Click on the play below to read Shakespeare’s original text, split into Acts and Scenes. The original play texts are taken from Shakespeare’s complete works, published as the First Folio.
A couple of things to bear in mind when reading Shakespeare’s original texts:
As well as dialogue the texts also include stage directions – direction to the theatre company performing the play as to what’s happening around the drama, who’s on the stage and who isn’t, when they arrive, when they leave, where they are on the stage, when music should be played, bugles sounded, and so on. Stage directions in these texts are italicised. Read our article on understanding the stage directions in Shakespeare’s texts.
Reflected in the original text is that the language used in Shakespeare’s day was slightly different from today’s modern English. Our article on Shakespeare & early modern English, or our Shakespeare dictionary, will help you to understand the language as you read through the original text.
Shakespeare’s Texts by Play
All’s Well That Ends Well text – coming soon
Antony and Cleopatra text – coming soon
As You Like It text – coming soon
Cardenio text – coming soon
The Comedy of Errors text – coming soon
Coriolanus text – coming soon
Cymbeline text – coming soon
Edward III – coming soon
Hamlet text
Henry IV Part 1 text – coming soon
Henry IV Part 2 text – coming soon
Henry VIII text – coming soon
Henry VI Part 1 text – coming soon
Henry VI Part 2 text – coming soon
Henry VI Part 3 text – coming soon
Henry V text – coming soon
Julius Caesar text
King John text – coming soon
King Lear text
Love’s Labour’s Lost text – coming soon
Love’s Labour’s Won text – coming soon
Macbeth text
Measure for Measure text – coming soon
The Merchant of Venice text
The Merry Wives of Windsor text – coming soon
A Midsummer Night’s Dream text
Much Ado About Nothing text – coming soon
Othello text
Pericles text
Richard II text – coming soon
Richard III text – coming soon
Romeo and Juliet text
Sir Thomas Moore – coming soon
The Taming of the Shrew text – coming soon
The Tempest text
Timon of Athens text – coming soon
Titus Andronicus text – coming soon
Troilus & Cressida text – coming soon
Twelfth Night text – coming soon
The Two Gentlemen of Verona text – coming soon
The Two Noble Kinsmen text – coming soon
The Winter’s Tale text – coming soon
Alternatively, why not try reading Shakespeare’s plays translated into modern English?
