Plays Flashcards
(38 cards)
Proteus loves Julia and his friend Valentine loves Sylvia.Proteus gets Valentine outlawed in order to pursue Sylvia himself.
His page Sebastian is actually Julia in disguise.
After much trouble, everyone ends up with their original beloved.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (comedy)
Falstaff goes after two women at the same time. They find out about each other and make him a laughing stock.
The Merry Wives of Windsor (comedy)
Magician Prosperous shipwrecks the enemies that originally ousted him from Italy.
His daughter Miranda falls in love with the son of his arch rival.
Prosperous faces down his enemies and learns to forgive.
The Tempest (comedy)
The Duke of Vienna is absent, so his deputy Angelo resurrects arcane fornication laws.
Angelo is busted trying to pressure a nun in to sex, by the Duke in disguise as a friar.
Measure for Measure (comedy)
Friends Antiphilus and Dromeo are separated in a shipwreck as babies. They head to Ephesus to search for their twin brothers.
Much confusion for wives and friends, then their parents appear and sort it all out.
The Comedy of Errors (comedy)
In Sicily, Claudio and Hero are cruelly tricked and parted.
Benedict and Beatrice fight and fall in love.
Deceptions and disguises are uncovered by a hapless night-watchman and harmonious order is restored with marriages and jigging.
Much Ado About Nothing (comedy)
The King and 3 friends swear off women for three years, just before a beautiful princess arrives with her ladies. Love letter mix-ups and shenanigans. All 4 break their oaths.
Love’s Labours Lost (comedy)
Mistaken administering of “Love Juice” results in Titania, Queen of the Faeries falling for the ass, Bottom.
Two sets of couples get confused in the woods, before the natural order of things is restored.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (comedy)
Antonio makes a risky deal - leveraging a pound of his own flesh - to support friend Basanio’s pursuit of Portia.
When Shylock calls in his debt, Portia, dressed as a man, successfully fights Antonio’s case in a court of law with an ingenious defence.
The Merchant of Venice (comedy)
The exile of brothers, Dukes, fathers, daughters, cousins and clowns to the benign bubble of the Forest of Ardennes leads to disguise, gender-bending and happy marriages for all.
As You Like It (comedy)
Stroppy Catarina stands in the way of her more pliable sister Bianca’s marriage.
Bianca’s suitors persuade fortune hunter Petruchio to marry Catarina and embark on a campaign of mental cruelty that “tames” her.
Everyone is left content and happily married.
The Taming of the Shrew (comedy)
Twins Viola and Sebastian lose each other after a shipwreck and believing each other to be dead become the servants of amorous Illyrian nobles.
Much disguise and a yellow stocking-themed subplot before they are finally reunited.
Twelfth Night (or ‘As You Will’) (comedy)
King Leonte’s jealous madness leads to the demise of his children and the death by grief of his wife.
Happily, many years later it is revealed that his wife and daughter are both alive, and all are reconciled.
The Winter’s Tale (comedy)
Pericles competes for a wife, and then loses her and his new-born daughter in a shipwreck.
Many years later he is reunited with them after his wife becomes a priestess and his daughter a virginal prostitute.
Pericles
Friends Palamon and Arcite fall out over their love for Emilia, but an unbindable horse means Palamon eventually gets the girl.
The Two Noble Kinsmen
King John is threatened by an angry nephew, the King of France, and a Cardinal, and is finally murdered by a malcontent monk.
King John (history)
Proud, long-serving King Richard is finally undone by ambitious Henry Bolingbrook, his own vanity, and a penchant for land-grabbing.
Richard II (history)
Henry Bollingbrook is now King Henry but enjoyment of his reign is undermined by his son Hal and his associations with the drunkard Falstaff and the rebellion of Henry Percy (nicknamed ‘Hotspur’) who is eventually killed by Hal.
Henry IV, Pt. 1 (history)
Hotspur’s father avenges his son’s death by threatening to cause civil war.
Henry’s health declines and on his deathbed he makes peace with his errant son, Hal, who rejects his pal Falstaff and prepares to take the crown as Henry V.
Henry IV, Pt. 2 (history)
Henry decides to start his reign with a punchy request to rule France, which is rejected.
After glorious victory at Agincourt, Princess Catherine of France marries him and the countries are bound together.
Henry V (history)
Orphan Helena is determined to have her man, Bertram, even is he doesn’t want her. She tricks him in to impregnating her by pretending to be Diana. Bertram is impressed by her tactic and agrees to be a good husband to her.
All’s Well That Ends Well (comedy)
Young Henry struggles to live up to his heroic father despite dealing successfully with Joan of Arc, although less successfully with his own dastardly Dukes.
Henry VI, Pt. 1 (history)
Henry fails to control his nobles, which leads to the War of the Roses.
Henry VI, Pt. 2 (history)
Henry loses his throne, regains it, solliloquises on a molehill, loses the throne again and is stabbed to death by the future Richard III.
Henry VI, Pt. 3 (history)
