as the Second
Folio, contained (i) all the plays included in the First Folio, (ii) _The
Wild-Goose Chase_, which had been published in folio in 1652, (iii)
all the other then known plays of the authors which had been published
previously to 1679.

William Marshall's portrait of John Fletcher faces the title-page of both
folios with the following inscription engraved underneath:--

_Felicis aevi ac_ Praesulis _Natus; comes_ Beaumontis; _sic, quippe
Parnassus_, biceps; FLETCHERUS _unam in Pyramida furcas agens. Struxit
chorum plus simplicem Vates Duplex; Plus duplicem solus: nec ullum
transtulit; Nec transferendus: Dramatum aeterni sales,_ Anglo _Theatro,
Orbe, Sibi, superstites_.

_FLETCHERE, facies absqz vultu pingitur; Quantus! vel_ umbram _circuit
nemo tuam._

J. Berkenhead.

Later collected editions of the works were published in 1711 (7 vols.);
1750, edited by Lewis Theobald, Thomas Seward and J. Sympson (10 vols.);
1778, edited by George Colman (10 vols.); 1812, edited by Henry Weber (14
vols.); 1843, edited by Alexander Dyce (11 vols.). It is unnecessary to
refer in detail to these later editions which, very widely as they differ
among themselves, agree in presenting an eclectic text, a text formed
partly by a collation of the various old editions and partly by the
adoption of conjectural emendations. During the progress of work upon
the present issue another edition has been announced, under the general
editorship of Mr A. H. Bullen, and the first volume was published last
year. It follows the lines of its predecessors in presenting a modernised
text, giving 'a fuller record than had been given by Dyce of _variae
lectiones_,' and pleading, in its prospectus, that, 'for the use of
scholars, there should be editions of all our old authors in old
spelling.'

The objects of the present edition, in accordance with the scheme of the
series of ENGLISH CLASSICS of which it is a part, are to provide (i) a
text in which there shall be no deviation from that adopted as its basis,
in the matter of spelling, punctuation, the use of capitals and italics,
save as recorded, and to give (ii) an apparatus of variant readings as an
Appendix, comprising the texts of all the early issues, that is to say,
of all editions prior to and including the Second Folio. Within these
limits, and apart from mere variations in spelling and punctuation, every
variation, whether deemed important or not, is recorded in the Appendixes
to thes