# Did Shakespeare write 37 or 38 plays. Is there any consensus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316 "2014-07-16T23:05:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/1 "2014-07-16T23:05:39Z")
Hi, I’ve read that Shakespeare wrote 37 or 38 plays. Is there any consensus yet on the exact number? I look forward to your feedback. davidmich > **[Shakespeare's plays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_plays)** > > Shakespeare's plays are a canon of approximately 39 dramatic works written by English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare. The exact number of plays—as well as their classifications as tragedy, history, comedy, or otherwise—is a matter of scholarly debate. Shakespeare's plays are widely regarded as being among the greatest in the English language and are continually performed around the world. The plays have been translated into every major living language. > Many of his plays appe... “Traditionally, the 37 plays are divided into the genres of tragedy, history, comedy and tragic comedy” See a list of 38 > **[A Complete List of Shakespeare’s Plays](https://www.thoughtco.com/list-of-shakespeare-plays-2985250)** > > This chronological list of Shakespeare's dramatic works includes all 38 plays in the order in which they were first performed. “It is believed that Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in total between 1590 and 1612. This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in the order in which they were first performed.” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/2 "2014-07-16T23:10:40Z")
It depends on whether or not you count co-authored plays, I suppose. And do you count the lost plays? I don’t believe there is a consensus. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/3 "2014-07-16T23:27:05Z")
Moved to Cafe Society. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/4 "2014-07-16T23:39:19Z")
When was \*The Two Noble Kinsmen \*accepted into the canon? It isn’t in the “complete” Shakespeare volume I have (which dates from the '70s), nor was it in the version we had in the house when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/5 "2014-07-16T23:41:44Z")
Depends what you mean by ‘write’, if you can get anyone to agree on how much of a play Shakespeare wrote, if any of it. [The First Folio](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Folio) published in 1623 has 36 plays listed in it. It misses _The Two Noble Kinsmen_, which has a dual attribution with John Fletcher, published in 1634. It also omits _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_, but scholars generally accept Bill wrote about half of it, probably with George Wilkins. Counting the lost plays (Love’s Labour’s Won, Cardenio), and several collaborations (including TTNK, PPoT and [Edward III](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_%28play%29); the authorship has been argued about), wiki comes up with a chronology of [41 plays](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Shakespeare%27s_plays). There’s also a possible [early version of Hamlet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Hamlet) along with the rest of the apocrypha. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/6 "2014-07-17T00:02:38Z")
Oh gods, no. not the 78/79 episodes debate again. AAAIIIEEE!!! _hides under the bed_ ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/7 "2014-07-17T00:11:59Z")
Is there any evidence that Ben Jonson co-authored any of Shakespeare’s plays? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/8 "2014-07-17T00:14:36Z")
Isn’t there some debate about _Henry VIII_, too? Or is that just one of those things where there’s one solitary but loud crank that nobody serious pays any attention to? ---
**Author:** ![Julius\_Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/9 "2014-07-17T00:18:35Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > When was \*The Two Noble Kinsmen \*accepted into the canon? It isn’t in the “complete” Shakespeare volume I have (which dates from the '70s), nor was it in the version we had in the house when I was a kid. _The Riverside Shakespeare_ I used in college includes it. The copyright date is 1974, I took the course a few years later. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/10 "2014-07-17T02:54:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Isn’t there some debate about _Henry VIII_, too? Or is that just one of those things where there’s one solitary but loud crank that nobody serious pays any attention to? _Henry VIII_, like TNK, is probably about a 50-50 collaboration with John Fletcher. Unlike TNK, though, it made it into the First Folio, so it’s been part of the canon from the beginning. Authorship in early modern drama is complicated. Most playwrights collaborated at least some of the time. Even when a play is nominally single-authored, it wasn’t uncommon for a second playwright to do a bit of script-doctoring if, for example, the play were being revived and the original author were dead or unavailable. (This is probably how we got the Hecate scenes in Macbeth, for instance – by the late 1610s the fashion was for more supernatural elements and more dancing, so Thomas Middleton got hired to add some in.) ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shakespeare-write-37-or-38-plays-is-there-any-consensus/693316/11 "2014-07-17T16:06:46Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > _Henry VIII_, like TNK, is probably about a 50-50 collaboration with John Fletcher. Unlike TNK, though, it made it into the First Folio, so it’s been part of the canon from the beginning. I had no idea _Henry VIII_ was in the First Folio. Interesting. Someone upthread mentioned _Love’s Labours Won_ - I’ll point out (to the OP) it’s either its own play, or an alternate title of _The Taming of the Shrew_. Nobody knows. If it is its own play, it’s lost (like **Mr. Kobayashi** said).