The "Apology" of Cibber has gone through six editions. I have reprinted the text of the second, because it was certainly revised by the author, and many corrections made. But I have carefully compared my text with that of the first edition, and, wherever the correction is more than merely verbal, I have indicated the fact in a note (_e. g._ vol. i. p. 72). The only edition which has been annotated is that published in 1822, under the editorship of Edmund Bellchambers. Whether the Notes were written by the Editor or by Jacob Henry Burn, who annotated Dickens's "Grimaldi," is a point which I have raised in my "Bibliographical Account of English Theatrical Literature" (p. 373). I have been unable to obtain any authentic information on the subject, so give Burn's claim for what it is worth. The statement as to the latter's authorship was made in his own handwriting on the back of the title-page of a copy of the book, sold by a well-known bookseller some years ago. It was in the following terms:--
"In 1821, while residing at No. 28, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, the elder Oxberry, who frequently called in as he passed, found me one day adding notes in MS. to Cibber's 'Apology.' Taking it up, he said he should like to reprint it; he wanted something to employ the spare time of his hands, and proferred to buy my copy, thus annotated. I think it was two pounds I said he should have it for; this sum he instantly paid, and the notes throughout are mine, not Bellchambers's, who having seen it through the press or corrected the proofs whilst printing, added his name as the editor.--J. H. BURN."
Whether Burn or Bellchambers be the author, the notes, I find, are by no means faultlessly accurate. I have made little use of them, except that the Biographies, which are by far the most valuable of the annotations, are reprinted at the end of my second volume. Even in these, it will be seen, I have corrected many blunders. Some of the memoirs I have condensed slightly; and, as the Biographies of Booth, Dogget, and Wilks were in all essential points merely a repetition of Cibber's narrative, I have not reprinted them. In all cases where I have made any use of Bellchambers's edition, or have had a reference suggested to me by it, I have carefully acknowledged my indebtedness.