Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

PREFACE.

9408 154

THE present edition of Goldsmith's Works contains, together with all the pieces usually published, the Captivity, an Oratorio, the Threnodia Augustalis, and four short poems illustrative of "Retaliation." All the poems have been carefully collated with the best editions. The various readings are now introduced for the first time; and the dates, when they could be ascertained with sufficient accuracy, have been prefixed. The Plays are reprinted from the edition of Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works by the London booksellers. The Letters, chiefly extracted from a former memoir of the author, have been thought sufficiently interesting to warrant their insertion in the present volume.

In an edition of Goldsmith's Works, which rests one of its principal claims to public favour on its superior accuracy, it may not be unnecessary to mention, that the punctuation has been minutely revised and carefully corrected. Those who have observed how often the most

Elegant editions of popular works, particularly of our poets, are disfigured by the hasty adoption of a careless punctuation, and how much, in consequence, the beauty of the author's style is injured, even when the sense is not absolutely destroyed, will not look upon this as too trivial a matter to deserve notice.

For the Biographical Memoir of Goldsmith, and for the Notes with the signature B. the Editor is responsible.

« ElőzőTovább »