broder that founde a purs._ xciii. 118

+ _Of the answere of the mastres to the mayde._
xciv. 119

+ _Of the northern man that was all harte._ xcv. _ib._

+ _Of the burnynge of olde John._ xcvi. _ib._

+ _Of the courtear that ete the hot custarde._ xcvii. 121

+ _Of the thre pointes belonging to a shrewd
wyfe._ xcix. 122

+ _Of the man that paynted the lamb upon his
wyfes bely._ c. 123

INTRODUCTION.

When a small impression of these quaint old books issued from the
Chiswick Press, many years ago, under the auspices of the late Mr. S. W.
Singer, that gentleman merely designed the copies struck off for
presentation to a select circle of literary friends who, like himself,
felt a warm interest in every relic of the past which helped to
illustrate Shakespeare and ancient English manners. He did not
consequently feel under the necessity of furnishing notes, and he
preserved not only the old orthography, but the old punctuation, and the
most palpable errors of the press. His edition unfortunately laboured
under one disadvantage: when he printed, in 1814, the _Mery Tales and
Quick Answers_ from Berthelet's edition, he imagined that this was the
book to which Beatrice is made to allude in _Much Ado About Nothing_,
and under this idea he christened the volume _Shakespeare's Jest Book_.
He also thought he was safe in assuming that the edition by Berthelet
was the only one extant. But Mr. Singer discovered, before his
undertaking was a year old, that he had come to an erroneous conclusion
on both these points: for an impression of the _Mery Tales, &c._ printed
by Henry Wykes in 1567, and containing, with all the old matter,
twenty-six additional stories, was brought under his notice, and about
the same time a totally unknown work, bearing the very title mentioned
by Beatrice, was accidentally rescued from oblivion by the Rev. J. J.
Conybeare, who, it is said by Dunlop, picked up the treasure at a
bookstall. This was no other than A C. MERY TALYS.

The copy of _C. Mery Talys_ thus casually brought to light, had been
used by a binder of or about the time of its appearance as pasteboard to
another book, and it was in this state when it fell in the way of Mr.
Cony