The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in Eighteen Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VI. The Drama to 1642, Part Two.

Table of Principal Dates.


The following table is a list of the principal dates mentioned or referred to in the present volume. It should be regarded as complementary to that contained in volume V.

  In the case of plays, where one date precedes and another follows (in brackets), the former is the date of the first performance, and the latter that of the first extant edition.

1465–79 (?) Henry Abingdon Master of the Chapel.
1479 (?) Gilbert Banaster appointed Master of the Chapel.
1516–24 William Cornish Master of the Chapel.
1526–45 William Crane Master of the Chapel.
1530 (?)–1611 Richard Mulcaster.
1540 Grimald’s Christus Redivivus (1543).
1547 Grimald’s Archipropheta (1548).
1548–52 Hall’s Chronicle.
1553 (before) Stevenson’s(?) Gammer Gurtons Nedle (1575).
1553–8 Queen Mary I.
1554 Bandello’s Novelle, vols. I–III.
1556 (?)–1630 John Heminge.
1558–1603 Queen Elizabeth.
1559 Licensing of plays by mayors enjoined by Elizabeth.
1559 (?)–1634 George Chapman.
1561–6 Richard Edwards Master of the Chapel.
1562–1635 Lope de Vega.
1564 Queen Elizabeth visits Cambridge.
1566 The Gowrie Conspiracy.
1566 Queen Elizabeth visits Oxford.
1566 Edwards’s Palamon and Arcyte acted.
1566–7 Painter’s Palace of Pleasure.
1566–97 William Hunnis Master of the Chapel.
1566–1626 Edward Alleyn.
1567 (?)–1619 Richard Burbage.
c. 1570–1627 Thomas Middleton.
c. 1570–1637–1632 (or after) (?) Thomas Dekker.
1572 Unattached companies of actors declared rogues and vagabonds.
c. 1572–c. 1648 Thomas Heywood.
1573 Bandello’s Novelle, vol. IV.
1573 (?)–1637 Ben Jonson.
1574 Leicester’s company formed.
1575 (?)–1626 Cyril Tourneur.
1576 Erection of the Theater.
1576 (?)–1634 John Marston.
1577 Opening of the Curtain.
1577–9 Northbrooke’s Treatise against Vaine playes or Enterluds.
1578 Holinshed’s Chronicle, including Harrison’s Description of England.
1578 Sidney’s The May Lady.
1579 (?) Hymenaeus (1908).
1579 Gosson’s Schoole of Abuse.
1579 Lodge’s Honest Excuses.
1579 Gosson’s Ephemerides of Phialo.
1579–1625 John Fletcher.
1580 Legge’s Richardus Tertius (1844).
1580–1 Wingfield’s Pedantius (1631).
1580–2 Belleforest’s Histoires Tragiques.
1580 (?)–1625 (?) John Webster.
1581 Gager’s Meleager (1592).
1581/2 Solymannidae (MS.).
1582 Gosson’s Playes confuted in five Actions.
1582–3 The Plague in London.
1583 (or before) Sidney’s Apologie for Poetrie written (printed 1595).
1583 Paris Garden disaster.
1583 Gager’s Dido (MS.).
1583 Abraham Fraunce’s Victoria (1906).
1583 Stubbes’s The Antomie of Abuses.
1583 Queen’s company formed.
1583–4 Parry’s plot.
1583–1640 Philip Massinger.
1584 Lodge’s Alarum against Usurers.
c. 1585–1642(?) William Rowley.
1585 (?)–1616 Francis Beaumont.
1586–1640 (or after) John Ford.
1587–1623 Nathaniel Field.
1588 Defeat to Spanish Armada.
1588 Death of the Earl of Leicester.
1588–90 Marprelate Controversy.
1590 Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Books I–III.
1590 Laelia (1910)
1591 Tasso’s Aminta printed in London.
1591 Guarini’s Il Pastor Fido printed in London.
1591/2 Gager’s Ulysses Redux (1592).
c. 1592 Opening of the Rose in Sounthwark.
c. 1592 William Alabaster’s Roxana (1632).
1593 The Plague in London.
1594 Thomas Heywood’s King Edward the Fourth (1600).
1594 (?) Heywood’s The Foure Prentises of London (1615).
1594–1600 Erection of the Swan Theatre.
1596 Blackfriars Playhouse opened.
1596 Dekker’s Old Fortunatus (1600).
1596–1666 James Shirley.
c. 1596 Middleton’s Mayor of Quinborough (1661).
fl. 1598–1627 Henry Condell.
1598 Meres’s Palladis Tamia.
1598 The Pilgrimage to Parnassus (1886).
1598 Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour (1601).
1598 (?) Chapman’s Bussy D'Ambois (1607).
1599 (before) Chapman and Marston’s Histrio-Mastix (1610).
1599 Erection of the Globe Theatre.
1599 Jonson’s Every Man out of His Humour (1600).
1599 Rainolds’s Th' Overthrow of Stage-playes.
1599 (?) Dekker’s The Shomakers Holiday (1600).
1599–1600 Club-Law performed at Clare Hall.
1599–1607 Massinger, Middleton and Dekker’s (?) The Old Law (1656).
1600 Opening of the Fortune.
1600 Jonson’s Cynthia’s Revels (1601).
c. 1600 Marston’s Antonio and Mellida (1602).
1601 Execution of the Earl of Essex.
1601 (?) Marston’s The Malcontent (1604).
1601 The Return from Parnassus, Part I (1886).
1601 Jonson’s Poetaster (1602).
1601 Middleton’s Blurt Master-Constable (1602).
1601–2 “Poetomachia.”
1601–2 Dekker’s Satiro-mastix (1602).
1602 Dekker and Webster’s Sir Thomas Wyat (1607).
1602 The Returne from Pernassus, Part II (1606).
1602 (?) Heywood’s The Royall King and The Loyall Subject (1637).
1602(after) Tomkis’s Lingua (1607).
1602/3 Narcissus acted at St. John’s, Oxford (1893).
1603 (before) Heywood’s Fair Maid Of The West (1631).
1603 (before) George Salterne’s Tomumbeius (MS.).
1603 (or before) Heywood’s A Woman Kilde with Kindnesse (1607).
1603–25 James I.
1603 The Plague in London.
1603 Stow’s Survey of London.
1603 Jonson’s Sejanus (1605).
1604 Daniel’s The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses (1610).
1604 Hampton Court Conference.
1604 Abolition of private patronage of players.
1604 Fall of Ostend.
1604 Chapman’s Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613).
1604 Marston’s Parasitaster (1606).
1604 Marston’s The Dutch Courtezan (1605).
1604 Middleton and Dekker’s The Honest Whore (1604) (Ist Part).
1604 Dekker’s Whore of Babylon (1607).
1604 or 1608 Dekker’s The Honest Whore (1630) (2nd Part).
1604–5 Heywood’s If you know not me (1605).
1604–72 Jasper Mayne.
1604/5 Dekker and Webster’s West-Ward Hoe (1607).
1605 James I’s visit to Oxford.
1605 Chapman, Jonson and Marston’s Eastward Hoe (1605).
1605 Chapman’s Monsieur D'Olive (1606).
1605 Day’s The Ile of Guls (1606).
1605 Don Quixote.
1605 Daniel’s The Queenes Arcadia (1606).
1605 Jonson’s Masque of Blacknesse (1608).
1605 Gunpowder Plot.
1605/6 Jonson’s Volpone (1607).
1605–35 Thomas Randolph.
1605–7 Dekker and Webster’s North-Ward Hoe (1607).
1606 Jonson’s Hymenaei (1606).
1606 The Puritane (1607).
1606–7 Tourneur’s The Revengers Tragoedie (1607).
1606–84 Pierre Corneille.
1606–68 Sir William D'Avenant.
1607 Heywood and William Rowley’s Fortune by Land and Sea (1655).
1607–11 Tourneur’s The Atheist’s Tragedie (1611).
1608 Chapman’s Conspiracie, And Tragedie of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608).
1608 Fletcher’s The Faithfull Shepheardesse (c. 1610).
1608 Jonson’s Masque of Beauty (1608).
1609 Jonson’s Masque of Queenes (1609).
1609 Jonson’s The Silent Woman (1616).
1609 (?) Beaumont’s Knight of the Burning Pestle (1613).
1610 Assassination of Henry IV of France.
1610 Jonson’s The Alchemist (1612).
1610 Middleton and Dekker’s The Roaring Girle (1611).
1610 (after) Fletcher’s Monsieur Thomas (1639).
fl. 1610 Robert Armin.
1610–19 Honoré D'Urfé’s L'Astrée.
1610 (?) Beaumont and Fletcher’s The Coxcombe (1647).
1610 (?) Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster (1620).
1610–11 Field’s Amends for Ladies (1618).
1611 Jonson’s Oberon (1616).
1611 Jonson’s Catiline (1611).
1611 Webster’s The White Divel (1612).
1611 (?) Beaumont and Fletcher’s The Maides Tragedy (1619).
c. 1611 Chapman’s Iliads completed.
1611 lic. The Second Maiden’s Tragedy (1824–5).
1612 Death of Henry Prince of Wales.
1612 Jonson’s Love Restored (1616).
1612 Cervantes’s Novelas exemplares.
1612 Heywood’s Apology for Actors.
1612 (?) Fletcher and Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen (1634).
1612/13 Beaumont’s Masque of Grayes-Inne and the Inner-Temple (n.d. [1613]).
1612/13 Chapman’s Masque of the Middle Temple and Lyncolnes Inn (n.d. [1613]).
1612–13 Middleton’s A Chast Maya in Cheape-side (1630).
1613 Marriage of Princess Elizabeth.
1613 Visit of Prince Charles and the Elector Palatine to Cambridge.
1613 Campion’s The Lords Masque (1613).
1613 Globe Theatre burnt.
1614 (or before) Webster’s The Dutchesse Of Malfy (1623).
1614 (or before) Fletcher’s Bonduca (1647).
1614 (or before) Fletcher’s Valentinian (1647).
1614 Jonson’s The Sad Shepherd (1641).
1614 Jonson’s Bartholomew Fayre (1631).
1615 King James visits Cambridge.
1615 Ruggle’s Ignoramus (1640).
1615 Tomkis’s Albumazar (1615).
1615 Jonson’s Mercurie Vindicated from the Alchemists (1616).
1615 Phineas Fletcher’s Sicelides (1631).
c. 1615 Erection of the Cockpit.
1616 Death of Shakespeare.
1616 Overbury Murder Trial.
fl. 1616–36 Tirso de Molina.
1616 First folio of Ben Jonson.
1616 Middleton and William Rowley’s A Faire Quarrell (1617).
1617 Fletcher and Massinger’s Thierry and Theodoret (1621).
1618 Book of Sports published.
1618 B. Holiday’s Technogamia (1618).
1618–48 The Thirty Years War.
1618 Execution of Sir Walter Ralegh.
1618 Synod of Dort.
1618 lic. Fletcher’s The Loyal Subject (1647).
1618/19 Jonson’s Pleasure Reconciled to Vertue (1640).
1619 Fletcher’s The Humorous Lieutenant (1647).
1619 Massinger and Field’s The Fatall Dowry (1632).
1619–20 Fletcher and Massinger’s The Little French Lawyer (1647),
1620 Thomas May’s The Heire (1622).
1620 lic. Massinger and Dekker’s The Virgin Martir (1622).
c. 1620 Fletcher and Massinger’s The False One (1647).
c. 1620 Middleton and William Rowley’s The World tost at Tennis (1620).
c. 1620 Webster’s The Devils Lawcase (1623).
1620/1 Jonson’s Newes from the New World (1640).
1621 Fletcher’s The Pilgrim, (1647).
1621 Fletcher’s The Wild-Goose Chase (1652).
c. 1621 Ford and Dekker’s The Witch of Edmonton (1658).
1622 (before) Fletcher and Massinger’s The Beggars Bush (1647)
1622 lic. Fletcher and Massinger’s The Spanish Curate (1647).
1623 Prince Charles and Buckingham at Madrid.
1623 Massinger’s The Bond-Man (1624).
1623 Middleton and William Rowley’s The Spanish Gipsie (1653).
1623 The Tragedy of Nero (1624).
1623 Fletcher’s The Lovers’ Progress (1647).
c. 1623 Middleton’s The Witch (1778).
c. 1623 Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling (1653).
1623 Spanish marriage negotiations broken off.
1624 War declared against Spain.
1624 Massacre at Amboina.
1624 Ford’s The Sun’s-Darling (1656).
1624 Middleton’s A Game at Chesse (1625).
1624 lic. Fletcher’s Rule a Wife And have a Wife (1640).
1625–49 Charles I.
1625 The Plague in London.
1625–6 Fletcher’s The Chances (1647).
1626 (before) Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1633).
1626 Massinger’s The Roman Actor (1629).
1627 Ford’s Tis Pitty Shees a Whore (1633).
1627 lic. Massinger’s The Great Duke of Florence (1636).
c. 1627 Heywood’s The English Traveller (1633).
1628 Assassination of Duke of Buckingham.
1628 Ford’s The Lovers Melancholy (1629).
1629 Erection of the Whitefriars Playhouse.
1629 Ford’s The Broken Heart (1633).
1629 Randolph’s Aristippus (1630).
1629 L. Carlell’s The Deserving Favorite (1629).
1631 Massinger’s The Emperour of the East (1632).
1631 lic. Massinger’s Believe as you List (1849).
1632 Death of Gustavus Adolphus.
1632 Prynne’s Histriomastix.
1632 Charles I and Henrietta Maria visit Cambridge.
1632 Randolph’s The Jealous Lovers (1632).
1632 Randolph’s The Muses Looking-Glasse (1638).
1632 Shackerley Marmion’s Hollands Leaguer (1632).
1632 Chapman and Shirley’s The Ball (1639).
1632 lic. Shirley’s Hide Parke (1637).
1633 Book of Sports republished.
1633 Ford’s Historie of Perkin Warbeck (1634).
1633 (?) Heywood’s The late Lancashire Witches (1634).
1633 lic. Shirley’s The Gamester (1637).
1633 lic. Shirley’s The Bird in a Cage (1633).
1634 Milton’s Comus (1637).
1634 T. Nabbes’s Microcosmus (1637).
1634 (after) H. Glapthorne’s Albertus Wallenstein (1639).
1634 lic. Fletcher and Massinger’s A Very Woman, or The Prince of Tarent (1655).
1634 lic. Shirley’s The Opportunitie (1640).
1635 (before) Randolph’s Amyntas (1638).
1635 Brome’s The Sparagus Garden (1640).
1635 John Ogilby’s theatre opened in Dublin.
1635 D'Avenant’s The Platonick Lovers (1636).
1635 lic. Shirley’s The Coronation (1640).
1635 lic. Chapman and Shirley’s Chabot (1639).
1636 Charles I visits Oxford.
1636 Corneille’s Le Cid.
1636 Cartwright’s The Royall Slave (1639).
1636–40 Shirley in Ireland.
fl. 1636–65 P. Calderon de La Barca.
1637 Shipmoney judgment.
1637 Suckling’s Aglaura (1638).
1638 Cowley’s Naufragium Joculare (1638).
1638 Suckling’s The Goblins (1646).
1639 Pacification of Berwick.
1640 Meeting of the Long Parliament.
1640 Second folio of Ben Jonson.
1640 Shirley’s Honoria and Mammon (1659).
1641 Irish Rebellion.
1641 Execution of the Earl of Strafford.
1641–2 Cowley’s The Guardian (1650).
1641 Brome’s A Joviall Crew (1652).
1641 Day’s The Parliament of Bees.
1641 lic. Shirley’s The Cardinall (1652).
1642 Aug. Outbreak of Civil War.
1642 Sept. Closing of the theatres.