l,
a passion even--the dignity of resistance, the sacred quality
of patriotism, that is my ambition here. Now, to read poetry
at all is to have an ideal anthology of one's own, and in that
possession to be incapable of content with the anthologies of all
the world besides. That is, the personal equation is ever to be
reckoned withal, and I have had my preferences, as those that
went before me had theirs. I have omitted much, as Aytoun's
'Lays,' whose absence many will resent; I have included much,
as that brilliant piece of doggerel of Frederick Marryat's,
whose presence some will regard with distress. This without
reference to enforcements due to the very nature of my work.

I have adopted the birth-day order: for that is the simplest.
And I have begun with--not Chaucer, nor Spenser, nor the ballads,
but--Shakespeare and Agincourt; for it seemed to me that a
book of heroism could have no better starting-point than that
heroic pair of names. As for the ballads, I have placed them,
after much considering, in the gap between old and new, between
classic and romantic, in English verse. The witness of Sidney and
Drayton's example notwithstanding, it is not until 1765, when
Percy publishes the 'Reliques,' that the ballad spirit begins
to be the master influence that Wordsworth confessed it was;
while as for the history of the matter, there are who hold that
'Sir Patrick Spens,' for example, is the work of Lady Wardlaw,
which to others, myself among them, is a thing preposterous
and distraught.

It remains to add that, addressing myself to boys, I have not
scrupled to edit my authors where editing seemed desirable, and
that I have broken up some of the longer pieces for convenience in
reading. Also, the help I have received while this book of 'Noble
Numbers' was in course of growth--help in the way of counsel,
suggestion, remonstrance, permission to use--has been such that
it taxes gratitude and makes complete acknowledgment impossible.

W. E. H.

CONTENTS

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) and
MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631).
PAGE
I. AGINCOURT
Introit 1
Interlude 2
Harfleur 3
The Eve