CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS

            FIRST PERIOD—­1588?-1596
LOVE’S LABOUR LOST (1591)—­Plot probably original. 
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (1591)—­The Shepherdess Felismena in
        George of Montmayor’s Diana. 
COMEDY OF ERRORS (1591)—­Menaechmi of Plautus and earlier play.  ROMEO AND JULIET (1591)—­Italian romance in Painter’s Palace of
        Pleasure and Broke’s Romeus and Juliet. 
HENRY VI. 1, 2, and 3 (1592)—­Retouched old plays, probably with Marlowe.  RICHARD III. (1592-3)—­Holinshed’s Chronicle.  RICHARD II. (1593-4?)—­ do. 
TITUS ANDRONICUS (1594)—­Probably chiefly by Kyd, retouched.  KING JOHN (1594)—­Old play retouched.

            SECOND PERIOD—­1596-1601-2
MERCHANT OF VENICE (1594)—­Italian novels, Gesta Romanorum, and
        earlier plays. 
MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1595)—­North’s Plutarch, Chaucer, Ovid.  ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (1595)—­Painter’s Palace of Pleasure.  TAMING OF THE SHREW (1596?)—­Old play retouched, and Supposes of
        G. Gascoigne, Shakespeare’s in part only. 
HENRY IV. 1 and 2 (1597?)—­Holinshed and earlier play. 
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (1597-8)—­Italian novels (?). 
HENRY V. (1599). 
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1599)—­Partly from Italian. 
AS YOU LIKE IT (1599)—­Lodge’s Rosalynde, Euphues’ Golden Legacie.  TWELFTH NIGHT (1599)—­B.  Riche’s Apolonius and Silla.

            THIRD PERIOD—­1602-1608
JULIUS CAESAR (1601)—­North’s Plutarch. 
HAMLET (1601-2)—­Belleforest’s Histoires Tragiques. 
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1603?)—­Probably Chaucer’s Troilus and
        Cresseide and Chapman’s Homer. 
OTHELLO (1604)—­Cinthio’s Hecatommithi. 
MEASURE FOR MEASURE (1604?)—­Cinthio’s Epithia. 
MACBETH (1605-6?)—­Holinshed. 
LEAR (1606)—­ do. 
TIMON OF ATHENS (1607?)—­Palace of Pleasure and Plutarch written
        with G. Wilkins (?) and W. Rowley (?). 
PERICLES (1607-8)—­Gower’s Confessio Amantis, with G. Wilkins (?).  ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1608)—­North’s Plutarch.  CORIOLANUS (1608)—­ do.

FOURTH PERIOD—­1608-1613
CYMBELINE (1610-11?)—­Holinshed and Ginevra in Boccaccio’s
Decamerone. 
WINTER’S TALE (1610-11)—­Green’s Dorastus and Fawnia.  TEMPEST (1611?)—­S.  Jourdain’s Discovery of the Bermudas.  HENRY VIII. (1612-13)—­Draft by S. completed by Fletcher and
perhaps Massinger.

        POEMS

VENUS AND ADONIS (1593). 
RAPE OF LUCRECE (1594). 
SONNETS (1591-94?).