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The Bibelot
VOLUME I
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From The Bibelot, A Reprint of Poetry and Prose for Book Lovers, chosen in part from scarce editions and sources not generally known, Volume I, Number III, Testimonial Edition, Edited and Originally Published by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Maine; Wm. Wise & Co.; New York; 1895; pp. 57-58.
THE Selections that go to make up the present Bibelot are taken from that exquisitely printed and now scarce little volume: —
Issued in the spring of that year it was inscribed with affectionate regard to Robert Louis Stevenson: —
Yours,
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
To-day, neither of these men — touched by kindred Fates — will gladden us again; the written word alone abides forever.
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It has seemed well to the editor, to prefix in Mr. Symonds own phrases, brief [58] comments, as illustrative head notes to the lyrics chosen. To those who now for the first time read these Songs of the Wandering Students of an age preceding the Renaissance, such annotations will not appear uncalled for. In a sense they make the rondure of the ring of poesy and vanished passion, more complete and fused in one.