Every Shakespeare Play, Grouped and Dated
All 38 plays sorted into comedies, histories, tragedies and romances, with approximate dates, the ones of disputed authorship, and the short titles setters reach for.
Shakespeare wrote somewhere around 38 plays, depending on how you count collaborations. The First Folio of 1623 sorted them into three groups — comedies, histories and tragedies — and scholars later added a fourth, the late romances.
Comedies
All’s Well That Ends Well · As You Like It · The Comedy of Errors · Love’s Labour’s Lost · Measure for Measure · The Merchant of Venice · The Merry Wives of Windsor · A Midsummer Night’s Dream · Much Ado About Nothing · The Taming of the Shrew · Twelfth Night · The Two Gentlemen of Verona · The Two Noble Kinsmen · Troilus and Cressida
Histories
King John · Richard II · Henry IV Part 1 · Henry IV Part 2 · Henry V · Henry VI Part 1 · Henry VI Part 2 · Henry VI Part 3 · Richard III · Henry VIII
Tragedies
Antony and Cleopatra · Coriolanus · Hamlet · Julius Caesar · King Lear · Macbeth · Othello · Romeo and Juliet · Timon of Athens · Titus Andronicus
Late romances
Cymbeline · Pericles · The Tempest · The Winter’s Tale
Roughly when
| Period | Plays |
|---|---|
| c.1590–1594 | The Henry VI plays, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew |
| c.1595–1599 | Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard II, The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV, Much Ado, Henry V, Julius Caesar |
| c.1600–1606 | Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Macbeth |
| c.1607–1613 | Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, Henry VIII |
The disputed ones
- Pericles and Henry VIII are widely accepted as collaborations, the latter with John Fletcher.
- The Two Noble Kinsmen is also Shakespeare and Fletcher, and was left out of the First Folio entirely.
- Edward III is now included in some complete editions and not in others.
- Cardenio is lost. Love’s Labour’s Won is referred to in a 1598 list and may be a lost play or an alternative title for one we already have.
Facts quizzes ask for
- Longest play: Hamlet, around 4,000 lines. Uncut it runs over four hours.
- Shortest: The Comedy of Errors, at roughly 1,800 lines.
- Only play set largely in Scotland: Macbeth — traditionally called "the Scottish play" in a theatre, to avoid the bad luck of naming it.
- The one with a bear: The Winter’s Tale, and its famous stage direction, "Exit, pursued by a bear".
Short titles for crosswords
6: Hamlet. 7: Macbeth, Othello, Pericles. 8: King Lear, Cymbeline. Setters also love single characters: Iago (4), Puck (4), Lear (4), Ariel (5), Hamlet (6), Juliet (6), Oberon (6), Shylock (7).