Year |
Life |
Works1 |
Events & Publications2 |
1564 |
Shakespeare Born |
|
Christopher Marlowe born John Hawkins second voyage to New World Galileo Galilei born John
Calvin dies The Peace of Troyes |
1565-1581 |
1567(?) Richard Burbage, the greatest tragedian of the age, who would eventually portray Hamlet,
Lear, Othello and all Shakespeare's great parts born
1576 James Burbage (father of Richard) obtains a 21 year lease and permission to build The Theatre in Shoreditch 1577
The Curtain, a rival theater near The Theatre, opens in Finbury |
|
1565 Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses (1-4) 1566 Gascoigne's The Supposes 1567
Thomas Nashe born 1571 Tirso de Molina born 1572 Thomas Dekker born 1572 John Donne & Ben Jonson born 1577
Holinshed publishes The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, Shakespeare's primary source for the history
plays 1579 John Fletcher born 1580 Thomas Middleton born 1580 Montaigne's Essais published |
1582 |
Shakespeare Married |
|
Hakluyt's Dievers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America |
1583 |
Birth of daughter Susanna The Queen's Company is formed in London |
|
|
1585 |
Birth of twins, Judith and Hamnet |
|
1586 Mary Queen of Scots tried for treason |
1587(?)-1592 |
Departure from Stratford Establishment in London as an actor/playwright |
The Comedy of Errors Titus Andronicus The Taming of the Shrew Henry VI, 1,2,3 Richard
III |
1587 Mary Queen of Scots executed 1587 Marlowe's Tamburlaine 1588 Defeat
of the Armada 1588 Greene's Pandosto 1588 Marlowe's Dr. Faustus 1590 Spenser's Faerie Queen
(1-3) 1590 Marlowe's The Jew of Malta 1591 Sidney'sAstrophil and Stella 1592 Robert Greene dies 1592
Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy |
1593 |
Preferment sought through aristocratic connections - dedicates Venus and Lucrece to Henry Wriothsley,
Earl of Southampton - 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 Love's Labour's Lost |
1593-94 Theaters closed by plague
1593 Marlowe dies |
1594 |
Founding member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men |
1594 The Rape of Lucrece |
|
1594-1596 |
The Lyrical masterpieces
Prosperity and recognition as the leading London playwright.
1596 John Shakespeare reapplies successfully for a coat of arms 1596 Hamnet Shakespeare dies at age 11 |
Midsummer Night's Dream Romeo and Juliet Richard II Merchant of Venice |
1594 Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay 1594 Marlowe's Edward II 1595
Thomas Kyd dies 1595 Sidney's An Apologia for Poetrie 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh explores the Orinoco 1596
Spenser's Faerie Queen (4-6) 1596 George Peele dies. |
1597-1599 |
Artistic Maturity
Purchases New Place, Stratford with other significant investments
1599 The Globe Theater built on Bankside from the timbers of The Theatre. Shakespeare is a shareholder and receives
about 10% of the profits |
Henry IV,1,2 The Merry Wives of Windsor As You Like It Much Ado About Nothing Henry
V Julius Caesar |
1597 Bacon's Essays, Civil and Moral 1598 Phillip II of Spain dies 1598 Francis
Meres Palladis Tamia 1598 John Florio's A World of Words (English-Italian dictionary) 1598 Ben Jonson
's Every Man in his Humour 1599 Essex sent to Ireland and fails, is arrested on return 1599 Edmund Spenser
dies |
1600-1608 |
The Period of the Great Tragedies & Problem Plays
1600 The Fortune Theater opens
1601 Shakespeare's father dies
1603 The Lord Chamberlain's Men become The King's Men who perform at court more than any other company
1607 Susanna Shakespeare married Dr. John Hall
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 Othello King Lear Macbeth Antony and Clepatra Coriolanus Timon of Athens |
1600 Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder 1600 Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday
1601 Essex rebels against Elizabeth, fails and is executed 1601 Thomas Nashe dies
1603 Elizabeth dies, James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England 1603 Sir Walter Raleigh arrested, tried and imprisoned 1603
The plagueonce again ravages London
1604 Marston's The Malcontent
1605 The Gunpowder Plot - Guy Fawkes and accomplices arrested 1605 Bacon's The Advancement of Learning
1606 Ben Jonson's Volpone
1607 Tourneur (?) The Revenger's Tragedy 1607 The founding of Jamestown |
1609-1611 |
Period of the Romances 1609 Publication of the Sonnets |
Pericles Prince of Tyre Cymbeline The Winter's Tale The Tempest |
1609 Beaumont & Fletcher The Knight of the Burning Pestle
1610 Prince Henry created Prince of Wales Ben Jonson The Alchemist |
1612-1616 |
Shakespeare probably retires from London life to Stratford Works on collaborations with John
Fletcher
1616 Judith Shakespeare married Thomas Quiney
March 1616 Shakespeare apparently ill revises his will
April 23, 1616 Shakespeare dies and is burried at Holy trinity Church, Stratford |
Henry VIII The Two Noble Kinsmen Cardenio |
1612 Henry Prince of Wales dies 1612 Webster's The White Devil
1613 Francis Bacon becomes attorney general
1614 Jonson's Bartholomew Fayre 1614 Webster's Duchess of Malfi 1614 Sir Walter Raleigh's History
of the World
1616 Francis Beaumont dies 1616 Ben Jonson's Workes published in folio
1623 Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio |