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ill PREFACE such points in modern literary science, that onealways has to go over the whole ground com-pletely for oneself. When these points are settled, with as muchcertitude as possible, there are still other pointson which it is necessary to have right opinions inorder to understand Webster. One must knowwhat a play is; one must know how the Eliza-bethan drama arose; and one must know whatthe Elizabethan drama was. I have given achapter to each of these points; not pretendingto cover the whole ground, or to do the work ofa whole book; but endeavouring to correct someof the more misleading wrong ideas, and to hintat some of the more important right ones. Thesechapters, of course, though nominally not aboutWebster, should be even more important to anyunderstanding of him than the Appendices. AndI have given two long chapters to the moredirect consideration of what Webster wrote, andwhat its more usual characteristics are. The Bibliography is, I think, fairly completewith regard to Webster. I did not think it neces-sary to make a bibliography of books on thewider subjects. It may seem, in some cases, as if I contra-dicted myself in different parts of the book; as,for instance, when I say that it is impossible to PREFACE ix understand a play wholly from the text, and laterseem to believe that I do understand plays whollyfrom the text. I think I have not really contra-dicted myself. Part of the business of the earlierchapters is to prevent the necessity of continuallyrepeated qualifications throughout the work. Toexpress my exact meaning on each occasionwould have meant covering the page with“in so far as it is possible’s,” and “I think’s,” and“possibly’s,” and “perhaps’s”; which makes thestyle feeble and muffles the idea. I have, per-haps, gone too far in this direction already. CONTENTS PREFACECHAPTER
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