King Lear and The Tempest belong to the late period of William Shakespeare's work; in both plays the main character is an aging ruler, and the theme is parting with power. The tragedy "King Lear" is considered by many to be the greatest of all Shakespeare's works. Blok wrote: “The tragedies of Romeo, Othello, even Macbeth and Hamlet may seem childish next to this one. Here, in the simplest and most understandable language, the most secret things are spoken of, which is scary to talk about... "The Tempest" is also among the most successful and popular plays on stage by Shakespeare; its genre is usually defined as a romantic fairy tale. This is Shakespeare’s last play written without co-authors, his farewell to the theater. The plays are presented in a new translation by Grigory Kruzhkov, a wonderful poet and translator, winner of many awards for poetic translation. The preface to the book was written by the famous theater critic, specialist in the works of William Shakespeare - Alexey Vadimovich Bartoshevich. Translation: Grigory Kruzhkov