The page-references are to Dyce’s one-volume
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dition.E. M. PREFACE I mave tried to write a small book about JohnWebster. That is to say, I have tried to saythe truth about him, as much of it as isnecessary to enable anyone who reads him tounderstand him. I have not tried to explain himentirely to anyone who has not read him, thoughI hope that any person in that condition mayget a rough idea of him from this book. I have tried to explain Webster for a reader,but not to explain him away. So I have endeav-oured to keep to my own province, and not totrespass on ground reserved for worthier feet—Webster’s. I conceive that there is much that hecan explain better than I. So I have, at least,abstained from paraphrasing. To explain Webster’s writings it is first neces-sary to determine what he wrote, and also suchsmaller questions as when he wrote it, and howhe came to write it. Such questions, the ques-tions of “scientific” literary criticism, I deal within the Appendices. I have taken some care toget the most probable answers in each case; forthere is such a lot of bad logic and fudging on
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