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Information about Shakespearean Comedy

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. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriage for all the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more lighthearted than Shakespeare's other plays.

Patterns in the comedies include movement to a "green world," both internal and external conflicts, and a tension between Apollonian and Dionysian values.

Shakespearean comedies also tend to have
  • A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty that is often presented by elders
  • Separation and unification
  • Mistaken identities
  • A clever servant
  • Heightened tensions, often within a family
  • Multiple, intertwining plots
  • Frequent use of puns
Several of Shakespeare's comedies such as Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well, have an unusual tone with a difficult mix of humour and tragedy which has led them to be classified as problem plays or tragicomedies. It is not clear whether the uneven nature of these dramas is due to an imperfect understanding of Elizabethan humour and society, a fault on Shakespeare's part, or a deliberate attempt by him to blend styles and confound expectations.

List of Shakespearean comedies

play or stageplay, written by a playwright, or dramatist, is a form of literature, almost always consisting of dialogue between characters, intended for performance rather than reading.
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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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tragedies from the beginning of his career. One of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, which he followed a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. However, his most admired tragedies were written in a seven-year period between 1601 and 1608.
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histories. Some critics have argued for a fourth category, the romance. Histories are normally described as those based on the lives of English kings. The plays that depict older historical figures such as Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Julius Caesar
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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.
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Elizabethan Era
1558–1603
Preceded by Tudor period
Followed by Jacobean era
Monarch Queen Elizabeth I
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The Apollonian and Dionysian is a philosophical and literary concept, or dichotomy, based on certain features of ancient Greek mythology. Several Western philosophical and literary figures have invoked this dichotomy in critical and creative works, including Plutarch, Friedrich
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A pun (or paronomasia) is a phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar words for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. For example, the sentence "the world is perspiring against me" is a pun on the paranoid's motto "
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Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, originally classified in the First Folio as a comedy. This is one of the playwright's three problem plays, so-called because they cannot be easily classified by modern editors.
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For the Chiodos album, see .


All's Well That Ends Well is a comedy by William Shakespeare, and is often considered one of his problem plays, so-called because they cannot be easily classified as tragedy or comedy.
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In Shakespeare studies, the term "problem plays" normally refers to three comedies that William Shakespeare wrote between the late 1590s and the first years of the seventeenth century: All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida
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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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Elizabethan Era
1558–1603
Preceded by Tudor period
Followed by Jacobean era
Monarch Queen Elizabeth I
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For the Chiodos album, see .


All's Well That Ends Well is a comedy by William Shakespeare, and is often considered one of his problem plays, so-called because they cannot be easily classified as tragedy or comedy.
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As You Like It is a pastoral comedy written in 1599 or early 1600. It is often classed as one of Shakespeare's mature comedies.

Date and text

The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on August 4, 1600; but it was not printed till its
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The History of Cardenio is a lost play, known to have been performed by the King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. It was attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in 1653 in a Stationers' Registry entry by the bookseller Humphrey Moseley, who was known to
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The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays, written between 1592 and 1594. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical: for a major part of the humour comes from slapstick and mistaken identity, added to the puns and wordplay.
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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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Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies.

Date and text

Most modern scholars believe the play was written in 1595 or 1596, making it contemporaneous with Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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Love's Labour's Won, alternatively written Love's labour's wonne, is the name of a play written by William Shakespeare before 1598. However, it is not known if this play has been lost, or if the title is an alternate name for a known play.
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Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, originally classified in the First Folio as a comedy. This is one of the playwright's three problem plays, so-called because they cannot be easily classified by modern editors.
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The Merchant of Venice is one of William Shakespeare's best-known plays, written sometime between 1596 and 1598. Although it is sometimes classified as a comedy ("comedy" had a very different meaning at the time; see Shakespearean comedies) and shares certain aspects with
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The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare featuring the fat knight Sir John Falstaff and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary English life.
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A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare written sometime in the 1590s. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta,
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Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare. First published in 1600, it was likely first performed in the winter of 1598-1599,[1] and it remains one of Shakespeare's most enduring plays on stage.
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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 Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare. It was one of his earlier plays, probably penned in 1593 or 1594.

The Sources

The basic elements of the story are present in the 14th-century Castilian tale of the "young man who married a very strong and
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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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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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