This book is about the immortal poet William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was born in 1563 in Stratford. He had little education and left for London in 1585. Kyd's Spanish Tragedy and Marlowe's Dr. Faustus inspired Shakespeare. Dominic Shellard tells by joining the new breed of theatre entrepreneurs, Shakespeare, as writer, player and shareholder, had become a total man of the theatre. The tragedies demonstrated a belief in the natural order of things and that redemption was possible through suffering. Shakespeare's other plays including The Tempest (1611) appeared by 1611. Shakespeare then retired to Stratford. He died in 1616. With Shakespeare's death, the legends began.