Shakespeare’s Plays from 1601 to 1608 Shakespeare’s Plays from 1601 to 1608 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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Title page of the 1608 quarto of King Lear. Courtesy of Shakespeare Documented and the British Library. Public Domain.
Shifts in Power

Between 1601 and 1607, England grappled with the impending death of Queen Elizabeth I (1603) and with the accession of her cousin, King James VI of Scotland. Not long after his coronation as James I, the nation was shaken in 1605 by the near success of the Gunpowder Plot, a terrorist attack that attempted to blow up the House of Parliament with the King and all the members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons inside of it.

Unsurprisingly, Shakespeare primarily wrote plays of dark power during this time. A disturbing play drawn from Greek mythology and Chaucer: (Troilus and Cressida) A tragedy of power and race, love and jealousy: (Othello) Two dark comedies of gender and power, of virtue and its rewards: (All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure) A tragedy of age and waning power, of parents and children: (King Lear) A tragedy of magic and power, of husband and wife: (Macbeth) A tragedy of power and love, of Rome and Egypt: (Antony and Cleopatra) A tragedy of power and violence, of greed and generosity: (Timon of Athens) A tragedy of power and Roman violence, of mother and child: (Coriolanus)

Publication and Documented History, 1601–1608 Composition Date Range Play Title Evidence 1600–1603 Troilus and Cressida Stationers’ Register entry, 1603. First Folio text (1623) differs in major ways from the 1609 quarto. 1601–1604 Othello Performed at Court, 1604. First Folio text differs substantially from the 1622 quarto 1604 Measure for Measure Performed at Court, 1604. Published in First Folio 1604–1605 All’s Well That Ends Well Published in First Folio 1604–1606 King Lear Performed at Court, 1606. First Folio text differs in major ways from the problematic 1608 quarto 1604–1607 Macbeth May have been performed at Court, 1607. Simon Forman saw a performance in 1611. Published in First Folio 1603–1608 Timon of Athens Published in First Folio 1605–1608 Antony and Cleopatra Stationers’ Register entry, 1608. Published in First Folio 1605–1609 Coriolanus Published in First Folio

The New Oxford Shakespeare suggests the following chronology for the plays from this period: 1602? : Troilus and Cressida 1604? (Or 1601?): Hamlet 1604: Othello 1604: Measure for Measure, adapted by Thomas Middleton by 1622 1606: All’s Well That Ends Well, adapted by Thomas Middleton by 1621 1605: King Lear 1606: Timon of Athens by Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton 1606: Macbeth, adapted by Thomas Middleton in 1616 1606: Antony and Cleopatra 1608: Pericles, in collaboration with George Wilkins 1608: Coriolanus

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: 1602–1610. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/reference/chronology/plays1602-1610.html. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023. <title level="m">King Lear, First Edition. Shakespeare Documented, 25 Jan. 2020, doi: doi.org/10.37078/599. 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. King Lear, First Edition. MS. Shakespeare Documented, 1608, https://doi.org/10.37078/599.