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An excerpt from the PREFACE: The series of which this volume is the third may be said to have three objects: First, to teach the history of our literature in a rational and orderly manner; second, to illuminate the history of England by exhibiting the thoughts of its men of letters in their own words; and, third, to display, as if in a gallery, some specimens of the inheritance into which every English-reading boy and girl has entered. It has been too long the practice to teach English literature in handbooks which give only the briefest examples, if any, of the works they profess to describe; and our many excellent school anthologies, from their want of a definite historical arrangement, and the absence of prose, fail almost entirely to give a connected view of the development of our language. Now, the history of our literature, falling, as it undoubtedly does, into a series of well-marked periods of excellence, appears to lend itself peculiarly to the historical treatment suggested by the word 'epoch.' My general principles of selection are three - the intrinsic merit and interest of the piece, its convenience for use in schools, and its ability to stand by itself without great detriment from the absence of context. 'Scrappiness' is a charge to which all such collections are open; but I have tried to lessen its force by the preponderance of lyric songs, the insertion of complete essays, and King James's pamphlet almost intact. Two points about this volume require explanation. In giving large extracts from Ralph Roister Doister and Gorboduc, I have deliberately deserted my chronological plan with the object of putting the development of the drama in a clearer light. Moreover, my selections from Shakespeare may arouse comment. I have purposely avoided the well-known plays and famous passages. The Tempest, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream, and the historical plays, are continually read complete in schools. I have, therefore, left these on one side, preferring the episode of Beatrice and Benedick as displaying completely in a short space a good example of Shakespeare's dramatic genius, and to that I have added two fine pieces of verse and one of prose for examples of style at its greatest. At the same time, I am prepared to admit that the drama, of all forms of literature, loses most by selection.

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