A TALE OF THE PRESENT TIMES. BY THEODORE S. FAY. "You shall see anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work." IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. -Hamlet. LONDON: JOHN MACRONE, SAINT JAMES'S SQUARE. MDCCCXXXV. ADVERTISEMENT. WITHOUT presuming to have edited the following pages, (which little need such countenance, were I authorised in any way to offer it) the Manuscript in the Author's absence from England, has passed through my hands; and as his first essay, I cannot let it go forth upon its new adventure for favour, without securing to myself the honour and pleasure of offering it the first word of encouragement. Full of merit, and, I trust, secure of success as it is, it was written during an almost des perate search for health in a southern clime, and under the most depressing phases of illness. MR. FAY's reputation in his own country has been long established. The little preface I have volunteered for him, unnecessary as it is here, perhaps, would have been far more superfluous there. But with the present work, I am fully confident, begins a reputation in England as wide and well-founded as that which he already enjoys in his own land-a reputation which, if after many years of intimacy and observation, I have not misjudged him, will increase with every successive effort, and reflect as much honour on his country, as it will give pleasure to his friends. LONDON, October, 1835. N. P. WILLIS. |