English poet and dramatist, one of the leading playwrights in the decade before the closing of the theatres by Parliament in 1642.

Shirley was educated at the University of Cambridge and after his ordination became master of the St. Albans Grammar School. About 1624 he moved to London and became a playwright. His first play, The Schoole of Complement, was performed in 1625 at the Phoenix, Drury Lane. When the theatres closed in 1636 as a precaution against further spread of the plague, Shirley became dramatist for St. Werburgh's Theatre in Dublin. He returned to London in 1640, succeeding Philip Massinger (Massinger, Philip) as dramatist for the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. After the English Civil Wars (1642–51) he returned to teaching and published two Latin grammars and some nondramatic verse and masques.

Shirley was the most prolific and highly regarded dramatist during the reign of King Charles I, writing 31 plays, 3 masques, and 3 moral allegories. He is best remembered for his comedies of fashionable London life, including The Wittie Faire One (1628), Hyde Park (1632), and The Lady of Pleasure (1635), which depict a leisured, courtly society at love and play and look forward to the achievements of Restoration comedy. His best tragedies, both on dark, Italianate themes, are The Traytor (1631) and The Cardinal (1641). His elaborate masque The Triumph of Peace (1634) was performed at the Inns of Court, with scenery by Inigo Jones and music by William Lawes.