Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/11



edition of Hudibras now submitted to the public is intended to be more complete, though in a smaller compass, than any of its numerous predecessors. The text is that of Nash, usually accepted as the best; but in many instances—as in the very first line—the author's original readings have been preferred. In all cases the variations are shown in the foot notes, so that the reader may take his choice.

The main feature, however, of the present edition is its notes; these have been selected with considerable diligence and attention from every known source, and it is believed that no part of the text is left unexplained which was ever explained before. Grey has been the great storehouse of information, and next in degree Nash, but both have required careful sifting. Other editions, numerous as they are,—including Aikin's, the Aldine, and Gilfillan's,—have yielded nothing. Mr Bell's, which is by far the best, is edited on the same principle as the present, and had that gentleman retained the numbering of the lines, and given an Index, there would have been little left for any successor to improve.

A few of the notes in the present selection are, to a certain extent, original, arising from some historical and bibliographical knowledge of the times, or derived