Shakespeare, the Player: A Life in the Theatre

This text argues that in the many analyses of Shakespeare's life, one vital factor has been overlooked; his profession as a player. The author asserts that Shakespeare cannot be separated from his profession nor his works separated from the context and original purpose of their creation. His life as a player must be taken into account, as there is no other explanation for how an inexperienced man from a small Warwickshire town with no theatrical background or training came to have such command of theatrical ways and means, such knowledge and understanding of the poetic and dramatic techniques of his predecessors and contemporaries, that within a few years, he was able to surpass them to write the greatest plays in the language.