Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

NEW LIBRARY EDITION.

On the 1st of July will be Published, price 12s., cloth, Vo. I. of

THE WORKS

OF

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER;

THE TEXT FORMED FROM A NEW COLLATION OF THE EARLY

EDITIONS.

With Notes,

ND A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR.

BY

THE REV. A. DYCE.

Of these great dramatic writers only three critical editions have been hitherto attempted. The first was that of 1750, commenced by Theobald and completed by Seward and Sympson, in which the most unwarrantable liberties were taken with the text. The second, published in 1778, was at least an improvement on that of 1750, inasmuch as the Editors (of whom the elder Colman is supposed to have been the chief) rejected the greater portion of the arbitrary alterations introduced by their predecessors. The third was that of 1812, edited by Weber, who, as he availed himself of Monck Mason's notes (printed in 1798), produced on the whole the best edition of the dramatists which has yet appeared.

Much, however, remains to be done for Beaumont and Fletcher-principally by collation of the various old editions. In this respect the above-mentioned Editors were so unpardonably careless, that though (as their annotations prove) they used nearly all the earliest copies extant, they yet entirely overlooked a great number of readings, by which both the sense and the metre might have been restored. Nor are they less deserving of censure on another account: in too many passages which they happened not to understand they deliberately substituted their own improvements for the authors' genuine language.

In the edition now announced, the text will be formed on a very minute and accurate collation of all the early copies; and for the emendation of some of the plays, recourse will be had to authorities both printed and MS. with which the preceding editors of Beaumont and Fletcher were unacquainted.

The Edition will be comprised in Eleven Volumes, demy octavo; and a Volume will be published regularly every two months.

LONDON:

EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET.

1843.

JUST PUBLISHED,

In Ole Volume, 8vo, with a Portrait and Vignette, price 20s., cloth,

CHAUCER'S POETICAL WORKS.

WITH AN ESSAY ON HIS LANGUAGE AND VERSIFICATION, AND AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE ;

TOGETHER WITH NOTES AND A GLOSSARY.

BY THOMAS TYRWHITT.

IN THE PRESS,

In One Volume, 8vo,

SPENSER'S WORKS.

WITH A MEMOIR, NOTES, AND A GLOSSARY.

PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION,

In One Volume, 8vo.

CRITICAL REMARKS

ON

MR. J. P. COLLIER'S AND MR. C. KNIGHT'S EDITIONS OF

SHAKESPEARE.

BY THE REV. A. DYCE.

EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET.

1843.

[graphic][ocr errors]
« ForrigeFortsett »