But these, if they were ever written, are lost. In the last few
years of his life he wrote little or nothing. Thus the number of
his writing years was not more than twenty to twenty-five, but in
that time he wrote thirty-seven plays, two long poems, and a
hundred and fifty-six sonnets. At one time he must have written
two plays every year. And when you come to know these plays well
you will wonder at the greatness of the task.

Shakespeare writes his plays sometimes in rime, sometimes in
blank verse, sometimes in prose, at times using all these in one
play. In this he showed how free he was from rules. For, until
he wrote, plays had been written in rime or blank verse only.

For the sake of convenience Shakespeare's plays have been divided
into histories, tragedies and comedies. But it is not always
easy to draw the line and decide to which class a play belongs.
They are like life. Life is not all laughter, nor is it all
tears. Neither are Shakespeare's comedies all laughter, and some
of his tragedies would seem at times to be too deep for tears,
full only of fierce, dark sorrow--and yet there is laughter in
them too.

Besides being divided into histories, tragedies and comedies they
have been divided in another way, into three periods of time.
The first was when Shakespeare was trying his hand, when he was
brimming over with the joy of the new full life of London. The
second was when some dark sorrow lay over his life, we know not
what, when the pain and mystery and the irony of living seems to
strike him hard. Then he wrote his great tragedies. The third
was when he had gained peace again, when life seemed to flow