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Starting in January 1990, Oxford University Press will publish and distribute books on behalf of the Malone Society. The Society was founded in 1906 and named after Edmund Malone, editor of the first variorum edition of Shakespeare (1790). The Society's first general editor was W.W. Greg, whose standards for accuracy in the editing of English Renaissance play texts and documents established for the Society a reputation for meticulous scholarship. Its publications, all of which containing material not readily available elsewhere, are indispensable to serious students of English Drama and to libraries that serve such students. Having already published 150 volumes, the Society and Oxford will continue to provide editions of English Renaissance plays from manuscript; photographic facsimile editions of printed plays of the period; and editions of manuscript and printed documents related to Renaissance drama. As in the past, primary emphasis will be placed on the bibliographical, textual, and historical circumstances surrounding each play, text, or document. Please contact Oxford University Press for availability of backlist titles. This edition of The Contention includes a photographic facsimile of the Folger copy of the first quarto edition of the play; a system of thorough line numbers to facilitate reference; and line references to Hinman's Norton facsimile of 2 Henry VI allowing easy comparison of the two texts.