William Shakespeare derived the plots of his plays from a variety of sources.
| Title | Year | Genre | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| All's Well That Ends Well | 1604-1605 | comedy or problem play | Boccaccio's Decameron, Tale 3.9, trans. in William Painter's Palace of Pleasure[1] |
| Antony and Cleopatra | 1606-1607 | tragedy | Plutarch's Parallel Lives, trans. Thomas North |
| As You Like It | 1599-1600 | comedy | Thomas Lodge's Rosalind, Euphues' Golden Legacy, and indirectly The Tale of Gamelyn |
| Coriolanus | 1608-09 | tragedy | Plutarch's Parallel Lives, trans. Thomas North, one speech from William Camden's Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine; possibly Livy's Ab urbe condita, trans. Philemon Holland |
| The Comedy of Errors | 1592-1594 | comedy | Plautus's Menaechmi, with elements from Amphitryon and Apollonius of Tyre |
| Cymbeline | 1609-1611 | comedy or romance | Holinshed's Chronicles, loose adaptation with elements original and adapted from Decameron 2.9 |
References
edit- ^ F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; p. 29.
