Shakespeare Bibliography

The writing of Shakespeare’s plays

Shakespeare produced his plays and poems at an astonishing rate. If you ask “How many plays did Shakespeare write?” you are asking a question that it’s impossible to answer. The usual answer is that he wrote thirty-six plays but it is an answer that grossly oversimplifies the real situation for the sake of convenience.

In the first place we are extremely lucky to have any of his plays at all. The texts were basically disposable, although some were kept in the theatres that owned them. Many texts were destroyed by accident – some by fire – or stolen. However, in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death, two of his actor friends, who worked with him for several years in his King’s Men theatre company, John Heminge and Henry Condell, gathered together every text they could find and published them as a collection – “Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies” – known as the First Folio. If they had not done that we would not ever have seen or read eighteen of his best plays, including As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night and The Tempest, as the original texts of those plays have not survived.

The second oversimplification of the answer “thirty-six” is that many of the plays were written in collaboration with other writers, and, moreover, many of the plays of other writers were partly written by Shakespeare. Modern technology is being used to try and sort out some kind of answer as to how much of any of those plays Shakespeare actually wrote, but that work is far from finished.

The third oversimplification is that most of the plays are just one version of a play that was revised, sometimes several times. It seems, too, that Shakespeare didn’t just turn up in London and become a great writer overnight. Every writer, including one as great as Shakespeare, has to learn the craft. It is thought that Shakespeare was already writing plays before he left Stratford for London and was able to show his work to established writers before being taken on by a writing team.

Henry VI Part 2 is usually cited as Shakespeare’s first play but there is scholarly evidence that there were many hands in the writing of it, and the parts that are credited to Shakespeare show an expertise in several of the elements of what makes a good play, suggesting that he was already an experienced writer when he first wrote for a London theatre.

Shakespeare’s works

Shakespeare is also regarded as a great poet, or author of poems. Here is a list of all works credited to him – plays and poems, in chronological order.

This list is as accurate as possible, based mainly on dates estimated by literary historians. We know when most of the plays were first performed but not necessarily when they were written, as they could have been written long before they were first staged.

1588 – 1593

Titus Andronicus. The more scholarly work is done on this play the less of the text Shakespeare seems to have written. It is thought that the author is George Peel, with some input from Shakespeare.

1589 -1593

Two Gentlemen of Verona. Possibly a revision of a play by Robert Greene, by Shakespeare, working with George Peele and Thomas Nashe, first performed 1594

1590

Poem: A Lover’s Complaint, published 1609, with the sonnets

1589 – 1594

The Comedy of Errors, first performed 1594

 

1590–1592

Henry VI, Part 2, Shakespeare writing in a team, including Christopher Marlowe, George Peel, Thomas Nashe, Robert Greene, first performed 1592

Henry VI, Part 3 Play, first performed 1592.

The Taming of the Shrew, first performed 1594

1591–1592

Henry VI Part 1, the revision of a play by Robert Greene, The true Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke. Shakespeare worked on it with Greene, Nashe, Peele and Marlowe.

1592–1595

Edward III, partly written by Shakespeare with one or more of Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Michjael Drayton, Thomas Nashe, George Peele.

1592–1596

Richard III, first performed 1597

1592 – 1605

The Sonnets. Shakespeare wrote and revised them during these years.  Sonnets 128 and 144 were printed in a poetry collection, The Passionate Pilgrim 1n 1599. They were first printed in a complete sequence in 1609.

1593

Poem: Venus and Adonis

1593–1594

Poem: The Rape of Lucrece

1594 – 1595

Love’s Labours Lost, first performed 1597

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, first performed 1605

1594–1597

King John, first known performance 1737

1595

Richard I I, first performed 1595

1595- 1596

Romeo and Juliet, first performance unknown but before or during 1597

1596- 1597

The Merchant of Venice, first performed 1605

Henry IV, Part 1, first performed 1600

1596- 1598

Henry IV, Part 2, first performed 1600

The Merry Wives of Windsor, first performed 1601/2

1598–1599

Much Ado About Nothing, first performed 1610

1599

Henry V, first performed 1605

Julius Caesar, first performed 1599

1599 – 1600

As You Like It, first performed 1603

 

1599–1601

Poem: The Phoenix and the Turtle, first published 1601

1599–1602

Hamlet, first performed 1602

1601–1602

Twelfth Night, first performed 1602

 

1602

Troilus and Cressida, first performed 1604

1602 – 1604

Measure for Measure, first performed 1604

1603 – 1604

All’s Well that Ends Well, first performed 1604

 

1603–1604

Othello, first performed 1604

1603–1606

King Lear, first performed 1606

Macbeth, first performed 1606

1605–1607

Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton, first performed

1607

Anthony and Cleopatra Play, first performed 1607

1608–1609

Coriolanus Play, first performed 1609

1607–1610

Pericles by William Shakespeare, George Wilkins and others first performed 1619

1609–1611

Cymbeline , first performed 1611,

The Winter’s Tale, first performed 1611

The Tempest, first performed 1611,

1612–1613

Henry VIII, or All Is True,  by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, first performed 1613

Cardenio (lost play)  by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, first performed 1613

1613–1614

The Two Noble Kinsmen by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, first performed 1612