But such choice could
only be an extension of the eclectic method that has been rejected in
dealing with alternative readings, it seemed to be equally unscientific,
and, in view of the material in the Appendixes, needless.
In common with all the Quartos and the First Folio the Second Folio
has failings, which will be noted in due course, but these have been
exaggerated, and against them may be set the advantages detailed in the
address of 'The Booksellers to the Reader,' reprinted on p. lx.
It has been thought that it would be useful to students to give lists
of the different arrangements of prose and verse that obtain in the
different quartos, and these will be found in the Appendix after the
variants of each play.
The remaining volumes of this edition will follow as soon as can be
arranged.
* * * * *
The Syndics of the University Press have asked me to complete the work
begun by Arnold Glover. It was a work greatly to his mind: he spent much
labour upon it, being always keenly interested in critical, textual and
bibliographical work in English literature; he welcomed a return to his
earlier studies among the Elizabethans after five years given to the
works of one of their most discerning critics; but he did not live to see
the publication of the first volume of his new work.
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