Drawing on the whole spectrum of Elizabethan-Jacobean writing (including letters and diaries), this anthology gives a picture of the world of the theatre against a background of the social activities and problems which were such a fruitful source of material to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Part I describes drama, audiences, theatrical companies, repertoires, acting and actors, buildings and equipment. Part II provides the social background: home, school, sport, Court, London, underworld, Church and State, the supernatural, law, philosophy, medicine, overseas trade and exploration. The editor outlines the historical background to each selection and links the topics covered to specific examples in the drama. Notes deal with problems raised by Elizabethan-Jacobean idiom and language or by local, topical and literary allusions. Professor Evans has taught Elizabethan-Jacobean drama for more than forty years and has edited over forty-five plays of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. New Mermaids are modern-spelling, fully annotated editions of important English plays.