Description
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare typically refers to a collection of Shakespeare's plays, sonnets, and other poems. The two-volume format you mentioned likely separates Shakespeare's Plays and Poems into distinct books. Here’s an overview of what these volumes might contain:
Volume 1: Plays
This volume would include all 39 of Shakespeare’s plays, traditionally categorized as:
- Comedies (e.g., A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, The Tempest)
- Tragedies (e.g., Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear)
- Histories (e.g., Henry IV, Richard III)
Volume 2: Poems
This would include Shakespeare’s poetic works, notably:
- Sonnets: The collection of 154 sonnets, exploring themes like love, beauty, time, and mortality.
- Narrative Poems: Longer works like Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.
- Other shorter poems like The Phoenix and the Turtle.