ADVERTISEMENT. 'HE text of this edition of Spenser's Poetical Works is a careful verbatim reprint of that by Mr. J. Payne Col lier, of which it may be confidently affirmed that it is not only the most elegant edition ever published, but also that the painstaking accuracy employed to render it the most correct text extant, leaves little to be done in the way of corrections or emendations by any future editor. The Memoir is also substantially the same as Mr. Collier's, but is abridged by the omission of such portions as relate to the literary questions of Spenser's time, or refer to his contemporaries rather than to himself. This abridgment, as well as the omission of the notes to the poems, was necessary in order to keep this edition within its requisite limits; but it will be found that care has been taken to retain all the facts and inferences relative to the Poet's life; many of which were given to the world for the first time in Mr. Collier's memoir. NORRIS DECK. Cambridge. |