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, Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Jonson, as well as the world in which they lived from 1578 when Burbage built the first 'purpose built' theatre to 1620 when the great age came to its end. Roaring Boys brings these characters and their time to life, along with a taste of what they wrote.