More Tales from Shakespeare is a compilation of stories adapted from Shakesperean plays.

The stories were adapted from plays by Charles and Mary Lamb, who lived in the 18th century. Some of the stories included in the book are Shakespeares most popular ones like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. However, it also includes stories which are not as popular like The Winters Tale and The Taming of The Shrew. The other two stories included in this book are King Lear and Othello.

The Winters Tale is a story about the Sicilian king Leontes. The story tells how his jealousy and suspicion led to the sorrow of his loved ones. The King thought that his wife Hermione and his best friend King Polixenes of Bohemia was having an affair. As a result, he broke ties with Polixenes and sent him out of Sicily during his visit. But the kings wrath did not end there. He sent his servant Camillo to poison Polixenes, but the good Camillo refused and chose to stay with Polixenes instead. This betrayal added to Leontes wrath. He then sent his own wife Hermione to prison and separated her from their son Maximillius. The queen gave birth in the prison and named the baby Paulina. A friend of Hermione told the king about the birth of his new daughter, with hopes to soften Leontes heart. But he was not moved. Instead, he ordered his servant Antigonus to left the little Paulina on a shore. Antigounus obeyed. He left the baby on the shore of Bohemia. Later, the baby was found by a good farmer which raised the baby as Perdita. As she grown up, she found a man named Florizel whom she loved and loved her too. It turned out that Florizel was the son of Polixenes. Polixenes opposed the idea of marrying his son to a low-birth daughter of a farmer. Camillo, which was now Polixenes advisor sought a way so that the two lovers could marry. He brought both of them to Sicily. By then, Leontes had realized his wrongs since the deaths of Hermione and Maximillius. When Camillo brought the two lovers to the court, he showed that Leontes daughter Paulina was very much alive. Not only that, it turned out that Hermione was alive too and had hidden herself for a long time. Polixenes heard about this and agreed that his son will marry Paulina. In the end, all that has been lost is now found again.

In the fourth story, King Lear planned to divide his kingdom to his three daughter. To test the loyalty of his daughters, he asked them one by one to give praises to him. Goneril, the first daughter gave an impressive speech that made the king happy, and she was given one-third of the kingdom. The second daughter Regan said that there is no joy except for loving her dear father, so he received another third of the kingdom. The last daughter, Cordelia, spoke nothing except that she loved her father as normally a daughter would do. This left the king offended and he did not give her part of his kingdom. He sent her away but was taken by the King of France to his kingdom. Later, Lear found out htat both Goneril and Regan were insincere and caused sorrow to the elderly king. Cordelia came to help Lear and succeeded. Lear realized his foolishness and asked Cordelia for forgiveness. Later, Cordelia was taken prisoner by Goneril and Regans armies and sent to death. The King, left with sadness, died soon after.

The third story is The Taming of The Shrew. There was a woman named Katharine who had a violent behavior and spoke rudely and loudly, so she was called Katharine the Shrew. Her father Baptista tried hard to find a man interested with his daughter, which seemed to be an impossible quest. But a rich man named Petruchio agreed to marry her. He said to Baptista that he had some sort of way to take care of Katharine. Katharine herself did not like the idea of getting married. But the two married anyway. On the day of their wedding, Petruchio made a ruckus by hitting the priest who was

supposed to perform the marriage. That was not enough. Petruchio made trouble all the time on their wedding day. Katharine kept protesting until she was too tired to speak and shout. The already starving Katharin asked for food but was refused by Petruchio until she obeyed to his orders. After a long time of such treatment, Katharine turned to be a obedient wife and no longer was a shrew.

Romeo and Juliet follows the miserable story of the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. Two families, the Montagues and the Capulets had a long-standing rivalry. Romeo was born to Lord Motague and Juliet was born to Lord Capulet. But no matter how cruel the feud and the killing of each families were, it still could not prevent Romeo and Juliet to fall in love. Romeo met Juliet secretly at her mansion and promised to marry each other one day despite their families rivalry. But Lord Capulet had some other plan. He intended to marry Juliet to Paris, one of The Princes relations. Facing this problem, Romeo and Juliet came to Friar Lawrence and asked the Friar to get them married. The Friar agreed to do so. Later, Romeo was sent outside of the city because he killed a member of the Capulets, which was Juliets uncle. It made Juliet sad, but could not change her feelings to Romeo. As Romeo was driven away and Juliets marriage to Paris drew near, Friar Lawrence devised a plan to Juliet. He gave some kind of poison to Juliet which put her to a deep sleep so she would appear dead. When she was buried, Romeo would came and rescue her. Juliet agreed and drank the poison. News of her death spread to everyone, including Romeo. But alas, he heard the news without knowing about the Friars plan. His heart broke. He raced to Juliets grave with a poison that would end his life instantly. When he arrived, he kissed his wife goodbye and drank his poison. Juliet woke up to find Romeo lying dead on her side. She felt devastated. She discovered the poison drank by Romeo and took her life away with it. After the two lovers died, came Friar Lawrence along with Lord Montague and Lord Capulet. In despair, the Friar told the tragic story to both families, which left both families terribly sad and pitiful for the rivalry of their families. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet marked the end to Montagues and Capulets rivalry. The fifth story has Hamlet as the protagonist. When the old King Hamlet died, his brother Claudius took his place as the king and as the husband of Queen Gertrude. Hamlet was appalled with Claudius and refused to acknowledge him as a king and father. One night, he met the ghost of the old king. It said that King Hamlet had been killed by Claudius. Since that time, he sworn to the ghost that he would kill Claudius. Hamlet began to act as if he was mad. He put up an act to prove Claudius guilt with imitating the murder of his father. When Claudius saw the play, he was so disturbed that he left the place. Now that his uncles guilt was proven, Hamlet tried to kill him while he was praying but failed. Hamlet talked to Gertrude in her bedroom about her marriage with Claudius and that he refused to acknowledge Claudius as his father. He threatened the queen and tried to strangle her. Suddenly a shout was heard from the curtain, asking someone to help the queen. Hamlet instantly struck his sword to the curtain. It turned out that the hiding figure was Polonius, the kings advisor. Hamlet was sent to England but returned to his kingdom in Denmark. Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius went mad and died on a river. Hamlet came to see Ophelia buried on a funeral. As he came, Laertes which is Ophelias brother tried to kill Hamlet but was separated. Hamlet apologizes Laertes for what he had done. But Claudius, unhappy to see Hamlet alive, put up a trick. He invited Hamlet to a sword play with Laertes. Laertes used a poisoned sword to play with Hamlet. Unrealizing this, both fought and Hamlet was hit by Laertes sword, but later Hamlet was able to switch swords with Laertes and left a wound at him. At that point, Queen Gertrude who was watching fell due to poison in the wine she drank and soon died. The poisoned wine was actually intented to be drank by Hamlet. Laertes told him about this and the poison on the sword. He accused Claudius for all the

tricks, and soon after he died. Hamlet, overwhelmed with anger and revenge, took the sword and killed Claudius. He himself died afterwards. That was the end of Hamlets revenge.

The final story tells the tragic death of the great general Othello. He was famous as a hero and had a beautiful wife named Desdemona. Everyone in Venice loved him and hailed him as a savior because he had defended Venice from Turkish invaders. But this good fortune finally brought him an enemy. Iago, a commander in Othellos army was jealous of his status and wife. He sought a way so that Othello will lose all he had had. He told Othello that Desdemona was in affair with his most trusted commander, Cassio. At first, Othello did not believe Iagos words. But with his cunning tricks and well-told story, he was finally able to make Othello into believing him. Othello killed both Cassio and Desdemona in his jealousy. Some time after, he realized that he was tricked into killing his wife and his own best friend. Burdened by this thought, he finally chose to end his life.