No one writes in a vacuum.

The places where writers sit inevitably shape the characters they create and the stories they tell.

Well, here's the story of a place.

It's a place filled with memorable characters.

One of them was a great entrepreneur.

One of them was the first Englishman to set foot in Russia.

One of them was Queen Elizabeth, and one of them was Shakespeare.

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers Director.

While what we know about William Shakespeare is about as much as we would,

about any middle-class Englishman of his time,

there's plenty that's known about his stomping grounds.

London in the time of Shakespeare was a city in the midst of a phenomenal metamorphosis.

During the course of Shakespeare's professional life, the city experienced a meteoric transition,

rocketing from the capital of the hinterlands to a cosmopolitan city on its way to becoming

the capital of the Western world.

Stephen Alford, a professor of early modern British history at the University of Leeds, tells

the story of this breathtaking rise in his new book, London's triumph, merchants, adventurers,

and money in Shakespeare City.

He came in recently to talk about a place that Shakespeare helped shape and one that clearly

helped shape Shakespeare.

We call this podcast, Wander Up and Down to View the City.

...