When the Shakespeare Tale almost Becomes a Fairy Tale: Norm and Transgression in the Shakespeare Canon for Children.

I use the term “Shakespeare tale” to refer to a tradition of short narrative retellings of Shakespeare (primarily reductions or abridgements), which started with The Lambs’ Tales from Shakespeare (1807) and their Victorian and Edwardian followers. In my essay I argue that some of these retold versions can be considered generic hybrids which challenge the boundaries that should divide Shakespeare tales from fairy tales; they do so by incorporating from the folktale tradition stylistic features (opening and ending formulas), structure (the Shakespeare plots are reordered in a sequential timeline), an intrusive narrator, cautionary elements, and the characters’ moral and simplified polarization of folktale.