Robert Nye
Shakespeare’s Annus Mirabilis
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
By James Shapiro
Faber & Faber 416pp £20 order from our bookshop
In 1599 England was engaged in the usual bloody turmoil with Ireland, sending off an army under the Earl of Essex to put down a rebellion led by Tyrone. The Spanish were threatening to try their luck with another Armada. At court, there was much speculation as to who would succeed the childless Queen Elizabeth, now sixty-seven and starting to look towards the end of her long reign. It was, as James Shapiro says, a pivotal year.
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