This volume reflects in ways far beyond the formally academic Maurice Keen's capacity to inspire. Compiling and editing a festschrift offers many pitfalls: identifying contributors, matching articles to a theme appropriate to the honorand, making sure that essays arrive on time and to length, let alone finding a publisher and coordinating the mechanics of publication. The very idea of such celebratory volumes provokes scorn in some quarters as being unnecessary, self-indulgent and academically incoherent. In these and all other respects, editing this volume for Maurice has confounded scepticism. Not only was there no difficulty in drawing up a list of friends, colleagues and pupils who should be approached, the list had to exclude some who would have been happy to have been asked and excellent if included. Then, to the surprise, and at times anxiety of the editors, almost everyone approached not only agreed to write but then actually did so, leading to delicate negotiations with our ever-sympathetic publisher about the eventual size of the book. Even the index attracted a volunteer, Shashi Jayakumar, Maurice's former student. To all the contributors, the editors offer their gratitude, admiration and appreciation. Special thanks must be afforded to Angela Coss, whose generous, indefatigable industry and lynxeyed copy-editing has forged idiosyncrasy and contradiction into coherence. It is a pleasure to record the financial assistance and hospitality of the Master and Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford, and especially Martin Conway and Simon Skinner. Caroline Palmer and her staff at Boydell and Brewer have displayed characteristic efficiency and understanding in bringing the idea for this volume to print. Indispensible to planning and preparation was the part played by Mary Keen. The subterfuge of smuggling information and requests to and from the editors under the guise of swapping recipes with Angela Coss, so as not to alert Maurice to what was afoot, could almost have stepped out of a late medieval romance. The harmony that has prevailed throughout the project is due in no small measure to the good humour and clear thinking of my fellow editor Peter Coss whose enthusiasm first ignited the idea. Typical of dealings with Maurice, this enterprise has proved a delight.