NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE

Antony and Cleopatra

As You Like It

The Comedy of Errors

Coriolanus

Hamlet

Henry IV, Parts One and Two

Henry V

Julius Caesar

King Lear

Macbeth

Measure for Measure

The Merchant of Venice

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Much Ado About Nothing

Othello

Richard II

Richard III

Romeo and Juliet

Sonnets

The Taming of the Shrew

The Tempest

Twelfth Night

Two Gentlemen of Verona

NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE

THE
WINTER’S
TALE

SPARKNOTES and NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE are registered trademarks of SparkNotes LLC.

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ISBN 978-1-4549-2879-9

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Cover and title page illustration by Richard Amari.

There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves.

You must translate: ’tis fit we understand them.

(Hamlet, 4.1.1–2)

FEAR
NOT.

Have you ever found yourself looking at a Shakespeare play, then down at the footnotes, then back up at the play, and still not understanding? You know what the individual words mean, but they don’t add up. SparkNotes’ No Fear Shakespeare will help you break through all that. Put the pieces together with our easy-to-read translations. Soon you’ll be reading Shakespeare’s own words fearlessly—and actually enjoying it.

No Fear Shakespeare pairs Shakespeare’s language with a translation into modern English—the kind of English people actually speak today. When Shakespeare’s words make your head spin, our translation will help you sort out what’s happening, who’s saying what, and why.

CHARACTERS

Leontes—The king of Sicilia and the childhood friend of Polixenes. He is gripped by jealous fantasies that convince him that Polixenes has been having an affair with his wife, Hermione. His jealousy leads to the destruction of his family.

Hermione—The virtuous and beautiful queen of Sicilia. Falsely accused of infidelity by her husband, Leontes, she apparently dies of grief just after being vindicated by the oracle of Delphi. She is restored to life at the play’s close.

Perdita—The daughter of Leontes and Hermione. Because her father believes her to be illegitimate, she is abandoned as a baby on the coast of Bohemia and brought up by a shepherd. Unaware of her royal lineage, she falls in love with the Bohemian prince, Florizel.

Polixenes—The king of Bohemia and Leontes’s boyhood friend. He is falsely accused of having an affair with Leontes’s wife and barely escapes Sicilia alive. Much later in his life, he sees his only son fall in love with Perdita, who has been living as a lowly shepherd’s daughter.

Florizel—Polixenes’s only son and heir. He falls in love with Perdita, unaware of her royal ancestry, and defies his father by eloping with her.

Camillo—An honest Sicilian nobleman. Camillo refuses to follow Leontes’s order to poison Polixenes, deciding instead to flee Sicily and enter the Bohemian king’s service.

Paulina—A noblewoman of Sicily. Paulina is fierce in her defense of Hermione’s virtue and unrelenting in her condemnation of Leontes after Hermione’s death. She is also the agent of the queen’s resurrection.

Autolycus—A roguish peddler, vagabond, and pickpocket. He assists in Perdita and Florizel’s escape.

The Shepherd—An old and honorable sheep tender. He finds Perdita as a baby and raises her as his own daughter.

Antigonus—Paulina’s husband, and a loyal defender of Hermione. He is given the unfortunate task of abandoning the baby Perdita on the Bohemian coast.

The Clown—The shepherd’s buffoonish son and Perdita’s adopted brother.

Mamillius—Leontes and Hermione’s son, the young prince of Sicilia. He dies, perhaps of grief, after his father wrongly imprisons his mother.

Cleomenes—A lord of Sicilia, sent to Delphi to ask the oracle about Hermione’s guilt.

Dion—A Sicilian lord who accompanies Cleomenes to Delphi.

Emilia—One of Hermione’s ladies-in-waiting.

Archidamus—A lord of Bohemia.