All's Well That Ends Well
1. Helena loves Bertram.
2. Bertram runs away from Helena.
3. Helena tricks Bertram into marrying her.
Antony and Cleopatra
1. The title characters love each other.
2. Octavian attacks them.
3. They kill themselves.
As You Like It
1. Rosalind dresses up as a boy named Ganymede.
2. "Ganymede" makes Orlando pretend "he" is Rosalind.
3. Everybody gets married.
Comedy of Errors
1. Two sets of identical twins are separated at birth.
2. One set goes looking for the other set.
3. Everybody mixes them up and hijinks ensue.
Coriolanus
1. Title character is banished from Rome.
2. His mom stops him from attacking Rome.
3. He is killed.
Cymbeline
1. Innogen is framed for adultery by Iachimo.
2. She dresses as a boy and meets her long-lost brothers.
3. One battle and many revelations later, everyone is happy.
Hamlet
1. The ghost of the title character's father tells him to revenge his death.
2. Character talks a lot about revenging his father.
3. He revenges his father.
Julius Caesar
1. Cassius and Brutus assassinate the title character.
2. Marc Antony gives a really big speech.
3. Cassius and Brutus kill themselves.
King John
1. He argues with France about who is really king.
2. Arthur plummets to his death.
3. Title character is poisoned and his son becomes king.
Love's Labour's Lost
1. Four guys swear not to fall in love for three years.
2. They immediately fall in love with four girls.
3. The girls make them wait a year to prove their love.
Measure for Measure
1. The nun Isabella begs Angelo to spare her brother.
2. Angelo demands Isabella to sleep with him.
3. A duke dressed up as a priest sorts everything out.
The Merchant of Venice
1. Shylock claims a pound of flesh from Antonio.
2. Portia dresses up as a young male lawyer.
3. Shylock doesn't get his pound of flesh.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1. Falstaff tries to seduce Mistresses Page and Ford.
2. Falstaff gets put in a basket.
3. Everybody laughs at Falstaff.
Much Ado about Nothing
1. Beatrice and Benedick hate each other.
2. Claudio accuses Hero of adultery.
3. Beatrice and Benedick love each other.
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
1. Wife is lost at sea
2. Daughter is kidnapped by pirates
3. Everyone is reunited in the end.
Taming of the Shrew
1. Katherina hates Petruchio.
2. Petruchio crushes Katherina's spirit.
3. They live happily ever after?
The Tempest
1. Prospero calls up a storm to wreck his enemies.
2. Prospero's invisible henchman taunts the survivors.
3. Everyone lives happily ever after.
Timon of Athens
1. Title character gives money to his friends.
2. He loses his money and his friends.
3. He finds more money, carves his epitaph, and dies.
Titus Andronicus
Death. Just lots and lots of death.
(Oh, lots of rape and mutilation too.)
Troilus and Cressida
1. Man loves woman.
2. Woman is given to the Greeks.
3. Homer's Iliad happens.
Twelfth Night
1. Viola dresses up as her drowned twin brother.
2. Viola is enmeshed in an awkward love triangle.
3. Viola's twin brother is alive, everyone is happy.
Two Gentlemen of Verona
1. Proteus and Julia love each other.
2. Proteus falls in love with his best friend's girlfriend.
3. Julia cross-dresses, there are bandits, all ends happily.
Two Noble Kinsmen
1. Cousins Arcite and Palamon both love Emilia.
2. They fight a duel over Emilia.
3. Arcite falls off a horse and dies. Palamon gets Emilia.
The Winter's Tale
1. Leontes accuses his wife Hermione of adultery.
2. A guy gets eaten by a bear.
3. 16 years later, a statue comes to life. All ends well.