This book explores how to achieve innovative approaches to teaching and learning Shakespeare and Marlowe within formal learning systems such as school and university.

Schools and universities are fast becoming managerial 'courts' of learning in which educators and students are system creatures busily fulfilling system protocols. Any teacher or academic yearning for fresh and authentic approaches to their discipline must first find ways to imagine possibilities beyond the system's limits. This book sounds the depths of the problem in respect to Literary Studies and proposes strategies for effecting voluntary 'exile' from court in pursuit of more imaginative approaches to the teaching and learning of Shakespeare and Marlowe.

This collection offers practical suggestions for the integration of non-Shakespearean drama into the teaching of Shakespeare. It shows both the ways in which Shakespearean drama is typical of its period and of the ways in which it is distinctive, by looking at Shakespeare and other writers who influenced and developed the genres in which he worked.

On the morning of May 30, 1593, Christopher Marlowe met with three associates in the English intelligence network. Later that evening the Queen's coroner was summoned to their meeting place. A body lay on the floor. After an inquest, the dead man was taken to a nearby churchyard busy at the time receiving victims of the plague. According to the official report, England's foremost playwright was interred without fanfare or marker. Soon, plays attributed to William Shakespeare began to appear on the London stage, plays so undeniably similar to Marlowe's that noted scholars have since declared that Shakespeare wrote as if he had been Marlowe's apprentice. Marlowe's Ghost: The Blacklisting of the Man Who Was Shakespeare explores the possibility that persecution of a writer who dared to question authority may have led to the greatest literary cover-up of all time.

Shakespeare's Education brings to life the educational experiences of boys in 16th century England. Monarchs from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I established hundreds of schools, and formulated a curriculum based on Latin, the reading of classical literature, and the performance of recitations and plays. This system educated Shakespeare and his contemporaries Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and thousands more. It became the matrix for one of the world's great periods in theatre history. More important, it helps us understand the writing of Shakespeare, the greatest playwright the world has seen. "Kate Pogue's book moves not at a snail's pace but jogs on merrily to an appreciation for how Shakespeare transformed his lessons into art."M Peter Greenfield Professor emeritus, University of Puget Sound Editor, Research Opportunities in Medieval and Renaissance Drama "Kate Pogue's engaging account of education at local grammar schools reminds us that it was more than sufficient to equip the brightest students for a literary career. " Robert Bearman formerly Head of Archives at the SBT "Shakespeare's education is a topic to which Kate Pogue brings the vivid insight of both the academic and the theatrical practitioner." John Taplin Author, Shakespeare's Country Families

'Enjoyable, lively ... such a pleasure to read ... renders the drama of Shakespeare’s contemporaries more than fringe entertainment’ Independent Shakespeare is one of the greatest of all English figures, considered a genius for all time. Yet as this enthralling book shows, he was at heart a man of the theatre, one among a community of artists in the teeming world of Renaissance London – from the enigmatic spy Christopher Marlowe to the self-aggrandizing Ben Jonson, from the actor Richard Burbage to the brilliant Thomas Middleton. By bringing Shakespeare’s contemporaries to life, Shakespeare & Co throws fresh new light on the man himself. ‘Warm, cheerful, generous ... Wells sketches a whole gallery of Shakespeare’s fellow playwrights ... He brings each vividly to life, making you feel that you’ve met them personally in some Blackfriars tavern’ Simon Callow ‘It was a time and place teeming with excitement, anecdote and incident, and Wells, in this richly enjoyable work, brings it to life with a novelist’s sense of the telling detail’ Dominic Dromgoole ‘Enthralling’ Observer ‘This is one of the most sane and exciting books on Shakespeare I have read for a long time’ Scotland on Sunday

Brings together two plays which put the spotlight on William Shakespeare as a character. Cheapside, by David Allen, is the story of Robert Greene, a struggling playwright in Elizabethan London. He has a constant struggle with debt, and with his rival playwrights who include Shakespeare and Marlowe. Cheapside is not only witty and entertaining, it also gives a different and interesting perspective on the lives and struggles of Elizabethan playwrights. In Men of Honour by John Upton, the central character is Will Shakespeare. Men of Honour is the story of Will the man, the son, the father, the husband, the lover and the courtier {u2013} as well as the playwright. It also gives an insight into the political intrigues of the time, and the fine balance required to survive.