patience must have been sorely taxed by the long course of publication, and of the printers, who have not only performed their part of the task in a highly creditable manner, but have shown the greatest forbearance with the unavoidable delays incident to the production of the book.
My special thanks are due to Professor E. Washburn Hopkins for the use of his copy of the Satsaiya of Bihārī and for comments on certain difficult passages; to Professor Charles R. Lanman for placing at my disposal a rare version of the Mahānāṭaka and giving me suggestions regarding certain parts of my translation; and to Dr. Franklin Edgerton for material from an unpublished MS. of the Vikramacarita. I am sincerely grateful as well to Dr. Charles J. Ogden, who read the entire book in proof and gave me numerous welcome corrections and suggestions, and to Dr. Louis H. Gray, who carefully examined with me many difficult passages and whose broad scholarship has been helpful at all stages of the work. I wish to express also my appreciation of the help of two other friends, Miss Marie L. Weiss and Miss Jane Porter Williams, who have in various ways generously contributed to the successful completion of my task.
And I wish to record here, above all, some expression, however inadequate, of the debt of gratitude I owe to my friend and teacher, Professor A. V. Williams Jackson. His kindly interest in my work has never flagged since the day, now twelve years past, when I first took up the study of Sanskrit under his guidance, and, even amid the pressure of multifarious duties, he has always placed his time and energy ungrudgingly at my disposal. In the preparation of this book I have had throughout the benefit of his encouragement and his stimulating criticism, and it bears some evidence of his comments and suggestions on almost every page. My years of association with him at Columbia as pupil and as co-worker will always remain a precious memory.
