In co-editing this book we have benefited from many kindnesses, not least from our colleagues Madeleine Cox and Helen Hargest in the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, and from Alec Cobbe and Tara Hamling.

Our contributors have responded generously to our editorial requirements, especially our decision to use the Harvard author–date system which has allowed us to produce the book entirely without footnotes. Unless otherwise stated, all quotations from Shakespeare's work are taken from The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works, edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, with John Jowett and William Montgomery (Oxford University Press, 1986; 2nd edn 2005). Quotations from early texts are given in modern spelling unless there is good reason to preserve the original. Earlier versions of many of the essays were presented at the kind invitation of Dominique Goy-Blanquet as a seminar in Paris which formed part of the Shakespeare 450 conference hosted by the Société Française Shakespeare.

This book forms part of the worldwide commemorations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. In conjunction with its publication our friends and colleagues at Misfit Inc., A. J. and Melissa Leon, have produced a digital platform through which everyone can hear free of charge the re-imagined voices of the people in Shakespeare's life who were closest to him. You can find out more at www.theshakespearecircle.com

Throughout our enterprise we have felt deep gratitude for the encouragement and expertise of Sarah Stanton, who has guided the composition of the book from initial conversations through to completion. Rosemary Crawley at Cambridge University Press has been unfailingly helpful at all stages of production.