Many of the papers in this volume were first presented at a workshop held at the Folger Institute, Washington, DC, on 4–5 October 1991. The theme of the workshop was ‘Court and Culture during the Reign of Elizabeth I: The Last Decade’. Not all the contributors on that occasion wished to publish their papers, while at the same time some highly relevant studies were being undertaken by scholars who had been unable to attend. The outcome is that four scholars were recruited to reinforce the ‘original’ team: Paul E. J. Hammer, Natalie Mears, Hiram Morgan and Jim Sharpe. I am extremely grateful for their contributions, and for those of the participants in the original workshop. The workshop was sponsored by the Folger Institute Center for Shakespeare Studies and was supported by a grant from the Education Division of the National Endowment for the Humanities. I would like to express gratitude to the Folger Institute staff, in particular Barbara A. Mowat (Chair), Lena Cowen Orlin (Executive Director), Carol Brobeck (Program Assistant), Ivy Gilbert (Program Assistant) and Molly Haws (Administrative Assistant).

The editorial work was undertaken at the University of St Andrews. My secretary, Lorna Harris, helped with correspondence and retyped the bulk of the contributions to enable inconsistencies to be resolved.