How many plays had shakespeare written by 1592?

Answer 1

Because we don't know exactly when Shakespeare wrote his plays, but can only make extremely educated guesses, we cannot be absolutely sure about this one. There are also some "out of left field" factors which might affect it, like the possibility that Shakespeare may have written one or more early plays which were so awful that they were quietly thrown away and forgotten about. But most everyone agrees that Shakespeare wrote the second and third parts of Henry VI before 1592 and a lot of people think he wrote the first part before 1592 also. In addition to that, he may have written three or four of his other early plays, like The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Titus Andronicus or The Two Gentlemen of Verona before that date. Or possibly none of them. We don't know.

Answer 2

Well, we figure he wrote or co-wrote about 40 plays during his working life which ended in 1613. Really, then, your question is how many of those 40 plays were written before 1593? We cannot be exactly certain about this, since there are no hard-and-fast records of when the plays were written. Sometimes we can narrow the date down because we have records of publication or performance, as well as topical allusions within the plays. We know that Henry VI Part 3 was written before 1593 because Greene quotes it in 1592. In fact, most scholars think Shakespeare wrote all three parts of Henry VI before that date. As for other plays, some of the early comedies, including Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona or Love's Labour's Lost might have been written before 1593. Some people would include Richard III. I wouldn't. I'd say that Shakespeare wrote all his plays except the Henry VI trilogy and whichever one of his comedies was earliest in the period 1593-1613.

Answer 3

Let's see. All of the history plays except Henry VIII, that's nine. Of the tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, Titus Andronicus, and Julius Caesar. Twelve so far. Comedies? Love's Labour's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, As You Like It. That's ten comedies, making a total of twenty-two of his thirty-eight plays which were written before 1600.

Answer 4

We cannot be exactly sure. It is possible that one or more of the 38 plays we have which he either wrote by himself or with another author may have been written before 1592. We are pretty confident that he stopped writing around 1613. And there are also titles to two plays, Love's Labour's Won and Cardenio, for which no copies exist, yet Shakespeare was supposed to have written them or co-written them. So you could say 40 plays . . . maybe.

Answer 5

Shakespeare had died in 1616 so he wrote 37 plays and 154 poems

Answer 6

About a dozen plays. We cannot be certain, because dating the plays is an iffy procedure.