What other playwright was extremely popular during Shakespeares time?

Answer 1

There were a number of them. Robert Greene (Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 1590), Thomas Kyd (The Spanish Tragedy, 1592), George Peele (Edward I, 1593), and Christopher Marlowe (Tamburlaine, 1587 and Doctor Faustus, 1589) were popular during Shakespeare's early career. John Marston (The Malcontent, 1603), Thomas Dekker (The Shoemakers' Holiday, 1599), Francis Beaumont (The Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1607 and (with John Fletcher) Philaster, 1609), Ben Jonson (Every Man in His Humour, 1598) and Thomas Middleton (The Revenger's Tragedy, 1606) were contemporary with Shakespeare's middle career. John Webster (The White Devil, 1612), John Ford ('Tis Pity She's a Whore, 1633) and Thomas Heywood (A Woman Killed With Kindness, 1603), along with the aforementioned John Fletcher were later writers.

All of these writers collaborated with others; sometimes a script had three or more credits. Even Shakespeare is believed to have collaborated with Middleton and Fletcher, who was groomed as his successor. In this way it is difficult to know how to attribute a successful play; 1621's The Witch of Edmonton, a very successful play, was a collaboration between Dekker, William Rowley (a famous clown who joined Shakespeare's former company in 1623 and who wrote comedic scenes in collaboration with others), John Ford and probably John Fletcher.

Modern scholars admire the work of Marlowe, Jonson and Webster, who are now the best-known playwrights of the era after Shakespeare, and whose plays are still regularly performed. However, without question the most popular play of the time, by anyone, was Kyd's Spanish Tragedy.