This project was begun in 1976–7 during my term as a National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Earlier versions of some sections have since appeared in print, so for permission to incorporate such materials here I wish to thank the editors of the Yearbook of English Studies (and their publishers, the Modern Humanities Research Association), Renaissance Drama, Renaissance Papers, and Elizabethan Theatre IX. In addition, parts of this argument have been presented to various scholarly gatherings, so for helpful comments my thanks are due to colleagues at the Folger Institute Colloquium; the Southeastern Renaissance Conference; several seminars of the Shakespeare Association of America; the NEH Symposium on ‘Shakespeare in Performance’ (Urbana, 1977); and, in particular, the 1981 International Conference on Elizabethan Theatre at Waterloo, Ontario (with special thanks to G. R. Hibbard). Of the many people in the academic and theatrical worlds who have been generous in sharing insights and responding to my questions, let me single out Homer Swander, Audrey Stanley, Bernard Beckerman, David Bevington, Michael Warren, Steven Urkowitz, Gary Taylor, G. R. Proudfoot, Pat Patton, Denis Arndt, James Edmondson, Martha Henry, Urjo Kareda, Ian Richardson, Terry Hands, and Patrick Stewart.