First published in 1971. In writing this text the author’s intent has been as much to tell stories of life and people in Shakespeare's day as to add to our knowledge of the Elizabethan stage and drama or to record texts rescued from their burial in legal evidences and now submitted to the unforeseen test of literary criticism, which they can scarcely abide with equanimity.

Presented in an accessible and easy-reference format, Greatest Love Poems includes over 220 poems by a wide range of famous and lesser-known authors from different periods of history. These are divided into five themed sections, including:• Romance• Poems for Marriage• Unrequited Love• Long Distance Love• Lost LoveFeaturing short biographies of every author, this beautiful edition allows you to explore every aspect of love and its interp...

'Fascinating scholarship. Todd conveys Behn's vivacious character and the mores of the time' New York Times'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn; for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds,' said Virginia Woolf. Yet that tomb, in Westminster Abbey, records one of the few uncontested facts about this Restoration playwright, poet of the erotic and bisexual, political propagandist, novelist and spy: the date of her death,...

An fascinating account of witch trials in 1634 where over 60 local people were arrested in the area of Pendle Forest (East Lancashire - Northern England). These unfortunates were tried for their lives on the evidence of a ten year-old boy who became famous as the 'Pendle Witch-finder.'This case became nationally famous when King Charles the First took a personal interest. Playwrights wrote and performed plays in London and these were widely acclaimed.The 1634 trials followe...

A TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BEST BOOK OF THE YEARDrawing on an exceptional combination of skills as literary biographer, novelist, and chronicler of London history, Peter Ackroyd surely re-creates the world that shaped Shakespeare--and brings the playwright himself into unusually vivid focus. With characteristic narrative panache, Ackroyd immerses us in sixteenth-century Stratford and the rural landscape–the industry, the animals, even the flowers–that wou...

'Twelve Year a Whore, fives times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent' So the title page of this extraordinary novel describes the career of the woman known as Moll Flanders, whose real name we never discover. And so, in a tour-de-force of writing by the businessman, political satirist, and spy Daniel Defoe, Moll tells her own story, a vivid and racy tale of a woman's...

Here you will find the drinkers, spies, self-publishers, womanisers, fighters and eccentrics who, between them, produced the stunning body of work that characterised the new professional theatre of the Elizabethans and Jacobeans. These ambitious young men filled a yawning chasm in London, living life, as Marlowe put it, on 'the slicing edge' of death.With the help of anecdotes, this book aims to recreate the lives and times of the playwrights and actors such as, Sh...

This carefully crafted ebook: “The Taming of the Shrew (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. It was inspired by classical Roman comedy and the Italian commedia dell'arte. Baptista Minola, a rich gentleman of Padua, has two daughters: Katherina, r...

"""I have touched the highest point of all my greatness,And from that full meridian of my glory,I haste now to my setting. I shall fall Like a bright exhalation in the evening,And no man see me more.""Kobo Originals presents this complete, unabridged edition of William Shakespeare's HENRY VIII in fully accessible ePub format.Original cover illustration and design by Jenny Zemanek."

Noblewoman, vividly documents both the great and the trivial events of her long life. They cover her life from her childhood days, when she witnessed the funeral of Queen Elizabeth I, to her last months, when she recalled her past from her room in Brougham Castle. Through compiling and transcribing the manuscript records, D.J.H. Clifford here presents in one volume the full range of Lady Anne's life: her active role at court as the Countess of Dorset (residing at Knole in ...

During its 600-year history 50,000 souls were executed on the gallows at Tyburn somewhere near where Oxford Street meets the Edgware Road. Many thousands of victims remain buried nearby in anonymous graves. Many of the condemned made their final journey from Newgate Prison, three miles distant. The condemned travelled in a cart seated on his or her coffin, stopping frequently for refreshments. Sometimes the condemned survived hanging. What was it like to be hanged? This book examines conte...

This carefully crafted ebook: “Love's Labour's Lost (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s and first published in 1598. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to foreswear the company of women for three years of study ...