- All's Well That Ends Well (c. 1604-1605?)
- Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
- As You Like It (c. 1599-1600)
- Cardenio (c. 1612-1613) - lost play
- The Comedy Of Errors (1594)
- Coriolanus (1608)
- Cymbeline, King of Britain (1610)
- Edward III (c. 1592-1593)
- Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (c. 1599-1601)
- Henry IV, Part 1 (c. 1596-1597)
- Henry IV, Part 2 (c. 1597-1598)
- Henry V (1599)
- Henry VI, Part 1 (1591)
- Henry VI, Part 2 (1591)
- Henry VI, Part 3 (c. 1591-1592)
- Henry VIII (c. 1612-1613)
- Julius Caesar (1599)
- King John (1596)
- King Lear (c. 1605-1606)
- Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1594-1595)
- Love's Labour's Won (c. 1595-1596?) - lost play
- Macbeth (1606)
- Measure for Measure (c. 1603-1604)
- The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596-1597)
- The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)
- Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598-1599)
- Othello, Moor of Venice (c. 1603-1604)
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c. 1607-1608)
- Richard II (1595)
- Richard III (c. 1592-1593)
- Romeo and Juliet (1595)
- Sir Thomas More (c. 1592-1595; Shakespeare's involvement, c. 1603-1604)
- The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1590-1591)
- The Tempest (c. 1610-1611)
- Timon of Athens (c. 1605-1606)
- Titus Andronicus (c. 1591-1592)
- Troilus and Cressida (c. 1600-1602)
- Twelfth Night; or, What You Will (1601)
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona (c. 1589-1591)
- The Two Noble Kinsmen (c. 1613-1614)
- The Winter's Tale (c. 1609-1611)
- A Lover's Complaint (1609)
- The Passionate Pilgrim (1599)
- The Phoenix and the Turtle (1601)
- The Rape of Lucrece (1594)
- Sonnets (1609)
- Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music (1599)
- Venus and Adonis (1593)
- Complete Works (c. 1589-1614)
The "Bard of Avon" is, unquestionably, one of the most popular and influential playwrights of all time. But while his influence on theater and on the English language are obvious, his life is still somewhat obscure. A fair bit of what we "know" about him is actually informed speculation. For example, we know that he was baptized on April 26, 1564 and buried on April 25, 1616, but the actual dates of his birth and death are not specified anywhere and are simply inferred from the known events and other records.
One of the effects of this obscurity (especially as it relates to his education) is that some scholars have inferred that Shakespeare himself would not have had the education and/or skill to write the plays attributed to him, and have devised various theories identifying others as the true originators of "Shakespeare's" plays. The most widely named possibilities are:
- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (the most popular of the alternative authorship theories)
- William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby
- Sir Francis Bacon
- Christopher Marlowe
However, while each of these men have their champions, the dominant belief among literary scholars is that Shakespeare did indeed write the works attributed to him, in whole or in part (some plays are collaborations, and how much was written by Shakespeare versus his collaborators isn't always clear).
For more detailed information on Shakespeare's life and works, and on the questions over authorship, check the links in the Resources tab.
- Great Books of the Western World
- Harvard Classics
- How to Read a Book
- Great Books Foundation Adult Discussion Series
- Wikipedia article on Shakespeare
- Mini-biography at the BuyCostumes Ideas Blog with links to additional resources.
- Mini-biography at HalloweenCostumes.com with links to additional resources (hat tip to Ava for the link).
- Biography.com article
- Wikipedia article on the authorship question
- The De Vere Society website championing the 17th Earl of Oxford as the author.
- Shakespeare Authorship Page - "Dedicated to the Proposition that Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare"
- Abelard and Heloise; Letters of
- Abolishing Christianity; An Argument Against
- Abolition of Man, The (1943)
- Abroad; Innocents
- Absalom, Absalom!
- Abyssinia; The Prince of
- Account of the Great Experiment Concerning the Equilibrium of Fluids
- Acharnians; The
- Acute Diseases, On Regimen in
- Adam Bede
- Adams, The Education of Henry
- Address to the Christian Nobility
- Ado About Nothing, Much
- Adonis, Venus and
- Advancement of Learning
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The
- Adventures of Ideas
- Adventures of Pinocchio, The
- Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The
- Advice to a Young Poet, A Letter of
- Aeneid, The
- Affections, Treatise Concerning Religious
- African War, The
- After the Ball
- Against Apion
- Agamemnon
- Agesilaus
- Agnes Grey
- Agonistes, Samson
- Agricola
- Aids to Reflection
- Aims of Education and Other Essays, The
- Air, Treatises on the Equilibrium of Liquids and on the Weight of the Mass of the
- Airs, Waters, and Places; On
- Ajax
- Alcestis
- Alexandrian War, The
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- Alienated Labor
- All's Well That Ends Well
- Almagest
- Amatoria, Ars
- Ambassadors, The
- America, Democracy in
- American, The
- American Scene, The
- American Tragedy, An
- Amerika
- Amicitia, Laelius de
- Among School Children
- Amontillado, The Cask of
- Amores
- Amoris, Remedia
- Anabasis
- Analects (Confucius)
- Analysis of the Ego, Group Psychology and the
- Analysis of Mind, The
- Analytical Theory of Heat
- Analytics, Posterior
- Analytics, Prior
- Ancient Mariner, Rime of the
- Ancient Medicine, On
- Andrews, Joseph
- Andromache (Euripides)
- Andromache (Racine)
- Andronicus, Titus
- Angler, The Compleat
- Animal Faith, Skepticism and
- Animal Farm
- Animals, On the Gait of
- Animals, On the Generation of (Aristotle)
- Animals, On the Generation of (Harvey)
- Animals, The History of
- Animals, On the Motion of
- Animals, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in
- Animals, On the Parts of
- Anna Karenina
- Annals (Tacitus)
- Anthem
- Anti-Federalist Papers
- Antigone
- Antiquities of the Jews
- Antony, Life of
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Anxiety; Inhibitions, Symptoms, and
- Aphorisms (Hippocrates)
- Apion, Against
- Apprenticeship, Wilhelm Meister's
- Apology (Plato)
- Apology (Tertullian)
- Apology (Xenophon)
