In Search of Shakespeare The Duty of Poets

The Duty of Poets

Historian Michael Wood traces the playwright's rise to fame in Elizabethan London. He charts how his rejection of religious poetry led to the writing of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and how the death of his son Hamnet brought about a mid-life crisis and drove him to a passionate affair with a married woman. Examining his tax records, the presenter also discovers Shakespeare lived in Southwark where, after being summonsed for GBH, he created one of his greatest characters - Falstaff