3. A Fair Youth
A world of vice and entertainment - the Bard makes his name in London and meets a muse for his sonnets. Read by Toby Stephens.
Arriving in London in the 1580s, Shakespeare moved to Bankside where whorehouses sat beside theatres.
New works were needed. Shakespeare would have seen Tamburlaine by his contemporary, the university educated Christopher Marlowe. Then audiences flocked to see Shakespeare's own Henry VI's plays. By the time his main literary rivals were dead, Richard III and his comedies were staged. And could the 'young and fantastical' Earl of Southampton have inspired Shakespeare's finest love sonnets?
Written by Stephen Greenblatt
Abridged by Miranda Davies
Read by Toby Stephens, with excerpts read by Alice Hart and John Rowe
Producer Emma Harding
First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in October 2004.
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