This book takes an historical approach to Shakespeare’s connections with London. It explores Stratford’s established links with the capital, significant locations for Shakespeare’s work, the people with whom he associated, his resistance to the pressure from the City authorities, and the cultural diversity of early modern London. Among many features of his life in the City and its environs, it covers the playhouses in Shoreditch, his associations with Bishopsgate, his brother Edmund’s residence on Bankside, and aspects of London life that went into the making of Falstaff. Stratford made the man, but London made the phenomenon that is Shakespeare. Yet, being ‘forest born’, he was always an outsider and could never have been a citizen. We find him repeatedly a sojourner in the City, often on the move. His home and family lay in Stratford. We might almost imagine him a reluctant Londoner.

The book draws on a range of documentary sources including City parish registers and the archives of London’s Bridewell Hospital. It seeks to acknowledge those who inhabited Shakespeare’s milieu, or played some part in shaping his writing and acting career. This book is ideal for students of Shakespeare at Advanced and undergraduate level, but it also has much for the specialist.