William Shakespeare: The Complete Works

Shakespeare produced most of his work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were comedies and histories—genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his time, and his reputation reached still greater heights in the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare’s genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called ‘bardolatry’. In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. Shakespeare’s works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, classified as comedies, histories and tragedies. Two plays not included in the First Folio were: The Two Noble Kinsmen, which is attributed to John Fletcher and Shakespeare, and which did not appear in any of the subsequent Folios of Shakespeare’s works, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, which is now accepted as part of the canon, with scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made a major contribution to its composition. No Shakespearean poems were however included in the First Folio.