Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book IV, p. 43v, 'Pyramus & Thisbe'..
Shakespeare’s source for the play of 'Pyramus and Thisbe'.
Nick Bottom, the weaver and leading actor amongst the Athenian craftsmen in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, knows little about ...
Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book IV, p. 44r,'Thisbe flees the lioness'..
Stories for sources in Shakespeare.
The tale of the doomed lovers Pyramus and Thisbe was among those that Shakespeare remembered from Ovid, and used for A Midsummer Night’s Dream>, 1,2, lines ...
Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book X, p. 119v, 'Orpheus' story'..
Stories for sources in Shakespeare.
When Shakespeare came to London he had great opportunity for contact with books, whether in the city, on the bookstalls around St. Paul's Churchyard, or from the ...
Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book X, p. 120r, 'Orpheus and Euridice'..
Stories for sources in Shakespeare.
The story of Orpheus, the poet and singer who tried to save his wife, the nymph Euridice, from death by charming the king of the underworld with his music, was in ...
Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book XII, p. 144v, 'Achilles'.
A story source for Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.
The fame of the Greek warrior, Achilles, and his companions was well-known in literature, but Shakespeare may first have discovered the story ...
Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book XII, p. 145r, 'Trojan Nestor'..
A source for Shakespeare’s character of Nestor, the elderly nobleman in Troilus and Cressida
This page in Ovid's story of the heroes of Greece and Troy may have provided Shakespeare with ideas ...
Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - title page, p.1'Of shapes transformed...'.
A schoolbook that provided many sources for ideas in plays and poems
One of the first books that Shakespeare experienced at Stratford grammar school was the Metamorphosis of Ovid. Written in Latin ...
Pine Wood Statue of Shakespeare
Modelled on the statue sculpted by Peter Scheemakers from a design by William Kent for Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey (unveiled in 1741).
This pinewood statue was once painted, as is indicated by ...
Plaster model of 'Shakespeare Asleep under the Crab Tree' - lid open
A bas-relief plaster model showing Shakespeare asleep under a crab-apple tree at Bidford-on-Avon.
This illustrates a tale, originating in the eighteenth century, of Shakespeare engaging, or attempting ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - binding view
A notable binding contemporary with Shakespeare.
A royal coat-of-arms was stamped in gold on this volume in the seventeenth century. The same gilded ownership coat-of-arms adorns the back as the front ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - binding, front board
The front board of a Shakespearian sourcebook.
The original owner of this book probably purchased it from the printer, a friend of William Shakespeare, Richard Field, or from his publisher Thomas Wight. ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - Caius Martius Coriolanus, p.221.
The story of Coriolanus in Shakespeare's source.
The central facts for the play of Coriolanus were taken by from North’s translation of Plutarch's Lives. The fable of the belly and its rebellion ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - detail, p. A4r.
The translator's notes 'To the Reader' of a Shakespeare sourcebook.
Sir Thomas North, writing in January 1579, attached a ‘Foreword’ to the readers of his translation of Plutarch’s ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - detail, printer and publisher imprint
The imprint of Shakespeare’s fellow Stratfordian.
Richard Field, who was two years older than Shakespeare, was son of Henry Field, a Stratford tanner. In September 1579, at the age of seventeen ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - fore-edge title
An Elizabethan identification of a Shakespearian sourcebook.
An early owner of this volume stored his books in the same way as many of his contemporaries, with the fore-edge facing outwards, rather ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - Julius Caesar, p.712.
The story of Julius Caesar, as read by Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s first knowledge of Latin and the Roman heroes had been acquired at school, and later for his play Julius Caesar he took the story ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - p.1, Theseus.
Theseus is first in North's study of the Greeks as read by Shakespeare.
The first story in North’s translation of Plutarch is of the Greek king Theseus whose marriage to Hippolyta, Queen of the ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - title page, printer's device
A printer’s ornament known to Shakespeare.
Each Elizabethan printer used a personal ‘device’ on the title page of his work. Richard Field, the printer who came from Stratford, used ...