Note 22 — INTRODUCTION

Although Langbaine claims to use "the best Edition of each Book" (Preface, [A3v]), one of his eighteenth-century annotators, Bishop Percy, is right in saying that "Langbaine's Work would have been more valuable if he had everywhere set down the First Editions," but "the editions referred to" are "such as he happened to have in his possession." Oldys had earlier expressed the same bibliographical regret more succinctly: "A woeful Chronologist art thou, Gerard Langbaine." These opinions are quoted by Alun Watkin-Jones in his survey of annotated copies of the Account: "Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691)," Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, XXI (1936), 77.