Charles Lamb / Mary Lamb
Tales from Shakespeare is an English children’s book written by the siblings Charles and Mary Lamb in 1807, intended 'for the use of young persons' while retaining as much Shakespearean language as possible.Mary Lamb was responsible for retelling the comedies and Charles the tragedies.They omitted the more complex historical tales, including all Roman plays, and modified those they chose to retell in a manner sensitive to the needs of young children, but without resorting to actual censoring. However, subplots and sexual references were removed.They wrote the preface together.Stories include The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline, King Lear, Macbeth, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, Timon of Athens, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre.
