Legacy Store

Shakespeare

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iOS 2.0 or later.

Customer Ratings

As of December 9, 2021
     
2,184 Ratings

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“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 [email protected] or at http://support.playshakespeare.com.

To install apps directly onto this device, it must be jailbroken with AppSync installed.
1.0
Non-Retina
2.8 MB Encrypted Install Download
2.2
Requires iOS 2.2.1+
Non-Retina
August 10, 2009
28.9 MB Encrypted Install Download

Every archived version here is encrypted or no longer available — show everything.

Chart History

Top Free · Books View chart ›
Peaked at #4 (February 5, 2009) · 12 archived captures · Feb 2009 – Mar 2012
Top Free · Books · iPad View chart ›
Peaked at #18 (August 2, 2010) · 5 archived captures · Aug 2010 – Mar 2012
Top Grossing · Books · iPad View chart ›
Peaked at #99 (January 6, 2011) · 1 archived capture · Jan 2011

Ratings Over Time

sampled from 12 archived captures
DateVersionRatingRatingsPrice
February 13, 2010 2.3.0 — 17,113 Free
February 19, 2011 3.1.1 — 23,143 Free
February 3, 2012 — — 23,468 Free
February 1, 2013 — — 23,598 Free

From archived App Store listing data, captured by the Wayback Machine.

Archived Reviews

8 of 25
Remakable
     
by WorstUserName · August 18, 2024

The level or detail, thought and care that went into this app is remarkable.

Syncing between devices
     
by Provlawyer · January 28, 2024

I just got this app recently and purchased Shakespeare Pro - $12.99 for access to all of the plays, plus annotation ability, plus the different folios and quartos? Sign me up! One issue I'm finding, and I don't know if this is even meant to be resolved, is that there's no way to sync my purchase from my Iphone to my Ipad, which would be more convenient to read on. Both my Iphone and Ipad are connected to the same icloud account and therefore share all photos and app downloads, so I'm wondering if there's any way that I can have Shakespeare Pro on my Ipad without having to make a secondary purchase? I really love the things that the pro version provides and I'd love to be able to use them on a screen bigger than a phone.

Great app! Just one thing
     
by grannyapples1920 · November 5, 2023

This app is wonderful, and I find myself using it almost daily. The one gripe I have with it is the name. What is a “Shakespeare?” It sounds vaguely vulgar, and I want it to stop. Thank you kindly.

Wonderful + Responsive
     
by ertebolle · June 13, 2023

The app itself is outstanding - clearly a labor of love, with a generous free version and a one-time-purchase business model for the pro version (in defiance of the annoying trend towards subscription everything). Also, I had an issue with scrolling not working correctly and within a week of reporting it they fixed the bug + released an update with the fix; I’ve never seen such outstanding responsive support from a developer before.

If you love Shakespeare
     
by Big Dawg Al · April 5, 2025

This app is for you.

I was told to read Shakespeare in high school I didn’t understand it but as I get holder I do
     
by Move-u · August 13, 2024

I’m in love not with the man

🐐
     
by lets get rid of classroom · November 13, 2025

Undoubtedly the goat

So far so good, with one suggestion!
     
by papaarya · February 21, 2024

The app is great. Pretty easy to navigate and UI is smooth. I just have one suggestion for the dear developers; If it was possible to include the modern translations in the Pro version it would be awesome. I understand the need for add-ons but it feels like the Pro tier could use some more features. good job lads.

Period reviews recovered from Apple's customer-review feeds via the Wayback Machine.

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