CHIEFLY RELATING TO POETRY FROM SIDNEY TO BYRON SELECTED AND ARRANGED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES VOLUME I LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO. 1897 PREFATORY NOTE то "THE PAMPHLET LIBRARY' THE object of The Pamphlet Library is to set before readers who are interested in the literary and constitutional history of our country the text of those pamphlets or tractates which, besides possessing the only saving qualities of distinction and style, have also exercised a striking influence upon the current of events. At present five volumes are in contemplation, dealing respectively with pamphlets of political, literary, religious, and dramatic significance, and the editors who have undertaken them have regulated their choice primarily by two considerations. Each pamphlet, it has been held, should have high literary qualities, and should also mark a distinct change or development of taste or standpoint. Unfortunately, the pamphleteer of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was not always as brief as he was effective, and the restrictions of space have obliged the omission of some 5 |