THE DRAMATIC WORKS OF ROBERT GREENE, TO WHICH ARE ADDED HIS POEMS. WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR, AND NOTES, ΤΟ SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART., THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED, AS A SLIGHT MARK OF ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS, AND RESPECT FOR HIS CHARACTER, BY HIS OBEDIENT SERVANT, ALEXANDER DYCE. PREFACE. So excessive is the rarity of some of the pieces now reprinted, that the bibliographer alone can properly estimate the difficulty of procuring the materials of which the following volumes are composed. Indeed, they could not have been put together, had I been so unfortunate as to encounter that illiberal spirit, by which the possessors of scarce and curious books are said to be influenced. I beg leave to return my thanks to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, for the loan of Alphonsus, King of Arragon, 1599, and the first edition of the Looking Glass for London, 1594, from his magnificent dramatic library. in The kindness of Sir Francis Freeling, who placed my hands his whole collection of Greene's Prose Tracts, demands my grateful acknowledgments. |