Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers: How Early Modern Playwrights Shaped the World's Greatest Writer

A fascinating book exploring the early modern authors who helped to shape Shakespeare’s beloved plays. Shakespeare’s plays have influenced generations of writers, but who were the early modern playwrights who influenced him? Using the latest techniques in textual analysis Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers a fresh look at William Shakespeare and reveals the influence of a community of playwrights that shaped his work. This compelling book argues that we need to see early modern drama as a communal enterprise, with playwrights borrowing from and adapting one another's work. From John Lyly's wit to the collaborative genius of John Fletcher, to Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers fresh insights into Shakespeare’s artistic development and shows us new ways of looking at the masterpieces that have enchanted audiences for centuries.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Plucking a crow 1 A player’s hide 2 John Lyly 3 Christopher Marlowe 4 Thomas Kyd 5 Robert Greene 6 George Peele 7 Thomas Dekker, John Marston, and Ben Jonson 8 Thomas Middleton 9 John Fletcher Conclusion: Our other Shake-scenes Index

About the Author :
Darren Freebury-Jones is an author, Shakespeare scholar, editor and poet. In 2023 he was elected as a full Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his contributions to historical scholarship. He has spent many years lecturing on Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon and around the world.

Review :
'As this new book expertly shows, [Shakespeare] did not write alone. Shakespeare's borrowed feathers is less about the "upstart crow" who upset the gossipy, close-knit world of Elizabethan theatre, and more about those other writers whose influence, rivalry and collaboration shaped the canon we attribute to Shakespeare solo.' Emma Smith, The Telegraph 'Persuasive and precise, this exceptionally well-researched book is an invaluable addition to scholarship that examines how literary collaborations shaped the modern Shakespeare canon.' Kirkus Reviews 'Freebury-Jones’s detailed evidence builds towards an argument that the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatrical world was a community of writers who were acquaintances, rivals and hired journeymen, and that they freely borrowed “feathers” from each other in openly intertextual fashion [...] Freebury-Jones provides at the beginning of each chapter entertaining pen-portraits of a motley range of personalities.' Robert White, Inside Story ‘Once in a generation a book comes along that sends a shockwave through the literary world, dramatically rewriting our understanding of Shakespeare. This masterpiece of scholarly detective-work allows us to see how the Bard we know was shaped by very human impulses: admiration, envy, the hunger for success, the spirit of cooperation or simply the inability to get a phrase from a rival’s play out of his head. To read this game-changing book is to see Shakespeare and his milieu with new eyes. A stunning contribution to the field that I cannot recommend highly enough!’ Chris Laoutaris, author of Shakespeare's Book: The Intertwined Lives behind the First Folio ‘Shakespeare's borrowed feathers tackles the most polarising questions of early modern drama with authority, dexterity and style. This intimate portrait of Shakespeare's creative community gives the most familiar plays, players and playwrights new life.’ M. L. Rio, author of If We Were Villains 'Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers excitingly makes us think afresh about the way Shakespeare wrote within the community of playwrights, his predecessors and contemporaries. In this network of writers, they encountered each other’s plays and no doubt 'borrowed' phrases from them. This is a long way from the Romantic image of Shakespeare as isolated genius, and it is entirely convincing.' Peter Holland, Times Literary Supplement ‘Solitary genius? Thieving magpie? We live in copyright times, obsessed with Best. Freebury-Jones explores Shakespeare’s world, where playwrights collaborated with, borrowed from and were influenced by each other. How exciting for actors nowadays to be reminded that “The play’s the thing”. Not authorship or provenance but Story-Power.’ Bruce Alexander, actor ‘A marvellous guide that provides a window into the dramatic culture that Shakespeare inherited, absorbed and shaped, showing how his experience as an actor determined the course of his writing career.’ Andrew Hadfield, author of Thomas Nashe and Late Elizabethan Writing ‘Darren Freebury-Jones attempts the impossible and pulls off the necessary. Both summative and innovative, this book accounts for where Shakespeare attribution studies are today while showing us where they are going tomorrow. It turns out that Shakespeare feathered his nest with borrowed plumes and, in so doing, became a full-fledged playwright.’ Paul Menzer, author of Shakespeare without Print ‘Darren Freebury-Jones has written a lively and refreshingly good-tempered account of a notoriously complex subject which, like everything to do with Shakespeare, has become something of a scholarly minefield. No reader will agree with all of it, but it is good to have the facts and arguments laid out in a clear and comprehensible way.’ Lois Potter, author of The Life of William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography ‘A weighty study, rich with insight, that helps us see Shakespeare not as a sacred solitary genius but as a powerfully responsive writer among other writers. Darren Freebury-Jones draws hitherto unrelated plays into striking new relationship with one another. You won’t look at early modern drama in the same way again.’ Will Tosh, author of Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare ‘Shakespeare's borrowed feathers provides a lively, accessible reassessment of Shakespeare's authorship, using new tools to intervene in long-standing debates. The book contributes to the growing evidence in support of seeing Shakespeare as a borrower and not just a lender, part of an intricate and well-balanced ecosystem of writers collaborating with and learning from one another.’ Pascale Aebischer, author of Viral Shakespeare: Performance in the Time of Pandemic 'His accounts of the lives and works of writers from Lyly and Marlowe to Middleton and Fletcher are engrossing and valuable.' Andrew Hilton, StageTalk magazine ‘A remarkable achievement, placing Shakespeare fairly and squarely in the context of his time. His preeminence means that we tend to view him in splendid isolation, but this highly readable survey skilfully shows that he was in fact at the centre of a dizzying nexus of theatrical talents.’ Christopher Luscombe, theatre director 'Breaking new ground here is no mean feat, but the weight of meticulous evidence Freebury-Jones brings to the table ensures that Borrowed Feathers does so with real authority.' Matt Ryan, EPOCH Magazine 'A fascinating read which draws attention to a number of playwrights who deserve to be better known, reveals a great deal about the familiarity they all had with each others’ works, and provides a convincing picture of a lively group of creative people together with all their friendships, rivalries, competitions and collaborations.' Harriet Devine, Shiny New Books 'A hugely recommended read for theatre and history enthusiasts, and a must for early modern specialists.' Debbie Gilpin, Mind the Blog 'Freebury-Jones does a wonderfully spirited job with each of his subjects [...] The author's fervid imagination crops up everywhere, always distinctly vivid.' Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review 'While paying plenty of respect to those who came before, Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers remains a thrilling account of one artist’s evolutionary takeoff.' Ash Caton, Ear Read This 'Guided by Freebury-Jones’s useful book, we might be able to discern the echoes of Lyly in Cymbeline or the presaging of Jonson in Julius Caesar: the fluttering of other feathers.' Kazuo Robinson, New Criterion 'Highly recommended.' CHOICE