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PREFACE.



Mr. Hazlitt observes, in treating of the Elizabethan period of literature, which he likens to the "rich strond" of Spenser, that "it only wants exploring to fill the inquiring mind with wonder and delight, and to convince us that we have been wrong in lavishing all our praise on new-born gauds, though they are made and moulded of things past[1]; and in giving to dust that is a little gilded, more laud than gilt o'er dusted:"—that it "will be found amply to repay the labour of the search, and it will be hard if in

  1. This is extremely applicable to the genteel and somewhat cloying poems published under the assumed name of Cornwall.—This author, whose forte lies in tasteful selection, and who is original in imitation, would do well to read and mark page 26 of Mr. Hazlitt's Elizabethan Lectures.