This major new reference book presents more than 700 biographies of Shakespeare's contemporaries and richly illustrates the variety and complexity of the life of the period he lived. With its useful glossary of unusual terms, and extensive cross-references, this invaluable book emphasizes the cultural continuity between the last phase of Elizabethan England and the Jacobean age, and the authors also pay attention to American connections. This extensive and detailed study will be invaluable to all those interested in Shakespeare and his times.