Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis

"Shakescene" The author begins with a brief explanation of why the poetic sensibilities, length and intensity of both Tamburlaine and Shakespeare's Henry plays were not only tolerable but appealing to Elizabethan audiences (see "Quotes," p. 200). He then describes at length the group of writers who, at the time Shakespeare begins his career, are both the most prominent playwrights and the most dissolute revelers within the theatre community. All are university educated, outcasts to some degree from their families or from their professional associations, and intent upon making their mark on the theatre. The foremost of these are Christopher Marlowe (the author of Tamburlaine) and Robert Greene, a liar, braggart and user who is the leader of this group of intellectuals without necessarily producing a great deal of work to justify his position.

The author describes how Shakespeare would have, at first...