No student escapes school without reading Shakespeare. No movie goer escapes seeing at least one adaptation of a Shakespearean play. No speaker of the English language avoids quoting him. His influence is undeniable and with good reason. As Ben Johnson, his peer and rival said of him Shakespeare is "not of an age, but for all time". Why can we not escape from him? What keeps us going back to his plays and poetry after hundreds of years? We will begin answering these questions with two of his most enduring tragedies, Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet.
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Shakespeare's Life and Times
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Julius Caesar |
Romeo and Juliet
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