Shakespearean Timeline

 DATE

 EVENT
1564 Shakespeare born in Stratford-upon-Avon, eldest son of John
Shakespeare and Mary Arden
1568 John Shakespeare becomes Bailiff of Stratford
1566 Red Lion Playhouse opens
1567 Richard Burbage, the greatest tragedian of the age, born
1576 The Theatre opens
1577

The Curtain, a rival theatre opens; Blackfriars Theatre opens

1582 Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway of Shottery
1583 Birth of daughter Susanna; the Queen's Company is formed in London
1585 Birth of Shakespeare's children: twins, Judith and Hamnet
1586

Shakespeare leaves Stratford; Mary Queen of Scots tried for treason

1587

Mary Queen of Scots executed; Rose playhouse opens; Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy; Marlowe,Tamburlaine 1 and 2

c1591 Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew
c1592 Marlowe; Doctor Faustus; Edward II
c1594 Shakespeare becomes founding member of Lord Chamberlain's Men
c1595 Romeo and Juliet; Swan Theatre built
1596 Hamnet Shakespeare dies, at age 11
c1599 Globe theatre opens; Julius Caesar
1600 Fortune Theatre built; Hamlet
1601 Shakespeare's father dies
1603 Lord Chamberlain's Men become The Kings Men; Queen Elizabeth dies and is succeeded by James I
1605 King Lear; Timon of Athens; Othello
1606 Macbeth; Antony and Cleopatra
c1608 Coriolanus; Shakespeare's mother dies
1609 Publication of the Sonnets; The Tempest; The Winter's Tale
1610 Ben Johnson, The Alchemist
1614 Webster, The Duchess of Malfi; Shakespeare probably retires from London to Stratford
1616 Shakespeare dies in Stratford; Buried in Holy Trinity Church
1623 Publication of the First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays; death of Shakespeare's widow, Anne

 

Taken from The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearian Tragedy edited by Claire McEachern