Abstract
Shakespeare had his favorite words. One of them was "heaven." This is evidenced in Bartlett’s Concordance to Shakespeare, which lists three hundred nine quotations containing "heaven." It is enlightening to read these numerous quotations, for we find that Shakespeare's ideas of heaven are of many sorts. If we ask ourselves how he could have used this word in such a variety of ways, we shall find part of our answer in the Shakespeare-Lexicon which gives us four meanings of "heaven." It may refer to the habitation of God and the blessed spirits; it is used metonymously as referring to God; it is looked upon as the sky or firmament; and it may also be considered as a place of supreme felicity.