Preface

Summary

The history of this book is such that most of it has to be told in the Introduction rather than the Preface. The German original was first written as a Habilitationsschrift and submitted to the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Göttingen in 1968. In book form it appeared, with minor revisions, under the title Redeformen des englischen Misterienspiels, published by Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich, in 1973. When invited to prepare an English translation for the European Studies in English Literature series, I felt the double obligation of preserving the German background from which the book originated and taking note of scholarship which had appeared since the publication of the original. These two goals are not easily reconciled with the equally important one of reader-friendliness. Footnotes such as ‘But see now X’ and ‘See now also Y’ are required by intellectual honesty, but courtesy to the reader demands that they be kept to a minimum. Oversights and errors that were brought to my attention have been corrected and acknowledged. In this respect Dieter M. Schmidt's dissertation (Free University of Berlin) ought to be singled out for special mention.

During the lengthy process of translation and preparing for the press I enjoyed the help and advice of many collaborators and friends. First among them are my translator, Frances Wessels, and my student assistants. Mrs Wessels showed great resourcefulness in finding nearequivalents for my academic German, and even greater patience in discussing them with me.