Browse Items (8 total)

Pages 58-59: White depicts the influence of Marlowe on Shakespeare.

Pages 56-57: At the start of his writing career, Shakespeare assesses his achievements, acknowledging that Titus Andronicus “was not a good play” despite its popularity. This view of Titus reflects the critical consensus of her own day more than…

Pages 42-43: Young Shakespeare proves a poor prospect as an actor. James Burbage notes that his company needs “plays…not players.”

Pages 104-105: Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe debate the age’s potential for literary greatness at a tavern, as a happy barmaid hoists a tankard.

Pages 128-129: The Godwins depict Queen Elizabeth I as “absorbed” by a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Via Elizabeth’s perspective, they offer conventional praise of Shakespeare’s ability to inspire the audience’s identification with his…

This 1880 photolithographic facsimile reproduces Shakespeare’s Sonnets’ title page. No evidence exists tying Shakespeare directly to the publication of his sonnets. We don’t know whether he chose the order of the poems.

Pages 4-5: A young Shakespeare spontaneously speaks in the playwright’s later, famous words (top right). White’s depiction of Shakespeare’s spontaneously momentous words supports an unlikely portrait of Shakespeare as preternaturally gifted without…

Pages 60-61: A young William courts Anne Hathaway in the forest using his own poetry. This fantasy connects Shakespeare’s professional writing with his personal life.