Shakespeare’s Early Plays: 1589–1594
Para1Scholars disagree widely about the specific dates when Shakespeare’s early works were
written and performed. In general, they agree that Shakespeare was likely in London
working as writer and actor by 1592 and that before about 1594, he experimented with
a wide variety of dramatic and literary forms. Like other young writers, Shakespeare
imitated other popular authors from his own time and from his education. Some scholars
contend he collaborated with other London playwrights on many early plays.
How to Date Works by Shakespeare
Para2Determining a date of composition remains a challenge. The Stationers’ Register, a record of publication kept by the London guild that regulated the printing trade,
is one way. There was no copyright protection for writers, although printers could
ensure that others did not print books they had rights to by entering them in the
Stationers’ Register. However, the entry date may have been months or even years after the date the play
was completed or first performed. Without the protections given by the concept of
copyright, acting companies often kept the manuscripts for the plays they owned until
the play lost popularity or until an outbreak of the plague prevented performances.
One such plague outbreak occurred from 1592–1594, during which the city authorities
closed the theaters.
Para3Investigation by editors of the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016), asserts that many of Shakespeare’s early plays were authored in collaboration
with other playwrights of the age, including Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, George
Peele, and the later plays in collaboration with Thomas Middleton, George Wilkins,
and John Fletcher.
Para4Shakespeare’s early works likely include:
Four history plays: (Henry VI, Parts One, Two, and Three; Richard III)
An erotic narrative poem: (Venus and Adonis)
A moralistic narrative poem: (The Rape of Lucrece)
A Roman-style comedy indebted to Plautus: (The Comedy of Errors)
A courtly comedy much like the work of John Lyly: (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
A farce about gender with roots in Italian commedia dell’arte, today often considered a problem comedy: (The Taming of the Shrew)
A bloody revenge tragedy set in ancient Rome, with inspiration from Thomas Kyd: (Titus Andronicus)
Speeches for a collaborative play about Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, Thomas More:
(Sir Thomas More)
Some sonnets that circulated in handwritten copies in the 1590s, but were not printed
until much later in 1609
Para5The Royal Shakespeare Company proposes this chronology:
The Taming of the Shrew (before 1592)
Henry VI, Part II (1591)
Henry VI, Part III (1591; published 1595)
Titus Andronicus (1591/92; first performance 1594)
Henry VI, Part I (Likely the harey the vi performed at the Rose Theatre in 1592)
Richard III (1592, shortly before the plague struck, or in 1594 when the theatres reopened post-plague)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (early or mid-1590s)
The Comedy of Errors (1594)
Para6The New Oxford Shakespeare proposes this timeline for probable composition dates:
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1587?)
Titus Andronicus (1590; printed 1594)
Henry VI, Part II (1590)
Henry VI, Part III (1590–91)
The Taming of the Shrew (1591?)
Richard III (1592?)
Henry VI, Part I (1592; written by Christopher Marlowe, with additions by Shakespeare)
Venus and Adonis (printed 1593)
Lucrece (printed 1594)
The Comedy of Errors (1594?)
Para7The New Oxford Shakespeare also propose Shakespeare as co-author on anonymous plays from the early 1590s such
as Arden of Feversham and Edward III. Each of these chronologies and attributions of authorship has proponents and detractors,
but even when these scholars disagree, they show Shakespeare developing a wide range
of skills as a dramatist.
Key Print Sources
Potter, Lois. The Life of William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography. Wiley Blackwell, 2012.
Taylor, Gary et al. The New Oxford Shakespeare. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Key Online Sources
Alberge, Dalya.
Chrsitopher Marlowe Credited as One of Shakespeare’s Co-Writers.The Guardian. 23 Oct. 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/23/christopher-marlowe-credited-as-one-of-shakespeares-co-writers. Accessed 17 May 2017.
Best, Michael.
Plays: 1588–1595.Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/reference/chronology/plays1588-1595.html. Accessed 17 May 2017.
Best, Michael.
Experimental Plays.Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/youth/earlyplaygroup.html. Accessed 17 May 2017.
Gadd, Ian.
Plays in the Stationers Register.Shakespeare Documented. https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/playwright-actor-shareholder/plays-stationers-register. Accessed 8 May 2017.
Timeline of Shakespeare’s Plays.The Royal Shakespeare Company. https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeares-plays/histories-timeline/timeline. Accessed 8 May 2017.
Image Source
Shakespeare, William. The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. 1594. MS. Folger Shakespeare Library. https://doi.org/10.37078/87.
Prosopography
Kate McPherson
Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley
University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity
in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities
Institute,
Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom,at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.
Leah Hamby
Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed
several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from
Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her
other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.
Michael Best
Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the
Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the
ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery,
a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on
Electronic Shakespeares,and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.
Navarra Houldin
Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual
remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major
in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary
research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They
are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice
Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.
Orgography
LEMDO Team (LEMD1)
The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project
director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators,
encoders, and remediating editors.
University of Victoria (UVIC1)
https://www.uvic.ca/Metadata
| Authority title | Shakespeare’s Early Plays: 1589–1594 |
| Type of text | Critical |
| Publisher | University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform |
| Series | Early Modern England Encyclopedia |
| Source |
By Kate McPherson, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions
|
| Editorial declaration | This document uses Canadian English spelling |
| Edition | Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a |
| Sponsor(s) |
Early Modern England EncyclopediaAnthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
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Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University |
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