Shakespeare wrote 39 plays in total. Many people think that he is one of the world’s greatest playwrights. Shakespeare wrote comedies, tragedies and historic plays.
Although it is not known when Shakespeare began writing, his first play was a historical play called Henry VI Part II. It was first performed between 1590- 1591. It is about the Duke of York gaining supporters to help his claim to the throne.
Here is a list of his plays:
Henry VI Part II
The Taming of the Shrew
Henry VI Part III
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Titus Andronicus
Henry VI Part I
The Comedy of Errors
Love’s Labour’s Lost
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Romeo and Juliet
Richard II
King John
The Merchant of Venice
Henry IV Part I
Henry IV Part II
Much Ado About Nothing
Henry V
As You Like It
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Twelfth Night
Troilus and Cressida
Othello
Measure for Measure
All’s Well That Ends Well
Timon of Athens
King Lear
Macbeth
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Pericles
Cymbeline
The Winter’s Tale
The Tempest
Henry VIII
The Two Noble Kinsmen
The Two Noble Kinsmen was William Shakespeare’s last play before he retired.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known comedies. It begins with four friends going into the woods together. They are all arguing over love. In the woods, there are also mischievous fairies living there. A naughty fairy called Puck sees an opportunity to cause mayhem. Puck uses a magic flower to make the four friends fall in love with the wrong people. Puck also discovers that a theatre company are in the woods rehearsing for their play. Puck then uses his magic to make one of the members of the company – Nick Bottom– have his head changed into a donkey’s head! After that, Puck makes the Fairy Queen fall in love with the first thing she sees. Unfortunately, she sees the donkey-headed Bottom and they fall in love. When the Fairy King sees just how much chaos Puck has caused, he changes everything back to normal and makes the four friends happy and each in love with the person they want to be in love in.
Macbeth
Macbeth is about a brave and respected general called Macbeth. Macbeth is told by Three Witches that he will become the King of Scotland. Overwhelmed with ambition and lust, Macbeth murders the current king – King Duncan. The fact he keeps committing more and more murders makes people more suspicious of him. A man called Macduff chops off Macbeth’s head and restores order back at the end of the play.
Hamlet
Hamlet is a tragedy written by Shakespeare. Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark. Hamlet is visited by his father’s ghost who tells him to avenge his murder by killing his uncle – the new king. Hamlet’s uncle realises what Hamlet is planning to do so he devises a plan to kill Hamlet. In the final scene of the play, a man called Laertes kills Hamlet with a poisoned sword. The famous lines ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’ come from this play. Hamlet was the longest play that Shakespeare wrote.
Romeo and Juliet
A large feud between two families erupts into a bloodshed. Romeo and Juliet love each other, but they are both from the two families in a feud together. When Romeo thinks Juliet is dead when she is not, he kills himself. After Juliet realises Romeo has died, she kills herself as well. The two families are upset that their fighting has caused them to die so they stop the feud.
Shakespeare’s plays are still very popular today. There are many reasons for this but one reason for why his plays are still popular could be because his plays have lots of different genres. A reason why Shakespeare plays were popular in his time might be because they were very easy to get tickets for as a lot of peasants in London would watch his plays.
Shakespeare Facts 