16

CLARENDON PRESS SERIES

FRENCH CLASSICS.

By GUSTAVE MASSON, B.A., Univ. Gallic.,

Assistant Master in Harrow School.

1. Vol. I. Corneille : Cinna. Molière : Les Femmes Savantes. With Fontenelle's Life of Corneille and Notes.

[Just published, price 2s. 6d.

2. Vol. II. Racine: Athalie. Corneille: Le Menteur. With Louis Racine's Life of his Father.

3. Vol. III. Molière: Les Fourberies de Scapin. Racine Andromaque. With Voltaire's Life of Molière. 4. Selections from the Correspondence of Madame de Sévigné, &c. (Intended more especially for girls' schools.)

[Just published, price 3s.

5. Selections from modern French Authors: About, and Töpfer. [In course of preparation.

IX. GERMAN CLASSICS. By Dr. BUCHHEIM,

Professor of the German Language and Literature in King's College, London; and Examiner in German to the University of London. 1. Schiller's Wilhelm Tell. With a Life of Schiller; an historical and critical Introduction, Arguments, and a complete Commentary.

[In the Press. 2. Goethe's Egmont. With a Life of Goethe, &c. 3. Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm. A Comedy. With a Life of Lessing, Critical Commentary, &c.

X. ART.

1. A Treatise on Harmony. By the Rev. Sir F. A. GORE OUSELEY, Bart., M.A., Mus. Doc., Professor of Music, Oxford. [Nearly ready. 2. A Treatise on Counterpoint, Canon, and Fugue, based upon that of Cherubini. By the same Author.

3. A Handbook of Pictorial Art, with numerous Illustrations, and Practical Advice. By the Rev. R. ST. J. TYRWHITT, M.A., formerly Tutor of Christ Church. [In the Press.

A System of Physical Education: Theoretical and Practical. By ARCHIBALD MACLAREN, The Gymnasium, Oxford. [In the Press.

IN COURSE OF PREPARATION.

17

XI. ENGLISH CLASSICS.

Designed to meet the wants of Students in English Literature: under the superintendence of the Rev. J. S. BREWER, M.A., of Queen's College, Oxford, and Professor of English Literature at King's College, London.

THERE are two dangers to which the student of English literature is exposed at the outset of his task;-his reading is apt to be too narrow or too diffuse.

Out of the vast number of authors set before him in books professing to deal with this subject he knows not which to select he thinks he must read a little of all; he soon abandons so hopeless an attempt; he ends by contenting himself with second-hand information; and professing to study English literature, he fails to master a single English author. On the other hand, by confining his attention to one or two writers, or to one special period of English literature, the student narrows his view of it; he fails to grasp the subject as a whole; and in so doing misses one of the chief objects of his study.

How may these errors be avoided? How may minute reading be combined with comprehensiveness of view?

In the hope of furnishing an answer to these questions the Delegates of the Press, acting upon the advice and experience of Professor Brewer, have determined to issue a series of small volumes, which shall embrace, in a convenient form and at a low price, the general extent of English Literature, as represented in its masterpieces at successive epochs. It is thought that the student, by confining himself, in the first instance, to those authors who are most worthy of his attention, will be saved from the dangers of hasty and indiscriminate reading. By adopting the course thus marked out for him he will become familiar with the productions of the greatest minds in English Literature; and should he never be able to pursue the subject beyond the limits here prescribed, he will have laid the foundation of accurate habits of

18

CLARENDON PRESS SERIES

thought and judgment, which cannot fail of being serviceable to him hereafter.

The authors and works selected are such as will best serve to illustrate English literature in its historical aspect. As "the eye of history," without which history cannot be understood, the literature of a nation is the clearest and most intelligible record of its life. Its thoughts and its emotions, its graver and its less serious modes, its progress, or its degeneracy, are told by its best authors in their best words. This view of the subject will suggest the safest rules for the study of it.

With one exception all writers before the Reformation are excluded from the Series. However great may be the value of literature before that epoch, it is not completely national. For it had no common organ of language; it addressed itself to special classes; it dealt mainly with special subjects. Again; of writers who flourished after the Reformation, who were popular in their day, and reflected the manners and sentiments of their age, the larger part by far must be excluded from our list. Common sense tells us that if young persons, who have but a limited time at their disposal, read Marlowe or Greene, Burton, Hakewill or Du Bartas, Shakspeare, Bacon, and Milton will be comparatively neglected.

Keeping, then, to the best authors in each epoch-and here popular estimation is a safe guide—the student will find the following list of writers amply sufficient for his purpose: Chaucer, Spenser, Hooker, Shakspeare, Bacon, Milton, Dryden, Bunyan, Pope, Johnson, Burke, and Cowper. In other words, Chaucer is the exponent of the Middle Ages in England; Spenser of the Reformation and the Tudors; Hooker of the latter years of Elizabeth; Shakspeare and Bacon of the transition from Tudor to Stuart; Milton of Charles I and the Commonwealth; Dryden and Bunyan of the Restoration; Pope of Anne and the House of Hanover; Johnson, Burke, and Cowper of the reign of George III to the close of the last century.

The list could be easily enlarged; the names of Jeremy Taylor, Clarendon, Hobbes, Locke, Swift, Addison, Gold

IN COURSE OF PREPARATION.

19

smith, and others are omitted. But in so wide a field, the difficulty is to keep the series from becoming unwieldly, without diminishing its comprehensiveness. Hereafter, should the plan prove to be useful, some of the masterpieces of the authors just mentioned may be added to the list.

of

The task of selection is not yet finished. For purposes education, it would neither be possible, nor, if possible, desirable, to place in the hands of students the whole of the works of the authors we have chosen. We must set before them only the masterpieces of literature, and their studies must be directed, not only to the greatest minds, but to their choicest productions. These are to be read again and again, separately and in combination. Their purport, form, language, bearing on the times, must be minutely studied, till the student begins to recognise the full value of each work both in itself and in its relations to those that go before and those that follow it.

It is especially hoped that this Series may prove useful to Ladies' Schools and Middle Class Schools; in which English Literature must always be a leading subject of instruction.

A General Introduction to, the Series. By the Rev. PROFESSOR BREWER, M.A.

1. Chaucer. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; The Knightes Tale; The Nonne Prest his Tale. Edited by R. MORRIS, Editor for the Early English Text Society, &c. &c. Ext. fcap. 8vo., cloth, price 2s. 6d. [Just Published.

2. Spenser. Faery Queene, Book I. Edited by the Rev. G. W. KITCHIN, M. A., Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Chester. Ext. fcap. 8vo., cloth, price 2s. 6d. [Just Published.

Book II. By the same Editor.

[In the Press.

3. Hooker. Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I. Edited by the Rev. R. W. CHURCH, M.A., Rector of Whatley; formerly Fellow of Oriel College. Ext. fcap. 8vo., cloth, price 28. [Just Published.

4. Shakspeare. Select Plays. Edited by the Rev. W. G. CLARK, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Public Orator; and W. ALDIS WRIGHT, M.A., Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge.

5. Bacon. Advancement of Learning. Edited by W. ALDIS WRIGHT, M.A.

[In the Press. 6. Milton. Allegro and Penseroso; Comus; Lycidas; Paradise Lost; Samson Agonistes. Edited by R. C. BROWNE, M.A., King's College, Cambridge.

7. Dryden. Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell; Astraea Redux; Annus Mirabilis; Absalom and Achitophel; Religio Laici; The Hind and Panther.

8. Bunyan. Grace Abounding; The Pilgrim's Progress. Edited by the Rev. E. VENABLES, M.A., Precentor of Lincoln.

9. Pope. Essay on Man, with the Epistles and Satires. Edited by the Rev. M. PATTISON, M. A., Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.

10. Johnson. Rasselas; Lives of Pope and Dryden. Edited by the Rev. C. H. O. DANIEL, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Worcester College, Oxford.

II. Burke. Thoughts on the Present Discontents; the two Speeches on America; Reflections on the French Revolution. Edited by GOLDWIN SMITH, M.A., Fellow of University College, Oxford; formerly Regius Professor of Modern History.

12. Cowper. The Task, and some of his minor Poems. Edited by PROFESSOR SHAIRP, M.A., St. Andrews.

These volumes will be (as nearly as possible) uniform in shape and size. There will be a brief preface, biographical and literary, to each; and each will have such short notes only as are needed to elucidate the text.

Published for the University of Oxford, by MACMILLAN and CO.. London and Cambridge.