Does Shakespeare write books in a series?

Answer 1

First of all, Shakespeare has been dead for nearly 400 years so he doesn't write anything any more. Secondly, he did not write very many things with the intention that they should be published as books. He wrote the long poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece to be published in book form. He wrote his sonnets for friends; they were not meant to be published although they were published in his lifetime. However, the work that he is most famous for, his plays, were not meant to be read at all. They were meant to be watched in a theatre, after Mr. Shakespeare and his partners were paid the admission charge.

The plays were like TV shows or movies--you have probably watched a few, but how many times have you read the scripts? Probably never, because only the actors and production people get to see them.

Rather like movies, however, sometimes the plays had sequels. Early in his playwriting career, Shakespeare wrote a play about events in the reign of Henry VI. The play was well-received so he wrote two more plays about Henry VI and another one which was a sequel to the three plays, called Richard III. Together Henry VI Parts I, II and III and Richard III form a unit. Later, rather like Star Wars, he set out to write the prequels, which would have been three plays, Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V. However, when Henry IV came out, one of the characters (Sir John Falstaff) was so popular that Shakespeare wrote a sequel (Henry IV Part II), making the prequel four plays long. He also wrote a spinoff play called Merry Wives of Windsor, all about Falstaff.

The end result was a series of eight plays describing English history from Richard II to Richard III (1397 to 1485)

Shakespeare also wrote a sequel to his Roman historical play, Julius Caesar, called Antony and Cleopatra, and there is a lost play called Love's Labour's Won, which sounds like it is probably a sequel to his play Love's Labour's Won.