ABSTRACT
William Rowley himself had a hand in several plays with a Spanish theme, one of them based on two of the Novelas ejemplares. He was enmeshed in a network of writers, patrons and publishers that helped to spread knowledge of the works of Cervantes through the London of King James VI and I. This chapter seeks to place him in his social network, and to illustrate how the influence of Cervantes may have reached him. It demonstrates the rising influence of Cervantes's works and explores how it affected the work of a writer whose feet were planted very firmly in London. William Rowley was networked into a group of people who were interested in Spanish culture. Rowley himself was persuaded to venture out of his usual territory, based firmly on material relating to London, and into the Spanish world as interest in the Spanish Match at court and in London became more pronounced.
