Leicester's Men and their Plays: An Early Elizabethan Playing Company and its Legacy

Book info: Leicester's Men and their Plays: An Early Elizabethan Playing Company and its Legacy (Hardcover, 278 pages) – Cambridge University Press, 2023. Language: English.

For three decades, the Earl of Leicester's Men dominated the early Elizabethan stage and helped develop the main features of Shakespearean theatre. Leicester's Men and their Plays is the first book-length study of this foundational playing company, who toured more widely than any other company, performed more often for Queen Elizabeth's court than any other adult troupe, and established the first major playhouses near London. Building on decades of established scholarship, Laurie Johnson makes exciting new discoveries from primary sources and unearths the rich and fascinating life stories of the first Elizabethan players. His findings overturn fundamental assumptions of theatre history and provide new understandings of the players' circumstances and family origins. Through incisive research and engaging storytelling, Johnson shows how the players and their families adapted to life working under one of the most powerful nobles in the volatile Elizabethan court. About the Author Laurie Johnson is Professor in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Southern Queensland and, since 2016, has served as President of the Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association. He is the author of Shakespeare's Lost Playhouse: Eleven Days at Newington Butts (2018) and has written extensively in areas related to cultural history, literary studies, and Shakespeare's theatre.