AND 81654 THE ENGLISH POETS A STUDY IN HISTORICAL CRITICISM BY ALBERT ELMER HANCOCK, PH.D. (HARV.) NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1899 PREFACE. THIS little book is a revision of a study made at Harvard University and presented there as a dissertation for the doctor's degree. The work was completed in April, 1897,-before the appearance of Professor Dowden's book on the same subject, and it is now published, by the advice of friends, as a slight contribution to the strictly scientific or historical criticism of the English Romantic Movement. The field, perhaps, has been already well ploughed; but the reploughing, with the historical method, has yielded some more or less important discoveries and has placed some old ideas in stronger lights. The repetition of certain matters of common knowledge has been necessary, at times, in order to preserve a logical and continuous argument. I am glad to record here many obligations to preceding studies, especially to the writings of Morley and Taine; to these aids I have added the results of my own observation and reflection. With a new collation of materials, new interpretations of certain facts, and the maintenance of a historical point of view, the book, I trust, has an individuality of its own, and therefore justifies its issue. |