The frequent occurrence of the double letter ff in the manuscript, and in places where it could not be used for the capital letter, implies a dialectical distinction, the exact meaning of which has not yet been discovered. I have carefully preserved them in the text.
The Glossary will be found useful to those who are learned in the philology of our early language, as there are many words of very unfrequent occurrence; but I have constructed it more especially with a view to the wants of those who have not made our early poetry a matter of study. In doing so, I thought that I should be consulting the best interests of the Shakespeare Society, as a large majority of its members belong, in all probability, to the latter class.
J. O. Halliwell.
Alfred Place, London, June 21st, 1841.
FOOTNOTES
[1] I am not without hopes of one or two more collections turning up. In MS. Addit. 4791, fol. 157, is given a list of the plays represented at Dublin on Corpus Christi day, 1468, which differs materially from the contents of any known series. The play of the “Sacrifice of Abraham,” in Trinity College, Dublin, may be one of these. It has been printed by Mr. Collier.
[2] Wood’s Athenæ, by Bliss, vol. ii., p. 458. Hegge does not allude to the MS. in any of his writings.
[3] MS. Cotton. Julius, C. iii., fol. 193. James was then resident at Oxford.