Chronology of Shakespeare plays
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The precise chronology of Shakespeare's plays as they were first written and performed is impossible 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Pirated editions are the first printed versions of several plays, but many of Shakespeare's works remained unpublished until the First Folio (1623).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 exact role in writing numerous 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 many of Shakespeare's plays then extant by Francis Meres.
While many Stratfordian scholars have adopted a generally accepted order[citation needed] (see below), many dates continue to be debated and all dates should be taken as highly speculative. A number of orthodox scholars, as well as most Oxfordian researchers (so called because of their belief in the authorship by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford), disagree with this Stratfordian dating (dissenting view: Chronology of Shakespeare's Plays - Oxfordian). Also see Shakespeare Authorship.
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[edit] List of Plays with Estimated Dates
(Dates in parentheses indicate the date of first publication only.)
- 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) The 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) The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays. The work may have been based on Bartholomew Yong's translation of Jorge de 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.
- 1591-1596 (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
- 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 (1600) Henry V
- Chorus expresses hope for the Earl of Essex's 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
- 1599-1600 (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.
- 1603 (1622) Othello
- Performed November 1604.
- 1603-06 (1608) King Lear
- Stationers' Register in November 1607.
- 1603-06 (1623) Macbeth
- 1603 (1623) Measure for Measure
- Court records show it was performed December 1604.
- 1606 (1623) Antony and Cleopatra
- Stationers' Register in May 1608.
- 1607 (1623) Coriolanus
- 1607 (1623) Timon of Athens (probably revised by Thomas Middleton)
- 1608 (1609) Pericles Prince of Tyre (probably revised by George Wilkins)
- Stationers' Register in May 1608.
- 1609 (1623) Cymbeline
- 1594-1610 (1623) The Winter's Tale [1]
- 1611 (1623) The Tempest
- 1612 (1623) Henry VIII (probably written in collaboration with John Fletcher)
- 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.
[edit] References
- ^ Shaksperian Scraps, chapter: "The Forman Notes" (1933). Tannenbaum reports that "Malone had at first decided that it was written in 1594; subsequently he seems to have assigned it to 1604; later still, to 1613; and finally he settled on 1610-11. Hunter assigned it to about 1605."
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Narrative and Dramatic Sources of all Shakespeare's works Also publication years and chronology of Shakespeare plays
- 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
- Shakespeare's Works: A Timeline