This lecture series introduces the plays of William Shakespeare and explains the achievement that makes him the leading playwright in Western civilization. The key to that achievement is his 'abundance.' Not only in the number and length of his plays, but also in the variety of experiences they depict, the multitude of actions and characters they contain, the combination of public and private life they deal with, the richness of feelings they express and can provoke in an audience and in readers, and the fullness of language and suggestion. Also considered are the kind of theater for which he wrote, the characteristic structures of his plays, and the way the plays easily mingle events from different realms: social levels, levels of realism, and metaphysical contexts.