Introductions to Shakespeare’s Tragedies: King Richard II, King Richard III, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth

Shakespeare, by general suffrage, is the greatest name in literature.
There can be no extravagance in saying that to all who speak the English language his genius has made the world better worth living in, and life a nobler and divines thing. And even among those who do not “speak the tongue that Shakespeare spoke”, large numbers are studying the English language mainly for the purpose of being at home with him.
How he came to be what he was, and to do what he did, are questions that can never cease to be interesting, wherever his works are known, and men’s powers of thought in any fair measure developed. But Providence has left a veil, or rather a cloud, about his history, so that these questions are not likely to be satisfactorily answered.
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