On the European map Shakespeare’s way into Polish, Czech, and Slovak literature is characterized by a set of common traits arising from the cultural closeness within central Europe and also by distinct differences among these literatures. The period of time examined in the paper covers the 1780s to the late 1830s. The best part of the paper is dedicated to an outline of the history of Shakespeare translations in the three West Slavic areas and brings out some of the distinctive features in each of them.