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MILTON'S

=

LYCIDAS

EDITED BY

H. B. COTTERILL, M.A.

SOMETIME ASSISTANT MASTER AT HAILEYBURY COLLEGE
EDITOR OF VIRGIL, AENEID 1, ETC.

WITH A FRONTISPIECE

LONDON

BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.

GLASGOW AND DUBLIN

1902

8.11

PREFACE

The names of writers to whom I am indebted for facts or opinions are mentioned with, I trust, sufficient frequency in the following pages. If, besides such facts and opinions, there is anything of any value in this edition, it is mainly due to information given and suggestions made by numerous correspondents, whose names, except that of one friend who prefers to remain anonymous, have likewise been mentioned.

That part of the Introduction which deals with Milton's earlier poems may perhaps be found useful to the young reader who is wise enough to study these poems in connection with the Lycidas, thus gaining a point of view from which he will be better able to fully appreciate its beauties.

There may be some difference of opinion as to the importance, educational or other, of the questions treated in the Appendices, but I do not doubt that both subjects will attract those who, without perhaps being botanists or rhythm-theorists, take an interest in flowers and in poetry.

The question of the flower "inscribed with woe" is one which must be settled by an appeal to nature. I shall be grateful for any facts, whether or not they confirm my theory.

On the subject of my first Appendix I should value anything worthy of the name of criticism. The question