PREFACE ix 
at the same time be but a fractional representation, chiefly a mis- 
representation, of my labors in research. 
a I had at first intended to cite some of the most important errors 
_ passed down to us and repeated steadily in current publications 
as true. But except in probably a half dozen cases this has not 
_ been done. A complete collection would be voluminous, and a 
mere citation, while calling attention to curious antiquities or 
their followers, would have been long and of no other than crit- 
-ical-historical service. When the reader comes upon different 
conclusions in my predecessors, he will find, I am sure, as I have, 
that the most important differences arise from the fact that the 
latest materials were not then available and could not then, as 
_ now, be assembled and put into order. Indeed, it may be edifying 
_ to lay these earlier works by the side of the present matter in 
_ judging this history. Malone, Chalmers, Collier,t Halliwell- 
_ Phillips, Greenstreet, and an occasional other devotee of the true 
as opposed to romance in stage-history, collected some materials 
_ that fancy and time will not change. Their conclusions are often 
. wide of the mark. Aside from these, the scholarship of the past 
herein has been mainly the scholarship of opinion, or of hypoth- 
esis, or of unsupported oracular declaration. But opinions or 
hypotheses or conclusions without basis of fact are worthless. 
So new are the views given by the present materials that not a 
_ single opinion or conclusion of my predecessors has served as a 
basis for restatement. I have gone to contemporary sources and 
questioned them in every instance where such sources were avail- 
able. This work must stand, consequently, not upon the author- 
ity of predecessors, but upon the merits of its materials and the 
_ justness of the conclusions they have called forth. Most of all 
therefore I commend the judicial perusal of every document, 
fact, and occurrence offered, in judging the truth of what this 
history represents. 
The examination of printed books, mainly for the contempo- 
rary documents they might hold, has been the smallest part of 
my labors. Most of all have I searched the original records in 
*Had he been but content with the truth! His work is marred by 
colossal forgeries. Yet no one can disregard the vast service of Collier 
in furnishing us with document after document of genuine worth. 
III 
