

                                  Walter Scott

                                  Waverley, or

                                        

                             'Tis Sixty Years Since

 Under which King, Bezonian? speak, or die!
                                                              Henry IV. Part II.
 

                         Advertisement to Edition 1829

It has been the occasional occupation of the Author of Waverley for several
years past to revise and correct the voluminous series of Novels which pass
under that name, in order that, if they should ever appear as his avowed
productions, he might render them in some degree deserving of a continuance of
the public favour with which they have been honoured ever since their first
appearance. For a long period, however, it seemed likely that the improved and
illustrated edition which he meditated would he a posthumous publication. But
the course of the events which occasioned the disclosure of the Author's name
having in a great measure restored to him a sort of parental control over these
Works, he is naturally induced to give them to the press in a corrected, and, he
hopes, an improved form, while life and health permit the task of revising and
illustrating them. Such being his purpose, it is necessary to say a few words on
the plan of the proposed Edition.
    In stating it to be revised and corrected, it is not to be inferred that any
attempt is made to alter the tenor of the stories, the character of the actors,
or the spirit of the dialogue. There is no doubt ample room for emendation in
all these points - but where the tree falls it must lie. Any attempt to obviate
criticism, however just, by altering a work already in the hands of the public,
is generally unsuccessful. In the most improbable fiction the reader still
desires some air of vraisemblance, and does not relish that the incidents of a
tale familiar to him should be altered to suit the taste of critics, or the
caprice of the author himself. This process of feeling is so natural that it may
be observed even in children, who cannot endure that a nursery story should be
repeated to them differently from the manner in which it was first told.
    But without altering in the slightest degree either the story or the mode of
telling it, the Author has taken this opportunity to correct errors of the press
and slips of the pen. That such should exist cannot be wondered at, when it is
considered that the Publishers found it their interest to hurry through the
press a succession of the early editions of the various Novels, and that the
Author had not the usual opportunity of revision. It is hoped that the present
edition will be found free from errors of that accidental kind.
    The Author has also ventured to make some emendations of
