Introduction

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players”

Shakespeare has written more than 36 plays. During his lifetime, 18 of his plays were published in small, cheap books called quartos. In 1623, 7 years after his death, 36 plays (18 new and 18 already published) were published, in a printed, expensive volume. The official title was: Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. This volume is called the First Folio. It was edited by two of Shakespeare’s friends and fellow actors and is organized by genre.

There are no original manuscripts of the plays anymore. Shakespeare made no notes of who his co-writers were; neither do we know in what order the plays were written. There are some scholars who think that Shakespeare did not write all the plays himself, but that there was someone else who wrote them. A group of scholars called the “Oxfordians” believe that the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere (1550-1604), wrote most of Shakespeare’s plays. This authorship debate between scholars is still going on.

When reading one of Shakespeare’s plays, you should keep in mind that a play was written to be performed and to be watched, and not only to be read. So, besides reading a play, it is always useful (and fun) to watch the play being performed on stage or to look for a film version of the play.