Among the most intriguing dramatic documents of the Elizabethan age are seven plots, drawn up at various times between the early 1590s and early 1600s. Even though they provide revealing insights into Elizabethan staging practices, they have often been neglected by Shakespearean scholars. This neglect is easily explained when we consider that a close scrutiny of the plots has major and inconvenient consequences for some widely accepted beliefs about the transmission and function of Elizabethan playscripts.