Shakespeare was very casual about the publication of his works, apparently having little interest in saving his writings. The 1623 Folio contains most of Shakespeare's plays, but they were not published in chronological order and do not include the dates of their original composition. Instead, the best scholars can do is to examine the Quarto editions, published during Shakespeare's life, or references from contemporary letters or diaries and try to determine from those dates the possible timeframe for a play's first performance. After careful research, scholars have assigned probable dates of composition to Shakespeare's work, and those dates, used by the editors of the Oxford Shakespeare and adopted by other editors, including the editors of the Norton Shakespeare, will be used in the following discussion of the texts' probable dates of composition. In general, the plays before 1600 were histories and romantic comedies. After 1600, tragedies became the focus of Shakespeare's work, while the problem-comedies, such as Measure for Measure, were darker in content, exploring serious social and moral problems.
The first play written by Shakespeare is thought to be Two Gentlemen of Verona, first published in the 1623 Folio, but thought to have been composed in 1590–1591. The Taming of the Shrew was also first published in the 1623 Folio, but may have been written in 1592 or earlier. Next was The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (The Second Part of Henry VI), probably composed about 1594, followed by Richard Duke of York (3 Henry VI), first printed in 1595.
The first of Shakespeare's Latin plays followed; the revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus was first printed in 1594. The First Part of Henry the Sixth is often attributed to multiple authors and there are no printed editions prior to the 1623 Folio, but the play is thought to have been performed for the first time in 1594–1595. This is followed by The Tragedy of King Richard the Third, with a first printing in 1597, but probably first performed in 1592–1593.
