His first job with Richard Burbage's men was as an osler; next an actor. No one knows what he was doing during 1585-1592. By 1592 he had become known in London as an actor and playwright; his rise was rapid. Queen Elizabeth 1 supported the arts and the theater. In 1592 a plague closed the theaters(Shakespeare wrote poetry during this time to support himself).
Many of his greatest plays were written during these ten years, and were acted there. Both Queen Elizabeth, and after her James I, showed the company many favors. In 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, the Globe was destroyed by fire. But the Lord Chamberlain's men, by now called the King's Men, had four years earlier leased a second, smaller playhouse, the Blackfriars. This was an indoor theatre, unlike the Globe which was open to the sky, and it had the technical facilities for scenic effects - a fact which probably accounts for the spectacular element in Shakespeare's late plays.
When documentation picks back up, Shakespeare’s career is in full swing working in London as an established actor and has published his first two poems. The theatre was closed due to the plague pandemic which he spends writing his breakthrough poems "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece". After the theatre reopened, his acting group Chamberlain’s Men became one of the most popular in London and frequently perform for Queen Elizabeth. Years later he is able to buy one of the best houses in Stratford and establishes a good deal of prestige for his plays. Shakespeare and the rest of Chamberlain’s Men built the Globe Theatre and before burning down during a performance of Henry VIII, the theatre was a wooden theatre in London where some of Shakespeare's plays were first performed.
His high reputation was in London. His earliest plays were “Henry VI”, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, and “Titus Andronicus”. In 1594, Shakespeare joined other people, creating a new theater company. Having Richard Burbage as lead actor, for almost twenty years they performed two shows a year on average. The plays included “Hamlet”, “Othello”, and “Lear” In 1597, Shakespeare’s successes lead him into a wealthy state.
Then in 1594, he wrote his second long poem, "Rape of Lucrece". During that year the theatres in London opened up again after the plague. Shakespeare began to work for the "Lord Chamberlain's Men" company who later became known as "The King's Men" in 1603 after King James took over. This company became the largest and most famous acting company in London, due to Shakespeare's plays and works. In 1599, "The Globe" theatre was built, a many of Shakespeare's plays were performed there, and soon other theatres followed such as "The Curtain" and "The Rose" theatres.
The second ''Lost Years'' are between 1582 and 1592 the evidence occurred between when he was in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1589 and when he had to move to London by 1592. The First Folio was published by John Heminge and Henry Condell in 1623 and it contains thirty-six plays although many of the plays were already in the quarto. The Foil was created after seven years of William’s death. The thirty-six plays of the First Folio occur in an order, the order is: first the comedies, second the histories, and last the tragedies. The Folio includes all of Shakespeare’s plays except of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and two "lost plays" which are Cardenio and Love's Labour's Won.
Seeking prestige with his plays, Shakespeare joined an acting troupe called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Even at this early stage in his carreer, he was a success. In 1597, he managed to buy New Place, the second largest house in Stanford, and secured a coat of arms for his family. When the lease ran out on his Theatre however, Shakespeare and his crew were forced to travel from production to production. They did this until 1599, when the now famous Globe theatre opened with the play Julius Ceaser.
The next record is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582. The next year she bore a daughter for him, Susanna, followed by the twins Judith and Hamnet two years later. Seven years later Shakespeare was recognized as an actor, poet, and playwright, when a rival playwright, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow" in "A Groatsworth of Wit." A few years later he joined up with one of the most successful acting troupes in London: "The Lord Chamberlain's Men." When, in 1599, the troupe lost the lease of the theatre where they performed they were wealthy enough to build their own theatre across the Thames, south of London, which they called "The Globe."
Initially, the notorious Bard lived during the Elizabethan era and, courting Anne Hathaway, had three children, Susanna and twins, Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare was extremely talented with language, voice, and fluidity of writing to the point where many theorized he stole the plays from a more educated playwright. His being in poverty created a misconception that he was uneducated; however he attended a grammar school known as the King’s New School (Alchin). Born in April 1564, and he died on his birthday fifty-two years later. His first play was written and published in 1589, The Comedy of Errors (Johnson).
Audiences became intimate with Shakespeare’s work, which allowed performers to take liberties and weave in other popular entertainment of the day as well as humor into their presentation. Shakespeare’s influence spread to the nineteenth century’s most prominent writer, Mark Twain who chose to present Shakespeare directly and indirectly within The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Shakespeare’s new levels of popularity depended largely upon his growing accessibility that was able to reach all different social classes in the nineteenth century. As Americans expanded westward across the frontier, Shakespeare followed. By the nineteenth century Shakespeare had become more accessible through traveling libraries, the incorporation of his material into school curriculums, and most importantly through play productions.