In the early modern playhouse, a play by Shakespeare was not the self-contained theatrical event we’ve come to think of it as today. Before taking a place in the playhouse, a London playgoer might have encountered many other forms of impromptu entertainment on the streets: games, sports, morris dances, singing, and conjuring tricks. Indeed, the first dramatic words a playgoer heard may not have been the opening lines of the plays themselves, but the lyrics of a ballad sung by a ‘balladmonger’ who also sold the printed texts of the narrative songs he or she sang.