I HAVE found it convenient, especially in Appendix A, to use the symbol <, following a date, to indicate an uncertain date not earlier than that named, and the symbol >, followed by a date, to indicate an uncertain date not later than that named. Thus 1903 <> 23 would indicate the composition date of any part of this book. I have sometimes placed the date of a play in italics, where it was desirable to indicate the date of production rather than publication. LIST OF AUTHORITIES [_General Bibliographical Note._ The few books here named are mainly those whose range is sufficiently wide to cover the greater part of my own ground. Others, more limited in their scope, are reserved for mention in the preliminary notes to the chapters upon whose subject-matter they directly bear; and in particular the bibliography of the drama, as distinct from the stage, receives full treatment in Book V. The scanty Restoration notices of the pre-Restoration stage are to be found in R. Flecknoe, _A Short Discourse of the English Stage_ (1664), the anonymous _Historia Histrionica_ (1699) ascribed to James Wright, and J. Downes, _Roscius Anglicanus_ (1708). W. R. Chetwood's _General History of the Stage_ (1749) is of no value, and its honesty is suspect. The first scholar to attempt a systematic history was E. Malone, in his _Account of our Ancient Theatres_ (1790) and _Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the English Stage_ (1790), of which a revised version, with much fresh matter, was included by J. Boswell in the _Third Variorum Shakespeare_ (1821). Something was added by G. Chalmers in the _Account of the Rise and Progress of the English Stage_ which forms part of his _Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare-Papers_ (1797), and in an enlarged shape of his _Supplemental Apology_ (1799). The first edition of J. P. Collier's _History of English Dramatic Poetry and Annals of the Stage_ appeared in 1831. Thereafter Collier made many further contributions to the subject, in the publications of the _Shakespeare Society_, and in his _New Facts regarding the Life of Shakespeare_ (1835), _New Particulars regarding the Works of Shakespeare_ (1836), and _Farther Particulars regarding Shakespeare and his Works_ (1839). These abound in forgeries, of which some are analysed in C. M. Ingleby, _A Complete View of the Shakspere Controversy_ (1861), and which have not all been excluded from the current edition of the _History_ (1879). Some new ground was broken by F. G. Fleay, who gave real stimulus to investigation by the series of hasty generalizations and unstable hypotheses contained in his _On the Actor Lists, 1578-1642_ (_R. H. Soc. Trans._ ix. 44), _On the History of Theatres in London, 1576-1642_ (_R. H. Soc. Trans._ x. 114), _Shakespeare Manual_ (1876, 1878), _Introduction to Shakespearian Study_ (1877), _Life and Work of Shakespeare_ (1886), _Chronicle History of the London Stage_ (1890), and _Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama_ (1891).