PREFACE xi 
accord with the known facts. They may not be. Future re 
ail ian that. I have at least afin: here as well as iiroemboue 
the work, to follow whither the evidences lead. In doing this I 
4 have spent a due portion of some years in the study of the docu- 
ments and plays. Every document has been searched many 
times. The weightier ones have been studied line by line, and 
every fact or statement compared through a system of copious 
index notes with other items of possible bearing. That there are 
errors is to be expected. Many items have doubtless escaped me. 
Many more, I know, lie yet buried in unrevealed records. Some 
: of these I shall secure before final publication, while some, be- 
~cause of their bulk, I reserve for later presentation,—such as cer- 
tain signed depositions by George Chapman, Thomas Dekker, 
: Edward Pierce, Thomas Woodford, Gervase Markham, and 
others, and the voluminous sources of hitherto unknown plays by 
_ Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Ford, Rowley, and others. The 
“ fragments of the new dramas of course shal! be published, with 
a proper account of them. 
__I purpose that this work when completed shall, by virtue of 
the materials presented, be authoritative and permanently useful 
_in its own field. I shall therefore be first to hail the comer with 
new light from any source. 
_ It remains to acknowledge my obligations for privileges of 
_ research. 
The institutions to which I am peculiarly indebted for use of 
books, manuscripts, or documents are the K6nigliche Bibliothek, 
Berlin; Hof- und Stadts-Bibliothek, Miinchen; Universitats-Bib- 
liothek, Heidelberg; Land- und Stadts-Bibliothek, Strassburg; 
_Universitats-Bibliothek, Freiburg i/Br.; Bibliothéque Nationale, 
Paris; Bodleian Library, Oxford ; University Library, Cambridge: 
British Museum, Public Record Office, Library of the House of 
Lords, Privy Council Office, and the Guildhall Record Office, 
London. 
I am particularly grateful to Dean L. A. Sherman, Chancellor 
E. B, Andrews, and the Board of Regents of the University of 
Nebraska for allowing me the extended leave of absence of 
1904-6. This gave me time to cross to Europe and find means 
vr : 113 
