scholar, Sir Edmund K .C ham bers, so lv ed it in 1930. His chronological table is considered the most convincing one. The double dates in it indicate the theatrical season during which the particular play was first performed. Chronology o f Shakespeare’s plays 1590-1591. Henry VI, Part II Henry VI, Part III Henry VI, Part I Richard III The Comedy o f Errors Titus Andronicus The Taming o f the Shrew The Two Gentlemen o f Verona. L ove’s Labour’s Lost. Romeo and Juliet. Richard II. A Midsummer N igh t’s Dream. King John. The Merchant o f Venice. Henry IV, Part I. Henry IV, Part II. Much Ado About Nothing. Henry V. 1591-1592. 1592-1593. 1593-1594. 1594-1595. 1595-1596. 1596-1597. 1597-1598.
1599-1600. Julius Caesar. As You Like It. Twelfth Night. 1600-1601. Hamlet. The Merry W ives o f Windsor. 1601-1602. Troilus and Cressida. 1603-1604. A ll’s Well That Ends Well. 1604-1605. Measure for Measure. Othello. 1605-1606. King Lear. Macbeth. 1606-1607. Antony and Cleopatra. 1607-1608. Coriolanus. Timon o f Athens. 1608-1609. Pericles. 1609-1610. Cymbeline. 1610-1611. The Winter’s Tale. 1611-1612. The Tempest. 1612-1613. Henry VIII. “Rom eo and Juliet” “Romeo and Juliet” is a tragedy based on “Romeus and Juliet”, a poem by the English author Arthur Brooke. It was first publ ished in 1597 and first performed in 1596. “Romeo and Juliet” is a story o f love and hate. It deals with two teen-aged lovers in Verona, Italy, who are caught in a bitter feud between their fam ilies, the Montagues and the Capulets. It is a story o f two young people who fall in love at first sight, marry secretly because their families are bitter enemies, and die because each cannot bear to live without the other. It is also a story o f two fam ilies w hose hatred for each other drives a son and daughter to destruction. Only after they have lost their children the parents leam the folly o f hatred and agree to end their feud. Love eventually conquers hate, but at a terrible cost.
It is not a simple story o f good and bad people, for all the major characters bear som e responsibility for the disaster. Romeo and Juliet have little chance to preserve both their love and their lives in the hatred that surrounds them. They are driven to destruction by events they cannot control. Yet the final choice is theirs, and they choose to die together instead o f living apart. Shakespeare sets the scene o f “Romeo and Juliet” in Verona, Italy, as earlier tellers o f the story have done. The time o f the action is vague, although it clearly takes place at some time before Shakespeare's days. Although be som etim es uses prose, Shakespeare has written most o f his play in poetry, because that was the way plays were