Part I. First explorations in history and comedy: Henry VI to Love's Labour's Lost: The chronicle plays: an overview ; The first tetralogy ; Shakespeare's early comedies ; Shakespeare's narrative poems ; Interlude: Shakespeare and dialogue

Part II. Mid-Elizabethan accomplishments: King John to Henry V: Shakespeare and the Mid-Elizabethan nineties ; The second tetralogy

Part III. Climax of the Elizabethan decade: Much Ado About Nothing to Hamlet: The high comedies of the late 1590s ; Hamlet.