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These two great poems date from Shakespeare's early years and are full of passion and invention. In "Venus and Adonis," the goddess of love pleads with the beautiful boy to submit to her advances and become her love--but he only wants to hunt boar. In the more serious "The Rape of Lucrece," Shakespeare draws on the Roman tale of the Emperor Tarquin's desire for Lucrece and its tragic consequences.

William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children--Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.

Eve Best graduated from RADA in 1999. Her theatre credits include Hedda Gabler for which she won the Best Actress Oliver Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award in 2005. She has also appeared regularly on TV in Prime Suspect, Vital Signs, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Waking the Dead, and Shackleton.

David Burke played Kent in the widely praised production of King Lear by Richard Eyre at the Royal National Theatre. Among his many other theatrical credits was the extended London run of Michael Frayn's Copenhagen. He has also appeared in Richard III and Coriolanus for the Almeida Theatre at the Gainsborough Studios and on tour in Japan and the United States. He has been seen in numerous film and television productions. He also played the part of Gonzalo in The Tempest and Estragon in Waiting for Godot for Naxos AudioBooks.

Clare Corbett, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. After winning the Carlton Hobbs audition, she was chosen to be on BBC Radio. After leaving BBC she went on to narrate several children's books, including Over the Moon, I Rule Dogsbottom School, and Boy Beware. She has transitioned into reading young adult novels, including many installments in the Doctor Who series.

Oliver Le Sueur graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2002. Since then he has, amongst other theater and television work, been a winner of the Carlton Hobbs award and appeared in a national Tour of The Tempest alongside Richard Briers. He performed the role of the Soldier in Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Benjamin Soames trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He has appeared in the popular TV series Sharpe and toured worldwide in Measure for Measure with Cheek by Jowl. A former Royal Marine Commando, serving in Kosovo and Iraq, he teaches Hostile Environment Security Training for the European Union and is still active as a close protection officer in the UK and abroad. Some of his narrations include Tales from the Greek Legends, Tales from the Norse Legends, The Tale of Troy, The Adventures of Odysseus, Venus and Adonis, Great Inventors and their Inventions, Great Scientists and their Discoveries, and Afghanistan: In a Nutshell.

Ruth Sillers has considerable theater experience, having appeared in such plays as Romeo and Juliet, Other Worlds, Kean, and All's Well That Ends Well for theaters including the Royal National Theatre Studio, the Young Vic, and the Donmar Warehouse. She has performed in over fifty plays and readings for the BBC, on Radio 4 and the World Service, and has narrated a variety of audiobooks. Her television roles include playing Mary Queen of Scots for BBC History.