Returning in Georgia, he was closely allied with Ilia Chavchavadze, a leader of Georgian intellectual life of that time, whom Machabeli offered his assistance in all initiatives aimed at reviving Georgian culture and opposition to the Imperial Russian rule.

Despite his preoccupation with charities, especially orphanages, and extensive journalism, Machabeli made Shakespeare his life's work.

Although, he never visited England, he produced, from 1886 to 1898, the brilliant translations of Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus, which to this day serve as the standard versions for the repertoire of the Rustaveli Theatre.

[1] The museum dedicated to Machabeli is located in his native Tamarasheni, which lies in the ongoing Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone.

It was severely damaged, on July 23, 1997, in a blast allegedly organized by local Ossetian nationalists,[2] and completely destroyed after the 2008 South Ossetia war.