What are the 3 categories that Shakespeare's plays are split into?

Answer 1

The First Folio is really entitled "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies Published according to the true originall copies." The division made in that book became traditional.

Answer 2

Shakespeare himself did not divide his plays into tragedies, comedies and histories. It was his publishers that did that. In fact, scholars have for centuries been dissatisfied with this oversimplistic categorization. When Hamlet was first published it was called the "tragicall historie of Hamlet": does that make it tragedy or history? Of course the Quartos also call Richard III and Henry VI Part 3 "Tragedies", Merchant of Venice a "comical historie", King Lear a "history" and Pericles a "play".

Answer 3

In the First Folio, the first "Collected Works", they were divided into histories, tragedies and comedies. In fact, that was the official name of the First Folio: "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies published according to the true originall copies."

Answer 4

Comedy, tragedy, and history are the three categories.

Answer 5

Traditionally, Histories, Comedies and Tragedies.