…here is a comprehensive list of contemporary and near-contemporaries of Shakespeare.
A list of Public and Private theatres, companies, playwrights and players
William Shakespeare, player, poet and playwright
Edward Alleyne, player
Robert Armin, clown
Barnabe Barnes, poet
Richard Barnfield, poet
William Basse
Richard Burbage, player
Cuthbert Burbage, businessman
James Burbage, player and theatre owner
Francis Beaumont, playwright
Christopher Beeston, player
Stephen Belott, tiremaker’s apprentice
Edward Blount
Cuthbert Burby
Nathaniel Butter
William Camden
John Chamberlain
George Chapman
Henry Chettle
Henry Condell
Ralph Crane
Samuel Daniel
Sir John Davies
Thomas Dekker
Dudley Digges
Leonard Digges
Michael Drayton
George Eld
Nathan Field
Richard Field, printer
John Fletcher, playwright
John Ford, playwright
George Gascoigne, writer
Nathaniel Giles, player
Stephen Gosson
Robert Greene, playwright
Fulke Greville, patron and poet
Richard Hakluyt, explorer
John Harington
Samuel Harsnett
William Hart, actor and grandson
Gabriel Harvey, writer
John Heminges, player
Philip Henslowe, businessman
John Heywood, writer
Thomas Heywood, playwright
Raphael Holinshed, Antiquarian
William Hunnis
William Jaggard, printer
Gheerart Janssen, sculptor
Thomas Jenkins, player
Robert Johnson, musician
William Johnson, businessman
Richard Jones, player
Ben Jonson, player and playwright
William Kempe, clown
Edward Kirkham, licenser of Court performances
William Knell, player
Sir William Knollys, patron
Thomas Kyd, playwright
Henry Laneman, businessman
Francis Langley
Emilia Lanier, musician and minor poet
Matthew Law, printer and bookseller
Robert Dudley, patron
Leo Africanus, explorer
William Lily, playwright and poet
Livery Companies
Thomas Lodge, writer
Roderigo Lopez
John Lowin, player
Gervase Markham
Christopher Marlowe, playwright
Master of Revels, licenser of Court performances
Thomas Middleton, playwright
Thomas Millington
Michel de Montaigne, philosopher
Thomas Morley, musician
Christopher Mountjoy, tiremaker
Anthony Monday, writer
Thomas Nashe, playwright
Thomas North
William Ostler, player
William Painter
Thomas Pavier, printer
George Peele, playwright
Augustine Phillips, actor
Thomas Platter the Younger, Swiss visitor
Pirates. yes they arrrre!
Thomas Pope, player
John Pory
George Puttenham, grammarian
Thomas Quiney, personal friend
Walter Raleigh, explorer
Gamaliel Ratsey, highwayman
Barnabe Rich, poet
Samuel Rowley
William Rowley
Thomas Sackville, patron
William Segar
John Shank, player
Edward Sharpham
Anthony Shirley, playwright
Peter Short, printer
Stationer’s Company, licenser of books
Valentine Simmes, printer and bookseller
John Sincklo, player
John Smethwick
Thomas Snodham, patron
Henry Wriothesley, patron
Gabriel Spencer, player killed by Ben Jonson
Edmund Spenser, poet
John Stow, antiquarian
William Strachey, Businessman
Lord Strange, patron
Richard Tarleton, clown
Joseph Taylor, the water poet
Thomas Thorpe, publisher
Nicholas Tooley, player in the King’s Men
John Trundell, Bookseller
Larence Twine, translator
Thomas Tuckfield
Henry Walley, bookseller
William Warner, poet
John Waterson, Jacebean Caroline publisher
John Webster, Jacobean playwright
Thomas Weelkes, composer musician
Robert Whatcott, witness to Last Will
George Whetstone, playwright and prose-writer, possible source for M4M and Much Ado
William White, composer
John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury
George Wilkins, playwright and pimp
John Wilson, Restoration playwright
Sir Ambrose WIlloughby, patron?
Henry Willobie, writer of Willobie his Avisa?
John Wilson, composer and lutenist
Andrew Wise, publisher
Thomas Wyatt, poet who introduced the sonnet into England
Bartholomew Yong, translator to Lady Penelope Rich
English dramatists and playwrights
Now the job is to start sorting these people with circles of direct and immediate connection to Shakespeare. Naturally we cannot know who he knew. There may be hundreds of others of whom we know nothing. Like these:
16th Century English people
16th century England breaks it down by decade and event.
17th century people