| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 1 | 198 | 395 | 593 | 790 |
|
Paradise Regain'd and Samson Agonistes were published in 1671, and no
further edition was called for in the remaining three years of the
poet's lifetime, so that in the case of these poems there are no new
readings to record; and the texts were so carefully revised, that only
one fault (Paradise Regain'd, ii. 309) was left for correction later.
In these and the other poems I have corrected the misprints catalogued
in the tables of Errata, and I have silently corrected any other unless
it might be mistaken for a various reading, when I have called attention
to it in a note. Thus I have not recorded such blunders as Lethian for
Lesbian in the 1645 text of Lycidas, line 63; or hallow for hollow in
Paradise Lost, vi. 484; but I have noted content for concent, in At a
Solemn Musick, line 6.
In conclusion I have to offer my sincere thanks to all who have
collaborated with me in preparing this Edition; to the Delegates of the
Oxford Press for allowing me to undertake it and decorate it with so
many facsimiles; to the Controller of the Press for his unfailing
courtesy; to the printers and printer's reader for their care and pains.
Coming nearer home I cannot but acknowledge the help I have received in
looking over proof-sheets from my sister, Mrs. P. A. Barnett, who has
ungrudgingly put at the service of this book both time and eyesight. In
taking leave of it, I may be permitted to say that it has cost more of
both these inestimable treasures than I had anticipated. The last proof
reaches me just a year after the first, and the progress of the work has
not in the interval been interrupted. In tenui labor et tenuis gloria.
Nevertheless I cannot be sorry it was undertaken.
1
6
Page
Quick Jump
|