PREFACE. The triple labour involved in editing three independent works in one volume will, it is hoped, serve as an excuse for some of the shortcomings of the present publication. Under the circumstances it has been impossible to make the work as de ... Read more

PREFACE. The triple labour involved in editing three independent works in one volume will, it is hoped, serve as an excuse for some of the shortcomings of the present publication. Under the circumstances it has been impossible to make the work as definitive as might have been the case with a single text. For example, while I have been able to print the three existing manuscript texts of King Horn, of the other two poems, the textual material is not nearly so complete. The texts, it is hoped, are accurately printed. The credit for this is due, in large measure, to Dr. Furnivall,—who has read with the MSS. the proofs of all the British Museum texts,—and to the proof-readers at Oxford and Cambridge. The notes to King Horn represent a good deal of labour, and may, I trust, prove useful. The glossary, though not so complete as that in Wissmann’s excellent critical edition of King Horn, is intended to fit the volume, and to supply explanation of words and uses of words not intelligible to ordinary readers of Early English Texts. It is my pleasant duty to acknowledge assistance from various quarters. I am indebted to the libraries of the British Museum and Cambridge University, and the Bodleian library at Oxford for the use of manuscripts; also to the Duke of Sutherland for permission to copy the text of Floris and Blauncheflur from the manuscript in his private library; also to the Cornell University library for conveniences placed at my disposal in the preparation of this volume. I must also acknowledge timely words of advice from Prof. J. M. Hart, notes on Layamon from Dr. B. S. Monroe, and assistance in proof-reading by Prof. W. Strunk, jr. But above all I must acknowledge the less apparent work of Dr. Furnivall in preparing the texts for press, a work the amount of which one who has not edited for the E.E.T.S. is not likely to realize. Less