Shakespeare's World (April 2026)

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Across
  1. 2. _________ Upon Avon in present-day Warwickshire, England is where Shakespeare was born and would die. A town in Canada with this same name holds an annual Shakespeare festival each summer.
  2. 6. Antony & __________ is a Shakespeare tragedy based upon the Egyptian queen's love affair with Mark Antony.
  3. 10. During his schooling at the King's New School in his hometown, instruction was mainly conducted not in English, but in this classical language.
  4. 14. Romeo is a member of this house who falls in love with Juliet, who is a member of the rival House of Capulet.
  5. 15. Moorish prince and Venetian general who serves as the title character of this Shakespeare tragedy.
  6. 16. Name of the famous London theatre where most of Shakespeare's plays were premiered.
  7. 17. Published in 1609, this collection of 154 sets of poems continue to inspire readers apart from his plays.
  8. 18. Name of murdered Scottish king portrayed in Macbeth (He was actually not a murdered old man, but was a child who died of illness).
  9. 20. _______ V, a telling of one of England's most successful military campaigns in France, was first new play performed in the Globe at its opening in 1599.
  10. 21. Portrayed as a hunchback (He was not), King ________ III is this play's title character and villain. It remains the chief source of popular opinion regarding this monarch's life.
  11. 22. Aside from periods of plague, this day of the week was one of two instances when plays could not be performed publicly.
Down
  1. 1. Magician and usurped Duke of Milan who serves as the lead character in The Tempest.
  2. 3. The bulk of Shakespeare's paying audience members are described by this term because they spent the performance looking up to the stage, standing rather than sitting.
  3. 4. Set in a fictionalized, pre-Christian Britain, this play focused on the decline of a mad king and his fracturing kingdom.
  4. 5. Famous Spanish author of Don Quixote who was buried on the same date, though not the same day, as when Shakespeare died.
  5. 7. Aide from periods of plague, this period on Christian calendar when plays could not be performed publicly.
  6. 8. Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern were courtiers who once were friends with this play's title character but were eventually charged with killing him (FYI, they would die and not the title character).
  7. 9. Maiden name of Shakespeare's wife. By coincidence, a famous American actress shares the same first and last name.
  8. 11. Famous boastful and cowardly knight found in three of Shakespeare's play who is also the title character from Verdi's final opera.
  9. 12. Main character in Much Ado About Nothing who begins the play dismissive of love, only to eventually fall in love with the equally skeptical Beatrice.
  10. 13. Twelfth Night centers on twin siblings, Sebastian and _______, who begin the play being separated from each other after being shipwrecked. Her name also doubles as the name of a stringed instrument.
  11. 14. In Shakespeare's time, all parts in all plays were played by _____. Women were not permitted to act.
  12. 19. Main character in Julius Caesar, encouraged by Cassius to arrange the title's character's assassination in the Roman Senate.