IN 1965 R.M. LUMIANSKY and I began our collaboration on an edition of the Chester Mystery Cycle to replace the then standard edition, begun by Hermann Deimling and, after his death, completed by an otherwise unknown "Dr. Matthews," which had been published in two volumes by the Early English Text Society in 1892 and 1913.

Our original plan was to produce an edition in three volumes-the text with full variants; notes and glossaries; and essays on textual and production matters. Our first volume, Text, was published by the Early English Text Society in 1974. The second volume, Commentary, followed in 1986. But the Society was unable for economic reasons to produce the third volume, and we therefore published our essays as an independent volume with the University of North Carolina Press in 1983. These three books constitute a full edition with scholarly apparatus.

From the outset, however, we recognised that our edition was too elaborate for the general, non-specialist reader and determined that when it was complete we would prepare a modern-spelling edition on different principles which would make the cycle more readily accessible to teach�ers and students. The present edition attempts to fulfill that purpose. It builds directly upon the scholarly edition, and readers seeking fuller information about textual matters should consult that work. Sadly, Bob Lumiansky died before this edition was complete, but his researches have contributed immeasurably to it, and it was an enterprise which had his wholehearted support.

I gratefully acknowledge the release of copyright on our edited text of the cycle by the Early English Text Society and on our edition of the Post-Reformation Banns by the University of North Carolina Press.