- 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 introduces the key setting of the story, the king's public arena. The arena is modeled on the Roman Coliseum, where gladiators fought and Christians were martyred. The king's arena is "an agent of poetic justice," in that it is seen by the king and his subjects as giving fitting rewards and punishments to those who deserve them.
But the narrator is being ironic in calling the arena an agent of poetic justice, for there is no such thing as justice determined by chance. Chance gives rewards and punishments without regard for what people deserve – which is the…