JAMES ALBERT HARRISON AND ROBERT SHARP

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.



DEDICATED

TO

PROFESSOR F. A. MARCH, OF LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, PA.,

AND

FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL, ESQ. FOUNDER OF THE "NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY," THE
"CHAUCER SOCIETY," ETC., ETC.



PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

The favor with which the successive editions of "Beówulf" have been
received during the past thirteen years emboldens the editors to continue
the work of revision in a fourth issue, the most noticeable feature of
which is a considerable body of explanatory Notes, now for the first time
added. These Notes mainly concern themselves with new textual readings,
with here and there grammatical, geographical, and archæological points
that seemed worthy of explanation. Parallelisms and parallel passages are
constantly compared, with the view of making the poem illustrate and
explain itself. A few emendations and textual changes are suggested by the