68 Modern Reprints of the " Secrets" 



" Introduction " to his edition of the 

 work, certainly one of the best reprints 

 we possess, inasmuch as it is " a strictly 

 faithful and literal transcript of the edition 

 of 1613." 



Another pretty little reprint was pub- 

 lished by E. and G. Goldsmid, of Edin- 

 burgh, in 1885. It was edited by "Pisca- 

 tor," who added some useful notes. Who 

 " Piscator " is I do not know, but we are 

 indebted to him also for the charming 

 reprint of the Treatyse of Dame Juliana 

 Berners, to which I have already referred. 

 Of Mr. Arber's reprint in his English 

 Garner Mr. Westwood speaks somewhat 

 severely. " Mr. Arber," he says, " has 

 thought it expedient to make many 

 changes in the poem, and to introduce 

 into it frequent supposed emendations. 

 . . . He has altered the punctuation 

 throughout, and modernised both the 

 orthography and the syntax, robbing the 

 verse, thereby, of much of its ancient air 

 and aspect." He adds : " How far we 

 have a right so to interfere with poets who 

 are no longer here to defend themselves 

 and to protect their own how far it is 

 justifiable to submit them to our individual 

 and arbitrary, not to say dogmatic judg- 

 ment, is a question we do not take on 

 ourselves to decide." 



