Edmund Tilney's importance to Elizabethan history has traditionally been held to lie in his influence on the history of drama. He was master of the revels in the latter part of Elizabeth's reign and the early part of James's, and in this capacity he was responsible for the selection and censorship of plays presented at court and in public. He was a man who wielded extraordinary power over the final shape of plays by Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and their contemporaries. The nature and extent of his power can be judged by his extensive annotations to the manuscript of Sir Thomas More (circa 1598), a play by Shakespeare and others which was never performed, probably by reason of the severity of his censorship. A study of Tilney's background and his methods of applying his powers is crucial to any account of the relations between Elizabethan drama and politics.

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