Shakespeare Pro 4+

The #1 Shakespeare App

PlayShakespeare.com

Designed for iPad

    • 4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
    • $12.99
    • Offers In-App Purchases

Description

Over 30 million downloads!


“It’s really great!”

—Kenneth Branagh, actor and director


“I can't remember a time it wasn't on my iPhone. So feature rich!"

—Stephen Fry, actor and writer


“‘The app’s the thing.’ Hamlet was almost right. Great to see Shakespeare Pro superplaying with Shakespeare’s plays.”

—David Crystal, linguist and author of Shakespeare's Words


“The Shakespeare Pro app is simply terrific and filled with loads of wonderful information!”

—Ken Ludwig, Tony and Olivier Award Winning Playwright


Shakespeare Pro® includes the complete works of Shakespeare (41 plays, 154 sonnets and 6 poems, including apocrypha) and search the concordance to find the exact word or phrase you’re looking for (with “relaxed” searching to find words close to your search term).


Shakespeare Pro is packed with these impressive features:


••• QUALITY TEXTS are a top priority and our team spent years compiling and editing the best references available. In the updated editions, the text is even more clear and each individual character is uniquely identified.


••• FIRST FOLIOS AND QUARTOS in original spelling show the works as they were originally published in Shakespeare’s time.


••• AN INTEGRATED GLOSSARY, based on the bestselling lexicon by David & Ben Crystal, Shakespeare’s Words™ is included. Simply tapping on a word will display its definition in context (not just a general definition).


••• ADD YOUR OWN NOTES AND SHARE THEM with your students, classmates, friends, and colleagues. Organize your notes into notebooks for use in the classroom, theatre, or just to remember key facts. Then share them via email or AirDrop.


••• POWER SEARCH THE WORKS by customizing multiple parameters like gender, genre, work, language, line form, soliloquies, and more.


••• CUSTOMIZE YOUR READING EXPERIENCE by choosing from a variety of color themes, change the font family and size, display long or short character names, jump around to different scenes, and view line numbers (*read the note below about line numbering).


••• BOOKMARK YOUR FAVORITE PARTS in addition to remembering the last page you viewed. Even copy/paste that great line.


••• DETAILED SCENE BREAKDOWNS give you an overview of the scenes within each play, their locations, and the characters present in each.


••• CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS help you better understand the actions and motivations of every character—all 1,155 of them.


••• MODERN TRANSLATIONS and lexicons to help you better understand Elizabethan English (extra add-ons).


••• GET THE FACTS by reading up on Shakespeare’s life, view data and chronology about his works, and an overview of scansion terminology or rhetoric. Character Arc Visualizers show individual character arcs or allow for comparison of multiple characters.


••• SHAKE YOUR DEVICE for Shakespeare himself to display a random memorable quote or insult. Or get a new random quote every day.


••• BROWSE THE GALLERY of famous Shakespeare portraits.


••• TEACHER CURRICULUM makes it easy for teachers to introduce students to Shakespeare's works.


••• COMPLETE APOCRYPHA is the most comprehensive breakdown of 14 plays Shakespeare may have had a hand in.


••• BARDFIND™ is the easiest way to find a Shakespeare theatre or venue anywhere in the world.


These are just a few highlights of the great things in Shakespeare Pro. If you’re a student, professor, actor, or just plain love the Bard, this must-have app ensures you have the complete works at your fingertips.


Like the new features? Having trouble and need support? Let us know at support@playshakespeare.com or at http://support.playshakespeare.com.

What’s New

Version 7.4.3

This is a big upgrade for all users (and fixed some small bugs). We made the historical editions (folios, quartos, octavos) the main focus of this update, including:


• NEW! Scroll sync: when using compare view to compare two editions, enabling sync now keeps the two views in sync to make comparing lines easier

• NEW! Scene markers: most historical editions don't have act/scene divisions, but they now have markers where modern act/scene divisions are to help you navigate

• NEW! Updated scene menu: historical editions now have full act/scene list for navigation (see the Help section to understand the format)

• NEW! Compare view is now available on iPhone Pro Max (previously only available on iPad)

• NEW! Characters are now categorized by major, supporting, etc.

• Improved Mac experience

• Improved overall legibility of the historical editions

• Improvements to the Help section

• Improvements to accessibility

• Search optimizations for complex queries, new search scenes

• Improved TEI compatibility

• Small usability improvements and some bug squashing


The PlayShakespeare.com editions used in the app are the best open source versions of Shakespeare's works available. They are TEI compatible and available in GitHub.


We've compiled some historical milestones for those interested:


• October 2007: The Web version was created for the original iPhone which provided the complete works.

• July 2008: Shakespeare 1.0 went live, one of only 500 apps on the Apple App Store when it launched. There are over 1.8 million apps available today.

• December 2009: Shakespeare Pro features were introduced, including a glossary and advanced search.

• April 2010: Shakespeare hits 1 million downloads.

• July 2016: Shakespeare Pro for Mac 1.0 released.

• May 2023: Shakespeare and Shakespeare Pro apps pass 30 million downloads.

• December 2024: We released Shakespeare 9.3.1, our final update in 2024 and the 105th update to the app since 2008.

• January 1, 2025: To date, we've supported 46 different models (16 generations) of the iPhone, 30 different models (10 generations) of the iPad, and 238 iOS/iPadOS updates.

Ratings and Reviews

See All
4.8 out of 5
1.5K Ratings

1.5K Ratings

Uuweanolwion ,

The ultimate portable Shakespeare

Hold up.



Carefully edited texts? Searchable by play or the entire oeuvre? A complete and searchable glossary? Notes and bookmarks and sharing? The FIRST FOLIO for reference and comparison?! For an astonishingly low sticker price?!


This app is insanely good.


While I love my paperbound books and painstakingly self-annotated Shakespeare texts, my collection has cost me a minor fortune and cannot be carried anywhere without a cart. Even my favorite bargain-prices Complete Works (the Yale) weighs eight pounds and has gradually torn apart its own binding to the point that "Henry V" is unwittingly splitting into two parts like its predecessor. To have one app that combines a First Folio, the power of the Schmidt Lexicons, and the Internet's trove of resources - IN THE PALM OF MY HAND!! - is astounding. And very very much appreciated.


I'm sure we'll all have our quibbles about editorial choices and technical glitches (which Complete Works, in any media, doesn't?), but we should all be able to agree that a meticulously presented and accessible avenue into the world of the Bard is a boon to any and all of us with this app on our devices.

MalibuDar ,

Amazing App

The detail and work that was done on this app is nothing short of exemplary. The option settings allow you to see line number, line types, tap for word definitions and glossary, and a ton more. You even get the option to see character summaries with each character line if you forget who is who. And not only can you turn on plan English translations for each line, you can control their opacity so as to not distract your eye from the original lines. I can’t say enough about this app, especially for those just getting into Shakespeare. A bit on the pricey side but definitely well worth it. Great job, people!

talulah63 ,

Convenient and full of cool stuff!

I love having the Complete Works in my pocket!! There’s always occasion to look up a quote or figure out another meaning of a word or phrase and this app is the ultimate tool for that. The glossary is fantastic. The short list of facts at the beginning of the play is great subject matter for discussion or further exploration. And their customer support is excellent too if you ever have an issue. All so helpful to my work as a teacher and director! Thanks so much!!

App Privacy

The developer, PlayShakespeare.com, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

  • Usage Data
  • Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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