This edition, now available in paperback, constitutes an archive of source materials in the field of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. It is a collection of over one hundred wills left by those who participated in the life of the theatre - from actors and dramatists to carpenters and costumiers. The wills not only offer vital historical evidence but are also important human documents, testaments to the social, financial, religious and sentimental lives of Shakespeare's contemporaries. Of the wills reprinted here, one third were newly discovered, and many of the rest printed for the first time from the original wills, thus preserving the vacillations and abandoned intentions of the testators. -- .

For many years scholars have puzzled over the whereabouts of the young William Shakespeare. Where was he and what was he doing during the 'lost years' between leaving school and appearing as an actor and playwright in London? This fascinating literary detective story throws fresh light on the problems and provides some intriguing and significant answers. Bringing forward new historic and documentary evidence, one of Britain's most senior Shakespeare scholars makes it as clear as it now can be that Shakespeare worked as schoolmaster and player for a wealthy Catholic landowner in Lancashire and later for the Earl of Derby. One of the book's most startling conclusions is that Shakespeare was probably brought up as a Roman Catholic. Step by step this strange story of patronage, recusancy and aspiring talent is pursued through complex family relationships in a lucid and readable way that will delight anyone who likes a good story about a great national figure. For the serious scholar, the book also shows how the Lancashire connection and the Catholic background help to explain mysterious references in a number of the plays and poems and fills a major gap in the understanding of our literary heritage. Revised for this edition, E. A. J. Honigmann updates the scholarship surrounding this fascinating research.

This classic text, reprinted several times since its first publication in 1976, has been extensively revised in this new edition and includes new chapters on Henry V, As You Like It, and on "the study of the audience and the study of response." Both readers and actors/theater-goers will find will find it opens up new ways of looking at the plays and at the mechanisms that underpin some of the most magical moments in Shakespeare's plays.