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PREFACE.

THE justification of a new Life of Shakespeare should be furnished by its contents, not depend on a Preface. This work, therefore, must be left to speak for itself, and I trust that the light it throws on the subject will obtain indulgence for its deficiencies in other respects. I have here only to express my acknowledgments to those from whom I have received assistance. My best thanks are due to Mrs. Lucy, of Charlecote Park, for valuable information, which is a key to the whole history of Shakespeare; to Lord Willoughby de Broke for an obliging note on the Verney pedigree; to the Reverend G. Granville, Vicar of Stratford, the Reverend Donald Cameron, Vicar of Snitterfield, and the Reverend John Fagg, Vicar of Aston Cantlow, for access to the Parochial Registers;

and to W. O. Hunt, Esq., of Stratford, for permission to inspect the Corporative Records, and much personal kindness.

There is no probability that anything remains to be discovered respecting Shakespeare in his native county. I have followed every vestige of his steps, and explored every source which offered the remotest chance of a fact or tradition. The only quarters likely to repay a further search are the family archives of the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Earl of Pembroke; but I believe the Pembroke papers have already been investigated.

A public subscription has just secured to Stratford the possession of Shakespeare's Gardens ; and it may not be out of place here to express a hope that the custody of them will be given to Mrs. Baker, the last representative of the Hathaways, and a most deserving person, now in poverty.

S. W. FULLOM.

TUDOR VILLA, SURBITON, S.W.

December, 1861.

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