Maybe you love Shakespeare or maybe you have been forced to read his work to pass an exam or you just can’t make headway with the language. Peace, gentle friend! This course is for you.

We will look at Shakespeare’s life, language and the historical and literary context of his works. We will then look at his plays and poetry. For each text we will look at its sources, background and publication then a synopsis, an analysis of its themes and a commentary on key passages, then look at key productions you may be able to access. The videos end with a series of questions for you to reflect on your perceptions of the play/poem.

Texts Covered:

· Hamlet

· Othello

· King Lear

· Macbeth

· Romeo and Juliet

· Love’s Labour’s Lost

· Much Ado About Nothing

· Twelfth Night

· As You Like It

· A Midsummer Night’s Dream

· Pericles

· The Winter’s Tale

· Cymbeline

· The Tempest

· Julius Caesar

· Antony and Cleopatra

· Titus Andronicus

· Coriolanus

· Henry IV Parts I and II

· Henry V

· Richard III

· Henry VIII

· All’s Well That Ends Well

· Measure for Measure

· Troilus and Cressida

· The Sonnets

· Venus and Adonis

· The Rape of Lucrece

As a graduate of the prestigious Queen’s University of Belfast with both an Honours degree and Master’s in English. I am delighted to be your guide through this adventure of treachery and intrigue, enchanted forests, the Roman forum, shipwrecks, mystical islands and the English court where we will meet kings, jesters, fairies, soldiers, star-cross’d lovers and a guy with a donkey’s head.

Prithee, join us anon and thou shalt know the Bard.

Sample video

The course costs £55 and is comprised of 19 hours of video and PDF content.