PREFACE THE purpose of this textbook is to serve as a guide through the vast field of English literature, pointing out those works that should be known and those that may be neglected. It is comprehensive, yet discriminating, aiming to give a true perspective of values. The great authors are treated with unusual liberality of space, but the minor authors, whose contributions are sometimes of vital interest and worth, are not dismissed with a mere catalogue mention of names. An effort. has been made to give completeness and logical coherence to the story of English literature, traced from its remote beginnings to the present day; for it is the student's right, and should be his privilege, to know the whole story. At least one full year is usually given, in courses of study, to the history of English literature. The suggested program of class work can be essentially accomplished within that time, if the daily work of the classroom is properly supplemented by outside reading. The student's reading in biography and criticism should be carefully guided by the instructor. The books named in the working programs will be found in public libraries, but the most important ones should be near at hand, as the necessary apparatus of the classroom. The topics for discussion and research are intended to serve, not merely as review questions on the matter of the textbook-such questions as the instructor would naturally frame for himself-but as a means of enlarging the text and developing habits of independent study and investigation. A topic should be assigned to each member of the class for special preparation, and of iii many topics there should be an extended class discussion. It is hoped that the paragraph topics in the general narrative will prove helpful in formal recitation, as well as in holding the minds of students to a clear perception of essentials. The prime object of a textbook of literature is to encourage and facilitate the study of the literature itself; to give hints and suggestions that will lure students to a love of great books and bring into their lives the delight, inspiration, and high enthusiasms that come from an intimate association with the choicest minds of the world. "What is comprised under the word literature is itself the greatest power available in education," said Matthew Arnold. With such faith this book has been written, and in proportion as it succeeds in winning others to this faith, its highest purpose I will be achieved. guages. Langland. Wyclif. Mandeville. Chaucer. Gower. The Oxford Reformers. Roger Ascham. The English Bible. Origin of the Drama. Miracle Plays. Moralities. Inter- IX. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, 1564-1616 Youth. Education. Business Career. Order of the Plays. Comedies. Tragedies. Chronicle Plays. Roman Plays. Beau- ton. John Donne. The Religious Poets. The Cavalier 262 280 Swift. Addison. Steele. Defoe. Pope. Parnell. Prior. Gay. The Novelists. Richardson. Fielding. Smollet. Sterne. Dr. Johnson. Goldsmith. The Historians. Burke. THE REVIVAL OF ROMANTICISM, 1726-1798 Reaction against Classicism. Ramsay. Thomson. Beat- tie. Percy's Reliques. Collins. Gray. Poems of Ossian. Chatterton. Cowper. Crabbe. Blake. Burns. THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION, 1798–1832 French Revolution. Wordsworth. The Romantic Novel. Jane Austen. Scott. The Romantic 371 Coleridge. Southey. 416 Byron. Shelley. Keats. Campbell. Moore. Landor. Scientific Progress. Victorian Novelists. Dickens. Thack- Macaulay. Carlyle. Ruskin. Pater. Newman. Arnold. |