All's Well that Ends Well
A comedy by Shakespeare, first printed in the First Folio of 1623. Its close affinity to Measure for Measure suggests that it was written 1604–5. Both plays are generally classified as ...
As You Like It
A comedy by Shakespeare, first printed in the Folio of 1623, registered 1600 and probably written 1599–1600. Shakespeare's chief source was Lodge's Rosalynde.Frederick has usurped the dominions of ...
chronology
The precise dating, and the order of composition, of Shakespeare's plays have been a major concern of scholarship for many years, and are not likely ever to be finally determined. The two most ...
critical history
Although criticism is strictly the attempt to explain and evaluate works of art in terms other than their own, G. Wilson Knight, in The Wheel of Fire (1930), differentiates between ...
First Part of the Contention of the two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster
The play was originally known and performed as The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of Lancaster and York, with the Death of the Good Duke ...
Hamlet
A legendary prince of Denmark, hero of a tragedy by Shakespeare. The story is based on one in Saxo Grammaticus's Historiae Danicae, in which the young prince is opposed to the usurping uncle who has ...
Henry VI Part 1
On 3 March 1592 the manager-owner of the Rose theatre, Philip Henslowe, recorded a ‘new’ performance of ‘Harry the VI’ in his diary. While this may conceivably allude to any ...
Julius Caesar
A Roman tragedy by Shakespeare first printed in the First Folio of 1623, probably written and performed 1599. Its major source is North's translation of Plutarch's Lives.It begins with the events of ...
King John
A: William Shakespeare Pf: c.1596–7, London Pb: 1623 G: Hist. drama in 5 acts; blank verse S: England and France, c.1200–16. C: 18m, 4f, extrasKing John's claim to the throne is challenged by his ...
Love's Labour's Lost
A comedy by Shakespeare, probably written and performed about 1595, printed in quarto 1598. No major sources for it have been identified. It has often been felt to contain topical references (see ...
Love's Labour's Won
Listed by Francis Meres among Shakespeare's plays, and also in a bookseller's list of 1603, discovered in 1953. It may be an alternative title for another play–perhaps The Taming of the Shrew (not ...
Merchant of Venice
A comedy by Shakespeare written between 1596 and 1598, printed in 1600, and reprinted in the First Folio (1623). Its chief source is the first story of the fourth day in Il pecorone, Giovanni ...
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A comedy by Shakespeare, written probably about 1595 or 1596, printed in quarto in 1600 and 1619. It has no single major source, but Shakespeare drew, among other authors, on Chaucer, Golding's ...
Much Ado About Nothing
A comedy by Shakespeare, written probably 1598–9, first printed 1600. Its chief sources are a novella by Bandello and an episode in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.The prince of Arragon, with Claudio and ...
Oxfordian theory
A term for what has since the mid-20th century been the most visible strand in the Authorship Controversy, the claim that Shakespeare's works were in fact written by Edward de ...
Passionate Pilgrim
An unauthorized anthology of poems by various authors, published by Jaggard in 1599, and attributed on the title‐page to Shakespeare, but containing only a few authentic poems by him.
Phineas Redux
A novel by A. Trollope, published 1874, the fourth in the ‘Palliser’ series.Phineas Finn returns to politics and earnestly hopes for office under Mr Gresham's government. Unhappily a series of ...
Richard III
Play by Shakespeare (1593) for which incidental mus. was composed by Edward German (1889). Mus. for film of play comp. by Walton, 1955. Sym.‐poem by Smetana, 1858. The nickname ‘Richard III’ was ...
sonnets
Were printed in 1609 and probably date from the 1590s. Most of them trace the course of the writer's affection for a young man of rank and beauty: the first 17 urge him to marry to reproduce his ...
Stephen Gosson
(1554–1624).His plays are not now extant, but were ranked by Meres among ‘the best for pastorall’: however, he soon became a leader of the Puritan attacks on plays and players. His School of Abuse ...