Shakespearean lives and works

This is a chronology of Shakespeare and his family from 1530 to 1623, collecting key dateable events from the documentary records associated with the subjects in this period. Annotations are provided in extensive detail to explain the issues surrounding the documents used, extablishing their provenances, exploring problematic features, and situating the records relative to one another and the wider cultural background. One of the primary contributions to the study is a new integrated analysis of the dates of Shakespeare's plays, helping to understand the nature of his creative development. Other prominent findings surround evidence for the date of Shakespeare's birth which has previously eluded attention, and the authorship of the Poetical Essays appended to a work by Robert Chester. Analysis of the implications of Chettle's authorship in a Groatsworth of Wit, and of early modern "game" terminology, further indicate the diversity of subjects covered. Due to the complex use of multiple layers of documentary evidence, the study has been constructed using methods which focus on the dependencies between information and the balance of probabilities amongst alternative theories. Some of these methods are taken from a blend of creativity. The aim has been to facilitate the endeavour engaged in by Edmond Malone, to have "every obscurity elucidated."