ST THOMAS of CANTERBURY

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POEMS, Miscellaneous and Sacred. (Burns & Oates.)

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MARY TUDOR, a Drama; and Sonnets.

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PREFACE.

The

MR. FREEMAN, in his remarkable essay 'St. Thomas of Canterbury and his Biographers,' observes: If we wish fairly to judge of the right and the wrong between Henry and Thomas, we must first of all shut our eyes to all modern controversies whatever. We must not carry into that region any modern theories about Church and State, about Catholicism and Protestantism.' remark applies no less to a drama on the subject of Becket, since it should neither be written nor read in a polemical spirit. What we are concerned with is the character of the man and the aims of his life. To understand either, we must bear in mind the principles and the main tendencies of the age in which he lived. If in recent times our best writers have maintained a more