This important new edition of one of Shakespeare's more neglected plays offers a wide-ranging critical introduction, concentrating on its relevance to Elizabethan political issues and on the role played in it by women, by legal concepts and practices, and by the family. The printing of the play in the First Folio (1623) is studied in fresh detail, and there are illustrations of the play in performance, and a comprehensive stage history. Full and helpful annotation pays special attention to the play's language and staging.