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May-pole dancers and Mummers, priests and companies of travelling players: many generations of people drawn from all walks of life go to make up the fascinating history of the English theatre. In this book, C. Walter Hodges describes in word and picture how the idea of the theatre in Shakespeare's time developed gradually from pagan festivals and religious drama to the playhouses of the sixteenth century. One playhouse in particular, a little thatched building which disappeared long ago, was The Globe. This was Shakespeare's theatre; the place where his plays were staged and he himself acted in them. The author describes a typical performance of Julius Caesar at The Globe, and writes of how theatres were designed and run at the time. He passes on his belief that the voice of Shakespeare remains one of the greatest voices of human experience, and that Shakespeare's theatre will always be one of the unforgettable places in the history of the human imagination.
C. Walter Hodges, after studying art at Goldsmith's College, London, began his professional career as a designer of stage scenery and costumes. Later he became a book illustrator, and today has more than seventy books to his credit in this field. He also designs exhibitions, paints mural decorations, and writes books for children. However, during all this he has continued to work for the theatre, especially for London's Mermaid Theatre, which he helped to design. He is an authority on the structure of the Elizabethan playhouses, especially The Globe, and has written books on this subject both for adults and children.
—from the dust jacket
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