No work this size can come into being without a good deal of help. I am very happy to acknowledge various kinds of assistance from the following: the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for the Humanities; the University of Surrey Roehampton; Professor Lois Potter; Professor Marcia Pointon; Dr José Roberto O’Shea and Dr Marcia A. P. Martins (who helped Margarida Rauen with the Brazilian entry); Alison Jones, Joanna Harris, and Wendy Tuckey at OUP; Edwin and Jackie Pritchard, patient copy-editors. At Roehampton Anne Button provided tireless administrative assistance, helped for one short but crucial period by Mauritza Roach. To venture beyond the category of help, Stanley Wells has been a wonderful Associate General Editor, and working with him has been, as always, an inspiration and a pleasure. The support of Nicola Watson, including her expertise in the matter of food and drink, has been invaluable. It seems only appropriate, in a work about a writer who found it necessary to flee to London to get some writing done after the birth of his own twins, that I should conclude by acknowledging the crucial role that has been played by Elizabeth and Rosalind, who made the completion of this work both necessary and at times almost impossible, and who continually remind me that whatever great things Shakespeare achieved he may have missed out on some greater ones.
michael dobson