Editing William Shakespeare (section)

==Plays==
{{Main|Shakespeare's plays|William Shakespeare's collaborations|Shakespeare bibliography}}
[[File:Procession of Characters from Shakespeare's Plays - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.25|''Procession of Characters from Shakespeare's Plays'' by an unknown 19th-century artist]]
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Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career.{{sfn|Thomson|2003|p=49}}

The first recorded works of Shakespeare are ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]'' and the three parts of ''[[Henry VI, Part 1|Henry VI]]'', written in the early 1590s during a vogue for [[History (theatrical genre)|historical drama]]. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however,{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=9}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=166}} and studies of the texts suggest that ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'', ''[[The Comedy of Errors]]'', ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]],'' and ''[[The Two Gentlemen of Verona]]'' may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=159–161}}{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=9}} His first [[Shakespearean history|histories]], which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's [[Holinshed's Chronicles|''Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland'']],{{sfn|Dutton|Howard|2003|p=147}} dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the [[Tudor dynasty]].{{sfn|Ribner|2005|pp=154–155}} The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially [[Thomas Kyd]] and [[Christopher Marlowe]], by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]].{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=105}}{{sfn|Ribner|2005|p=67}}{{sfn|Bednarz|2004|p=100}} ''The Comedy of Errors'' was also based on classical models, but no source for ''The Taming of the Shrew'' has been found, though it has an identical plot but different wording as another play with a similar name.{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=136}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=[https://archive.org/details/williamshakespea0000scho/page/166 166]}} Like ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'', in which two friends appear to approve of rape,{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=91}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|pp=116–117}}{{sfn|Werner|2001|pp=96–100}} the ''Shrew''{{'}}s story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.{{sfn|Friedman|2006|p=159}}

[[File:Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. William Blake. c.1786.jpg|thumb|left|''Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing''. By [[William Blake]], {{circa}}&nbsp;1786.]]

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=235}} ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes.{{sfn|Wood|2003|pp=161–162}} Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'', contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender [[Shylock]], which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences.{{sfn|Wood|2003|pp=205–206}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=258}} The wit and wordplay of ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'',{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=359}} the charming rural setting of ''[[As You Like It]]'', and the lively merrymaking of ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|pp=362–383}} After the lyrical ''[[Richard II (play)|Richard II]]'', written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, ''[[Henry IV, Part 1]]'' and ''[[Henry IV, Part 2|2]]'', and ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]''. ''Henry IV'' features [[Falstaff]], rogue, wit and friend of Prince Hal. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work.{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=150}}{{sfn|Gibbons|1993|p=1}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=356}} This period begins and ends with two tragedies: ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death;{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=161}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=206}} and ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]''—based on Sir [[Thomas North]]'s 1579 translation of [[Plutarch]]'s ''[[Parallel Lives]]''—which introduced a new kind of drama.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|pp=353, 358}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=151–153}} According to Shakespearean scholar [[James S. Shapiro|James Shapiro]], in ''Julius Caesar'', "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=151}}

[[File:Henry Fuseli rendering of Hamlet and his father's Ghost.JPG|thumb|''Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost of Hamlet's Father''. [[Henry Fuseli]], 1780–1785.]]

In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called "[[Shakespearean problem play|problem plays]]" ''[[Measure for Measure]]'', ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]'', and ''[[All's Well That Ends Well]]'' and a number of his best known [[Shakespearean tragedy|tragedies]].{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=85}}{{sfn|Muir|2005|pp=12–16}} Many critics believe that Shakespeare's tragedies represent the peak of his art. [[Prince Hamlet|Hamlet]] has probably been analysed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous [[soliloquy]] which begins "[[To be, or not to be|To be or not to be; that is the question]]".{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=94}} Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, [[Othello (character)|Othello]] and Lear are undone by hasty errors of judgement.{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=86}} The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves.{{sfn|Bradley|1991|pp=40, 48}} In ''[[Othello]]'', [[Iago]] stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him.{{sfn|Bradley|1991|pp=42, 169, 195}}{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|p=304}} In ''[[King Lear]]'', the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter, [[Cordelia (King Lear)|Cordelia]]. According to the critic [[Frank Kermode]], "the play...offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty".{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=226}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=423}}{{sfn|Kermode|2004|pp=141–142}} In ''[[Macbeth]]'', the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies,{{sfn|McDonald|2006|pp=43–46}} uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, [[Lady Macbeth]], to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn.{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=306}} In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'' and ''[[Coriolanus]]'', contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic [[T. S. Eliot]].{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=444}}{{sfn|McDonald|2006|pp=69–70}}{{sfn|Eliot|1934|p=59}} Eliot wrote, "Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole [[British Museum]]."<ref>{{cite work| author=[[T. S. Eliot]]| title=Tradition and the Individual Talent| year=1919| url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69400/tradition-and-the-individual-talent| access-date=7 May 2024| archive-date=7 May 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240507175052/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69400/tradition-and-the-individual-talent| url-status=live}}</ref>

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to [[Shakespeare's late romances|romance]] or [[tragicomedy]] and completed three more major plays: ''[[Cymbeline]]'', ''[[The Winter's Tale]],'' and ''[[The Tempest]]'', as well as the collaboration, ''[[Pericles, Prince of Tyre]]''. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors.{{sfn|Dowden|1881|p=57}} Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day.{{sfn|Dowden|1881|p=60}}{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=123}}{{sfn|McDonald|2006|p=15}} Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]'' and ''[[The Two Noble Kinsmen]]'', probably with [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]].{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|pp=1247, 1279}}

===Classification===
{{further|Chronology of Shakespeare's plays}}

[[File:Gilbert WShakespeares Plays.jpg|thumb|left|''The Plays of William Shakespeare'', a painting containing scenes and characters from several plays of Shakespeare; by [[John Gilbert (painter)|Sir John Gilbert]], {{c.|1849}}]]
Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the [[First Folio]] of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as [[Shakespearean comedy|comedies]], [[Shakespearean history|histories]], and [[Shakespearean tragedy|tragedies]].{{sfn|Boyce|1996|pp=91, 193, 513.}} Two plays not included in the First Folio,{{sfn|Greenblatt|Abrams|2012|p=1168}} ''[[The Two Noble Kinsmen]]'' and ''[[Pericles, Prince of Tyre]]'', are now accepted as part of the canon, with today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both.{{sfn|Kathman|2003|p=629}}{{sfn|Boyce|1996|p=91}} No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio, partly because the collection was compiled by men of theatre.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shakespeare |first1=William |title=The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Sonnets and Poems |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=2}}</ref>

In the late 19th century, [[Edward Dowden]] classified four of the late comedies as [[Shakespeare's late romances|romances]], and though many scholars prefer to call them ''[[Tragicomedy|tragicomedies]]'', Dowden's term is often used.{{sfn|Edwards|1958|pp=1–10}}{{sfn|Snyder|Curren-Aquino|2007}} In 1896, [[Frederick S. Boas]] coined the term "[[Shakespearean problem play|problem plays]]" to describe four plays: ''[[All's Well That Ends Well]]'', ''[[Measure for Measure]]'', ''[[Troilus and Cressida]],'' and ''[[Hamlet]]''.{{sfn|Schanzer|1963|pp=1–10}} "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may, therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays."{{sfn|Boas|1896|p=345}} The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though ''Hamlet'' is definitively classed as a tragedy.{{sfn|Schanzer|1963|p=1}}{{sfn|Bloom|1999|pp=325–380}}{{sfn|Berry|2005|p=37}}

===Performances===
{{Main|Shakespeare in performance}}

It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of ''Titus Andronicus'' reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xx}} After the [[Black Death in England|plagues]] of 1592–93, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at [[The Theatre]] and the [[Curtain Theatre|Curtain]] in [[Shoreditch]], north of the Thames.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxi}} Londoners flocked there to see the first part of ''Henry IV'', [[Leonard Digges (writer)|Leonard Digges]] recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest&nbsp;... and you scarce shall have a room".{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=16}} When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the [[Globe Theatre]], the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at [[Southwark]].{{sfn|Foakes|1990|p=6}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=125–131}} The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with ''Julius Caesar'' one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including ''Hamlet'', ''Othello,'' and ''King Lear''.{{sfn|Foakes|1990|p=6}}{{sfn|Nagler|1958|p=7}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=131–132}}

[[File:Shakespeare´s Globe (8162111781).jpg|thumb|left|The reconstructed [[Globe Theatre]] on the south bank of the [[River Thames]] in [[London]]]]
After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the [[King's Men (playing company)|King's Men]] in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new [[James VI and I|King James]]. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604, and 31 October 1605, including two performances of ''The Merchant of Venice''.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxii}} After 1608, they performed at the indoor [[Blackfriars Theatre]] during the winter and the Globe during the summer.{{sfn|Foakes|1990|p=33}} The indoor setting, combined with the [[Jacobean era|Jacobean]]<!--or perhaps [[Jacobean literature]]?--> fashion for lavishly staged [[masques]], allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In ''Cymbeline'', for example, [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=454}}{{sfn|Holland|2000|p=xli}}

The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous [[Richard Burbage]], [[William Kempe]], [[Henry Condell]] and [[John Heminges]]. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including ''Richard III'', ''Hamlet'', ''Othello'', and ''King Lear''.{{sfn|Ringler|1997|p=127}} The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in ''Romeo and Juliet'' and [[Dogberry]] in ''Much Ado About Nothing'', among other characters.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=[https://archive.org/details/williamshakespea0000scho/page/210 210]}}{{sfn|Chambers|1930a|p=341}} He was replaced around 1600 by [[Robert Armin]], who played roles such as [[Touchstone (As You Like It)|Touchstone]] in ''As You Like It'' and the fool in ''King Lear''.{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=247–249}} In 1613, Sir [[Henry Wotton]] recorded that ''Henry VIII'' "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony".{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=1247}} On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=1247}}
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===Textual sources===
[[File:Title page William Shakespeare's First Folio 1623.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Title page of the ''[[First Folio]]'', 1623. Copper engraving of Shakespeare by [[Martin Droeshout]].]]
In 1623, [[John Heminges]] and [[Henry Condell]], two of Shakespeare's colleagues from the King's Men, published the [[First Folio]], a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxxvii}} Most of the others had already appeared in [[Book size|quarto]] versions—flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxxiv}}{{sfn|Mowat|Werstine|2015|p=xlvii}} No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies".{{sfn|Pollard|1909|p=xi}}

[[Alfred W. Pollard|Alfred Pollard]] termed some of the pre-1623 versions as "[[bad quarto]]s" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxxiv}}{{sfn|Pollard|1909|p=xi}}{{sfn|Maguire|1996|p=28}} Where several versions of a play survive, each [[Shakespeare's plays#Shakespeare and the textual problem|differs from the others]]. The differences may stem from copying or [[Typesetting#Letterpress era|printing]] errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own [[foul papers|papers]].{{sfn|Bowers|1955|pp=8–10}}{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|pp=xxxiv–xxxv}} In some cases, for example, ''Hamlet'', ''Troilus and Cressida,'' and ''Othello'', Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of ''[[King Lear]]'', however, while most modern editions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto that the ''Oxford Shakespeare'' prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|pp=909, 1153}}