This book collects together over one hundred sources by Elizabethan authors which show English life in English literature. Most of them have been selected as much to catch the atmosphere as the moods of the period, and come from the great Elizabethan writers who can transmit the essence of the time. A 'gallery of Elizabethan pictures' rather than a complete survey of life in Shakespeare's day, the spelling and punctuation have been modernized throughout. To enable those who wish to read the extracts in their context, references are given to the most accessible editions.