The life of William Shakespeare is inextricably linked with the history of London; as Catharine Arnold tells the story, the dramatist and the city came of age together at the turn of the 17th century. James Burbage founded the theatre in Shoreditch, and carried its timbers across the Thames to build the Globe Theatre among bear-gardens and brothels. The theater burned during a performance of Henry VIII and was shut down by Oliver Cromwell in 1642, yet as Arnold opines, it endures today as a symbol of the Bard and his era.