- 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
With the phrase “lost my nerve,” Bill admits he is defeated by the challenge of caring for Johnny. His admission is made with a persuasive purpose: he needs to make sure that the ransom transaction is concluded successfully and soon, so he wants to drop the asking price in the ransom letter he and Sam are writing to Ebenezer. His two characterizations of Johnny are calibrated for this effect: a skyrocket is powerful and uncontrollable, but not evil; so too, a freckled wildcat is a dangerous creature, but not wicked, and the fact that Johnny is merely a forty-pound sized…