In this engaging text, Arthur Kinney introduces students to Shakespeare’s plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater.

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• Introduces students to Shakespeare''s plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater.
  
• Focuses on the material conditions of playing and of playgoing.
  
• Covers venues, audiences, actors, society, government and regulation.
  
• Each topic is considered in relation to a selection of Shakespeare''s plays.
  
• Shows students how the plays and the context in which they were produced illuminate one another.