The Four Time Periods
Shakespeare's plays can broadly be divided into four time periods:
Pre-1594 (King Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, etc.)
1594–1600 (King Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, etc.)
1600–1608 (Macbeth, King Lear, etc.)
Post-1608 (Cymbeline, The Tempest, etc.)
The first period (pre-1594) has its roots in Greek, Roman, and medieval English drama — the plays show a certain obviousness. It's possible that Shakespeare was influenced by Christopher Marlowe — now considered Shakespeare's greatest literary rival — whose writing was gaining recognition as Shakespeare's playwrighting career began.
The second period (1594–1600) shows a clearly maturing author, and the plays are less labored and predictable. The histories of this period portray royalty in human terms rather than as ciphers to move along a plot. He experiments with blending comedy and tragedy, considered a trademark of Shakespeare's that would become a stylistic signature.
The third period (1600–1608) marks the great tragedies. At this point he wrote the plays that would earn him his place in history. Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello are classic tragic protagonists in the best dramatic sense. The comedies, meanwhile, grow moody and ambiguous.
Scholars still debate whether these last plays show Shakespeare writing in a form of dramatic shorthand, or whether the plays reflect an evolving theatrical trend from Elizabethan tastes to Jacobean as James I's reign took hold.
The last period is one of cynical plays followed by plays of deep symbolism. At the end of his career, and facing middle age, Shakespeare seemed preoccupied with stories of redemption. The “Romances” show Shakespeare at his most symbolic.
