The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as anintroduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his wordsare used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whateverhas been added to give them the regular form of a connected story,diligent care has been taken to select such words as might leastinterrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote:therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have beenas far as possible avoided.
