Timeline of plays 1580s - 1642

(Early Modern Theatre web page)

KEY: Title (date), author(s) [corrections by Taylor et al. 2016]; company ; place of performance [commentary

Fedele and Fortunio (ca. 1579-1584) ? by Anthony Munday ; ? Chapel Boys ; ? Blackfriars [ adaptation into English of Italian commedia erudita

Campaspe (ca. 1580 – 1584) by John Lyly ; Chapel and Paul’s Boys ; Blackfriars and at court [ five-act structure, multiple staging; euphuistic prose

The Arraignment of Paris (ca. 1581 – 1584) by George Peele ; Chapel Boys ; ? Blackfriars [ pastoral ; blank verse and fourteeners ; an experiment in adapting masque to drama

The Famous Victories of Henry V (ca. 1583 – 1588), anom. ; Queen’s Men ; Bull Inn [ history play for popular, public stage

Gallathea (c. 1584) by John Lyly ; Paul’s Boys ; perhaps Blackfriars [ pastoral ; earliest comedy to have a boy actor play a girl who disguises herself as a boy

The Spanish Tragedy (ca. 1585 – 1589) by Thomas Kyd ; Lord Strange’s Men; unknown [ revenge tragedy , "victim" tragedy

Tragedy of Master Arden of Feversham (ca. 1585-1592) anon. [and W. Shakespeare]; unknown ; unknown [bourgeois or domestic tragedy

Tamburlaine Part One and Tamburlaine Part Two (1587-1588) by Christopher Marlowe ; Lord Admiral’s Men ; Rose [ "conqueror" tragedy

John a Kent and John a Cumber (ca. 1587-1590) by Anthony Munday ; unknown ; unknow [example of classical influence (five-act structure) combined with romance

Dido, Queen of Carthage (ca. 1587-1593) by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe ; Chapel Boys ; unknown [ tragedy,

Endymion (1588) by John Lyly ; Paul’s Boys ; Paul’s [ euphuistic prose

The History of Orlando Furioso (ca. 1588-1592) by Robert Greene ; Queen’s Men, Lord Admiral’s ; Rose and at court [ "an attempt to unite an old fairy tale with an Italian plot" (Bradbrook Growth p. 68)

Doctor Faustus (ca. 1588-1594) by Christopher Marlowe ; Lord Strange’s / Lord Admiral’s ; Rose [ Marlovian hero ambitious for knowledge

The Old Wife’s Tale (ca. 1588-1594) by George Peele; Queen’s Men ; unkonw [ mixture of romantic folk tale and farce ; use of a frame plot

Mucedorus (ca. 1588-1598, rev. 1610) anom. ; [ romantic comedy , "most popular play of the period" (Hunter)

The Jew of Malta (ca. 1589-1590) by Christopher Marlowe ; Lord Strange’s / Lord Admiral’s ; ? Theatre

The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (ca. 1589) by Robert Greene ; Queen's Men / Lord Sussex's Men / ?Lord Strange's Men ; ? Rise / ?Theatre [ romantic comedy , "romantic history (or historical romance)" (Hunter)

Henry VI Part Two and Part Three (ca. 1591) by W. Shakespeare [and Christopher Marlowe and unknown playwright] Lord Strange's / Admiral's ; ? Rose

Henry VI Part One (ca. 1592) by W. Shakespeare [by Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, unknown playwright and adapted by W. Shakespeare]; Lord Strange's / Admiral's ; ? Rose

The Comedy of Errors (ca. 1590- 1593) by W. Shakespeare ; ?Lord Strange's ; unknown, perhaps Inns of Court [ classical influence

Richard III (ca. 1591-1592) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Pembroke's ; ?Theatre [ history play and tragedy , "villain" tragedy

Edward II (ca. 1591-1593) by Christopher Marlowe ; ?Lord Pembroke's ; ?Theatre [history play and tragedy, "weak king" history

King John (ca. 1591-1598) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Theatre [ history play

Summer's Last Will and Testament (1592) by Thomas Nashe ; perhaps by a boy company ; Archbishop's Palace, Croydon [ combines morality and interlude and anticipates masque, verse and prose, "extraordinary literary and 'golden' eloquence (Hunter p. 137)

Titus Andronicus (ca. 1594) by W. Shakespeare [and George Peele]; Lord Sussex's ; unknown [ revenge tragedy of classical past

Love's Labour's Lost (ca. 1594-1595) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Theatre [ "euphuistic" comedy

Richard II (ca. 1594-1595) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Theatre [ history play and tragedy, "weak king" history

Romeo and Juliet (ca. 1594-1596) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Theatre and at court [romantic tragedy

A Midsummer Night's Dream (ca. 1595-1596) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Theatre [ romantic comedy, fantasy comedy

The Merchant of Venice (ca. 1594-1596) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Theatre

A Humorous Day's Mirth (1597) by George Chapman ; Lord Admiral's ; Rose [ comedy of humours

Henry IV Part One and Henry IV Part Two (ca. 1597-1598) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Theatre [ comical history play (Hunter)

The Merry Wives of Windsor (ca. 1597-1602) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Curtain and at court [

Every Man in His Humour (1598) by Ben Jonson ; Lord Chamberlain's ; ?Curtain [ comedy of humours

As You Like It (ca. 1598-1599) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; Curtain / Globe [romantic comedy, parody of pastoral

Julius Caesar (ca. 1598-1600) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; Curtain / Globe

Henry V (1599) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; Globe

The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599) by Thomas Dekker ; Lord Admiral's ; Rose [ citizen and romantic comedy

Hamlet (ca. 1600-1601) by W. Shakespeare ; Lord Chamberlain's ; Globe [revenge tragedy

...

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REFERENCES

Bevington, David, gen. ed. English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002.

Bevington, David. Medieval drama. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1975.

Bowers, Fredson. Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy. Princeton, 1940. 

Bradbrook, M. C. Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan Tragedy. Rev. ed. CUP, 1980 (1935). 

Bradbrook, M. C. The Growth and Structure of Elizabethan Comedy. Cambridge UP, 1979 (London, 1955).

Clemen, W. H.English Tragedy Before Shakespeare: The Development of Dramatic Speech London: Methuen, 1966 (1961).

Clemen, W. H.Shakespeare's Dramatic Art. London, Methuen, 1972.

Clemen, W. H. The Development of Shakespeare's Imagery. London: Methuen, 1977 

Daiches, D. A Critical History of English Literature, London: Ronald Press, 1968. 

Gosset, Suzanne. “Dramatic Achievements.” The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1500-1600. Ed. Arthur F. Kinney. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 153- 177. 

Greenblatt, Stephen, gen ed. The Norton Shakespeare: based on the Oxford edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. 

Hunter, G. K. English Drama 1586-1642: Shakespeare and his Age. Vol. 6 of The Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. 

Leech, Clifford, and T.W. Craik, gen. eds.The Revels History of Drama in English. 8 vols. London: Methuen. 1975-83 

Marcus, Leah. “Dramatic Experiments: Tudor Drama, 1490-1567.” The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1500-1600. Ed. Arthur F. Kinney. Cambridge UP, 2000. 132-152.

Styan, J. L. Shakespeare's Stagecraft.  Cambridge UP, 1971 (1967) 

Taylor, Gary, et al. The New Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Modern Critical Edition. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Wilson, F. P. English Drama 1485-1585. Vol. 5 of The Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.