The Poetical Rhapsody

because the best possible data for forming an opinion on the subject is afforded by the contents of the volumes, from their presenting specimens of seventeen poets of the period.

Under these circumstances it will only be further remarked, that the Lee Priory Edition of the RHAPSODY, in which the various readings of each of the other impressions are minutely noticed, was reprinted from the edition of 1608; and that the present was taken from a copy of that of 1611, from the belief that that edition was the last which was published during the life-time of the original editor, and consequently that it received his final corrections. The spelling has been modernized throughout-a change upon the propriety of which the best judges are at issue, and for which the Editor has no other apology than the very unsettled state of orthography in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in proof of which it is merely necessary to state, that the same word is frequently written in different ways in one line. This alteration may also be justified by the fact that it has been made in those copies of Shakspeare which are the most generally read. With this exception the text has only been disturbed where an obvious typographical error required it, or in those instances stated in the notes. Every material difference between the text of the different editions is specified; for which, from the rarity of the early impressions,

the editor acknowledges himself indebted to the Lee Priory edition, which had been collated with each of them by Mr. Haslewood, whose research and accuracy are a full security for their correctness; but, from an unwillingness to crowd the pages with useless references, mere literal variations have not always been pointed out. The notes likewise contain such illustrations and explanations of the text as seemed likely to render it more generally understood.

To the present edition of the POETICAL RHAPSODY many important additions have been made; it having been the editor's plan to render these volumes a perfect collection of the writings of FRANCIS DAavison. Besides translations of some Psalms by him and by his brother Christopher, the greater part of which were first printed by Sir Egerton Brydges, the following articles from his pen have been inserted; nearly the whole of which were copied from his own manuscripts, and are for the first time published.

The Dialogue between the Squire, Proteus, Amphitrite, and Thamesis, in the Gray's Inn Masque, 1594. Fragments of Poems and Anagrams.

A Censure upon Machiavel's Florentine History. Imperfect.

Answer to Mrs. Mary Cornwallis, pretended Countess of Bath's Libel, against the Countess of Cumberland.

To the work, biographical notices of each of the contributors, and also, for the reasons assigned, of

Sir Edward Dyer and Fulke Greville afterwards Lord Brooke, are prefixed. The account of Francis Davison and of Sir Edward Dyer, will, it is presumed, be thought particularly worthy of attention, from the many curious original letters which are introduced. Of these letters the extraordinary communication from Dyer to Sir Christopher Hatton, respecting Queen Elizabeth, which it is believed has not hitherto been printed, must be read with no common interest, for it appears to throw considerable light upon the delicate question of her Majesty's moral character.

These prefatory remarks cannot be concluded without the expression of the Editor's gratitude for the assistance with which he has been favoured by those three celebrated poetical antiquaries, Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, Mr. Park, and Mr. Haslewood. To Sir Egerton Brydges, for the valuable notes and illustrations in the Lee Priory edition of the RHAPSODY; and to Mr. Park and Mr. Haslewood, for their kind and prompt attention to his personal applications for information, his best thanks are therefore eminently due.

February, 1826.