I am glad to have had the opportunity of seeing the 1625 manuscript of
_Demetrius and Enanthe_, the play first printed in a somewhat mutilated
form in the First Folio of 1647, where it is called _The Humorous
Lieutenant_. It is stated in the _Dictionary of National Biography_ (Vol.
XIX, p. 306) that this MS. is preserved in the Dyce Library but the
statement is incorrect. The MS. has never been a part of the Dyce
collection. It was printed by Dyce in 1830 and after that date it rested
for many years in obscurity. To Mrs. Glover is due the credit for having
traced it to its present home. For help in this search our thanks are due
to Lord Stanley of Alderley, to W.R.M. Wynne, Esq., of Peniarth, Towyn,
Merioneth (whose father owned the MS. and left a note in his copy of
Dyce's reprint that he had given the MS. to his "old friend the late W.
Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P. for North Shropshire") and to Lord Harlech, the
grandson of Mr. Ormsby Gore. Lord Harlech re-discovered the MS. in his
library at Brogyntyn, Oswestry, and he has very kindly permitted a
thorough examination of it. Dyce's 1830 publication is described as a
reprint "verbatim et literatim," but it has little claim to be so called.
The punctuation is altered throughout, the spelling is altered in scores
of words and though the actual verbal differences between the original MS.
and Dyce's reprint of it are not very many, yet these occur here and there
throughout the play. Later editors, therefore, relying upon Dyce, have
been led into recording as 'MS.' readings variations which do not occur in
the MS. A brief description of the MS. will be found in the Appendix, pp.
509-18, together with the passages omitted from the Folios and a complete
record of the verbal variations. The present collation omits readings
incorrectly given by Dyce.

The third volume of this text will be ready immediately and good progress
is being made with the remaining volumes. When the publication of the
entire text is completed it is intended to print, by way of a commentary
thereon, a companion volume containing a series of explanatory notes upon
the text, a glossary and whatsoever supplementary material may be deemed
to be of use to the student or to the general reader.

A.R. WALLER.
CAMBRIDGE,
30 _January_, 1906.

THE ELDER BROTHER,
A COMEDY.

Persons Represented in the Play.

Lewis, _a Lord_.
Miramont, _a Gentleman_.
Brisac, _a Justice, Brother to_ Miramont.
Charles, _a S