Shakespeare's English Tragedies is a translation of the tragedies that Shakespeare set in Great Britain. The translations stand on their own without the original text so that they may be read quickly and easily eliminating the need to search for the meaning of every second word. They are also supplemented by notes specific to each play about the world in which Shakespeare lived. Jeanne Arthur's translations bring a lively, vivid, new approach to Shakespeare's dialogue for twenty first century people. The tragedies selected for this book reflect the interest of Shakespeare's audience in its own English and Scottish history. They include The Tragedy of Cymbeline, King of Britain which is set in the time when Britain was part of the Roman Empire and The Tragedy of King Lear set before the time of Merlin. Shakespeare drew on Holinshed's Chronicles for the story of The Tragedy of Macbeth set in Scotland in the eleventh century for his explanation of why Scottish thanes then began to be called earls and to explain the reverence for Edward the Confessor who helped to remove the tyrant Macbeth from the Scottish throne. Old plays set in the past and written in sixteenth century English come alive in this new translation written for twenty first century people.