Life in Shakespeare's England
A Book of Elizabethan Prose

These extracts from Elizabethan literature convey first-hand the social conditions and cultural concerns of Shakespeare's age.

John Dover Wilson (Author)

9781108002615, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

328 pages, 7 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.64 kg

Entertaining and informative, this 1956 anthology paints a vivid picture of the world in which Shakespeare lived. Using the playwright's life as the framework – his birth, his education, his move to London, his life in theatre, his death – the book uses selected extracts from key Elizabethan publications to embody the atmosphere of this period. From sport to superstition, from festival to fashion, from the plague to playhouses, the significant features of the age are described through its prose, providing the reader with first-hand accounts of the conditions in which Shakespeare's masterpieces were created. All chapters are prefaced with illustrative Shakespearean quotations; the collection representing a commentary on the work as well as the life of Shakespeare. All texts have been modernised to assist the reader, and a glossary is included which explains names, unfamiliar words and difficult passages.

1. England and the English
2. The countryside
3. Superstition
4. Education
5. London
6. Books and authors
7. The theatre
8. The court
9. House and home
10. Rogues and vagabonds
11. The sea
12. Conclusion
Glossary and notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]