There remains the pleasant duty of thanking those whose kindness has been of assistance in the preparation of this volume. The relatives of my dear friend the late Canon Ainger have allowed me to retain for this purpose the first editions of Inebriety (with Crabbe's autograph), The Village and The Newspaper which he had lent me not long before his death. The Vice-Master of Trinity, Mr W. Aldis Wright, besides enabling me to borrow from Trinity Library the first edition of The Library, kindly lent his own copy of the Poems published in 1807. I am indebted to Professor Edward Dowden, LL.D., of Trinity College, Dublin, for various services generously rendered by him to this edition of Crabbe, which will benefit from them in its concluding as it has in its opening volume. He has readily allowed me to print the whole of the interesting blank verse poem of Midnight, which, in his own words, 'unless it be a transcript by Crabbe from some other eighteenth-century poet, of which there is no evidence, may be assumed to be of his authorship.'
To the same kind friend, and to the special courtesy of Mr J. W. Lyster, Librarian of the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin, I owe the opportunity of tracing fide oculata, so far as it seems possible to make sure of it, the elusive volume of The Lady's Magazine containing the earliest of Crabbe's printed verse.
Mr A. R. Waller, of Peterhouse, Assistant Secretary to the Syndics of the University Press, has in many ways facilitated the preparation of this volume. And without the unstinting and unflagging cooperation of another member of my College, Mr A. T. Bartholomew, of the University Library, who has compiled the list of variants, besides giving me much other assistance, I could not, amidst other engagements, have carried so far the execution of a delightful task.
A. W. WARD.
Peterhouse Lodge, Cambridge.
CORRIGENDA.
- p. [5], for Ovid read Ovid [?].
- p. [48], l. 41, for Meonides read [Maeonides].
- p. [55], l. 297, for [threat'ned] read [threaten'd].
- p. [232], l. 319, for Rubens read [Rubens].
- p. [252], l. 5, for dolor read [labor].
- p. [256], l. 4, for deplorant read [deplangunt].
- p. [329], l. 11, for and worship me read [and worship me].
- ib. l. 12, for Part I read Part II.
- p. [364], l. 12, for [erat] read erant.