275 v139 PREFACE THIS edition of The Winter's Tale follows, in the main, the model set by previous editors of plays in the "Arden Shakespeare" series. In dealing with the question of sources, I have devoted some space to the consideration of that littleknown Elizabethan poem, Francis Sabie's Fisherman's Tale, which furnishes us with a curidus rendering of the story of jealousy lying mid-way between Greene's Pandosto and Shakespeare's play. My endeavour to associate certain elements in the plot of Pandosto and The Winter's Tale with some of the Greek romances has received, since the Introduction was written, no little support from the recently published work of Dr. S. L. Wolff, entitled The Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose Fiction.1 But whereas I was not able to do more than lightly touch upon some of the more salient features that seemed to be common to Greek and Elizabethan romance, Dr. Wolff, with his wider knowledge and exacter study of the subject, has been able to establish the precise relationship in which the Elizabethan disciples stand to their Greek masters. In the textual criticism I acknowledge with gratitude my indebtedness to those who have traversed the same path before me; my debt to the late Dr. Howard Furness for his monumental edition of The Winter's Tale in the "New Variorum Shakespeare" is very great indeed. Finally, I should like to place on record the invaluable assistance which I have received from the General Editor of this series, Professor R. H. Case, whose scholarship and erudition are as large as his courtesy. THE UNIVERsity of Leeds September, 1912 F. W. MOORMAN 1Columbia University Studies in Comparative Literature, New York, 1912. V 420812 |