The Globe Theatre, built by William Shakespeare's…

September 1599 CE

The Globe Theatre, built by William Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, in 1599, is owned by actors who are also shareholders in the company.

Two of the six Globe shareholders, Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert Burbage, own double shares of the whole, or twenty five percent each; the other four men, Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, and Thomas Pope, own a single share, or twelve percent. (Originally William Kempe had been intended to be the seventh partner, but he sold out his share to the four minority sharers, leaving them with more than the originally planned ten percent.)

The Globe is built using timber from an earlier theater, The Theatre, which had been built by Richard Burbage's father, James Burbage, in Shoreditch in 1576.

The Burbages originally had a twenty-one-year lease of the site on which The Theatre was built but owned the building outright.

However, the landlord, Giles Allen, claimed that the building had become his with the expiry of the lease.

While Allen was celebrating Christmas at his country home, carpenter Peter Street, supported by the players and their friends, dismantled The Theatre beam by beam on December 28, 1598 and transported it to Street's waterfront warehouse near Bridewell.

With the onset of more favorable weather in the following spring, the material was ferried over the Thames to reconstruct it as The Globe on some marshy gardens to the south of Maiden Lane, Southwark.

Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare between 1589 and 1613 produces most of his known work.

His early plays are mainly comedies and histories, genres he has raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century.

The first performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is held on September 21, 1599, at the Globe, as reported by Swiss traveler Thomas Platter the Younger.

Portraying the conspiracy against the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, his assassination and its aftermath, it is the first of Shakespeare’s Roman plays, based on true events from Roman history.

Caesar, who is not the central character in its action, appears in only three scenes, and is killed at the beginning of the third act.

The protagonist of the play is Marcus Brutus, and the central psychological drama is his struggle between the conflicting demands of honor, patriotism, and friendship.

The play reflects the general anxiety of England over succession of leadership.

Queen Elizabeth, a strong ruler at sixty-six, has refused to name a successor, leading to worries that a civil war similar to that of Rome might break out after her death.