Theatrical life in London during the first half of the seventeenth century was diverse and vibrant. 'The King's Men', as the group of actors for whom Shakespeare wrote most of his plays was known, employed many instrumentalist and singers and this recording is a survey of the works composed (as incidental music or as settings of sections of the plays themselves) by Robert Johnson, composer-in-residence, and his contemporaries between the years 1609 and 1642, when The Civil War brought a premature close to the activities of 'The King's Men'.

The Shakespeare plays represented here are Cymbeline, Macbeth, The Tempest, and The Winter's Tale. Also we have settings from other contemporary plays by such authors as Beaumont and Fletcher, Jonson, Middleton and Webster.