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That flesh is heir to,—’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;

To sleep! Perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause.

Julius Caesar: A number of Roman citizens, notably Caesar’s close friend Marcus Brutus and his brother, Cassius, are worried that Caesar is becoming too powerful, so they kill him (“Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar”). But that happens in Act III Scene I, only halfway through the play. The rest is about the fallout from the assassination: the vengeance wrought on the conspirators by Caesar’s supporters, led by Mark Antony; the conflict between Brutus and Cassius (the one who has “a lean and hungry look—he thinks too much; such men are dangerous.”); the effect on them and their feelings of guilt; and their eventual defeat and suicide. And speaking of rabble-rousing, Antony’s funeral oration, which works the crowd up into a frenzy so that they will avenge the murder, runs fairly close to Henry V:

Friends, Romans, countrymen; lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him…

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honorable man…

and so on and so forth, until the mob is fairly baying for Brutus’s blood.

King Lear: Lear is “the foolish, fond old man” who decides to retire and divide his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. The two eldest make fancy speeches about loving their father above all else; Cordelia refuses to play this game and is promptly exiled. Lear plans to spend half his time with Goneril and half with Regan, but these two wicked sisters have other ideas and soon kick him out. He wanders around in the rain, goes mad, meets up with Cordelia again, and then everyone dies. There is a subplot concerning the Earl of Gloucester’s bastard son Edmund, who plots against everyone and becomes betrothed to both Goneril and Regan (despite the fact that they are both married). They all die, too.

Macbeth: The Scottish play. Three witches prophesy that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and subsequently king. When he is proclaimed Thane of Cawdor, he starts wondering about hurrying the second prophecy along. Egged on by his wife, he murders King Duncan and is proclaimed king in his place. And it’s all downhill from there. One murder leads to another, he is haunted by guilt (personified by the ghost of his friend Banquo, who appears at a banquet), Lady Macbeth goes mad and dies (after the famous “Out damned spot” hand-washing/sleepwalking scene), and Macbeth is finally killed in battle. Ultimately, Duncan’s son Malcolm is restored to the throne.

The Merchant of Venice: Shylock the Jewish moneylender hates Antonio the Christian merchant. When Antonio needs to borrow money from him to help out his friend Bassanio, Shylock makes him sign a bond promising that he will pay Shylock one pound of his own flesh should he fail to repay the loan. Bassanio takes the money and successfully courts the wealthy Portia. Antonio’s ships are lost at sea, and he is unable to pay Shylock, who claims his pound of flesh. Portia disguises herself as a lawyer and rescues Antonio by pointing out that, contractually, Shylock is entitled to take a pound of flesh but no blood—a logistical impossibility. Her speech beginning “The quality of mercy is not strained” comes from this scene. A happy ending—unless you are Shylock.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The one about the fairies. Three plots interwoven: In a wood outside Athens, two pairs of young lovers brush up against the squabbling king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania, and Oberon’s servant Puck. In the same wood a group of workmen, including Bottom the Weaver, are rehearsing the play Pyramus and Thisbe to perform at the forthcoming wedding of the Duke of Athens. Oberon has a magic potion that, when squeezed on the eyelids of someone who is asleep, makes that person fall in love with the first object he or she sees