Thanks to Shakespeare, Hollywood, and the formidable Elizabeth I herself, Elizabethan England remains a place and time that fascinates us. Modern England still has visible memorials of the Elizabethans--the houses they built, the objects they cherished, the patterns they imposed upon the very landscape. A. L. Rowse's famously vivid portrayal of the Elizabethan world is a detailed account of that society and tradition, from the lowest social class to the men and women who governed the realm. A major new introduction from Christopher Haigh offes both a reflection on Rowse's masterpiece and an assessment of the Elizabethan Age.