[Footnote 1: In particular, we find there a complete proof, supported by some fifty examples, that, _as_ can be traced, through the forms _ase_, _als_, _alse_, _also_, to the A.S. _eall-swa_; a proof, that in the difficult phrase _lond and lithe_, the word _lithe_ [also spelt _lede_, _lude_] is equivalent to the French _tenement_, _rente_, or _fe_; and, thirdly, a complete refutation of Mr Singer’s extraordinary notion that the adverb _swithe_ means _a sword_!] § 2. Owing to the scarcity of copies of this former edition, the committee of the Early English Text Society, having first obtained the approval of Sir Frederic Madden, resolved upon issuing a reprint of it; and Sir Frederic having expressed a wish that the duty of seeing it through the press should be entrusted to myself, I gladly undertook that responsibility. He has kindly looked over the revises of the whole work,[2] but as it has undergone several modifications, it will be the best plan to state in detail what these are. [Footnote 2: In the same way, _William of Palerne_ was prepared by me for the press, subject to his advice; see _William of Palerne_, Introduction, p. ii.] § 3. With respect to the text, the greatest care has been taken to render it, as nearly as can be represented in print, an exact copy of the MS. The text of the former edition is exceedingly correct, and the alterations here made are few and of slight importance. Sir F. Madden furnished me with some, the results of a re-comparison, made by himself, of his printed copy with the original; besides this, I have myself carefully read the proof sheets with the MS. _twice_, and it may therefore be assumed that the complete correctness of the text is established. It seems to me that this is altogether the most important part of the work of a _Text_ Society, in order that the student may never be perplexed by the appearance of words having no real existence. For a like reason the letters þ and ƿ (the latter of which I have represented by an italic _w_) have now been inserted wherever they occur, and the expansions of abbreviations are now denoted by italics. For further remarks upon the text, see the description of the MS. below, § 26. Sidenotes and headlines have been added, but the numbering of the lines has not been altered. The French text of the romance, the title of which is _Le Lai de Aveloc_, and the abridgment of the story by Geffrei Gaimar, have not been here reprinted; the fact being, that the French and English versions differ very widely, and that the passages of the French which really correspond to the English are few and short. _All_ of these will be found in the Notes, in their proper places, and it was also deemed the less necessary to print the French text, because it is tolerably accessible; for it may be found either in vol. i. of Monumenta Historica Britannica, ed. Petrie, 1848, in the reprint by M. Michel