Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [In the "Tom Thumb" article, Latin "-que" was abbreviated with a notation similar to "-q;". It has been "unpacked" for this e-text as [que] in brackets. The original texts printed all names in Italic type; italicized passages put names in Roman type. To avoid ambiguity, these have been marked with *asterisks*. All verse citations were printed in italics.] THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY _Parodies of Ballad Criticism_ (1711-1787) William Wagstaffe, _A Comment Upon the History of Tom Thumb_, 1711 George Canning, _The Knave of Hearts_, 1787 Selected, with an Introduction, by William K. Wimsatt, Jr. Publication Number 63 Los Angeles William Andrews Clark Memorial Library University of California 1957 * * * * * GENERAL EDITORS RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan RALPH COHEN, University of California, Los Angeles VINTON A. DEARING, University of California, Los Angeles LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL, Clark Memorial Library ASSISTANT EDITOR W. EARL BRITTON, University of Michigan ADVISORY EDITORS EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington BENJAMIN BOYCE, Duke University LOUIS BREDVOLD, University of Michigan JOHN BUTT, King's College, University of Durham JAMES L. CLIFFORD, Columbia University ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University of Chicago LOUIS A. LANDA, Princeton University SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota ERNEST C. MOSSNER, University of Texas JAMES SUTHERLAND, University College, London H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles CORRESPONDING SECRETARY EDNA C. DAVIS, Clark Memorial Library * * * * * The Augustan Reprint Society regrets to announce the death of one of its founders and editors, Edward Niles Hooker. The editors hope, in the near future, to issue a volume in his memory. * * * * * INTRODUCTION