A Timeline

1558 Elizabeth I ascends the throne.

1564 William Shakespeare born in Stratford.

1576 Actor James Burbage builds the first theatre in London.

1582 Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway.

1583 Daughter Susanna born.

1585 Twins Hamnet and Judith born.

1590 Love’s Labour’s Lost

1591The Comedy of Errors

1592 Plague closes London theatres until 1594/Shakespeare enlists as an actor with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men

1593 Romeo and Juliet

1594Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1595The Merchant of Venice

1596 Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, dies/The Taming of the Shrew.

1597 Shakespeare buys New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, for £60.

1598 The publication of Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare’s first play to be published with his name.

1599 The Globe theatre is built. Shakespeare takes a one-tenth share in it. Julius Caesar, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing.

1600As You Like It, Twelfth Night

1602Hamlet

1603 Death of Elizabeth I and accession of James I/Shakespeare’s company is granted a royal patent by James.

1605King Lear

1606Macbeth

1607 Marriage of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna/Antony and Cleopatra.

1608 Shakespeare’s first grandchild, Elizabeth, is christened; He takes a one-seventh share in the Blackfriars Theatre.

1609 The Sonnets published.

1611The Tempest (Shakespeare’s final play)

1616 Death of William Shakespeare in Stratford.

1623 A collection of all Shakespeare’s plays is printed (the First Folio).

© John Good