| Year | Life | Works | Events & Publications |
| 1564 | S born | Christopher Marlowe born John Hawkins' second voyage to New World Galileo Galilei born John Calvin dies The Peace of Troyes |
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| 1565-1581 | 1567(?) Richard Burbage is born. The greatest tragedian of the age, he would eventually
portray Hamlet, Lear, Othello and all Shakespeare's great parts. 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 |
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| 1582 | S married | Hakluyt's Dievers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America | |
| 1583 | Birth of daughter Susanna The Queen's Company is formed in London |
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| 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 Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy 1592 Robert Greene dies |
| 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 | 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 Sidney's An Apologia for Poetrie 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh explores the Orinoco 1595 Thomas Kyd dies 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. S 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 Francis Meres Palladis Tamia 1598 John Florio's A World of Words (English-Italian dictionary) 1598 Ben Jonson 's Every Man in his Humour 1598 Phillip II of Spain dies 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 S'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 marries Dr. John Hall 1608 The King's Men begin playing at the Blackfriars 1608 S'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 plague once 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 1610 Ben Jonson The Alchemist |
| 1612-1616 | S probably retires from London to Stratford Works on collaborations with John Fletcher 1616 Judith Shakespeare marries Thomas Quiney March 1616 S, apparently ill, revises his will April 23, 1616 S dies and is buried 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'sDuchess 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 S's First Folio |