Plays & Poems

No one is absolutely certain how many plays Shakespeare wrote or the order in which he wrote them. Broadly speaking, they were composed between the late 1580's and about 1613.

The first Shakespeare collection was published in 1623 - seven years after Shakespeare's death. This is known as the "First Folio", and contains 36 plays divided into 3 genres: The Comedies, The Histories and The Tragedies. Since that time, two further plays have been included in most editions (Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen). Add to that the Sonnets, two narrative poems, Venus & Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and a few shorter poems and you have what's usually called "Shakespeare's Canon".

A second group of plays and poems have been linked to Shakespeare, either as sole author or collaborator, and have even been included in some editions. These are sometimes referred to as Shakespeare's "Apocrypha". Some have better claims to authenticity than others.

A third group is the "lost" plays - plays which we know to have existed, but in the absence of any texts, cannot be conclusively linked to Shakespeare.

Click the appropriate link to get to the play or poem you want:

Timeline: Timeline of Shakespeare's Plays

Genres: The Comedies · The Histories · The Tragedies

Plays: All's Well That Ends Well · Antony and Cleopatra · As You Like It · The Comedy of Errors · Coriolanus · Cymbeline · Hamlet · Henry IV Part I · Henry IV Part II · Henry V · Henry VI Part I · Henry VI Part II · Henry VI Part III · Henry VIII · Julius Caesar · King John · King Lear · Love's Labour's Lost · Macbeth · Measure for Measure · The Merchant of Venice · The Merry Wives of Windsor · A Midsummer Night's Dream · Much Ado About Nothing · Othello · Pericles · Richard II · Richard III · Romeo and Juliet · The Taming of the Shrew · The Tempest · Timon of Athens · Titus Andronicus · Troilus and Cressida · Twelfth Night · The Two Gentlemen of Verona · The Two Noble Kinsmen · The Winter's Tale

Poetry: The Rape of Lucrece · The Sonnets · Venus and Adonis · Other Poetry

Also: Shakespeare's Apocrypha, the Lost Plays . . . and a few hoaxes