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The engraved title page of Shakespeare's First Folio, 1623, with the Droeshout portrait
Title page of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies — the First Folio (1623). British Library (CC0).

Plays

The complete canon — 36 Folio plays, the collaborations, the poems — with dates where scholarship agrees and uncertainty where it doesn't.

How the canon is organized

The First Folio (1623) grouped 36 plays as Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies — an editor’s convenience, not the author’s. Modern scholarship adds Romances for the late plays and recognizes collaborations. Composition dates below are scholarly consensus estimates (Oxford/Arden chronologies); a “c.” means the range is genuinely debated. Plays marked * survive only in the First Folio — without Heminges and Condell, they would be lost.

Tragedies (12)

Play Written (est.) Notes
Titus Andronicus c. 1592 Early, bloody; possibly co-written with George Peele.
Romeo and Juliet c. 1595 Quarto 1597 (“bad” text); Quarto 1599.
Julius Caesar * c. 1599 First Globe-season tragedy; Folio only.
Hamlet c. 1600–01 Three texts: Q1 (1603, “bad”), Q2 (1604–05), Folio.
Troilus and Cressida c. 1602 Bitter, satirical; genre debated.
Othello * c. 1603–04 Folio (1623) and a 1622 quarto; texts differ.
King Lear * c. 1605–06 Quarto (1608) and Folio differ substantially — two versions, not one.
Macbeth * c. 1606 Folio only; the shortest tragedy.
Timon of Athens * c. 1605–08 Unfinished-seeming; likely co-written with Thomas Middleton.
Antony and Cleopatra * c. 1606–07 Folio only.
Coriolanus * c. 1608 Folio only.
Cymbeline * c. 1609 Folio classes it a tragedy; modern critics call it a romance.

Comedies (14)

Play Written (est.) Notes
The Comedy of Errors c. 1594 Earliest; Plautus adaptation.
The Taming of the Shrew c. 1593–94 Dating and text disputed.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona * c. 1594–95 Folio only.
Love’s Labour’s Lost c. 1595–96 Quarto 1598.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream c. 1595–96 Quartos 1600.
The Merchant of Venice c. 1596–97 Quarto 1600.
The Merry Wives of Windsor c. 1597 Written, by tradition, at Elizabeth’s request for Falstaff.
Much Ado About Nothing c. 1598 Quarto 1600.
As You Like It * c. 1599–1600 Folio only.
Twelfth Night * c. 1599–1601 Folio only; performed 1602 at Middle Temple (documented).
Measure for Measure * c. 1603–04 “Problem play”; Folio only.
All’s Well That Ends Well * c. 1604–05 “Problem play”; Folio only.
The Tempest * c. 1610–11 Folio only; often read as a farewell — cautiously.
The Winter’s Tale * c. 1610–11 Folio only; contains “Exit, pursued by a bear.”

Histories (10)

Play Written (est.) Notes
King John * c. 1595–96 Folio only.
Richard II c. 1595 Quarto 1597; the deposition scene censored in print until 1608.
Henry IV, Part 1 c. 1596–97 Quarto 1598. Falstaff’s debut.
Henry IV, Part 2 c. 1597–98 Quarto 1600.
Henry V c. 1599 Quarto 1600 (“bad”); Folio text much fuller.
Henry VI, Part 1 c. 1592 Folio only; authorship shared with Nashe and others (now widely accepted).
Henry VI, Part 2 c. 1590–91 Quarto 1594 as The Contention.
Henry VI, Part 3 c. 1590–91 Octavo 1595 as The True Tragedy.
Richard III c. 1592–93 Quarto 1597.
Henry VIII * c. 1612–13 With John Fletcher; the play being performed when the Globe burned.

Romances — the late plays (4)

Modern grouping for the late tragicomedies of reunion and forgiveness. Three appear in the Folio under other headings; Pericles was excluded entirely.

Play Written (est.) Notes
Pericles c. 1607–08 With George Wilkins; excluded from the Folio; quarto 1609.
Cymbeline * c. 1609 Folio tragedy; modern romance.
The Winter’s Tale * c. 1610–11 Folio comedy; modern romance.
The Tempest * c. 1610–11 Folio comedy; modern romance.

Outside the Folio

A note on dating

No manuscript dates any play. Scholars triangulate from: Stationers’ Register entries, title pages, the Revels accounts, Francis Meres’s 1598 list, topical allusions, and stylistic analysis (verse tests, vocabulary). Ranges like “c. 1605–06” are honest; single years are editorial conveniences. Where the range is wide, the table says so.

Source notes