This Companion is devoted to the life and works of Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights in early modern London.

1. John Lyly and the university wits: George Peele, Robert Greene, Thomas Lodge and Thomas Nashe Arthur F. Kinney; 2. Thomas Kyd and the Elizabethan blockbuster: The Spanish Tragedy Clara Calvo; 3. 'The words of mercury': Shakespeare and Marlowe Richard Wilson; 4. The dyer's hand: Shakespeare and Jonson Warren Chernaik; 5. Urbane John Marston: obscenity, playfulness, co-operation Matthew Steggle; 6. Thomas Dekker and the emergence of city comedy Darryll Grantley; 7. Shakespeare: colleagues, collaborators, co-authors Ton Hoenselaars; 8. Thomas Heywood: dramatist of London and playwright of the passions Jean E. Howard; 9. George Chapman's learned drama Paul Franssen; 10. Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's tragicomedy as musical melodrama Catherine Henze; 11. Thomas Middleton and the early modern theatre Michelle O'Callaghan; 12. John Webster: collaboration and solitude Robert Henke; 13. John Ford: suffering and silence in Perkin Warbeck and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore Lisa Hopkins; 14. Philip Massinger: drama, reputation, and the dynamics of social history Rui Carvalho Homem; 15. Richard Brome and the idea of a Caroline theatre Heather Hirschfeld; 16. Troublesome histories: performance and early modern drama Elizabeth Schafer.