Despite persistent reference to the ‘all-male stage’, women comprised a significant portion of the audience at both types of playhouse. We have records of playhouse attendance by a queen, along with two countesses, four other women aristocrats, two ambassadors’ wives, and ten ladies (Gurr 1996, 61). This likely incomplete roll-call sheds interesting interpretive light on the potential reception of the sexual politics in several of Shakespeare’s plays, not least The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado about Nothing, and Measure for Measure.