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X. 



THE 



POETICAL WORKS OF EDMUND SPENSER. 



In Five Volumes, Duodecimo. 



Third American Edition 5 with Introductory Observations on the Faery Queene, 



and Notes, by the Editor. 



To the Third Edition, the publishers have added a beautifully engraved Head 



and ornamented Title-Pages. 



Letter from Professor Ticknor to the Publishers. 



" Messrs. Little aivd Brown — Gentlemen : Sir Walter Scott, in a review of Todd's 

 edition of Spenser, written evidently with kind feelings towards its editor, cannot help 



sa y' n e> at the end of it, • We conclude with a single hint. Mr. Todd is a man of learning 

 and research. We wish he would write essays in the Archa?oIogia, and renounce editing 

 our ancient poets.' Todd's edition, however, is the only one that can come into compe- 

 tition with yours ; since what was done in the middle of the last century, by Upton, 

 Church, and Warton, for the Faerie dueene, and by Hughes for the whole works of 

 Spenser, is all used by Todd. There is no doubt, therefore, you have published the best 

 edition of Spenser yet known. But you have, I think, done more than this. You have, 

 it seems to me, published a positively good, useful, and agreeable edition of him ; one 

 that will cause him to be read and enjoyed by many classes of persons, who would other- 

 Vise not have ventured to open his pages. I have been in the habit of using Todd's edition 

 these twenty years, and last winter read in it aU Spenser's poetry ; and as I have recently 

 gone over nearly the whole of your edition, I feel as if I could judge fairly of its value. 

 The result is, a strong persuasion in my mind, that the talent and taste shown in the beau- 

 tiful introductory observations of your accomplished editor, with the short, exact, and 

 sufficient notes, glossarial and explanatory, which he has put at the bottom of each page, 

 whore they are wanted, and not at the end of the work, where they would be almost 

 useless, constitute this publication a real and permanent service rendered to the cause of 

 English literature in this country ; a service the more important, as, while you have made 

 your edition good, you have also made it typographically attractive, and yet so cheap that 

 few readers of English literature need to refuse themselves the pleasure of owning it. I 

 wish you would publish similar editions of Chaucer, and of the old Ballads, and the other 

 old poetry scattered in the collections of Percy, Ritson, Evans, Scott, Hartshorne, &c. 

 Let me add, that I am hnppy to believe there is encouragement for such undertakings 

 among us ; and that the public begin to buy good and tasteful editions of our great English 

 poets, in place of the pretty « Annuals,' as they are called, which are, in general, only 

 beautifully ornamented trash. Your obedient servant, George Ticknor." 



XI. 



LETTERS OF MRS. ADAMS, 



The Wife of John Adams 5 



WITH AN INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. 



By her Grandson, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 

 Two Volumes, Sixteen-mo. Eighth Edition. 



u \Ve cannot undertake to indicate the most attractive portions of what is throughout 

 highly entertaining, or instructive, or both. Now great people and events of the day are 

 brought before the view, and now modes of dress and ceremony are sketched wilh a dis- 

 tinctness of which only the female hand is capable." — North Amer. Review, for Oct. 1840. 



riT It iaturn 'ty De presumed that this correspondence of an uncommonly sensible wo- 

 man like Mrs. AdamR, who lived in an eventful period of our history, and was personally, 

 and ior the most part intimately, acquainted with the great men of her times, must be full 

 ot interest and instruction ; and so, in fact, it will be found to be by every reader." — JVew 

 York Review, for January, 1841. 



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