Shakespeare & Co.
The Elizabethan and Jacobean periods are often referred to as ‘the age of Shakespeare’ and his is the first name we think of today when exploring the early history of drama and poetry. The spectre of Shakespeare often looms so large that there is a danger of forgetting some of his great contemporaries such as Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton and John Fletcher.
In this excellent book Stanley Wells explores the lives and careers of the writers and actors that Shakespeare worked with as well as the Elizabethan theatrical scene. People flocked to the Globe and the Fortune where most of the entertainment took place off stage as the theatres were often places of rioting and where prostitutes solicited. The age of Shakespeare, when anyone convicted of stealing more than twelve pence could be hanged, is vividly brought to life. Through the study of his associates a little more light is shed on the shadowy figure of the Bard himself.
