Introduction: Shakespeare's mysteries / Mike Ashley -- King John: When the dead rise up / John T. Aquino -- Richard II: The death of kings / Margaret Frazer -- Henry IV: A villainous company / Susanna Gregory -- Henry V: The death of Falstaff / Darrell Schweitzer -- Henry VI: A serious matter / Derek Wilson -- Richard III: A shadow that dies / Mary Reed & Eric Mayer -- Coriolanus: Mother of Rome / Molly Brown -- Timon of Athens: Buried fortune / Peter T. Garratt -- Julius Caesar: Cinna the poet / Tom Holt -- Cymbeline: Imogen / Paul Barnett -- King Lear: Serpent's tooth / Martin Edwards -- Macbeth: Toil and trouble / Edward D. Hoch -- Hamlet: A sea of troubles / Steve Lockley -- A midsummer-night's dream: A midsummer eclipse / Stephen Baxter -- Much ado about nothing: Much ado about something / Susan B. Kelly -- The winter's tale: Who killed Mamillius? / Amy Myers -- Twelfth night: This is Illyria, Lady / Kim Newman -- Romeo and Juliet: Star-crossed / Patricia A. McKillip -- The two gentlemen of Verona: The banished men / Keith Taylor -- The taming of the shrew: The shrewd taming of Lord Thomas / Mary Monica Pulver -- Othello: Not wisely, but too well / Louise Cooper -- As you like it: Murder as you like it / F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre -- The merchant of Venice: the house of Rimmon / Cherith Baldry -- Epilogue: All is true: An ensuing evil / Peter Tremayne -- All the plays: The collaborator / Rosemary Aitken.