How many stories did Shakespeare write in his lifetime?

Answer 1

Shakespeare did not write "stories". He wrote plays and poetry, but the stories the plays and poetry told were not, for the most part, original to Shakespeare. For example, he wrote the play Macbeth, but the story of Macbeth is one which he found in a book called Holinshed's Chronicles. Likewise the stories he tells in his narrative poems The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis are not original.

Two plays which do appear to have plots which Shakespeare actually invented are A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Answer 2

It depends on what you count as a poem. The 154 sonnets, Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, and A Lover's Complaint were all published as poems from the very start. That's 158. But in later years, anthologists have extracted bits of dialogue or song lyrics from the plays, slapped silly titles on them and claimed them as "poems by Shakespeare". These should not be counted.

Answer 3

Shakespeare is now believed to have written or co-written 38 plays over a career which spanned 20 to 25 years.

Answer 4

37 plays