From the Preface: At first glance, this volume may seem to be a compromise, based largely on other excellent works, and an unnecessary addition to the anthologies of English drama already published. It is a compromise. For the editors have attempted to present in a single volume representative plays from the beginning of drama in England to the closing of the theatres in 1642. In one book will be found examples of the early religious and folk plays, the morality and interlude, the early plays by court and professional authors, masques, the Elizabethan drama (exclusive of Shakespeare except as collaborator), and the Jacobean and Carolan drama. This inclusiveness, for the advantage of historical and critical continuity, has necessitated a rigorous examination of plays, in a field that is particularly rich; many excellent plays have been excluded with regret.