avals made sudden shiftings and scatterings of kindred. It
was this very factor which made such works as _Holinshed_ possible. The
complete _Holinshed_ was issued one year before the Armada year, two years
before Shakspere's first play was printed. Harrison was old enough to have
stood on Tower Hill and seen with infant eyes the author of _Utopia_ (the
"most perfect of Englishmen," as Harrison himself allows) lay down his
life for truth. Harrison's own life just spans that stormy period which
settled the destiny of the English race, and left the race the masters of
the earth. The part played in this mighty struggle by the printer boys of
Aldersgate is something beyond all exaggeration. They made and unmade men
and measures, and uprooted empires as well as recorded their histories.
Above all else, these printers kept their own secrets; for life and death
were in every utterance. They furnished of their own ranks the pioneers of
daring brain and varied knowledge who led the English race far to east and
far to west. We can well imagine that these Aldersgate printers took
delight in clubbing together to produce such a work as _Holinshed_, giving
the story of the England they loved so well. _Holinshed_ was eminently a
printer's book, produced out of the fulness of their hearts. Harrison
himself belonged to a family of printers. Yet it is a remarkable fact that
this present volume is the first attempt ever made to use any portion of
_Holinshed_ as a popular text-book, and to bring its text into familiar
relations with modern eyes as regards orthography and typography. As to
the diction, it would be impertinence to modify the work of such masters
of our mother-tongue as William Harrison. The writers of his day make
rules for us, not we for them. Their English is the only English which
future ages will know, and their successors will be measured by their
standard. In compiling this work, the end sought by me has been as much
variety and as much Elizabethan England as possible, throwing aside
matter however instructive which was not especially allied to the days of
Elizabeth, making of most of Harrison's second, some of his third, and a
bit of his first book one concise story. Harrison's Description of England
is in three books, the second and third of which were reprinted by Dr.
Furnivall, along with extracts from the first. An account of these books
and their relation to _Holinshed_ will be found in the Doctor's
"Forewords." Usin