Many, if not most of the plays from the English renaissance have been lost. Time can be unkind to materials as fragile as paper and ink, and during Shakespeare's lifetime and for about a century after his death, plays - even his-were not considered to be "art," or worth much trouble.

A number of plays now known now only by their titles have been chalked up to Shakespeare. Two of them have pretty good claims to the honor: Love's Labour's Won (presumably a sequel to Love's Labour's Lost) and Cardenio.

Another set of plays still exist, but were printed anonymously or with dubious ascriptions to Shakespeare. These are known as the Shakespeare Apocrypha (like the books excluded from the Bible.)