Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse Professor Gummere in his Old English Ballads (G inn, 1894). That of Hoccleve s Letter of Cupid, originally printed from Urry stext, has been revised with the aid of the collations published by Professor Skeat in his Chaucerian atid Other Pieces. Professor Arber sother texts are reprinted substantially as they stood. In accordance with the plan adopted throughout ih. English Garner, the extracts in this volume are given in modern spelling. I should have preferred myself to re-write them in the educated spelling of their own period, which would offer no obstacle of any kind to a modern reader. Not only, however, for the sake of uniformity, but because I am so convinced that this is the right method of dealing with badly spelt texts that I wish the experiment to be made for the first time by a better philologist than myself, I have fallen back on modern spelling. Whatever its disadvantages, they seem to me as nothing compared with the absurdity of preserving in texts printed for the second, third, and fourth time the vagaries of grossly ignorant scribes. In the play of the Shearmen holiness is spelt whollenes, merry myrre, voice woise, signification syngnefocacion, celestial seylesteall, and so on. These spellings are as demonstrably wrong as those of consepeet (concipiet) and Glorea in exselsis, with which the scribe favours us. It is ungracious to find fault with Professor Manly after appropriating some of his stage directions and his identifications of some French words, but I cannot think an editor is right in reprinting a text of which he is obliged to confess in general, the sound will be a better guide to the meaning than the spelling. In any case I am sure that this is not the way to win new readers for our earlier literature. As a matter of literary honesty, as well as for my own comfort, I may be permitted to state th (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don"t occur in the book.)