SHAKESPEARE'S CANON

HISTORY PLAYS

ENGLISH MIDLE AGES

ANCIENT ROME

POWER

Richard III Henry V

Coriolanus
Anthony and Cleopatra
Julius Cesar

COMEDIES

from Plutarch

ITALIAN TALES

Midsummer Night's Dream Merchant of Venice

DARK COMEDIES / PROBLEM PLAYS

Happy ending, marriages, mistaken identities, misunderstandings

Comedies with a dark side, working of the mind

Hamlet / Measure for Measure / All's Well That Ends Well

GREAT TRAGEDIES

Tragic destiny of human kind, foolishness, loneliness in the universe

Macbeth King Lear Othello

ROMANCES

TRAGICOMEDIES

Magic elements, Supernatural, Improbable plots

The Tempest / Winter's Tale / Cymbeline

REVENGE PLAY

Titus Andronicus

TRAGEDY/COMEDY ??

Romeo and Juliet