Tales from Shakespeare illustrated by Louis Rhead, 1st part

Louis John Rhead (November 6, 1857 – July 29, 1926) was an English-born American artist, illustrator, author and angler who was born in Etruria, Staffordshire, England. He emigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-four. Wikipedia

Louis Rhead in his studio (1920)

 Frontispiece

"Oh, father, said Miranda, in a strange surprise, “surely that is a spirit. Lord! How it looks about! Believe me, sir it is a beautiful creature. Is it not a spirit?”

Helena,  as has been before related, endeavoured to keep pace with Demetrius when he ran away so rudely from her; but she could not continue this unequal race long, men being aleays better runners in a long race than ladies.

 The fairy king and queen found the lovers and their fair ladies, at no great distance from one another, sleeping on a grass-plot;…

This poor, deserted baby was found by a shepherd.

As this young prince was hunting near the shepherd's dwelling he saw the old man's supposed daughter; and the beauty, modesty, and queenlike deportment of Perdita caused him instantly to fall in love with her. 

When Paulina drew back the curtain which concealed this famous statue, so perfectly did it resemble Hermione that all the king’s sorrow was renewed at the sight…

Therefore, when Beatrice stopped him in the middle of his discourse with telling him

nobody marked what he was saying, Benedick, affecting not to have observed before that she was present, said: 'What, my dear Lady Disdain, are you yet living?"

"If I see anything to-night why I should not marry her, to-morrow in the congregation,

where I intended to wed her, there will I shame her."

The prince also said, "And as I assisted you to obtain her, I will join with you to disgrace her."

The next day, when they were all met to celebrate the marriage, and Claudio and Hero were standing before the priest, and the priest, or friar, as he was called, was proceeding to pronounce the marriage ceremony, Claudio, in the most passionate language, proclaimed the guilt of the blameless Hero, who, amazed at the strange words he uttered, said, meekly: 'Is my lord well, that he does speak so wide?"

"There is an old poor man,' answered Orlando, "who has limped after me many a weary

step in pure love, oppressed at once with two sad infirmities, age and hunger; till he be satisfied I must not touch a bit."

Oliver told him how he had fallen in love with the fair shepherdess Aliena, and that she

had lent a favorable ear to his suit, even in this their first interview;...

…this bad brother was converted from his evil intention, for just as he entered the skirts of the wild forest he was met by an old religious man, a hermit, with whom he had much talk and who in the end completely turned his heart from his wicked design. Thenceforward he became a true penitent, and resolved, relinquishing his unjust dominion, to spend the remainder of his days in a religious house.

Julia, angry that her maid should thus take the liberty of seeming to know what she really

wanted, tore the letter in pieces and threw it on the floor, ordering her maid once more out of the room.

Thus the noble Valentine became, like Robin Hood, of whom we read in ballads, a captain of robbers and outlawed banditti...

Shylock, hearing this debate, exclaimed: "O Father Abraham, what suspicious people these Christians are! Their own hard dealings teach them to suspect the thoughts of others. I pray

you tell me this, Bassanio: if he should break his day, what should I gain by the exaction of the forfeiture? A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man, is not so estimable, profitable, neither, as the flesh of mutton or beef.

Bassanio begged the learned young counselor would endeavour to wrest the law a little, to save Antonio's life.

…he bribed some of Imogen's attendants and was by them conveyed into her bedchamber, concealed in a large trunk, where he remained shut up till Imogen was retired to rest and had

fallen asleep; and then, getting out of the trunk, he examined the chamber with great attention, and wrote down everything he saw there, and particularly noticed a mole which he observed

upon Imogen's neck, and then softly unloosing the bracelet from her arm, which Posthumus had given to her, he retired into the chest again; …

She found the cave empty, but, looking about, she discovered some cold meat, and her hunger was so pressing that she could not wait for an invitation, but sat down and began to eat.

This plainness of speech, which Lear called pride, so enraged the old monarch who in his best of times always showed much of spleen and rashness, and in whom the dotage incident to old age had so clouded over his reason that he could not discernbtruth from flattery,….

Except the Earl of Kent, who was beginning to speak a good word for Cordelia, …

So these two wicked daughters, as if they strove to exceed each other in cruelty to their old father, who had been so good to them, by little and little would have abated him of all his train,…

While he was thus idly threatening what his weak arm could never execute, night came on, and a loud storm of thunder and lightning with rain;…

But upon examination this spirit proved to be nothing more than a poor Bedlam beggar who had crept into this deserted hovel for shelter,…