The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1597, after which controversy over the original naming of Falstaff (he was originally the historic Sir John Oldcastle, which presumably did not please Oldcastle's descendants) forced Shakespeare to rename the character. It appears that the joke in V,v,85–90 is that Oldcastle/Falstaff incriminates himself by calling out the first letter of his name, "O, O, O!," when his fingertips are singed with candles—which of course works for "Oldcastle" but not "Falstaff." There is also the "castle" reference in IV,v,6. 18 January 1602 was the date the play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company. The first quarto was
A Yorkshire Tragedy A Yorkshire Tragedy A Yorkshire Tragedy is an early Jacobean era stage play, a domestic tragedy printed in 1608. The play was originally assigned to William Shakespeare, though the modern critical consensus rejects this attribution, favouring Thomas Middleton. "A Yorkshire Tragedy" was entered into the Stationers' Register on 2 May 1608; the entry assigns the play to "Wylliam Shakespere." The play was published soon after, in a quarto issued by bookseller Thomas Pavier, who had published "Sir John Oldcastle," another play of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, in 1600. The play was reprinted in 1619, as part of William Jaggard's False Folio.