permitted to quote Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's remarks on the same subject in the preface to his admirable Selection The Oxford Book of English Verse. He says, 'Having set my heart on choosing the best, I resolved not to be dissuaded by common objections against anthologies-that they repeat one another until the proverb δὶς ἢ τρὶς τὰ καλά loses all application-or perturbed if my judgement should often agree with that of good critics. The best is the best though a hundred judges have declared it so; nor had it been any feat to search out and insert the second-rate merely because it happened to be recondite.' I have arranged the poets in order of birth. For convenience, too, I have grouped the majority of the Ballads, Songs, Carols, and certain other pieces by unknown writers, in the middle of the seventeenth century. Songs from the dramatists have been included, but, with the exception of Shakespeare's plays, the drama, properly so called, has been but very little drawn upon. This exclusion is due partly to considerations of space, as several volumes, beyond the five prescribed by the publishers, would have been necessary to enable the drama to be adequately represented, partly also to the admitted difficulty of giving from plays selections intelligible and interesting in themselves. But with regard to Shakespeare, it is assumed that the great majority of readers are more familiar with his plays than with those of the other dramatists. Moreover, all readers must surely possess a copy of his works, to which, if necessary, they can refer. In dealing with poems of considerable length (e.g. 'The Faerie Queene' and 'Paradise Lost'), I have frequently indulged a preference for the lengthy extract, but not so as to crowd out any indispensable lyrics. Many of the longer poems, indeed, are given in their entirety (e.g. certain of the Canterbury Tales, Milton's 'Comus', Pope's Rape of the Lock', Shelley's 'Alastor', The Sensitive Plant', and ‘Adonais', Keats's 'Isabella' and 'The Eve of St. Agnes', Matthew Arnold's 6 Sohrab and Rustum', and two of William Morris's tales from The Earthly Paradise). This preference for the complete poem, wherever possible, may perhaps, where it is lengthy, tend to give greater prominence to certain poets than to others of greater name; and hence the space allotted to such poets must not always be regarded as an index to their respective rank and importance. However, in dealing with poets of the very highest class, it will, I hope, be found that ample space has been devoted to their works. As with the Prose Selections, I have begun with the fourteenth century, the age of Chaucer, though a few earlier anonymous lyrics have been included. Living writers are not represented, their exclusion being due to various considerations, among others to difficulties of copyright. These difficulties will also account for the inadequate space given to certain other poets, whose works are still copyright. With respect to orthography, it was decided that modernization should begin with Shakespeare. The selections from the dialect poets, however, retain throughout their original forms. Notes explanatory of archaic words and phrases have been added. It remains for me to express my indebtedness to the labours of others in the same field. In particular, I must mention the great help I have received from those two great storehouses of Selections, Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, edited by Dr. David Patrick, and The English Poets, edited by Thomas Humphry Ward. In addition, Palgrave's Golden Treasury and Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's Oxford Book of English Verse have proved invaluable guides throughout and to both I am greatly indebted. Amongst other works which have been of assistance to me I may mention in particular Archbishop Trench's Household Book of English Poetry, Canon Beeching's Paradise of English Poetry, Mowbray Morris's Poet's Walk, W. E. Henley's Lyra Heroica, Mr. R. M. Leonard's Pageant of English Poetry, T. W. H. Crosland's English Song and Ballads, the Oxford Treasury of English Literature by Miss G. E. Hadow and Sir W. H. Hadow, Mr. J. C. Smith's Book of Verse for Boys and Girls and his Book of Verse from Langland to Kipling, and Mr. Arthur Symons's Pageant of Elizabethan Poetry. The various other works which have been of assistance are too numerous for particular mention. 10, THE AVENUE, KEW GARDENS. W. P. WILLIAM DUNBAR, 1465 (?)—1520 (?)— The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis |