William Shakespeare/Works

The Plays

Shakespeare's plays are traditionally organised into three groups: Tragedies, Comedies, and Histories. The following (resortable) list sorts the plays according to their order in the First Folio (with excluded plays marked by †), the first published edition of Shakespeare's plays. Today, some of the comedies are usually considered as a separate subgenre, the 'romances' or tragicomedies; these plays are so marked in the "Genre" column.

Title	Genre	Precis	Main Characters	Date Written	First Published
Tempest, The	Comedy	Precis	Prospero, Miranda	1611	1623
Two Gentlemen of Verona, The	Comedy	Precis	Valentine, Proteus	1593	1623
The Merry Wives of Windsor	Comedy	Precis	Falstaff, Ford	1597	1602
Measure for Measure	Comedy	Precis	Vincentio, Angelo	1604	1623
The Comedy of Errors	Comedy	Precis	Antipholus, Dromio	1590	1623
Much Ado About Nothing	Comedy	Precis	Beatrice, Benedick	1598	1600
Love's Labour's Lost	Comedy	Precis	Ferdinand, Berowne	1593	1598
A Midsummer Night's Dream	Comedy	Precis	Oberon, Titania	1594	1600
The Merchant of Venice	Comedy	Precis	Antonio, Shylock	1596	1600
As You Like It	Comedy	Precis	Rosalind, Orlando	1598	1623
Taming of the Shrew	Comedy	Precis	Petruchio, Katherine	1623
All's Well That Ends Well	Comedy	Precis	Bertram, Helena	1603	1623
Twelfth Night or What You Will	Comedy	Precis	Orsino, Viola, Olivia	1600	1623
The Winter's Tale	Romance	Precis	Leontes, Perdita	1610	1623
Pericles, Prince of Tyre†	Romance	Precis	Pericles, Marina	1607	1609
The Two Noble Kinsmen†	Romance	Precis	Arcite, Palamon	1612-3	1634
King John	History	Precis	John, Arthur	1596	1623
Richard II	History	Precis	Richard, Bolingbroke	1595	1597
Henry IV, part 1	History	Precis	Henry, Hal, Hotspur	1597	1598
Henry IV, part 2	History	Precis	Henry, Falstaff, Hal	1598	1600
Henry V	History	Precis	Henry, Pistol	1599	1600
Henry VI, part 1	History	Precis	Henry, Talbot
Henry VI, part 2	History	Precis	Henry, Margaret
Henry VI, part 3	History	Precis	Henry, Margaret
Richard III	History	Precis	Richard, Clarence
Henry VIII	History	Precis	Henry, Catherine
Romeo and Juliet	Tragedy	Precis	Romeo, Juliet
Coriolanus	Tragedy	Precis	Coriolanus, Volumnia
Titus Andronicus	Tragedy	Precis	Titus, Aaron
Timon of Athens	Tragedy	Precis	Timon, Apemantus
Julius Caesar	Tragedy	Precis	Brutus, Antony
Macbeth	Tragedy	Precis	Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo
Hamlet	Tragedy	Precis	Hamlet, Ophelia
Troilus and Cressida	Tragedy	Precis	Troilus, Cressida
King Lear	Tragedy	Precis	Lear, Cordelia, Regan Gloucester, Goneril
Othello	Tragedy	Precis	Othello, Iago, Desdemona
Antony and Cleopatra	Tragedy	Precis	Antony, Cleopatra
Cymbeline	Romance	Precis	Imogen, Iachimo

† Not included in the First Folio.

Sources:

• "plays of William Shakespeare" (requires subscription). World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed November 7, 2007.
• Terry A. Gray, "Shakespeare's Canon." Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet (website). Accessed November 7, 2007.

Poems

• Shakespeare's Sonnets
• Venus and Adonis
• The Rape of Lucrece
• The Passionate Pilgrim
• The Phoenix and the Turtle
• A Lover's Complaint

Lost plays

• Love's Labour's Won
• Cardenio

Apocrypha

• Edmund Ironside (play)
• Edward III
• Sir Thomas More
• Arden of Faversham

Shakespeare on screen

• BBC Television Shakespeare
• Shakespeare in Love