- All's Well That Ends Well
- Antony and Cleopatra
- As You Like It
- The Comedy of Errors
- Coriolanus
- Cymbeline
- Hamlet
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Henry VIII
- Julius Caesar
- King John
- King Lear
- Love's Labor's Lost
- A Lover's Complaint
- Macbeth
- Measure for Measure
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Othello
- Pericles
- The Rape of Lucrece
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Romeo and Juliet
- Shakespeare's Sonnets
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Venus and Adonis
- The Winter's Tale
This quote, too, appears as Basilio first tells Astolfo and Estrella about Segismundo, and it is important because it reflects Basilio’s plan to change the stars, so to speak. The prophecy, or “soothsaying fate,” which has “dire predictions”—namely that Basilio will ultimately surrender at Segismundo’s feet—is a “forecast [of] harm” for Basilio. As such, he selfishly locks Segismundo up, in anticipation of such an attack. The use of the word “dire” suggests that Segismundo will likely murder his father, and Basilio cannot allow this to come to pass.
Basilio refers to Segismundo as a “wild beast,” and that is indeed…