STRICTURES ON MR. COLLIER'S NEW EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE, 1858- BY THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. LONDON: JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36 SOHO SQUARE. 1859. PREFACE. 931 1958 D99 which MR. COLLIER'S new edition of Shakespeare, appeared not long after my own edition, had been published six months before I even looked into it. Heartily tired of reading and writing about varia lectiones and contested passages, I had resolved to defer forming any acquaintance with Mr. Collier's more recent labours till the time arrived,― if it ever came, when a re-impression of my own Shakespeare should be called for and I only abandoned that resolution on learning, from several quarters, how Mr. Collier had assailed me throughout the whole book. Besides bringing against me in his Preface sundry charges which are utterly false, Mr. Collier has over and over again, when speaking of me in his Notes, had recourse to such artful misrepresentation as, I believe, was never before practised, except by the most unprincipled hirelings of the press. I do not make this statement unadvisedly: let Mr. Collier, who is fond of addressing the public about himself and his grievances, -gainsay it if he can :-he may, indeed, attempt to 572 |
