Are Shakespeare's Dogberry, Dull, and Elbow accurate characterizations of 16th and 17th century English constables? This book--the first in-depth study of such officers--shines new light on a position that was vital to the process of state-building and local government. Drawing on constables' accounts and legal records from a number of counties, the book explores the function, selection, and social characteristics of constables and evaluates their performance and conduct in office. Far from finding them lowly and incompetent, as earlier views have held, Kent demonstrates that constables provided a flexible and generally effective means of interlinking the state and local communities in early modern England.