For the time being, then, only political and not ecclesiastical authorities could approve the publication of histories; an author of an even mildly critical history would have to be unusually bold to approach the councillors for permission to publish. It was the epicenter of English power, beginning with the queen and radiating out through her privy councillors and lesser courtiers. First, there was the idea that the poet's life was, after all, a proper subject for biographical speculation.

The Chamberlain's Men took extra precautions with his two other works on the hypersensitive Lancastrian reign: both The Second Part of Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth were sanitized and seen into print far more quickly than any other plays Shakespeare wrote before or after. Shapiro convincingly demonstrates that 'it is no more possible to talk about Shakespeare's plays independently of his age than it is to grasp what his society went through without the benefit of Shakespeare's insights'.musters” was the far more corrupt practice whereby poor men were randomly hauled off to fight, sicken, and often die in foreign wars. James Shapiro has done an over the top brilliant job linking four of Shakespeare’s plays of 1599—Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like it, and Hamlet, to the impending send-off of an English army to put down Tyrone and Irish rebellion, in the midst of fears of a Spanish invasion, and tottering profits of the East India Company.

He quotes poetic tributes by critics enjoying the sexually charged Romeo and Juliet and Venus and Adonis.A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare' Professor and author James Shapiro talks about A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599.