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ENGLISH POETESSES.

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NOTE.

To Messrs. Blackwood & Son, to Messrs. George Bell &
Son, and particularly to Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.,
I am obliged for courtesies extended with reference to copy-
right verses quoted in this book.

The only instance in which I have not received free permission to quote has occurred in the case of Mrs. Browning's Poems. Nevertheless, it will be found that I have been able to supply my chapter on Mrs. Browning with ample illustrative extracts.

It may be well for me to confess that I am aware of the objections to which the title of this book lies open. Ladies who write verse now-a-days do not care to be called "Poetesses "; yet, as they have not had the wit to find a better designation for themselves, the name must serve while I attempt a measured compliance with the invitation held out by Landor's Cleone: "You may compose a panegyric on all of our sex who have excelled in poetry."

E. S. R.

REDHILL,

CHISLEHURST.
Sept., 1883.

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