Every Shakespeare Play Ranked: From Verona to Henry IV – The Ultimate Guide to Seeing (or Skipping) Each Work

The Guardian has published a comprehensive ranking of every Shakespeare play, offering readers a fresh perspective on the Bard’s complete works as part of its ongoing cultural coverage.

The article, titled “To see or not to see? Every single Shakespeare play – ranked!”, evaluates all 39 plays generally attributed to Shakespeare, including collaborations and works omitted from the First Folio, such as The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII.

According to the ranking, The Two Noble Kinsmen is identified as Shakespeare’s final work, written in collaboration with John Fletcher. The play, based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale, features two Theban cousins who fall for the same woman and includes lines noted for their Shakespearean quality, such as “give us the bones / Of our dead kings that we may chapel them.”

The Guardian’s list places Henry VIII near the bottom of the ranking, describing it as dull despite its focus on one of the most eventful periods in British history. Similarly, Henry IV Part 2 is critiqued for its tedious pacing, with only the final scene between Hal and Bolingbroke and Kate Percy’s monologue singled out as worthwhile.

Other low-ranked plays include All’s Well That Ends Well and Timon of Athens, the latter noted for its bleak tone and limited appeal compared to Shakespeare’s more celebrated tragedies and comedies.

In contrast, the ranking highlights several works for their enduring strength. While the full order is not detailed in the source, references in related coverage suggest that plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Tempest are likely ranked highly due to their balance of accessibility, thematic depth, and stageworthiness.

The article emphasizes that such rankings are inherently subjective but serve to encourage engagement with Shakespeare’s less-performed works. It notes that early plays like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, though often overlooked, contain early hints of Shakespeare’s growing skill, including the line “The uncertain glory of an April day.”

The Guardian’s feature invites readers to reconsider which plays deserve more attention, whether for their poetic merit, historical significance, or overlooked dramatic power, reinforcing the idea that Shakespeare’s canon remains open to reinterpretation.