This study opens new horizons upon Shakespeare’s achievement by redefining the relationship between language and performance in the early modern playhouse. In Shakespeare’s theatre the growing authority of the text was not superimposed upon performance; rather, the Renaissance impulse of “mighty” eloquence accommodated, even collaborated with, a performance practice marked by self-sustained energies and appeals. Shakespeare foregrounds this power of performance in its boldest bodily delivery through his use of Vice descendants, clowns and fools, gendered disguise, and “secretly open” modes of role-playing. Throughout his career, Shakespeare’s plays were therefore driven by a dynamic relationship between language and show. Meeting the challenge of Performance Studies, the authors effectively bridge the gulf between stage-centered and text-centered approaches. This book rewrites the history of a formative phase in Shakespeare’s contribution to world theatre.