“You’ve Read the Book. Now See the Play!” Shakespeare and the London Book Trade

Abstract

According to the venerable A. L. Rowse, “Shakespeare’s dearest wish was to be, and to be taken for, a poet,”¹ and as a poet-playwright is how we usually think of, and study, Shakespeare. My studies lead me to believe we also should think of him as an actor-entrepreneur, who also wrote damned good plays and a few poetic works. Compared to his contemporary writers, like John Lyly, George Chapman, and Ben Jonson, Shakespeare’s literary output is pretty slim if his prime career be that of an author. Indeed, we might thank Ben Jonson for establishing play scripts as literature, else half of Shakespeare’s plays (plays not published until the First Folio), including the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2013 King John and The Tempest, might have perished altogether.