A remarkable resurgence of interest has taken place over recent years in a biographical approach to the work of early modern poets and dramatists, in particular to the plays and poems of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson. The contributors to this volume approach the topic in a manner that is at once critically and historically alert. They acknowledge that the biographical evidence for all three authors is limited, thus throwing the emphasis acutely on interpretation. In addition to new scholarship, the essays are valuable for their awareness of the challenges posed by recent redirections of critical methodology. Scepticism and self-criticism are marked features of the writing gathered here.

Chapter 1 Where We Are Now: New Directions and Biographical Methods, J.R. Mulryne; Part 1 Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson; Chapter 2 Shakespeare in Life and Art: Biography and Richard II, Blair Worden; Chapter 3 Is the Author Dead? Or, the Mermaids and the Robot, John Carey; Chapter 4 Calling All (Shakespeare) Biographers! Or, a Plea for Documentary Discipline, Alan H. Nelson; Chapter 5 Shakespearean Origins, Richard Dutton; Chapter 6 Why Didn¿t Shakespeare Write Religious Verse?, Alison Shell; Chapter 7 Shakespeare and the Geneva Bible: The Circumstances, John W. Velz; Chapter 8 Guy of Warwick, Upstart Crows and Mounting Sparrows, Helen Cooper; Chapter 9 Shakespeare and the DNB, Peter Holland; Part 2 Christopher Marlowe; Chapter 10 `By my onely meanes sett downe¿: The Texts of Marlowe¿s Atheism, Charles Nicholl; Chapter 11 Was Marlowe Going to Scotland when He Died, and Does it Matter?, Lisa Hopkins; Chapter 12 Biographical Representations: Marlowe¿s Life of the Author, Patrick Cheney; Chapter 13 The Poet in the Play: Life and Art in Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta, David Riggs; Part 3 Ben Jonson; Chapter 14 The Love Life of Ben Jonson, Lloyd Davis; Chapter 15 Looking Sideways: Jonson, Shakespeare and the Myths of Envy, Ian Donaldson; Chapter 16 Jonson in Scotland: Jonson¿s Mid-Jacobean Crisis, James Knowles; Chapter 17 Jonson¿s Caroline Coteries, Julie Sanders;