From the preface:"This book is intended as an aid to the enjoyment of the plays and poems of William Shakespeare, a writer, actor, and man of the theatre who lived from 1564 to 1616. In pursuit of this objective, it hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the place occupied by his writings both in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era in which they were composed and in the many subsequent periods in which they have been read, performed, and ...
