Dr. Brandl tells us that up to the end of Chapter IV. of Book VI. he found all practically ready for the press, the pages numbered and evidently finally revised by the author. The remainder of the MS., although carefully arranged, was unpaged, yet without gaps, beyond two blank leaves which Dr. Brandl has filled in to the best of his ability (this passage occurs in our volume on p. 211, l. II, to the end of the chapter).
Of the Appendix, which had been referred to by the author as far back as 1889, only a few pages were to be found, and although some of the promised notes are wanting, we have others which had not been looked for. This is a further proof of the method Ten Brink is said to have adopted in work, viz. of taking up his subjects as the spirit moved him, and this may possibly also account for the omission in this volume of some writers whom Ten Brink may have intended to deal with in their turn before finally arranging his material for publication. His "History" remains unfinished, in any case, and this is the more to be regretted as the next volume would have presented the more serious discussion of the Elizabethan era, a subject which he had already made a part of his University lectures, and by which he had attracted students from all parts of the world.
Ten Brink's last words in this volume, on the untimely death of the Earl of Surrey, Dr. Brandl very appropriately quotes in connection with Ten Brink's own sad fate: "Great things he might still have accomplished, but what he did accomplish has not been lost to posterity."
