In this stunning new biography, Jonathan Bate weaves an exhilarating tapestry of the Elizabethan beliefs and obsessions, private passions and political intrigues that shaped and informed Shakespeare's mind. In the midst of this extraordinary, colourful and often violent world, he traces Shakespeare's various incarnations: precocious grammar-school boy, thoughtful young lover, canny businessman, social climber, and caring father. Gradually, Shakespeare emerges in a portrait that is vivid, nuanced and completely fresh: a man who was both timelessly talented and, in the words of his friend and rival Ben Jonson, the very soul of the Elizabethan age.