His plays. Shakespeare wrote or had a hand in the writing of at least thirty-seven plays, the mixed authorship being most evident in Cymbeline, Pericles, and The Famous History of the These are the thirty-seven plays: Life of King Henry VIII. Love's Labour's Lost The Two Gentlemen of Verona King Henry VI, Part I King Henry VI, Part III A Midsummer Night's Dream King John King Richard II King Richard III The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor Much Ado About Nothing All's Well that Ends Well Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Measure for Measure Othello, the Moor of Venice Macbeth Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens The Winter's Tale The Tempest King Henry VIII This order is, as nearly as can be ascertained, the order in which the plays were written, though there is a great deal of difference of opinion concerning the order. In fact, it is all very much a matter of guesswork. We know that the first part of King Henry VI was played in 1591 and that, therefore, it must have been written before that date. We know that Shakespeare died in 1616, and that, therefore, if he had any share in the writing of King Henry VIII, or any other play, it must. have been before that time. We know that nothing was known in Europe about the Bermuda Islands (mentioned in The Tempest) before 1609, and that, therefore, Shakespeare could not G have written The Tempest before that date. But to determine the dates of the plays, as is often attempted, by the moods of the man at certain ages in his life, gets us nowhere; for it is generally acknowledged that the plays were all written between 1589 and 1613, and it is quite possible for a man to have many very similar moods between the ages of 25 and 50. The important thing about them is not their dates, but that nothing in literature has come from an Anglo-Saxon mind so great as these dramas. From the hour of their production until now they have been the world's greatest treasure house both of entertainment and of wisdom, and, together with the Bible, of inspiration. Many other plays are asserted to have come from the hand of this author, among them Cardenna, Edward III, Arden of Feversham, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and some scenes added in 1602 to Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. There seems little ground for doubt that he had a hand in the writing of The Two Noble Kinsmen; but there are good reasons for doubting that he had anything to do with the others, the best of all of these reasons being that these plays do not sound like anything else we know him to have done. The plays may be grouped into Comedies, Chronicle Plays, Tragedies, and Romances. The COMEDIES are twelve in number, Love's Labour's Lost The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Comedy of Errors A Midsummer Night's Dream The Merchant of Venice The Taming of the Shrew The CHRONICLE PLAYS, ten,— King Henry VI, Part I King Henry VI, Part II The Merry Wives of Windsor As You Like It Much Ado About Nothing All's Well that Ends Well King Henry VI, Part III The order of writing the groups was, in general, probably this: Comedies, Chronicle Plays, Tragedies, Romances. There are exceptions to this probable order, in each group; for Troilus and Cressida, a romance, was written before at least six of the tragedies; Measure for Measure, a comedy, was written after some of the tragedies, and after all the chronicle plays excepting one; Titus Andronicus and Romeo and Juliet, tragedies, were written before most of all the plays in all the groups; Henry VIII, a chronicle play, was written last of all. At least this is as near as the dates can be ascertained. Yet for most of the plays the statement stands true, that their author began with comedies, turned next to serious history, then to tragedy, and last of all, in the romances, wrote chiefly to please himself. In spite of what we have said concerning the variety of moods a man's mind may have in a short period of time, we should expect this distribution of the plays, because it is the most likely thing that a man should earliest be interested in the lighter aspects. of life; then, particularly in the England of that time, next be attracted and held by the dominant interest of the time, Eng |