Here is an original and exciting guide to the daily life, heady successes, and remarkable works of one of the greatest writers in history. Spectacular full-color photographs of costumes, jewels, sackbuts, violas, trapdoors, and actors offer a unique "eyewitness" view of William Shakespeare, his patrons at the royal court, and the birth of modern theater in Europe. See Shakespeare's family homesand haunts, famous Elizabethan actors and playwrights, an amazing cutaway reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater,and how actors faked a beheaded body. Learn where Shakespeare found his best sources of inspiration, why heroines wereplayed by boy actors, why players needed a protector, how to stage a swordfight, and who stinkards were. Discover how fashion-conscious people dressed, how Elizabethans performed startling stage effects, friends and foes in cutthroat London, the highlights of Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, histories, and peotry, and much, much more.

Discover the life and times of one of history's greatest playwrights