Elizabethan Theater

Book excerpt: Elizabethan Theater is a collection of essays offered in celebration of the long career of Samuel Schoenbaum. Throughout his career as biographer, bibliographer, historian, critic, and editor of scholarly journals, he has greatly enriched our appreciation of Shakespeare and his fellows. These essays celebrate the many ways in which he has enhanced our understanding through his skill in balancing historical contexts with a recognition and respect for the importance of individual authorship. Distinguished scholars from many countries, representing many points of view, have chosen to honor Schoenbaum by contributing essays that explore the four overlapping areas with which his own research has mainly been concerned: biographical scholarship, the concept of authorship, the hand of the author perceived within the play, and the multiple historical contexts that helped to determine how Elizabethan plays were written and received.