The Lake English Classics General Editor LINDSAY TODD DAMON Professor of English, Brown University ADDISON AND STEELE-Sir Roger de Coverley Papers-ABBOTT ADDISON AND STEELE-Selections from The Tatler and The Spec tator--ABBOTT AUSTEN-Pride and Prejudice—WARD BROWNING-Selected Poems-REYNOLDS Builders of Democracy-GREENLAW BUNYAN-The Pilgrim's Progress-LATHAM BURKE-Speech on Conciliation with Collateral Readings-WARD BURNS-Selected Poems CARLYLE-Essay on Burns 1 vol.-MARSH CHAUCER-Selections-GREENLAW COLERIDGE-The Ancient Mariner LOWELL-Vision of Sir Launfal 1 vol.-MOODY COOPER-The Last of the Mohicans-LEWIS COOPER-The Spy-DAMON DANA-Two Years Before the Mast-WESTCOTT Democracy Today-GAUSS DE QUINCEY-The Flight of a Tartar Tribe-FRENCH ELIOT, GEORGE-Silas Marner-HANCOCK ELIOT, GEORGE-The Mill on the Floss-WARD English Poems-From POPE, GRAY, GOLDSMITH, COLERIDGE, BYRON. English Popular Ballads-HART Essays-English and American-ALDEN Familiar Letters, English and American-GREENLAW FRANKLIN-Autobiography-GRIFFIN French Short Stories-SCHWEIKERT GASKELL (Mrs.)-Cranford-HANCOCK GOLDSMITH-The Vicar of Wakefield-MORTON (AWTHORNE-The House of the Seven Gables-HERRICK AWTHORNE-Twice-Told Tales-HERRICK AND BRUERE UGHES-Tom Brown's School Days-DE MILLE IRVING-Life of Goldsmith-KRAPP *RVING-The Sketch Book-KRAPP The Lake English Classics—continued IRVING Tales of a Traveller-and parts of The Sketch Book-KRAPP LONGFELLOW-Narrative Poems-POWELL LOWELL-Vision of Sir Launfal-See Coleridge MACAULAY-Essays on Addison and Johnson-NEWCOMER MACAULAY-Goldsmith, Frederic the Great, Madame D'Arblay-NEW COMER MACAULAY-Essays on Milton and Addison-NEWCOMER MILTON-L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas-NEILSON Old Testament Narratives-RHODES One Hundred Narrative Poems-TETER POE-Poems and Tales, Selected-NEWCOMER POPE-Homer's Iliad, Books I, VI, XXII, XXIV-CRESSY AND MOODY READE-The Cloister and the Hearth-DE MILLE RUSKIN-Sesame and Lilies-LINN Russian Short Stories-SCHWEIKERT SCOTT-Lady of the Lake-MOODY SCOTT-Lay of the Last Minstrel-MOODY AND WILLARD SCOTT-Marmion-MOODY AND WILLARD SCOTT-Ivanhoe-SIMONDS SCOTT-Quentin Durward-SIMONDS Selections from the Writings of Abraham Lincoln-HAMILTON SHAKSPERE-The Neilson Edition-Edited by W. A. NEILSON, SHAKSPERE-The Merchant of Venice---LOVETT SOUTHEY-Life of Nelson-WESTCOTT STEVENSON-Inland Voyage and Travels with a Donkey-LEONARD STEVENSON-Kidnapped-LEONARD STEVENSON-Treasure Island-BROADUS TENNYSON-Selected Poems-REYNOLDS TENNYSON-The Princess-COPELAND THACKERAY-English Humorists-CUNLIFFE AND WATT THACKERAY-Henry Esmond-PHELPS THOREAU-Walden-BOWMAN Three American Poems-The Raven, Snow-Bound, Miles Standish GREEVER Types of the Short Story-HEYDRICK VIRGIL-Aeneid-ALLINSON AND ALLINSON Washington, Webster, Lincoln, Selections from-DENNEY SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY CHICAGO ATLANTA NEW YORK HARVARD COLLEGE NOV 5 1927 LIBRARY George Nichols offend COPYRIGHT 1900, 1919 257.36 PREFACE In the present edition the main endeavor has been to provide an apparatus that should ensure the complete intelligibility of the four poems forming the text, and an understanding of the circumstances in which they were written. This has made necessary not only an outline of the poet's life, but also a sketch of some of the main tendencies in English politics, civil and ecclesiastical, during his youth. Without some such view, it is impossible for the student to grasp the significance of the political allusions in Lycidas, while the other three poems all gain immensely in interest when it is seen how they are related to the Puritanism of which the poetry of Milton is the supreme literary expression. In addition to the biographical and historical material, a concise statement is given of what is known of the sources of the poems. Teachers using the book have a right to demand that this should be supplied, yet it is by no means to be understood that all students should be required to study it in detail. It is doubtful, indeed, whether the minds of young students should be burdened by more than the general bearing of such a statement of Milton's real or supposed debt to previous writers. More important, because more vital to |