t satisfied with these,' he 'visited monasteries, castles, and
towns, interrogated the most aged and veracious persons, and wrote
letters, seeking for completeness and truth in all things;' and thus
composed his biography, from which that in Surius (Acta Sanctorum),
Jacobus de Voragine, Alban Butler, and all others which I have seen,
are copied with a very few additions and many prudent omissions.

Wishing to adhere strictly to historical truth, I have followed the
received account, not only in the incidents, but often in the
language which it attributes to its various characters; and have
given in the Notes all necessary references to the biography in
Canisius's collection. My part has therefore been merely to show
how the conduct of my heroine was not only possible, but to a
certain degree necessary, for a character of earnestness and piety
such as hers, working under the influences of the Middle Age.

In deducing fairly, from the phenomena of her life, the character of
Elizabeth, she necessarily became a type of two great mental
struggles of the Middle Age; first, of that between Scriptural or
unconscious, and Popish or conscious, purity: in a word, between
innocence and prudery; next, of the struggle between healthy human
affection, and the Manichean contempt with which a celibate clergy
would have all men regard the names of husband, wife, and parent.
To exhibit this latter falsehood in its miserable consequences, when
received into a heart of insight and determination sufficient to
follow out all belief to its ultimate practice, is the main object
of my Poem. That a most degrading and agonising contradiction on
these points must have existed in the mind of Elizabeth, and of all
who with similar characters shall have found themselves under
similar influences, is a necessity that must be evident to all who
know anything of the deeper affections of men. In the idea of a
married Romish saint, these miseries should follow logically from
the Romish view of human relations. In Elizabeth's case their
existence is proved equally logically from the acknowledged facts of
her conduct.

I may here observe, that if I have in no case made her allude to the
Virgin Mary, and exhibited the sense of infinite duty and loyalty to
Christ alone, as the mainspring of all her noblest deeds, it is
merely in accordance with Dietrich's biography. The omission of all
Mariolatry is remarkable. My business is to copy that omission, as