Shapiro examines the 4 plays written in 1599 (Henry V, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet) and relates them to both Shakespeare's (assumed) thinking and external events. He re-reads the plays themselves in light of this and makes some excellent points. But this isn't a 'lit crit' book: it also delves into religion, Shakespeare's possible relationship with his wife and family back in Stratford, the Elizabethan theatrical world, and Elizabethan politics.

1599 is the year in which The Globe (then called The Theatre) was 'pinched' over Christmas 1598 and transported, timber by timber, from its original site in Shoreditch to be rebuilt on the other side of the Thames in Soutwark - a task which was not to be completed till the following July.

It was a year in which Shakespeare produced 4 plays, saw the downfall of Queen Elizabeth's favourite, the Earl of Essex and during which fear of invasion by Spain was a real and present danger.