When Shakespearian Plays Were Written

Hamlet: while Shakespeare was incarcerated in The Tower. He was incarcerated for his role in the Essex Rebellion, in which the conspirators sought to overthrow the monarch; Hamlet is a play about overthrowing a king.

Measure for Measure: Shakespeare's first play upon being (unexpectedly) released from The Tower. From wiki: believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. Originally published in the First Folio of 1623, where it was listed as a comedy, the play's first recorded performance occurred in 1604. The play's main themes include justice, "mortality and mercy in Vienna," and the dichotomy between corruption and purity: "some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall." Mercy and virtue predominate, since the play does not end tragically.

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 Chronology of Plays

First, the tetralogy of his family (Henry VI and Richard III).

Then, the seven comedies.  – the Italinate comedies – seven plays in the four years after 1593 – all except two categorized as “comedies” – set in places he had visited in Italy.

• Titus Andronicus
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• The Comedy of Errors
• The Taming of the Shrew
• Romeo and Juliet
• Love’s Labour’s Lost – set in France
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – set in Greece

The eight years before he was sent to France, 1599; writing 8 plays; the most productive writing years of his life.

During this period –

• plays more profound
• created his most popular character, Falstaff
• his most patriotic play, Henry VI

Just before the Falstaff plays –

• King Richard II
• King John

Richard II (~ 1595) has always been linked with the rise of the Essex circle (Essex rebellion – 1601)

1 Henry IV – first play featuring Falstaff. Arguably S’s most satisfyingly single play.

TMWOW – lots to say about it (p. 117 – 118).

Then – the two final plays of this period – 2 Henry IV and Henry V – considered two of his best-known plays.

Falstaff banished from plays, when Shakespeare banished from England -- sent to France as England's ambassador.

In France: alone, frustrated, angry bored;

• As You Like It
• Twelfth Night
• Much Ado About Nothing – probably written earlier

Then the Essex Rebellion and incarceration.

A gap of about a year between Twelfth Night – just before the Tower – and Hamlet – in the Tower – needed a year to regain balance.

• Troilus and Cressida
• All’s Well That Ends Wells
• Possibly also in the Tower, Othello (the 2nd of his 4 great tragedies).

Many of the sonnets written while in The Tower. 

Post-Tower plays:

Measure for Measure, was the first (see above). A very dark comedy; the first of the so-called "problem plays."

Increasingly needed money:

1604 – 1608: three of his greatest tragedies – Macbeth, King Lear, and Anthony and Cleopatra and three other tragedies: Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

1609 - 1615: toward closure:

• Cymbeline
• Winter's Tale
• The Tempest: his last substantial play

Died: 1615