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The aim of this work is to collect all the material (save the writings of Dryden) necessary for a thorough study of the development of English criticism in the seventeenth century, and to make this development more intelligible by annotation and comment. The omission of the chief critic of the century may suggest an obvious analogy to Hamlet without the protagonist who gives it its name. But the attention of scholars has been centered too exclusively on this highly significant figure; he has overshadowed a considerable number of men whose work cannot be ignored without a loss of historical perspective. Their presence in this collection gives each an added significance as a link in the chain of English criticism. At the time of original publication in 1908 the editor, J. E. Spingarn, was Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.

Excerpt from Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, Vol. 3: 1685-1700 It an indisputable Title to Wit) to be in the number of his Friends, so few were his Enemies, but such as did not. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.