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Information about Shakespeare's Late Romances

The late romances, often simply called the romances, are a grouping of William Shakespeare's later plays, including Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Cymbeline; The Winter's Tale; and The Tempest. The Two Noble Kinsmen is sometimes included in this grouping. The term was first used in regard to these works in Edward Dowden's Shakespeare: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art (1875).

The category of Shakespearean romance arise from a hesitation among critics to categorize them as comedies (though all but Cymbeline, which was listed among the tragedies, were considered so by John Heminges and Henry Condell when they edited the First Folio), because they bear similarities with medieval romance literature and are different from comedies in many ways. Shakespeare's romances share the following features:
  • A redemptive plotline with a happy ending involving the re-uniting of long-separated family members;
  • Magic and other fantastical elements;
  • A deus ex machina, often manifesting as a Roman god (such as Jupiter in Cymbeline or Diana in Pericles);
  • A mixture of "civilized" and "pastoral" scenes (such as the gentry and the island residents in The Tempest);
  • "...and the poetry is a return to the lyrical style of the early plays, though more mellow and profound."[1]
Shakespeare's romances were also influenced by two major developments in theatre in the early years of the seventeenth century. One was the innovation in tragicomedy initiated by John Fletcher and developed in the early Beaumont and Fletcher collaborations. The other was the extreme elaboration of the courtly masque being conducted at the same time by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. [See: The Masque of Blackness; The Masque of Queens.]

The distinctiveness of the late romances has been questioned – the plays certainly share commonalities with earlier Shakespearean works like Twelfth Night, with earlier romances by other authors back to the ancient world, and with works in genres like pastoral. Yet Shakespeare's late plays have a distinctive aura to them, with elements of tragicomedy and masque blended with elements of comedy and romance and pastoral – not into a chaos as might be expected, but into coherent, dramatically effective and appealing plays.

Literary Romance in a larger context is a genre related to Comedy.

A List of Shakespeare's Late Romances

The following list represents the most popular consensus regarding Shakespeare's romances: The Norton Shakespeare describes Henry VIII (ca. 1612-13) as being characteristic of the late romances, but still considers it one of the histories.

Notes

1. ^ F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; p. 419.
2. ^ F. E. Halliday, Shakespeare Companion, pp. 419, 507-8. See also Hallett Smith on the "many links between this and the previous plays...," in: The Riverside Shakespeare, G. Blakemore Evans, textual editor; Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1974; p. 1640.


Part of a series on William Shakespeare and his works
General information Biography| Style | influence| Reputation | Religion| Sexuality | Shakespearean Authorship Question
Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra | Coriolanus | Hamlet | Julius Caesar| King Lear| Macbeth | Othello | Romeo and Juliet| Timon of Athens| Titus Andronicus| Troilus and Cressida
Comedies All's Well That Ends Well | As You Like It| The Comedy of Errors| Cymbeline | Love's Labour's Lost| Measure for Measure| The Merchant of Venice| The Merry Wives of Windsor| A Midsummer Night's Dream| Much Ado About Nothing| Pericles, Prince of Tyre| The Taming of the Shrew| The Tempest| Twelfth Night, or What You Will| The Two Gentlemen of Verona| The Two Noble Kinsmen| The Winter's Tale
Histories King John | Richard II| Henry IV, Part 1| Henry IV, Part 2| Henry V| Henry VI, part 1| Henry VI, part 2| Henry VI, part 3| Richard III| Henry VIII
Poems Sonnets | Venus and Adonis| The Rape of Lucrece| The Passionate Pilgrim| The Phoenix and the Turtle| A Lover's Complaint
Apocrypha and Lost Plays Edward III | Sir Thomas More| Cardenio (lost)| Love's Labour's Won (lost)| The Birth of Merlin| Locrine | The London Prodigal| The Puritan| The Second Maiden's Tragedy| Richard II, Part I: Thomas of Woodstock| Sir John Oldcastle| Thomas Lord Cromwell| A Yorkshire Tragedy| Fair Em| Mucedorus | The Merry Devil of Edmonton| Arden of Faversham| Edmund Ironside| Vortigern and Rowena
Other play information Shakespeare's plays | Shakespeare in performance| Chronology of Shakespeare plays| Oxfordian chronology| Shakespeare on screen| BBC Television Shakespeare| Titles based on Shakespeare| List of characters | Problem Plays| List of historical characters| Ghost characters
William Shakespeare

The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Born: April 1564 (exact date unknown)
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Died: 23 March 1616
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
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Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a play written (at least in part) by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected plays despite some questions over its authorship.
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The Tragedy of Cymbeline, King of Britain is a play by William Shakespeare. Critics often put it in a grouping called Shakespeare's Late Romances along with Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Tempest, and The Winter's Tale.
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The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare. Although listed as a comedy in the first Folio, modern editors have relabelled the play a romance. Some critics, among them W. W.
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The Tempest is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is generally accepted to be Shakespeare's last play solely written by him. Although listed as a comedy in the first Folio, many modern editors have relabelled the play a romance.
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The Two Noble Kinsmen is a Jacobean comedy, first published in 1634 and attributed to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Formerly a point of controversy, the dual attribution is now generally accepted by the scholarly consensus.
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Edward Dowden (May 3, 1843–April 4, 1913), was an Irish critic and poet.

He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edinburgh in 1886.
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Traditionally, the plays of William Shakespeare have been grouped into three categories: tragedies, comedies, and histories. Some critics have argued for a fourth category, the romance. "Comedy" in its Elizabethan usage had a very different meaning from modern comedy.
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John Heminges (sometimes spelled Hemminge or Hemings) (About 1556 - 1630) was an English Renaissance actor. Most famous now as one of the editors of Shakespeare's 1623 First Folio, Heminges served in his time as an actor and financial manager for the King's Men.
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Henry Condell (d. December 1627) was an actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare, published in 1623.
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First Folio is the term applied by modern scholars to the first published collection of William Shakespeare's plays; its actual title is Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.
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romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

Characteristics of the romance


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The phrase deus ex machina (Latin IPA: [ˈdeːus eks ˈmaːkʰina] (literally "god out of a machine") describes an unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a
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Jupiter (Iuppiter in Latin) held the same role as Zeus in the Greek pantheon. He was called Juppiter Optimus Maximus Soter (Jupiter Best, Greatest, Savior); as the patron deity of the Roman state, he ruled over laws and social order.
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In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, in literature the equivalent of the Greek goddess Artemis, though in cult she was Italic in origin. Born with her twin brother Apollo on the island of Delos, Diana was the daughter of Jupiter and Latona.
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Pastoral, as an adjective, refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and feed.
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Tragicomedy refers to fictional works that blend aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy refers to a serious play with a happy ending.
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John Fletcher (1579 – 1625) was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivaled
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Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I.

They became famous as a team early in their association, so much so that their joined names were applied to the total canon of
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masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy. (A public version of the masque was the pageant.
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Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson by Abraham Blyenberch, 1617.
Born: 11 June 1572
Westminster, London, England
Died: 6 July 1637
Westminster, London, England
Occupation: Dramatist, poet and actor

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Inigo Jones (July 15, 1573 – June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant English architect, and the first to bring Renaissance architecture to England. He also made valuable contributions to stage design.
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The Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1605.
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The Masque of Queens, Celebrated From the House of Fame is one of the earlier works in the series of masques that Ben Jonson composed for the House of Stuart in the early seventeenth century.
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Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, named after the Twelfth Night holiday of the Christmas season.

Date and text

Twelfth Night
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In common, present day usage the word comedy almost always refers to the creation or presentation of humor with the intention of provoking laughter. Most comedy contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations,
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Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a play written (at least in part) by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected plays despite some questions over its authorship.
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The Tragedy of Cymbeline, King of Britain is a play by William Shakespeare. Critics often put it in a grouping called Shakespeare's Late Romances along with Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Tempest, and The Winter's Tale.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare. Although listed as a comedy in the first Folio, modern editors have relabelled the play a romance. Some critics, among them W. W.
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The Tempest is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is generally accepted to be Shakespeare's last play solely written by him. Although listed as a comedy in the first Folio, many modern editors have relabelled the play a romance.
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