Shakespeare’s Early Plays: 1589–1594 Shakespeare’s Plays from 1589 to 1594 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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First page of the first quarto printing of Titus Andronicus, dated c. 1594. Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library. CC BY-SA 4.0

Scholars 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

Determining 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.

Investigation 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.

Shakespeare’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

The 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)

The 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?)

The 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.