The Elizabethan Underworld collects together sixteen of the more important tracts from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries dealing with the lives and misdoings of thieves, rogues, and tricksters. For the most part the original authors were men of experience - watchmen, constables and those who drifted into the London underworld and learnt its tricks. A thorough introduction contributes a full historical background and outlines contemporary social contexts.

The complex network of beggars and thieves, vagabonds and rogues that inhabited the colourful underworld society of London's taverns, brothels and gambling dens is what the author investigates. The book contains sixty contemporary illustrations from manuscripts and pamphlets, bringing to life this sector of Elizabethan society.

The Elizabethan age was one of unbounded vitality and exuberance; nowhere is the color and action of life more vividly revealed than in the rogue books and cony-catching (confidence game) pamphlets of the sixteenth century. This book presents seven of the age's liveliest works: Walker's Manifest Detection of Dice Play; Awdeley's Fraternity of Vagabonds; Harman's Caveat for Common Cursitors Vulgarly Called Vagabonds; Greene's Notable Discovery of Cozenage and Black Book's Messenger; Dekker's Lantern and Candle-light; and Rid's Art of Juggling. From these pages spring the denizens of the Elizabethan underworld: cutpurses, hookers, palliards, jarkmen, doxies, counterfeit cranks, bawdy-baskets, walking morts, and priggers of prancers. In his introduction, Arthur F. Kinney discusses the significance of these works as protonovels and their influence on such writers as Shakespeare. He also explores the social, political, and economic conditions of a time that spawned a community of renegades who conned their way to fame, fortune, and, occasionally, the rope at Tyburn.

This is a lively study of the Elizabethan world, so often recalled for its riotous love of life and bawdy sense of humour. The author portrays the contrast between the rich who indulged in luxuries and the poor who turned to thievery and begging.

True Crime.

A collection of excerpts from more than 40 primary documents written in William Shakespeare's lifetime, including letters, literature, speeches and polemics, official reports, and descriptive narratives.

Roberta Gellis has reimagined the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, in all its colorful intensity. Persephone has been restless under her domineering mother, Demeter. When Hades kidnaps her to his Underworld and teaches her what “gift” she has, he is threatened by the other mages to return her to Demeter. But Demeter realizes that her grown daughter has a will of her own… 1st of the Myth trilogy by Roberta Gellis; originally published by Pinnacle