William Shakespeare's plays
We know of 39 plays by William Shakespeare, including a few collaborations with other playwrights. One play, Cardenio, was performed at court in the 1612–13 season, but the text has been lost. The other 38 are listed here.
Shakespeare’s plays are traditionally divided into the three categories of the First Folio: comedies, histories, and tragedies. The plays within each grouping vary widely. Among the comedies, for example, one can find sunny works filled with the banter of witty lovers; hilariously complicated farces; and darker, more sober plays such as The Tempest.
The following pages provide a rich assortment of Folger resources for each play, including images from the Folger collection, links to full-length digital facsimiles of early printed editions, and materials ranging from videos, audio podcasts, and blog posts to classroom lesson plans, Folger Theatre productions, Folger exhibitions, recordings, websites, and shop items. Each page includes a short introduction to the play adapted from the Folger paperback edition, a list of related books, and, where available, a list of related movies.
Comedies
- All's Well That Ends Well
- As You Like It
- Cardenio
- The Comedy of Errors
- Cymbeline
- Love's Labour's Lost
- Love's Labour's Won
- Measure for Measure
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Pericles
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- The Two Noble Kinsmen
- The Winter's Tale
Histories
- King John
- Richard II
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Park 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Richard III
- Henry VIII