Chronology of Shakespeare plays

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The precise chronology of Shakespeare's plays as they were first written and performed is difficult to determine, as there is no authoritative record and many of the plays were performed many years before they were published.

Pirated editions are the first printed versions of several plays, but many of Shakespeare's works remained unpublished until the First Folio (1623). There is no play mentioned as Shakespeare's by his contemporaries that we do not have, except Cardenio and Love's Labour's Won. Shakespeare's role in writing several existing plays is debated, however.

Scholars beginning with Edmond Malone have reconstructed the plays' relative chronology by various means, including contemporary allusions and records of performance, entries in the Stationers' Register, dates of publication as reflected on the title pages of individual plays, visceral impressions and computer studies of the development of the playwright's writing style over time, and (particularly) a 1598 list of Shakespeare's plays then extant by Francis Meres.

Here are the plays in the generally accepted order, although some dates continue to be debated and all dates should be taken as approximate. Dates in brackets indicate the date of first publication.

• 1590 (1598) Henry VI, Part I

  Stationers' Register on 25 February 1598.

• 1590 (1594) Henry VI, Part II
• 1590 (1595) Henry VI, Part III

  Parodied by Robert Greene in 1592.

• 1592 (1602) Richard III

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1592 (1623) Comedy of Errors

  If this is the same as the play entitled 'The Night of Errors', it was performed on 28 December 1594. Probably the "errors" in Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1593 (1594) Titus Andronicus

  According to the first published edition it was performed by a company that folded in early 1593. In 1594 Philip Henslowe referred to it as a "new" play. In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1593 (1623) Taming of the Shrew
• 1594 (1623) Two Gentlemen of Verona

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays. The work may have been based on Bartholomew Yong's translation of Montemayor's Diana, which was done in 1583 but not published until 1598.

• 1594 (1598) Love's Labour's Lost

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1594 (1597) Romeo and Juliet

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1595 (1597) Richard II

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1595 (1600) A Midsummer Night's Dream

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1596 (1622) King John

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1596 (1600) The Merchant of Venice

  Recorded at Stationers' Register on 22 July 1598. In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1597 Henry IV, Part I

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 1594-1597 (1603?) Love's Labour's Won

  In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays. In Christopher Hunt's August 1603 booklist. A lost play.

• 1598 (1600) Henry IV, Part II
• 1599 Henry V

  Chorus expresses hope for the Irish expedition of 1599.

• 1599 (1623) Julius Caesar

  Mentioned by Thomas Platter in 1599.

• 1599 (1600) Much Ado About Nothing
• 1599 (1623) As You Like It

  Stationers' Register in August 1600

• 1597-1600 (1602) The Merry Wives of Windsor
• 1601 (1603) Hamlet

  Stationers' Register in July 1602 describes it as “lately acted”.

• 1602 (1623) Twelfth Night
• 1602 (1609) Troilus and Cressida

  Stationers' Register in February 1603.

• 1603 (1623) All's Well That Ends Well

  No contemporary reference.

• 1604 (1623) Measure for Measure

  Court records show it was performed December 1604.

• 1604 (1622) Othello

  Performed November 1604.

• 1605 (1608) King Lear

  Stationers' Register in November 1607.

• 1605 (1623) Macbeth
• 1606 (1623) Antony and Cleopatra

  Stationers' Register in May 1608.

• 1607 (1623) Coriolanus
• 1607 (1623) Timon of Athens
• 1608 (1609) Pericles Prince of Tyre

  Stationers' Register in May 1608.

• 1609 (1623) Cymbeline
• 1610 (1623) The Winter's Tale
• 1611 (1623) The Tempest
• 1612 (1623) Henry VIII (probably written in collaboration with John Fletcher)

  Was performed on 29 June 1613, when the Globe Theatre burnt down.

• 1612 (1728) Cardenio (written in collaboration with John Fletcher)

  Was performed in 1613. Published only in an adaptation by Lewis Theobald entitled Double Falshood; essentially a lost play.

• 1612 (1634) The Two Noble Kinsmen (written in collaboration with John Fletcher)

The following plays have been attributed to Shakespeare but are in fact of different or uncertain authorship:

• 1592-1595 (1844) Sir Thomas More

  Originally written by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, and heavily revised perhaps ten years later by Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker and (perhaps) William Shakespeare, whose writing has been tentatively identified as "Hand D" in the manuscript.

• 1600 (1600) Sir John Oldcastle

  Philip Henslowe's diary records it was actually written by Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye and Robert Wilson in collaboration.

• 1604 (1605) The London Prodigal

  Acted by Shakespeare's company and published under his name, but the style is not his.

• 1605 (1608) A Yorkshire Tragedy

  Acted by Shakespeare's company and published under his name, but the style is not his. More probably by Thomas Middleton.

See also

• Shakespeare's plays

External links

• http://shakespeareauthorship.com/howdowe.html#1
• http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/meres.htm
• http://www.dlhoffman.com/publiclibrary/Shakespeare/by-year.html
• http://www.shakespeare-online.com/keydates/playchron.html
• http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLT/reference/plays1588-1595.html
• http://www.shaksper.net/archives/files/chronology.html