A History of English Literature

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A History of English Literature by Robert Huntington Fletcher TO MY MOTHER TO WHOM I OWE A LIFETIME OF A MOTHER'S MOST SELF-SACRIFICING DEVOTION PREFACE This book aims to provide a general manual of English Literature for students in colleges and universities and others beyond the high-school age. The first purposes of every such book must be to outline the development of the literature with due regard to national life, and to give appreciative interpretation of the work of the most important authors. I have written the present volume because I have found no other that, to my mind, combines satisfactory accomplishment of these ends with a selection of authors sufficiently limited for clearness and with adequate accuracy and fulness of details, biographical and other. A manual, it seems to me, should supply a systematic statement of the important facts, so that the greater part of the student's time, in class and without, may be left free for the study of the literature itself. I hope that the book may prove adaptable to various methods and conditions of work. Experience has suggested the brief introductory statement of main literary principles, too often taken for granted by teachers, with much resulting haziness in the student's mind. The list of assignments and questions at the end is intended, of course, to be freely treated. I hope that the list of available inexpensive editions of the chief authors may suggest a practical method of providing the material, especially for colleges which can provide enough copies for class use. Poets, of course, may be satisfactorily read in volumes of, selections; but to me, at least, a book of brief extracts from twenty or a hundred prose authors is an absurdity. Perhaps I may venture to add that personally I find it advisable to pass hastily over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and so gain as much time as possible for the nineteenth. R. H. F. _August, 1916._ CONTENTS PRELIMINARY. HOW TO STUDY AND JUDGE LITERATURE A TABULAR VIEW OF ENGLISH LITERATURE REFERENCE BOOKS
I. PERIOD I. THE BRITONS AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS. TO A.D. 1066 II. PERIOD II. THE NORMAN-FRENCH PERIOD. A.D. 1066 TO ABOUT 1350 III. PERIOD III. THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES. ABOUT 1350 TO ABOUT 1500 IV. THE MEDIEVAL DRAMA V. PERIOD IV. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. THE RENAISSANCE AND THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH VI. THE DRAMA FROM ABOUT 1550 TO 1642 VII. PERIOD V. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, 1603-1660. PROSE AND POETRY VIII. PERIOD VI. THE RESTORATION, 1660-1700 IX. PERIOD VII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, PSEUDO-CLASSICISM AND THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN ROMANTICISM X. PERIOD VIII. THE ROMANTIC TRIUMPH, 1798 TO ABOUT 1830 XI. PERIOD IX. THE VICTORIAN PERIOD. ABOUT 1830 TO 1901 A LIST OF AVAILABLE EDITIONS FOR THE STUDY OF IMPORTANT AUTHORS ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY INDEX PRELIMINARY. HOW TO STUDY AND JUDGE LITERATURE TWO ASPECTS OF LITERARY STUDY. Such a study of Literature as that for which the present book is designed includes two purposes, contributing to a common end. In the first place (I), the student must gain some general knowledge of the conditions out of which English literature has come into being, as a whole and during its successive periods, that is of the external facts of one sort or another without which it cannot be understood. This means chiefly (1) tracing in a general way, from period to period, the social life of the nation, and (2) getting some acquaintance with the lives of the more important authors. The principal thing, however (II), is the direct study of the literature itself. This study in turn should aim first at an _understanding_ of the literature as an expression of the authors' views of life and of their personalities and especially as a portrayal and interpretation of the life of their periods and of all life as they have seen it; it should aim further at an _appreciation_ of each literary work as a product of Fine Art,
Page 1: A History of English Literature Rob
Page 5 and 6: Sympathy of the author for his char
Page 7 and 8: story; (3) a Rising Action; (4) a M
Page 9 and 10: is no proper connection either in s
Page 11 and 12: THE NOVEL. 'Sir Roger de Coverly,'
Page 13 and 14: CHAPTER I PERIOD I. THE BRITONS AND
Page 15 and 16: points on the eastern and southern
Page 17 and 18: may be mostly performed all at once
Page 19 and 20: Northumbria (Yorkshire and Southern
Page 21 and 22: CHAPTER II PERIOD II. THE NORMAN-FR
Page 23 and 24: and Anglo-Saxon were spoken separat
Page 25 and 26: eality the men of the Middle Ages w
Page 27 and 28: now. The next is the first stanza o
Page 29 and 30: northern Scots and Picts, and how t
Page 31 and 32: artist, who lived a century and mor
Page 33 and 34: 'MANDEVILLE'S VOYAGE.' One of the e
Page 35 and 36: of prose tales, 'The Decameron' (Te
Page 37 and 38: sometimes even with the minuteness
Page 39 and 40: cherished by the Protestants for it
Page 41 and 42: transmitted, portions, as it were,
Page 43 and 44: full health in a later book a knigh
Page 45 and 46: emote spots down almost to the pres
Page 47 and 48: guild (though sometimes two or thre
Page 49 and 50: man. It shows how he yields to temp
Page 51 and 52: applications. Scientific investigat
Page 53 and 54:
Lollardism, which had nearly been c
Page 55 and 56:
Tyndale, a zealous Protestant contr
Page 57 and 58:
5. Still another, minor, innovation
Page 59 and 60:
later Renaissance craze, then rampa
Page 61 and 62:
Ireland, where in satirical poems h
Page 63 and 64:
inharmonious element in the otherwi
Page 65 and 66:
authors so marked; almost every wri
Page 67 and 68:
verse as ruggedly condensed (often
Page 69 and 70:
to be reabsorbed into tragedy, of w
Page 71 and 72:
zest for the beautiful. It is rich
Page 73 and 74:
just to the north of the 'city,' on
Page 75 and 76:
playwright and a good, though not a
Page 77 and 78:
sure, with an unconventionality, ma
Page 79 and 80:
BEN JONSON. The second place among
Page 81 and 82:
3. Jonson's self-satisfaction and h
Page 83 and 84:
alone or to Fletcher and other coll
Page 85 and 86:
his personal ambition was often str
Page 87 and 88:
market-place, due to mistaken relia
Page 89 and 90:
of somewhat artificial courtliness
Page 91 and 92:
The life of Henry Vaughan [Footnote
Page 93 and 94:
the English Church might not have b
Page 95 and 96:
through the medium of the secular e
Page 97 and 98:
higher ... but I dare not. God did
Page 99 and 100:
the demonstrable. Hence the charact
Page 101 and 102:
of the times. Aside from the fact t
Page 103 and 104:
or at least the couplets, generally
Page 105 and 106:
consists throughout partly in the c
Page 107 and 108:
definiteness and significant meanin
Page 109 and 110:
collection of moralizings, is today
Page 111 and 112:
'lived a double life' between the t
Page 113 and 114:
their interests; the superior skill
Page 115 and 116:
The few remaining years of Addison'
Page 117 and 118:
Rosicrucian sylphs. In its adaptati
Page 119 and 120:
than Christian [Footnote: The name
Page 121 and 122:
vain man's boast.' 'Wind the shrill
Page 123 and 124:
in 1762, when the ministers, decidi
Page 125 and 126:
lack of sympathy for the romantic r
Page 127 and 128:
anywhere, before Gibbon, since clas
Page 129 and 130:
which statesmen and orators deal ar
Page 131 and 132:
warmth of sympathetic imagination w
Page 133 and 134:
triumph of Pseudo-classicism, as a
Page 135 and 136:
interpretation which characterizes
Page 137 and 138:
published two years later. Meanwhil
Page 139 and 140:
of Macpherson's native Highlands--v
Page 141 and 142:
his life had combined 'the cheerles
Page 143 and 144:
and some recognition of its educati
Page 145 and 146:
would render impossible at the pres
Page 147 and 148:
Allworthy, intended as an example o
Page 149 and 150:
followed Miss Burney, writing of th
Page 151 and 152:
Charles Lamb, where Coleridge appea
Page 153 and 154:
from eighteenth century tradition b
Page 155 and 156:
Nature, especially inanimate Nature
Page 157 and 158:
and prose who from his friendship w
Page 159 and 160:
and so nearly attained his object t
Page 161 and 162:
and Tennyson were to be among his s
Page 163 and 164:
no comment. Whatever allowances cha
Page 165 and 166:
poetry, was of the highest value to
Page 167 and 168:
over action makes of it also only a
Page 169 and 170:
The music, yearning like a God in p
Page 171 and 172:
Political and social progress, thou
Page 173 and 174:
man, though he was aggressive and s
Page 175 and 176:
oratorical balance of clauses and s
Page 177 and 178:
for which, in 1833-4, he finally se
Page 179 and 180:
Macaulay, he was exasperatingly bli
Page 181 and 182:
a state of intellectual, social, an
Page 183 and 184:
disproved the whole dogmatic and do
Page 185 and 186:
Arnold's doctrine, of course, was n
Page 187 and 188:
even only doubtfully poetic. The in
Page 189 and 190:
their support until their poetry be
Page 191 and 192:
the full all its possibilities. Evi
Page 193 and 194:
and a delicate genius in sound-modu
Page 195 and 196:
lived in London with her mother in
Page 197 and 198:
the first two, 'A Christmas Carol'
Page 199 and 200:
WILLIAM M. THACKERAY. Dickens' chie
Page 201 and 202:
Maggie in 'The Mill on the Floss.'
Page 203 and 204:
very influential expressions of his
Page 205 and 206:
STEVENSON. Robert Louis Stevenson (
Page 207 and 208:
Froude too this results in exaggera
Page 209 and 210:
THOMSON'S SEASONS. Astor ed., Crowe
Page 211 and 212:
6. CHAUCER'S POEMS. Two or three da
Page 213 and 214:
_For the third day,_ finish the pla
Page 215 and 216:
the men of the royal family; but Pr
Page 217 and 218:
17. The Rest of the Dramatists to 1
Page 219 and 220:
qualities. How far has the book a p
Page 221 and 222:
that make Gray's 'Elegy' a great po
Page 223 and 224:
written discussions, or may be assi
Page 225 and 226:
http://promo.net/pg These Web sites
Page 227 and 228:
http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.h
Page 229:
[*] The eBook, when displayed, is c
show all

A History of English Literature

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?