"New discoveries of the first importance about Shakespeare and his Stratford background have emerged from the first thorough examination of the Acts Books of the Ecclesiastical Court of Stratford. The finding of these 'long lost' original records among the Sackville MSS by the Kent Archives Office was first announced in an article by Hugh Hanley in The Time Literary Supplement of 21 May 1964. Since then Dr. Brinkworth has methodically analyzed the records to produce not myths, imaginings or far-fetched theories, but a mass of solid facts. Usually called 'The Bawdy Courts' because they were so occupied with sexual offences, the Church Courts in fact covered a wide area of the whole life. They were held regularly, everywhere, and everyone was answerable to them. The Stratford records throw a flood of light upon an aspect of Shakespeare's life hitherto unrealised and never before discussed. They show how intimately the courts were part and parcel of his mind and experience which, in turn, went into the making of his plays. Here also are new facts about many of Shakespeare's nearest relatives and friends and a host of contemporaries well known to him. Life in Shakespeare's Stratford is revealed in vivid detail and in all its naked reality. There is fresh evidence on Shakespeare's religion and on the circumstances of his death: evidence which calls for a critical look at long-established traditions. The book also contains a full precis, or Calendar, of the original records on which it is based. All the many parts of the original which are in England are given in full, retaining the contemporary spelling, and are of great interest as examples of the languages in use at Stratford in Shakespeare's lifetime. They convey the flavor of the age as nothing else can. Entirely new Shakespearian documents are thus made available in considerable detail, and together with the map, the facsimiles and the illustrations (including a little-known drawing of the now long-demolished New Place, home of Shakespeare in the last years of his life), make a work of permanent value." -Publisher.