This book examines the two-way influence between Shakespeare and his company's main competitors in the 1590s, the Admiral's Men.

Tom Rutter is Lecturer in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of Work and Play on the Shakespearean Stage (Cambridge, 2008) and The Cambridge Introduction to Christopher Marlowe (Cambridge, 2012), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters on early modern drama. He has recently published on 'Hamlet, Pirates, and Purgatory' in Renaissance and Reformation, and on 'The Spanish Tragedy and Virgil' in the forthcoming The Spanish Tragedy: A Critical Reader. His article 'Marlowe, the 'Mad Priest of the Sun', and Heliogabalus' won the Early Theatre prize for best note in 2009-10. He is a co-editor of the journal Shakespeare.

Acknowledgements; Note on dating; Introduction; 1. 'How might we make a famous comedie': from A Knack to Know an Honest Man to The Merchant of Venice; 2 'Hobgoblins abroad': from Doctor Faustus to A Midsummer Night's Dream; 3. 'I speak of Africa and golden joys': Henry IV and the Stukeley plays; 4. 'Sundrie variable and pleasing humors': new comedies, 1597-8; 5. 'Nor pure religion by their lips profaned': Oldcastle, Robin Hood, and As You Like It; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.