and polished according to the decorum of these daies. By R.W. London,
Printed by Thomas Scarlet, and are to be solde by R. Robinson, 1591,
4to.

[Some copies are dated 1592; but there was only a single edition. Of the
original text, as written in 1568, there is no printed copy; but MSS. of
it are in MS. Lansdowne 786, and Hargrave MS. 205, neither of which
appears to present any evidence of identity with the copy mentioned by
Isaac Reed below as then in private hands. Both these MSS. have now been
collated with the text of 1591, and the conclusion must be, that Wilmot,
though he unquestionably revived, did not do so much, as he might wish
to have it inferred, in _polishing_ the play. The production was formed
on a classical model, and bears marks of resemblance in tone and style
to the "Jocasta" of Euripides, as paraphrased by Gascoigne in 1566. The
Lansdowne MS. of "Tancred and Gismunda" was written, about 1568-70,
while the Hargrave is much more modern.]



INTRODUCTION.

It appears from William Webbe's Epistle prefixed to this piece, that
after its first exhibition it was laid aside, and at some distance of
time was new-written by R. Wilmot. The reader, therefore, may not be
displeased with a specimen of it in its original dress. It is here given
from the fragment of an ancient MS. taken out of a chest of papers
formerly belonging to Mr Powell, father-in-law to the author of
"Paradise Lost," at Forest Hill, about four miles from Oxford, where in
all probability some curiosities of the same kind may remain, the
contents of these chests (for I think there are more than one) having