What's in a name? : how historians know Shakespeare was Shakespeare / Susan Dwyer Amussen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Amussen, Susan Dwyer, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Authorship.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

224 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

What is in a name? : how historians know Shakespeare was Shakespeare

How historians know Shakespeare was Shakespeare

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"How do we know Shakespeare was Shakespeare? Could a glover's son who left school at fifteen really be the author behind such masterpieces as Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest? Yes! says historian Susan Dwyer Amussen. She transports readers back to early modern England, to travel the path that carried William Shakespeare from humble origins in Stratford to literary greatness on the London stage. This was a society undergoing rapid change. Grammar schools made education in Latin and Greek available to commoners, while touring players brought the latest dramatic productions to the masses. And in London, a metropolis filled with European visitors, ordinary people had the opportunity to see courtly life up close. No serious historian doubts that Shakespeare was the author of the plays that bear his name. Susan Dwyer Amussen shares what they know: that Shakespeare's England was a complex and cosmopolitan place, with everything a talented young playwright needed to develop his craft and furnish his imagination"-- Dust jacket flap.

Contents:

Conventions

Prologue

Part I: Stratford. How to be an (early modern) historian

Stratford and the Shakespeares

A grammar school education

Part II: London. An early modern metropolis

Work, sex and pleasure in the capital

Part III: The theatrical world. Theatre before Shakespeare

Becoming Shakespeare at the Rose and the Theatre

House-keeper at the Globe and Blackfriars

Retirement

Epilogue

Further reading and other resources

Notes

List of illustrations

List of maps

Acknowledgements

Index.

Notes:

Contains bibliographical references (pages 194-209) and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781526191908

1526191903

OCLC:

1579856615

Publisher Number:

CIPO000340964