This volume presents a collection of papers which consider the phenomenon of modality in the context of English historical linguistics, in particular as a consequence of changes taking place at the beginning of the Early Modern period. The contributions, representing post-Lightfoot thinking, consider semantic and pragmatic approaches to the question in a generally corpus-based approach. It is essentially a review of modal forms in use, whether they be central or marginal verbal forms or the non-verbal forms which are available in English.