ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315018577/389c1d69-bf6d-4f43-8610-58d40a6d0a1a/content/Inline_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> The editors of the first folio edition of Shakespeare's works included ten entries under “Histories.” Disregarding the titles of the earlier published quartos and the attribution of genre in these titles, the editors reduced all titles to a formula: “The Life and Death of” King John, Richard II, and Richard III; “The Life of” Henry V and Henry VIII; “The First Part of” Henry IV and Henry VI, etc. The plays were obviously arranged according to the order of their historical events, and their arrangement consequently gives no clue to the order in which they were written or published. Scholars have found a happy hunting-ground in attempting to fix the dates of the plays, but since it is one that I wish to skirt, I am suggesting Chambers' time-table to those who wish to read the discussion of the individual plays with a tentative date of composition in mind. Chambers dates the plays according to the theatrical season rather than the calendar year and arranges them as follows: 1
|
1590-1 |
2 and 3 Henry VI |
|
1591-2 |
1 Henry VI |
|
1592-3 |
Richard HI |
|
1595-6 |
Richard II |
|
1596-7 |
King John |
|
1597-8 |
1 and 2 Henry IV |
|
1598-9 |
Henry V |
|
1612-3 |
Henry VIII |
