An entertainingly far-fetched play combining mythical tales of the origin of St Alban's with folklore about the craft of shoemaking to produce a comic history which draws together the foundations of British nationhood, the establishment of the Church of England, and the beginnings of dynastic rule.

This edition of William Rowley's play A Shoemaker, A Gentleman, in the Globe Quarto series co-published with Shakespeare's Globe to mark the rediscovery of forgotten plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries, is edited by Trudi Darby.