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Shakespeare

The plays and poems read in one grouping after another, without stopping: there is always one work open. Some groupings take in everything and some only a part, so some works come round more often than others. The grouping changes what a play is next to, and so what it seems to be about.

Forty-two works in all: the thirty-six plays of the First Folio, Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and the four poems. More groupings will join these.

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Up next: The Two Gentlemen of Verona · beginning 1. In the order they were written

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1. In the order they were written

As Shakespeare wrote them, from the early comedies and the first histories to the late collaborations. The dates are estimates, and the order of the earliest plays is disputed.

The works
  1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona c. 1590
  2. The Taming of the Shrew c. 1590–91
  3. Henry VI, Part 2 c. 1591
  4. Henry VI, Part 3 c. 1591
  5. Henry VI, Part 1 c. 1592
  6. Titus Andronicus c. 1592
  7. Richard III c. 1592–93
  8. Venus and Adonis 1593
  9. The Rape of Lucrece 1594
  10. The Comedy of Errors c. 1594
  11. Love’s Labour’s Lost c. 1594–95
  12. Richard II c. 1595
  13. Romeo and Juliet c. 1595
  14. A Midsummer Night’s Dream c. 1595
  15. King John c. 1596
  16. The Merchant of Venice c. 1596–97
  17. Henry IV, Part 1 c. 1596–97
  18. The Merry Wives of Windsor c. 1597–98
  19. Henry IV, Part 2 c. 1597–98
  20. Much Ado About Nothing c. 1598–99
  21. Henry V 1599
  22. Julius Caesar 1599
  23. As You Like It c. 1599–1600
  24. Hamlet c. 1600–01
  25. Twelfth Night c. 1600–01
  26. The Phoenix and the Turtle 1601
  27. Troilus and Cressida c. 1602
  28. Measure for Measure c. 1603–04
  29. Othello c. 1603–04
  30. All’s Well That Ends Well c. 1604–05
  31. Timon of Athens c. 1605
  32. King Lear c. 1605–06
  33. Macbeth c. 1606
  34. Antony and Cleopatra c. 1606
  35. Pericles c. 1607
  36. Coriolanus c. 1608
  37. Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint published 1609
  38. The Winter’s Tale c. 1609–10
  39. Cymbeline c. 1610
  40. The Tempest c. 1610–11
  41. Henry VIII 1613
  42. The Two Noble Kinsmen c. 1613–14

2. As the First Folio arranges them

By kind, the way his fellow actors collected the plays in 1623: comedies, then histories, then tragedies. The works the Folio left out come last.

The works

Comedies

  1. The Tempest c. 1610–11
  2. The Two Gentlemen of Verona c. 1590
  3. The Merry Wives of Windsor c. 1597–98
  4. Measure for Measure c. 1603–04
  5. The Comedy of Errors c. 1594
  6. Much Ado About Nothing c. 1598–99
  7. Love’s Labour’s Lost c. 1594–95
  8. A Midsummer Night’s Dream c. 1595
  9. The Merchant of Venice c. 1596–97
  10. As You Like It c. 1599–1600
  11. The Taming of the Shrew c. 1590–91
  12. All’s Well That Ends Well c. 1604–05
  13. Twelfth Night c. 1600–01
  14. The Winter’s Tale c. 1609–10

Histories

  1. King John c. 1596
  2. Richard II c. 1595
  3. Henry IV, Part 1 c. 1596–97
  4. Henry IV, Part 2 c. 1597–98
  5. Henry V 1599
  6. Henry VI, Part 1 c. 1592
  7. Henry VI, Part 2 c. 1591
  8. Henry VI, Part 3 c. 1591
  9. Richard III c. 1592–93
  10. Henry VIII 1613

Tragedies

  1. Troilus and Cressida c. 1602
  2. Coriolanus c. 1608
  3. Titus Andronicus c. 1592
  4. Romeo and Juliet c. 1595
  5. Timon of Athens c. 1605
  6. Julius Caesar 1599
  7. Macbeth c. 1606
  8. Hamlet c. 1600–01
  9. King Lear c. 1605–06
  10. Othello c. 1603–04
  11. Antony and Cleopatra c. 1606
  12. Cymbeline c. 1610

Outside the Folio

  1. Pericles c. 1607
  2. The Two Noble Kinsmen c. 1613–14
  3. Venus and Adonis 1593
  4. The Rape of Lucrece 1594
  5. The Phoenix and the Turtle 1601
  6. Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint published 1609

3. The histories as one chronicle

Only the English histories, in the order of the reigns they stage, from John to Henry VIII, read as one long story. The dates are the years each play covers.

The works
  1. King John 1199–1216
  2. Richard II 1398–1400
  3. Henry IV, Part 1 1402–03
  4. Henry IV, Part 2 1403–13
  5. Henry V 1414–20
  6. Henry VI, Part 1 1422–53
  7. Henry VI, Part 2 1445–55
  8. Henry VI, Part 3 1455–71
  9. Richard III 1471–85
  10. Henry VIII 1520–33

Then begin again with the first grouping.