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Non deerunt fortasse vitilitigatores, qui calumnientur, partim leviores
esse nugas, quam ut Theologum deceant, partim mordaciores, quam ut
christianæ conveniant modestiæ.
Erasm. Moriæ Encom. præfat.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

PRINTED BY W. NICOL, 51, PALL MALL.

MDCCCXXXV.

480.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

LITTLE or no apology need be offered to the Public for presenting it with a new edition of HUDIBRAS; the poem ranks too high in English literature not to be welcomed if it appear in a correct text, legible type, and on good paper: ever since its first appearance it has been as a mirror in which an Englishman might have seen his face without becoming, Narcissus-like, enamoured of it; such an honest looking-glass must ever be valuable, if there be worth in the aphorism of nosce teipsum. May it not in the present times be as useful as in any that are past? Perhaps even in this enlightened age a little self-examination may be wholesome; a man will take a glance of recognition of himself if there be a glass in the room, and it may happen that some indication of the nascent symptoms of the wrinkles of treason, of the crows-feet of fanaticism, of the drawn-down mouth of hypocrisy, or of the superfluous hairs of self-conceit may startle the till then unconscious

possessor of such germs of vice, and afford to his honester qualities an opportunity of stifling them ere they start forth in their native hideousness, and so, perchance, help to avert the repetition of the evil times the poet satirizes, which, in whatever point they are viewed, stand a blot in the annals of Britain.

The edition in three quarto volumes of Hudibras, edited by Dr. Nash* in 1793, has become a book of high price and uncommon occurrence. It may justly be called a scholar's edition, although the Editor thus modestly speaks of his annotations: "The principal, if not the sole view, of the anno"tations now offered to the public, hath been to "remove these difficulties, (fluctuations of lan

* " January 26, 1811.—At his seat at Bevere, near Worcester, " in his 86th year, Treadway Russel Nash, D.D., F.S. A., Rector "of Leigh. He was of Worcester College in Oxford; M. A. "1746, B. and D. D. 1758. He was the venerable Father of the "Magistracy of the County of Worcester; of which he was an "upright and judicious member nearly 50 years; and a gentle"man of profound erudition and critical knowledge in the several "branches of literature: particularly the History of his native county, which he illustrated with indefatigable labour and expence to himself. In exemplary prudence, moderation, affa"bility, and unostentatious manner of living, he has left no (6 superior of the truth of which remark the writer of this article "could produce abundant proof from a personal intercourse of long continuance; and which he sincerely laments has now an "end.-R." Gentleman's Magazine.

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