In this paper I shall consider, first, some passages from Shakespearean plays in which ideas and claims, hopes and fears, about the endings and the possible new beginnings of ages, of empires, and of modes of human experience are voiced and posed for the interpretation of characters and audiences. I then review three more recent plays, of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which I take to offer a useful resource for a comparative and contextual understanding of these themes as they have proved fruitful for drama in general. In conclusion I suggest features in which Shakespeare's treatment of these themes is distinct, emotionally powerful and dramatically memorable.

As a kind of epigraph I start with a passage from notes written in 1939 by Brecht to introduce his play Galileo:

First, some very general considerations. Any dramatic text, insofar as it justifies, in terms of thematic and narrative economy, its own closure, invites interpretation in terms of the ends and/or endings sought or achieved by its personalised actants – its characters, or some small distinct group of them. That is, dramas – Shakespeare's among others – regularly deploy projects embraced, initially or at some later point, by a protagonist, and generating, from other characters, assistance or opposition. Such projects typically reach some conclusion around a play's ending – the kinds of conclusion varying in line with the generic commitments of the particular play.

Byron might have added that all Shakespearean English Histories are ended by a seemingly stable establishment of a monarchic regime – yet here too, in some cases (one thinks of 2 Henry VI) faith would be requisite if the claim were to hold good.