FOCUS ON: Shakespeare, William
His works:
His works are of 5 types or genres. Sonnets, comedies, histories, tragedies and finally romances. Attempts have also been made to divide his career into 4 distinct periods*. *(A. Kent Hieatt, Ph.D) Please consult the "Works" section. We carry most if not all of his works.
Period 1.
His first period includes historic plays, and his early comedies.
Historic plays: Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III (1590?-1592?), Richard III (1592-1593?) and Titus Andronicus (1594?)
Comedies: The Comedy of Errors (1592?), The Taming of the Shrew (1593?), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594?), Love's Labour's Lost (1594?)
His style is more formal then in his latter works
Period 2.
His second period continues the historic plays of his first period, sees the development of his so called joyous comedies and the beginning of his major tragedies.
Historic plays: Richard II (1595?), Henry IV, Parts I and II (1597?), and Henry V (1598?)
Comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595?), The Merchant of Venice (1596?) a tragecomedy, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It (1599?), Twelfth Night (1600?), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599?)
Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet (1595?), and Julius Cesear (1599?)
Period 3.
His best known tragedies belong to this period.
Tragedies: Hamlet (1601?), Troilus and Cressida (1602?), Othello (1604?), King Lear (1505?), Anthony and Cleopatra (1606?), Macbeth (1606?), and Timons of Athens (1608?)
Comedies: All's Well That Ends Well (1602?) and Measure for Measure (1604?)
Period 4.
Includes his main tragicomedies and Tempest.
Tragicomedies: Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608?), Cymbeline (1610?), The winter's Tale (1610?) and his last complete play The Tempest (1611?).
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