My own Shakespeare notes, just a sane starting point to learn the plays for real. They include the most important plays, except King Lear, which will also come at some point.

Antony and Cleopatra

Act I: Antony is idle with Cleopatra in Egypt. Meanwhile Antony's wife has died and Pompey's son Sexton Pompeius challenges Caesar, so Antony leaves for Italy.

Act II: Under pressure, Antony marries Caesar's sister Octavia. Cleopatra hears about the marriage and becomes incensed.

Act III: Antony and Octavia go to Egypt. Antony complains to Octavia that Caesar has been gaming him. He asks her to go between for him, but pending that he'll prepare for war.

Back in Italy, Caesar has deposed fellow triumvir Lepidus. When Octavia arrives he tells her that Antony has given his kingdom to Cleopatra and is preparing for war.

Battle at sea. Cleopatra's ship flees, and Antony cravenly follows her. Victorious, Caesar asks Cleopatra to drive Antony from Egypt or kill him. Antony finds Cleopatra accepting Caesar's offer, but Cleopatra wins Antony back.

Act IV: Antony wins a battle on land.

Battle at sea again. Cleopatra's fleet betrays Antony and joins Caesar's fleet. Antony resolves that Cleopatra die, but seeing him incensed Cleopatra flees to her monument and sends false word to Antony that she is dead. Antony repents and falls on his sword, but survives. Hearing that Cleopatra is actually alive, he goes to her monument and dies there.

Act V: Cleopatra accepts Caesar as "master and lord," but commits suicide by asp bite. Caesar has her buried by Antony.

As You Like It

Act I: (Rosalind, Celia, Touchstone) and (Orlando, Adam) are banished. Rosalind and Orlando fall in love at the fight.

Act II: We meet (Senior, Jaques, Amiens) and (Corin, Silvius) and we are introduced to Arden Forest, where separately Senior and Celia comment on how happy they are there. Jaques is chronically melancholy and gives his "all the world's a stage" speech. Orlando attacks Senior's camp to get food for Adam but is met with gentleness.

Act III: We meet Phoebe (being wooed by Silvius) and Audrey (being wood by Touchstone). Orlando is writing love letters for Rosalind on the trees and Gandamede draws him into the little game of calling her Rosalind.

Act IV: Orlando's wooing lessons with Gandemede; Orlando and Olivier reconcile after Orlando saves him from the lion.

Act V: Confronted by Phoebe, Rosalind sets up her wedding puzzle. Rosalind reveals herself at the wedding and reunites with Senior. (Rosalind, Orlando), (Celia, Olivier), (Touchstone, Audrey), and (Silvius, Phoebe) are married. Frederick repents and returns the exileds' lands, and Jacques joins him.

Rosalind gives the epilogue at the end.

Hamlet

Act I: Hamlet is distraught because his father the king has recently died, and his mother Gertrude has remarried too quickly to the king's brother Claudius. Horatio and Marcellus bring Hamlet to see his father's ghost, which tells Hamlet that Claudius murdered him.

Polonius finds that Hamlet has been wooing his daughter Ophelia and forbids her to talk with him. Polonius' son Laertes leaves for school in France.

Act II: Hamlet comes to Ophelia distract, "As if he had been loosed out of hell / To speak of horrors...". Polonius tells Claudius that his interceding between Ophelia and Hamlet drove Hamlet mad.

Claudius asks Hamlet's old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to discern the cause of his depression, but Hamlet calls them out as Claudius' stooges.

Traveling actors arrive at Elsinore, and Hamlet asks them to play the The Murder of Gonzago. He devises a version of the play, similar to Claudius' murder of the king, that will make Claudius reveal himself in his reaction:

...I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions.

Act III: From hiding, Claudius and Polonius watch Hamlet angrily confront Ophelia, and Claudius decides "in quick determination" to send Hamlet to England to prevent danger.

Claudius' stunned reaction to The Murder of Gonzago causes a scene and confirms the ghost's story. But instead of killing Claudius immediately, Hamlet resolves to kill him in the midst of sinning, thus sending him to hell.

Hamlet confronts Gertrude in her chamber, venting against her marriage to Claudius. Detecting Polonius eavesdropping there, he kills him. Hamlet's ghost reappears in the chamber to refocus Hamlet on his mission.

Act IV: With Polonius murdered, Cladius decides to send Hamlet to England immediately. Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with him; they carry secret letters to the king of England telling him to execute Hamlet.

Laertes returns from France to find his father murdered, and his sister Ophelia driven mad by Polonius' death. Offstage, Ophelia commits suicide by drowning. Claudius and Laertes conspire to kill Hamlet and make it look accidental.

Hamlet returns from England, having turned Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deception against them by replacing their letters with his own.

Act V: Hamlet and Horatio come on a clown digging Ophelia's grave, then see Ophelia's funeral from hiding. Realizing the funeral is Ophelia's, Hamlet interrupts and has a violent confrontation with Laertes.

Hamlet and Laertes fence in a public bout, which Claudius and Laertes present as sport. But Hamlet is struck by Laertes' secretly poisoned blade, and strikes Laertes with the same "treacherous instrument" in turn. Claudius accidentally kills Gertrude with a poisoned drink intended for Hamlet and Hamlet kills Claudius. Hamlet dies, overtaken by the poison.

Henry IV Part I

Act I: King Henry will not ransom Hotspur's brother-in-law Mortimer, so Hotspur, his father Northumberland, and his uncle Worcestor plot revenge against the king.

Prince Hal and Poins plan a jest on Falstaff, Bardolph, and Peto, in which they'll let Falstaff rob the king's exchequer and then rob him in turn.

Act II: Hotspur tells us that his father, his uncle, York, Mortimer, Glendower, and Douglas plot with him.

Falstaff, Bardolph, and Peto rob the exchequer but Harry and Poins rob them; afterwards Falstaff brags about fighting 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 14 attackers. Hal tells Falstaff he'll banish him in a game where Falstaff and then Hal parody the king.

Act III: Mortimer, Glendower, and Hotspur negotiate how they'll divide the lands they'll win between them.

Henry lectures Harry, contrasting him with Hotspur. Harry tells Henry he will make Hotspur "exchange / His glorious deeds for my indignities."

Act IV: Hotspur's father and Glendower abandon him before the battle. The king sends Hotspur a peace offer, and Hotspur says he'll respond in the morning.

Act V: Worcester brings Hotspur's response to the king, but Hotspur hasn't said yes or no. The king gives Worcester a renewed offer but he and Vernon decide to hide it from Hotspur, leading to the Battle of Shrewsbury. Harry kills Hotspur and Hotspur's forces are beaten. Henry executes Worcestor and Vernon for misleading Hotspur.

Henry IV Part 2

Act I: Northumberland hears that his son Hotspur is dead at Shrewsbury. Archbishop Scroop, Mowbray, Hasting, and Lord Bardolph discuss whether they can fight the king without Northumberland, with Hastings arguing that the king's forces are divided into three, against Glendower, France, and them.

Falstaff is to go with Lancaster against Northumberland and Scroop.

Act II: Mistress Quickly agitates to have Falstaff arrested for his debt to her and complains that he agreed to marry her, but they reconcile.

Harry and Poins disguise themselves as waiters at Falstaff and Quickly's dinner with Doll Tearsheet, a prostitute. They overhear Falstaff disparage them, but confronted, he says he spoke badly of them so that the prostitute wouldn't seek them out.

Act III: The king hears that Glendower is dead.

Falstaff visits Shallow to recruit soldiers and chooses among men with unpromising names like Mouldy and Feeble. Falstaff and Shallow reminisce about old times ("We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow").

Act IV: Northumberland abandons Scroop, Hastings, and Mowbray on the eve of battle. Prince John surprisingly makes peace with the three, but after their army disperses, he has them executed ("Some guard these traitors to the block of death").

Sitting by the ill king's bed, Hal thinks he has died, and hesitantly takes the crown. Waking, the king finds the crown gone and bitterly berates Hal, but they reconcile.

Act V: The king has died, and now as King Henry V, Hal reassures his brothers and the chief justice. But he banishes Falstaff, saying "I know thee not old man...Presume not I am the thing I was."

Henry V

Act I: The Archbishop of Canterbury encourages Henry's claims to "the crown and seat of France / Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather." The Dauphin rejects Henry's claims, and Henry resolves on war.

Act II: Exeter bids the French king Charles resign the crown, and Charles says he will reply the next day.

Mistress Quickly and Pistol have married. Falstaff dies without actually appearing in the play.

Act III: Charles offers Henry his daughter Katherine and some petty dukedoms, but Henry declines. Henry conquers Harfleur, rallying his men with "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; / Or close the wall up with our English dead."

Pistol, Bardolph, and Nym are unwilling soldiers at the siege of Harfleur, and Bardolph is executed for robbing a church.

Act IV: Outnumbered five to one at Agincourt, Henry rallies his men with "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; / For he to-day that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother..." The English rout the French, with 10,000 French dead to about 30 English dead, including Suffolk and York.

Nym has been hanged offstage.

Act V: Henry and Charles make peace, and Henry takes Katherine as queen.

Pistol tells us that Mistress Quickly has died.

Julius Caesar

Act I: A soothsayer warns Caesar to "Beware the ides of March."

Cassius and Brutus fear that Caesar will become king. Casca tells them that Antony offered Caesar the crown three times; that Caesar refused each time but refused more hesitantly each time; and that Caesar will be crowned in the senate the next day.

Act II: The morning of the ides of March.

Early in the morning, Cassius brings conspirators to Brutus' house and Brutus joins them. Caius Ligarius also arrives to join the "exploit."

Calphurnia and the augurers convince Caesar to stay home, but Decius convinces him to come to the senate. The other conspirators and Antony arrive to escort him.

Act III: At the Capitol, Trebonius draws Antony away, and the conspirators kill Caesar. "Et tu, Brute? -- Then fall, Caesar!"

Antony flees to his house, but soon returns to the conspirators, flattering them and shaking hands with them. But alone with Caesar's body afterwards, he turns on them, saying "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."

Brutus makes his case to the crowd. He initially sways them, saying they killed Caesar because of his ambition. But after Brutus leaves, Antony incites the crowd against the conspirators.

Act IV: The conspirators have fled. Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus ally against Brutus and Cassius.

Brutus tells us that Portia is dead, having "swallowed fire." Brutus and Messala tell us that Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus put Cicero and many other senators to death, and that the three are now coming on them with a large force.

Reading before bed, Brutus is visited by Caesar's ghost, who tells him that he'll see him at Philippi.

Act V: Antony's army defeats Cassius' army on the plains of Philippi. Cassius commands Pindarus to kill him. Brutus finds Cassius' body, and Strato holds Brutus sword while Brutus runs on it. Antony and Octavius eulogize Brutus.

Macbeth

Act I: The king Duncan condemns the Thane of Cawdor for treason, and sends his noble Ross to give Cawdor's title to Macbeth.

The weird sisters tell Macbeth he will be Thane of Cawdor, and later king. They tell Banquo that he'll beget kings, but not be one. Soon after Ross and Angus arrive to name Macbeth Thane, fulfilling part of the prophecy.

Duncan spends the night at Macbeth's castle, and knowing the prophecy, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan that night.

Act II: Macbeth kills Duncan. When Duncan's body is discovered, he kills Duncan's grooms and frames them; Duncan's sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee and are also implicated. Macbeth is crowned in their absence.

Act III: Macbeth's murders Banquo but Banquo's son Fleance escapes. Macbeth is haunted by a vision of Banquo's ghost.

Act IV: The weird sisters summon apparitions for Macbeth, who tell him "none of woman born" can harm him; and he "...shall never vanquish'd be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come...".

Macduff flees to England, and Macbeth's men murder his family.

Act V: Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, compulsively washing her hands ("Out, damned spot!") and confessing. She dies offstage, an apparent suicide.

Malcolm, MacDuff, and 10,000 English come to Dunsinane Hill, carrying boughs from Birnam Wood to hide their numbers. Macduff, "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd" and so not born of woman, kills Macbeth. Malcolm becomes king.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Act I: Hermia wants to marry Lysander, but her father Egeus demands that she marry Demetrius or die, so Lysander and Hermia decide to elope. Henela, in love with Demetrius, tells him they have gone.

Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding is four days away. Quince's actors -- Bottom, Snug, Flute, Snout, Starveling -- want to perform the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisby at the wedding.

Act II: Estranged fairy king Oberon and queen Titania, having loved Hippolyta and Theseus respectively, arrive in the wood near Athens before the wedding. Oberon puts a herb on Titania's eyes that will make her fall in love with the first thing she sees when she awakes.

Oberon sees Demetrius spurning Helena, so he sends Puck to put the herb on Demetrius' eyes also, so he'll fall in love with her. But, Puck mistakenly puts the herb on Lysander's eyes and Lysander instead falls in love with her.

Act III: Quince's actors come to the wood to rehearse. Puck sees them near Titania's bed, and changes Bottom's head to an ass's head. The other actors run away, but Titania wakes and falls in love with him.

Oberon puts the herb on Demetrius' eyes and Demetrius wakes to fall in love with Helena -- now both men are in love with Helena rather than Hermia. Puck puts the herb on Lysander's eyes again so he will fall back in love with Hermia.

Act IV: Oberon puts the herb on Titania's eyes and wakes her, undoing her love for Bottom. Bottom awakes, remembering his time as an ass as a dream, and reunites with the other actors.

Theseus and Egeus find the two couples asleep in the wood. Demetrius tells them he now loves Helena not Hermia, so Theseus dismisses Egeus complaint against Hermia and Lysander.

Act V: The actors play Pyramus and Thisby at the wedding. Afterwards, the three couples go to bed, and the fairies come to bless their marriages.

Much Ado About Nothing

Act I: Don Pedro's men visit Leonato, and Don Pedro's man Claudio falls in love with Leonato's daughter Hero. Don Pedro has recently reconciled with his bastard brother Don John, but Don John is a "plain-dealing villian" and resolves to "build mischief" on Claudio's marriage.

Benedick and Leonato's niece Beatrice are antagonists but in love.

Act II: Don Pedro arranges the marriage between Claudio and Hero. Don Pedro, Leonato, Claudio, and Hero conspire to bring Benedick and Beatrice together in the week before the wedding. Benedick overhears Don Pedro, Leonato, and Claudio's staged talk about Beatrice's desperate love for him, and resolves to requite it. Similarly, Beatrice overhears Hero and Ursula discussing Benedick's love for her and she decides to requite him.

Act III: Don John takes Claudio and Don Pedro to see Borachio and Margaret having an "amiable encounter" in Hero's window, telling them they see Hero. The watch arrests Borachio after hearing him tell the story.

Act IV: Claudio spurns Hero at the wedding, citing the window scene. The Friar devises Hero's "death" as a ploy against her accusers. Benedick and Beatrice admit their love to each other and she convinces him to challenge Claudio.

Act V: Benedick reports that Don John has fled and challenges Claudio, and Borachio confesses. Realizing what he has done, Claudio agrees to marry Leonato's "niece," who is revealed as Hero at the wedding. After the wedding, Benedick and Beatrice are confronted with love letters they wrote for each other and accept each other.

Othello

Act I: Venice. Othello's lieutenant and ancient ["bearer of an ensign"] are Michael Cassio and Iago. Iago hates Othello because he is not lieutenant, and serves Othello "to serve my turn upon him".

To start his revenge, Iago has Roderigo tell Desdemona's father Brabantio that she is making "the beast with two backs" with Othello. The Duke's council wants to send Othello against the Turks in Cyprus, and confronted by Brabantio at the council, Othello reveals that he has married Desdemona. Roderigo despairs that he can't get Desdemona, and Iago keeps him in his conspiracy by suggesting that he cuckold Othello. Meantime, he'll get Cassio's place by suggesting to Othello that Cassio is "too familiar" with Desdemona.

Act II: In Cyprus, Othello has defeated the Turks.

Iago and Roderigo conspire to get Cassio into a drunken fight, and Othello fires Cassio. Iago suggests that Cassio go to Desdemona and ask her to intercede for him with Othello; meanwhile, he'll go to Othello and tell him Desdemona argues for Cassio because of her "lust" for him.

Act III: Bit by bit, Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona cheats with Cassio.

Iago's wife Emilia brings him the handkerchief that Othello first gave Desdemona. Othello returns to Iago demanding more proof that Desdemona cheats with Cassio, and Iago tells him that he saw Cassio with the handkerchief. Othello demands that Desdemona produce the handkerchief, which she refuses to do.

Act IV: Othello tells Iago he will kill Desdemona, and Iago agrees to kill Cassio. Othello makes Iago his lieutenant.

Act V: Iago has Roderigo attack Cassio; Cassio wounds Roderigo and Iago wounds Cassio from hiding. Soon he comes to help Cassio, and murders Roderigo.

Othello accuses Desdemona of giving the handkerchief to Cassio, and smothers her.

Iago's wife cries murder, and confronts Iago in front of a crowd that comes to the deathbed; Iago kills her in front of the crowd. The crowd interrogates Iago and uncovers the conspiracy to kill Cassio, so Othello kills himself.

Iago's fate is left to Cassio.

Richard II

Act I: Bolingbroke accuses Mowbray of treason, but instead of trial by combat, Richard banishes Mowbray forever and Bolingbroke for six years. Bolingbroke's father John of Gaunt becomes grievous sick.

Act II: Gaunt dies, making Bolingbroke Duke of Lancaster, but Richard seizes Gaunt's possessions to fund Irish wars, depriving Bolingbroke of his inheritance. Richards leaves for Ireland, leaving York in charge. In Richard's absence, Bolingbroke returns to England with 3000 men to reclaim his inheritance.

Act III: Richard returns to find Bolingbroke in control and despairs. Bolingbroke finds Richard at Flint Castle in Wales, and although Bolingbroke still seeks his inheritance only, Richard volunteers himself into captivity.

Act IV: Richard surrenders the crown to Bolingbroke, now Henry IV. Henry sends Richard to be imprisoned in the tower.

Act V: Northumberland intercepts Richard and sends him to Pomfret instead of the tower, and Richard's queen to France. Henry pardons York's son and Carlisle for treachery but the Abbot of Westminster is killed. Exton kills Richard, but Henry spurns him.

Richard III

Act I: The king Edward sends his brother Clarence to be imprisoned in the tower, and Richard's men murder him there. Finding Anne mourning by Henry VI's corpse, Richard successfully woos her despite having killed both Henry and her husband before the play begins.

Act II: Edward dies. Richard imprisons Rivers, Grey, and Vaughn in Pomfret.

Act III: Richard imprisons Edward's sons the princes in the tower. Hastings will not agree to install Richard as king; Richard accuses him of conspiring with the queen and Mistress Shore to wither his arm with witchcraft and has him beheaded. Rivers, Grey, and Vaughn are executed.

Richard and Buckingham stage a public scene in which Buckingham suggests the princes' bastardy and pushes the crown on a hesitant Richard. Richard accepts it the next day.

Act IV: Richard marries Anne but has it rumored that she is sick, and she dies offstage soon after. Richard pressures the queen to arrange his marriage to her daughter Elizabeth, and she insincerely agrees to go between for him.

Buckingham won't immediately agree to the princes' murder, so Richard denies him the earldom of Hereford and Buckingham joins Richmond's side. Tyrrel kills the princes.

On the eve of battle, Buckingham is captured but "Richmond / Is with a mighty power landed at Milford".

Act V: Buckingham is executed, and Stanley abandons Richard on the eve of battle. Richmond kills Richard and is crowned, becoming Henry VII. He marries the queen's daughter Elizabeth, uniting the houses of Lancaster and York.

Romeo and Juliet

Act I: We meet Verona's feuding Montague and Capulet families. Romeo (Montague) and Juliet (Capulet) fall in love at the Capulets' masquerade, but each realizes afterward that the other is from the enemy family.

Act II: The famous window/balcony scene. Juliet's nurse goes between Romeo and Juliet to arrange their marriage, and Friar Laurence marries them.

Act III: Tybald kills Romeo's friend Mercutio; Romeo kills Tybald in turn and is banished from Verona. Capulet and Lady Capulet demand that Juliet marry the prince's kinsman Paris.

Act IV: Juliet agrees to marry Paris but she and the friar devise a plan to make her seem dead before the wedding, and to reunite with Romeo when she awakes.

Act V: Romeo's servent tells him that he saw Juliet's body being interred in the Capulets' monument. Finding her there apparently dead, he poisons himself. Waking and finding Romeo poisoned, Juliet kills herself with a dagger.

Taming of the Shrew

Introduction: The play has a lengthy two-part introduction before Act I begins, six full columns in the Arden.

Act I: Gremio, Hortensio, and Luciento seek Baptista's daughter Bianca, but Baptista will not allow suitors until his other daughter Katherina is married. Luciento and Hotensio disguise themselves as schoolmasters to get access to Bianca, with Lucianto's servant Tranio acting as Lucianto. Petruchio vows to win Katherina.

Act II: Although Katherina resists, Petruchio woos her and tells Baptista he will marry her on Sunday. With Katherina's wedding scheduled, Baptista tentatively offers Bianca to Tranio-as-Luciento.

Act III: Petruchio puzzles everyone by coming to the wedding "in mad attire" and marries Katherina. Claiming her as his property, he takes her from the bridal dinner early (to Verona?).

Act IV: At home, Petruchi hopes to "curb her mad and headstrong humour" by killing her with kindness: he denies her food, a bed, and clothes by finding fault with them. Afterwards, she shows her cooperation by participating in ridiculous statements that he makes (2 a.m. is 7 a.m., an old man is a young virgin). On the road back to Padua for Bianca's wedding, they meet Lucianto's father Vincento.

Act V: Luciento's true identity is revealed when Vincento arrives in Padua. To show that Kate is tamed, Petruchio bets the other husbands at Bianca's wedding that Katherina will "come at first when he doth send for her." Kate does come and the play ends with her lecturing the other wives on obedience.

The Tempest

Act I: We meet Prospero, the former duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda. We learn that Prospero was exiled by his brother Antonio and the king of Naples Alonso, and Prospero causes a ship carrying them to wreck near Prospero's island. We meet Prospero's coerced servants, the spirit Ariel and monster Caliban.

Prospero arranges for Miranda and Alonso's son Ferdinand to meet and fall in love.

Act II: Caliban meets Trinculo and Stephano, Alonso's menials. Caliban takes Stephano as his god, celebrating that he'll be free of Prospero.

Act III: Miranda and Ferdinand become engaged.

Ariel puts Alonso and his man Gonzalo asleep. Antonio and Alonso's brother Sebastian agree to kill them so Sebastian can usurp Alonso's throne, but Ariel wakes Alonso and Gonzalo as their swords are drawn, compromising them.

Stephano and Trinculo agree to kill Prospero for Caliban and take over the island.

Act IV: Prospero gives Miranda to Ferdinand.

Angry that Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano conspire against him, Prospero brings them to his cell, which they start to plunder, and has Ariel drive them off.

Act V: With Alonso's party prisoners, Prospero reveals himself to them as the rightful Duke of Milan. He shows them forgiveness, and reunites Alonso with Ferdinand. Miranda is amazed to see the other people in Alonso's party ("...brave new world...").

His time on the island finished, Prospero frees Ariel and Caliban and breaks his staff.