The year 1600 represents the beginning of a new phase in Shakespeare’s compositions with the printing of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Twelfth Night, or What You Will followed a year later and marked a move toward darker comedies with complex plots and characters who are often cruel rather than comic.
With Troilus and Cressida in 1601–02, Shakespeare turns to Greek antiquity and the Iliad for inspiration, although as usual, Shakespeare rewrites the story to suit his needs.
Measure for Measure is another of Shakespeare’s dark comedies, not published until 1623 but first performed in 1604.
During the same period (1603–04), Shakespeare was also writing The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice and All’s Well that Ends Well, a complex comedy that raises questions about accepted gender roles.
With The Life of Timons of Athens, Shakespeare again turns to history, but this play, as with several others, was first published in the 1623 Folio.
The History of King Lear or The Tragedy of King Lear, first printed in 1607–08, exists in two different texts, which are often published on facing pages or combined into one text.
The composition of The Tragedy of Macbeth followed and is usually dated at 1606. At the same time, Shakespeare was writing his sequel to Julius Caesar, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, probably 1607–08, is thought to be a collaboration between Shakespeare and George Wilkins.
With Coriolanus in 1608, Shakespeare again finds his source in Roman history.
After 1610, Shakespeare left London and returned to Stratford and semi-retirement. But he continued to write plays, with The Winter’s Tale (1609–11), Cymbeline, King of Britain (1609–10), and The Tempest (1611) largely composed in Stratford.
Shakespeare’s life as a playwright concluded with his creation of All Is True or, as it was also known, The Famous History of the Life of Henry the Eighth (1613) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613–14).
