This book will have been already in the hands of many of our readers. In an excellently written preface Mr. Palgrave describes it as 'an attempt to offer, not poems on every critical moment or conspicuous man in our long annals, but single lyrical pictures of such leading or typical characters in English history, and only such, as have seemed to him amenable to a strictly poetical treatment.' Those who know anything of his father's writings will appreciate the touching utterance of a 'hope that the love of truth and the love of England are his by inheritance, in a degree sufficient to exempt this book (the labour of several years) from infidelity to either.' Patriotism of a refined and truly moral type is indeed apparent whenever Mr. Palgrave speaks of the 'dear land where new is one with old,' 'land of the most law-loving, the most free;' and there is very much in this book which will go straight home to any heart that is at once English and Christian. We must confess that, in our opinion, there would have been still more if the accomplished author (who condemns the modern hexameter as unsatisfactory) had been more sparing in the employment of unfamiliar, or in some cases eccentric, metrical systems, within which - we must add, not within which alone - occur repeatedly lines so unrhythmical as to irritate the reader's ear, constructions so involved as to draw his attention to their grammar, and such a jerk and strain in the expression of 'the passion of the moment' as rather to chill than to stimulate his sympathy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.