Friday Mini Letter #4: A Stratfordian Timeline

A chronological breakdown Shakespeare's plays & a peek at his co-writers

Hey Friend,

It’s that time again. This week’s Mini Letter is gonna look at a timeline of Shakespeare’s plays. Forge & Fracture Saga Book 2, Saint-Seducing Gold, happens in 1605, which was likely the year that Will wrote the plays King Lear, Macbeth, & Antony & Cleopatra. Three bangers, I know. But what about the other ones? What was this man doing and when? Don’t worry, I got you in 2 easy graphics.

Photo by Matt Riches on Unsplash

Play, Write, Playwright

Here’s a quick rundown of William Shakespeare’s plays. It’s divided by year with a complete disregard for where the plays may have fallen within those given years. Perhaps controversially, I’ve put each play in with its earliest year of existence except for King Lear (because I like 1606 being the Year of Lear, like James Shapiro said). So, without further ado, here is a (mostly accurate) timeline of William Shakespeare’s plays.

Did Shakespeare Really Write All That?

I promised some notes on authorship. First, I believe Shakespeare wrote these plays so anti-Stratfordians, y’all should’ve skipped this one. Now, I’m not taking authorship arguments but, I do get down with the co-writers. So, here’s a few of the folks Shakespeare likely worked with on some of the plays.

• King Edward III

  • This one is believed to have been co-written with either Christopher Marlowe (known for Doctor Faustus & being stabbed through the eye in a bar fight) or Thomas Kyd (known for The Spanish Tragedy)

• Henry VI, Part 1

  • The Henry VI plays are all out of order because no one’s quite sure when the parts were written. What we do know is that Part 3 & Part 1 were being performed in 1592 so the date for Part 2 just gets tossed in there too. They HAD to be performing that too, right? It’s also assumed that Shakespeare had some co-writers for Part 1 although their names have been lost to time.

• Timon of Athens

  • This one is believed to have been co-written with Thomas Middleton (known for The Changeling and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside).

• Pericles

  • Thought to be co-written with George Wilkins (known for being an innkeeper, pamphlet writer, and possibly a criminal).

• Henry VIII

  • Co-written with John Fletcher (known for Cardenio and The Woman’s Prize—a sequel to The Taming of the Shrew). They were performing this play in 1613 when the cannon in the Globe theatre’s attic misfired and burned down the whole building. Everyone escaped the flames, including the man whose flaming pants were extinguished by an application of ale.

• Two Noble Kinsmen

  • This play was also co-written with Fletcher and was likely Shakespeare’s last work before he retired to his hometown with his family.

Says Who?

This week’s Factoid was brought to you by the Chronology in the book Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary & Language Companion by David & Ben Crystal. I highly recommend this book if you’re serious about studying Shakespeare and I recommend it 20x more if you’re performing Shakespeare.

Adieu, Adieu

That’s it for this week. If you have any questions about the plays, let me know. I want to talk more about them individually in the future but next week I want to tell you about the physical theatres where Shakespeare and his fellow actors would’ve performed them. You’ll get the story of how Will & crew gave a big f-you to their landlord and stole a whole theatre while he was on Christmas vacation.

Love to you all!

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