Robeson as Othello and Ashcroft as Desdemona, reproduced courtesy of Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection.
London panorama including Globe. Reproduced courtesy of the Guildhall Library, City of London.
Engraving from Chandos portrait (private collection © Bardbiz Limited).
Drawing of the Swan Theatre, Southwark by Arendt van Buchell © Private collection/The Bridgeman Art Library.
Reconstruction of Elizabethan theater © Charcoalblue.
Engraving of New Place, reproduced by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Records Office.
Title page from Roxana (private collection © Bardbiz Limited).
Portrait of Ned Kynaston (private collection © Bardbiz Limited).
His Majesty James I and his Royal Progeny together with the Family of the King of Bohemia, engraving from painting attributed to Simon or Willem de Passe/ © City of Westminster Archive Centre, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library.
Engraving from William Hogarth, Garrick as Richard III (private collection © Bardbiz Limited).
Engraving of sixteenth-century printing house (private collection © Bardbiz Limited).
The forms of Elizabethan secretary hand (private collection © Bardbiz Limited).
Title page in the First Folio, with engraving of William Shakespeare, reproduced by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Catalogue of plays in the First Folio, reproduced by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
First page of Henry V in the First Folio, © The Royal Shakespeare Company.
Title page to Merry Wives of Windsor © The Royal Shakespeare Company.
Remaining images in introductions to individual plays, private collection © Bardbiz Limited.
Portrait of Henry Wriothesley (1573–1624), Third Earl of Southampton, c.1590–93 (oil on panel), Critz, John de (1555–1641). © Private collection/The Bridgeman Art Collection.
Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) being carried in Procession (Eliza Triumphans), c.1601 (oil on canvas) attributed to Robert Peake (fl. 1580–1626). © The Bridgeman Art Library.
Portrait of Richard Burbage (1568–1619) (oil on canvas), English School (seventeenth century) © Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library.
Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun, Moorish Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth I, 1600, reproduced courtesy of the University of Birmingham Collection © the University of Birmingham.
Page from Sir Thomas More © British Library Board. All rights reserved.
The Tempest: Joe Cocks Studio Collection, © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Much Ado About Nothing: Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: (Peter Brook) Reg Wilson / © Royal Shakespeare Company; (Michael Boyd) Donald Cooper / © Royal Shakespeare Company.
As You Like It: (Michael Elliott) Angus McBean / © Royal Shakespeare Company; (Adrian Noble) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
The Taming of the Shrew: (Michael Bogdanov) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust; (Gregory Doran) Jonathan Dockar-Drysdale / © Royal Shakespeare Company.
Romeo and Juliet: Bob Workman / © Royal Shakespeare Company.
Twelfth Night: Reg Wilson / © Royal Shakespeare Company.
Henry V: Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Henry VI: John Haynes / © Royal Shakespeare Company.
Richard III: (Bill Alexander) Reg Wilson / © Royal Shakespeare Company; (Sam Mendes) © Michael Le Poer Trench.
Coriolanus: Reg Wilson / © Royal Shakespeare Company.
Macbeth: Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Titus Andronicus: (Deborah Warner) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust; (Yukio Ninagawa) Ellie Kurttz / © Royal Shakespeare Company.
Julius Caesar: (Nunn and Goodbody) Reg Wilson / © Royal Shakespeare Company; (David Farr) Manuel Harlan/ © Royal Shakespeare Company.
Hamlet: (Peter Hall) Reg Wilson / © Royal Shakespeare Company; (Ron Daniels) © Richard Mildenhall.
King Lear: (Peter Brook) Angus McBean / © Royal Shakespeare Company; (Adrian Noble) © Mark Douet/ArenaPAL.
Othello: (Michael Attenborough) Donald Cooper / © Royal Shakespeare Company; (Trevor Nunn) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Antony and Cleopatra: (Trevor Nunn) Reg Wilson / © Royal Shakespeare Company; (Gregory Doran) Pascal Molliere / © Royal Shakespeare Company.