From: jwkenne@attglobal.net   
      
   On 2014-12-04 22:13:19 +0000, William Vetter said:   
      
   > Brian M. Scott presented the following explanation :   
   >> On Sat, 29 Nov 2014 18:25:00 -0500, William Vetter   
   >>  wrote in   
   >>  in   
   >> rec.arts.sf.composition:   
   >>   
   >>> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote :   
   >>   
   >>>> On 11/29/14, 4:54 PM, William Vetter wrote:   
   >>   
   >> [...]   
   >>   
   >>>>> Do you think _Romeo and Juliet_ sucks?   
   >>   
   >>>> Yep. As RAH said, "Even the immortal Will had his   
   >>>> off-days."   
   >>   
   >>> Unless I'm mistaken, he wrote more tradgedies than   
   >>> comedies.   
   >>   
   >> Nope: 12 tragedies, 11 histories, 13 comedies   
   >   
   > I looked this up.  It seems there are 18 comedies, and 10 each of the   
   > others, although I think that all histories except Henry IV have sad   
   > endings.  So happy vs. sad endings are about aaaaequal.   
      
   Unquestioned comedies:   
    1. As You Like It   
    2. The Comedy of Errors   
    3. Love's Labor's Lost   
    4. The Merchant of Venice   
    5. The Merry Wives of Windsor   
    6. A Midsummer Night's Dream   
    7. Much Ado about Nothing   
    8. The Taming of the Shrew   
    9. The Two Gentlemen of Verona   
   10. Twelfth Night   
      
   Unquestioned tragedies:   
    1. Antony and Cleopatra   
    2. Coriolanus   
    3. Hamlet   
    4. Julius Caesar   
    5. King Lear   
    6. Macbeth   
    7. Othello   
    8. Romeo and Juliet   
    9. Titus Andronicus§   
   10. Troilus and Cressida   
      
   Histories:   
    1. King John   
    2. Edward III*†   
    3. Richard II   
    4. Henry IV part 1   
    5. Henry IV part 2   
    6. Henry V   
    7. Henry VI part 1   
    8. Henry VI part 2   
    9. Henry VI part 3   
   10. Richard III   
   11. Henry VIII§   
   12. Sir Thomas More*†   
      
   Usually classed as "Romances":   
    1. Cardenio§†‡   
    2. Cymbeline   
    3. Pericles§†   
    4. The Tempest   
    5. The Two Noble Kinsmen§†   
    6. The Winter's Tale   
      
   "Problem plays":   
    1. All's Well that Ends Well   
    2. Measure for Measure   
    3. Timon of Athens   
      
   Total: 41   
      
   * Mostly not Shakespeare   
   § Only about half Shakespeare   
   † Not in the First Folio   
   ‡ Attested, but lost. Probably survives in part in Lewis Theobald's   
     "Double Falshood" of 1727   
      
   The histories are about an even mix of happy endings, tragic endings,   
   and in between.   
      
   --   
   John W Kennedy   
   "The grand art mastered the thudding hammer of Thor   
   And the heart of our lord Taliessin determined the war."   
     -- Charles Williams.  "Mount Badon"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)