ABSTRACT
Two thousand years after the glory of Greek drama and a long drought, theatre again rises to greatness in a historical period named for one of the most successful and longest ruling monarchs who ever lived. Of the more than 20,000 new words added to the explosive growth of the English language during this period, many were invented by William Shakespeare, widely believed to be the greatest playwright who ever lived, who also elevated the art of the sonnet and the epic poem. This time our interview subject is a nobleman, highly familiar with Elizabethan court, country and city life, a dabbler in the occult, who has also entered and lived in the worlds of the plays themselves. Numerous aids for mastering the speech in the plays are offered, including a large list of insults and praise of the time, an Elizabethan open scene and a comprehensive list of all two- and three-character Shakespearean scenes, with the basic synopsis of each. At the chapter’s end, a comparison between Greeks and Elizabethans is presented as a table.
