According to Bruce Stone, one of John Ray's pomposities is "the too-precious and antiquated verb 'preambulates'."
In the word prologue (foreword) and in the epilogue (afterword) there's an indication of that which is being spoken, as in a play, or in a written in a text.The same seems to be the case for "preface" (pre + phanai,"speak", phasis, "word").The ambiguity that Bruce Stone noticed in John Ray's preamble ["'Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed Male,' such were the two titles under which the writer of the present note received the strange pages it preambulates"] may become more glaring because the passage from a noun to a verb in this case gets problematic once we realize that, unlike "prologue" and "preface" (dealing with "words") the meaning of "ambulate" is "walk." (literally, to use a pair of legs to move around). John Ray walks ahead of himself just like Humbert Humbert comes before himself?*So much for impossible figures...
Besides, the "preamble" usually points to a lawyer's introductory formalities to a decree, right?. In "Lolita" the lawyer in question must be JR Jr's cousin, not Jr himself. Strange....(Jansy)..................................................................................................................................................................* - "Had I come before myself, I would have given Humbert at least thirty-five years for rape, and dismissed the rest of the charges..."All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.