Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest RivalPoor boy. Spy. Transgressor. Genius. In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobblers son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be knownand an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. A torment for most