John Richetti reads a selection of excerpts from Shakespeare's plays

Introduction to Shakespeare Dramatic Reading

1. Introduction (1:11): MP3

Comedies

The Taming of the Shrew

2. Act IV, Scene i - Petruchio's plan (1:44): MP3
3. Act V, Scene ii - Kate's conversion (2:52): MP3

A Midsummer Night's Dream

4. Act II, Scene i - Puck's introduction (2:38): MP3
5. Act II, Scene ii - Oberon's orders to Puck (1:32): MP3
6. Act V, Scene i - Theseus on lovers, lunatics, and poets (1:32): MP3

Love's Labour's Lost

7. Act III, Scene i - Berowne in love (2:08): MP3

The Merchant of Venice

8. Act II, Scene ix - Shylock and revenge (1:59): MP3
9. Act IV, Scene i - Portia on the "quality of mercy" (1:43): MP3

As You Like It

10. Act II, Scene i - Duke Senior on the "uses of adversity" (1:20): MP3
11. Act II, Scene vii - Jaques and the Seven Ages of Man (2:09): MP3

Twelfth Night

12. Act I, Scene i - Duke Orsino on Music as the food of love (1:06): MP3

Measure for Measure

13. Act III, Scene i - The Duke, in disguise as a friar, on Death (1:23): MP3
14. Act III, Scene i - Claudio and the fear of Death (3:01): MP3

Histories

Henry VI (III)

15. Act III, Scene ii - Duke of Gloucester on getting the crown (4:29): MP3

Richard III

16. Act I, Scene i - Richard and the Winter of Discontent (2:46): MP3

Richard II

17. Act I, Scene iv - John of Gaunt on England (2:50): MP3
18. Act III, Scene ii - Richard on Comfort (2:18): MP3
19. Act V, Scene iii - Richard in prison (4:19): MP3

Henry IV (I)

20. Act I, Scene i - Henry's opening speech (2:16): MP3
21. Act III, Scene ii - King Henry and Prince Hal (2:42): MP3
22. Act IV, Scene i - Hotspur and Vernon on Prince Hal (2:04): MP3
23. Act V, Scene i - Falstaff on Honour (1:55): MP3

Henry IV (II)

24. Act I, scene ii - Fallstaff and Page (2:29): MP3
25. Act III, Scene i - King Henry and Sleep (1:52): MP3
26. Act V, Scene v - King Henry (Hal) to Falstaff (2:05): MP3

Henry V

27. Act I, Scene i - Prologue (2:06): MP3
28. Act III, Chorus - "Now all the youth of England" (2:09): MP3
29. Act III, Scene i - King, "Once more unto the breach" (1:59): MP3
30. Act IV, Scene iii - Feast of Crispian speech to his soldiers by the King (2:57): MP3

Tragedies

Romeo and Juliet

31. Act II, Scene i - Balcony Scene (2:11): MP3
32. Act III, Scene ii - Juliet on Romeo (2:16): MP3

Julius Caesar

33. Act I, Scene ii - Cassius to Brutus (3:57): MP3
34. Act III, Scene i - Antony over the body of Caesar (1:47): MP3
35. Act III, Scene iii - Antony's Funeral Oration (7:44): MP3

Hamlet

36. Act I, Scene ii - Hamlet and Gertrude on Mourning, and his first soliloquy, “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt" (3:26): MP3
37. Act I, Scene iii - Polonius to Laertes (2:07): MP3
38. Act I, Scene iv - Hamlet encounters the Ghost of his father (2:56): MP3
39. Act I, Scene v - Hamlet after his first encounter with the Ghost of his father (1:39): MP3
40. Act II, Scene ii - Hamlet’s second soliloquy, “O, what a rogue and peasant slave” (5:06): MP3
41. Act III, Scene i - Hamlet’s third soliloquy, “To be or not to be” (2:14): MP3
42. Act III, Scene ii - Hamlet to the Players (2:47): MP3
43. Act III, Scene iv - Hamlet and Gertrude in her bedroom (4:30): MP3
44. Act IV, Scene iv - Hamlet's sixth soliloquy, "How all occasions do inform against me" (2:07): MP3
45. Act V, Scene i - Hamlet and the Gravedigger (4:46): MP3

Troilus and Cressida

46. Act I, Scene iii - Ulysses on "degree" (4:00): MP3

Othello

47. Act I, Scene iii - Othello to the Venetian Senate (4:25): MP3
48. Act II, Scene i - Iago, Soliloquy, "That Cassio loves her, I do well believe ’t" (1:52): MP3
49. Act II, Scene iii - Iago, Soliloquy "And what’s he then that says I play the villain?" (1:55): MP3
50. Act III, Scene iii - Othello, Farewell Speech (2:43): MP3
51. Act V, Scene ii - Othello, "It is the cause" (3:58): MP3
52. Act V, Scene ii - Othello, Last Speech (1:55): MP3

King Lear

53. Act I, Scene ii - Edmund the Bastard’s soliloquy (1:37): MP3
54. Act I, Scene iv - Lear and Goneril (2:20): MP3
55. Act II, Scene i - Kent and Oswald (2:14): MP3
56. Act II, Scene iv - Lear, "Reason not the need" (2:00): MP3
57. Act III, Scene ii - Lear in the storm (2:47): MP3
58. Act III, Scene iv - Lear and Edgar (in disguise as Poor Tom) (2:10): MP3
59. Act IV, Scene vi - Blind Gloucester and Lear, ("Ay, every inch a king") (1:57): MP3
60. Act V, Scene i - Cordelia and Lear as prisoners (2:03): MP3

Macbeth

61. Act I, Scene v - Lady Macbeth, "The raven himself is hoarse" (2:17): MP3
62. Act I, Scene vii - Macbeth, "If it were done when 'tis done" (1:53): MP3
63. Act II, Scene i - Macbeth, "Is this a dagger" (2:21): MP3
64. Act V, Scene v - Macbeth, "To-morrow, and to-morrow" (1:04): MP3

Timon of Athens

65. Act IV, Scene ii - Timon, Soliloquy, "O blessed bleeding sun" (3:16): MP3

Antony and Cleopatra

66. Act I, Scene i - Philo's opening speech (1:07): MP3
67. Act I, Scene i - Antony to Cleopatra, "Let Rome in Tiber melt" (0:38): MP3
68. Act I, Scene v - Cleopatra on Antony (1:27): MP3
69. Act II, Scene iii - Enobarbus describing Cleopatra (3:03): MP3
70. Act III, Scene xiii - Antony resolved to fight on (2:04): MP3
71. Act IV, Scene xiv - Antony and his suicide (3:16): MP3
72. Act V, Scene ii - Cleopatra mourning Antony (2:00): MP3
73. Act V, Scene ii - Cleopatra's death speech (2:30): MP3

Coriolanus

74. Act III, Scene iii - Coriolanus banishing the Romans (1:30): MP3
75. Act V, Scene iii - Volumnia and Coriolanus (7:07): MP3

Romance

The Tempest

76. Act IV, Scene i - Prospero and the end of the revels (1:52): MP3
77. Act V, Scene i - Prospero and Ariel, Farewell to magic (3:02): MP3

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2016 John Richetti. Used with permission of John Richetti. Distributed by PennSound.