Shakespeare's Contemporaries
While we've come to understand the Bard from Stratford as Renaissance theatre's most prominent representative, there was much more to the English stage of that time than Shakespeare alone -- in fact, to his contemporaries Shakespeare was only one of a whole number of popular playwrights. Here's an overview of what else people went to see at theatres such as the Rose, the Swan, and the Bear Baiting Garden ... plus some companion literature on the subject.

1 The Complete Plays
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2 Volpone and Other Plays
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3 Four Jacobean Sex Tragedies...
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4 Edward II
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5 A Dead Man in Deptford
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6 The Complete Poems
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7 Women Beware Women and Othe...
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8 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and...
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9 The Duchess of Malfi and Ot...
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10 Three Plays: The White Devi...
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11 The Spanish Tragedy
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12 Drama of the English Renais...
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13 Drama of the English Renais...
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14 English Renaissance Drama
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14 Renaissance Drama: An Antho...
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16 Medieval and Tudor Drama: T...
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16 A Woman Killed with Kindnes...
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18 The Duchess of Malfi: Seven...
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19 Three Tragedies By Renaissa...
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20 The World of Christopher Ma...
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21 The Cambridge Companion to ...
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21 The Alchemist and Other Plays
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21 The Devil Is an Ass: And Ot...
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24 Ben Jonson and the Cavalier...
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24 Ben Jonson of Westminster
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26 Five Plays
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27 The Unfortunate Traveller a...
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28 Webster: The Tragedies
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29 Selected Prose and Dramatic...
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30 The Cambridge Companion to ...
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31 English Renaissance Drama
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32 Elizabethan Jacobean Drama:...
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32 Politics, Plague, and Shake...
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34 Medieval & Renaissance Dram...
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35 The Performance of Pleasure...
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35 The Reign of Elizabeth I: C...
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35 The Cambridge Introduction ...
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35 Center or Margin: Revisions...
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39 Shakespeare and Co.: Christ...
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39 Drama Of The English Renais...
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39 The Marlowe Conspiracy
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39 Doctor Faustus
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43 Roaring Boys: Shakespeare's...
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44 The Complete English Poems
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45 The Routledge Anthology of ...
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46 Six Renaissance Tragedies
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47 Three Renaissance Usury Pla...
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48 Three Renaissance Travel Pl...
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49 The Roaring Girl and Other ...
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50 Eros and Power in English R...
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51 Three Jacobean Tragedies: T...
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52 Four Revenge Tragedies: The...
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53 Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy
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54 Shakespeare of London
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55 Five Jacobean Tragedies
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56 Court Masques: Jacobean And...
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56 The Revels History Of Drama...
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58 Children of the Queen's Rev...
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58 Shakespearean Tragedy: Genr...
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60 Renaissance Women: The Play...
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61 Renaissance Drama by Women:...
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62 The Complete Poems and Tran...
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63 The Reckoning: The Murder o...
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64 History Play
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65 Five Plays
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66 Ben Jonson: A Life
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67 Thomas Middleton: The Colle...
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68 The Dramatic Works in the B...
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69 The Dramatic Works in the B...
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70 The Works of Francis Beaumo...
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71 The Malcontent and Other Plays
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72 The Plays of Philip Massinger
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73 Sir Thomas More: By Anthony...
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74 The Witch of Edmonton
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75 Arden of Faversham
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76 The Tragedy of Mariam, the ...
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77 A Companion to Renaissance ...
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78 Staging the Renaissance
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79 The Politics of Performance...
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80 A Feminist Perspective on R...
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Comments (showing 1-3 of 3) (3 new)

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message 1: by Thom (last edited Apr 05, 2010 06:17am) (new)

Thom Dunn APOLOGIA: M. Chute, Shakespeare of London is, as reviewers said when it appeared, really about the London of Shakespeare. Similarly, the Leeds Barroll titles are all about the historical context of Shakespearean and Elizabethan drama, as one would expect from the founding editor of Shakespeare Studies. And Shakespeare's own Hamlet tells us much about drama other than his. Well-annotated editions should lead one to the elucidation of Rosencrantz' speech on the subject.


message 2: by Themis-Athena (new)

Themis-Athena Yes, and for the reasons you state, these would make equally great additions to the Best Books About Shakespeare list! The joint purpose of both lists is to bring together books putting Shakespeare and his time into perspective -- the other list with a focus on the Bard himself, this one with a focus on the era's other playwrights.


message 3: by [deleted user] (new)

Great list, thanks!


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