Shakespeare and the Admiral's Men : Reading across Repertories on the London Stage, 1594–1600

This book examines the two-way influence between Shakespeare and his company's main competitors in the 1590s, the Admiral's Men. Providing a valuable addition to the thriving field of repertory studies, it offers new insights into Shakespeare's development as well as readings of important, sometimes neglected plays by his contemporaries.

For most of the 1590s, the Admiral''s Men were the main competitors of Shakespeare''s company in the London theatres. Not only did they stage old plays by dramatists such as Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd: their playwrights invented the genres of humours comedy (with An Humorous Day''s Mirth) and city comedy (with Englishmen for My Money), while other new plays such as A Knack to Know an Honest Man and The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon were important influences on Shakespeare. This is the first book to read the Admiral''s repertory against Shakespeare''s plays of the 1590s, showing both how Shakespeare drew on their innovations and how his plays influenced Admiral''s dramatists in turn. Shedding new light on well-known plays and offering detailed analysis of less familiar ones, it offers a fresh perspective on the dramatic culture of the 1590s.