THE SEQUENCE OF

SHAKESPEARE’S
PLAY
Muhammad Yazid Zidan Al Rasyid
List of Content

 Finding Shakespeare's plays in chronological order

 How to find them
 List those plays in chronological order
Finding Shakespeare's plays in chronological order

 There are half of Shakespeare’s play that

was published respectively throughout
the period of his ages.
 There are also Plays, some twenty in all,
were printed, are found only in one big
folio volume which gives no hint of their
proper order.
How to find them?

 Internal Evidence (Find the evidence of the time order inside one of the play)
 External Evidence (Find the evidence of the time order from any other plays outside)
How to find them?

Internal Evidence
 Allusion to an event in a certain time.

One of Shakespeare’s play, Henry V, alludes to the fact that Elizabeth's general (the
Earl of Essex) is in Ireland quelling a rebellion, we know that this was written between
April and September of 1599, the period during which Essex actually was in Ireland.
The wreck of Sir George Somers's ship in 1609. As Shakespeare could not have
borrowed from these accounts before they existed, he must have written his comedy
sometime after 1609.
How to find them?

Internal Evidence
 Another form of evidence is found in meter.
most of the lines in the early plays are 'end-stopped’; while in the later plays the lines are mostly ‘run-on’
line. Compared the two:

(a) From an early play:-- (b) From a late play:--

"I from my mistress come to you in post: If
I return, I shall be post indeed, For she will
score your fault upon my pate. Methinks
your maw, like mine, should be your clock,
And strike you home without a
messenger."
--Comedy of Errors, I, ii, 63-67.
"Mark your divorce, young sir, [end
stopped] Whom son I dare not call. Thou
art too base [run-on] To be acknowledg'd.
Thou, a sceptre's heir, [end-stopped] That
thus affects a sheep-hook! Thou old traitor,
[end-stopped]
How to find them?

Internal Evidence
 Another form of metrical evidence is found in 'masculine' and 'feminine' endings in the verse.

 The number of feminine endings, like the number of run-on lines, increases as the plays become later in
date.

 A masculine ending is when its last syllable is stressed. A feminine ending is if the last stressed syllable is
followed by an unstressed one.

 There are also a weak ending, which is when a run-on line ends in a word that is actually need to be
stressed but ought not to be. Weak ending does not appear at all in the early plays.

 The last evidence of the Shakespeare’s later play occurs whenever a run-on line, feminine endings and
weak ending increases. It’s the sign that Shakespeare grows older.
How to find them?

External Evidence
 Stationers’ register

Every play which was to be printed had to be entered in the Stationers' Register, therefore, every book will
be listed in the station at the time of the book is published, though the book is not printed yet.

For instance; although Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, was not yet printed until the year 1623, the
entry that this play shows that it has been written either in 1608 or earlier, seeing the entry of Antony and
Cleopatra was in 1608.
How to find them?

External Evidence
 Allusion to Shakespeare’s work

If there’s any references to Shakespeare’s work from one book, it can only mean that Shakespeare’s work
that is alluded in the book is released at the time before the book release

The poet Barksted prints a poem in 1607 which borrows a passage from Shakespeare’s Measure for
Measure, which indicate that it is released before 1607. This form of evidence has its dangers, since
occasionally we cannot tell whether Shakespeare borrowed from the other man or the other man from him;
nevertheless it is often valuable.

Francis Meres’ Palladis Tamia, which was published in 1598, mentions with high praise six
comedies of Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's
Lost, Love's Labour's Won,[1] A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant of Venice; and
six "tragedies": Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV, King John, Titus Andronicus, and Romeo and
Juliet.
Chronological Order
Love's Labour's Lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1590-1591 The Comedy of Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1590-1591 II and III Henry VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1590-1592 Richard III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1592-1593 Two Gentlemen of Verona . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1592 King
John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1592-1593 Richard II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593-1594
Titus Andronicus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593-1594 Midsummer Night's Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1593-1596 Romeo and Juliet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1591, revised 1597 The Merchant of Venice . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 1594-1596 The Taming of the Shrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1596-1597 I Henry IV . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 1597 II Henry IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1598 Henry
V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1599 Merry Wives of Windsor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1599 Much Ado
about Nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1599 As You Like It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1599-1600 Julius
Caesar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1599-1601 Twelfth Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1601 Troilus
and Cressida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1602 All's Well That Ends Well . . . . . . . . . . . . 1602 Hamlet . .
. . . . . . . . . 1602, 1603-1604 (two versions). Measure for Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1603
Othello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1604 King Lear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1604-1605
Macbeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1605-1606 Antony and Cleopatra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1607-1608 Timon of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1607-1608 Pericles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 1608 Coriolanus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1609 Cymbeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1610 The Winter's Tale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1610-1611 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Tempest
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611 King Henry the Eighth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1612-1613