Editing Shakespeare's late romances (section)

==Labelling and structure==
[[File:Title page William Shakespeare's First Folio 1623.jpg|thumb|upright|Title page of the [[First Folio]] (1623)]]
The category of Shakespearean romance arises from a desire among critics for the late plays to be recognised as a more complex kind of comedy; the labels of romance and tragicomedy are preferred by the majority of modern critics and editors.<ref>Thorne, p. 2</ref> In the [[First Folio]] of 1623, [[John Heminges]] and [[Henry Condell]], its editors, listed ''The Tempest'' and ''The Winter's Tale'' as comedies, and ''Cymbeline'' as a tragedy. ''Pericles'' did not appear in it at all.<ref>[http://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-shakespeare "The Brotherton First Folio Digital Resource"], University of Leeds, retrieved 9 December 2014</ref> In 1875, when Dowden argued that Shakespeare's late comedies should be called "romances", he did so because they resemble late medieval and early modern "[[Romance (prose fiction)|romances]]", a genre in which stories were set across the immensity of space and time. The romances have grand plot points which are combined with humour, dramatic action and internal struggles.<ref>Lyne, pp. 6 and 99</ref> They also feature broader characters, larger spectacles and a different handling of the themes of appearance and reality.<ref name=smith>Smith, Hallett [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3816797 "Shakespeare's Romances"] ''Huntington Library Quarterly'', Vol. 27, No. 3, Shakespeare (May 1964), pp. 279–287 {{subscription required}}</ref> The late romances differed from early Shakespearean comedies by relying on grand themes, rather than specific moments. The romances are Shakespearean tragedies that end happily, instead of a moment of danger that moves rapidly to a solution.<ref>Bevington, p. 191</ref> They also focus on the relationships between father and daughter.<ref>Lyne, p. 81</ref>