the "Introductions" which may be regarded as more distinctly among the novelties of the present volumes. Milton's LATIN POEMS, coequal though they are in power of genius with his Minor English Poems, and revealing though they do facts in his life and moods of his mind not revealed to the same extent or with the same intensity in those English poems, are, unfortunately, a sealed book, in the main, to the majority of his English readers. Having long noted this with regret, the Editor has ventured, in the Introductions to the Latin Poems in the present Edition, to introduce, in small type, such metrical English versions of the most interesting of these Poems as may, without any pretension of competing generally with previous translations, yet serve to convey to modern English readers more exact ideas of the style and rhythm of the originals, in combination with their substance. On different grounds, but also not unnecessarily, there has been an enlargement of the former Introduction to PARADISE LOST. Within the last fifteen years or so there has been a revival in new forms, in certain quarters, of the old vexed question of the amount of Milton's indebtedness, for the conception of his great epic, or for this or that in its texture and language, to preceding modern books and authors, English or foreign. This question was briefly touched in the Introduction to the Poem in the Library Edition of 1874; but, to suit the larger proportions which the question has recently assumed, it is made the subject of one entire new section of the Introduction to PARADISE LOst as revised for the present Edition. The changes thus indicated will, the Editor hopes, be found improvements. At all events, as this is probably the last Library Edition of Milton's Poetical Works that can pass through his hands, he begs leave to offer it as, whatever may be its faults, the best and most complete he has been able to produce. EDINBURGH: March 1890. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I Paraphrases on Psalms cxiv. and cxxxvi., pp. 114-116; On the Death of a Fair Infant, pp. 116-118; At a Vacation Exercise in the College, pp. 118-124; On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, pp. 124-125; The Passion, p. 125; Song on May Morning, p. 125; On Shakespeare, pp. 125-126; On the University Carrier, pp. 126-128; An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, pp. 128-131; L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, pp. 131-136; Arcades, pp. 136-152; At a Solemn Music, pp. 152-153; On Time, p. 153; Upon the Circumcision, p. 153; Comus, pp. 154-186; Lycidas, pp. 187-201; Sonnets and Kindred Pieces, pp. 201-240; Trans- ELEGIARUM LIBER :-Elegia Prima: Ad Carolum Diodatum, pp. 253-258; Elegia Secunda: In obitum Præconis Academici, p. 259; Elegia Tertia : In obitum Præsulis Wintoniensis, p. 260; Elegia Quarta: Ad Thomam Junium, pp. 260-265; Elegia Quinta: In Adventum Veris, pp. 265-266; Elegia Sexta : Ad Carolum Diodatum, ruri commorantem, pp. 266-268; Elegia Septima Anno ætatis undevigesimo, pp. 268-270; Epigram- mata, pp. 271-281.-SYLVARUM LIBER :-In obitum Procancel- larii Medici, pp. 282-283; In Quintum Novembris, pp. 283-288; In obitum Præsulis Eliensis, p. 289; Naturam non pati Senium, pp. 289-294; De Idea Platonica, pp. 294-295; Ad Patrem, pp. 296-307; Greek Verses, pp. 307-308; Ad Salsillum, pp. 308- 309; Mansus, pp. 309-315; Epitaphium Damonis, pp. 315-329; |