Writing Is A Performance, Like

Literate Households In The 17th Century Would Have Had The Bible, John Bunyan's "the Pilgrim's Progress," And A Couple Of Other Books. Shakespeare Plays Were Cheap, So You Could Buy Those, But A Folio Cost A Pound, Which Was An Incredible Amount Of Money Then.

Now A Protestant Confronting A Catholic Ghost Is Exactly Shakespeare's Way Of Grappling With What Was Not Simply A General Social Problem But One Lived Out In His Own Life.

What I Wanted To Do Was To Get That Sense Of Being In Touch With This Lost World While Holding Onto What Draws Readers And Audiences There In The First Place.

[people In 1600s] Didn't Have Many Books. They Would Have Been Staggered By The Personal Libraries We Have Today, Because Books Back Then Were Incredibly Expensive.

One Of My Favorite Writers Is Michel De Montaigne. My Wife Gave Me A Beautiful 17th-century Edition Of Montaigne's Essays Translated By John Florio. That's Probably My Most Precious Possession.