A Literary History of the English People from the Renaissance to the Civil War ...: From the renaissance to the civil war. 1906-09

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II. SHAKESPEARE AS LIFE-GIVER.-How he animates the coarse

clay or the puppet-Power and extent of this gift-Once

created, his characters act and speak as they please-Their

opinions their own, not necessarily Shakespeare's

...

III. DRAMATIC POWER: USE MADE OF THE RAW MATERIAL.—

Selection of subjects already popular-The majority of his

models are old plays-He prefers complicated plots, and com-

plicates simple ones-Taste of his public for superabundant

incidents-Habitual respect for precedents, even when inco-

herent or improbable

The seeking of effects and contrasts-Magnifying and

diminishing-Pictures brightened or darkened --Lyrical splen-
dour bestowed on the plot, whether bad or good-Example of
the first case, "Hamlet"-Hamlet's character; his inability to
commit, with his eyes open, an act of violence-Claudius;
Polonius and his family; discrepancies and contradictions—
The landscape-Example of the second case, "Othello,"
Shakespeare's best-constructed play-Ineluctable develop-
ment of the tragedy; Othello, Iago, and Desdemona

...

IV. COMEDY.-Mingling of the grave and the gay; individuals, not

types-Absence of rules-Coarse and refined pleasantry;

caricatures and portraits-"Wit combats "-Apemantus, Rosa-

lind, Beatrice-Daily life, country life-Falstaff in London

and at Windsor-Justice Shallow, the Page and Ford families

-Falstaff's end

...

V. LYRICISM AND LITERARY ART.-Shakespeare's language: he

is restrained by no rule-Idealism and vulgarities-Classical

selection and reserve; Shakespearian contrasts-Lyric accents

-Variety of tone and style-Vocabulary and coupling of

words-Images-Good and bad taste

Shakespeare's normal verse-Gradual emancipation-Rime
and blank verse-Run-on lines-Number of syllables...

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VI. POSTHUMOUS FAME.-The first folio-Mode of publication and
contents-Moderate success-Slow increase of Shakespeare's
reputation-Accounts of English literature in which he is
omitted-Praise and remodellings; Dryden, Davenant, Shad-
well-Growing renown in the eighteenth century, "The
Spectator "-Editions by Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Johnson,
etc.-The cult of Shakespeare, Garrick...

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Fame on the continent-France furnishes the first adher-

ents of the cult; literary journals, Prévost, La Place-Voltaire

for and against Shakespeare-Le Tourneur, Ducis; the

romantics-Shakespeare in Germany, critics, exegetes, trans-

lators-Shakespeare and Catherine II.

Universal contemporary fame-Minute researches-The

Italian renaissance and the genius of Shakespeare

THE CONTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS OF SHAKESPEARE.

...

I. BEN JONSON. His life and character-Serious studies-Duels

and challenges-Pride and disdain-Jonson and the public-

Literary kingship-Journey to Scotland-Various works-

Decline

Jonson's great preoccupation: literary art - Opposition

between his ideas and Shakespeare's-Rules of conduct and

laws of style-His trenchant judgments-Jonson an "em-

pirick"-His theories on the poetical art and on the practice

of Shakespeare and his school

Jonson's guides: his learning, his experience, and his reason

-His chief merit: the gift of observation-"Humours'

Excellence and variety of his portraits; weakness of his

plots-Sombre hues-Eloquence-His pictures of manners-

Fashionable people and court circles: "Cynthia's Revels"

-The great comedies: "Epicone," "The Alchemist";

Jonson's masterpiece: "Volpone"; humours become char-

acters-The sham Puritan: "Bartholomew Fair"

Roman tragedies: "Catiline," "Sejanus "-Care for his-

torical truth-Effort to follow the classical models-Cruel

Masques and occasional plays-Harmony of the verse,
fancy, freshness of colouring-" The sad Shepherd "...

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II. Two DRAMATIC SCHOOLS.-Number of dramatists, their

fecundity-Their characteristics: scarcity of genius, abun

dance of talent-To whet the sated appetite of the public,

they magnify previous exaggerations-The dead part of their

works

410

Shakespeare's school and Jonson's; the former is lost in

extravagance, the latter, more matter of fact, will survive-

The former school—Superabundance of incidents; double

and triple plots: Dekker, Webster, Rowley-Adventures,

surprises, magic-Spanish plots-Comedies of character,

spoilt by the accumulation of incidents-Poetry becomes

rarer; excessive use of the horrible and of the obscene ... 412

Lust and murders: Marston, "Antonio and Mellida,"

"Insatiate Countess," etc.-Webster's "Duchess of Malfi";
poetical touches-Cyril Tourneur-Ford's "'Tis pity she's
a Whore" - Massinger's "Roman Actor"— Shakespearian
reminiscences - Romantic adventures and observation of
manners - Massinger (character of Sir Giles Overreach),
Dekker, Day, Thomas Heywood...

...

Beaumont and Fletcher-Their fame eclipses that of

Shakespeare Their great qualities and their repulsive

faults They write as precursors of the poets of the

Restoration-Scepticism and immorality-Their search for

absolute contrasts-"The faithful Shepherdess," "The

humourous Lieutenant "-Morbid lubricity and bloodthirsti-

ness of their pseudo-historical heroes: "Thierry and Theo-

doret," "Bonduca' - Lowering of taste and debasement

III. HISTORICAL TRUTH AND OBSERVATION OF CONTEMPORARY

MANNERS.-The empirical school recruits adepts even in

the other camp-Necessary concessions to the tastes of the

day-Attention paid to accuracy in historical dramas: Ford's

"Perkin Warbeck "-The "Duke of Byron" and other dramas

of Chapman : care for truth in the account of facts and

delineation of characters

...

Comedy and the gift of observation-Fanciful plays and

comedy of manners-Domestic tragedies and pictures of

English contemporary life: "Eastward Hoe" by Chapman,

Marston, and Jonson-Kindliness of tone-" Al Fooles," and

other comedies of Chapman's-Silhouettes and portraits,

the upstart diplomat, the genuine timid man and the sham

one-Marston's "Malcontent" - Middleton's dramas; his

masterpiece: "The Changeling," observation of characters

and psychological power, rôle of De Flores

440

446

The continuators; repetition of the same means and wearing

out of the tools: Brome, Randolph, Cartwright, Marmion,

Glapthorne, Nabbes-James Shirley; his sombre dramas-

His comedies; The Lady of Pleasure "-Shirley continues

Jonson and brings us in sight of Goldsmith ...

The autumn of the Elizabethan period-Darker days and season of

I. THE POETS.-Most of them are continuators-Drummond of

Hawthornden-Court poets: Cowley, Carew, Suckling, Love-

lace-Rustic life: Herrick, Randolph-Pious works of worldly

and of religious poets: Drummond, Cowley, Habington, Th.

Heywood, Quarles, George Herbert, Sandys, Crashaw-

Attempts at philosophical and religious epos; William

Alexander Earl of Stirling, Joseph Fletcher, Fuller, Giles

and Phineas Fletcher (influence of Spenser)-George Wither

-The longing for "Paradise Lost"

...

466

II. TRAVELLERS, MORALISTS, AND OBSERVERS.-Number and

success of the works of observation - The question of

foreign travel: Hall and Howell-Journeys of Sandys,

Moryson, Overbury, etc.—Judgments on foreign nations;

Overbury and France

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Essays and characters-Influence of Montaigne-Bacon's
"Essays"-Essays or characters of Hall, Overbury, Breton,
Taylor, Feltham, Ben Jonson, preparing the way for the
psychological and realistic novel-Sir Thomas Browne and
the "Religio Medici "-Burton and the "Anatomy of Melan-
choly"-Burton's humour, his literary descendants

III. ARCHEOLOGISTS AND HISTORIANS.-Growing passion for truth

and for averred facts-Abundant production of historical

works, and printing of documents-Growing respect for

sources-Connection between the moralist's art and that of

the historian Herbert of Cherbury, Fuller, Selden-Learned

works and "Table-talk" of Selden; he undermines accepted

ideas-Broadening of the historical point of view: universal

histories Notion that history is a science and an art :

Edmund Bolton-Bacon's "Henry VII "--Raleigh's "His-

485

491

tory of the World.”—Conditions of composition; the per-
sonal note; sarcasm and melancholy; living parts and dead
parts

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509

IV. BACON. He comes at the right time-Experience before and in

his time-Formation of his mind and character-His object

in life, his own good and that of humanity - Bacon as a

politic-Eloquence and clearsightedness-Exactness of his

calculations; causes of his failures-His attitude towards

the prince and the favourites-Honours, renown, and fall... 52

His philosophical work-" The Advancement of Learning"

-The "Instauratio Magna" and the "Novum Organum
Eloquence, warmth, and sincerity-The artificial, the un-
finished, the erroneous-Useful results attained by Bacon-
"The New Atlantis "-Homage of the French Encyclopædists 537

V. THE EVE OF THE STORM.-The opposed parties-The ex-

tremists, Catholics and Puritans-The Church of England—

Its defenders-Religious eloquence; laboured style and bad

taste-Sermons of Donne, of Lancelot Andrewes, of Hall

-Works of Chillingworth...

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