for granted that Shakespeare will always be studied independently, and that some of the best of our modern novels will be read in their entirety and as a matter of course. Indeed, it would seem to be a little absurd to introduce into a book like this excerpts from Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot. By such omissions I have gained additional space for selections from less familiar and accessible writers. As the aim of this book is literary and not philological or linguistic (and incidentally I should like to enter my protest against the too common confusion of what should be separate lines of study), I have not concerned myself about uniformity of text. I have thought it well to give Chaucer in the old form, and as Spenser's deliberate archaisms were an essential part of his style, these I have of course preserved. Elsewhere in the earlier extracts a more or less modernised text has generally been adopted; but though in such cases the spelling has been changed, I have never tampered with the language itself. WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON. CONTENTS PAGE THE RED CROSS KNIGHT, UNA AND THE DWARF. (From The Faery Queene, Book I., Canto I., Stanzas i to 6.) PRINCE ARTHUR SLAYS THE GIANT ORGOGLIO. (Book I., Canto VIII., Stanzas 1 to 25.) - THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE BEAUTY. (From Tamburlaine the Great, Part I., v. 1.) FAUSTUS' APOSTROPHE TO THE SHADE OF HELEN. (From The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, 66 80 93 98 THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. (From The Areopa- gitica.) |