A History of English Literature

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much investigation we can say of the tribes and localities which appear in it only that they are those of the region of Scandinavia and Northern Germany. As to date, poems about a historical Beowulf, a follower of Hygelac, could not have existed before his lifetime in the sixth century, but there is no telling how far back the possibly mythical elements may go. The final working over of the poem into its present shape, as has been said, probably took place in England in the seventh or eighth century; in earlier form, perhaps in the original brief ballads, it may have been brought to the country either by the Anglo-Saxons or by stray 'Danes.' It is fundamentally a heathen work, and certain Christian ideas which have been inserted here and there, such as the mention of Cain as the ancestor of Grendel, and the disparagement of heathen gods, merely show that one of the later poets who had it in hand was a Christian. The genealogical introduction of something over fifty lines (down to the first mention of Hrothgar) has nothing to do with the poem proper; the Beowulf there mentioned is another person than the hero of the poem. In the epic itself we can easily recognize as originally separate stories: 1. Beowulf's fight with Grendel. 2. His fight with Grendel's mother. 3. His fight with the fire-drake. And of course, 4, the various stories referred to or incidentally related in brief. Subjects for discussion: 1. Narrative qualities, such as Movement, Proportion, Variety, Suspense. Do the style (terse and suggestive rather than explicit) and the tendency to digressions seriously interfere with narrative progress and with the reader's (or listener's) understanding? 2. Dramatic vividness of scenes and incidents. 3. Descriptive qualities. 4. Do you recognize any specifically epic characteristics? 5. Characterization, both in general and of individuals. 6. How much of the finer elements of feeling does the poet show? What things in Nature does he appreciate? His sense of pathos and humor? 7. Personal and social ideals and customs. 8. The style; its main traits; the effect of the figures of speech; are the things used for comparisons in metaphors and similes drawn altogether from the outer world, or partly from the world of thought? 9. The main merits and defects of the poem and its absolute poetic value? Written discussions may well begin with a very brief outline of the story (not over a single page). 3. Above, chapter II. One day. 4. 'SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT' (in translation). One day. Preliminary, pages 57-58 above. The romance combines two stories which belong to the great body of wide-spread popular narrative and at first had no connection with each other: 1. The beheading story. 2. The temptation. They may have been united either by the present author or by some predecessor of his. Subjects for discussion: 1. Narrative qualities--Unity, Movement, Proportion, Variety, Suspense. Is the repetition of the hunts and of Gawain's experience in the castle skilful or the reverse, in plan and in execution? 2. Dramatic power--how vivid are the scenes and experiences? How fully do we sympathize with the characters? 3. Power of characterization and of psychological analysis? Are the characters types or individuals? 4. Power of description of scenes, persons, and Nature? 5. Character of the author? Sense of humor? How much fineness of feeling? 6. Theme of the story? 7. Do we get an impression of actual life, or of pure romance? Note specific details of feudal life. 8. Traits of style, such as alliteration and figures of speech, so far as they can be judged from the translation. 5. THE PERIOD OF CHAUCER. Above, pages 59-73. One day.
6. CHAUCER'S POEMS. Two or three days. The best poems for study are: The Prolog to the Canterbury Tales. The Nuns' Priest's Tale. The Knight's Tale. The Squire's Tale. The Prolog to the Legend of Good Women. The text, above, pp. 65 ff., suggests topics for consideration, if general discussion is desired in addition to reading of the poems. 7. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY AND THE POPULAR BALLADS. One day. Study above, pages 74-77, and read as many ballads as possible. A full discussion of the questions of ballad origins and the like is to be found in the 'Cambridge' edition (Houghton Mifflin) of the ballads, edited by Sargent and Kittredge. In addition to matters treated in the text, consider how much feeling the authors show for Nature, and their power of description. 8. MALORY AND CAXTON. Two or three days. Study above, pages 77-81, and read in Le Morte Darthur as much as time permits. Among the best books are: VII, XXI, I, Xlll-XVII. Subjects for discussion: 1. Narrative qualities. 2. Characterization, including variety of characters. 3. Amount and quality of description. 4. How far is the book purely romantic, how far does reality enter into it? Consider how much notice is given to other classes than the nobility. 5. The style. 9. THE EARLIER MEDIEVAL DRAMA, INCLUDING THE MYSTERY PLAYS. Two days. Above, Chapter IV, through page 88. Among the best plays for study are: Abraham and Isaac (Riverside L. S. vol., p. 7); The Deluge or others in the Everyman Library vol., pp. 29-135 (but the play 'Everyman' is not a Mystery play and belongs to the next assignment); or any in Manly's 'Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama,' vol. I, pp. 1-211. The Towneley Second Shepherds' Play (so called because it is the second of two treatments of the Nativity theme in the Towneley manuscript) is one of the most notable plays, but is very coarse. Subjects for discussion: 1. Narrative structure and qualities. 2. Characterization and motivation. 3. How much illusion of reality? 4. Quality of the religious and human feeling? 5. The humor and its relation to religious feeling. 6. Literary excellence of both substance and expression (including the verse form). 10. THE MORALITIES AND INTERLUDES. One day. Above, pp. 89-91. Students not familiar with 'Everyman' should read it (E. L. S. vol., p. 66; Everyman Library vol., p. 1). Further may be read 'Mundus et Infans' (The World and the Child. Manly's 'Specimens,' I, 353). Consider the same questions as in the last assignment and compare the Morality Plays with the Mysteries in general excellence and in particular qualities. 11. THE RENAISSANCE, with special study of The Faerie Queene. Four days. Above, Chapter V, through page 116. Read a few poems of Wyatt and Surrey, especially Wyatt's 'My lute, awake' and 'Forget not yet,' and Surrey's 'Give place, ye lovers, heretofore.' In 'The Faerie Queene' read the Prefatory Letter and as many cantos of Book I (or, if you are familiar with that, of some other Books) as you can assimilate--certainly not less than three or four cantos. Subjects for discussion: 1. The allegory; its success; how minutely should it be applied? 2. Narrative qualities. 3. The descriptions. 4. General beauty. 5. The romantic quality. 6. The language. 7. The stanza, e. g., the variety of poetical uses and of treatment in such matters as pauses. The teacher may well read to the class the more important portions of Lowell's essay on Spenser, which occur in the latter half. 12. THE ELIZABETHAN LYRIC POEMS. Two days. Above, pages 117-121. Read as widely as possible in the poems of the authors named. Consider such topics
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A History of English Literature Rob
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I. PERIOD I. THE BRITONS AND THE AN
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Sympathy of the author for his char
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story; (3) a Rising Action; (4) a M
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is no proper connection either in s
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THE NOVEL. 'Sir Roger de Coverly,'
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CHAPTER I PERIOD I. THE BRITONS AND
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points on the eastern and southern
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may be mostly performed all at once
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Northumbria (Yorkshire and Southern
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CHAPTER II PERIOD II. THE NORMAN-FR
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and Anglo-Saxon were spoken separat
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eality the men of the Middle Ages w
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now. The next is the first stanza o
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northern Scots and Picts, and how t
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artist, who lived a century and mor
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'MANDEVILLE'S VOYAGE.' One of the e
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of prose tales, 'The Decameron' (Te
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sometimes even with the minuteness
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cherished by the Protestants for it
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transmitted, portions, as it were,
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full health in a later book a knigh
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emote spots down almost to the pres
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guild (though sometimes two or thre
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man. It shows how he yields to temp
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applications. Scientific investigat
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Lollardism, which had nearly been c
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Tyndale, a zealous Protestant contr
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5. Still another, minor, innovation
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later Renaissance craze, then rampa
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Ireland, where in satirical poems h
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inharmonious element in the otherwi
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authors so marked; almost every wri
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verse as ruggedly condensed (often
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to be reabsorbed into tragedy, of w
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zest for the beautiful. It is rich
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just to the north of the 'city,' on
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playwright and a good, though not a
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sure, with an unconventionality, ma
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BEN JONSON. The second place among
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3. Jonson's self-satisfaction and h
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alone or to Fletcher and other coll
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his personal ambition was often str
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market-place, due to mistaken relia
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of somewhat artificial courtliness
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The life of Henry Vaughan [Footnote
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the English Church might not have b
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through the medium of the secular e
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higher ... but I dare not. God did
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the demonstrable. Hence the charact
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of the times. Aside from the fact t
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or at least the couplets, generally
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consists throughout partly in the c
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definiteness and significant meanin
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collection of moralizings, is today
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'lived a double life' between the t
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their interests; the superior skill
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The few remaining years of Addison'
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Rosicrucian sylphs. In its adaptati
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than Christian [Footnote: The name
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vain man's boast.' 'Wind the shrill
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in 1762, when the ministers, decidi
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lack of sympathy for the romantic r
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anywhere, before Gibbon, since clas
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which statesmen and orators deal ar
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warmth of sympathetic imagination w
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triumph of Pseudo-classicism, as a
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interpretation which characterizes
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published two years later. Meanwhil
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of Macpherson's native Highlands--v
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his life had combined 'the cheerles
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and some recognition of its educati
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would render impossible at the pres
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Allworthy, intended as an example o
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followed Miss Burney, writing of th
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Charles Lamb, where Coleridge appea
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from eighteenth century tradition b
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Nature, especially inanimate Nature
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and prose who from his friendship w
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A History of English Literature

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