PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
MORE THAN THREE YEARS have elapsed since this little Handbook (the scheme of which is fully set forth in the Introduction on page 1) was first projected and announced. In the interval several works similar in subject have appeared, with one or two of which, in point of authority and extent, it could scarcely court comparison. But the field is, nevertheless, a wide one. The present volume had when planned, and has still, its independent purpose, and that it may serve that purpose adequately the Author earnestly desires.
As much with a view to indicate sources of information to the student as upon conscientious grounds, the titles of the works made use of are almost always minutely specified in the foot-notes. But, in addition, the Author desires here to express his obligations generally to Professor Morley's 'English Writers,' and the 'Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise' of M. Taine; to Professor Craik's 'History of the English Language and Literature'; to the 'Essays' of Lord Macaulay and of Messrs. Masson, Forster, and Brimley; to Mr. Arber's excellent 'English Reprints'; to the 'Westminster,' 'Quarterly,' and Edinburgh Reviews'; to the 'Globe Series,' the 'Clarendon Press Series,' Chambers's Cyclopædia of English Literature,' and Allibone's comprehensive 'Dictionary.'
The Author trusts that in the foregoing cases,—and indeed in every case, he has done his authorities no wrong in the way