The present edition of _El Sombrero de tres picos_ is designed to make
the book accessible as a text for use in college classes as early as the
second or third semester of Spanish study. The plan of the edition needs
no special comment. The editor has made the effort to include in the
notes and the vocabulary explanation sufficient to cover all
difficulties reasonably to be attributed to students who have done
careful work in the elements of Spanish grammar, and the usual
elementary reading. The numerous references in the notes are addressed
more particularly to the teachers.
In the use of the vocabulary, it should be borne in mind that the latter
is designed for this text alone, and is in no sense a dictionary. It may
be said also that an effort has been made to exclude from the notes all
puerilities, and the explanation of commonplaces, whether of history,
grammar, or mythology.
Grateful acknowledgment is made here to the friends who have helped the
editor in whatever way in the preparation of this book, and in especial
to Professor De Haan of Bryn Mawr College; to Professor Caroline B.
Bourland of Smith College, the editor's sister; to [p. iv] Professor
William D. Briggs, of the Leland Stanford, Jr. University; to Professor
Christian Gauss, of Princeton University; to the Rev. Gilbert P.
Jennings, Rector of St. Agnes' Church in Cleveland, and to Don Adolfo
Bonilla y San Martín, of Madrid; and lastly, and most of all, to the
editor's friend and pupil, Mr. Gustav G. Laubscher, of Adelbert College,
whose work on the vocabulary was more nearly collaboration than
assistance.