15459.193.10 B HARYARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE LIBRARY OF MRS. MARY B. RICE Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty, at the Edinburgh University Press. PREFACE Two matters in connection with this edition of Gay's Poems call for brief comment on the part of the Editor. It should be explained in the first instance that every effort has been made to put forward a complete and trustworthy text. In the case of those pieces which were included by Gay in the quarto edition of his poems in 1720, the revised versions then given have been followed; variations from an earlier form being indicated where they occur. The other poems have for the most part been reprinted from first edition copies. The spelling and the punctuation have in all cases been made to conform to the usage of the present day. The Introductory Memoir, it may further be explained, contains a summary of the chief facts now ascertainable concerning the life and career of John Gay. The writer has literary attempted to discover the exact date of publication of every one of Gay's poems; and the attempt, it will be observed, has been to a considerable extent successful. Several minor biographical rectifications have been made, and some new facts have been placed on record. It would be an unpardonable oversight on the part of any writer on Gay not to acknowledge the obligations under which he has been placed by the pioneer work of Mr. Austin Dobson. That gentleman's article on Gay in the Dictionary of National Biography is indispensable to the student. Messrs. Elwin and Courthope's edition of the Works of Alexander Pope is also of very great value. JOHN UNDERHILL. WIMBLEDON, March 1893. |