The laud honour and glory of the immortall gods; the memoriall and registry of all great fortunes, the praise of vertue and reproofe of vice, the instruction of morall doctrines, the revealing of sciences naturall and other profitable Arts, the redresse of boistrous and sturdie courages by persuasion, the consolation and repose of temperate myndes, finally the common solace of mankind in all his travails and cares of this transitorie life.-GEORGE PUTTENHAM. PREFACE. HE matter of this volume was prepared in the form of lectures written from time to time for various audi ences. Brought together, it naturally proves rather, as Byron styled the "Giaour," a "string of passages" than a connected series of papers. Still, the ever-present conviction that poetry is always poetry, that poetry is of great importance, that there are laws governing poetry, and that these laws can be and should be familiar to the people,this, perhaps, establishes sufficient continuity to warrant the issue of the collection. Should the inspiring conviction stand out too roughly at times, it will be smoothed down by many another hand, leisured and skilled not to "leave it still unsaid in part, Or say it in too great excess." J. V. C. CHICAGO, October 6, 1895. |
