I am grateful for the expert advice Michael Cordner offered through the various stages of preparing this edition. His experience and knowledge saved me from committing more mistakes than I care to admit. Mary Partridge did an expert job with the collations, Edwin Pritchard did the same with copy-editing, and Martin Wiggins answered several anxious last-minute queries with calm and wisdom. Throughout the project, Judith Luna at OUP has proved to be a bastion of strength and patience. I want to thank her especially for seeing the project through. I also want to thank Peter Holland for first suggesting that I undertake Four Restoration Libertine Plays. Christopher Wheatley, Richard Sha, and Kathleen Lesko read the introduction and suggested invaluable improvements. Any remaining errors are, of course, my responsibility. The Henry E. Huntington Library in the summer of 1998 and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in the autumn of 1999 provided short-term fellowships that allowed me to produce copy texts from their first editions. The Folger Shakespeare Library, as always, has been a haven and a refuge. I drew heavily upon the collections of all three libraries to write the notes and the introduction. A memorable Folger Institute seminar with Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine in the spring of 1998 introduced me to the basic principles of textual editing and abated my initial terror. A sabbatical from American University for 1999–2000 allowed me to draft the notes and introduction.
Finally, I want to acknowledge my husband, Rodney Harald Fisk, who courted me that summer of 1998, when I first began work on the copy texts. His bimonthly trips from Washington, DC, to the West Coast resulted in a romantic outcome more typical of Jane Austen than Sir George Etherege. Then again, we do not necessarily want to live first hand what we study.