The peculiar conditions of this essay must be left to explain themselves.
    It could not have been written at all without the aid of the Publications
    of the Chaucer Society, and more especially of the labours of the
    Society's Director, Mr. Furnivall. To other recent writers on Chaucer--
    including Mr Fleay, from whom I never differ but with hesitation--I have
    referred, in so far as it was in my power to do so. Perhaps I may take
    this opportunity of expressing a wish that Pauli's "History of England," a
    work beyond the compliment of an acknowledgement, were accessible to every
    English reader.