Transcriber’s Note: Italics are enclosed in _underscores_. Additional notes will be found near the end of this ebook. Lowell’s Works. COMPLETE WORKS OF JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. New _Riverside Edition_. In same style as the _Riverside Editions_ of Longfellow’s and Whittier’s Works. With Portraits, Indexes, etc. 11 vols, crown 8vo, gilt top, each (except vol. 11), $1.50; the set, 11 vols. $16.25; half calf, $30.00; half calf, gilt top, $33.00; half levant, $44.00. 1–4. Literary Essays (including My Study Windows, Among My Books, Fireside Travels). 5. Political Essays. 6. Literary and Political Addresses. 7–10. Poems. 11. Latest Literary Essays and Addresses ($1.25). PROSE WORKS. New _Riverside Edition_. With Portrait. 7 vols. crown 8vo, gilt top, $10.25; half calf, $19.25; half calf, gilt top, $21.00; half levant, $28.00. LITERARY ESSAYS. New _Riverside Edition_. With Portrait. 4 vols. crown 8vo, gilt top, $7.25; half calf, $13.50; half calf, gilt top, $15.00; half levant, $20.00. POEMS. New _Riverside Edition_. With Portraits; 4 vols. crown 8vo, gilt top, $6.00; half calf, $11.00; half calf, gilt top, $12.00; half levant, $16.00. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY, BOSTON AND NEW YORK. [Illustration] THE OLD ENGLISH DRAMATISTS BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL [Illustration] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1893 Copyright, 1892, BY CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. _All rights reserved._ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. NOTE In the spring of 1887, Mr. Lowell read, at the Lowell Institute in Boston, six lectures on the Old English Dramatists. They had been rapidly written, and in their delivery much was said extemporaneously, suggested by the passages from the plays selected for illustration of the discourse. To many of these passages there was no reference in the manuscript; they were read from the printed book. The lectures were never revised by Mr. Lowell for publication, but they contain such admirable and interesting criticism, and are in themselves such genuine pieces of good literature, that it has seemed to me that they should be given to the public.[1] CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. [1] Before their publication in this volume, these Lectures appeared in _Harper’s Magazine_, in the numbers from June to November, 1892. CONTENTS. PAGE