I beg leave to
observe to my Readers, in one Word, here, that from the Confession
of these successive Aids, and the Manner in which I deriv'd them,
it appears, I have pretty well fill'd up the _Interval_, betwixt my
first _Proposals_ and my _Publication_, with having my Author always
in View, and at Heart.
Some Hints I have the Honour to owe to the Informations of Dr.
_Mead_, and the late Dr. _Friend_: Others to the Kindness of the
ingenious _Martin Folkes_, Esq; who likewise furnish'd me with the
first _folio_ Edition of _Shakespeare_, at a Time when I could not
meet with it among the Booksellers; as my obliging Friend _Thomas
Coxeter_, Esq; did with several of the old 4to single Plays, which
I then had not in my own Collection. Some few Observations I
likewise owe to _F. Plumptree_, Esq; Others to the Favour of
anonymous Persons: for all which I most gladly render my
Acknowledgments.
[Sidenote: The Editor's particular Pains taken.]
As to what regards my self singly, if the Edition do not speak
for the Pains I have taken about it, it will be very vain to plead
my own Labour and Diligence. Besides a faithful Collation of all
the printed Copies, which I have exhibited in my _Catalogue_ of
_Editions_ at the End of this Work; let it suffice to say, that, to
clear up several Errors in the Historical Plays, I purposely read
over _Hall_ and _Holingshead_'s Chronicles in the Reigns concern'd;
all the Novels in _Italian_, from which our Author had borrow'd any
of his Plots; such Parts of _Plutarch_, from which he had deriv'd
any Parts of his _Greek_ or _Roman_ Story: _Chaucer_ and _Spenser_'s
Works; all the Plays of _B.
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