Shakespeare Right Now!

Tired of scholars’ tedious tomes?

Sick of spoilers and footnote whiplash?

Read new, free versions of Macbeth,
Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and
The Taming of the Shrew that make clear who’s speaking to whom, where they are, and what’s happening!

Coming Next:
Much Ado About Nothing

Macbeth
by William Shakespeare

Presented by Paul W. Collins

Footnote-free narrative incorporating
Shakespeare’s dialogue

     At the end of a violent Scottish insurrection, three mischievous agents of Fate tempt a valiant warrior who in times of peace has been an unprincipled thane, a nobleman eager to rise, but reluctant to create political opportunity by criminal means.
     His ambitious wife is not so hesitant—she demands that he act, and the pair’s conniving soon bears its fruits—and consequences. Living in luxury, the deadly couple are haunted: she, tormented by nightmarish guilt, he, sleepless, and driven to violent action in hopes of altering the dismal destiny prophesied for him.
     Macbeth’s extravagance and increasingly malevolent actions arouse fear, then stir resistance, bringing Scotland’s nobility to the verge of civil war.
     Always bold, he is fearless after again listening to the “witches.” As have many others, after seizing power and exerting it ruthlessly, he comes to believe he’s invincible.
     Only the impossible, it seems, could defeat Macbeth—
but his patriotic opponents must try.

Read it online by clicking here
To download it for free:
In Microsoft Word format (.doc), click here
In portable document format (.pdf), click here
In Web browsers’ hypertext markup language (.html),
click here
In rich text format (.rtf), click here
 

Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare

Presented by Paul W. Collins

Footnote-free narrative incorporating
Shakespeare’s dialogue

     A quintessential leader enlivens this story: Julius Caesar — general, statesman and magnanimous sovereign; brilliant, effective, and canny. In 55 B.C. he had led the first Roman invasion of Britain; now, ten years later, he returns from his latest campaign, defeating a rebellion in Spain.
     Another admired Roman, Marcus Brutus, chief praetor (judge), who hopes to succeed him, is also charismatic, and considers himself a patriot. He reveres his namesake forebear, one of the capital’s founders, and he resists the strong urgings of his own ambition.
     But a wily senator and former general, Caius Cassius, has been conspiring, with other elite politicians who resent Caesar’s popular reforms, to assassinate the ruler. And as the full Senate prepares to crown Julius, already named dictator for life, and make him emperor, Cassius moves to enlist Brutus to endorse the plotters’ disingenuous arguments and bolster their cause.
     The fickle populace is manipulated by both sides in the aftermath of Caesar’s murder, and four armies clash in bloody combat when two of the killers and their troops are pursued by forces of the men now ruling Rome—Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar.
   Long-suffering wives, valiant warriors, a soothsayer, a poet and a camp-follower—even a ghost—all have their moments, as the interests of conservatives and liberals, ambitious plutocrats and self-serving commoners all collide.

The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare

Presented by Paul W. Collins

Footnote-free narrative incorporating
Shakespeare’s dialogue

   This lively tale examines risk-taking and investment—and reveals how gains can be realized through commitment.
   In order to thrive by surcharging for goods bought and sold, stored and shipped, the Italian city-state’s aristocrats often borrow cash—yet some decry, on principle, moneylenders’ profiting from the use of gold itself. In a superb irony, one usurer’s situation is improved after an overly comfortable ideologue first experiences the down side of hazarding in business.
   A worthy young heiress is compelled to wait while privileged outsiders gamble with her fate. A nobleman whose reckless expeditions have sunk his own fortune now trades on a friend’s affection—jeopardizing the older lord’s riches as well. Blithe young gentlemen emulate a successful entrepreneur, while a poor man’s son looks for prosperity in high-spirited service.
   All of them hope to develop good returns under the precepts that are supposed to govern the conduct of such ventures. But how well do the common rules of commerce and cooperation work? How are they enforced?
   And when can—should—conscience overrule contractual or filial obligation?
   Settlements are reached between young and old, rich and poor, male and female, insider and outsider, in Shakespeare’s rich Renaissance tapestry.

Read it online by clicking here
To download it for free:
In Microsoft Word format (.doc), click here
In portable document format (.pdf), click here
In Web browsers’ hypertext markup language (.html),
click here
In rich text format (.rtf), click here

 Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare

Presented by Paul W. Collins

Footnote-free narrative incorporating
Shakespeare’s dialogue

   Renaissance Italy, sunny, fertile and flourishing, is the setting for vibrant romance. Two teenagers meet one evening at a party and instantly are mutually entranced. Soon they are married by their priest.
   But both have lived under the sway of arrogant, privileged men. Two leading houses are troubling Verona with competitive belligerence: Lord Capulet is Juliet’s father,
Lord Montague is Romeo’s. Their prince has demanded peace between the factions, and the old noblemen would be content with that; but the town’s swaggering, pugnacious youths, gentlemen and serving-men alike, persist in pointless strife.
   When the rift suddenly escalates, Romeo is caught up in the turmoil. Friar Laurence proposes a scheme to free him, and the newlyweds enjoy one night together before the young husband must flee the city.
   The temporally focused priest puts faith in the “powerful grace” of Nature’s “true qualities.” He believes earth’s living things all offer “some special good.” But he’s aware that nothing is so good but that, improperly used, it “revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied.”
   Still, the monk thinks that “vice sometimes by action is dignified.” All around Juliet and Romeo, people have lost or abandoned their own better purposes. Consequences of using questionable means to serve defensible intentions multiply.
   The bright, colorful scene darkens, fraught with sorrow, as Death stalks, threatening old and young alike.

Read it online by clicking here
To download it for free:
In Microsoft Word format (.doc), click here
In portable document format (.pdf), click here
In Web browsers’ hypertext markup language (.html),
click here
In rich text format (.rtf), click here
 

 Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare

Presented by Paul W. Collins

Footnote-free narrative incorporating
Shakespeare’s dialogue

   In a prospering seaside realm, a duke and a countess have been indulging notions: he has decided she is to be his wife; she has vowed to forego marriage.
   Among her householders, two questless knights carouse nightly, despite efforts of the lady’s waiting-gentlewoman to keep the peace, and they annoy the prim, officious steward. Countess Olivia’s bright jester brings dry humor to both courts: he’s moonlighting—saving money in hopes of marrying a woman at Duke Orsino’s.
   Just when one knight’s parasitic decadence has upset the tenuously balanced calm, a shipwreck brings two young strangers to Illyria. The duke soon recruits one of them to serve as his surrogate suitor. The countess has already rejected Orsino, but she is strongly attracted to his vivacious emissary—a woman disguised as a man.
   Rascality and trickery enliven the fast action when the imposter, who has fallen in love with the duke, makes dutiful attempts to court Olivia—who falls in love with the man the stranger seems to be.
   Still, wrongdoing is chastised, prisoners are freed, and good hearts unite to prevail in this delightful gambol.

Read it online by clicking here
To download it for free:
In Microsoft Word format (.doc), click here
In portable document format (.pdf), click here
In Web browsers’ hypertext markup language (.html), click here
In rich text format (.rtf), click here

 The Taming of the Shrew
by William Shakespeare

Presented by Paul W. Collins

Footnote-free narrative incorporating
Shakespeare’s dialogue

   We’re not alone in watching this piece: Christopher Sly, a ne’er-do-well drinker, as unsuccessful with females as with life, views a paradigmatic tale in which his favored conception of himself—as a bold, swashbuckling male—encounters his dourest notion of women as cold and domineering. Could a revised outlook mean happier times for him?
   You and I need no such straightening out, of course, so we can enjoy the hearty, often hilarious encounters between two strong, intelligent people: a rambunctious country gentleman who, naively intending to make a routine acquisition for his estate—a wife—discovers, joyfully, a lifelong partner; and an urban gentlewoman so determined not to be treated as property that she has let anger falsely define her.
   The acerbic lady has a younger sister whose predicaments—being assailed by a sibling, restricted by a parent, pursued by unwanted suitors too old and too foolish—match the trials of many girls becoming adults today—or ever.
   But there is a partner for her as well; sent to the college town to study, that young gentleman instead finds himself teaching—in disguise. And he does begin to learn.
   The sisters’ three tutors—every one an impostor—meet varying results, but in the end, all will get what they need.
   Will Christopher?
   Will we?

Read it online by clicking here
To download it for free:
In Microsoft Word format (.doc), click here
In portable document format (.pdf), click here
In Web browsers’ hypertext markup language (.html), click here
In rich text format (.rtf), click here
 

Note: The spoken lines from Shakespeare’s dramas are in the public domain, as is the Globe (1864) edition of his plays, which provided the basic text of speeches in these new versions.  But Macbeth, by William Shakespeare:
Presented by Paul W. Collins; Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare: Presented by Paul W. Collins; The Merchant
of Venice, by William Shakespeare: presented by Paul W. Collins; Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare: Presented by Paul W. Collins; Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare: presented by Paul W. Collins, and The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare: Presented by Paul W. Collins are copyrighted works, and are made available for your personal use only, in reading and study. They may not lawfully be performed, copied, or further distributed in any form without the author’s written permission.

Student, beware: These are presentations, not scholarly works, so you should be sure your teacher, instructor or professor considers them acceptable as references before quoting characters’ comments or thoughts from it in your report or term paper.

Coming next: Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote plays for London’s Globe theater, owned by his acting company, which often performed
for Queen Elizabeth and King James. Today his work is perpetually in performance around the world, heard live and by radio and recording, and seen on stage and screen: cinema, television and digital display.

Paul W. Collins, a former news reporter, copy editor, public relations manager and magazine editor, hired himself to make reading Hamlet—as opposed to studying it—more enjoyable. It was supposed to take a week or so; a decade later he’s still absorbed, every day, with narrating the dialogue from Shakespeare’s plays.