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INTRODUCTION.

Y chief design in publishing this small volume is to do an act of justice to the memory of Sir Walter Raleigh, whose

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poetry has been unaccountably neglected by his biographers, though it is singularly well-fitted to illustrate his character, while it left a distinct mark on the literature of a most brilliant age. No attempt was made during his lifetime, or for long afterwards, to identify or gather up his scattered pieces. The most important of his poems, "Cynthia," has long been lost. The old editions of his "Remains" contain only three short poems. The first responsible editor of his minor writings could only extend the number to nine; and the collection admitted to the standard edition of his works is at once defective and redundant.

It is many years since I called attention to this subject in a volume which was meant, in the first instance, to illustrate the poetry of Sir Henry Wotton and his friends. But as Raleigh's poems

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