Excerpt from Seinte Marherete the Meiden Ant Martyr, in Old English: First Edited From the Skin Books in 1862
The little book now laid before the few, who turn their eyes lovingly upon the history and records of their own language, aims at being a critical edition of the short piece, which stands first in order of time; partly to show that the English of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is not a mere corruption and contemptible, and partly because the critical study of the Greek and Latin authors gives the mind a bias to a like treatment of the English.
The text according to the true theory of a critical edition should have been made as perfect as possible, whether by collation or emendation. But the present generation of English scholars has not advanced to that point. They expect an adherence to the manuscript, and will condemn deviations from it. Yielding there fore to circumstances I have rarely altered the text of ms. R., and when I have so done, it has been on the authority of ms. B. Sug gestions for improvement of the text so resulting will be found in the notes.
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