Note: Titles in bold are discussed in this four-volume set. Dates for the plays (e.g., 1593
for Richard III and The Comedy of Errors) indicate probable year of first performance.
1558 Elizabeth I becomes queen of England (November 17).
1564 William Shakespeare born (ca. April 23).
1576 The Theatre (Shoreditch), built by James Burbage, opens. The Theatre is
regarded as the first true London playhouse.
1582 Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway (ca. December 1).
1583 Shakespeare’s elder daughter, Susannah, born (ca. May 23).
1585 Shakespeare’s fraternal twins, Judith and Hamnet/Hamlet, born (ca.
January 31).
1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada (July 31–August 8).
1589 Shakespeare probably in London, begins writing 1 Henry VI (published
in 1623).
1590–1591 2, 3 Henry VI written. The former first published as The First Part of the
Contention betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (1594),
the latter as The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York (1595).
1592 Robert Greene attacks Shakespeare in A Groatsworth of Witte. This is the
first printed reference to Shakespeare as dramatist.
Sir Thomas More (first printed in 1844).
1593 Richard III (first published in 1597).
Venus and Adonis published.
The Comedy of Errors (first published in 1623).
Shakespeare begins writing his sonnets.
1594 The Rape of Lucrece published.
Titus Andronicus (first published in 1594).
A Shakespeare Chronology
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