Important Dates
1564-William Shakespeare is born
1576-The Theatre in Shoreditch, the first public playhouse in London, is built by James Burbage. The Lord Chamberlain's Men use it from 1594 to 1596.
1592-Shakespeare establishes himself as a playwright in London. Playwright Robert Greene publishes a pamphlet, complaining about the new writer's ignorance.
1595-Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet
1598-9-Shakespeare helps pay for unconstruction of The Globe, a large playhouse south of Thames. The exact date of the first performance is unknown, though some think may have been on June 21, 1599.
21 September 1599-The first recorded performance of a play at the Globe (Julius Caesar), by a Swiss visitor, Thomas Platter. Henry I and As You Like It were probably also performed in that year.
1600-Shakespeare writes Hamlet
1609-Shakespeare's sonnets are published, though many think they were written in the 1590s.
1611-Shakespeare writes The Tempest, which is known as his farewell to the stage.
1613-The Globe burns down during a performance of Henry VIII. The playhouse is immediately rebuilt on its original foundations, this time with a tiled rather than thatched roof.
1616-Shakespeare dies
1623-Shakespeare's friends from the theatre, John Heminge and Henry Condell, publish his works in the first collected edition known as First Folio. It contained 36 plays, only 19 of which had been printed during Shakespeare's life.
1642-The Globe, along with all other playhouses in London, is closed down by Puritans. (http://www.rdg.ac.uk/globe/siteinfo/Factstime.htm)
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