The Visions of England

A free download from www.dertz.in

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Visions of England, by Francis T.
Palgrave, Edited by Henry Morley
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Visions of England
Lyrics on leading men and events in English History
Author: Francis T. Palgrave
Editor: Henry Morley
Release Date: March 5, 2006 [eBook #17923]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
VISIONS OF ENGLAND***
Transcribed from the 1889 Cassell and Company edition by David
Price, [email protected]

THE VISIONS OF ENGLAND: LYRICS OF LEADING MEN
AND EVENTS IN ENGLISH HISTORY
BY
FRANCIS T. PALGRAVE
Professor of Poetry in the
University of Oxford
Late Fellow of Exeter College
TANTA RES EST, UT PAENE VITIO MENTIS TANTUM OPUS
INGRESSUS MIHI VIDEAR

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
LONDON, PARIS, NEW
YORK & MELBOURNE
1889
By the same Author
THE VISIONS OF ENGLAND: Seventy Lyrics on leading Men and
Events in English History: 8vo. 7/6
LYRICAL POEMS, Four Books: Extra Fcap. 8vo. 6/-
ORIGINAL HYMNS: 18mo. 1/6

Poetry edited by the same
THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF ENGLISH LYRICAL POETRY:
18mo. 4/6
THE CHILDREN'S TREASURY OF ENGLISH LYRICAL POETRY,
with Notes and Glossary: 18mo. 2/6. Or in two parts, 1/- each
SHAKESPEARE'S LYRICS. SONGS FROM THE PLAYS AND
SONNETS, with Notes: 18mo. 4/6
SELECTION FROM R. HERRICK'S LYRICAL POETRY, with Essay
and Notes: 18mo. 4/6
THE POETICAL WORKS OF J. KEATS, reprinted; literatim from the
original editions, with Notes: 18mo. 4/6
LYRICAL POEMS BY LORD TENNYSON, selected and arranged,
with Notes: 18mo. 4/6
GLEN DESSERAY AND OTHER POEMS, by J. C. Shairp, late
Principal of the United College, S. Andrews, and Professor of Poetry in
the University of Oxford. With Essay and Notes. 8vo.
Messrs. MACMILLAN, Bedford St., Covent Garden

To be published presently
THE TREASURY OF SACRED SONG, selected from the English
Lyrical Poetry of Four Centuries, with Notes Explanatory and
Biographical
CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD
Aug. 1889
INTRODUCTION.
Again, on behalf of readers of this NATIONAL LIBRARY, I have to
thank a poet of our day--in this case the Oxford Professor of Poetry--for
joining his voice to the voices of the past through which our better life
is quickened for the duties of to-day. Not for his own verse only, but
for his fine sense also of what is truest in the poets who have gone
before, the name of Francis Turner Palgrave is familiar to us all. Many
a home has been made the richer for his gathering of voices of the past
into a dainty "Golden Treasury of English Songs." Of this work of his
own I may cite what was said of it in Macmillan's Magazine for
October, 1882, by a writer of high authority in English Literature,
Professor A. W. Ward, of Owens College. "A very eminent authority,"
said Professor Ward, "has accorded to Mr. Palgrave's historical insight,
praise by the side of which all words of mine must be valueless,"
Canon [now Bishop] Stubbs writes:--"I do not think that there is one of
the Visions which does not carry my thorough consent and sympathy
all through."
Here, then, Mr. Palgrave re-issues, for the help of many thousands
more, his own songs of the memories of the Nation, addressed to a
Nation that has not yet forfeited the praise of Milton. Milton said of the
Englishman, "If we look at his native towardliness in the roughcast,
without breeding, some nation or other may haply be better composed
to a natural civility and right judgment than he. But if he get the benefit
once of a wise and well-rectified nurture, I suppose that wherever
mention is made of countries, manners, or men, the English people,
among the first that shall be praised, may deserve to be accounted a

right pious, right honest, and right hardy nation." So much is shown by
the various utterances in this NATIONAL LIBRARY. So much is
shown, in the present volume of it, by a poet's vision of the England
that has been till now, and is what she has been.
H. M.
TO THE NAMES OF
HENRY HALLAM AND FRANCIS
PALGRAVE
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-LABOURERS IN
ENGLISH HISTORY
FOR FORTY YEARS,
WHO,
DIFFERING OFTEN IN JUDGMENT,
WERE AT ONE
THROUGHOUT LIFE IN DEVOTED LOVE OF
JUSTICE,
TRUTH, AND ENGLAND,
IN AFFECTIONATE AND
REVERENT REMEMBRANCE
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED
AND DEDICATED
PREFACE
As the scheme which the Author has here endeavoured to execute has
not, so far as he knows, the advantage of any near precedent in any
literature, he hopes that a few explanatory words may be offered
without incurring censure for egotism.
Our history is so eminently rich and varied,