RESPUBLICA. The text is given on pp. 177-272. The original forms one of the Macro plays in manuscript, now the property of Mr. J. H. Gurney of Keswick Hall, near Norwich: see Macro Plays and Manuscripts, _ante_. _Respublica_ has been three times previously printed in modern times--(_a_) by Mr. John Payne Collier in _Illustrations of Old English Literature_, I. (1866), B. M. press-mark, 2326, _c_; (_b_) by Prof. Brandl in _Quellen_, etc. (1904); and (_c_) by the Early English Text Society (Extra Series xciv.), edited by Mr. Leonard A. Magnus, LL.B., "from Mr. Gurney's unique Macro MS. 115" (1905), B. M. press-mark, Ac. 9926/60. I do not know how Mr. Collier got his copy; Dr. Brandl states his copy was made for him by Dr. Emeke, "and we both have collated it." Whether the copy was made direct from the original manuscript, or whether it was (as in the case of _Mankind_) (_q.v._) a copy of a copy, or further, whether the collation of the proof-sheets was with the original or with the copy is not stated: still even the last is _something_ towards assurance, for the ways of the modern "comp." and the oversight of the average "reader" are, at times, passing strange. Yet Mr. Magnus by his remark, "Prof. Brandl had to make his edition from a copy of the manuscript," seems to infer that the German editor was unable to get into close contact with the original. This uncertainty is unfortunate, for were we sure of the contrary, there would have been immediate and well-founded confidence in the fidelity of Prof. Brandl's text. But worse remains. Mr. Magnus, beyond saying that "the manuscript has been kindly lent by the owner," nowhere, so far as I can read, mentions that the copy of the same as prepared for the printers had, when in proof, been compared with the original manuscript. My own experience in collating the three copies of _Mankind_ (_q.v._), made respectively for the E.E.T.S., Prof. Manly, and Prof. Brandl, does not tend to reassure one. Indeed, the sampling of Mr. Manly's printed sheets in another direction has convinced me that though the text may be, and probably is, substantially accurate, yet it would be folly to waste valuable time in furnishing, for this play, even the simplest of textual notes and criticism. Knowing, by experience, the weighty trustworthiness of Prof. Brandl's work in respect to other plays, I commenced by modernising his text, at the same time collating it with that of Collier, only to find, when I came to compare it with the E.E.T. Society's edition, just the same obviously careless miscripts and blunders that I found when collating _Mankind_. This estimate was confirmed when I tested the value of the work done on _Respublica_, apart from the text, in the same fashion that I tested the worth of _Mankind_. Taking pages xviii.