This edition brings five of Marston"s most interesting plays together in a readable and helpful form. They are collected with modern spelling, full commentaries, textual notes and introductions, in texts newly edited from the original quartos. A survey of criticism of Marston is included. The edition of Sophonisba (a play highly praised by T. S. Eliot) is the first modernised text to appear in one hundred years. Another textual innovation is the relegation to an appendix of Webster's obtrusive additions to The Malcontent. Marston"s plays have enjoyed popular revivals in English theatres over the last decade, and the authors" commentary is designed to alert readers to theatrical effects. The playwright"s language is elucidated here far more fully than in any other collection.