The notes on the poems are meant to be sufficiently full for all practical needs and purposes; those on the prose are very few, and simply explanatory. It did not seem fitting to burden Gray's delightful letters with a mass of annotation. The poems are printed in the order in which they were written; this is not only interesting in itself, but throws considerable light on Gray's remarkable change of taste his transition from Classicism to Romanticism. The selections from the prose also indicate this fact, and a separate section of the Introduction is devoted to a discussion of what might be called Gray's poetic evolution. Although to students of the development of literature, this should be the most significant and interesting feature of Gray's work, it is a thing that editors and critics have strangely neglected. The view given in the Introduction is founded on patient study and thought. Some parts of it have been reprinted from my chapter on Gray in The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, Ginn & Co., 1893. The general editors of the Athenæum Press series have given constant and valuable assistance. Professor Kittredge has not only written an Appendix on Gray's knowledge of Norse, a subject on which Mr. Gosse has strangely blundered, but throughout the Notes, especially those on the Norse poems (of which language the present editor has no knowledge) has steadily furnished me with facts and suggestions. Professor Albert S. Cook and Doctor Hanns Oertel of Yale, have kindly given aid in verifying some references. YALE COLLEGE, 22 February 1894. W. L. P. |