Shakespeare Topic Guide: Plays

• Henry IV, Part I
• Henry IV, Part II
• Henry V
• Henry VI, Part I
• Henry VI, Part II
• Henry VI, Part III
• Henry VIII
• King John
• Richard II
• Richard III

Histories were typically based on the lives of English Kings (except for Macbeth & King Lear, which are regarded as a tragedies).
Courtesy of the Shakespeare Resource Center.

                      

• All's Well That Ends Well
  
• As You Like It
• The Comedy of Errors
• Love's Labor'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; Or, What You Will
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Almost all of the plays written after the plague hit London are comedies, perhaps reflecting the public's desire at the time for light-hearted fare. Courtesy of the Shakespeare Resource Center.

Establishing the chronology of Shakespeare's plays is difficult because it is impossible to know the exact order of succession. There is no record of the first production date of any of Shakespeare's works. ©1999-2012 Amanda Mabillard.

• Cymbeline
• Pericles
• The Tempest
• The Two Noble Kinsmen
• The Winter's Tale

The Romances featured plays with redemptive plot lines, happy endings, fantastical images and other magical elements. Courtesy of the Shakespeare Resource Center.

• Antony and Cleopatra
• Coriolanus
• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
• Julius Caesar
• King Lear
• Macbeth
• Othello, the Moor of Venice
• Romeo and Juliet
• Timon of Athens
• Titus Andronicus
• Troilus and Cressida

Written during Shakespeare's darkest periods, these plays were riddled with tales of  betrayal, murder, lust, power and egoism. Courtesy of the Shakespeare Resource Center.