TIMELINE

here is no record of the first performances of any of Shakespeare’s plays. Scholars use references within the plays, diaries, and letters to determine roughly the order in which they were written.

1558

  Elizabeth I becomes queen of England.

1564

  William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-upon-Avon in England.

1571

  Shakespeare (probably) starts school around age seven.

1578–1582

  The first “lost years.” No one knows much about Shakespeare’s life during this time.

1582

  Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway.

1583

  Shakespeare’s first child, Susanna, is born.

1585

  Anne Hathaway gives birth to twins: son, Hamnet, and daughter, Judith.

  Sir Walter Raleigh sends a new expedition to Virginia, then an English settlement in America.

  Queen Elizabeth breaks with Spain and allies with Dutch Protestant forces. In response, Spain’s Philip II seizes all English ships in Spanish ports.

1585–1592

  The second period of “lost years.” At some point Shakespeare leaves Stratford to work as a playwright and actor in London.

1586

  Mary Queen of Scots is found guilty of conspiring to assassinate her cousin, Elizabeth I.

1587

  Mary Queen of Scots is executed.

  Philip II of Spain prepares a fleet to invade England.

1588

  The “invincible” Spanish Armada, a fleet of 130 ships, sails to attack England. A great storm sinks many of the ships, which helps the English defeat the Spanish forces.

  Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus is performed by the Admiral’s Men. Born the same year as Shakespeare, Marlowe was one of the most successful playwrights of his day.

1590

  The bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, reaches Rome.

1592

  Shakespeare’s popular trilogy Henry VI, Part I, Part II, and Part III is thought to be performed.

1593

  London theaters are closed due to an outbreak of bubonic plague.

  Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare’s first long, published poem, is printed.

  Shakespeare begins what will become a collection of 154 sonnets.

  Playwright Christopher Marlowe is killed in a tavern brawl at the age of twenty-nine.

1594

  London theaters reopen.

  The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a theater troupe, is founded. Its members include actor Richard Burbage and William Shakespeare.

1595

  Spain attacks England’s coast, burning the town of Penzance.

  Around this time, Shakespeare is thought to have written Love’s Labour’s Lost, King John, Richard II, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet.

1596

  Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, dies at the age of eleven.

1597

  Shakespeare buys the New Place in Stratford. Around this time, he is thought to have written The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV, Part I.

  Spain’s King Philip II sends a second armada to attack England. Once again a storm scatters the ships.

1598

  Shakespeare is listed as an actor in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humor.

  King Philip II dies.

1599

  The Lord Chamberlain’s Men build the Globe, a wooden theater in London. Julius Caesar is performed there on September 21.

1600–1601

  Shakespeare’s father dies.

  Shakespeare writes Hamlet.

  The earl of Essex rebels against Elizabeth I and is executed for treason. Shakespeare’s patron, the Earl of Southampton, takes part in the rebellion but is spared.

1603

  Elizabeth I dies. King James ascends the throne. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men change their name to the King’s Men.

1605

  Shakespeare writes King Lear, as well as Macbeth, a play set in Scotland in honor of the king’s ancestry.

1608

  The King’s Men begin performing at Blackfriars, an indoor theater in London.

  The plague returns, closing all of London’s theaters until early 1610.

1609

  Publisher Thomas Thorpe prints a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

1610

  Around this time, Shakespeare leaves London and moves back to Stratford.

1612–1613

  Shakespeare writes his final plays, including Henry VIII and the now-lost Cardenio.

1613

  The Globe catches fire and burns to the ground.

1614

  The Globe reopens.

1616

  William Shakespeare dies.

1623

  John Heminges and Henry Condell, Shakespeare’s former colleagues in the King’s Men, collect thirty-six of Shakespeare’s plays and publish them as the First Folio.