William Shakespeare/Timelines

• 1564 April 26: William, son of John and Mary Shakespeare, baptized in Stratford-on-Avon (the tradition that he was born on the 23rd seems not to have been traced before the 18th century)
• 1582 November: Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway
• 1583 May 26: their daughter Susanna baptized
• 1585 February 2: twins Hamnet and Judith baptized
• 1592 March 3: performance of a play noted by a diarist, identified only as Henry VI; generally believed to be Part I; no record of that subtitle before appearance in First Folio (1623); may well be collaboration
• 1594: anonymous publication of The Taming of a Shrew; relation to Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew disputed
• ,,: anonymous publication of The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster; authorship disputed, but it is agreed that Shakespeare revised this as Henry VI Part II
• ,,: publication of Titus Andronicus
• ,, December 28: performance of The Comedy of Errors
• 1595: anonymous publication of The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke; authorship disputed, but it is agreed that Shakespeare revised this as Henry VI Part III
• ,, December 9: performance of Richard II
• 1596: anonymous publication of Edward III, now believed to include some material by Shakespeare
• ,, August 11: Hamnet buried
• 1597: publication of Richard II, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet
• ,, Christmas: performance of Love's Labour's Lost
• 1598: publication of Love's Labour's Lost, Henry IV Part I
• ,,: Palladis Tamia, book by Francis Meres, mentions 12 plays as by Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, Love's Labours Lost, Love Labours Won (another ealy source mentions this, but no play has survived under this title), Midsummer Night's Dream, and Merchant of Venice, Richard II, Richard III, Henry the IV (this is actually two plays), King John, Titus Andronicus, and Romeo and Juliet
• 1600: publication of Much Ado about Nothing, Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, Henry IV Part II, Henry V
• ,,: As You Like It registered at Stationers' Hall
• 1602 February 2: performance of Twelfth Night
• ,,: publication of The Merry Wives of Windsor
• 1603 February 7: Troilus and Cressida entered in Stationers' Register, but not published
• 1604 December 26: performance of Measure for Measure
• 1608: publication of George Wilkins' "novelization" of Pericles, Prince of Tyre
• 1609: publication of Pericles under Shakespeare's name; it is now generally believed that Wilkins wrote the first two acts, then Shakespeare the other three
• ,,: publication of Troilus and Cressida
• 1611 May 11: performance of The Winter's Tale mentioned in diary of Simon Forman
• ,, November 1: performance of The Tempest
• 1613 June 29: performance of All Is True, generally believed to be the play appearing in the First Folio (1623) as Henry VIII; now believed to be a collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher
• 1616 April 23: Shakespeare died (date given on his monument)
• 1623: publication of Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, commonly called the First Folio, comprising 36 plays, about half not previously published
• 1634: publication of The Two Noble Kinsmen, by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare (title page attribution now generally accepted)
• 1670: death of Shakespeare's last surviving descendant