Who's Who in Shakespeare's England: Over 700 Concise Biographies of Shakespeare's Contemporaries

As one can tell from the publisher?s descriptions and Booknews comments (above) this compilation of biographical sketches includes quite a broad range of ?characters? from Shakespeare?s England. It is a handy reference, especially to the newcomer to this period, to obtain *a little* more depth of knowledge into lives one may hear referenced while reading, say, Shakespeare studies. The best-targeted audience is the general lay public or undergraduates. English majors will soon become disappointed how the sketches selectively scratch the surface: the authors (editors, nearly) collect information from secondary/ tertiary sources, and sometimes round out entries with such information as who married whom how soon after their spouse?s death (i.e., occasionally higher on intrigue than substance). A dictionary of 700 entries obviously cannot explore the controversies of a life, but the Palmers at least strive to alert us to prominent issues therein.Admirably, the secondary sources on which they draw are responsibly acknowledged at the end of each entry and favor highly appropriate selections such as E. K. Chambers, Eccles, Schoenbaum, McKerrow, and the Dictionary of National Biography. Some changes are said to have been made since the original (1981) edition, but for a book only striving for such global summaries of each life can probably safely be bought in the earlier edition if you wish to save by selecting a used copy.