What were William Shakespeare's romances?

Answer 1

Shakespeare's RomancesWhen Shakespeare's plays were first published as a collection, in the First Folio of 1621, they were divided into three categories: Histories, Tragedies, and Comedies. There were 10 histories, 11 tragedies, and 15 comedies. In later editions, Cymbeline was considered to be a comedy rather than a tragedy and Pericles was added to the Comedies, making a total of 17.

Although there is a great variety of style among the comedies, they broke down into three main groups: earlier comedies, darker comedies written at the same time as the great tragedies and later comedies which involved fairy-tale or legendary plots and elements of pastoral plays and poetry. This last group, which is normally said to comprise The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Pericles and Cymbeline have been given, in the later twentieth century, the name "romances"

These are:

Pericles, Prince of Tyre - conventionally a Comedy.

Cymbelline - conventionally a Tragedy.

The Winter's Tale - conventionally a Comedy.

The Tempest - conventionally a Comedy.

In this context, "Romance" is not the same as "Love Story"so that his best known love story, Romeo and Juliet is a Tragedy, not a Romance. Other fairly tragic stories about couples are Antony and Cleopatra and Troilus and Cressida. Most of the comedies, on the other hand, are love stories which end happily. Indeed Much Ado About Nothing might be the archetypal romantic comedy.
The plays usually called "romances" are Cymbeline, The Tempest, A Winter's Tale and Pericles.
Almost all of Shakespeare's 18 comedies are about romantic love in some sense. So too are tragedies like Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Antony and Cleopatra. Some of the history plays have scenes of romantic love too, such as Henry V and Richard III.

But scholars often use the label "romances" to describe the late comedies The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest and Pericles.

Answer 2

This label is attached to the plays Cymbeline, Pericles, A Winter's Tale and The Tempest.