Timeline
| Year | Personal | Plays | Other Events |
| 1564 |
Shakespeare Born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden
Date is unknown, but tradition gives it as April 23, 1564 |
Christopher Marlowe born
Galileo Galilei born John Calvin dies |
|
| 1565-1581 |
Shakespeare attends local grammar school beginning in 1571. His father is
bailiff.
1575 Shakespeare probably sees Queen Elizabeth's procession at Kenilworth |
1567(?) Richard Burbage, the great Elizabethan actor who will play all
Shakespeare's great parts is born
1572 John Donne & Ben Jonson born 1576 James Burbage (father of Richard) begins building TheTheatre, the first for purpose theater in London 1577 The Curtain opens 1577 Holinshed Chronicles published , Shakespeare's primary source for English history 1579 John Fletcher born |
|
| 1582 |
Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway
He is 18, she is 26 and about 4 mos. pregnant. |
||
| 1583 |
Birth of Susanna only months after wedding
Formation of The Queen's Company |
||
| 1585 | Judith and Hamnet born | 1586 Mary Queen of Scots tried for treason | |
|
1585(?)-1592
The Dark Years |
Leaves Stratford
Establishment in London as an actor/playwright Greene's review calls him an "upstart crow" |
Henry VI, 1,2,3 (1591-1592)
The Comedy of Errors Titus Andronicus The Taming of the Shrew Richard III |
1587 Mary Queen of Scots executed
1587 Marlowe's Tamburlain e 1588 Spanish Armada 1588 Marlowe's Dr. Faustus 1590 Spenser's Faerie Queen (1-3) |
| 1593 | Henry Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton is his patron- possibly the youth of the Sonnets |
1593
Venus and Adonis
Begins writing the Sonnets, probably completed by c.1597 or earlier Two Gentlemen of Verona |
1593-94 Theaters closed by plague
1593 Marlowe dies |
| 1594 |
Founding member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men
The Lord Chamberlain's Men will use The Theatre until 1596 |
1594
The Rape of Lucrece
Love's Labour's Lost |
|
| 1595-1596 |
Shakespeare known as a leading London playwright.
1596 John Shakespeare obtains a coat of arms
|
Midsummer Night's Dream
Romeo and Juliet Richard II King John Merry Wives of Windsor Merchant of Venice (1596-97) Henry IV part I (1596-97) |
|
| 1597-1599 |
Purchases New Place
1598-1599 The Globe Theater is built using pieces of The Theatre.
Shakespeare is a shareholder
Shakespeare performs in Jonson's Every Man in his Humour |
Henry IV part 2
As You Like It Much Ado About Nothing Henry V Julius Caesar |
1598 Phillip II of Spain dies
1599 Edmund Spenser dies |
| 1600-1608 |
1601 Shakespeare's father dies
1603 The Lord Chamberlain's Men become The King's Men
1607 Susanna Shakespeare marries Dr. John Hall Hamlet and Richard III performed on board the Dragon off the coast of Africa! 1608 The King's Men begin playing at the Blackfriars 1608 Shakespeare's mother dies |
Twelfth Night
Hamlet Troilus & Cressida Alls Well That Ends Well Measure for Measure Twelfth Night Othello King Lear Macbeth Antony and Clepatra Coriolanus Timon of Athens, Pericles |
1601 Essex rebels against Elizabeth and is executed
1603 Elizabeth dies, James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England
1605 The Gunpowder Plot
1606 Ben Jonson's Volpone 1607 The founding of JamestownPlague closes theatres from 1608-1610 |
| 1609-1611 | Othello performed on tour at Oxford college |
Cymbeline
The Winter's Tale The Tempest |
|
| 1612-1623 |
1613 Globe burns during
Henry VIII
performance
Globe rebuilt with tile roof in 1614
Shakespeare probably retires to Stratford
1616 Judith Shakespeare married Thomas Quiney March 1616 Shakespeare revises his will April 23, 1616 Shakespeare dies from "bad herring" and is burried at Holy Trinity Church 1623 Anne Hathaway dies |
Henry VIII
The Two Noble Kinsmen Cardenio (lost) |
1612 Henry Prince of Wales dies
1613 Francis Bacon becomes attorney general 1614 Webster's Duchess of Malfi 1614 Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World 1623 Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio |