As this book was first published in the early twentieth century, it should be remembered that 'modern' can refer only to nineteenth-century theater. Sir Sydney Lee writes very much from the point of view that Shakespeare must be performed to be fully appreciated.

William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke, 1580-1630, was the 'uomo universale' of the Early Stuart Age. A prominent courtier in the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, he was the most important patron of the arts of the early seventeenth century, and almost certainly the person to whom Shakespeare dedicated his Sonnets. He was, in fact, the patron of almost every great literary and artistic figure of the period; Ben Jonson, Inigo Jones, John Donne, and George Herbert. Pembroke was an astute and powerful politician, the greatest electoral manager of the time, the wealthiest nobleman in the country, a powerful industrial entrepreneur, Chancellor of Oxford University and an indefatigable promoter of colonial enterprises. This major new work, the product of many years of research, is the first full length study of Pembroke. It has been exhaustively researched with all the extant manuscript and printed materials studied. Pembroke's poetry and patronage are fully discussed, his political life analysed, and his business activities both at home and abroad fully investigated.

In The Invention of Shakespeare, and Other Essays Stephen Orgel brings together twelve essays that consider the complex nature of Shakespearean texts, which often include errors or confusions, and the editorial and interpretive strategies for dealing with them in commentary or performance.