Shakespeare’s Plays from 1595 to 1600 Shakespeare’s Plays from 1595 to 1600 Author Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Kate McPherson, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

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The first quarto of Romeo and Juliet, 1597. Courtesy of Shakespeare Documented and the British Library. Public Domain.
Public Praise for Drama

By the mid-1590s, published quartos (single-play editions about the size of a modern paperback book), court performance records, and mentions of him by contemporary authors all indicate that William Shakespeare was a thriving playwright in London. The precise composition date for many plays remains unknown, but scholars agree on a basic chronology for Shakespeare’s plays.

Evidence for Publication Dates

In 1598, a publication called Palladis Tamia by Francis Meres praises Shakespeare for a number of his plays from the early 1590s onward. The plays mentioned by Meres are included in the chronology below. It offers important documentary evidence that Shakespeare was a respected playwright during his lifetime.

By 1598, Shakespeare’s stature as an artist was enough that the second quarto of Richard II was published with his name on the title page.

In the same year, the same publisher also printed two more versions of Richard II, as well as an edition of Love’s Labour’s Lost and a second edition of Richard III, all featuring Shakespeare’s name on the title page. A second quarto of Romeo and Juliet held at the University of Edinburgh Library, published a year after Meres’s commentary, has a handwritten note beneath the title Wil. Sha.

Publication and Documentation History, 1595–1600 Composition Date Range Play Title Evidence 1594–1597 Love’s Labour’s Lost Mentioned by Meres, 1598 and other documents. Published in quarto attributed to Shakespeare, 1598. Performed at Court in 1597. 1590–1596 Richard II Stationers’ Register entry, 1597. Mentioned by Meres, 1598. Published in quarto attributed to Shakespeare, 1598. May have been performed in 1595. 1593–1596 Romeo and Juliet Mentioned by Meres, 1598. Published in the bad quarto 1597. 1594–1597 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Mentioned by Meres, 1598. Published in quarto attributed to Shakespeare, 1600. 1587–1598 King John Mentioned by Meres, 1598. Published in Folio, 1623. 1596–1598 The Merchant of Venice Stationers’ Register entry, 1598. Mentioned by Meres, 1598. A possible topical reference suggests 1596-7. 1596–1597 Henry IV (Part One) Stationers’ Register entry, 1598. Meres mentions Henry the 4. Published in quarto 1599 with Shakespeare on title page. 1596–1598 Henry IV (Part Two) Stationers’ Register entry, 1600. Published in quarto 1600 with Shakespeare on title page. 1597–1599 Much Ado About Nothing Two Stationers’ Register entries, 1600. Published in quarto in 1600 with Shakespeare on title page. 1598–1599 Henry the Fifth Two Stationers’ Register entries, 1600. Published quarto without attribution to Shakespeare, 1600. 1598–1599 Julius Caesar Mentioned by Platter, 1599. Published in the First Folio, 1623. 1598–1600 As You Like It Stationers’ Register entry, 1604. Published in theFirst Folio, 1623. 1596–1600 The Merry Wives of Windsor Stationers’ Register entry, 1600. Published in quarto in 1600 with Shakespeare on title page. 1599–1602 Twelfth Night A performance described by Manningham, 1602. First attributed to Shakespeare when published in the First Folio, 1623. 1599–1604 Hamlet Stationers’ Register entry, 1602. Published in the bad quarto, 1603 and the good quarto, 1604. Published in the second good quarto, 1605.

The New Oxford Shakespeare suggests the following chronology for the plays from this period: 1594: Love’s Labour’s Lost 1595: Richard II 1595: Romeo and Juliet 1596: A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1596: King John 1596: The Merchant of Venice 1598: Henry IV (Part One) and Henry IV (Part Two) 1598: Much Ado About Nothing 1599: Henry the Fifth 1599: Julius Caesar 1600: As You Like It 1600: The Merry Wives of Windsor 1601: Twelfth Night 1601: (or 1604) Hamlet

Key Print Sources Berger, Thomas L. and Jesse M. Lander. Shakespeare in Print, 1593–1640. A Companion to Shakespeare, edited by David Scott Kastan, Blackwell, 1999, pp. 395–413. The New Oxford Shakespeare. Edited by Gary Taylor et al., Oxford University Press, 2016.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. Plays: 1594–1605. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/reference/chronology/plays1594-1605.html. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023. Jacquez, Manuel. <title level="m">Richard II, Second Edition. Shakespeare Documented, 25 Jan. 2020, doi: doi.org/10.37078/271. Timeline of Shakespeare’s Plays. The Royal Shakespeare Company, https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeares-plays/histories-timeline/timeline. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023.
Image Sources Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. London: John Danter, 1597. Title page. Shakespeare Documented. https://doi.org/10.37078/155.