This lecture presents the text of the speech about William Shakespeare's involvement in the 1601 rebellion of the Earl of Essex delivered by the author at the 2008 Shakespeare Lecture held at the British Academy. It discusses the closure of performance theatre after the arrest of Essex, his steward Sir Gelly Meyrick, and several other men. The lecture also explains that the case of Meyrick is the first instance on record of a person being executed for commissioning the performance of (...) a Shakespeare play. (shrink)