BBC Word on the Street (lesson title: Shakespeare)

In these exciting videos, co-produced by the BBC and the British Council, learn how English works as the hosts explore British culture around the UK.
Each lesson includes two essential Scenes accompanied by Language Focus sections in which Rob Lewis highlights the grammatical points. In addition, you can find a related bonus clip in the end. Transcripts and supportive activities have been provided in PDF files.

The Merry Wives of Windsor - William Shakespeare (with notes and glossary)

When a new play was required at short notice for a court occasion in 1597, Shakespeare created The Merry Wives of Windsor, a warm-hearted and spirited "citizen comedy" filled with boisterous action, situational irony, rich characterization.

In Phenomenal Shakespeare, leading Shakespeare scholar Bruce R. Smith presents an original account for the ways in which Shakespeare s poems and plays continue to resonate with audiences, readers and scholars because of their engagement with the whole body, not just the reading mind.

Cymbeline - William Shakespeare (with notes and glossary)

Cymbeline, also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain, is a play by William Shakespeare, set in Ancient Britain and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobeline. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance or even comedy. Like Othello and The Winter's Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence and jealousy.

Love's Labour's Lost - William Shakespeare (with notes and glossary)

Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to forswear the company of women for three years of study and fasting, and their subsequent infatuation with the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies. In an untraditional ending for a comedy, the play closes with the death of the Princess's father, and all weddings are delayed for a year. The play draws on themes of masculine love and desire, reckoning and rationalization, and reality versus fantasy.