Timeline August 1596

Events in August 1596 1

• 1596 Death of Hamnet Shakespeare Shakespeare's only son Hamnet dies in August 1596, aged eleven. The cause is unknown. The loss occurs at the moment of Shakespeare's greatest professional ascent — he is already the most successful playwright in London — and its effect on his art is much debated. King John (c.1596), with its devastating scene of Constance mourning her son, and later Hamlet (1600–01), with its resonant name and grieving father, are often read in the shadow of Hamnet's death.