REJECTED

ARTICLES.

But be these verities, master Steward?-

-Nay, good Alice, now thou questionest less wisely than is thy wont.
They are that they are; and as that I tell them to thee. If they like thee,
well; if not, it would not make them, though they were ten times verities.
OLD PLAY.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1826.

PREFACE.

Ir may be laid down as an axiom, in regard to Magazine writing, that it must not be too good. Who, that is gifted with "a literary turn," is not in the constant habit of finding, that those passages of his Papers which happen to be expunged by the remorseless pens of Periodical Editors, are invariably the best? Indeed the merest novice in these matters knows perfectly well, that it is only necessary to write an Article rather better than usual from beginning to end, to ensure its rejection altogether. When, therefore, the Editor of the present Volume states, that it is the joint production of several gentlemen who have long been distinguished for the piquancy of their