The frequent occurrence of the double letter ff in the manuscript, and in places where it could not be used for the capital letter, implies a dialectical distinction, the exact meaning of which has not yet been discovered. I have carefully preserved them in the text.
The Glossary will be found useful to those who are learned in the philology of our early language, as there are many words of very unfrequent occurrence; but I have constructed it more especially with a view to the wants of those who have not made our early poetry a matter of study. In doing so, I thought that I should be consulting the best interests of the Shakespeare Society, as a large majority of its members belong, in all probability, to the latter class.
J. O. Halliwell.
Alfred Place, London,
June 21st, 1841.
