"If you have never read a book about William Shakespeare, please read this one....Exceptional....Honan examines virtually all of Shakespeare's work in impressive detail, weaving his staggeringly clear knowledge of establishable historic fact with literary scholarship."--Michael Parkenham, Baltimore Sun

Preface; Illustrations; PART I: A STRATFORD YOUTH; 1. Birth; Mother of the Child; 3. John Shakespeare's Fortunes; 4. To Grammar School; 5. Opportunity and Need; 6. Love and Early Marriage; PART II: ACTOR AND POET OF THE LONDON STAGE; 7. To London and the Amphitheatre Players; 8. Attitudes; 9. The City in September; 10. A Patron, Poems, and Company Work; 11. A Servant of the Lord Chamberlain; 12. New Place and the Country; PART III: THE MATURITY OF GENIUS; 13. South of Julius Caesar's Tower; 14. Hamlet's Questions; 15. The King's Servants; 16. The Tragic Sublime; PART IV: THE LAST PHASE; 17. Tales and Tempests; 18. A Gentleman's Choices; Notes; Appendix A: The families of Arden and Shakespeare; Appendix B: Descendants of Shakespeare's nephew Thomas Hart (b. 1605) down to the sale of the Birthplace in 1806; Appendix C: A note on the Shakespeare biographical tradition and sources for his life; Index