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 titled “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

  Recorded at Stationers’ Register on 22 July 1598. In Francis Meres’ 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.

• 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, though some scholars think it might simply be an alternative name for another of the plays, such as As You Like It, Much Ado, or All’s Well That Ends Well.^[1]

• 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 ^[2]
• 1611 (1623) The Tempest
• 1612 (1623) Henry VIII (probably written in collaboration with John Fletcher)

  Was performed on 29 June 1613, when the Globe Theatre burnt down.