Discover the London of Shakespeare's time, a fascinating place to be--full of mayhem and magic, exploration and exploitation, courtiers and foreigners. Stroll through narrow, winding streets crowded with merchants and minstrels,hoist a pint in a rowdy alehouse, and hurry across the river to the open-air Globe Theatre to see the latest play written by a young man named Will Shakespeare.

Discover the London of Shakespeare's time, a fascinating place to be--full of mayhem and magic, exploration and exploitation, courtiers and foreigners. Stroll through narrow, winding streets crowded with merchants and minstrels,hoist a pint in a rowdy alehouse, and hurry across the river to the open-air Globe Theatre to see the latest play written by a young man named Will Shakespeare.

SHAKESPEARE ALIVE! spirits you back to the very heart of that London--as everyday people might have experienced it.Find out how young people fell in love, how workers and artists made ends meet, what people found funny and what they feared most. Go on location with an Elizabethan theater company to learn how plays were produced, where Shakespeare's plots came from and how he transformed them. Hear the music of Shakespeare's language and the words we still use today that were first spoken in his time.

Open this book and elbow your way into the Globe with the groundlings. You'll be joining one of the most democratic audiences the theater has ever known--alewives, apprentices,shoemakers and nobles--in applauding the dazzling wordplay and swordplay brought to you by William Shakespeare.

PART I: PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1 ONE DAY AT A TIME: WHAT DAILY

  LIFE WAS LIKE

PART II: THE ELIZABETHANS

CHAPTER 2 ORDER IN THE COURT:

  THE RENAISSANCE

CHAPTER 3 ELIZABETHAN STAR WARS：

  SUPERSTITION AND THE SUPERNATURAL

CHAPTER 4 DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS:

  FOREIGNERS AND IMMIGRANTS IN ENGLAND

CHAPTER 5 LIKE A VIRGIN: QUEEN ELIZABETH

  AND THE STATUS OF WOMEN

CHAPTER 6 THE TIES THAT BIND: FAMILY LIFE

PART III: SHAKESPEARE ALIVE!

CHAPTER 7 THE REVOLUTION OF ]576:

  THE THEATRE IS BORN

CHAPTER 8 IN GOOD COMPANY: THE

  SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ACTING COMPANIES

CHAPTER 9 GETTING THEIR ACTS TOGETHER:

  PLAYWRIGHT AND AUDIENCE

CHAPTER 10 FROM PAGE TO STAGE: PRODUCING

  A PLAY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER 11 SOURCES AND RESOURCES

CHAPTER 12 ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

CHAPTER 13 SHAKESPEARE ALIVE.9

BIBLIOGRAPHY