HE text of this edition of Spenser's reprint of that published in 1862 by the late Mr. J. Payne Collier, whose painstaking endeavours to render it the most correct text extant, have left little to be done in the way of corrections or emendations by any future editor. The Memoir is also substantially the same as Mr. Collier's, but is abridged by the omission. of such portions as relate to the literary questions of Spenser's time, or refer to his contemporaries rather than to himself. It will be found, however, that care has been taken to retain all the facts and inferences relative to the Poet's life; many of which were given to the world for the first time in Mr. Collier's memoir. 1891. |