Cymbeline and the Question of Genre

Abstract

Most of us can visualize the table of contents from the First Folio, with its list of “Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies.” What is most obvious about it are the clearly demarcated groupings, with thick black-lined boxes separating each genre. What is not so quickly apparent is the number of times the folio stands in contrast with the various quarto titles:

The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York and the Good King Henry the Sixth (3 Henry VI)

The Tragedy of Richard III

The Tragedy of Richard II

The Comical History of the Merchant of Venice, or Otherwise Called the Jew of Venice

The History of King Lear