Probable Date: 1589-91
Work and Authorship: Possible authorship of at least one scene in Arden of Faversham, a domestic tragedy (involvement of Thomas Kyd and/or Christopher Marlowe has also been proposed)
Evidence for Date: Play is based on a story in 1587 edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles; registered for publication Apr. 1592
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Anonymous Quarto 1592. Not in Folio. Assigned to Shakespeare in a printer’s catalogue of 1656. Not included in this edition
Probable Date: 1589–92
Work and Authorship: The Taming of the Shrew
Evidence for Date: Assumed on stylistic grounds to be early work; references to villages around Stratford-upon Avon may suggest that Shakespeare had not long been a London resident at time ofwriting; if anonymous Quarto Taming of a Shrew (published 1594) is a version rather than a source, then predates plague closure of 1592–94
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623, though bears some relation to anonymous 1594 Quarto Taming of a Shrew
Probable Date: 1589–92
Work and Authorship: Possible authorship of Countess of Salisbury scenes and perhaps one battle scene in Edward the Third, a history play mostly by an anonymous coauthor
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Dec. 1595; Armada allusions suggest early 1590s; ballad based on Countess scenes registered for publication Mar. 1593
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Anonymous Quarto 1596. Not in Folio. Assigned to Shakespeare in a printer’s catalogue of 1656. Not included in this edition
Probable Date: 1591
Work and Authorship: The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, originally called The First Part of the Contention betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster. Element of coauthorship possible
Evidence for Date: A line in its sequel was parodied in 1592. Registered for publication Mar. 1594
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto version 1594, reprinted 1600 and, with True Tragedy, 1619. Folio 1623 (major variations)
Probable Date: 1591
Work and Authorship: The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, originally called The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York. Element of coauthorship probable
Evidence for Date: Parodied 1592
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Octavo version 1595, reprinted 1600 and, with Contention, 1619. Folio 1623 (major variations)
Probable Date: 1591–92
Work and Authorship: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Evidence for Date: Mentioned by Francis Meres 1598; stylistically related to works of John Lyly, suggesting early 1590s
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1591–92; perhaps revised 1594
Work and Authorship: The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus, probably cowritten with, or revising an earlier version by, George Peele
Evidence for Date: Performed Jan. 1594. Title page may imply performance by two earlier companies, suggesting a version (Peele’s?) in existence prior to plague closure of 1592–93
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1594, reprinted 1600, 1611. Folio 1623 (one additional scene)
Work and Authorship: The First Part of Henry the Sixth, probably with Thomas Nashe and others
Evidence for Date: Performed Mar. 1592, apparently marked as “new”; praised by Nashe later that year
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1592 or 1594
Work and Authorship: King Richard the Third
Evidence for Date: Closely related to 3 Henry VI. 1592 suggested by flattering portraits of Stanley and Pembroke, whose descendants were patrons of the acting companies Shakespeare seems to have been associated with at this time; some scholars, however, date to 1594, immediately after theaters reopened when plague abated, so perhaps written as first play for newly formed Chamberlain’s Men, with Burbage as Richard
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto version 1597, reprinted 1598, 1602, 1605, 1612, 1622. Folio 1623 (major variations)
Probable Date: 1593
Work and Authorship: Venus and Adonis [long narrative poem]
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Apr. 1593; poetry written when theaters were closed due to plague
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1593, reprinted 1594, 1595?, 1596, 1599, 1599, 1602?, 1602, 1602, 1617 (by a considerable margin, Shakespeare’s bestseller in print)
Probable Date: 1593–94
Work and Authorship: The Rape of Lucrece [long narrative poem]
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication May 1594; dedication indicates written after Venus; poetry written when theaters were closed due to plague
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1594, reprinted 1598, 1600, 1600, 1607, 1616
Probable Date: 1593–1608
Work and Authorship: Sonnets [154 poems] possible authorship of A Lover’s Complaint [narrative poem in form of elegiac monologue]
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication May 1609. Vogue for sonnets was at height around time of 1592–94 plague closures; Meres knew of some by 1598; others may date from early 1600s; Sonnet 107 apparently alludes to Queen Elizabeth’s recent death (spring 1603). Analysis of rare words suggests that 1–103 and 127–54 may date from the 1590s, 104– 26 from after 1600
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Two sonnets included in The Passionate Pilgrim 1599. Whole sequence, with A Lover’s Complaint, 1609. Date of Lover’s Complaint unknown: vocabulary has been linked to plays of 1603–05 such as All’s Well, but Shakespeare’s authorship has been strongly challenged, so not included in this edition
Probable Date: 1594
Work and Authorship: The Comedy of Errors
Evidence for Date: Performed at Gray’s Inn Dec. 1594
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1595
Work and Authorship: Love’s Labour’s Lost
Evidence for Date: Possibly alludes to Christmas 1594 Gray’s Inn revels; performed at court Christmas 1597
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1598, reprinted Folio 1623; there seems to have been an earlier Quarto that is now lost (Folio has minor editorial changes)
Probable Date: 1595–97
Work and Authorship: Love’s Labour’s Won, either a lost play or the original title for another comedy, e.g. Much Ado, As You Like It or All’s Well
Evidence for Date: Mentioned by Meres 1598
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Edition is mentioned in bookseller’s catalogue of 1603, all copies lost
Probable Date: 1595–96
Work and Authorship: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Evidence for Date: Weather references suggest 1595–96; close links with Romeo
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1600, reprinted 1619, Folio 1623 (minor editorial changes, deriving from theater)
Probable Date: 1595–96
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Evidence for Date: Includes part for Will Kempe, who joined Lord Chamberlain’s Men in 1594; first edition assigns to “Lord Hunsdon’s Men” (the name of Shakespeare’s company from Jul. 1596 to Aug. 1597); astrological allusions and earthquake reference may suggest composition in 1595–96; close links with Dream
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto version 1597 (corrupt text). Quarto 1599, reprinted 1609, 1622, Folio 1623 (minor editorial changes; prologue missing from Folio)
Probable Date: 1595–96
Work and Authorship: King Richard the Second
Evidence for Date: Influenced by Daniel’s Civil Wars (published early 1595); registered for publication Aug. 1597; style closer to “lyrical” plays (Romeo, Dream) than earlier histories; described by Shakespeare’s company in early 1601 as “old and long out of use”
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1597 (with deposition scene censored out), reprinted 1598 (twice), 1608 (this and subsequent editions included the deposition scene), 1615, Folio 1623 (with editorial changes and better printing of deposition)
Probable Date: 1595–97, possibly earlier
Work and Authorship: The Life and Death of King John
Evidence for Date: Mentioned by Meres 1598; close relationship to two-part King John play published 1591, but stylistically closer to later histories
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Work and Authorship: The First Part of Henry the Fourth
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Feb. 1598; name of Oldcastle probably changed to Falstaff either during months when William Brooke, Lord Cobham, was Lord Chamberlain (Aug. 1596– Mar. 1597) or following suppression of playing (Jul.–Oct. 1597) caused by inflammatory Isle of Dogs
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1598 (two printings, one of them lost save for a few sheets), reprinted 1599, 1604, 1608, 1613, 1622, Folio 1623 (minor editorial changes)
Probable Date: 1597–98
Work and Authorship: The Second Part of Henry the Fourth
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Aug. 1600; must follow 1 Henry IV and precede Henry V, which is datable to early 1599
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1600, reprinted Folio 1623 (minor but complex alterations)
Probable Date: 1598
Work and Authorship: Much Ado About Nothing
Evidence for Date: Late 1598: not mentioned by Meres but includes part for Kempe, who left company by early 1599
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1600, reprinted Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1598–99
Work and Authorship: The Passionate Pilgrim [collection of twenty poems attributed to W. Shakespeare; five definitely by Shakespeare, four by other authors, eleven of uncertain attribution]
Evidence for Date: First edition (title page lost) published some time after Sep. 1598; second edition published 1599; Poems 1 and 2 are version of sonnets published in the 1609 collection; the three other definitely Shakespearean poems are from Love’s Labour’s Lost
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Octavo 1598–99, reprinted 1599, then reprinted 1612 with additional poems by Thomas Heywood (a practice to which Heywood and apparently Shakespeare objected). Not included in this edition
Probable Date: 1599
Work and Authorship: The Life of Henry the Fifth
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Aug. 1600; not mentioned by Meres in Sep. 1598; choruses apparently written during Earl of Essex’s Irish campaign (Mar.–Sep. 1599)
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1600 (corrupt text), reprinted 1602, 1619. Folio 1623 (major variations)
Probable Date: 1599
Work and Authorship: "To the Queen"
Evidence for Date: Written for court performance of 20 Feb. 1599
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Not printed in Shakespeare’s lifetime
Probable Date: 1599
Work and Authorship: As You Like It
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Aug. 1600; “all the world’s a stage” may allude to Globe Theatre, built 1599; includes apparent allusions to Marlowe and his death, as described in a book of 1599
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1599
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
Evidence for Date: Performed at Globe Sep. 1599; not mentioned by Meres 1598
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1600–01
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Jul. 1602 as “lately acted”; allusion to acting of Julius Caesar’s death suggests written soon after that play; apparently known to Gabriel Harvey before execution of Essex in Feb. 1601; “little eyases” passage about boy actors probably added in 1601; an earlier Hamlet play was extant by 1589 (a few commentators have associated this with Shakespeare, but Hamlet is not in Meres’ 1598 list of plays)
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto version 1603 (corrupt text). Quarto 1604–05. Folio 1623 (substantial cuts and variations)
Probable Date: 1600–01 (perhaps revising version of 1597–99)
Work and Authorship: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Jan. 1602; must postdate 1 Henry IV; not mentioned by Meres in 1598; a version may have been performed at Garter festivities in 1597 or 1599
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto version 1602 (corrupt text), reprinted 1619. Folio 1623 (major variations)
Probable Date: 1600–03
Work and Authorship: Probable authorship of riot-quelling scene for Sir Thomas More, a play originally by Anthony Munday, with other revisions by Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, and Thomas Heywood
Evidence for Date: Original version may be as early as 1592; additions, including Shakespearean scene, almost certainly date from several years later (Thomas Goodale, an actor named in one of the other additions, was with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men by about 1597)
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: No early printed edition; manuscript not published until 1844. “Hand D” additions believed by most scholars to be only extant manuscript in Shakespeare’s own hand. This scene only included in this edition
Work and Authorship: “Let the Bird of Loudest Lay,” known since 1807 as “The Phoenix and Turtle” (turtledove) [short elegiac poem]
Evidence for Date: In a collection published in honor of John Salusbury’s knighthood, Jun. 1601, among a group of poems by Marston, Jonson, and Chapman, who were active around this time; has been connected to events of Feb. 1601
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Published in Robert Chester, Love’s Martyr, 1601
Probable Date: 1601
Work and Authorship: Twelfth Night, or What You Will
Evidence for Date: Performed at Middle Temple Feb. 1602; not mentioned by Meres 1598; alludes to Anthony Sherley’s visit to the Persian Sophy (1598–1601) and to a map first published in 1599; parodies Jonson’s Cynthia’s Revels (late 1600–early 1601) and is apparently alluded to in his Poetaster, 1601
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1601–02
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication Feb. 1603; indebted to Chapman’s Homer, published 1598; seems to postdate Jonson’s Poetaster, performed 1601
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1609. Folio 1623 (major variations)
Probable Date: 1604
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
Evidence for Date: Performed at court Nov. 1604; apparently uses Knolles’ History of the Turks, published late 1603; probably postdates plague closure of May 1603–Apr. 1604
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1622. Folio 1623 (major alterations and additional passages)
Probable Date: 1604
Work and Authorship: Measure for Measure
Evidence for Date: Performed at court Dec. 1604; probably written after plague closure of May 1603– April 1604
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623, in a version that may include elements of post- Shakespearean theatrical alteration, perhaps by Thomas Middleton
Probable Date: 1605
Work and Authorship: All’s Well That Ends Well
Evidence for Date: No firm evidence for date, though not mentioned by Meres 1598; close links to Measure for Measure, so may well have been written after plague closures of May 1603– Apr. 1604 and May–Sep. 1604; since not in court season of late 1604, probably written in 1605
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1605
Work and Authorship: The Life of Timon of Athens, probably with Thomas Middleton
Evidence for Date: No firm evidence for date or performance; some resemblances between Timon and Lear
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1605–06
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of King Lear
Evidence for Date: Performed at court Dec. 1606; draws on earlier Leir play (published 1605); seems to refer to eclipses of Sep. and Oct. 1605; borrows from books by Samuel Harsnett and John Florio published 1603
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto version 1608, reprinted 1619. Folio 1623 (very major alterations, additions and cuts)
Probable Date: 1605–08
Work and Authorship: Possible authorship of one or more of The Four Plays in One (lost), perhaps with Thomas Middleton and others
Evidence for Date: All’s One, or One of the Four Plays in One, called A Yorkshire Tragedy as it was played by the King’s Majesty’s Players, based on a pamphlet published in 1605, registered May 1608
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: A Yorkshire Tragedy written by W. Shakespeare Quarto 1608, reprinted 1619, added to second issue of Third Folio 1664; not included in this edition, now attributed to Middleton
Probable Date: 1606
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Macbeth
Evidence for Date: Compliments King James; performed at Globe in Apr. 1611 and perhaps at court in Aug. or Dec. 1606; local allusions suggest written soon after trial of Gunpowder Plot conspirators (Jan.–Mar. 1606); the ship Tiger, mentioned in Act 1 Scene 3, sailed for the east in 1604 and returned after a terrible voyage in the summer of 1606
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623, with probable additions by Thomas Middleton
Probable Date: 1606–07
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication May 1608; apparently seen by Barnabe Barnes before summer 1607; perhaps performed at court Christmas 1606 or 1607
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Coriolanus
Evidence for Date: No firm evidence for date; probably indebted to Camden’s Remains (1605); may allude to great frost of winter 1607–08; alluded to in Jonson’s Epicoene (1609); theaters closed for plague most of time from Jul. 1606 to Feb. 1610, so may belong to open period Apr.–Jul. 1608
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1608
Work and Authorship: Pericles, Prince of Tyre, with George Wilkins
Evidence for Date: Registered for publication May 1608; Wilkins’ Painfull Adventures of Pericles, cashing in on success of play, published 1608; performance seen by Venetian and French ambassadors, probably between Apr. and Jul. 1608
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1609 (corrupt text), reprinted 1609, 1612, 1619. Not in Folio 1623, perhaps for copyright reasons; added to second issue of Third Folio 1664
Probable Date: 1610
Work and Authorship: The Tragedy of Cymbeline
Evidence for Date: Performed at Globe Apr. 1611; apparently postdates Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster (1608–10); probably belongs to period when theaters were reopened in spring 1610 after long period of plague closure; perhaps performed at court during winter 1610–11
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1611
Work and Authorship: The Winter’s Tale
Evidence for Date: Performed at Globe May 1611; dance of satyrs apparently borrows from a court entertainment of Jan. 1611; performed at court Nov. 1611
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1611
Work and Authorship: The Tempest
Evidence for Date: Performed at court Nov. 1611; indebted to sources not available before late 1610
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1612–13
Work and Authorship: Cardenio, with John Fletcher, a lost play
Evidence for Date: Performed at court May and Jul. 1613; based on translation of Don Quixote published 1612
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Registered for publication Sep. 1653 as by Shakespeare and Fletcher, but not published; adaptation deriving from theater manuscript published by Lewis Theobald in 1728 as Double Falsehood
Probable Date: 1613
Work and Authorship: Henry VIII (All is True), with John Fletcher
Evidence for Date: Performed at Globe Jun. 1613 (when the theater burned down); recorded at this time as a new play, acted no more than two or three times before
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Folio 1623
Probable Date: 1613–14
Work and Authorship: The Two Noble Kinsmen, with John Fletcher
Evidence for Date: Morris dance borrowed from a Beaumont masque of Feb. 1613; prologue apparently alludes to Globe fire of Jun. 1613; alluded to by Jonson in Bartholomew Fair (first performed Oct. 1614)
First Publication and Relationship of Texts: Quarto 1634, by “William Shakespeare and John Fletcher”; reprinted in Beaumont and Fletcher Second Folio 1679