Giving new light on the pre-sonnet period; showing the inception of relations between Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton and displaying John Florio as Sir John Falstaff. The most interesting and important fifteen years in the records of English dramatic literature are those between 1588 and 1603, within which time period all of Shakespeare's poems and the majority of his plays were written. This is considered the first book containing an exhaustive English history, intelligently coordinating the social, literary and political life of this period.