In The Canterbury Tales, we see, not
Chaucer, but Chaucer's times and neighbours; the artist has lost
himself in his work. To show him honestly and without disguise,
as he lived his own life and sung his own songs at the brilliant
Court of Edward III, is to do his memory a moral justice far
more material than any wrong that can ever come out of
spelling. As to the minor poems of Spenser, which follow The
Faerie Queen, the choice has been governed by the desire to
give at once the most interesting, and the most characteristic of
the poet's several styles; and, save in the case of the Sonnets,
the poems so selected are given entire. It is manifest that the
endeavours to adapt this volume for popular use, have been
already noticed, would imperfectly succeed without the aid of
notes and glossary, to explain allusions that have become
obsolete, or antiquated words which it was necessary to retain.
An endeavour has been made to render each page self-
explanatory, by placing on it all the glossarial and illustrative
notes required for its elucidation, or -- to avoid repetitions that
would have occupied space -- the references to the spot where
information may be found. The great advantage of such a plan
to the reader, is the measure of its difficulty for the editor. It
permits much more flexibility in the choice of glossarial
explanations or equivalents; it saves the distracting and time-
consuming reference to the end or the beginning of the book;
but, at the same time, it largely enhances the liability to error.
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