The Early Modern English (EModE) period has been greatly neglected by historical linguists. Although there are very useful studies relating to pronunciation and phonological systems (Dobson 1968, Horn and Lehnert 1954), to inflexion (Graband 1965), to individual problems of syntax (Ellegård 1953, Jacobsson 1951, Rydén 1966), to the theoretical linguistic background (Michael 1970, Padley 1976 and 1985), to educational history (Michael 1987, Howatt 1984), or to the position of EModE vis-à-vis Latin (Jones 1953), other important areas, especially of syntax, lexis and semantics, have so far not been satisfactorily treated.

Linguistic data and interpretations, moreover, have frequently been adduced only for philological textual discussions, in particular in the case of Shakespeare's works. And this has been done mainly in a contrastive manner: only features likely to cause misunderstanding to a modern English reader have been commented upon. Franz's work (1939) is an exception, since he offers much more than the title of his book Shakespeare's Language indicates. His work in fact proves to be a fairly comprehensive treatment of EModE grammar.

The neglect of the EModE period is especially hard to understand if one considers how important this stage was for the history of the English language: it was the period when many of the characteristic structures of the modern written language developed. The same neglect is found in academic teaching. Introductions to EModE are far less frequent than classes in Old English or Middle English.