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PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. & J. HARPER,
NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET.

AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT

THE UNITED STATES.

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INTRODUCTION.

IN preparing these volumes of Ford for the public, the same excellent guide has been followed to whom the reader has been so largely indebted in our previous labours upon Massinger; and indeed a more admirable commentator on the old English dramatists than Mr. Gifford could not easily be found. The extreme vigour and acuteness of his intellect, his unwearied industry and research, and the peculiarity of his personal fortunes, which made him as well acquainted with the phraseology and modes of thinking in common life as he was conversant with all the courtesies of higher stations, excellently fitted him for seizing and fixing their several texts, and illustrating the usages and customs to which they referred; while the finer faculties of his mind enabled him to appreciate the higher beauties of their style and thoughts, and to catch every shade of feeling, and discriminate every variety of character which could be found imbodied in those noble works of the older time. That high religious feeling which formed so marked a trait in Mr. Gifford's character, and which seems, indeed, almost a necessary accompaniment of genius in its highest sense, was here peculiarly in place; enabling him, as it did, to walk through

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