How many and what types of plays did Shakespeare write?

Answer 1

Shakespeare wrote 37 or 38 plays, some of which were co-written with John Fletcher, and a couple more which are lost, and maybe more that we haven't heard about. The 36 plays which were in the First Folio, the first omnibus volume of Shakespeare's plays, were divided into histories, comedies, and tragedies. Some people have invented new categories and have placed some of the plays, usually those called comedies, into them. One such category is "Romances", which are defined as late plays with a kind of fairy-tale plot usually about the dispersal and reuniting of families. Another is "problem plays" for plays which are called comedies but are serious or disturbing in their subject-matter or ending. Sometimes these are called "tragicomedies" reflecting the label given to the very popular plays of Beaumont and Fletcher at the time.