are described as ed. I, ed. 2, or ed. 3. The booksellers' reprints are denoted by the years in which they appeared. Other editions are described by the editor's name. Anonymous conjectures are denoted by Anon. conj., and if they are followed by a name in brackets it is the name of the editor by whom they are quoted. For convenience of reference I have added a list of editions and other authorities mentioned in the Notes.

The order of arrangement of the poems is as far as possible chronological.

I have now to express my thanks to those who have given me material assistance in my work to the Earl of Ellesmere for allowing me to collate the MS. of Comus now in the Library of Bridgewater House: to the Librarians of the University and College Libraries in Cambridge, of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, of the University Library, Glasgow, of Trinity College, Dublin, of John Rylands' Library, Manchester, of Dr Williams's Library, Gordon Square, to the President of Magdalen College, Oxford, to the Vice-Provost of Eton, to the Librarian of St Paul's School, to Professor Walter Raleigh, to the Librarians of the Lambeth and Sion College Libraries, and many others for the help they have rendered me in my hitherto fruitless search for one of the title-pages to the first edition of Paradise Lost. And while in addition I wish gratefully to acknowledge the large debt I owe to previous editors of Milton I desire to record my protest against the slipshod habit of some who say, "Modern editions read," which has cost me many an hour of unprofitable research.

WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT.

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

28 March, 1903.

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV.

This and the following Psalm were done by the Author at fifteen years old.

WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son

After long toil their liberty had won,

And pass'd from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,
Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That saw the troubled sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath received the foil.
The high huge-bellied mountains skip like rams
Amongst their ewes, the little hills like lambs.
Why fled the ocean? and why skipp'd the mountains?
Why turned Jordan toward his crystal fountains?
Shake, Earth, and at the presence be agast

Of Him that ever was and aye shall last,
That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush.

10

M.

TH

I

PSALM CXXXVI.

LET us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for he is kind;
For his mercies aye endure,

Ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze his name abroad,
For of gods he is the God;
For his, etc.

O let us his praises tell,
Who doth the wrathful tyrants quell;
For his, etc.

Who with his miracles doth make
Amazed heaven and earth to shake;
For his, etc.

Who by his wisdom did create

The painted heavens so full of state;
For his, etc.

Who did the solid earth ordain

To rise above the watery plain;

For his, etc.

Who, by his all-commanding might,
Did fill the new-made world with light;
For his, etc.

And caused the golden-tressed sun

All the day long his course to run;
For his, etc.

30

The horned moon to shine by night
Amongst her spangled sisters bright;
For his, etc.

He, with his thunder-clasping hand,
Smote the first-born of Egypt land;
For his, etc.

39