Shakespeare: Titles

Overall

This section considers Shakespeare's works as a whole, and the individual plays in that context.

Number of plays in the First Folio (1623)		36
The only one in the First Folio that was not written entirely by Shakespeare		Henry VIII
Play of 1607 or 1608, not included in the First Folio: scholars believe Shakespeare wrote about 50% of it (the second half)		Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Collaboration with John Fletcher, 1613, not included in the First Folio		The Two Noble Kinsmen
Lost play, written before 1598 – possibly a sequel to one of the surviving comedies [Love's Labour's Lost], or an alternative title for another surviving play (Much Ado about Nothing, or All's Well that Ends Well)		Love's Labour's Won
Lost play, known to have been performed by the King's Men in 1613, attributed to Shakespeare by John Fletcher (1653); based on a character in Don Quixote. A production staged in Los Angeles in 2002 used a 1611 manuscript entitled The Second Maiden's Tragedy, usually attributed to Thomas Middleton but which one Shakespeare expert had identified as being the missing play		(The History of) Cardenio
1796 play by William Henry Ireland, purporting to be a lost work of Shakespeare		Vortigern and Rowena
Maximum number of plays that Shakespeare may have had a hand in (not including the one named immediately above!)		40

Notes:

1. Of the 36 First Folio plays, all but one (Henry VIII) were entirely by Shakespeare. There are also two more collaborations (not in the First Folio), and two "lost" plays. So the number of plays he had a hand in is between 36 and 40, and the total number he wrote in their entirety is between 35 and 37
2. The second impression of the Third Folio (1664) added seven plays to the original 36. One was Pericles Prince of Tyre, but the other six are not now believed to have been by Shakespeare. They are:

Locrine, The London Prodigal, The Puritan, Sir John Oldcastle, Thomas Lord Cromwell, and A Yorkshire Tragedy

Nobody knows for certain which play Shakespeare wrote first, but it was probably one of these seven:

The last play that Shakespeare wrote in its entirety (probably)		The Tempest (1611)
The last of the 36 First Folio plays to have been written		Henry VIII (1613/4)

Note: Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen were both written around 1613–14, in collaboration with John Fletcher. Henry VIII was included in the First Folio (1623), but The Two Noble Kinsmen was not

Shakespeare's replacement as the principal playwright of the King's Men, and (probably) his collaborator in Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen		John Fletcher
Probable collaborator in Pericles, Prince of Tyre		George Wilkins
Shakespeare's shortest play		The Comedy of Errors
Shakespeare's longest play		Hamlet
Shakespeare character with most lines (in one play)
Comic character in Henry IV, Henry V and Merry Wives of Windsor (the only Shakespeare character to appear in three plays; also speaks more lines, in total, than any other)		Falstaff
Place named twice in titles (Merchant of, and Othello the Moor of)		Venice
Only British place named in a title		Windsor
Only animal named in a title		Shrew

Clowns, Fools and Jesters

Possibly the most popular characters in Shakespeare – among question setters, if not audiences. In which plays did the following appear?

Costard – a swain (country bumpkin) at the court of Navarre; arrested in the first scene for flouting the king's proclamation that all men of the court avoid the company of women for three years, he proceeds to make fools of them all (along with Moth the page and Jaquenetta, a country wench)		Love's Labours Lost
Feste – referred to as "a fool that the Lady Olivia's father took much delight in", elsewhere only as "Fool" or "Clown"		Twelfth Night
Grumio – a manservant, who joins with his master in making his marriage a mockery, dressing himself up madly and being his only companion to the ceremony		The Taming of the Shrew
Launce and Speed – servants to the title characters; the former is not the brightest, and often mixes up his words; the latter is rarely quiet, and given to endless wordplay		Two Gentlemen of Verona
Launcelot Gobbo – a quick–witted young fellow who teases his blind father, pretending to be someone else		The Merchant of Venice
Lavatch – a poor servant to the Countess of Roussilon, who never answers a question directly if he can get some mileage out of the answer		All's Well that Ends Well
Peter – a servant who begs the musicians to play some merry music for him, in the play's most tragic scene, and taunts them when they refuse		Romeo and Juliet
Pompey Bum – a pimp in a thriving Viennese brothel, who claims to be a mere "tapster" (bartender) and has a large rear end		Measure for Measure
Thersites – a foul–mouthed Greek servant, and the most determinedly unpleasant person in all of Shakespeare; essentially a licensed fool		Troilus and Cressida
Touchstone – jester to Duke Frederick, and a mocking mirror to the affectedly melancholy Jaques		As You Like It
Trinculo – jester to the King of Naples, who plots with the king's butler (with whom he shares a taste for liquor)		The Tempest
Yorick – deceased court jester, described as "a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy"		Hamlet

Titles

This section covers detailed questions about the plays themselves.

Details the tortuous (but ultimately successful) courtship of Bertram, the son of a Spanish countess, by the countess's low–born ward Helena		All's Well that Ends Well
Set in the forest of Arden		As You Like It
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players": Jaques, a cynical nobleman (one of the principal characters), in
Ends with the marriage of the two principal characters, Rosalind and Orlando
Features two pairs of male twins – Antipholus and his servant Dromio, both of Syracuse, and their twin brothers Antipholus and his servant Dromio, both of Ephesus – and much confusion concerning their identities		The Comedy of Errors
The only Shakespeare play to mention America (by that name)
"We came into the world like brother and brother; And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another" is the last line of
Volumnia, Virgilian and Young Martius are (respectively) the mother, wife and son of the title character, in		Coriolanus
Guiderius and Arviragus – both legendary and possibly historical characters – are sons of the title character in		Cymbeline
The courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear in		Hamlet
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be", and (three lines later) "This above all: to thine own self be true": Polonius to his son Laërtes, in
"For this relief much thanks; 'tis bitter cold / And I am sick at heart." Francisco, on being relieved by Bernardo at the end of his watch, in the opening scene of
"The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King"
Owen Glendower, who boasts that he can "call spirits from the vasty deep" appears in		Henry IV (Part 1)
Focuses on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt		Henry V
Catherine and Alice converse in French in
Was insulted (probably mistakenly) by a gift of tennis balls from Charles, the Dauphin of France – an actual historical incident
The phrase "band of brothers" first appears in
"First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." Dick the Butcher in		Henry VI Part 2
"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily ... is wasteful and ridiculous excess" (giving rise to the phrase "to gild the lily")		King John
Suppressed by the British government during the reign of George III		King Lear
The Earl of Gloucester has his eyes gouged out, for helping the title character to escape (by the Duke of Cornwall and his wife, who is one of the title character's daughters) in
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child" (spoken by the title character)
Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, / In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, / Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind–worm's sting, / Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,–– For a charm of powerful trouble, / Like a hell–broth boil and bubble Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and caldron bubble.		Macbeth
"By the pricking of my thumbs / Something wicked this way comes" (providing titles for, respectively, Agatha Christie and Ray Bradbury)
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow ... " – soliloquy on learning of his wife's death
The cat Graymalkin appears (as the familiar of the First Witch) in
Mainly set in Vienna; concerns the villainous behaviour of Angelo – deputy to ...		Measure for Measure
... Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, who also appears disguised as Friar Lodowick
The novice nun Isabella pleads with Angelo for mercy, on behalf of her brother Claudio (who's been found guilty of sleeping with a woman out of wedlock); he agrees, on condition that she surrenders her virginity to him (she refuses, obviously)
Mistress Overdone (a brothel–keeper), Pompey Bum (her pimp), Elbow (a simple constable) and Froth ("a foolish gentleman") appear in
Lancelot Gobbo and Old Gobbo appear in		The Merchant of Venice
Portia's suitors made to choose between three caskets (according to a condition of her father's will)
"All that glisters is not gold / Often have you heard that told"
"The quality of mercy is not strained"
Sir John Falstaff, his followers Bardolph, Pistol and Nym, Sir Hugh Evans (a Welsh parson) and Doctor Caius (a French physician) appear in		The Merry Wives of Windsor
Written, according to tradition, at the request of Queen Elizabeth I
Set in "Athens, and a wood near it"		A Midsummer Night's Dream
Features three separate plots, tied together by the marriage of Theseus (Duke of Athens) and Hippolyta (Queen of the Amazons)
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustard Seed are fairies in
Features a troupe of actors known as the Mechanicals, whose members include: Peter Quince, a carpenter; Nick Bottom, a weaver; Francis Flute, a bellows–mender; Robin Starveling, a tailor; Tom Snout, a tinker; Snug, a joiner
"the course of true love never did run smooth"
Set in Messina, a city on the island of Sicily; centres on two romances, both featuring soldiers in the ranks of Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon. One involves Claudio and Hero, daughter of Leonato, Governor of the city; the other involves Benedick and Hero's cousin Beatrice (a 'protofeminist'). Ends in the marriage of Beatrice and Benedick		Much Ado about Nothing
Dogberry, the "self-satisfied night constable" with an inflated view of his own importance
Subtitled The Moor of Venice		Othello
"the green–eyed monster" is a description of jealousy, from
"That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet"		Romeo & Juliet
Only Shakespeare play with an animal in the title		Taming of the Shrew
Begins with an "induction", in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Christopher Sly into thinking that the play is for his benefit
Gremio (one of Bianca's suitors), Grumio (Petruchio's servant) and "A Pedant" appear in
Ferdinand and Miranda are young lovers in		The Tempest
The spirit Ariel appears in
The song that begins "Where the bee sucks, there suck I" appears (sung by Ariel) in
"O brave new world, That has such people in't" (spoken by Miranda)
Subtitled What You Will		Twelfth Night
"If music be the food of love, play on". First line of
Set in Illyria (which is actually an ancient term for part of the Balkan peninsula, to the north of the Adriatic Sea)
Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek appear in
Twins Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked together in
Shakespeare calls for a dog in		The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Who is Sylvia, what is she? is a song by Schubert, set to a serenade from
Silvia (daughter of the Duke of Milan) and Julia are beloved by the respective title characters, in
Polixenes, King of Bohemia, and his son Florizel, are characters in		The Winter's Tale
Leontes and Hermione, King and Queen of Sicily, and their daughter Perdita (who lives as a shepherd girl in Bohemia, unaware of her royal lineage) are characters in
A statue comes to life at the end of
Includes the stage direction "Exit pursued by a bear"
Set in the kingdoms of Sicily and Bohemia
The Delphic Oracle is called upon to bear witness to the fidelity of the Queen of Sicily, in

Eponymous Characters

"Frailty, thy name is woman!"		Hamlet
"The rest is silence" (dying words)
"Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day"
"I am as constant as the Northern Star"		Julius Caesar
"Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war"
"Let me have men about me that are fat"
Dies before the end of Act III
"My salad days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood..."		Cleopatra
Cognomen given to Gaius Marcius, a legendary Roman warrior, in recognition of his exceptional valour in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli; he was subsequently exiled from Rome and murdered at the instigation of the Volscian general Aufidius		Coriolanus
Described (in the Dramatis Personae) as King of Britain		Cymbeline
Cloten (whose mother is named in the Dramatis Personae simply as 'Queen') is the unpleasant stepson of
Suggests The Mousetrap as the title of a 'play within the play', which is actually called The Murder of Gonzago		Hamlet
Goneril, Regan and Cordelia are the three daughters of		King Lear
"I am a man more sinned against than sinning"
Thane of Glamis		Macbeth
Mistress Page and Mistress Ford are (Mistress Quickly is servant to another character)		The Merry Wives of Windsor
Suffocates his wife (Desdemona), in the mistaken belief that she has been unfaithful		Othello
Says of himself that he "loved not wisely but too well"
"A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"		Richard III
"How my achievements mock me!"		Troilus
Valentine and Proteus are		The Two Gentlemen of Verona

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23