The subsequent poems contained in the present volume are all printed from the edition of 1823, the last edition published in England in the poet's lifetime. The _Variants_ enumerated at the close of this volume are in each case the readings of the first editions of the several poems, viz., _The Library_, 1781, _The Village_, 1783, _The Newspaper_, 1785, _The Parish Register &c._, 1807, and _The Borough_, 1810. The address _To the Reader_ prefixed to _The Newspaper_, which does not appear in the edition of 1823, has been restored from that of 1785, as it appears in the younger Crabbe's edition of 1834. The list of _Errata_ includes all the misprints, slips of the pen, and unintentional mistakes of spelling or quotation, which have been found in the texts which have been reprinted in this volume. The reading substituted here is in each case enclosed in square brackets. The list is a long one, for Crabbe was a careless writer; and in the matter of quotations (as the concluding sentence of the _Preface_ to _The Borough_ indicates) was not given to over-conscientiousness. It has seemed permissible, where this could be done, to supplement the poet's statements as to the sources of his quotations; but there are instances in which these statements themselves remain more or less doubtful. Crabbe's interpunctuation is so arbitrary, and, though no doubt largely determined by what might be described as the movement of the writer's mind, so frequently at variance even with the practice (it can hardly be called system) which he more usually follows, that it has been thought right to use as much freedom on this head as seemed consistent with a due respect for the author's intention. No alteration has been made in the matter of interpunctuation which was not warranted either by the poet's ordinary practice, or by the primary necessity of making his meaning clear. As complete as possible a bibliography of Crabbe's Poems will, it is hoped, be published in the concluding volume of this edition.