A History of English Literature

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passages in the original or in the translation of Lang, Leaf, and Myers (Macmillan). Just how does Pope's version differ from the original? How does it compare with it in excellence? The 'Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot': Note Pope's personal traits as they appear here. How do the satirical portraits and the poem in general compare with Dryden's 'Absalom and Achitophel'? In general summary consider: Pope's spirit, his artistry, his comparative rank as a poet, and the merits and defects of the couplet as he employs it. 29. SAMUEL JOHNSON. Two days. Above, pages 216-223. 'The Vanity of Human Wishes': How far does it illustrate the pseudo-classical characteristics (above, pages 190 and 215) and Johnson's own traits? How does it compare with Pope's poems in artistry and power? The prose reading should consist of or include the letter to Lord Chesterfield, a few essays from 'The Rambler,' one or more of the 'Lives of the Poets' and perhaps a part of 'Rasselas.' 1. The style, both absolutely and in comparison with previous writers. Is it always the same? You might make a definite study of (a) the relative number of long and short words, (b) long and short and (c) loose and balanced sentences. 2. How far do Johnson's moralizing, his pessimism, and other things in his point of view and personality deprive his work of permanent interest and significance? 3. His skill as a narrator? 4. His merits and defects as a literary critic? 5. His qualifications and success as a biographer? 30. BOSWELL AND HIS 'LIFE OF JOHNSON.' One day. Above, pages 223-225. Read anywhere in the 'Life' as much as time allows, either consecutively or at intervals. Your impression of it, absolutely and in comparison with other biographies? Boswell's personality. Note an interesting incident or two for citation in class. 31. GIBBON AND 'THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.' One day. Above, pages 225-229. Read a chapter or two in the history. Among the best chapters are numbers 1, 2, 3, 11, 14, 17, 24, 26, 29, 30, 35, 39, 40, 44, 50, 52, 58, 59, 68. Questions for consideration are suggested above, such as: his power in exposition and narration; how his history compares with later ones; his style. 32. EDMUND BURKE. Two days. Above, pages 229-236. Every one should be familiar with the speech 'On Conciliation with America.' The speeches at Bristol are among the briefest of Burke's masterpieces. Beyond these, in rapid study he may best be read in extracts. Especially notable are: 'Thoughts on the Present Discontents'; 'An Address to the King'; the latter half of the speech 'On the Nabob of Areot's Debts'; 'Reflections on the Revolution in France'; 'A Letter to a Noble Lord.' Subjects for consideration are suggested by the text. It would be especially interesting to compare Burke's style carefully with Gibbon's and Johnson's. His technique in exposition and argument is another topic; consider among other points how far his order is strictly logical, how far modified for practical effectiveness. 33. THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT, THOMSON, AND COLLINS. One day. Above, pages 236-240. The reading may include extracts from Thomson and should include most of Collins' 'Odes.' The student should note specifically in Collins respective elements of classic, pseudo-classic; and romantic spirit, in general and in details. 34. GRAY, GOLDSMITH, PERCY, MACPHERSON, AND CHATTERTON. One day. Above, pages 240-247. The reading should include most of Gray's poems and 'The Deserted Village.' Questions for consideration are suggested in the text, but students should be able to state definitely just what are the things
that make Gray's 'Elegy' a great poem and should form definite opinions as to the rank of 'The Bard' and 'The Progress of Poesy' among lyrics. These two poems are the best examples in English of, the true Pindaric Ode as devised by the ancient Greeks. By them it was intended for chanting by dancing choruses. It always consists of three stanzas or some multiple of three. In each set of three the first stanza is called the strophe (turn), being intended, probably, for chanting as the chorus moved in one direction; the second stanza is called the antistrophe, chanted as the chorus executed a second, contrasting, movement; and the third stanza the epode, chanted as the chorus stood still. The metrical structure of each stanza is elaborate (differing in different poems), but metrically all the strophes and antistrophes in any given poem must be exactly identical with each other and different from the epodes. The form is of course artificial in English, but the imaginative splendor and restrained power of expression to which it lends itself in skilful and patient hands, give it especial distinction. Lowell declares that 'The Progress of Poesy' 'overflies all other English lyrics like an eagle,' and Mr. Gosse observes of both poems that the qualities to be regarded are 'originality of structure, the varied music of their balanced strophes, as of majestic antiphonal choruses, answering one another in some antique temple, and the extraordinary skill with which the evolution of the theme is observed and restrained.' 'The Progress of Poesy' allegorically states the origin of Poetry in Greece; expresses its power over all men for all emotions; and briefly traces its passage from Greece to Rome and then to England, with Shakspere, Milton, Dryden, and finally some poet yet to be. 'The Bard' is the imagined denunciatory utterance of a Welsh bard, the sole survivor from the slaughter of the bards made by Edward I of England on his conquest of Wales. The speaker foretells in detail the tragic history of Edward's descendants until the curse is removed at the accession of Queen Elizabeth, who as a Tudor was partly of Welsh descent. 35. COWPER, BLAKE AND BUMS. One day. Above, pages 247-253. The reading should include a few of the poems of each poet, and students should note definitely the main characteristics of each, romantic and general. 36. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NOVEL AND GOLDSMITH'S 'VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.' Above, pages 253-264. Most students will already have some acquaintance with 'The Vicar of Wakefield.' Read again as much as time allows, supplementing and correcting your earlier impressions. Consider: 1. The relation of idealism, romance, and reality. 2. Probability, motivation, and the use of accident. 3. The characterization. Characterize the main persons. 4. Narrative qualities, such as unity, suspense, movement. 5. Is moralizing too prominent! 6. The style. 37. COLERIDGE. One day. Above, pages 265-270. Read at least 'Kubla Khan,' 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,' and Part I of 'Christabel.' In 'Kubla Kahn' 'Xanadu' is Coleridge's form for 'Xamdu,' the capital of Kublai Khan in Purchas's Pilgrimage, which Coleridge was reading when he fell into the sleep in which he wrote the poem. Coleridge said (though he is not to be trusted explicitly) that he composed the poem, to a length of over 200 lines, without conscious effort; that on awaking he wrote down what has been preserved; that he was then called out on an errand; and returning after an hour he could recollect only this much. How far do you agree with Swinburne's judgment: 'It is perhaps the most wonderful of all poems. We seem rapt into that paradise revealed to Swedenborg, where music and color and perfume were one, where you could hear the hues and see the harmonies of heaven. For absolute melody and splendor it were hardly rash to call it the first poem in the language. An exquisite instinct married to a subtle science of verse has made it the supreme model of music in our language,
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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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and so nearly attained his object t
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and Tennyson were to be among his s
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no comment. Whatever allowances cha
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poetry, was of the highest value to
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over action makes of it also only a
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A History of English Literature

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