Excerpt from The Minstrel's Tale, and Other Poems Being aware that the public will not consider the circumstances under which some of the pieces were composed, as an extenuation of their imperfections, nor the youthfulness of the author as an excuse for his errors, he does not endeavour to seek shelter from dishonour by pleading either. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.