The later years of Elizabeth and the reign of James I were the age of Shakespeare, but the age also of Sidney, Spenser, and Donne, of fellow dramatists Marlowe, Jonson, and Webster, and of the prose writers Nashe, Bacon, and Burton. This book examines the social conditions that produced this uniquely dazzling array of talent, and relates them closely to the literature of the period. In this extensively revised new edition, Julia Briggs has included two new chapters which examine the role of women, the family, travelers and ‘outsiders' within the social and literary contexts of the period.