DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF My Beloved Daughter, IN TENDER AND GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ALL HER HELPFUL AND INTELLIGENT SYMPATHY WITH MY BEST INTELLECTUAL ENDEAVOR, MARY ISABEL BROOKS, DIED MARCH 4, 1883. PREFACE. IN the hope that a work undertaken without the remotest view to publication, but for the comparatively ephemeral purpose of imparting oral information and entertainment, may prove permanently valuable, I commit to print the result of much delightful reading, with some loving and earnest (though far from scholarly) original criticism. In my eager and various reading I quoted and transposed for the benefit of my classes in English Poetry from many authors. It did not then seem necessary to retain in memory all the sources of my information; consequently I cannot now duly accredit some of my borrowings. In a work like this, such an offence may, I trust, be forgiven. Where much learned and able work has been done by "my betters," I have not hoped to excel; but if I may help to foster a love and appreciation of the good and true in English verse, I shall have attained to my highest end and ambition. S. W. B. CAMBRIDGE, March, 1890. |