Sources of Shakespeare's Plays
Sources of Hamlet
Hamlet like tales can be found all around Europe for exmaple in France, Spain, Italy and German. For example there is a German tale of similar story line amd also a Roman tale of similar story line, but apparently those stories where more complicated and unclear then the Hamlet written by Shakespear. So Shakespear got a bad tale and refined it and made it good.
Sources of The Tempest
There is no one obvious source for the play Tempest, across the 1500's and the 1600's as many people have written plays and stories relevant to the storyline of Tempest. The lack of source for the play has brought lots of skepticism over the original source so it is hard to tell what is the true source for Tempest.
Sources of Othello
Othello was a play that was orginating from the play called Cinthio which is Italian, No English translation of Cinthio was available in Shakespeare's lifetime, so it is hard to tell if Shakespear got his source for Othello from the play Cinthio but it is a guess.
Sources of Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare's primary source for Romeo and Juliet was a poem by Arthur Brooke called 'The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet'. Also, he could of known a popular tale of Romeo and Juliet from a collection by William Painter called 'The Palace of Pleasure'.
Sources for Macbeth
Shakespeare's chief source for Macbeth was Holinshed's Chronicles (Macbeth), who based his account of Scotland's history, and Macbeth's in particular, on the Scotorum Historiae, written in 1527 by Hector Boece. Other minor sources contributed to Shakespeare's dramatic version of history, including Reginald Scot's discovery of witchcraft, and Daemonologie, written in 1599 by King James I. Macbeth's words on dogs and men in Act 3, scene 1, (91-100), likely came from Colloquia, the memoirs of Erasmus (edition circa 1500). The plays of Seneca seem to have had great influence on Shakespeare, and, although no direct similarities to the work of Seneca can be seen in Macbeth, the overall atmosphere of the play and the depiction of Lady Macbeth can be attributed to the Latin author.
Source for As You Like It
As his only source for As You Like It, Shakespeare used Rosalynde: Euphues Golden Legacie, a novel written by Thomas Lodge, published in 1590. An introductory remark in Loge's text is "If you like it, so", and this may account for Shakespeare's choice of title.
Sources for Julius Caesar
Shakespeare's primary source for Julius Caesar was Plutarch's Lives-more specifically, the stories of Brutus, Anotony, and Caesar
Sources for Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for Shylock and the 'pound of flesh', in fact an earlier international folktale plot — AT 890 — that Stith Thompson derives from the work of German Meistersinger. The play's anti-semitic tendency gained more attention after the Holocaust, for example in a production by George Tabori.
The title character is the merchant Antonio, not the Jewishmoneylender Shylock, who is the play's most prominent and more famous character. This is made explicit by the title page of the first quarto: The moſt excellent Hiſtorie of the Merchant of Venice. VVith the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe towards the ſayd Merchant, in cutting a iuſt pound of his flesh: and the obtaining of Portia by the choice of The Merchant of Venice is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for Shylock and the 'pound of flesh', in fact an earlier international folktale plot — AT 890 — that Stith Thompson derives from the work of German Meistersinger. The play's anti-semitic tendency gained more attention after the Holocaust, for example in a production by George Tabori.
The title character is the merchant Antonio, not the Jewishmoneylender Shylock, who is the play's most prominent and more famous character. This is made explicit by the title page of the first quarto: The moſt excellent Hiſtorie of the Merchant of Venice. VVith the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe towards the ſayd Merchant, in cutting a iuſt pound of his flesh: and the obtaining of Portia by the choice of The Merchant of Venice is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for Shylock and the 'pound of flesh', in fact an earlier international folktale plot — AT 890 — that Stith Thompson derives from the work of German Meistersinger. The play's anti-semitic tendency gained more attention after the Holocaust, for example in a production by George Tabori.
Source of Midsummer Nights Dream
There is no known source for Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream it seems like this play is one of the only plays where Shakespeare has not got his source from another play got imagined the story line and materials by himself.
Sources Of King Lear
In addition to Holinshed's Chronicles, which he used as a source for the majority of his plays, Shakespeare was familiar with several other versions of the old and popular story of King Lear. Lear is discussed in The Mirror for Magistrates, a collection of didactic tales about the history of twenty princes, published first in 1559.