ns only
are admitted--and these, which may be considered of exceptional
merit or interest, had already been given to the public--but of
the latter almost everything; because these scraps being of mature
date, generally contain some special beauty of thought or diction,
and are invariably of metrical or rhythmical interest: some of
them are in this respect as remarkable as anything in the volume.
As for exclusion, no translations of any kind are published here,
whether into Greek or Latin from the English of which there
are autographs and copies in _A_ or the Englishing of Latin
hymns occurring in _H_: these last are not in my opinion of
special merit; and with them I class a few religious pieces which
will be noticed later.

_Author's Prosody_ Of the peculiar scheme of prosody invented and
developed by the author a full account is out of the question. His
own preface together with his description of the metrical scheme of
each poem--which is always, wherever it exists, transcribed in the
notes--may be a sufficient guide for practical purposes. Moreover,
the intention of the rhythm, in places where it might seem doubtful,
has been indicated by accents printed over the determining
syllables: in the later poems these accents correspond generally
with the author's own marks: in the earlier poems they do not, but
are trustworthy translations.

_Marks_ It was at one time the author's practice to use a very
elaborate system of marks, all indicating the speech-movement: the
autograph (in _A_) of _Harry Ploughman_ carries seven different
marks, each one defined at the foot. When reading through his
letters for the purpose of determining dates, I noted a few
sentences on this subject which will justify the method that I
have followed in the text. In 1883 he wrote: 'You were right to
leave out the marks: they were not consistent for one thing, and
are always offensive. Stilt there must be some. Either I must
invent a notation applied throughout as in music or else I must
only mark where the reader is likely to mistake, and for the
present this is what I shall do.' And again in '85: 'This is my
difficulty, what marks to use and when to use them: they are so
much needed and yet so objectionable. (_Punctuation_) About
punctuation my mind is clear: I can give a rule for everything I
write myself, and even for other people, though they might
not agree with me perhaps.' In this last matter the autographs
are rigidly respected, the