Gigablast. Infographic: Get More Out Of Google. iTools - use the best tools. Macbeth. Stop us if you've heard this one before: a man hears an exciting prophecy about his future and decides to take fate into his own hand by killing his king. Things go rapidly downhill. Sure, it's possible that you were just tra-la-la-ing through the Internet and randomly stumbled over this guide, but we're guessing that you already know Macbeth's basic plot. After all, it is one of the most famous works of English literature, and it's even loosely based on some real-life 11th century events found in Holinshed's Chronicles. So let's tell you something you might not know: when it was first performed by Shakespeare's company around 1606, Macbeth was the latest in ripped-from-the-headlines, up-to-the-minute political events.
It's basically The Dark Knight trilogy of the (very) early 17th century. Check it out: (1) It was written in 1605 or 1606, right after James I, the first Stuart king, took up the crown of England in 1603. Probably not. Merchant of Venice. The Merchant of Venice Everyone loves a happy ending. In romantic comedies love always triumphs against adversity whether between or against the central characters, but real life isn't like a romantic comedy. In real life things get more complicated and the end result may not be as sweet as you thought it would be. In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare took a simple formulaic story of young lovers who strive against their older parents to be with the ones they love and gave it a dose of complicated reality. Though, the story ends with not one but three young couples in the arms of their beloved, the audience does not feel at ease with their final happy ending.
The play as it appeared in the 1623 First Folio Bassanio, an opportunistic young man seeks a loan from his best friend Antonio, a prosperous merchant, to court the rich Portia, not for love but for financial gain. The title page from the play's first printing in 1600 featuring some of the play's high points.