Why this topic, why these plays
The plays gathered under "History" share a recurring thematic preoccupation that, across 39 different scripts in our archive, has produced a remarkable variety of theatrical solutions. Reading them in proximity to one another is one of the more useful comparative exercises a student of dramatic writing can do, because the contrasts in tone, structure, and resolution show how much choice a playwright really has, even when the underlying subject is the same. The list below collects the works in our library that catalogue indexers identified with this subject; in some cases the connection is overt and in others oblique, but in every case the thematic affinity is real and worth pursuing.
All plays on this topic (39)
- The Duke of Gandia — by Algernon Charles Swinburne
- Peace — by Aristophanes
- Lysistrata — by Aristophanes
- The Poetaster — by Ben Jonson
- Sejanus: His Fall — by Ben Jonson
- The Devil's Disciple — by Bernard Shaw
- Saint Joan — by Bernard Shaw
- Two Men of Sandy Bar: A Drama — by Bret Harte
- Plays and Puritans — by Charles Kingsley
- Peg Woffington — by Charles Reade
- Edward the Second — by Christopher Marlowe
- Cyrano de Bergerac — by Edmond Rostand
- Cyrano de Bergerac: An Heroic Comedy in Five Acts — by Edmond Rostand
- The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield — by Edward Robins
- Fiesco; or, the Genoese Conspiracy: A Tragedy — by Friedrich Schiller
- Mary Stuart: A Tragedy — by Friedrich Schiller
- The Maid of Orleans: A Tragedy — by Friedrich Schiller
- All for Love; Or, The World Well Lost: A Tragedy — by John Dryden
- 1601: Conversation as it was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors — by Mark Twain
- The School for Scandal — by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- Laura Secord, the heroine of 1812: A Drama; and Other Poems — by Sarah Anne Curzon
- Count Julian — by Walter Savage Landor
- Citation and Examination of William Shakspeare, Euseby Treen, Joseph Carnaby, and Silas Gough, Clerk — by Walter Savage Landor
- King Henry VI, Part 1 — by William Shakespeare
- King Henry VI, Part 2 — by William Shakespeare
- King Henry VI, Part 3 — by William Shakespeare
- King Richard III — by William Shakespeare
- Titus Andronicus — by William Shakespeare
- King John — by William Shakespeare
- King Richard II — by William Shakespeare
- King Henry IV, Part 1 — by William Shakespeare
- King Henry IV, Part 2 — by William Shakespeare
- King Henry V — by William Shakespeare
- Julius Caesar — by William Shakespeare
- Antony and Cleopatra — by William Shakespeare
- Cymbeline — by William Shakespeare
- King Henry VIII — by William Shakespeare
- King Henry V Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre — by William Shakespeare
- The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar — by William Shakespeare