cks the distinctive hard,
bejewelled brilliance of minor epic that characterizes Barksted's
poetry at its best.

In summation, then, we see that although =Pyramus and Thisbe= and =Amos
and Laura= have slight literary value, =The Scourge=, while failing to
score very high as a minor epic, yet has a certain crude, narrative
vitality. And =Dom Diego=, =Mirrha=, =Hiren=, and =Philos and Licia=, by
virtue of their charm, inventiveness, or skillful adaptation of minor
epic conventions to their expressive needs, form a hierarchy of
increasing literary value that raises them as a group well above the
level of the merely imitative.

For permission to reproduce =Philos and Licia= (for the first time),
=Mirrha=, and =Hiren=, I am much indebted to the Bodleian Library; for
permission to reproduce =Dom Diego and Ginevra= I am similarly indebted
to the Trustees of the British Museum. I am also under heavy
obligation to the Folger Library for permission to reprint =Pyramus and
Thisbe=, =Amos and Laura=, and =The Scourge of Venus= (1613), all for the
first time.

I also wish to express my thanks to The British Museum, the Bodleian
Library, the University of Michigan, and the Ohio State University
libraries for generous permission to use their collections, and to the
Board of College Education of the Lutheran Church in America for a
six-week summer study grant, which enabled me to gather research
materials for this project.

For help and encouragement in a great variety of ways I am grateful to
the following mentors and colleagues: Professor John Arthos, who first
introduced me to the beauty of minor epic, the late Professor Hereward
T. Price, and Professor Warner G. Rice, all from the University of
Michigan; Professor Helen C. White of the University of Wisconsin;
librarians Major Felie Clark, Ret., U. S. Army, of Gainesville,
Florida, and Professor Luella Eutsler of Wittenberg University; and
Dr. Katharine F. Pantzer of the Houghton Library, Harvard University,
editor of the forthcoming, revised =Short-Title Catalogue=.

Paul W. Miller

_Wittenberg University
Springfield, Ohio
December, 1965_

Footnotes:

[1] See in this connection my article "The Elizabethan Minor Epic,"
=SP=, LV (1958), 31-38, answered by Walter Allen, Jr., pp. 515-518. My
chief concern in this article was to show that the kind of poetry
described therein, though in years past loosely and variously ref