The malcontent figure was a commonplace character type on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage. However, scholars have consistently confused this dramatic stereotype with the seemingly ubiquitous melancholiac. This study seeks to extricate the malcontent from the ever-burgeoning mass of details associated with Elizabethan melancholia and identifies political discontent as the definitive characteristic of the type. In addition, this book examines the historical circumstances that generated the malcontent and strives to illuminate the reciprocal relationship between drama and society.