This book began with a question asked by students in a seminar about Women in the Renaissance. “Why were servants so prominent?” they wondered, reflecting on the anonymous tragedy Arden of Feversham and on the poems of Isabella Whitney. They belonged, as does much of the book, to an era of scholarship which encouraged close scrutiny of subordinate actions.

Without the enthusiastic support of students and colleagues at the University of Manitoba, I could never have developed this project: Judith Owens criticized papers and shared research discoveries; John Rempel sent reading lists; George Toles made me take psychological criticism more seriously. For challenging arguments and indispensable information I would also like to thank Adam Muller, Karen Ogden, Arlene Young, Terry Ogden, Jonah Corne, Kathleen Darlington, and Nicola Woolff. Sociologists Charlene Thacker and Raymond Currie introduced me to connections between service and slavery by suggesting studies on Brazil and South Africa.

I am grateful to the Shakespeare Association of America for inviting me to chair a seminar on “Slavery in Renaissance Drama”; strong contributions by seminar members opened up a number of exciting new perspectives. I am also much in debt to Lynne Magnusson and Edward McGee for asking me to present a paper to the Elizabethan Theatre Conference exploring my approach. At a crucial early stage, criticism of the project by Scott Macmillin made it seem more promising than I had thought possible.