Excerpt from Shakespeare's Lost Years in London, 1586-1592, 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 defeat of the Armada ended a long period of threat ened danger for England, and the following fifteen years Of Elizabeth's reign were passed in comparative security. The social life of London and the Court now took on, by com parison with the troubled past, an almost Augustan phase. During these years poetry and the drama flourished in England as they never did before, or since, in any such space of time. Within a few years of the beginning of this time Shakespeare became the principal writer for, and later on a Sharer in, a company of players which, at about the same time, was chosen as the favourite Court company a position which - under various titles - it continued to hold thereafter wards for over forty years. When we compare the plays of Shakespeare with those of his contemporaries and immediate successors, it becomes evident that this dominant position was maintained by his company largely through the superior merit of his work while he lived, and by the prestige he had attained for it after he had passed away. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.