Shakespeare's Plays

During his lifetime, many of Shakespeare's 38 plays were published in what are known as Quarto editions, often without the playwright's permission. Many were flawed versions, including or deleting entire passages. The first collected edition of his plays, the First Folio, was published after his death by two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell. Since then the works of Shakespeare have been studied, translated, and enjoyed the world over as masterpieces of the English language.

Establishing the chronology of Shakespeare's plays is a difficult task. It is impossible to know the exact order of succession because there is no record of the first production date of any of his works. Although dating is conjectural, scholars have decided upon a specific play chronology based upon the following sources of information: 1) historical events and allusions to those events in the plays; 2) the records of performances of the plays—taken from such places as the diaries of contemporaries; 3) the publication dates of sources; and 4) the dates that the plays appear in print (the production of a play immediately followed its composotion.)

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