PREFACE. It may be of service to the reader to explain the arrangement of this volume. In the Introduction which precedes the Autobiography, I have attempted-firstly, to describe Lord Herbert's varied character, as displayed in his own writings and in historical records; and secondly, to review his eminent achievements in literature and philosophy, of which he himself has given no account. In the essay which succeeds the Autobiography, I have tried to trace his political career in detail from 1624— the year when his own memoirs abruptly terminate—to 1648, the date of his death. In an appendix I have printed several original illustrative documents, many extracts from Herbert's unpublished correspondence, and some historical notes on topics to which frequent allusion is made in the Autobiography on the assumption-no longer justifiable-that they are matters of common knowledge. Former editors have treated the work as a mere curiosity of literature. I have endeavoured in my notes and elsewhere to prove that it deserves the serious attention of the student, not only of English literature, but of English social history in the early seventeenth century. My text is that of the first printed edition issued from Horace Walpole's private press in 1764. I differ from that text alone in my treatment of proper names. Soon after I had set myself the task of identifying the persons mentioned by Lord Herbert, I came to the conclusion that the names had very often been wrongly transcribed, and my notes will, I trust, justify the changes I have made. Thus, on p. 49, I replace Tilesius by Telesius, on p. 55 Scordus by Cordus, on p. 116 William Crofts by William Crosse, and so forth. I greatly regret that I have been unable to consult the original manuscript, but my search for it, as I explain elsewhere, has proved unavailing. I have to thank the Earl of Powis, the Rev. T. Burd of Chirbury, and the Rev. Dr. Sewell, Warden of New College, Oxford, for the readiness with which they replied to the various inquiries I addressed to them while. preparing the book. I also desire to acknowledge my obligations to M. de Rémusat's admirable little volume, Lord Herbert de Cherbury, sa Vie et ses Euvres, and to the Archæological Collections published by the Powysland Club, which are invaluable to the student of Welsh history and biography. |