Packed with fascinating accounts of conditions and events in the period in which Shakespeare lived, ingeniously relating them to particular passages in the plays. So we learn much of such matters as Tudor medicine, poisons, child actors, and voyage to the New World, and realise the full background to such lines as "I heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back," "The dancing horse will tell you" and "I know by the picking on's teeth". Written in a lively, enjoyable style, with witty chapter headings. ( )