Elizabeth’s Reviews > Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare > Status Update
Elizabeth
is on page 157 of 500
“If one bears in mind the method of close reading in which he was trained at school, not to mention his prodigious memory both for the plays he saw or acted in and the other books he devoured and disposed of casually, then there need be no anxiety about the idea of a middle-class provincial grammar-school boy having the intellectual resources to write the plays (156).
— Sep 15, 2026 04:10PM
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Elizabeth’s Previous Updates
Elizabeth
is on page 211 of 500
I love that there was a vogue in the 1590s for sonneteering. 😂
— Sep 20, 2026 02:48PM
Elizabeth
is on page 173 of 500
Fascinating this section about Shakespeare as businessman compared to his fellow playwrights. He was in the top 3 most financially successful because the Lord Chamberlain’s Men was a shared business enterprise, he seems to have been frugal himself, and he made shrewd investments. Reminds me of how concerned Trollope was with how much his novels made. He has a forebear in Shakespeare! Writers gotta live!
— Sep 17, 2026 03:16PM
Elizabeth
is on page 125 of 500
So much in this section! The scene ages of man, why the Elizabethans translated Greek works into English, the importance of Ovid in Shakespeare’s works and imagination.
— Sep 11, 2026 05:22PM
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Pamela
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Sep 16, 2026 04:07PM
Hear, hear!
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There's a wonderful pair of historical novels for the young with the adult Shakespeare as a character: The Player's Boy and The Players and the Rebels by Antonia Forest. Someone calls the boy protagonist "a learned grammarian" because it was true!
So funny, Pamela! I just finished reading The Player’s Boy, and I loved it! I’m hoping to track down the sequel soon. Learned grammarian is great!
I hope you can find it for less than $50, which is what I paid in 2010
That's actually an amazing coincidence. Have you read AL'S books about the 20th century Marlows? I love them almost as much.
That is such a funny coincidence! Girls Gone By Publishers in England republished it last year so I bought it then. It was about $30 with shipping. It is out of print through them again sadly. I haven’t read her Marlow books yet but I buy them when GGB releases them. I own Ready Made Family. Glad to hear you love them!