Glynne Wickham 
Shakespeare »s Dramatic Heritage [PDF ebook] 
Collected Studies in Mediaeval, Tudor and Shakespearean Drama

Shakespeare »s Dramatic Heritage shows that the drama of Elizabethan and Jacobean England is deeply indebted to the religious drama of the Middle Ages and represents a climax, in secular guise, to mediaeval experiment and achievement rather than a new beginning. This is fully examined in terms of dramatic literature as well as in terms of theatres, stages and production conventions.
The plays studied include: Richard II, A Midsummer Night »s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, Coriolanus, The Winter »s Tale and Marlowe »s King Edward II.