PURITAN AND ANGLICAN: STUDIES IN LITERATURE BY EDWARD DOWDEN LL.D. (DUBLIN), HON. LL.D. (EDINBURGH), HON. D.£.L. (OXFORD), PROFESSOR of englISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD. I 900. To E. D. D. "Truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your worship; yea, an' 'twere a thousand pound more than 'tis.” PREFACE THE first article in this volume is reprinted from The Contemporary Review; the rest of the volume. has been hitherto unpublished. The Puritan writers with whom I deal are such as to render the title "Puritan and Anglican' not inexact, although many of the Puritan party were loyal members of the Anglican Communion. In choosing my subjects I have been influenced by two things: first, I have spoken only of writers with whom I have dwelt long and intimately; and secondly, among such writers I have spoken only of those who move me to speak through some personal interest which I feel in the men or their work. Hence without scruple or regret I omit many great names, being here content to indulge my own likings. I have desired to remain close to my subjects. In many passages, for example, of what I have written on Herbert and Vaughan, it is Herbert and Vaughan who are in fact the speakers; but I did not think it necessary to encumber my pages with a crowd of references to scattered poems from which their thoughts and phrases have been collected. |