DATES AND SOURCES OF SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS
| Date of composition (?) | Comedies | Histories | Tragedies | ⟨Dramatic poems⟩ | Chief Source | First definite mention | First printed | Conjectural dates of | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fleay | Alden | Adams | ||||||||
| 1588–1594 | Comedy of Errors | Plautus | Dec. 28, 1594 (Helmes) | 1623 | 1594 | 1590–1591 | 1588–1589 | |||
| 1590 | Love’s Labour’s Lost | Unknown | 1598 (Meres) | 1598 | 1590–1591 | 1592 | ||||
| 1591 | Two Gentlemen of Verona | Montemayor | 1598 (Meres) | 1623 | 1591–1595 | 1591–1592 | 1592–1594 | |||
| 1592 | Henry VI, Pts. II & III | Old plays, Holinshed | Sept., 1592 (Greene) | 1623 | 1590–1592 | 1592 | ||||
| 1592 | ⟨Venus and Adonis⟩ | Ovid | Apr. 18, 1593 (S. R.) | 1593 | 1592–1593 | |||||
| 1593–1594 | ⟨Lucrece⟩ | Ovid, Livy | May 9, 1594 (S. R.) | 1594 | 1593–1594 | |||||
| 1593 | Titus Andronicus | ?Older play | Jan.23, 1594 (performance) | 1594 | ||||||
| 1594 | Richard III | Holinshed | Oct. 19, 1597 (S. R.) | 1597 | 1594 | 1592–1593 | 1595 | |||
| 1594 | Midsummer Night's Dream | Unknown | 1598 (Meres) | 1600 | 1595 | 1593–1595 | 1596 | |||
| 1595 | Richard II | Holinshed | Aug. 29, 1597 (S. R.) | 1597 | 1595 | 1594–1595 | 1595 | |||
| 1595 | Romeo and Juliet | Arthur Brooke | July, 1596–Apr., 1597 (L.d. Hunsdon’s Co.) | 1597 | 1595–1596 | 1594–1597 | 1593–1596 | |||
| 1595–1596 | King John | Older plays | 1598 (Meres) | 1623 | 1596 | 1592–1593 | 1595 | |||
| 1594–1600 | ⟨Sonnets⟩ | 1598 (Meres) | 1609 | 1592–1594 | ||||||
| 1596 | Merchant of Venice | G. Fiorentino | 1598 (Meres) | 1600 | 1596–1597 | 1594–1596 | 1597 | |||
| 1596 | Taming of the Shrew | Older play | ? ? ? | 1623 | 1603 | 1596–1597 | 1597 | |||
| 1597 | 1 Henry IV | Older play, Holinshed | Feb. 25, 1598 (S. R.) | 1598 | 1597 | 1597–1598 | 1597 | |||
| 1598 | 2 Henry IV | Holinshed | Aug. 23, 1600 (S. R.) | 1600 | 1597–1598 | 1597–1598 | 1597–1598 | |||
| 1599 | Henry V | Holinshed | Aug. 4, 1600 (S. R.) | 1600 | 1599 | 1599 | 1598 | |||
| 1599 | Henry VI, Pt. 1 | Older play, Holinshed | 1623 | 1590–1592 | 1594–1595, 1598–1599 | |||||
| 1599 | Julius Cæsar | Plutarch | Sept. 21, 1599 (T. Platter’s diary); 1599–1601 (Weever) | 1623 | 1600 | 1599–1600 | 1599 | |||
| 1599–1600 | Merry Wives of Windsor | Unknown | Jan. 18, 1602 (S. R.) | 1602 | 1600 | 1598–1599 | 1598 | |||
| 1600 | Much Ado about Nothing | Bandello | Aug. 4, 1600 (S. R.) | 1600 | 1597–1598 | 1599 | 1599 | |||
| 1600 | As You Like It | Lodge | Aug. 4, 1600 (S. R.) | 1623 | 1599 | 1599–1600 | 1599 | |||
| 1601 | Twelfth Night | Barnabe Rich | Feb. 2, 1602 (Manningham) | 1623 | 1601–1602 | 1601 | 1599 | |||
| 1601 | Hamlet | Older play | July 26, 1602 (S. R.) | 1603 | 1603 | 1602–1604 | 1601 | |||
| 1602 | Troilus and Cressida | Chaucer, Caxton | Feb. 7, 1603 (S. R.) | 1609 | 1602 | 1601–1602 | 1602 | |||
| 1603 | Measure for Measure | Older plays | Dec. 26, 1604 (Court performance) | 1623 | 1604 | 1603 | 1603–1604 | |||
| 1596–1606 | All’s Well that Ends Well | Boccaccio | ?1598 (Meres) | 1623 | 1593–1601 | 1602–1604 | 1596, 1600–1 | |||
| 1604 | Othello | Cinthio | Nov. 1, 1604 (Court performance) | 1622 | 1604 | 1604 | 1604 | |||
| 1605 | Lear | Older play, Sidney | Dec. 26, 1606 (Court performance) | 1608 | 1605 | 1605–1606 | 1605 | |||
| 1606 | Macbeth | Holinshed | Apr. 20, 1610 (Forman’s diary) | 1623 | 1606 | 1606 | 1606 | |||
| 1607 | Timon of Athens | Plutarch, older play? | ? ? ? | 1623 | 1606–1607 | 1607–1608 | 1607 | |||
| 1607 | Antony and Cleopatra | Plutarch | May 20, 1608 (S. R.) | 1623 | 1607 | 1607–1608 | 1607 | |||
| 1606–1608 | Pericles | Gower | May 20, 1608 (S. R.) | 1609 | 1608 | 1607–1608 | 1607 | |||
| 1608–1609 | Coriolanus | Plutarch | 1609? (allusion in Jonson’s Silent Woman) | 1623 | 1608 | 1609 | 1608–1609 | |||
| 1610 | Cymbeline | Holinshed, Boccaccio | 1610? (undated note in Forman) | 1623 | 1609 | 1610 | 1609–1610 | |||
| 1610–1611 | Winter’s Tale | Greene | May 15, 1611 (Forman) | 1623 | 1610 | 1611 | 1610–1611 | |||
| 1611 | Tempest | Contemporary pamphlets, etc. | Nov. 1, 1611 (Court performance) | 1623 | 1610 | 1611 | 1611 | |||
| 1613 | Henry VIII | Holinshed | June 29, 1613 (Globe Theatre fire) | 1623 | 1613 | 1612 | 1613 | |||
