This book examines the way work was depicted on the English stage by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Introduction; 1. Work in sixteenth-century England; 2. 'Vpon the weke daies and worke daies at conuenient times': acting as work in Elizabethan England; 3. 'Though he be a king, yet he must labour': work and nobility in Shakespeare's histories; 4. 'We may shut vp our shops, and make holiday': workers and playhouses, 1599-1601; 5. 'Work upon that now!': labour and status on the stage, 1599-1610; Conclusion.