This is the first complete history of the theater company in which Shakespeare acted and which staged all his plays. Created in 1594, the company became the King's Men in 1603 and ran for forty-eight years up to the closure of 1642. Andrew Gurr provides a study of the company's activities, explores its social role in its time and examines its repertoire of plays. This comprehensive illustrated history will be an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to know more about the conditions under which Shakespeare and his successors worked.

Gerald Eades Bentley assembles and analyzes the extant theatrical materials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His discussion of the working conditions of professional dramatists like Thomas Heywood, John Fletcher, and Philip Massinger as well as William Shakespeare rounds out the fascinating picture of the professionalism that developed in the great days of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This is the first encyclopedia to be devoted entirely to Tudor England. 700 entries by top scholars in every major field combine new modes of archival research with a detailed Tudor chronology and appendix of biographical essays.Entries include: * Edward Alleyn [actor/theatre manager] * Roger Ascham * Bible translation * cloth trade * Devereux fami

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

Named One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, reissued with a new afterword for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? Stephen Greenblatt brings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world’s greatest playwright.

Originally published in 1929, this book contains an examination of Shakespeare's three-part Henry VI and its 'sequel', Richard III. Alexander addresses a number of questions regarding the integrity of the texts of both plays, whether or not Shakespeare wrote them in collaboration with another author, and possible interpolations from other plays. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, particularly his histories.

When we pick up a copy of a Shakespeare play, we assume that we hold in our hands an original record of his writing. We don't. Present-day printings are an editor's often subjective version of the script. Around 25 percent of any Shakespeare play will have been altered, and this creates an enormous amount of confusion. The only authentic edition of Shakespeare's works is the First Folio, published by his friends and colleagues in 1623. This volume makes the case for printing and staging the plays as set in the First Folio, which preserved actor cues that helped players understand and perform their roles. The practices of modern editors are critiqued. Also included are sections on analyzing and acting the text, how a complex character can be created using the First Folio, and a director's approach to rehearsing Shakespeare with various exercises for both professional and student actors. In conclusion, all of the findings are applied to Measure for Measure.

Perfect for courses, this book is an account of the first actors in the plays of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Jonson.

Under an alphabetical list of relevant terms, names and concepts, the book reviews current knowledge of the character and operation of theatres in Shakespeare's time, with an explanation of their origins>