Below are links to all 38 Shakespeare plays in PDF. Comedies include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, plus others. Shakespeare’s works that are history plays include Richard III, Henry V, Henry VIII, King John, and more. Shakespeare’s scripts considered tragedies include Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus and Troilus and Cressida. Romances include Cymbeline, Pericles, The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale. – Justin Cash

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Shakespeare Plays PDF by Genre

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Tragedies

Shakespeare’s tragedies include some of the greatest plays ever written. At just over 4,000 lines, the revenge tragedy Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play requiring more than four hours to perform uncut. King Lear is a brute of a play, so much so the title role has often been considered unplayable, such is the demand upon the actor. While Romeo and Juliet, with its star-crossed lovers, may well be love’s greatest tragedy.

Antony and Cleopatra (1607)

First performance 1607. Click the image for the play script.

Coriolanus (1605–1608)

First performance 1609–1610. Click the image for the play script.

Hamlet (1599–1601)

First performance 1600–1601. Click the image for the play script.

Julius Caesar (1599)

First performance 1599. Click the image for the play script.

King Lear (1606)

First performance 1606. Click the image for the play script.

Macbeth (1623)

First performance 1606. Click the image for the play script.

Othello (1603)

First performance 1604. Click the image for the play script.

Romeo and Juliet (1591–1595)

First performance 1597. Click the image for the play script.

Timon of Athens (1606)

First performance 1607–1608. Click the image for the play script.

Titus Andronicus (1588–1593)

First performance 1594. Click the image for the play script.

Troilus and Cressida (1602)

First performance 1604. Click the image for the play script.

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Comedies

What constituted comedy in Elizabethan and Jacobean England was somewhat different from our modern interpretation. Shakespeare’s comedies include elements of love, mistaken identity, cross-dressing, happy endings, dance, the supernatural, idyllic settings, deception, fantasy, marriage, farce, music, fate, merry-making, fools, disguised gender, and more. While some of Shakespeare’s comedies are darker than others, as a group, most of them were what modern audiences would refer to as romantic comedies. Nevertheless, his comedies did differ in tone. The Taming of the Shrew, with its adult-oriented bawdy humour, was in stark contrast to the childlike magical realism of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with its mix of human and fairy characters in a forest setting just outside Athens.

All’s Well That Ends Well (1598–1608)

First performance 1602–1603. Click the image for the play script.

As You Like It (1599)

First performance 1598–1600. Click the image for the play script.

The Comedy of Errors (1594)

First performance 1594. Click the image for the play script.

Love’s Labour’s Lost (1597–1598)

First performance 1597–1598. Click the image for the play script.

Measure for Measure (1604)

First performance 1604. Click the image for the play script.

The Merchant of Venice (1596–1599)

First performance 1605. Click the image for the play script.

The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597)

First performance 1600–1601. Click the image for the play script.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–1596)

First performance 1605. Click the image for the play script.

Much Ado About Nothing (1598–1599)

First performance 1598–1599. Click the image for the play script.

The Taming of the Shrew (1590–1592)

First performance 1593–1694. Click the image for the play script.

Twelfth Night (1601–1602)

First performance 1604. Click the image for the play script.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1589–1593)

First performance 1594–1595. Click the image for the play script.

The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613–1614)

First performance 1612–1614. Click the image for the play script.

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Romances

Shakespeare’s romance plays were all written at the tail end of The Bard’s career during the reign of King James I. They are a blend of both tragedy and comedy and therefore loosely considered tragicomedies.

Cymbeline (1611)

First performance 1611. Click the image for the play script.

Pericles (1607–1608)

First performance 1619. Click the image for the play script.

The Tempest (1610–1611)

First performance 1611. Click the image for the play script.

The Winter’s Tale (1610–1611)

First performance 1611. Click the image for the play script.

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Histories

Shakespeare’s ten history plays are all drawn from the lives and events of various Kings of England reigning from 1199 to 1547. “Now is the winter of our discontent” from Richard III remains one of the best-known opening lines of any play in the English language.

Henry IV Part 1 (1596–1597)

First performance 1596–1597. Click the image for the play script.

Henry IV Part 2 (1596–1599)

First performance 1592. Click the image for the play script.

Henry V (1599)

First performance 1599. Click the image for the play script.

Henry VI Part 1 (1592)

First performance 1592. Click the image for the play script.

Henry VI Part 2 (1591)

First performance 1591. Click the image for the play script.

Henry VI Part 3 (1591)

First performance 1592. Click the image for the play script.

Henry VIII (1613)

First performance 1613. Click the image for the play script.

King John (1587–1598)

The first performance is unknown. Click the image for the play script.

Richard II (1595)

First performance 1595. Click the image for the play script.

Richard III (1592–1594)

First performance 1600–1601. Click the image for the play script.