Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers: How Early Modern Playwrights Shaped the World's Greatest Writer

A fascinating book exploring the early modern authors who helped to shape Shakespeare’s beloved plays.

Shakespeare’s plays have influenced generations of writers, but who were the early modern playwrights who influenced him? Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers a fresh look at William Shakespeare and the community of playwrights that shaped his work. This compelling book argues that we need to see early modern drama as a communal enterprise, with playwrights borrowing from and adapting one another's work.

From John Lyly's wit to the collaborative genius of John Fletcher, to Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers fresh insights into Shakespeare’s artistic development and shows us new ways of looking at the masterpieces that have enchanted audiences for centuries.

'A marvellous guide that provides a window into the dramatic culture that Shakespeare inherited, absorbed and shaped, showing how his experience as an actor determined the course of his writing career.' Andrew Hadfield, author of Thomas Nashe and Late Elizabethan Writing