Why wernt shakespeares plays published in his lifetime?

Answer 1

They were, or at least about half of them were. Individual plays from time to time became popular enough for them to be issued, usually in the size called Quarto. Hamlet was published four times during Shakespeare's lifetime, Romeo and Juliet, Pericles and Titus Andronicus three times, King Lear and Love's Labour's Lost once, and Richard III five times. Richard II, Henry IV, both parts, Henry V, Henry VI Parts 2 and 3, Troilus and Cressida, Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, Merry Wives of Windsor, and Much Ado about Nothing all were published in Shakespeare's lifetime.