Introducing Shakespeare

The author deals first and foremost with the legend and then with the life. In the light of modern research he explores the Elizabethan playhouse with the help of a set of graphic reconstructions and examines the effect of its complicated structure on the play itself. But it is in the chapter on the Lord Chamberlain Players that Shakespeare and his associates are most clearly seen against a background of theatrical rivalry, literary piracy, the closing of the playhouses in time of plague, the famous performance of Richard II in support of Essex, and the fire which finally destroyed the Globe.