--- description: Ahead of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death on April 23, take a look back through his 38 histories, tragedies and comedies title: Vote for the Best (and Worst) Shakespeare Plays image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Vote for the Best (and Worst) Shakespeare Plays  by [Julie Shapiro](/author/julie-shapiro/)  ## Julie Shapiro Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 18, 2016 6:00 PM CUT  by [Julie Shapiro](/author/julie-shapiro/)  ## Julie Shapiro Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 18, 2016 6:00 PM CUT All the world’s a stage—and [William Shakespeare ](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/william-shakespeare "undefined")masterfully channeled this innate drama into his more than three-dozen plays. More than four centuries after he [first created the works](http://time.com/4284917/shakespeares-first-folio-found-in-scotland/ "undefined") that made him famous, Shakespeare remains the[ most-read writer on college campuses](http://time.com/4234719/college-textbooks-female-writers "undefined"), the subject of [ongoing historical inquiry](http://time.com/3990305/william-shakespeare-cannabis-marijuana-high/ "undefined") and the source of much struggle for high-schoolers first unraveling his [Elizabethan prose ](http://time.com/4285251/swiftkey-shakespeare-william-400th-birthday "undefined")to discover the wit within. Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death on April 23, take a look back through his plays and let us know which ones you liked best—and which ones you thought were something rotten. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4285247/shakespeare-anniversary-best-worst-plays/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4285247/shakespeare-anniversary-best-worst-plays/"},"headline":"Vote for the Best (and Worst) Shakespeare Plays","datePublished":"2016-04-18T18:00:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:27:31.637Z","description":"Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death","url":"https://time.com/4285247/shakespeare-anniversary-best-worst-plays/","keywords":["Books","Theater","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julie Shapiro","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/julie-shapiro/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4285247/shakespeare-anniversary-best-worst-plays/","name":"Vote for the Best (and Worst) Shakespeare Plays"}}]}] ```