Life in Shakespeare's England: A Book of Elizabethan Prose

Compiled by: John Dover Wilson
Publisher: Penguin Books, 1968
Condition: Softcover, yellowed pages, slight wear and tear to cover, interior clean
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. Illustrations included.