Anthony Burgess' novel Nothing Like the Sun is a fictional biography of Shakespeare's love life, with solid roots in history. The hypothesis underlying the novel is that emotional and physical pain moved Shakespeare away from the comedies of the 1590s to the tragedies of the early 1600s.
In this episode, we hear "WS" converse with the sailor Hoby on the bank of the River Avon, we follow him to Bath to buy playscripts, we see him encounter the Young Man of the Sonnets one night at the theatre. And then there is the Dark Lady, her face blessed to gold... and her mourner's eyes.