier Presents Richard III by William Shakespeare With some interpolations by David Garrick[,] Colley Cibber[,] etc." Viewers unfamiliar with English theater history might suppose that Garrick and Cibber were screenwriters and that the title resembles the one that supposedly opened the 1929 Taming of the Shrew with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Mary Pickford: "Written by William Shakespeare with additional dialogue by Sam Taylor."¹ In fact, Garrick was an eighteenth-century actor and Cibber an eighteenth-century playwright, and Olivier's reference to them gives us our first hint about the relationship between his movie and Shakespeare's play.

For almost two centuries, from the beginning of the eighteenth to the late nineteenth, the most familiar version of Richard III was by Colley Cibber, a theater manager, actor, and playwright best remembered as the Dunce in Alexander Pope's mock epic.

Colley Cibber, Workshop of Henry Cheere? (c. 1740)

National Portrait Gallery

Cibber made two large structural changes to Shakespeare's play. First, he began with Richard murdering the Lancastrian king Henry VI, the penultimate scene in The Third Part of Henry VI, the play that precedes Richard III in Shakespeare's first history play tetralogy. Second, he eliminated one of Shakespeare's greatest characters, Margaret of Anjou, who appears in all four plays, beginning (in The First Part of Henry VI) as a young bride and ending (in Richard III) as a kind of living ghost, haunting and cursing the Yorks.

Like Cibber's Richard III, Olivier's starts with a scene from The Third Part of Henry VI—the last rather than the second-to-last—and eliminates Margaret. Olivier also includes Cibber's lines, "Off with his head. So much for Buckingham" and "Richard's himself again," lines made famous by the actor-manager who succeeded Cibber at the Drury Lane theater: David Garrick, the most celebrated English actor of the eighteenth century.

"David Garrick as Richard III," William Hogarth (1741)

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

As the best-known English actor of twentieth century, Olivier presumably felt himself to be Garrick's heir, especially when performing Garrick's most famous role. The connection may have been in film director Alexander Korda's mind when he commissioned Salvador Dalí to paint Olivier in costume as Richard.

Just as William Hogarth's painting of David Garrick as Richard is the most familiar portrayal of that actor, so Dalí's is now the most famous of Olivier.

Dalí Theatre-Museum, Figueres, Spain

Those who've seen Olivier's film will recognize his hat and the hand with two missing fingers. The ring on his pinky may allude to the ring Richard gives Tyrell when commissioning the little princes' murder. His double face represents both Richard's double nature and the actor behind the role. In the background is one of Dalí's Spanish-looking landscapes, now standing for Bosworth Field, which Olivier recreated outside Madrid.

As the film's title sequence indicates, in recreating this story, Olivier drew not just on Shakespeare's play but on the theatrical tradition surrounding that play. He also drew on Richard's legend. The final titles tell us: "Here now begins one of the most famous and at the same time the most infamous of the legends that are attached to The Crown of England."

Olivier may have stressed the legendary aspect of the story in part as a response to defenses of the historical Richard. Such defenses must have existed when the Tudor legend of Richard's deformity and wickedness first took shape. They began in earnest with Horace Walpole's Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third in the eighteenth century and saw a resurgence after the publication of Josephine Tey's mystery novel The Daughter of Time in 1951. In 1954, the actor Richard Clarke formed the Friends of Richard to defend the last Yorkist king. The following year, after the release of Olivier's film, Clarke claimed Olivier told him he included the shot of the inscription on Richard's garter—"honi soit qui mal y pense," "shame on those who think of ill of it"—near the end of the film "especially for you people."

Appeasing Ricardians no doubt mattered less to Olivier than drawing the audience into the film's atmosphere. The title sequence does this with medieval-looking calligraphy, border decorations, and illustrations that give us the sense that what follows is a filmed version of a tale from a medieval manuscript. Olivier's strategy here resembles what he does in his Henry V (1944), where he begins with a playbill for the original Globe performance, moves to a shot over a model of London, then to the Globe itself (Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman may be imitating this opening in Shakespeare in Love). When the performance in the Globe moves to a more realistic setting, we get the sense that what we are watching resembles what would be happening in the original audience's imagination. Olivier reinforces that sense at the end of the film when he returns to the Globe performance.

Olivier similarly bookends his Richard III by beginning and ending with the legendary crown. In the opening titles, a drawn crown dissolves into a filmed one—a trick Olivier reverses at the film's end—and the camera pans down to show us that this crown is actually an enormous sculpture suspended over the real crown, which is being lowered onto the "son of York" who is about to become Edward IV. A different angle shows us the other Yorks and their followers, lowering still more crowns, "victorious wreaths," onto their own heads. (There are far too many crowns here.) We see Richard from behind, his crown in front of royal one. The framing hints at his ambition, at which crown he wishes were settling on his head. Later Olivier as Richard will reinforce this impression by carelessly handing his crown to a servant, who drops it; Olivier will register annoyance so mild that we will know how little he values his inferior crown, the sign of his present, lower position in the Yorkist hierarchy.

Olivier introduces the hierarchy's factions after the crowd chants "God save King Edward the Fourth! Long live King Edward the Fourth! May the king live forever!" Richard looks over his shoulder, giving us our first sight of his huge triangular nose. Another shot reveals that he's not looking at us but at his ally Buckingham (Ralph Richardson), who in turn looks at Richard's first victim: Clarence (John Gielgud), who stands with piously folded hands, blinking, his insipid expression contrasting with Richard's and Buckingham's knowing ones. Clarence turns and looks at his mother the Duchess of York, at the little princes, and at Queen Elizabeth and her brother and sons by her first marriage. In a few quick shots, we have been introduced to every character that stands between Richard and the throne.

As these characters leave the coronation chamber, we're introduced to a character who doesn't appear in Shakespeare's play: Edward's mistress Jane Shore (Pamela Brown).

Pamela Brown as Jane Shore

She moves her hand toward the king, who almost touches her cheek with his scepter. Jane's eyes gleam, and Queen Elizabeth's face freezes as she moves with her husband into the next room, where Olivier gives us the last scene of The Third Part of Henry VI. Before Edward speaks of his son inheriting the crown, Jane slips behind the throne. When he announces celebrations that suit the "pleasure of the court" (46),² we see her in the right foreground. As the celebrations begin with a procession through the streets, we see her following in a litter.

Her character highlights Edward's loose morals, which Richard will use to delegitimize his son's succession. In later scenes, she underscores the weakness that allows Richard to manipulate his brother. For example, after Richard gets Edward to sign Clarence's execution order, we see Jane hand the king a goblet of wine: we understand that, distracted by his pleasures, Edward isn't paying adequate attention to serious matters. We see this again when he tries to make peace among the Yorks: as his wife addresses them with her back to her husband, Edward takes the opportunity to kiss Jane's hand. After his death, Jane plays a similar role in Hastings's downfall, distracting him from warnings that might save him from destruction.

Just as Jane's presence in the busy opening scenes gives us a sense of Edward's vulnerability, the next scene—Richard alone—shows us Richard's strength and determination. At the same time, the scene establishes a powerful sense of intimacy between Richard and the movie audience. The scene starts with the camera moving toward the palace door, which opens to reveal Richard leaning on the throne. When the door shuts behind the camera (behind us) Richard turns and looks at it (and us). He walks forward, limping slightly, blinks a few times, and looking directly at us as begins the play's famous opening soliloquy: "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York."

After two thirds of that speech, Richard switches to a soliloquy from the preceding play, in which he first reveals his desire for the crown. The combined soliloquy demonstrates Olivier's skillful blending of the techniques of stage and film acting. For instance, in a way that would be too subtle to be seen in a theater, he highlights lines with his eyes, lowering them as he speaks of the clouds that loured upon the House of York being buried in the ocean's deep bosom (3-4), opening them wide as he talks of frightening his adversaries' souls (11). He speaks directly, often quietly, to the camera, creating a sense of closeness with the movie viewer. As he continues to speak in this confidential manner, he leads us into another room, where he limps away from us, toward the throne. His gestures now become larger and more theatrical as he claws at invisible thorns, acting out lines from The Third Part of Henry VI:

And I—like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way and straying from the way,
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out—
Torment myself to catch the English crown.
(3.2.174-81)

In a gesture that would be seen at the back of a large theater, he makes a backhanded swing with an invisible ax as he says, " from that torment I will free myself, / Or hew my way out with a bloody axe" (181-82).

He then walks toward us, getting closer than he ever could to a theater audience as he talks of how he can smile and kill at the same time. The camera backs away, and he follows as he reveals the terrifying extent of his duplicity. The movements of actor and camera make us feel that we are trying to get out of the way of this deadly chameleon.

Olivier concludes the combined soliloquy with Richard telling us that with his deceptive skills, he will surely win the crown, the conclusion of the soliloquy from The Third Part of Henry VI. We might have expected him here to return to Richard III's opening soliloquy. Instead he has Richard lead us to the scene that best illustrates our villain's demonic skills: the seduction of Lady Anne.

In Shakespeare's play, the scene begins with the funeral procession of Henry VI, with Anne asking that her father-in-law's corpse be set down so that she can mourn the murdered king. Her laments for Henry quickly become curses for his killer, Richard. The procession begins again, Richard interrupts and woos her, and Anne goes from wanting to kill him to accepting a ring and agreeing to meet him at one of his houses. The whole scene, from Anne's laments and curses to Richard's exulting over his conquest, is only 250 lines long, one of the most compressed and dramatic seduction scene in all of English literature. (Its only rival is act three, scene three, of Othello, in which Iago seduces Othello to his worldview.)

Olivier makes the seduction of Lady Anne even more dramatic by changing its beginning and ending. He starts with Richard hearing the chants from a funeral procession, a contrast with the cheers and fanfares of the Yorks' triumphant procession a scene earlier. Richard tells us that the body belongs to Anne's husband, Prince Edward, whom he "stabb'd in [his] angry mood at Tewkesbury" (1.2.248). By making the body Anne's husband rather than her father-in-law (Ian McKellan and Richard Loncraine make the same change in their 1995 film), Olivier gives Richard a greater challenge than the one he faces in Shakespeare's play: he must woo Anne (Claire Bloom) beside the bleeding corpse of her husband. And in Olivier's version, Richard doesn't just get her to take a ring and agree to meet him later: he kisses her and follows her into a bedroom.

Notes

¹Thomas L. Erskine, James Michael Welsh, and John C. Tibbetts, Video Versions: Film Adaptations of Plays on Video (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000), 341.
²All line numbers come from The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt et al. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997).