,,hallecks',s ,,new ,,english ,,literature by ,,reuben ,,post ,,halleck1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d4 ,author of ,history of ,english ,literature and ,history of ,american ,literature ,,preface ,in this ,new ,english ,literature the author endeavors to preserve the qualities that have caused his former ,history of ,english ,literature to be so widely used2 namely1 suggestiveness1 clearness1 organic unity1 interest1 and the power to awaken thought and to stimulate the student to further reading4 ,the book furnishes a concise account of the history and growth of ,english literature from the earliest times to the present day4 ,it lays special emphasis on literary movements1 on the essential qualities that differentiate one period from another1 and on the spirit that animates each age4 ,above all1 the constant purpose has been to arouse in the student an enthusiastic desire to read the works of the authors discussed4 ,because of the author's belief in the guide-book function of a history of literature1 he has spent much time and thought in preparing the unusually detailed ,suggested ,readings that follow each chapter4 ,it was necessary for several reasons to prepare a new book4 ,twentieth century research has transformed the knowledge of the ,elizabethan theater and has brought to light important new facts relating to the drama and to ,shakespeare4 ,the new social spirit has changed the critical viewpoint concerning authors as different as ,wordsworth1 ,keats1 ,ruskin1 ,dickens1 and ,tennyson4 ,wordsworth's treatment of childhood1 for instance1 now requires an amount of space that would a short time ago have seemed disproportionate4 ,later ,victorian writers1 like ,meredith1 ,hardy1 ,swinburne1 and ,kipling1 can no longer be accorded the usual brief perfunctory treatment4 ,increased modern interest in contemporary life is also demanding some account of the literature already produced by the twentieth century4 ,an entire chapter is devoted to showing how this new literature reveals the thought and ideals of this generation4 ,other special features of this new work are the suggestions and references for a literary trip through ,england1 the historical introductions to the chapters1 the careful treatment of the modern drama1 the latest bibliography1 and the new illustrations1 some of which have been specially drawn for this work1 while others have been taken from original paintings in the ,national ,portrait ,gallery1 ,london1 and elsewhere4 ,the illustrations are the result of much individual research by the author during his travels in ,england4 ,the greater part of this book was gradually fashioned in the classroom1 during the long period that the author has taught this subject4 ,experience with his classes has proved to him the reasonableness of the modern demand that a textbook shall be definite and stimulating4 ,the author desires to thank the large number of teachers who have aided him by their criticism4 ,miss ,elizabeth ,howard ,spaulding and ,miss ,sarah ,e4 ,simons deserve special mention for valuable assistance4 ,the entire treatment of ,rudyard ,kipling is the work of ,miss ,mary ,brown ,humphrey4 ,the greater part of the chapter1 ,twentieth-,century ,literature1 was prepared by ,miss ,anna ,blanche ,mc,gill4 ,some of the best and most difficult parts of the book were written by the author's wife4 ,r4,p4,h4 ,,contents ,,introduction--,,literary ,,england ,,chapters3 ,i4 ,,from #ddi ,a4,d4 ,,to ,,the ,,norman ,,conquest1 #ajff ,,ii4 ,,from ,,the ,,norman ,,conquest1 #ajff1 ,,to ,,chaucer',s ,,death #adjj ,,iii4 ,,from ,,chaucer',s ,,death #adjj1 ,,to ,,the ,,accession ,,of ,,elizabeth1 #aeeh ,,iv4 ,,the ,,age ,,of ,,elizabeth #aeeh-afjc ,v4 ,,the ,,puritan ,,age1 #afjc-affj ,,vi4 ,,from ,,the ,,restoration1 #affj1 ,,to ,,the ,,publication ,,of ,,pamela1 #agdj ,,vii4 ,,the ,,second ,,forty ,,years ,,of ,,the ,,eighteenth ,,century1 #agdj-aghj ,,viii4 ,,the ,,age ,,of ,,romanticism1 #aghj-ahcg ,,ix4 ,,the ,,victorian ,,age1 #ahcg-aijj ,x4 ,,twentieth-,,century ,,literature ,,supplementary ,,list ,,of ,,authors ,,and ,,their ,,chief ,,works ,,index ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations3 #a4 ,woden4 #b4 ,exeter ,cathedral4 #c4 ,anglo-,saxon ,gleeman4 7,from the tapestry designed by ,h4,a4 ,bone74 #d4 ,facsimile of beginning of ,cotton ,,ms4 of ,beowulf47,british ,museum74 #e4 ,facsimile of ,beginning of ,junian ,,ms4 of ,caedmon4 #f4 ,anglo-,saxon ,musicians4 7,from illuminated ,,ms41 ,british ,museum74 #g4 ,the ,beginning of ,alfred's ,laws4 7,from illuminated ,,ms41 ,british ,museum74 #h4 ,the ,death of ,harold at ,hastings4 7,from the ,bayeux tapestry74 #i4 ,what ,mandeville ,saw4 7,from ,edition of #agbe74 #aj4 ,john ,wycliffe4 7,from an old print74 #aa4 ,treuthe's ,pilgryme atte ,plow4 7,from a ,,ms4 in ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge74 #ab4 ,gower ,hearing the ,confession of a ,lover4 7,from ,egerton ,,ms41 ,british ,museum74 #ac4 ,geoffrey ,chaucer4 7,from an old drawing in the ,,ms4 of ,occleve's ,poems1 ,british ,museum74 #ad4 ,canterbury ,cathedral4 #ae4 ,pilgrims ,leaving the ,tabard ,inn4 7,from ,urry's ,chaucer74 #af4 ,facsimile of ,lines ,describing the ,franklyn4 7,from the ,cambridge ,university ,,ms474 #ag4 ,franklyn1 ,friar1 ,knight1 ,prioress1 ,squire1 ,clerk of ,oxford4 7,from the ,ellesmere ,,ms474 #ah4 ,morris ,dancers4 7,from ,,ms4 of ,chaucer's ,time74 #ai4 ,henry ,,viii1 giving ,bibles to ,clergy and ,laity4 7,from frontispiece to ,coverdale ,bible74 #bj4 ,book ,illustration1 ,early ,fifteenth ,century4 7,british ,museum74 #ba4 ,facsimile of ,caxton's ,advertisement of his ,books4 7,bodleian ,library1 ,oxford74 #bb4 ,malory's ,morte d',arthur4 7,from ,de,worde's ,edition1 #aebi74 #bc4 ,early ,title ,page of ,robin ,hood4 7,copland ,edition1 #aeej74 #bd4 ,william ,tyndale4 7,from an old print74 #be4 ,sir ,thomas ,wyatt4 7,after ,holbein74 #bf4 ,facsimile of ,queen ,elizabeth's ,signature4 #bg4 ,sir ,philip ,sidney4 7,after the miniature by ,isaac ,oliver1 ,windsor ,castle74 #bh4 ,francis ,bacon4 7,from the painting by ,van ,somer1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #bi4 ,title page of ,bacon's ,essays1 #aeig4 #cj4 ,john ,donne4 7,from the painting by ,jansen1 ,south ,kensington ,museum74 #ca4 ,edmund ,spenser4 7,from a painting in ,dublin ,castle74 #cb4 ,miracle ,play at ,coventry4 7,from an old print74 #cc4 ,hell ,mouth in the ,old ,miracle ,play4 ,from a ,columbia ,university ,model4 #cd4 ,fool's ,head4 #ce4 ,air-,bag ,flapper and ,lath ,dagger4 #cf4 ,fool of the ,old ,play4 #cg4 ,thomas ,sackville4 #ch4 ,theater in ,inn ,yard4 7,from ,columbia ,university model74 #ci4 ,reconstructed ,globe ,theater1 ,earl's ,court1 ,london4 #dj4 ,the ,bankside and its ,theaters4 7,from the ,hollar engraving1 about #afbj74 #da4 ,contemporary ,drawing of ,interior of an ,elizabethan ,theater4 #db4 ,marlowe's ,memorial ,statue at ,canterbury4 #dc4 ,william ,shakespeare4 7,from the ,chandos portrait1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #dd4 ,shakespeare's ,birthplace4 ,stratford-on-,avon4 #de4 ,classroom in ,stratford ,grammar ,school4 #df4 ,anne ,hathaway's ,cottage1 ,shottery4 #dg4 ,view of ,stratford-on-,avon4 #dh4 ,inscription over ,shakespeare's ,tomb4 #di4 ,shakespeare--,the ,d',avenant ,bust4 7,discovered in #ahde74 #ej4 ,henry ,irving as ,hamlet4 #ea4 ,ellen ,terry as ,lady ,macbeth 7,from the painting by ,sargent74 #eb4 ,falstaff and his ,page4 7,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott74 #ec4 ,ben ,jonson4 7,from the portrait by ,honthorst1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #ed4 ,ben ,jonson's ,tomb in ,westminster ,abbey4 #ee4 ,francis ,beaumont4 #ef4 ,john ,fletcher4 #eg4 ,cromwell ,dictating ,dispatches to ,milton4 7,from the painting by ,ford ,maddox ,brown74 #eh4 ,thomas ,fuller4 #ei4 ,izaak ,walton4 #fj4 ,jeremy ,taylor4 #fa4 ,john ,bunyan4 7,from the painting by ,sadler1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #fb4 ,bedford ,bridge1 ,showing ,gates and ,jail4 7,from an old print74 #fc4 ,bunyan's ,dream4 7,from ,fourth ,edition ,pilgrim's ,progress1 #afhj74 #fd4 ,woodcut from the ,first ,edition of ,mr4 ,badman4 #fe4 ,robert ,herrick4 #ff4 ,john ,milton4 7,after a drawing by ,w4 ,faithorne1 at ,bayfordbury74 #fg4 ,john ,milton1 ,a,et4 #aj4 #fh4 ,milton's ,visit to ,galileo in #afch4 7,from the painting by ,t4 ,lessi74 #fi4 ,facsimile of ,milton's ,signature4 #affc4 #gj4 ,title ,page to ,comus1 #afcg4 #ga4 ,milton's ,motto from ,comus1 with ,autograph1 #afci4 #gb4 ,milton ,dictating ,paradise ,lost to his ,daughter4 7,from the painting by ,munkacsy74 #gc4 ,samuel ,butler4 #gd4 ,john ,dryden4 7,from the painting by ,sir ,godfrey ,kneller1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #ge4 ,birthplace of ,dryden4 7,from a print74 #gf4 ,daniel ,defoe4 7,from a print by ,vandergucht74 #gg4 ,jonathan ,swift4 7,from the painting by ,c4 ,jervas1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #gh4 ,moor ,park4 7,from a drawing74 #gi4 ,swift and ,stella4 7,from the painting by ,dicksee74 #hj4 ,joseph ,addison4 7,from the painting by ,sir ,godfrey ,kneller1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery47 #ha4 ,birthplace of ,addison4 #hb4 ,richard ,steele4 #hc4 ,sir ,roger de ,coverley in ,church4 7,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott74 #hd4 ,alexander ,pope4 7,from the portrait by ,william ,hoare74 #he4 ,pope's ,villa at ,twickenham4 7,from an old print74 #hf4 ,rape of the ,lock4 7,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott74 #hg4 ,alexander ,pope4 7,from a contemporary portrait74 #hh4 ,horace ,walpole4 #hi4 ,thomas ,gray4 #ij4 ,stoke ,poges ,churchyard4 #ia4 ,a ,blind ,beggar ,robbed of his ,drink4 7,from a ,british ,museum ,,ms47 #ib4 ,samuel ,richardson4 7,from an original drawing74 #ic4 ,henry ,fielding4 7,from the drawing by ,hogarth74 #id4 ,laurence ,sterne4 #ie4 ,uncle ,toby and ,corporal ,trim4 7,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott74 #if4 ,tobias ,smollett4 #ig4 ,edward ,gibbon4 7,from the painting by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds74 #ih4 ,edmund ,burke4 7,from the painting by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #ii4 ,oliver ,goldsmith4 7,from the painting by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #ajj4 ,goldsmith and ,dr4 ,johnson4 7,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott74 #aja4 ,goldsmith's ,lodgings1 ,canonbury ,tower1 ,london4 #ajb4 ,dr4 ,primrose and his ,family4 7,from a drawing by ,g4 ,patrick ,nelson74 #ajc4 ,samuel ,johnson4 7,from the painting by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds74 #ajd4 ,samuel ,johnson's ,birthplace4 7,from an old print74 #aje4 ,james ,boswell4 #ajf4 ,cheshire ,cheese ,inn ,to-day4 #ajg4 ,robert ,southey4 #ajh4 ,charles ,lamb4 7,from a drawing by ,maclise74 #aji4 ,bo-,bo and ,roast ,pig4 7,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott74 #aaj4 ,william ,cowper4 7,from the portrait by ,sir ,thomas ,lawrence74 #aaa4 ,cowper's cottage at ,weston4 #aab4 ,john ,gilpin's ,ride4 7,from a drawing by ,r4 ,caldecott74 #aac4 ,robert ,burns4 7,from the painting by ,nasmyth ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #aad4 ,birthplace of ,burns4 #aae4 ,burns and ,highland ,mary4 7,from the painting by ,james ,archer74 #aaf4 ,sir ,walter ,scott4 7,from the painting by ,william ,nicholson74 #aag4 ,abbotsford1 ,home of ,sir ,walter ,scott4 #aah4 ,scott's ,grave in ,dryburgh ,abbey4 #aai4 ,loch ,katrine and ,ellen's ,isle4 #abj4 ,walter ,scott4 7,from a life sketch by ,maclise74 #aba4 ,scott's ,desk and ,elbow ,chair at ,abbotsford4 #abb4 ,jane ,austen4 7,from an original family portrait74 #abc4 ,jane ,austen's ,desk4 #abd4 ,william ,wordsworth4 7,from the portrait by ,b4,r4 ,haydon74 #abe4 ,boy of ,winander4 7,from the painting by ,h4,o4 ,walker1 ,congressional ,library74 #abf4 ,wordsworth's ,home at ,grasmere--,dove ,cottage4 #abg4 ,grasmere ,lake4 #abh4 ,william ,wordsworth4 7,from a sketch in ,fraser's ,magazine74 #abi4 ,rydal ,mount near ,ambleside4 #acj4 ,samuel ,taylor ,coleridge4 7,from a pencil sketch by ,c4,r4 ,leslie74 #aca4 ,coleridge's ,cottage at ,nether-,stowey4 #acb4 ,coleridge as a ,young ,man4 7,from a sketch made in ,germany74 #acc4 ,lord ,byron4 7,from a portrait by ,kramer74 #acd4 ,byron at ,seventeen4 7,from a painting74 #ace4 ,newstead ,abbey1 ,byron's ,home4 #acf4 ,castle of ,chillon4 #acg4 ,byron's ,home at ,pisa4 #ach4 ,percy ,bysshe ,shelley4 7,from the portrait by ,amelia ,curran1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #aci4 ,shelley's ,birthplace1 ,field ,place4 #adj4 ,grave of ,shelley1 ,protestant ,cemetery1 ,rome4 #ada4 ,facsimile of ,stanza from ,to a ,skylark4 #adb4 ,john ,keats4 7,from the painting by ,hilton1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #adc4 ,keats's ,home1 ,wentworth ,place4 #add4 ,grave of ,keats1 ,rome4 #ade4 ,facsimile of ,original ,,ms4 of ,endymion4 #adf4 ,endymion4 7,from the painting by ,h4,o4 ,walker1 ,congressional ,library74 #adg4 ,thomas de ,quincy4 7,from the painting by ,sir ,j4,w4 ,gordon1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #adh4 ,room in ,dove ,cottage4 #adi4 ,charles ,darwin4 #aej4 ,john ,tyndall4 #aea4 ,thomas ,huxley4 7,from the painting by ,john ,collier1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #aeb4 ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 7,from the drawing by himself1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #aec4 ,thomas ,babington ,macaulay4 7,from the painting by ,sir4 ,f4 ,grant1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #aed4 ,cardinal ,newman4 7,from the painting by ,emmeline ,deane74 #aee4 ,thomas ,carlyle4 7,from the painting by ,james ,mc,neill ,whistler74 #aef4 ,craigenputtock4 #aeg4 ,mrs4 ,carlyle4 7,from a miniature portrait74 #aeh4 ,john ,ruskin4 7,from a photograph74 #aei4 ,charles ,dickens4 7,from a photograph taken in ,america1 #ahfh74 #afj4 ,dicken's ,home1 ,gads ,hill4 #afa4 ,facsimile of ,,ms4 of ,a ,christmas ,carol4 #afb4 ,william ,makepeace ,thackeray4 7,from the painting by ,samuel ,laurence1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #afc4 ,caricature of ,thackeray by ,himself4 #afd4 ,thackeray's ,home where ,vanity ,fair was ,written4 #afe4 ,george ,eliot4 7,from a drawing by ,sir ,f4,w4 ,burton1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #aff4 ,george ,eliot's ,birthplace4 #afg4 ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 7,from a photograph74 #afh4 ,stevenson as a ,boy4 #afi4 ,edinburgh ,memorial of ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 7,by ,st4 ,gaudens74 #agj4 ,george ,meredith4 7,from the painting by ,g4,f4 ,watts1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #aga4 ,thomas ,hardy4 7,from the painting by ,winifred ,thompson74 #agb4 ,max ,gate4 7,the ,home of ,hardy74 #agc4 ,matthew ,arnold4 7,from the painting by ,g4,f4 ,watts1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #agd4 ,robert ,browning4 7,from the painting by ,g4,f4 ,watts1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #age4 ,elizabeth ,barrett ,browning4 7,from the painting by ,field ,talfourd1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery74 #agf4 ,facsimile of ,,ms4 from ,pippa ,passes4 #agg4 ,alfred ,tennyson4 7,from a photograph by ,mayall74 #agh4 ,farringford4 #agi4 ,facsimile of ,,ms4 of ,crossing the ,bar4 #ahj4 ,algernon ,charles ,swinburne4 7,from the painting by ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti74 #aha4 ,rudyard ,kipling4 7,from the painting by ,john ,collier74 #ahb4 ,mowgli and his ,brothers4 7,from ,the ,jungle ,book74 #ahc4 ,the ,cat ,that ,walked4 7,from ,kipling's drawing for ,just-,so ,stories74 #ahd4 ,joseph ,conrad4 #ahe4 ,arnold ,bennett4 #ahf4 ,john ,galsworthy4 #ahg4 ,herbert ,george ,wells4 #ahh4 ,william ,butler ,yeats4 #ahi4 ,john ,masefield4 #aij4 ,alfred ,noyes4 #aia4 ,henry ,arthur ,jones4 #aib4 ,arthur ,wing ,pinero4 #aic4 ,george ,bernard ,shaw4 7,from the bust by ,rodin74 #aid4 ,james ,matthew ,barrie4 #aie4 ,stephen ,phillips4 #aif4 ,lady ,gregory4 #aig4 ,john ,synge4 ,illustration3 ,,literary ,,map ,,of ,,england ,illustration3 ,,literary ,,map ,,of ,,england ,,new ,,english ,,literature ,,introduction ,,literary ,,england ,some knowledge of the homes and haunts of ,english authors is necessary for an understanding of their work4 ,we feel in much closer touch with ,shakespeare after merely reading about ,stratford-on-,avon2 but we seem to share his experiences when we actually walk from ,stratford-on-,avon to ,shottery and ,warwick4 ,the scenery and life of the ,lake ,country are reflected in ,wordsworth's poetry4 ,ayr and the surrounding country throw a flood of light on the work of ,burns4 ,the streets of ,london are a commentary on the novels of ,dickens4 ,a journey to ,canterbury aids us in recreating the life of ,chaucer's ,pilgrims4 ,much may be learned from a study of literary ,england4 ,whether one does or does not travel1 such study is necessary4 ,those who hope at some time to visit ,england should acquire in advance as much knowledge as possible about the literary associations of the places to be visited2 for when the opportunity for the trip finally comes1 there is usually insufficient time for such preparation as will enable the traveler to derive the greatest enjoyment from a visit to the literary centers in which ,great ,britain abounds4 ,whenever an author is studied1 his birthplace should be located on the literary map4 ,baedeker's ,great ,britain will be indispensable in making an itinerary4 ,the ,reference ,list for ,literary ,england is sufficiently comprehensive to enable any one to plan an enjoyable literary pilgrimage through ,great ,britain and to learn the most important facts about the places connected with ,english authors4 ,the following suggestions from the author's experience are intended to serve merely as an illustration of how to begin an itinerary4 ,the majority of east-bound steamships call at ,plymouth1 a good place to disembark for a literary trip4 ,from ,plymouth1 the traveler may go to ,exeter 7a quaint old town with a fine cathedral1 the home of ,exeter ,book17 thence by rail to ,camelford in ,cornwall and by coach four miles to the fascinating ,tintagel 7,king ,arthur71 where1 as ,tennyson says in his ,idylls of the ,king3-- ,all down the thundering shores of ,bude and ,bos1 ,there came a day as still as heaven1 and then ,they found a naked child upon the sands ,of dark ,tintagil by the ,cornish sea1 ,and that was ,arthur4 ,next1 the traveler may go by coach to ,bude 7of which ,tennyson remarked1 ,i hear that there are larger waves at ,bude than at any other place4 ,i must go thither and be alone with ,god7 and to unique ,clovelly and ,bideford 7,kingsley71 by rail to ,ilfracombe1 by coach to ,lynton 7,lorna ,doone71 and the adjacent ,lynmouth 7where ,shelley passed some of his happiest days and alarmed the authorities by setting afloat bottles containing his ,declaration of ,rights71 by coach to ,minehead1 by rail to ,watchet1 driving past ,alfoxden 7,wordsworth7 to ,nether-,stowey 7,coleridge7 and the ,quantock ,hills1 by motor and rail to ,glastonbury 7,isle of ,avalon1 burial place of ,king ,arthur and ,queen ,guinevere71 by rail to ,wells 7cathedral71 to ,bath 7many literary associations71 to ,bristol 7,chatterton1 ,southey71 to ,gloucester 7fine cathedral1 tomb of ,edward ,,ii71 and to ,ross1 the starting point for a remarkable all day's row down the river ,wye to ,tintern ,abbey 7,wordsworth71 stopping for dinner at ,monmouth 7,geoffrey of ,monmouth74 ,after a start similar to the foregoing1 the traveler should begin to make an itinerary of his own4 ,he will enjoy a trip more if he has a share in planning it4 ,from ,tintern ,abbey he might proceed1 for instance1 to ,stratford-on-,avon 7,shakespeare72 then to ,warwick1 ,kenilworth1 and the ,george ,eliot ,country in ,north ,warwickshire and ,staffordshire4 ,far natural beauty1 there is nothing in ,england that is more delightful than a coaching trip through ,wordsworth's ,lake ,country 7,cumberland and ,westmoreland74 ,from there it is not far to the ,carlyle ,country 7,ecclefechan1 ,craigenputtock71 to the ,burns ,country 7,dumfries1 ,ayr71 and to the ,scott ,country 7,loch ,katrine1 ,the ,trossachs1 ,edinburgh1 and ,abbotsford74 ,in ,edinburgh1 ,william ,sharp's statement about ,stevenson should be remembered1 ,one can1 in a word1 outline ,stevenson's own country as all the region that on a clear day one may in the heart of ,edinburgh descry from the ,castle walls4 ,if the traveler lands at ,southampton1 he is on the eastern edge of ,thomas ,hardy's ,wessex1 ,dorchester in ,dorsetshire being the center4 ,the ,jane ,austen ,country 7,steventon1 ,chawton7 is in ,hampshire4 ,to the east1 in ,surrey1 is ,burford ,bridge near ,dorking1 where ,keats wrote part of his ,endymion1 where ,george ,meredith had his summer home1 and where the country of his poetry is located4 ,in ,london1 it is a pleasure to trace some of the greatest literary associations in the world4 ,we may stand at the corner of ,monkwell and ,silver streets1 on the site of a building in which ,shakespeare wrote some of his greatest plays4 ,milton lived in the vicinity and is buried not far distant in ,st4 ,giles ,church4 ,in ,westminster ,abbey we find the graves of many of the greatest authors1 from ,chaucer to ,tennyson4 ,london is not only ,dickens ,land and ,thackeray ,land1 but also the ,land of many other writers4 ,we may still eat in the ,old ,cheshire ,cheese1 where ,johnson and ,goldsmith dined4 ,those interested in literary ,england ought to include the cathedral towns in their itinerary1 so that they may visit the wonderful poems in stone1 some of which1 e4g41 ,canterbury 7,chaucer71 ,winchester 7,izaak ,walton1 ,jane ,austen71 ,lichfield 7,johnson71 have literary associations4 ,for this reason1 all of the cathedral towns in ,england have been included in the literary map4 ,,reference ,,list ,,for ,,literary ,,england3 ,baedeker's ,great ,britain 7includes ,england and ,scotland74 ,baedeker's ,london and its ,environs4 ,adcock's ,famous ,houses and ,literary ,shrines of ,london4 ,lang's ,literary ,london4 ,hutton's ,literary ,landmarks in ,london4 ,lucas's ,a ,wanderer in ,london4 ,shelley's ,literary ,by-,paths in ,old ,england4 ,baildon's ,homes and ,haunts of ,famous ,authors4 ,bates's ,from ,gretna ,green to ,land's ,end4 ,masson's ,in the ,footsteps of the ,poets4 ,wolfe's ,a ,literary ,pilgrimage among the ,haunts of ,famous ,british ,authors4 ,salmon's ,literary ,rambles in the ,west of ,england4 ,hutton's ,a ,book of the ,wye4 ,headlam's ,oxford 7,medieval ,towns ,series74 ,winter's ,shakespeare's ,england4 ,murray's ,handbook of ,warwickshire4 ,lee's ,stratford-on-,avon1 from the ,earliest ,times to the ,death of ,shakespeare4 ,tompkins's ,stratford-on-,avon 7,dent's ,temple ,topographies74 ,brassington's ,shakespeare's ,homeland4 ,winter's ,grey ,days and ,gold 7,shakespeare74 ,collingwood's ,the ,lake ,counties 7,dent's ,county ,guides74 ,wordsworth's ,the ,prelude 7,books ,i4-,v474 ,rawnsley's ,literary ,associations of the ,english ,lakes4 ,knight's ,through the ,wordsworth ,country4 ,bradley's ,highways and ,byways in the ,english ,lakes4 ,jerrold's ,surrey 7,dent's ,county ,guides74 ,dewar's ,hampshire with ,isle of ,wight 7,dent's ,county ,guides74 ,ward's ,the ,canterbury ,pilgrimage4 ,harper's ,the ,hardy ,country4 ,snell's ,the ,blackmore ,country4 ,melville's ,the ,thackeray ,country4 ,kitton's ,the ,dickens ,country4 ,sloan's ,the ,carlyle ,country4 ,dougall's ,the ,burns ,country4 ,crockett's ,the ,scott ,country4 ,hill's ,jane ,austen3 ,her ,homes and ,her ,friends4 ,cook's ,homes and ,haunts of ,john ,ruskin4 ,william ,sharp's ,literary ,geography and ,travel ,sketches 7,vol4 ,,iv4 of ,works7 contains chapters on ,the ,country of ,stevenson1 ,the ,country of ,george ,meredith1 ,the ,country of ,carlyle1 ,the ,country of ,george4 ,eliot1 ,the ,bront ,country1 ,thackeray ,land1 ,the ,thames from ,oxford to the ,nore4 ,hutton's ,literary ,landmarks of ,edinburgh4 ,stevenson's ,picturesque ,notes on ,edinburgh4 ,loftie's ,brief ,account of ,westminster ,abbey4 ,parker's ,introduction to the ,study of ,gothic ,architecture4 ,stanley's ,memorials of ,westminster ,abbey4 ,kimball's ,an ,english ,cathedral ,journey4 ,singleton's ,how to ,visit the ,english ,cathedrals4 ,bond's ,the ,english ,cathedrals 7#bjj illustrations74 ,cram's ,the ,ruined ,abbeys of ,great ,britain 7#f illustrations74 ,home's ,what to ,see in ,england4 ,boynton's ,london in ,english ,literature4 ,,general ,,reference ,,list ,,for ,,the ,,study ,,of ,,english ,,literature#a3 ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 #ad vols4 ,garnett and ,gosse's ,english ,literature1 #d vols4 ,morley's ,english ,writers1 #aa vols4 ,jusserand's ,literary ,history of the ,english ,people4 ,taine's ,english ,literature4 ,courthope's ,history of ,english ,poetry1 #f vols4 ,stephens and ,lee's ,dictionary of ,national ,biography 7dead authors74 ,new ,international ,cyclopedia 7living and dead authors74 ,english ,men of ,letters ,series 7abbreviated reference1 ,e4,m4,l47 ,great ,writers' ,series 7abbreviated reference4 ,g4,w474 ,poole's ,index 7and continuation volumes for reference to critical articles in periodicals74 ,the ,united ,states ,catalogue and ,cumulative ,book ,index4 ,,selections ,,from ,,english ,,literature#b3 99,pancoast and ,spaeth's ,early ,english ,poems4 7,p4 ,s47#c 99,warren's ,treasury of ,english ,literature1 ,part ,i4 7,origins to ,eleventh ,century3 ,london1 ,one ,shilling47 7,warren47 99,ward's ,english ,poets1 #d vols4 7,ward47 99,bronson's ,english ,poems1 #d vols4 7,bronson47 ,oxford ,treasury of ,english ,literature1 ,vol4 ,i41 ,beowulf to ,jacobean2 99,vol4 ,,ii41 ,growth of the ,drama2 ,vol4 ,,iii41 ,jacobean to ,victorian4 7,oxford ,treasury47 99,oxford ,book of ,english ,verse4 7,oxford47 99,craik's ,english ,prose1 #e vols4 7,craik47 99,page's ,british ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century4 7,page47 ,chambers's ,cyclopedia of ,english ,literature4 7,chambers47 ,manly's ,english ,poetry 7from #aagj74 7,manly ,i47 ,manly's ,english ,prose 7from #aacg74 7,manly ,,ii47 ,century ,readings for a ,course in ,english ,literature4 7,century47 ,,chapter ,i3 ,,from #ddi ,a4,d4 ,,to ,,the ,,norman ,,conquest1 #ajff ,subject ,matter and ,aim4--,the history of ,english literature traces the development of the best poetry and prose written in ,english by the inhabitants of the ,british ,isles4 ,for more than twelve hundred years the ,anglo-,saxon race has been producing this great literature1 which includes among its achievements the incomparable work of ,shakespeare4 ,this literature is so great in amount that the student who approaches the study without a guide is usually bewildered4 ,he needs a history of ,english literature for the same reason that a traveler in ,england requires a guidebook4 ,such a history should do more than indicate where the choicest treasures of literature may be found2 it should also show the interesting stages of development2 it should emphasize some of the ideals that have made the ,anglo-,saxons one of the most famous races in the world2 and it should inspire a love for the reading of good literature4 ,no satisfactory definition of literature has ever been framed4 ,milton's conception of it was something so written to after times1 as they should not willingly let it die4 ,shakespeare's working definition of literature was something addressed not to after times but to an eternal present1 and invested with such a touch of nature as to make the whole world kin4 ,when he says of ,duncan3-- ,after life's fitful fever he sleeps well1 he touches the feelings of mortals of all times and opens the door for imaginative activity1 causing us to wonder why life should be a fitful fever1 followed by an incommunicable sleep4 ,much of what we call literature would not survive the test of ,shakespeare's definition2 but true literature must appeal to imagination and feeling as well as to intellect4 ,no mere definition can take the place of what may be called a feeling for literature4 ,such a feeling will develop as the best ,english poetry and prose3 are sympathetically read4 ,wordsworth had this feeling when he defined the poets as those3-- ,who gave us nobler loves and nobler cares4 ,the ,mission of ,english ,literature4--,it is a pertinent question to ask1 ,what has ,english literature to offer8 ,in the first place1 to quote ,ben ,jonson3-- ,the thirst that from the soul cloth rise ,doth ask a drink divine4 ,english literature is of preminent worth in helping to supply that thirst4 ,it brings us face to face with great ideals1 which increase our sense of responsibility for the stewardship of life and tend to raise the level of our individual achievement4 ,we have a heightened sense of the demands which life makes and a better comprehension of the far-off divine event toward which we move1 after we have heard ,swinburne's ringing call3-- 444this thing is ,god1 ,to be man with thy might1 ,to grow straight in the strength of thy spirit1 and live out thy life as the light4 ,we feel prompted to act on the suggestion of-- 444him who sings ,to one clear harp in divers tones1 ,that men may rise on striping-stones ,of their dead selves to higher things4#d ,in the second place1 the various spiritual activities demanded for the interpretation of the best things in literature add to enjoyment4 ,this pleasure1 unlike that which arises from physical gratification1 increases with age1 and often becomes the principal source of entertainment as life advances4 ,shakespeare has ,prospero say3-- 444my library ,was dukedom large enough4 ,the suggestions from great minds disclose vistas that we might never otherwise see4 ,browning truly says3-- 444we're made so that we love ,first when we see them painted1 things we have passed ,perhaps a hundred tunes nor cared to see4 ,sometimes it is only after reading ,shakespeare that we can see-- 444winking ,mary buds begin ,to ope their golden eyes4 ,with everything that pretty is4 and only after spending some time in ,wordsworth's company that the common objects of our daily life become invested with-- ,the glory and the freshness of a dream4 ,in the third place1 we should emphasize the fact that one great function of ,english literature is to bring deliverance to souls weary with routine1 despondent1 or suffering the stroke of some affliction4 ,in order to transfigure the everyday duties of life1 there is need of imagination1 of a vision such as the poets give4 ,without such a vision the tasks of life are drudgery4 ,the dramas of the poets bring relief and incite to nobler action4 ,the soul hath need of prophet and redeemer4 ,her outstretched wings against her prisoning bars ,she waits for truth1 and truth is with the dreamer ,persistent as the myriad light of stars4#e ,we need to listen to a poet like ,browning1 who-- ,never doubted clouds would break1 ,never dreamed1 tho' right were worsted1 wrong would triumph4 ,held we fall to rise1 are baffled to fight better1 ,sleep to wake4 ,in the fourth place1 the twentieth century is emphasizing the fact that neither happiness nor perpetuity of government is possible without the development of a spirit of service1--a truth long since taught by ,english literature4 ,we may learn this lesson from ,beowulf1 the first ,english epic1 from ,alfred the ,great1 from ,william ,langland1 and from ,chaucer's ,parish ,priest4 ,all ,shakespeare's greatest and happiest characters1 all the great failures of his dramas1 are sermons on this text4 ,in ,the ,tempest he presents ,ariel1 tendering his service to ,prospero3-- ,all hail1 great master6 grave sir1 hail6 ,i come ,to answer thy best pleasure4 ,shakespeare delights to show ,ferdinand winning ,miranda through service1 and ,caliban remaining an abhorred creature because he detested service4 ,much of modern literature is an illuminated text on the glory of service4 ,coleridge voiced for all the coming years what has grown to be almost an elemental feeling to the ,english-speaking race3-- ,he prayeth best who loveth best ,all things both great and small4 ,the ,home and ,migrations of the ,anglo-,saxon ,race4--,just as there was a time when no ,english foot had touched the shores of ,america1 so there was a period when the ancestors of the ,english lived far away from the ,british ,isles4 ,for nearly four hundred years prior to the coming of the ,anglo-,saxons1 ,britain had been a ,roman province4 ,in #daj ,a4,d4 the ,romans withdrew their legions from ,britain to protect ,rome herself against swarms of ,teutonic invaders4 ,about #ddi a band of ,teutons1 called ,jutes1 left ,denmark1 landed on the ,isle of ,thanet 7in the north-eastern part of ,kent71 and began the conquest of ,britain4 ,warriors from the tribes of the ,angles and the ,saxons soon followed1 and drove westward the original inhabitants1 the ,britons or ,welsh1 i4e4 foreigners1 as the ,teutons styled the natives4 ,before the invasion of ,britain1 the ,teutons inhabited the central part of ,europe as far south as the ,rhine1 a tract which in a large measure coincides with modern ,germany4 ,the ,jutes1 ,angles1 and ,saxons were different tribes of ,teutons4 ,these ancestors of the ,english dwelt in ,denmark and in the lands extending southward along the ,north ,sea4 ,the ,angles1 an important ,teutonic tribe1 furnished the name for the new home1 which was called ,angle-land1 afterward shortened into ,england4 ,the language spoken by these tribes is generally called ,anglo-,saxon or ,saxon4 ,the ,training of the ,race4--,the climate is a potent factor in determining the vigor and characteristics of a race4 ,nature reared the ,teuton like a wise but not indulgent parent4 ,by every method known to her1 she endeavored to render him fit to colonize and sway the world4 ,summer paid him but a brief visit4 ,his companions were the frost1 the fluttering snowflake1 the stinging hail4 ,for music1 instead of the soft notes of a shepherd's pipe under blue ,italian or ,grecian skies1 he listened to the north wind whistling among the bare branches1 or to the roar of an angry northern sea upon the bleak coast4 ,the feeble could not withstand the rigor of such a climate1 in the absence of the comforts of civilization4 ,only the strongest in each generation survived2 and these transmitted to their children increasing vigor4 ,warfare was incessant not only with nature but also with the surrounding tribes4 ,nature kept the ,teuton in such a school until he seemed fit to colonize the world and to produce a literature that would appeal to humanity in every age4 ,the ,early ,teutonic ,religion4--,in the early days on the continent1 before the ,teuton had learned of ,christianity1 his religious beliefs received their most pronounced coloring from the rigors of his northern climate1 from the ,frost ,giants1 the personified forces of evil1 with whom he battled4 ,the kindly1 life-bringing spring and summer1 which seemed to him earth's redeeming divinity1 were soon slain by the arrows that came from the winter's quivers4 ,not even ,thor1 the wielder of the thunderbolt1 nor ,woden1 the ,all-,father1 delayed the inevitable hour when the dusk of winter came1 when the voice of ,baldur could no longer be heard awaking earth to a new life4 ,the approach of the twilight of the gods1 the ,gtterdmmerung1 was a stern reality to the ,teuton4 ,illustration3 ,,woden4 ,although instinct with gloomy fatalism1 this religion taught bravery4 ,none but the brave were invited to ,valhalla to become ,woden's guest4 ,the brave man might perish1 but even then he won victory2 for he was invited to sit with heroes at the table of the gods4 ,none but the brave deserves the fair1 is merely a modern softened rendering of the old spirit4 ,the ,christian religion1 which was brought to the ,teuton after he had come to ,england1 found him already cast in a semi-heroic mold4 ,but before he could proceed on his matchless career of world conquest1 before he could produce a ,shakespeare and plant his flag in the sunshine of every land1 it was necessary for this new faith to develop in him the belief that a man of high ideals1 working in unison with the divinity that shapes his end1 may rise superior to fate and be given the strength to overcome the powers of evil and to mold the world to his will4 ,the intensity of this faith1 swaying an energetic race naturally fitted to respond to the great moral forces of the universe1 has enabled the ,anglo-,saxon to produce the world's greatest literature1 to evolve the best government for developing human capabilities1 and to make the whole world feel the effect of his ideals and force of character4 ,at the close of the nineteenth century1 a ,french philosopher wrote a book entitled ,anglo-,saxon ,superiority1 ,in ,what ,does it ,consist8 ,his answer was1 ,in self-reliance and in the happiness found in surmounting the material and moral difficulties of life4 ,a study of the literature in which the ideals of the race are most artistically and effectively embodied will lead to much the same conclusion4 ,the ,history of ,anglo-,saxon ,england4--,the first task of the ,anglo-,saxons after settling in ,england was to subdue the ,british1 the race that has given ,king ,arthur and his ,knights of the ,round ,table to ,english literature4 ,by #fjj ,a4,d41 after a century and a half of struggle1 the ,anglo-,saxons had probably occupied about half of ,england4 ,they did not build on the civilization that ,rome had left when she withdrew in #daj1 but destroyed the towns and lived in the country4 ,the typical ,englishman still loves to dwell in a country home4 ,the work of ,anglo-,saxon ,england consisted chiefly in tilling the soil and in fighting4 ,the year #eig marks an especially important date1 the coming of ,st4 ,augustine1 who brought the ,christian faith to the ,anglo-,saxons4 ,education1 literature1 and art followed finding their home in the monasteries4 ,for nearly #djj years after coming to ,england1 the different tribes were not united under one ruler4 ,not until #hcj did ,egbert1 king of the ,west ,saxons1 become overlord of ,england4 ,before and after this time1 the ,danes repeatedly plundered the land4 ,they finally settled in the eastern part above the ,thames4 ,alfred 7#hdi-ijj71 the greatest of ,anglo-,saxon rulers1 temporarily checked them1 but in the latter part of the tenth century they were more troublesome1 and in #ajag they made ,canute1 the ,dane1 king of ,england4 ,fortunately the ,danes were of the same race1 and they easily amalgamated with the ,saxons4 ,these invasions wasted the energies of ,england during more than two centuries1 but this long period of struggle brought little change to the institutions or manner of life in ,anglo-,saxon ,england4 ,the witan1 or assembly of wise men1 the forerunner of the present ,english parliament1 met in #ajff and chose ,harold1 the last ,anglo-,saxon king4 ,during these six hundred rears1 the ,anglo-,saxons conquered the ,british1 accepted ,christianity1 fought the ,danes1 finally amalgamating with them1 brought to ,england a lasting representative type of government1 established the fundamental customs of the race1 surpassed all contemporary western ,european peoples in the production of literature1 and were ready to receive fresh impetus from the ,normans in #ajff4 ,the ,anglo-,saxon ,language4--,our oldest ,english literature is written in the language spoken by the ,angles and the ,saxons4 ,this at first sight looks like a strange tongue to one conversant with modern ,english only2 but the language that we employ to-day has the framework1 the bone and sinew1 of the earlier tongue4 ,modern ,english is no more unlike ,anglo-,saxon than a bearded man is unlike his former childish self4 ,a few examples will show the likeness and the difference4 ,the noble queen would in ,anglo-,saxon be seo aeele cwen2 the noble queen's1 aere aeelan cwene4 ,seo is the nominative feminine singular1 aere the genitive1 of the definite article4 ,the adjective and the noun also change their forms with the varying cases4 ,in its inflections1 ,anglo-,saxon resembles its sister language1 the modern ,german4 ,after the first feeling of strangeness has passed away1 it is easy to recognize many of the old words4 ,take1 for instance1 this from ,beowulf3-- 444y he one feond ofercwom1 gehnaegde helle gast4 ,here are eight words1 apparently strange1 but even a novice soon recognizes five of them3 he1 feond 7fiend71 ofercwom 7overcame71 helle 7hell71 gast 7ghost74 ,the word one1 strange as it looks1 is merely the article the4 444therefore he overcame the fiend1 ,subdued the ghost of hell4 ,let us take from the same poem another passage1 containing the famous simile3-- 444leoht inne stod1 efne swa of hefene hadre scine rodores candel4 ,of these eleven words1 seven may be recognized3 leoht 7light71 inne 7in71 stod 7stood71 of1 hefene 7heaven71scine 7shineth71 candel 7candle74 444a light stood within1 ,even so from heaven serenely shineth ,the firmament's candle4 ,some prefer to use ,old ,english in place of ,anglo-,saxon in order to emphasize the continuity of the development of the language4 ,it is1 however1 sometimes convenient to employ different terms for different periods of development of the same entity4 ,we do not insist on calling a man a grown boy1 although there may be no absolute line of demarcation between boy and man4 ,earliest ,anglo-,saxon ,literature4--,as with the ,greeks and ,romans1 so with the ,teutons1 poetry afforded the first literary outlet for the feelings4 ,the first productions were handed down by memory4 ,poetry is easily memorized and naturally lends itself to singing and musical accompaniment4 ,under such circumstances1 even prose would speedily fall into metrical form4 ,poetry is1 furthermore1 the most suitable vehicle of expression for the emotions4 ,the ancients1 unlike modern writers1 seldom undertook to make literature unless they felt so deeply that silence was impossible4 ,the ,form of ,anglo-,saxon ,poetry4--,each line is divided ,into two parts by a major pause4 ,because each of these parts was often printed as a complete line in old texts1 ,beowulf has sometimes been called a poem of #fcfh lines1 although it has but #cahd4 ,a striking characteristic of ,anglo-,saxon poetry is consonantal alliteration2 that is1 the repetition of the same consonant at the beginning of words in the same line3-- ,grendel gongan2 ,godes yrre baer4 ,grendel going2 ,god's anger bare4 ,the usual type of ,anglo-,saxon poetry has two alliterations in the first half of the line and one in the second4 ,the lines vary considerably in the number of syllables4 ,the line from ,beowulf quoted just above has nine syllables4 ,the following line from the same poem has eleven3-- ,flota famig-heals1 fugle gelicost4 ,the floater foamy-necked1 to a fowl most like4 ,this line1 also from ,beowulf has eight syllables3-- ,nipende niht1 and noran wind4 ,noisome night1 and northern wind4 ,vowel alliteration is less common4 ,where this is employed1 the vowels are generally different1 as is shown in the principal words of the following line3-- ,on ead1 on aeht1 on eorcan stan4 ,on wealth1 on goods1 on precious stone4 ,end rime is uncommon1 but we must beware of thinking that there is no rhythm1 for that is a pronounced characteristic4 ,anglo-,saxon verse was intended to be sung1 and hence rhythm and accent or stress are important4 ,stress and the length of the line are varied2 but we usually find that the four most important words1 two in each half of the line1 are stressed on their most important syllable4 ,alliteration usually shows where to place three stresses4 ,a fourth stress generally falls on a word presenting an emphatic idea near the end of the line4 ,illustration3 ,,exeter ,,cathedral4 ,the ,manuscripts that have handed down ,anglo-,saxon ,literature4--,the earliest ,anglo-,saxon poetry was transmitted by the memories of men4 ,finally1 with the slow growth of learning1 a few acquired the art of writing1 and transcribed on parchment a small portion of the current songs4 ,the introduction of ,christianity ushered in prose translations and a few original compositions1 which were taken down on parchment and kept in the monasteries4 ,the study of ,anglo-,saxon literature is comparatively recent1 for its treasures have not been long accessible4 ,its most famous poem1 ,beowulf1 was not printed until the dawn of the nineteenth century4 ,in #ahbb ,dr4 ,blume1 a ,german professor of law1 happened to find in a monastery at ,vercelli1 ,italy1 a large volume of ,anglo-,saxon manuscript1 containing a number of fine poems and twenty-two sermons4 ,this is now known as the ,vercelli ,book4 ,no one knows how it happened to reach ,italy4 ,another large parchment volume of poems and miscellany was deposited by ,bishop ,leofric at the cathedral of ,exeter in ,devonshire1 about #ajej ,a4,d4 ,this collection1 one of the prized treasures of that cathedral1 is now called the ,exeter ,book4 ,many valuable manuscripts were destroyed at the dissolution of the monasteries in the time of ,henry ,,viii41 between #aece and #aedj4 ,john ,bale1 a contemporary writer1 says that those who purchased the monasteries reserved the books1 some to scour their candlesticks1 some to rub their boots1 some they sold to the grocers and soap sellers1 and some they sent over sea to the bookbinders1 not in small numbers1 but at times whole ships full1 to the wonder of foreign nations4 ,the ,anglo-,saxon ,scop and ,gleeman4--,our earliest poetry was made current and kept fresh in memory by the singers4 ,the kings and nobles often attached to them a scop1 or maker of verses4 ,when the warriors1 after some victorious battle1 were feasting at their long tables1 the banquet was not complete without the songs of the scop4 ,while the warriors ate the flesh of boar and deer1 and warmed their blood with horns of foaming ale1 the scop1 standing where the blaze from a pile of logs disclosed to him the grizzly features of the men1 sang his most stirring songs1 often accompanying them with the music of a rude harp4 ,as the feasters roused his enthusiasm with their applause1 he would sometimes indulge in an outburst of eloquent extempore song4 ,not infrequently the imagination of some king or noble would be fired1 and he would sing of his own great deeds4 ,we read in ,beowulf that in ,hrothgar's famous hall-- 444aer was hearpan sweg1 swutol sang scopes4 444there was sound of harp ,loud the singing of the scop4 ,in addition to the scop1 who was more or less permanently attached to the royal court or hall of a noble1 there was a craft of gleemen who roved from hall to hall4 ,in the song of ,widsi we catch a glimpse of the life of a gleeman3-- ,swa scriende gesceapum hweorfa gleomen gumena geond grunda fela4 ,thus roving1 with shapd songs there wander ,the gleemen of the people through many lands4 ,the scop was an originator of poetry1 the gleeman more often a mere repeater1 although this distinction in the use of the terms was not observed in later times4 ,the ,songs of ,scop and ,gleeman4--,the subject matter of these songs was suggested by the most common experiences of the time4 ,these were with war1 the sea1 and death4 ,illustration3 ,,anglo-,,saxon ,,gleeman4 ,from the tapestry designed by ,h4,a4 ,bone4 ,the oldest ,anglo-,saxon song known1 which is called ,widsi or the ,far ,traveler1 has been preserved in the ,exeter ,book4 ,this song was probably composed in the older ,angle-land on the continent and brought to ,england in the memories of the singers4 ,the poem is an account of the wanderings of a gleeman over a great part of ,europe4 ,such a song will mean little to us unless we can imaginatively represent the circumstances under which it was sung1 the long hall with its tables of feasting1 drinking warriors1 the firelight throwing weird shadows among the smoky rafters4 ,the imagination of the warriors would be roused as similar experiences of their own were suggested by these lines in ,widsi's song3-- ,ful oft of am heape hwinende fleag giellende gar on grome eode4 ,full oft from that host hissing flew ,the whistling spear on the fierce folk4 ,the gleeman ends this song with two thoughts characteristic of the poets of the ,saxon race4 ,he shows his love fur noble deeds1 and he next thinks of the shortness of life1 as he sings3-- ,in mortal court his deeds are not unsung1 ,such as a noble man mill show to men1 ,till all doth flit away1 both life and light4 ,a greater scop1 looking at life through ,saxon eyes1 sings3-- ,we are such stuff ,as dreams are made on2 and our little life ,is rounded with a sleep4#f ,the scop in the song called ,the ,wanderer 7,exeter ,book7 tells how fleeting are riches1 friend1 kinsman1 maiden1--all the earth-stead1 and he also makes us think of ,shakespeare's insubstantial pageant faded which leaves not a rack behind4 ,another old song1 also found in the ,exeter ,book1 is the ,seafarer4 ,we must imagine the scop recalling vivid experiences to our early ancestors with this song of the sea3-- ,hail flew in hard showers4 ,and nothing ,i heard ,but the wrath of the waters1 ,the icy-cold way ,at times the swan's song2 ,in the scream of the gannet ,i sought for my joy1 ,in the moan of the sea whelp ,for laughter of men1 ,in the song of the sea-mew ,for drinking of mead4#g ,to show that love of the sea yet remains one of the characteristics of ,english poetry1 we may quote by way of comparison a song sung more than a thousand years later1 in ,victoria's reign3-- ,the wind is as iron that rings1 ,the foam heads loosen and flee2 ,it swells and welters and swings1 ,the pulse of the tide of the sea4 ,let the wind shake our flag like a feather1 ,like the plumes of the foam of the sea6 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the teeth of the hard glad a weather1 ,in the blown wet face of the sea4#h ,kipling in ,a ,song of the ,english says of the sea3-- 444there's never a wave of all her waves ,but marks our ,english dead4 ,another song from the ,exeter ,book is called ,the ,fortunes of ,men4 ,it gives vivid pictures of certain phases of life among the ,anglo-,saxons3-- ,one shall sharp hunger slay2 ,one shall the storms beat down2 ,one be destroyed by darts1 ,one die in war4 ,orre shall live losing ,the light of his eyes1 ,feel blindly with his fingers2 ,and one lame of foot4 ,with sinew-wound wearily ,wasteth away4 ,musing and mourning2 ,with death in his mind4 99 99 99 99 99 ,one shall die by the dagger1 ,in wrath1 drenched with ale1 ,wild through the wine1 on the mead bench ,too swift with his words ,too swift with his words2 ,shall the wretched one lose4#i ,the songs that we have noted1 together with ,beowulf1 the greatest of them all1 will give a fair idea of scopic poetry4 ,,beowulf ,the ,oldest ,epic of the ,teutonic ,race4--,the greatest monument of ,anglo-,saxon poetry is called ,beowulf1 from the name of its hero4 ,his character and exploits give unity and dignity to the poem and raise it to the rank of an epic4 ,the subject matter is partly historical and partly mythical4 ,the deeds and character of an actual hero may have furnished the first suggestions for the songs1 which were finally elaborated into ,beowulf1 as we now have it4 ,the poem was probably a long time in process of evolution1 and many different scops doubtless added new episodes to the song1 altering it by expansion and contraction under the inspiration of different times and places4 ,finally1 it seems probable that some one ,english poet gave the work its present form1 making it a more unified whole1 and incorporating in it ,christian opinions4 ,we do not know when the first scop sang of ,beowulf's exploits2 but he probably began before the ancestors of the ,english came to ,england4 ,we are unable to ascertain how long ,beowulf was in process of evolution2 but there is internal evidence for thinking that part of the poem could not have been composed before #ejj ,a4,d4 ,ten ,brink1 a great ,german authority1 thinks that ,beowulf was given its present form not far from #gjj ,a4,d4 ,the unique manuscript in the ,british ,museum is written in the ,west ,saxon dialect of ,alfred the ,great's time 7#hdi-ija74 ,the characters1 scenery1 and action of ,beowulf belong to the older ,angle-land on the continent of ,europe2 but the poem is essentially ,english1 even though the chief action is laid in what is now known as ,denmark and the southern part of ,sweden4 ,hrothgar's hall1 near which the hero performed two of his great exploits1 was probably on the island of ,seeland4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,beginning ,,of ,,cotton ,,ms4 ,,of ,,beowulf4 ,,translation ,lo6 we1 of the ,gar-,danes in distant days1 ,the folk-kings' fame have found4 ,how deeds of daring the aethelings did4 ,oft ,scyld-,scefing from hosts of schathers1 ,from many men the mead seats reft4 ,the student who wishes to enter into the spirit of the poem will do well to familiarize himself with the position of these coasts1 and with a description of their natural features in winter as well as in summer4 ,heine says of the sea which ,beowulf sailed3-- ,before me rolleth a waste of water 444 and above me go rolling the storm clouds1 the formless dark gray daughters of air1 which from the sea in cloudy buckets scoop up the water1 ever wearied lifting and lifting1 and then pour it again in the sea1 a mournful1 wearisome business4 ,over the sea1 flat on his face1 lies the monstrous1 terrible ,north ,wind1 sighing and sinking his voice as in secret1 like an old grumbler2 for once in good humor1 unto the ocean he talks1 and he tells her wonderful stories4 ,beowulf's ,three ,great ,exploits4--,the hero of the poem engaged in three great contests1 all of which were prompted by unselfishness and by a desire to relieve human misery4 ,beowulf had much of the spirit that animates the social worker to-day4 ,if such a hero should live in our time1 he would probably be distinguished fur social service1 for fighting the forces of evil which cripple or destroy so many human beings4 ,hrothgar1 the king of the ,danes1 built a hall1 named ,heorot1 where his followers could drink mead1 listen to the scop1 enjoy the music of the harp1 and find solace in social intercourse during the dreary winter evenings4 ,so liv'd on all happy the host of the kinsmen ,in game and in glee1 until one night began1 ,a fiend out of hell-pit1 the framing of evil1 ,and ,grendel forsooth the grim guest was hight1 ,the mighty mark-strider the holder of moorland1 ,the fen and the fastness4#aj ,this monster1 ,grendel1 came from the moors and devoured thirty of the thanes4 ,for twelve winters he visited ,heorot and killed some of the guests whenever he heard the sound of festivity in the hall1 until at length the young hero ,beowulf1 who lived a day's sail from ,hrothgar1 determined to rescue ,heorot from this curse4 ,the youth selected fourteen warriors and on a foamy-necked floater1 most like to a bird1 he sailed to ,hrothgar4 ,beowulf stated his mission1 and he and his companions determined to remain in ,heorot all night4 ,grendel heard them and came4 444he quickly laid hold of ,a soldier asleep1 suddenly tore him1 ,bit his bone-prison1 the blood drank in currents1 ,swallowed in mouthfuls4#aa ,bare-handed1 ,beowulf grappled with the monster1 and they wrestled up and down the hall1 which was shaken to its foundations4 ,this terrible contest ended when ,beowulf tore away the arm and shoulder of ,grendel1 who escaped to the marshes to die4 ,in honor of the victory1 ,hrothgar gave to ,beowulf many presents and a banquet in ,heorot4 ,after the feast1 the warriors slept in the hall1 but ,beowulf went to the palace4 ,he had been gone but a short time1 when in rushed ,grendel's mother1 to avenge the death of her son4 ,she seized a warrior1 the king's dearest friend1 and carried him away4 ,in the morning1 the king said to ,beowulf3-- ,my trusty friend ,a,eschere is dead444 ,the cruel hag has wreaked on him her vengeance4 ,the country folk said there were two of them1 one the semblance of a woman2 the other the specter of a man4 ,their haunt is in the remote land1 in the crags of the wolf1 the wind-beaten cliffs1 and untrodden bogs1 where the dismal stream plunges into the drear abyss of an awful lake1 overhung with a dark and grizzly wood rooted down to the water's edge1 where a lurid flame plays nightly on the surface of the flood--and there lives not the man who knows its depth6 ,so dreadful is the place that the hunted stag1 hard driven by the hounds1 will rather die on the bank than find a shelter there4 ,a place of terror6 ,when the wind rises1 the waves mingle hurly-burly with the clouds1 the air is stifling and rumbles with thunder4 ,to thee alone we look for relief4#ab ,beowulf knew that a second and harder contest was at hand1 but without hesitation he followed the bloody trail of ,grendel's mother1 until it disappeared at the edge of a terrible flood4 ,undaunted by the dragons and serpents that made their home within the depths1 he grasped a sword and plunged beneath the waves4 ,after sinking what seemed to him a day's space1 he saw ,grendel's mother1 who came forward to meet him4 ,she dragged him into her dwelling1 where there was no water1 and the fight began4 ,the issue was for a time doubtful2 but at last ,beowulf ran her through with a gigantic sword1 and she fell dead upon the floor of her dwelling4 ,a little distance away1 he saw the dead body of ,grendel4 ,the hero cut off the head of the monster and hastened away to ,hrothgar's court4 ,after receiving much praise and many presents1 ,beowulf and his warriors sailed to their own land1 where he ruled as king for fifty years4 ,he engaged in his third and hardest conflict when he was old4 ,a firedrake1 angered at the loss of a part of a treasure1 which he had for three hundred years been guarding in a cavern1 laid waste the land in the hero's kingdom4 ,although ,beowulf knew that this dragon breathed flames of fire and that mortal man could not long withstand such weapons1 he sought the cavern which sheltered the destroyer and fought the most terrible battle of his life4 ,he killed the dragon1 but received mortal hurt from the enveloping flames4 ,the old hero had finally fallen2 but he had through life fought a good fight1 and he could say as the twilight passed into the dark3-- ,i have ruled the people fifty years2 no folk-king was there of them that dwelt about me durst touch me with his sword or cow me through terror4 ,i bided at home the hours of destiny1 guarded well mine own1 sought not feuds with guile1 swore not many an oath unjustly4#ac ,the poem closes with this fitting epitaph for the hero3-- ,quoth they that he was a world-king forsooth1 ,the mildest of all men1 unto men kindest1 ,to his folk the most gentlest1 most yearning of fame4#ad ,wherein ,beowulf is ,typical of the ,anglo-,saxon ,race4--,beowulf is by far the most important ,anglo-,saxon poem1 because it presents in the rough the persistent characteristics of the race4 ,this epic shows the ideals of our ancestors1 what they held most dear1 the way they lived and died4 ,i4 ,we note the love of liberty and law1 the readiness to fight any dragon that threatened these4 ,the ,english ,magna ,charta and ,petition of ,right and the ,american ,declaration of ,independence are an extension of the application of the same principles embodied in ,beowulf4 ,the old-time spirit of war still prevails in all branches of the race2 but the contest is to-day directed against dragons of a different type from ,grendel1--against myriad forms of industrial and social injustice and against those forces which have been securing special privileges for some and denying equal opportunity for all4 ,,ii4 ,beowulf is a recognition in general of the great moral forces of the universe4 ,the poem upholds the ideals of personal manliness1 bravery1 loyalty1 devotion to duty4 ,the hero has the ever-present consciousness that death is preferable to dishonor4 ,he taught his thane to sing3-- ,far better stainless death ,than life's dishonored breath4 ,,iii4 ,in this poem1 the action outweighs the words4 ,the keynote to ,beowulf is deeds4 ,in ,new ,england1 more than a thousand years later1 ,thoreau wrote1 ,be not simply good2 be good for something4 ,in reading other literatures1 for instance the ,celtic1 we often find that the words overbalance the action4 ,the ,celt tells us that when two bulls fought1 the sky was darkened by the turf thrown up by their feet and by the foam from their mouths4 ,the province rang with their roar and the inhabitants hid in caves or climbed the hills4 ,again1 more attention is paid to the worth of the subject matter and to sincerity of utterance than to mere form or polish4 ,the literature of this race has usually been more distinguished for the value of the thought than for artistic presentation4 ,prejudice is felt to-day against matter that relies mainly on art to secure effects4 ,,iv4 ,repression of sentiment is a marked characteristic of ,beowulf and it still remains a peculiarity of the ,anglo-,saxon race4 ,some people say vastly more than they feel4 ,this race has been inclined to feel more than it expresses4 ,when it was transplanted to ,new ,england1 the same characteristic was prominent1 the same apparent contradiction between sentiment and stern1 unrelenting devotion to duty4 ,in ,snow ,bound1 the ,new ,england poet1 ,whittier1 paints this portrait of a ,new ,england maiden1 still ,anglo-,saxon to the core3-- ,a full1 rich nature1 free to trust1 ,truthful and almost sternly just1 ,impulsive1 earnest1 prompt to act1 ,and make her generous thought a fact1 ,keeping with many a light disguise ,the secret of self-sacrifice4 ,no matter what stars now shine over them1 the descendants of the ,english are still truthful and sternly just2 they still dislike to give full expression to their feelings2 they still endeavor to translate thoughts into deeds1 and in this world where all need so much help1 they take self-sacrifice as a matter of course4 ,the spirit of ,beowulf1 softened and consecrated by religion1 still persists in ,anglo-,saxon thought and action4 ,,the ,,caedmonian ,,cycle ,caedmon4--,in #eig ,st4 ,augustine began to teach the ,christian religion to the ,anglo-,saxons4 ,the results of this teaching were shown in the subsequent literature4 ,in what is known as ,caedmon's ,paraphrase1 the next great ,anglo-,saxon epic1 there is no decrease in the warlike spirit4 ,instead of ,grendel1 we have ,satan as the arch-enemy against whom the battle rages4 ,caedmon1 who died in #fhj1 was until middle life a layman attached to the monastery at ,whitby1 on the northeast coast of ,yorkshire4 ,since the ,paraphrase has been attributed to ,caedmon on the authority of the ,saxon historian ,bede1 born in #fgc1 we shall quote ,bede himself on the subject1 from his famous ,ecclesiastical ,history3-- ,caedmon1 having lived in a secular habit until he was well advanced in years1 had never learned anything of versifying2 for which reason1 being sometimes at entertainments1 where it was agreed for the sake of mirth that all present should sing in their turns1 when he saw the instrument come toward him1 he rose from table and returned home4 ,having done so at a certain time1 and gone out of the house where the entertainment was1 to the stable1 where he had to take care of the horses that night1 he there composed himself to rest at the proper time2 a person appeared to him in his sleep1 and1 saluting him by his name1 said1 ',caedmon1 sing some song to me4' ,he answered1 ',i cannot sing2 for that was the reason why ,i left the entertainment and retired to this place1 because ,i could not sing4' ,the other who talked to him replied1 ',however1 you shall sing4' ',what shall ,i sing8' rejoined he4 ',sing the beginning of created beings1' said the other4 ,hereupon he presently began to sing verses to the praise of ,god4 ,caedmon remembered the poetry that he had composed in his dreams1 and repeated it in the morning to the inmates of the monastery4 ,they concluded that the gift of song was divinely given and invited him to enter the monastery and devote his time to poetry4 ,of ,caedmon's work ,bede says3-- ,he sang the creation of the world1 the origin of man1 and all the history of ,genesis3 and made many verses on the departure of the children of ,israel out of ,egypt1 and their entering into the land of promise1 with many other histories from ,holy ,writ2 the incarnation1 passion1 resurrection of our ,lord1 and his ascension into heaven2 the coming of the ,holy ,ghost1 and the preaching of the ,apostles2 also the terror of future judgment1 the horror of the pains of hell1 and the delights of heaven4 ,the ,authorship and ,subject ,matter of the ,caedmonian ,cycle4--,the first edition of the ,paraphrase was published in #afee by ,junius1 an acquaintance of ,milton4 ,junius attributed the entire ,paraphrase to ,caedmon1 on the authority of the above quotations from ,bede4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,beginning ,,of ,,junian ,,manuscript ,,of ,,caedmon4 ,,translation ,for us it is mickle right that we should praise with words1 love with our hearts1 the ,lord of the heavens1 the glorious ,king of the people4 ,he is the mighty power1 the chief of all exalted creatures1 ,lord ,almighty4 ,the ,paraphrase is really composed of three separate poems3 the ,genesis1 the ,exodus1 and the ,daniel2 and these are probably the works of different writers4 ,critics are not agreed whether any of these poems in their present form can be ascribed to ,caedmon4 ,the ,genesis shows internal evidence of having been composed by several different writers1 but some parts of this poem may be ,caedmon's own work4 ,the ,genesis1 like ,milton's ,paradise ,lost1 has for its subject matter the fall of man and its consequences4 ,the ,exodus1 the work of an unknown writer1 is a poem of much originality1 on the escape of the children of ,israel from ,egypt1 their passage through the ,red ,sea1 and the destruction of ,pharaoh's host4 ,the ,daniel1 an uninteresting poem of #gfe lines1 paraphrases portions of the book of ,daniel relating to ,nebuchadnezzar's dreams1 the fiery furnace1 and ,belshazzar's feast4 ,characteristics of the ,poetry4--,no matter who wrote the ,paraphrase1 we have the poetry1 a fact which critics too often overlook4 ,though the narrative sometimes closely follows the ,biblical account in ,genesis1 ,exodus1 and ,daniel1 there are frequent unfettered outbursts of the imagination4 ,the ,exodus rings with the warlike notes of the victorious ,teutonic race4 ,the ,genesis possesses special interest for the student1 since many of its strong passages show a marked likeness to certain parts of ,milton's ,paradise ,lost4 ,as some critics have concluded that ,milton must have been familiar with the ,caedmonian ,genesis1 it will be instructive to note the parallelism between the two poems4 ,caedmon's hell is without light and full of flame4 ,milton's flames emit no light2 they only make darkness visible4 ,the following lines are from the ,genesis3-- ,the ,lord made anguish a reward1 a home ,in banishment1 hell groans1 hard pain1 and bade ,that torture house abide the joyless fall4 ,when with eternal night and sulphur pains1 ,fullness of fire1 dread cold1 reek and red flames1 ,he knew it filled4#ae ,with this description we may compare these lines from ,milton3-- ,a dungeon horrible1 on all sides round4 ,as one great furnace flamed2 yet from those flames ,no light2 but rather darkness visible4 444a fiery deluge1 fed ,with ever burning sulphur unconsumed4#af ,in ,caedmon the false ,archangel and his band lay prone in liquid fire1 scarce visible amid the clouds of rolling smoke4 ,in ,milton1 ,satan is shown lying prone on the flood1 struggling to escape from off the tossing of these fiery waves1 to a plain void of light1 except what comes from the glimmering of these livid flames4 ,the older poet sings with forceful simplicity3-- ,then comes1 at dawn1 the east wind1 keen with frost4 ,milton writes3-- 444the parching air ,burns frore1 and cold performs the effect of fire4#ag ,when ,satan rises on his wings to cross the flaming vault1 the ,genesis gives in one line an idea that ,milton expands into two and a half3-- ,swang aet fyr on twa feondes craefte4 ,struck the fire asunder with fiendish craft4 444on each hand the flames1 ,driven backward1 slope their pointing spires1 and1 rolled ,in billows1 leave i' th' midst a horrid vale4#ah ,it is not certain that ,milton ever knew of the existence of the ,caedmonian ,genesis2 for he was blind three years before it was published4 ,but whether he knew of it or not1 it is a striking fact that the temper of the ,teutonic mind during a thousand years should have changed so little toward the choice and treatment of the subject of an epic1 and that the first great poem known to have been written on ,english soil should in so many points have anticipated the greatest epic of the ,english race4 ,,the ,,cynewulf ,,cycle ,cynewulf is the only great ,anglo-,saxon poet who affixed his name to certain poems and thus settled the question of their authorship4 ,we know nothing of his life except what we infer from his poetry4 ,he was probably born near the middle of the eighth century1 and it is not unlikely that he passed part of his youth as a thane of some noble4 ,he became a man of wide learning1 well skilled in wordcraft and in the ,christian traditions of the time4 ,such learning could then hardly have been acquired outside of some monastery whither he may have retired4 ,illustration3 ,,anglo-,,saxon ,,musicians4 ,illuminated ,,ms41 ,british ,museum4 ,in variety1 inventiveness1 and lyrical qualities1 his poetry shows an advance over the ,caedmonian cycle4 ,he has a poet's love for the beauty of the sun and the moon 7heofon-condelle71 for the dew and the rain1 for the strife of the waves 7holm-roece71 for the steeds of the sea 7sund-hengestas71 and for the all-green 7eal-grene7 earth4 ,for ,cynewulf1 says a critic1 'earth's crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with ,god4' ,cynewulf has inserted his name in runic characters in four poems3 ,christ1 ,elene1 ,juliana1 a story of a ,christian martyr1 and the least important1 ,the ,fates of the ,apostles4 ,the ,christ1 a poem on the ,savior's ,nativity1 ,ascension1 and ,judgment of the world at the last day1 sometimes suggests ,dante's ,inferno or ,paradiso1 and ,milton's ,paradise ,lost4 ,we see the-- ,flame that welters up and of worms the fierce aspect1 ,with the bitter-biting jaws--school of burning creatures4#ai ,cynewulf closes the ,christ with almost as beautiful a conception of ,paradise as ,dante's or ,milton's1--a conception that could never have occurred to a poet of the warlike ,saxon race before the introduction of ,christianity3-- 444,hunger is not there nor thirst1 ,sleep nor heavy sickness1 nor the scorching of the ,sun2 ,neither cold nor care4#bj ,elene is a dramatic poem1 named from its heroine1 ,helena1 the mother of the ,roman emperor ,constantine4 ,a vision of the cross bearing the inscription1 ,with this shalt thou conquer1 appeared to ,constantine before a victorious battle and caused him to send his mother to the ,holy ,land to discover the true cross4 ,the story of her successful voyage is given in the poem ,elene4 ,the miraculous power of the true cross among counterfeits is shown in a way that suggests kinship with the fourteenth century miracle plays4 ,a dead man is brought in contact with the first and the second cross1 but the watchers see no divine manifestation until he touches the third cross1 when he is restored to life4 ,elene and the ,dream of the ,road1 also probably written by ,cynewulf1 are an ,anglo-,saxon apotheosis of the cross4 ,some of this ,cynewulfian poetry is inscribed on the famous ,ruthwell cross in ,dumfriesshire4 ,andreas and ,phoenix4--,cynewulf is probably the author of ,andreas1 an unsigned poem of special excellence and dramatic power4 ,the poem1 a romance of the sea1 describes ,st4 ,andrew's voyage to ,mermedonia to deliver ,st4 ,matthew from the savages4 ,the ,savior in disguise is the ,pilot4 ,the dialogue between him and ,st4 ,andrew is specially fine4 ,the saint has all the admiration of a ,viking for his unknown ,pilot1 who stands at the helm in a gale and manages the vessel as he would a thought4 ,although the poet tells of a voyage in eastern seas1 he is describing the ,german ocean3-- ,then was sorely troubled1 ,sorely wrought the whale-mere4 ,wallowed there the ,horn-fish1 ,glode the great deep through2 and the gray-backed gull ,slaughter-greedy wheeled4 ,dark the storm-sun grew1 ,waxed the winds up1 grinded waves2 ,stirred the surges1 groaned the cordage1 ,wet with breaking sea4#ba ,cynewulf is also the probable author of the ,phoenix1 which is in part an adaptation of an old ,latin poem4 ,the ,phoenix is the only ,saxon poem that gives us the rich scenery of the ,south1 in place of the stern northern landscape4 ,he thus describes the land where this fabulous bird dwells3-- ,calm and fair this glorious field1 flashes there the sunny grove2 ,happy is the holt of trees1 never withers fruitage there4 ,bright are there the blossoms444 ,in that home the hating foe houses not at all1 99 99 99 99 99 ,neither sleep nor sadness1 nor the sick man's weary bed1 ,nor the winter-whirling snow444 444but the liquid streamlets1 ,wonderfully beautiful1 from their wells upspringing1 ,softly lap the land with their lovely floods4#bb ,,general ,,characteristics ,,of ,,anglo-,,saxon ,,poetry ,martial ,spirit4--,the love of war is very marked in ,anglo-,saxon poetry4 ,this characteristic might have been expected in the songs of a race that had withstood the well-nigh all-conquering arm of the vast ,roman ,empire4 ,our study of ,beowulf has already shown the intensity of the martial spirit in heathen times4 ,these lines from the ,fight at ,finnsburg1 dating from about the same time as ,beowulf1 have only the flash of the sword to lighten their gloom4 ,they introduce the raven1 for whom the ,saxon felt it his duty to provide food on the battlefield3-- 444hraefen wandrode sweart and sealo-brun2 swurd-leoma stod swylce eal ,finns-buruh fyrenu waere4 444the raven wandered ,swart and sallow-brown2 the sword-flash stood ,as if all ,finnsburg were afire4 ,the love of war is almost as marked in the ,christian poetry4 ,there are vivid pictures of battle against the heathen and the enemies of ,god1 as shown by the following selection from one of the poems of the ,caedmonian cycle3-- ,helmeted men went from the holy burgh1 ,at the first reddening of dawn1 to fight3 ,loud stormed the din of shields4 ,for that rejoiced the lank wolf in the wood1 ,and the black raven1 slaughter-greedy bird4#bc ,judith1 a fragment of a religious poem1 is aflame with the spirit of war4 ,one of its lines tells how a bird of prey-- ,sang with its horny beak the song of war4 ,this very line aptly characterizes one of the emphatic qualities of ,anglo-,saxon poetry4 ,the poems often describe battle as if it were an enjoyable game4 ,they mention the ,play of the spear and speak of putting to sleep with the sword1 as if the din of war were in their ears a slumber melody4 ,one of the latest of ,anglo-,saxon poems1 ,the ,battle of ,brunanburh1 #icg1 is a famous example of war poetry4 ,we quote a few lines from ,tennyson's excellent translation3-- ,grimly with swords that were sharp from the grindstone1 ,fiercely we hack'd at the flyers before us4 99 99 99 99 99 ,five young kings put asleep by the sword-stroke ,seven strong earls of the army of ,anlaf ,fell on the war-field1 numberless numbers4 ,love of the ,sea4--,the ,anglo-,saxon fondness for the sea has been noted1 together with the fact that this characteristic has been transmitted to the more recent ,english poetry4 ,our forefathers rank among the best seamen that the world has ever known4 ,had they not loved to dare an unknown sea1 ,english literature might not have existed1 and the sun might never have risen on any ,english flag4 ,the scop sings thus of ,beowulf's adventure on the ,north ,sea3-- ,swoln were the surges1 of storms 'twas the coldest1 ,dark grew the night1 and northern the wind1 ,rattling and roaring1 rough were the billows4#bd ,in the ,seafarer1 the scop also sings3-- ,my mind now is set1 ,my heart's thought1 on wide waters1 ,the home of the whale2 ,it wanders away ,beyond limits of land4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and stirs the mind's longing ,to travel the way that is trackless4#be ,in the ,andreas1 the poet speaks of the ship in one of the most charming of ,saxon similes3-- ,foaming ,ocean beats our steed3 full of speed this boat is2 ,fares along foam-throated1 flieth on the wave1 ,likest to a bird4#bf ,some of the most striking ,saxon epithets are applied to the sea4 ,we may instance such a compound as ar-ge-bland 7ar1 oar2 blendan1 to blend71 which conveys the idea of the companionship of the oar with the sea4 ,from this compound1 modern poets have borrowed their oar-disturbd sea1 oard sea1 oar-blending sea1 and oar-wedded sea4 ,the ,anglo-,saxon poets call the sun rising or setting in the sea the mere-candel4 ,in ,beowulf1 mere-straeta1 sea-streets1 are spoken of as if they were the easily traversed avenues of a town4 ,figures of ,rhetoric4--,a special characteristic of ,anglo-,saxon poetry is the rarity of similes4 ,in ,homer they are frequent1 but ,anglo-,saxon verse is too abrupt and rapid in the succession of images to employ the expanded simile4 ,the long poem of ,beowulf contains only five similes1 and these are of the shorter kind4 ,two of them1 the comparison of the light in ,grendel's dwelling to the beams of the sun1 and of a vessel to a flying bird1 have been given in the original ,anglo-,saxon on pages #af1 #ag4 ,other similes compare the light from ,grendel's eyes to a flame1 and the nails on his fingers to steel3 while the most complete simile says that the sword1 when bathed in the monster's poisonous blood1 melted like ice4 ,on the other hand1 this poetry uses many direct and forcible metaphors1 such as wave-ropes for ice1 the whale-road or swan-road for the sea1 the foamy-necked floater for a ship1 the war-adder for an arrow1 the bone-house for the body4 ,the sword is said to sing a war song1 the slain to be put to sleep with the sword1 the sun to be a candle1 the flood to boil4 ,war is appropriately called the sword-game4 ,parallelisms4--,the repetition of the same ideas in slightly differing form1 known as parallelism1 is frequent4 ,the author1 wishing to make certain ideas emphatic1 repeated them with varying phraseology4 ,as the first sight of land is important to the sailor1 the poet used four different terms for the shore that met ,beowulf's eyes on his voyage to ,hrothgar3 land1 brimclifu1 beorgas1 saenaessas 7land1 sea-cliffs1 mountains1 promontories74 ,this passage from the ,phoenix shows how repetition emphasizes the absence of disagreeable things3-- 444there may neither snow nor rain1 ,nor the furious air of frost1 nor the flare of fire1 ,nor the headlong squall of hail1 nor the hoar frost's fall1 ,nor the burning of the sun1 nor the bitter cold1 ,nor the weather over-warm1 nor the winter shower1 ,do their wrong to any wight4#bg ,the general absence of cold is here made emphatic by mentioning special cold things3 snow1 frost1 hail1 hoar frost1 bitter cold1 winter shower4 ,the absence of heat is emphasized in the same way4 ,saxon contrasted with ,celtic ,imagery4--,a critic rightly says3 ,the gay wit of the ,celt would pour into the song of a few minutes more phrases of ornament than are to be found in the whole poem of ,beowulf4 ,in three lines of an old ,celtic death song1 we find three similes3-- ,black as the raven was his brow2 ,sharp as a razor was his spear2 ,white as lime was his skin4 ,we look in ,anglo-,saxon poetry in vain for a touch like this3-- ,sweetly a bird sang on a pear tree above the head of ,gwenn before they covered him with a turf4#bh ,celtic literature shows more exaggeration1 more love of color1 and a deeper appreciation of nature in her gentler aspects4 ,the ,celt could write3-- ,more yellow was her head than the flower of the broom1 and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave1 and fairer were her hands and fingers than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray of the meadow fountain4#bi ,king ,arthur and his romantic ,knights of the ,round ,table are ,celtic heroes4 ,possibly the ,celtic strain persisting in many of the ,scotch people inspires lines like these in more modern times3-- ,the corn-craik was chirming ,his sad eerie cry #cj ,and the wee stars were dreaming ,their path through the sky4 ,in order to produce a poet able to write both ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream and ,hamlet1 the ,celtic imagination must blend with the ,anglo-,saxon seriousness4 ,as we shall see1 this was accomplished by the ,norman conquest4 ,,anglo-,,saxon ,,prose ,when and where written4--,we have seen that poetry normally precedes prose4 ,the principal part of ,anglo-,saxon poetry had been produced before much prose was written4 ,the most productive poetic period was between #fej and #hbe4 ,near the close of the eighth century1 the ,danes began their plundering expeditions into ,england4 ,by #hjj they had destroyed the great northern monasteries1 like the one at ,whitby1 where ,caedmon is said to have composed the first religious song4 ,as the home of poetry was in the north of ,england1 these ,danish inroads almost completely silenced the singers4 ,what prose there was in the north was principally in ,latin4 ,on the other hand1 the ,saxon prose was produced chiefly in the south of ,england4 ,the most glorious period of ,anglo-,saxon prose was during ,alfred's reign1 #hga-ija4 ,bede4--,this famous monk 7#fgc-gce7 was probably the greatest teacher and the best known man of letters and scholar in all contemporary ,europe4 ,he is said to have translated the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john into ,saxon1 but the translation is lost4 ,he wrote in ,latin on a vast range of subjects1 from the ,scriptures to natural science1 and from grammar to history4 ,he has given a list of thirty-seven works of which he is the author4 ,his most important work is the ,ecclesiastical ,history of the ,english ,people1 which is really a history of ,england from ,julius ,caesar's invasion to #gca4 ,the quotation from ,bede's work relative to ,caedmon shows that ,bede could relate things simply and well4 ,he passed almost all his useful life at the monastery of ,jarrow on the ,tyne4 ,alfred 7#hdi-ija74--,the deeds and thoughts of ,alfred1 king of the ,west ,saxons from #hga until his death in #ija1 remain a strong moral influence an the world1 although he died more than a thousand years ago4 ,posterity rightly gave him the surname of the ,great1 as he is one of the comparatively few great men of all time4 ,e4,a4 ,freeman1 the noted historian of the early ,english period1 says of him3-- ,no man recorded in history seems ever to have united so many great and good qualities444 ,a great part of his reign was taken up with warfare with an enemy the ,danes who threatened the national being2 yet he found means personally to do more for the general enlightenment of his people than any other king in ,english history4 ,after a ,danish leader had outrageously broken his oaths to ,alfred1 the ,dane's two boys and their mother fell into ,alfred's hands1 and he returned them unharmed4 ,let us love the man1 he wrote1 but hate his sins4 ,his revision of the legal code1 known as ,alfred's ,laws1 shows high moral aim4 ,he does not forget the slave1 who was to be freed after six years of service4 ,his administration of the law endeavored to secure the same justice for the poor as for the rich4 ,alfred's example has caused many to stop making excuses for not doing more for their kind4 ,if any one ever had an adequate excuse for not undertaking more work than his position absolutely demanded1 that man was ,alfred2 yet his ill health and the wars with the ,danes did not keep him from trying to educate his people or from earning the title1 father of ,english prose4 ,freeman even says that ,england owes to ,alfred's prose writing and to the encouragement that he gave to other writers the possession of a richer early literature than any other people of western ,europe and the maintenance of the habit of writing after the ,norman conquest1 when ,english was no longer used in courtly circles4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,beginning ,,of ,,alfred',s ,,laws4 ,illuminated ,,ms41 ,british ,museum4 ,although most of his works are translations from the ,latin1 yet he has left the stamp of his originality and sterling sense upon them all4 ,finding that his people needed textbooks in the native tongue1 he studied ,latin so that he might consult all accessible authorities and translate the most helpful works1 making alterations and additions to suit his plan4 ,for example1 he found a ,latin work on history and geography by ,orosius1 a ,spanish ,christian of the fifth century2 but as this book contained much material that was unsuited to ,alfred's purposes1 he omitted some parts1 changed others1 and1 after interviewing travelers from the far ,north1 added much original matter4 ,these additions1 which even now are not uninteresting reading1 are the best material in the book4 ,this work is known as ,alfred's ,orosius4 ,alfred also translated ,pope ,gregory's ,pastoral ,rule in order to show the clergy how to teach and care for their flocks4 ,alfred's own words at the beginning of the volume show how great was the need for the work4 ,speaking of the clergy1 he says3-- ,there were very few on this side ,humber who would know how to render their services in ,english1 or so much as translate an epistle out of ,latin into ,english2 and ,i ween that not many would be on the other side ,humber4 ,so few of them were there1 that ,i cannot think of so much as a single one1 south of ,thames1 when ,i took to the realm4#ca ,alfred produced a work on moral philosophy1 by altering and amending the ,de ,consolatione ,philosophiae of ,boethius1 a noble ,roman who was brutally thrown into prison and executed about #ebe ,a4,d4 ,in simplicity and moral power1 some of ,alfred's original matter in this volume was not surpassed by any ,english writer for several hundred years4 ,we frequently find such thoughts as1 ,if it be not in a man's power to do good1 let him have the good intent4 ,true high birth is of the mind1 not of the flesh4 ,his ,prayer in the same work makes us feel that he could see the divine touch in human nature3-- ,no enmity hast ,thou towards anything444 ,thou1 ,o ,lord1 bringest together heavenly souls and earthly bodies1 and minglest them in this world4 ,as they came hither from ,thee1 even so they also seek to go hence to ,thee4 ,a,elfric1 #iee8-ajbe8--,the most famous theologian who followed ,alfred's example in writing native ,english prose1 and who took ,alfred for his model1 was a priest named ,a,elfric4 ,his chief works are his ,homilies1 a series of sermons1 and the ,lives of the ,saints4 ,although much of his writing is a compilation or a translation from the ,latin ,fathers1 it is often remarkably vigorous in expression and stimulating to the reader4 ,we find such thoughts as3-- ,god hath wrought many miracles1 and ,he performs them every day1 but these miracles have become much less important in the sight of men because they are very common444 ,spiritual miracles are greater than the physical ones4 ,to modern readers the most interesting of ,aelfric's writings is his ,colloquium1 designed to teach ,latin in the monastery at ,winchester4 ,the pupils were required to learn the ,latin translation of his dialogues in the ,anglo-,saxon vernacular4 ,some of these dialogues are today valuable illustrations of the social and industrial life of the time4 ,the following is part of the conversation between the ,teacher and the ,plowman3-- ,teacher4 ,what have you to say1 plowman8 ,how do you carry on your work8 ,plowman4 ,o master1 ,i work very hard2 ,i go out at dawn1 drive the oxen to the field1 and yoke them to the plow4 ,there is no storm so severe that ,i dare to hide at home1 for fear of my lord1 but when the oxen are yoked1 and the share and coulter have been fastened to the plow1 ,i must plow a whole acre or more every day4 99 99 99 99 99 ,teacher4 ,oh6 oh6 the labor must be great6 ,plowman4 ,it is indeed great drudgery1 because ,i am not free4#cb ,the ,anglo-,saxon ,chronicle4--,this is the first history of any branch of the ,teutonic people in their own tongue4 ,the ,chronicle has come down to us in several different texts1 according as it was compiled or copied at different monasteries4 ,the ,chronicle was probably begun in ,alfred's reign4 ,the entries relating to earlier events were copied from ,bede's ,ecclesiastical ,history and from other ,latin authorities4 ,the ,chronicle contains chiefly those events which each year impressed the clerical compilers as the most important in the history of the nation4 ,this work is a fountainhead to which writers of the history of those times must turn4 ,a few extracts 7translated7 will show its character3-- ,a4,d4 #ddi4 ,this year 444 ,hengist and ,horsa1 invited by ,vortigern1 ,king of ,britons1 landed in ,britain1 on the shore which is called ,wappidsfleet2 at first in aid of the ,britons1 but afterwards they fought against them4 #hjf4 ,this year the moon was eclipsed on the ,kalends of ,september2 and ,eardulf1 ,king of the ,northumbrians4 was driven from his kingdom2 and ,eanbert1 ,bishop of ,hexham1 died4 ,sometimes the narrative is extremely vivid4 ,those who know the difficulty of describing anything impressively in a few words will realize the excellence of this portraiture of ,william the ,conqueror3-- #ajhg4 ,if any would know what manner of man ,king ,william was1 the glory that he obtained1 and of how many lands he was lord2 then will we describe him as we have known him444 ,he was mild to those good men who loved ,god1 but severe beyond measure to those withstood his will444 ,so also was he a very stern and a wrathful man1 so that none durst do anything against his will1 and he kept in prison those earls who acted against his pleasure4 ,he removed bishops from their sees1 and abbots from their offices1 and he imprisoned thanes1 and at length he spared not his own brother4 ,odo444 ,amongst other things1 the good order that ,william established is not to be forgotten2 it was such that any man1 who was himself aught1 might travel over the kingdom with a bosom-full of gold1 unmolested2 and no man durst kill another444 ,he made large forests for the deer1 and enacted laws therewith1 so that whoever killed a hart or a hind should be blinded 444 and he loved the tall stags as if he were their father4 ,,summary ,the ,anglo-,saxons1 a branch of the ,teutonic race1 made permanent settlements in ,england about the middle of the fifth century ,a4,d4 ,like modern ,german1 their language is highly inflected4 ,the most flourishing period of ,anglo-,saxon poetry was between #fej and #hbe ,a4,d4 ,it was produced for the most part in the north of ,england1 which was overrun by the ,danes about #hjj4 ,these marauders destroyed many of the monasteries and silenced the voices of the singers4 ,the prose was written chiefly in the south of ,england after the greatest poetic masterpieces had been produced4 ,the ,norman ,conquest of ,england1 beginning in #ajff1 brought the period to a close4 ,among the poems of this age1 we may emphasize3 7#a7 the shorter scopic pieces1 of which the ,far ,traveler1 ,the ,wanderer1 ,the ,seafarer1 ,the ,fortunes of ,men1 and ,the ,battle of ,brunanburh are important examples2 7#b7 ,beowulf1 the greatest ,anglo-,saxon epic poem1 which describes the deeds of an unselfish hero1 shows how the ancestors of the ,english lived and died1 and reveals the elemental ideals of the race2 7#c7 the ,caedmonian ,cycle of scriptural paraphrases1 some of which have ,miltonic qualities2 and 7#d7 the ,cynewulf ,cycle1 which has the most variety and lyrical excellence4 ,both of these ,cycles show how the introduction of ,christianity affected poetry4 ,the subject matter of the poetry is principally war1 the sea1 and religion4 ,the martial spirit and love of the sea are typical of the nation that has raised her flag in every clime4 ,the chief qualities of the poetry are earnestness1 somberness1 and strength1 rather than delicacy of touch1 exuberance of imagination1 or artistic adornment4 ,the golden period of prose coincides in large measure with ,alfred's reign1 #hga-ija1 and he is the greatest prose writer4 ,his translations of ,latin works to serve as textbooks for his people contain excellent additions by him4 ,a,elfric1 a tenth century prose writer1 has left a collection of sermons1 called ,homilies1 and an interesting ,colloquium1 which throws strong lights on the social life of the time4 ,the ,anglo-,saxon ,chronicle is an important record of contemporaneous events for the historian4 ,,references ,,for ,,further ,,study ,,historical ,in connection with the progress of literature1 students should obtain for themselves a general idea of contemporary historical events from any of the following named works3-- ,gardiner's ,students' ,history of ,england4 ,green's ,short ,history of the ,english ,people4 ,walker's ,essentials in ,english ,history4 ,cheney's ,a ,short ,history of ,england4 ,lingard's ,history of ,england4 ,traill's ,social ,england1 ,vol4 ,i4 ,ramsay's ,the ,foundations of ,england4 ,,literary ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,vol4 ,i4 ,brooke's ,history of ,early ,english ,literature to the ,accession of ,king ,alfred4 ,morley's ,english ,writers1 ,vols4 ,i4 and ,,ii4 ,earle's ,anglo-,saxon ,literature4 ,ten ,brink's ,early ,english ,literature1 ,vol4 ,i4 ,the ,exeter ,book1 edited and translated1 by ,gollancz 7,early ,english ,text ,society74 ,gurteen's ,the ,epic of the ,fall of ,man3 ,a ,comparative ,study of ,caedmon1 ,dante1 and ,milton4 ,cook's ,the ,christ of ,cynewulf4 7,the ,introduction of #ig pages gives a valuable account of the life and writings of ,cynewulf47 ,kennedy's ,translation of the ,poems of ,cynewulf4 ,bede's ,ecclesiastical ,history of ,england and the ,anglo-,saxon ,chronicle1 ,i vol41 translated by ,giles in ,bohn's ,antiquarian ,library4 ,snell's ,the ,age of ,alfred4 ,pauli's ,life of ,alfred 7,bohn's ,antiquarian ,library74 ,gem's ,an ,anglo-,saxon ,abbot3 ,a,elfric of ,eynsham4 ,mabinogion 7a collection of ,welsh fairy tales and romances1 ,everyman's ,library71 translated by ,lady ,charlotte ,guest4 ,pancoast and ,spaeth's ,early ,english ,poems 7abbreviated reference7 7,p ,s474 ,cook and ,tinker's ,select ,translations from ,old ,english ,poetry 7,c4 ,t474 ,cook ,tinker's ,select ,translations from ,old ,english ,prose 7,c4 ,t4 ,prose74 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,the student who is not familiar with the original ,anglo-,saxon should read the translations specified below3-- ,scopic ,poetry4#cc--,widsi or the ,far ,traveler1 translated in ,morley's ,english ,writers1 ,vol4 ,,ii1 #a-aa1 or in ,c4 ,t41#cd #c-h4 ,the ,wanderer1 translated in ,p4 ,s41 #fe-fh2 ,c4 ,t41 #ej-ee2 ,brooke1 #cfd-cfg4 ,the ,seafarer1 translated in ,p4 ,s41 #fh-gj2 ,c4 ,t41 #dd-di2 ,morley1 ,,ii41 #ba-bf2 ,brooke1 #cfb1 #cfc4 ,the ,fortunes of ,men1 trans4 in ,p4 ,s41 #gi-ha2 ,morley1 ,,ii41 #cb-cg4 ,battle of ,brunanburh1 ,tennyson's translation4 ,what were the chief subjects of the songs of the scop8 ,how do they reveal the life of the time8 ,is there any common quality running through them8 ,what qualities of this verse appear in modern poetry8 ,beowulf4--,this important poem should be read entire in one of the following translations3 ,child's ,beowulf 7,riverside ,literature ,series72 ,earle's ,the ,deeds of ,beowulf1 ,done into ,modern ,prose 7,clarendon ,press72 ,gummere's ,the ,oldest ,english ,epic2 ,morris and ,wyatt's ,the ,tale of ,beowulf2 ,hall's ,beowulf1 ,translated into ,modern ,metres2 ,lumsden's ,beowulf1 an ,old ,english ,poem1 ,translated into ,modern ,rhymes 7the most readable poetic translation74 ,translations of many of the best parts of ,beowulf may be found in ,p4 ,s4 #e-bi2 ,c4 ,t41 #i-bd2 ,morley1 ,i4 #bgh-caj2 ,brooke #bf-gc4 ,where did the exploits celebrated in the poem take place8 ,where was ,heorot8 ,what was the probably time of the completion of ,beowulf8 ,describe the hero's three exploits4 ,what analogy is there between the conflict of natural forces in the ,norseland and ,beowulf's fight with ,grendel8 ,what different attitude toward nature is manifest in modern poetry8 ,what is the moral lesson of the poem8 ,show that its chief characteristics are typical of the ,anglo-,saxon race4 ,caedmonian ,cycle4--,some of the strongest passages may be found in ,p4 ,s41 #cj-de2 ,c4 ,t41 #ajd-abj2 ,morley1 ,,ii4 #ha-aja2 ,brooke1 #bij-cdj4 ,read at the same time from ,milton's ,paradise ,lost1 ,book ,i41 lines #dd-gd1 #afi-ahd1 #bdh-bfc1 and passim4 ,what evidence do we find in this cycle of the introduction of ,christianity8 ,who takes the place of ,grendel8 ,what account of ,caedmon does ,bede give8 ,what is the subject matter of this cycle8 ,cynewulf ,cycle4--,the ,poems of ,cynewulf1 translated by ,c4,w4 ,kennedy4 ,translations of parts of this cycle may be found in ,whitman's ,the ,christ of ,cynewulf1 and ,the ,exeter ,book1 translated by ,gollancz4 ,good selections are translated in ,p4 ,s41 #df-ee2 ,c4 ,t41 #gi-ajc2 and #acb-adb3 ,morley1 ,,ii41 #bjf-bda2 ,brooke1 #cga-ddc4 ,for selections from the ,phoenix1 see ,p ,s1 #ed-fe2 ,c4 ,t41 #adc-afc4 ,what new qualities does this cycle show8 ,what is the subject matter of its most important poems8 ,what is especially noticeable about the ,andreas and the ,phoenix8 ,general ,characteristics of the ,verse4--,what is its usual form8 ,what most striking passages 7a7 in ,beowulf2 7b7 elsewhere1 show the ,saxon love of war and of the sea8 ,instance some similes and make a list of vivid metaphors4 ,what are the most striking parallelisms found in your readings8 ,what conspicuous differences are there between ,saxon and ,celtic imagery8 7,see ,morley1 l1 #afe-bci1 or ,guest's ,mabinogion74 ,what excellencies and defects seem to you most pronounced in ,anglo-,saxon verse8 ,prose--,the ,anglo-,saxon ,chronicle and ,bede's ,ecclesiastical ,history are both translated in one volume of ,bohn's ,antiquarian ,library4 ,the most interesting part of ,bede for the student of literature is the chapter relating to ,caedmon 7,chap4 ,,xxiv41 pp4 #bag-bbj74 ,in the ,chronicle1 read the entries for the years #hga1 #hgh1 #hig1 #ige1 #ajhg1 and #aacg4 ,alfred's ,orosius is translated into modern ,english in the volume of ,bohn's ,antiquarian ,library entitled1 ,alfred the ,great1 his ,life and ,anglo-,saxon ,works1 by ,pauli4 ,sedgefield's translation of the ,consolations of ,boethius distinguishes the original matter by ,alfred from the translation4 ,selections from ,alfred's works are given in ,c4 ,t47,prose71 #he-adf1 and in ,earle's ,anglo-,saxon ,literature1 #ahf-bjf4 ,for selections from ,a,elfric1 see ,c4 ,t4 7,prose71 #adi-aib4 ,read especially the ,colloquies1 #agg-ahf4 ,what was ,bede's principal work8 ,why has ,alfred been called the father of ,english prose8 ,what were his ideals8 ,mention his chief works and their object4 ,what is the character of ,a,elfric's work8 ,why are modern readers interested in his ,colloquium8 ,why is the ,anglo-,saxon ,chronicle important8 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,i3 ,footnote #a3 ,for special references to authors1 movements and the history of the period1 see the lists under the heading1 ,suggestions for ,further ,study1 at the end of each chapter4 ,footnote #b3 ,school libraries should own books marked 994 ,footnote #c3 ,the abbreviation in parentheses after titles will be used in the ,suggested ,readings in place of the full title4 ,footnote #d3 ,tennyson's ,in ,memoriam4 ,footnote #e3 ,florence ,earls ,coates's ,dream the ,great ,dream4 ,footnote #f3 ,shakespeare's ,the ,tempest1 ,act ,,iv41 ,scene #a4 ,footnote #g3 ,morley's translation1 ,english ,writers1 ,vol4 ,,ii41 p4 #ba4 ,footnote #h3 ,swinburne's ,a ,song in ,time of ,order4 ,footnote #i3 ,morley's ,english ,writers1 ,vol4 ,,ii41 pp4 #cc1 #cd4 ,footnote #aj3 ,beowulf1 translated by ,william ,morris and ,a4,j4 ,wyatt4 ,footnote #aa3 ,translated by ,j4,l4 ,hall4 ,footnote #ab3 ,earle's ,translation4 ,footnote #ac3 ,translated by ,childs4 ,footnote #ad3 ,translated by ,morris and ,wyatt4 ,footnote #ae3 ,morley's translation4 ,footnote #af3 ,paradise ,lost1 ,book ,i41 lines #fa-fi4 ,footnote #ag3 ,paradise ,lost1 ,,ii41 #eid4 ,footnote #ah3 ,ibid41 ,i41 #bbb-bbd4 ,footnotes #ai-bb3 ,brooke's translation4 ,footnote #bc3 ,morley's translation4 ,footnote #bd3 ,brooke's translation4 ,footnote #be3 ,morley's translation4 ,footnotes #bf-bg3 ,brooke's translation4 ,footnote #bh3 ,llywarch's ,lament for his ,son ,gwenn4 ,footnote #bi3 ,guest's ,mabinogion4 ,footnote #cj3 ,william ,motherwell's ,wearie's ,well4 ,footnote #ca3 ,earle's translation4 ,footnote #cb3 ,cook and ,tinker's ,select ,translations from ,old ,english ,prose4 ,footnote #cc3 ,in his ,education of the ,central ,nervous ,system1 ,chaps4 ,,vii4-,x41 the author has endeavored to give some special directions for securing definite ideas in the study of poetry4 ,footnote #cd3 ,for full titles1 see page #ej4 ,,chapter ,,ii3 ,,from ,,the ,,norman ,,conquest1 #ajff1 ,,to ,,chaucer',s ,,death1 #adjj ,illustration3 ,,the ,,death ,,of ,,harold ,,at ,,hastings4 ,from the ,bayeaux tapestry4 ,the ,norman ,conquest4--,the overthrow of the ,saxon rule in ,england by ,william the ,conqueror in #ajff was an event of vast importance to ,english literature4 ,the ,normans 7,norsemen or ,northmen71 as they were called1 a term which shows their northern extraction1 were originally of the same blood as the ,english race4 ,they settled in ,france in the ninth century1 married ,french wives1 and adopted the ,french language4 ,in #ajff their leader1 ,duke ,william1 and his army crossed the ,english ,channel and won the battle of ,hastings1 in which ,harold1 the last ,anglo-,saxon king1 was killed4 ,william thus became king of ,england4 ,characteristics of the ,normans4--,the intermixture of ,teutonic and ,french blood had given to the ,normans the best qualities of both races4 ,the ,norman was nimble-witted1 highly imaginative1 and full of northern energy4 ,the ,saxon possessed dogged perseverance1 good common sense1 if he had long enough to think1 and but little imagination4 ,some one has well said that the union of ,norman with ,saxon was like joining the swift spirit of the eagle to the strong body of the ox1 or1 again1 that the ,saxon furnished the dough1 and the ,norman the yeast4 ,had it not been for the blending of these necessary qualities in one race1 ,english literature could not have become the first in the world4 ,we see the characteristics of both the ,teuton and the ,norman in ,shakespeare's greatest plays4 ,a pure ,saxon could not have turned from ,hamlet's soliloquy to write3-- ,where the bee sucks1 there suck ,i4#a ,progress of the ,nation1 #ajff-adjj4--,the ,normans were specially successful in giving a strong central government to ,england4 ,the feudal system1 that custom of parceling out land in return for service1 was so extended by ,william the ,conqueror1 that from king through noble to serf there was not a break in the interdependence of one human being on another4 ,at first the ,normans were the ruling classes and they looked down on the ,saxons2 but intermarriage and community of interests united both races into one strong nation before the close of the period4 ,there was great improvement in methods of administering justice4 ,accused persons no longer had to submit to the ordeal of the red-hot iron or to trial by combat1 relying on heaven to decide their innocence4 ,ecclesiastical courts lost their jurisdiction over civil cases4 ,in the reign of ,henry ,,ii4 7#aaed-aahi71 great grandson of ,william the ,conqueror1 judges went on circuits1 and the germ of the jury system was developed4 ,parliament grew more influential1 and the first half of the fourteenth century saw it organized into two bodies1--the ,lords and the ,commons4 ,three kings who governed tyrannically or unwisely were curbed or deposed4 ,king ,john 7#aaii-abaf7 was compelled to sign the ,magna ,charta1 which reduced to writing certain foundation rights of his subjects4 ,edward ,,ii4 7#acjg-acbg7 and ,richard ,,ii4 7#acgg-acii7 were both deposed by ,parliament4 ,one of the reasons assigned far the deposition of ,richard ,,ii4 was his claim that he alone could change and frame the laws of the kingdom4 ,the ideals of chivalry and the ,crusades left their impress on the age4 ,one ,english ,monarch1 ,richard the ,lion-,hearted 7#aahi-aaii7 was the popular hero of the ,third ,crusade4 ,in ,ivanhoe and ,the ,talisman ,sir ,walter ,scott presents vivid pictures of knights and crusaders4 ,we may form some idea of the religious spirit of the ,middle ,ages from the ,gothic cathedrals1 which had the same relative position in the world's architecture as ,shakespeare's work does in literature4 ,travelers often declare that there is to-day nothing in ,england better worth seeing than these cathedrals1 which were erected in the twelfth1 thirteenth1 and fourteenth centuries4#b ,the religious1 social1 and intellectual life of the time was profoundly affected by the coming of the friars 7#abbj71 who included the earnest followers of ,st4 ,francis 7#aahb-abbf71 that ,good ,samaritan of the ,middle ,ages4 ,the great philosopher and scientist1 ,roger ,bacon 7#abad-abid71 who was centuries in advance of his time1 was a ,franciscan friar4 ,he studied at ,oxford ,university1 which had in his time become one of the great institutions of ,europe4 ,the church fostered schools and learning1 while the barons were fighting4 ,although ,william ,langland1 a fourteenth-century cleric1 pointed out the abuses which had crept into the church1 he gave this testimony in its favor3-- ,for if heaven be on this earth or any ease for the soul1 it is in cloister or school4 ,for in cloister no man cometh to chide or fight1 and in school there is lowliness and love and liking to learn4 ,the rise of the common people was slow4 ,during all this period the tillers of the soil were legally serfs1 forbidden to change their location4 ,the ,black ,death 7#acdi7 and the ,peasants' ,revolt 7#acha71 although seemingly barren of results1 helped them in their struggle toward emancipation4 ,some bought their freedom with part of their wages4 ,others escaped to the towns where new commercial activities needed more labor4 ,finally1 the common toiler acquired more commanding influence by overthrowing even the ,french knights with his long bow4 ,this period laid the foundation for the almost complete disappearance of serfdom in the fifteenth century4 ,france waited for the terrible ,revolution of #aghi to free her serfs4 ,england anticipated other great modern nations in producing a literature of universal appeal because her common people began to throw off their shackles earlier4 ,this period opens with a victorious ,french army in ,england1 followed by the rule of the conquerors1 who made ,french the language of high life4 ,it closes with the ascendancy of ,english government and speech at home and with the mid-fourteenth century victories of ,english armies on ,french soil1 resulting in the rapture of ,calais1 which remained for more than two hundred years in the possession of ,england4 ,at the close of this period we find ,wycliffe1 the morning star of the ,reformation1 and ,chaucer1 the first great singer of the welded ,anglo-,norman race4 ,his wide interest in human beings and his knowledge of the new ,italian literature prefigure the coming to ,england of the ,revival of ,learning in the next age4 ,it will now be necessary to study the changes in the language1 which were so pronounced between #ajff and ,chaucer's death4 ,,the ,,emergence ,,of ,,modern ,,english ,three ,languages used in ,england--,for three hundred years after the ,norman ,conquest1 three languages were widely used in ,england4 ,the ,normans introduced ,french1 which was the language of the court and the aristocracy4 ,william the ,conqueror brought over many ,norman priests1 who used ,latin almost exclusively in their service4 ,the influence of this book ,latin is generally underestimated by those who do not appreciate the power of the church4 ,the ,domesday survey shows that in #ajhe the church and her dependents held more than one third of some counties4 ,in addition to the ,latin and the ,french 7which was itself principally of ,latin origin71 there was1 thirdly1 the ,anglo-,saxon1 to which the middle and the lower classes of the ,english stubbornly adhered4 ,the ,loss of ,inflections4--,anglo-,saxon was a language with changing endings1 like modern ,german4 ,if a ,saxon wished to say1 good gifts1 he had to have the proper case endings for both the adjective and the noun1 and his expression was gode giefa4 ,for the good gifts1 he said a godan giefa1 inflecting the and at the same time changing the case ending of good4 ,the ,norman ,conquest helped to lop off these endings1 which ,german has never entirely lost4 ,we1 however1 no longer decline articles or ordinary adjectives4 ,instead of having our attention taken up with thinking of the proper endings1 we are left free to attend to the thought rather than to the vehicle of its expression4 ,although our pronouns are still declined1 the sole inflection of our nouns1 with the exception of a few like ox1 oxen1 or mouse1 mice1 is the addition of 's1 s1 or es for the possessive and the plural4 ,modern ,german1 on the other hand1 still retains these troublesome case endings4 ,how did ,english have the good fortune to lose them8 ,whenever two peoples1 speaking different languages1 are closely associated1 there is a tendency to drop the terminations and to use the stem word in all grammatical relations4 ,if an ,english-speaking person1 who knows only a little ,german1 travels in ,germany1 he finds that he can make himself understood by using only one form of the noun or adjective4 ,if he calls for two large glasses of hot milk1 employing the incorrect expression1 zwei gross ,glass heiss ,milch1 he will probably get the milk as quickly as if he had said correctly1 zwei grosse ,glser heisse ,milch4 ,neglect of the proper case endings may provoke a smile1 but the tourist prefers that to starvation4 ,should the ,germans and the ,english happen to be thrown together in nearly equal numbers on an island1 the ,germans would begin to drop the inflections that the ,english could not understand1 and the ,german language would undergo a change4 ,if there were no books or newspapers to circulate a fixed form of speech1 the alteration in the spoken tongue would be comparatively rapid4 ,such dropping of terminations is precisely what did happen before the ,norman ,conquest in those parts of ,england most overrun by the ,danes4 ,there1 the adjectives lost their terminations to indicate gender and case1 and the article the ceased to be declined4 ,even if the ,normans had not come to ,england1 the dropping of the inflections would not have ceased4 ,many authorities think that the grammatical structure of ,english would1 even in the absence of that event1 have evolved into something like its present form4 ,of course the ,norman ,conquest hastened many grammatical changes that would ultimately have resulted from inherent causes1 but it did not exercise as great an influence as was formerly ascribed to it4 ,philologists find it impossible to assign the exact amount of change due to the ,conquest and to other causes4 ,let us next notice some changes other than the loss of inflections4 ,change in ,gender4--,before any one could speak ,anglo-,saxon correctly1 he had first to learn the fanciful genders that were attached to nouns3 trousers was feminine2 childhood1 masculine2 child1 neuter4 ,during this period the ,english gradually lost these fanciful genders which the ,german still retains4 ,a critic thus illustrates the use of genders in that language3 ,a ,german gentleman writes a masculine letter of feminine love to a neuter young lady with a feminine pen and feminine ink on masculine sheets of neuter paper1 and incloses it in a masculine envelope with a feminine address to his darling1 though neuter1 ,gretchen4 ,he has a masculine head1 a feminine hand1 and a neuter heart4 ,prefixes1 ,suffixes1 and ,self-explaining ,compounds4--,the ,english tongue lost much of its power of using prefixes4 ,a prefix joined to a well-known word changes its meaning and renders the coining of a new term unnecessary4 ,the ,anglo-,saxons1 by the use of prefixes1 formed ten compounds from their verb flowan1 to flow4 ,of these1 only one survives in our overflow4 ,from sittan1 to sit1 thirteen compounds were thus formed1 but every one has perished4 ,a larger percentage of suffixes was retained1 and we still have many words like wholesome-ness1 child-hood1 sing-er4 ,the power of forming self-explaining compounds was largely lost4 ,the ,saxon compounded the words for tree1 and worker1 and said treow-wyrhta1 tree-wright1 but we now make use of the single word carpenter4 ,we have replaced the ,saxon boc-craeft1 book-art1 by literature2 aefen-glom1 evening-gloom1 by twilight2 mere-swin1 sea-swine1 by porpoise2 eag-wraec1 eye-rack1 by pain in the eye2 leornung-cild1 learning-child1 by pupil4 ,the title of an old work1 ,ayen-bite of ,in-wit1 ,again-bite of ,in-wit1 was translated into ,remorse of ,conscience4 ,grund-weall and word-hora were displaced by foundation and vocabulary4 ,the ,german language still retains this power and calls a glove a hand-shoe1 a thimble a finger-hat1 and rolls up such clumsy compound expressions as ,unabhngigkeits-erklrung4 ,we might lament this loss more if we did not remember that ,shakespeare found our language ample for his needs1 and that a considerable number of the old compounds still survive1 as home-stead1 man-hood1 in-sight1 break-fast1 house-hold1 horse-back1 ship-man1 sea-shore1 hand-work1 and day-light4 ,introduction of ,new ,words and ,loss of ,old ,ones4--,since the ,normans were for some time the governing race1 while many of the ,saxons occupied comparatively menial positions1 numerous ,french words indicative of rank1 power1 science1 luxury1 and fashion were introduced4 ,many titles were derived from a ,french source4 ,english thus obtained words like sovereign1 royalty1 duke1 marquis1 mayor1 and clerk4 ,many terms of government are from the ,french2 for instance1 parliament1 peers1 commons4 ,the language of law abounds in ,french terms1 like damage1 trespass1 circuit1 judge1 jury1 verdict1 sentence1 counsel1 prisoner4 ,many words used in war1 architecture1 and medicine also have a ,french origin4 ,examples are fort1 arch1 mason1 surgery4 ,in fact1 we find words from the ,french in almost every field4 ,uncle and cousin1 rabbit and falcon1 trot and stable1 money and soldier1 reason and virtue1 ,bible and preach1 are instances in point4 ,french words often displaced ,saxon ones4 ,thus1 the ,saxon ,haelend1 the ,healer1 gave way to the ,french ,savior1 wanhope and wonstead were displaced by despair and residence4 ,sometimes the ,saxon stubbornly kept its place beside the ,french term4 ,the ,english language is thus especially rich in synonyms1 or rather in slightly differentiated forms of expression capable of denoting the exact shade of thought and feeling4 ,the following words are instances3-- ,,saxon ,,french body corpse folk people swine pork calf veal worth value green verdant food nourishment wrangle contend fatherly paternal workman laborer ,english was enriched not only by those expressions1 gained from the daily speech of the ,normans1 but also by words that were added from literary ,latin4 ,thus1 we have the ,saxon ask1 the ,norman-,french inquire and question1 and the ,latin interrogate4 ,bold1 impudent1 audacious2 bright1 cheerful1 animated2 earnings1 wages1 remuneration1 short1 brief1 concise1 are other examples of words1 largely synonymous1 from the ,saxon1 the ,norman-,french1 and the ,latin1 respectively4 ,these facts explain why modern ,english has such a wealth of expression1 although probably more than one half of the ,anglo-,saxon vocabulary has been lost4 ,the ,superiority of the ,composite ,tongue4--,while we insist on the truth that ,anglo-,saxon gained much of its wonderful directness and power from standing in close relations to earnest life1 it is necessary to remember that many words of ,french origin did1 by an apprenticeship at the fireside1 in the field1 the workshop1 and the laboratory1 equally fit themselves for taking their place in the language4 ,such words from ,french-,latin roots as faith1 pray1 vein1 beast1 poor1 nurse1 flower1 taste1 state1 and fool remain in our vocabulary because they were used in everyday life4 ,pure ,anglo-,saxon was a forcible language1 but it lacked the wealth of expression and the flexibility necessary to respond to the most delicate touches of the master-musicians who were to come4 ,when ,shakespeare has ,lear say of ,cordelia3-- ,her voice was ever soft1 ,gentle1 and low2 an excellent thing in woman1 we find that ten of the thirteen words are ,saxon1 but the other three of ,romance 7,french7 origin are as necessary as is a small amount of tin added to copper to make bronze4 ,two of these three words express varying shades of quality4 ,lounsbury well says3 ,there result1 indeed1 from the union of the foreign and native elements1 a wealth of phraseology and a many-sidedness in ,english1 which give it in these respects a superiority over any other modern cultivated tongue4 ,german is strictly a pure ,teutonic speech1 but no native speaker of it claims for it any superiority over the ,english as an instrument of expression1 while many are willing to concede its inferiority4 ,the ,changes ,slowly ,accomplished4--,for over a hundred years after the ,conquest1 but few ,french words found their way into current ,english use4 ,this is shown by the fact that the ,brut1 a poem of #cb1bej lines1 translated from a ,french original into ,english about #abje1 has not more than a hundred words of ,norman-,french origin4 ,at first the ,normans despised the tongue of the conquered ,saxons1 but1 as time progressed1 the two races intermarried1 and the children could hardly escape learning some ,saxon words from their mothers or nurses4 ,on the other hand1 many well-to-do ,saxons1 like parents in later times1 probably had their children taught ,french because it was considered aristocratic4 ,until #abjd a knowledge of ,french was an absolute necessity to the nobles1 as they frequently went back and forth between their estates in ,normandy and in ,england4 ,in #abjd ,king ,john lost ,normandy1 and in the next reign both ,english and ,french kings decreed that no subject of the one should hold land in the territory of the other4 ,this narrowing of the attention of ,english subjects down to ,england was a foundation stone in building up the supremacy of the ,english tongue4 ,in #acch began the ,hundred ,years' ,war between ,france and ,england4 ,in ,edward the ,third's reign 7#acbg-acgg71 it was demonstrated that one ,englishman could whip six ,frenchmen2 and the language of a hostile and partly conquered race naturally began to occupy a less high position4 ,in #acfb ,parliament enacted that ,english should thereafter be used in law courts1 because the laws1 customs1 and statutes of this realm1 be not commonly known in the same realm1 for that they be pleaded1 shewed1 and judged in the ,french tongue1 which is much unknown in the said realm4 ,,literature ,,of ,,the ,,period #ajff-adjj ,metrical ,romances4--,for nearly three hundred years after the ,norman ,conquest the chief literary productions were metrical romances1 which were in the first instance usually written by ,frenchmen1 but sometimes by ,englishmen 7e4g4 ,layamon7 under ,french influence4 ,there were four main cycles of ,french romance especially popular in ,england before the fifteenth century4 ,these were tales of the remarkable adventures of ,king ,arthur and his ,knights1 ,charlemagne and his ,peers1 ,alexander the ,great1 and the heroes at the siege of ,troy4 ,at the battle of ,hastings a ,french minstrel is said to have sung the ,song of ,roland from the ,charlemagne cycle4 ,these long stories in verse usually present the glory of chivalry1 the religious faith1 and the romantic loves of a feudal age4 ,in ,beowulf1 woman plays a very minor part and there is no love story2 but in these romances we often find woman and love in the ascendancy4 ,one of them1 well known today in song1 ,tristram and ,iseult 7,wagner's ,tristan und ,isolde71 a possession of our composite race1 is almost entirely a story of romantic love4 ,the romances of this age that have most interest for ,english readers are those which relate to ,king ,arthur and his ,knights of the ,round ,table4 ,the foundation suggestions for the most of this cycle are of ,british 7,welsh7 origin4 ,this period would not have existed in vain1 if it had given to the world nothing1 but these ,arthurian ideals of generosity1 courage1 honor1 and high endeavour1 which are still a potent influence4 ,in his ,idylls of the ,king1 ,tennyson calls ,arthur and his ,knights3-- ,a glorious company1 the flower of men1 ,to serve as model for the mighty world1 ,and be the fair beginning of a time4 ,the ,quest of the ,holy ,grail belongs to the ,arthurian cycle4 ,percival 7,wagner's ,parsifal71 the hero of the earlier version and ,sir ,galahad of the later1 show the same spirit that animated the knights in the ,crusades4 ,tennyson introduces ,sir ,galahad as a knight whose strength is as the strength of ten because his heart is pure1 undertaking the far-quest after the divine4 ,the ,american poet ,lowell chose ,sir ,launfal1 a less prominent figure in ,arthurian romance1 for the hero of his version of the search for the ,grail1 and had him find it in every sympathetic act along the common way of life4 ,the story of ,gawayne and the ,green ,knight1 the jewel of ,english medieval literature1 tells how ,sir ,gawayne1 ,arthur's favorite1 fought with a giant called the ,green ,knight4 ,the romance might almost be called a sermon1 if it did not reveal in a more interesting way a great moral truth1--that deception weakens character and renders the deceiver vulnerable in life's contests4 ,in preparing for the struggle1 ,sir ,gawayne is guilty of one act of deceit4 ,but for this1 he would have emerged unscathed from the battle4 ,one wound1 which leaves a lasting scar1 is the result of an apparently trivial deception4 ,his purity and honor in all things else save him from death4 ,this story1 which reminds us of ,spenser's ,faerie ,queene1 presents in a new garb one of the oft-recurring ideals of the race1 keep troth 7truth74 ,chaucer sings in the same key3-- ,hold the hye wey1 and let thy gost thee lede1 ,and trouthe shall delivere1 it is no drede4 ,we should remember that these romances are the most characteristic literary creations of the ,middle ,ages1 that they embody the new spirit of chivalry1 religious faith1 and romantic love in a feudal age1 that they had a story to tell1 and that some of them have never lost their influence on human ideals4 ,a ,latin ,chronicler4--,one chronicler1 ,geoffrey of ,monmouth1 although he wrote in ,latin1 must receive some attention because of his vast influence on ,english poetry4 ,he probably acquired his last name from being archdeacon of ,monmouth4 ,he was appointed ,bishop of ,st4 ,asaph in #aaeb and died about #aaed4 ,unlike the majority of the monkish chroniclers1 he possessed a vivid imagination1 which he used in his so-called ,history of the ,kings of ,britain4 ,geoffrey pretended to have found an old manuscript which related the deeds of all ,british kings from ,brutus1 the mythical founder of the kingdom of ,britain1 and the great-grandson of ,aeneas1 to ,caesar4 ,geoffrey wrote an account of the traditionary ,british kings down to ,cadwallader in #fhi with as much minuteness and gravity as ,swift employed in the ,voyage to ,lilliput4 ,other chroniclers declared that ,geoffrey lied saucily and shamelessly1 but his book became extremely popular4 ,the monks could not then comprehend that the world's greatest literary works were to be products of the imagination4 ,in ,geoffrey of ,monmouth's ,history of the ,kings of ,britain we are given vivid pictures of ,king ,lear and his daughters1 of ,cymbeline1 of ,king ,arthur and his ,knights1 of ,guinevere and the rest of that company whom later poets have immortalized4 ,it is probable that ,geoffrey was not particular whether he obtained his materials from old chroniclers1 ,welsh bards1 floating tradition1 or from his own imagination4 ,his book left its impress on the historical imagination of the ,middle ,ages4 ,had it not been for ,geoffrey's ,history1 the dramas of ,king ,lear and ,cymbeline might never have been suggested to ,shakespeare4 ,layamon's ,brut4--,about #aaee a ,frenchman named ,wace translated into his own language ,geoffrey of ,monmouth's works4 ,this translation fell into the hands of ,layamon1 a priest living in ,worcestershire1 who proceeded to render the poem1 with additions of his own1 into the ,southern ,english dialect4 ,wace's ,brut has #ae1cjj lines2 ,layamon's1 #cb1bej4 ,as the matter which ,layamon added is the best in the poem1 he is1 in so far1 an original author of much imaginative power4 ,he is certainly the greatest poet between the ,conquest and ,chaucer's time4 ,a selection from the ,brut will give the student an opportunity of comparing this transition ,english with the language in its modern form3-- ,and ,ich wulle varan to ,avalun3 ,and ,i will fare to ,avalon1 ,to vairest alre maidene ,to the fairest of all maidens1 ,to ,argante ere quene1 ,to ,argante the queen1 ,alven swie sceone2 ,elf surpassing fair2 ,and heo scal mine wunden ,and she shall my wounds ,makien alle isunde1 ,make all sound1 ,al hal me makien ,all hale me make ,mid halweige drenchen4 ,with healing draughts4 ,and seoe ,ich cumen wulle ,and afterwards ,i will come ,to mine kineriche ,to my kingdom ,and wunien mid ,brutten ,and dwell with ,britons ,mid muchelere wunne4 ,with much joy4 ,with this1 compare the following lines from ,tennyson's ,the ,passing of ,arthur3-- 444,i am going a long way 99 99 99 99 99 ,to the island-valley of ,avilion1 ,where falls not hail1 or rain1 or any snow1 ,nor ever wind blows loudly2 but it lies ,deep-meadow'd1 happy1 fair with orchard lawns ,and bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea1 ,where ,i will heal me of my grievous wound4 99 99 99 99 99 ,he passes to be ,king among the dead1 ,and after healing of his grievous wound ,he comes again4 ,layamon employed less alliteration than is found in ,anglo-,saxon poetry4 ,he also used an occasional rime1 but the accent and rhythm of his verse are more ,saxon than modern4 ,when reading ,tennyson's ,idylls of the ,king1 we must not forget that ,layamon was the first poet to celebrate in ,english ,king ,arthur's deeds4 ,the ,brut shows little trace of ,french influences1 not more than a hundred ,french words being found in it4 ,orm's ,ormulum4--,a monk named ,orm wrote in the ,midland dialect a metrical paraphrase of those parts of the ,gospels used in the church on each service day throughout the year4 ,after the paraphrase comes his metrical explanation and application of the ,scripture4 ,he says3-- ,diss boc iss nemmnedd ,orrmulum ,forri att ,ormm itt wrohhte4 ,this book is named ,ormulum ,for that ,orm it wrote4 ,there was no fixed spelling at this time4 ,orm generally doubled the consonant after a short vowel1 and insisted that any one who copied his work should be careful to do the same4 ,we shall find on counting the syllables in the two lines quoted from him that the first line has eight2 the second1 seven4 ,this scheme is followed with great precision throughout the poem1 which employs neither rime nor regular alliteration4 ,orm used even fewer ,french words than ,layamon4 ,the date of the ,ormulum is probably somewhere between #abjj and #abae4 ,the ,ancren ,riwle4--,about #abbe appeared the most notable prose work in the native tongue since the time of ,alfred1 if we except the ,anglo-,saxon ,chronicle4 ,three young ladies who had secluded themselves from the world in ,dorsetshire1 wished rules for guidance in their seclusion4 ,an unknown author1 to oblige them1 wrote the ,ancren ,riwle 7,rule of ,anchoresses74 ,this book not only lays down rules for their future conduct in all the affairs of life1 but also offers much religious consolation4 ,the following selection shows some of the curious rules for the guidance of the anchoresses1 and furnishes a specimen of the ,southern dialect of transitional ,english prose in the early part of the thirteenth century3-- e1 mine leoue sustren1 ne schulen habben no best bute kat one444 e schulen beon i-dodded four sien1 ie ere1 uorto lihten ower heaued444 ,of idelnesse awakene muchel flesshes fondunge444 ,iren et li stille gedere sone rust4 ,ye1 my beloved sisters1 shall have no beast but one cat444 ,ye shall be cropped four times in the year for to lighten your head444 ,of idleness ariseth much temptation of the flesh444 ,iron that lieth still soon gathereth rust4 ,the keynote of the work is the renunciation of self4 ,few productions of modern literature contain finer pictures of the divine love and sympathy4 ,the following simile affords an instance of this quality in the work3-- ,de sixte kunfort is et ure ,louerd1 hwon he iol et we beo itented1 he plaie mid us1 ase e moder mid hire unge deorlinge2 vlih from him1 and hut hire1 and let hit sitten one1 and loken eorne abuten1 and cleopien ,dame6 dame6 and weopen one hwule2 and eonne mid ispredde ermes leape lauhwinde vor1 and cluppe and cusse and wipe his eien4 ,riht so ure ,louerd let us one iwuren oer hwules1 and widrawe his grace and his kunfort1 et we ne ivinde swetnesse in none inge et we wel do1 ne savor of heorte2 and auh1 iet ilke point ne luve he us ure leove veder never e lesce1 auh he de hit for muchel luve et he have to us4 ,the sixth comfort is that our ,lord1 when he suffers that we be tempted1 he plays with us1 as the mother with her young darling2 she flees from it1 and hides herself1 and lets it sit alone and look anxiously about and cry ,dame6 dame6 and weep awhile2 and then with outspread arms leaps laughing forth and clasps and kisses it and wipes its eyes4 ,exactly so our ,lord leaves us alone once in a while and withdraws his grace and his comfort1 that we find sweetness in nothing that we do well1 no relish of heart2 and notwithstanding1 at the same time1 he1 our dear ,father1 loves us nevertheless1 but he does it for the great love that he has for us4 ,professor ,sweet calls the ,ancren ,riwle one of the most perfect models of simple1 natural1 eloquent prose in our language4 ,for its introduction of ,french words1 this work occupies a prominent place in the development of the ,english language4 ,among the words of ,french origin found in it1 we may instance3 dainty1 cruelty1 vestments1 comfort1 journey1 mercer4 ,lyrical ,poetry4--,a famous ,british ,museum manuscript1 known as ,harleian ,,ms41 ,no4 #bbec4 which was transcribed about #acaj1 contains a fine anthology of ,english lyrics1 some of which may have been composed early in the thirteenth century4 ,the best of these are love lyrics1 but they are less remarkable for an expression of the tender passion than for a genuine appreciation of nature4 ,some of them are full of the joy of birds and flowers and warm spring days4 ,a lover's song1 called ,alysoun1 is one of the best of these lyrics3-- ,bytuene ,mershe ant#c ,averil#d ,when spray biginneth to spring1 ,the lutel#e foul hath hire wyl ,on hyre lud#f to synge4 ,a famous spring lyric beginning3-- ,lenten#g ys come with love to toune1#h ,with blosmen ant with briddes#i roune4#aj is a symphony of daisies1 roses1 lovesome lilies1 thrushes1 and notes suete of nyhtegales4 ,the refrain of one love song is invigorating with the breath of the northern wind3-- ,blou1 northerne wynd6 ,send thou me my suetyng6 ,blou norterne wynd6 blou1 blou1 blou6 ,the ,cuckoo ,song1 which is perhaps older than any of these1 is the best known of all the early lyrics3-- ,sumer is i-cumen in ,lhude sing cuccu ,groweth sed and bloweth med ,and springeth the wde nu4 ,sing cuccu1 cuccu4 ,summer is a-coming in1 ,loud sing cuckoo1 ,groweth seed and bloometh mead1 ,and springeth the wood now4 ,sing cuckoo1 cuckoo4 ,a more somber note is heard in the religious lyrics3-- ,wynter wakeneth al my care1 ,nou this leves waxeth bare2 ,ofte ,i sike#aa ant mourne sare#ab ,when hit cometh in my thoht ,of this worldes joie1 hou hit goth al to noht4 ,we do not know the names of any of these singers1 but they were worthy forerunners of the later lyrists of love and nature4 ,robert ,manning of ,brunne4--,we have now come to fourteenth-century literature1 which begins to wear a more modern aspect4 ,robert ,manning1 generally known as ,robert of ,brunne1 because he was born at ,brunne1 now called ,bourn1 in ,lincolnshire1 adapted from a ,norman-,french original a work entitled ,handlyng ,synne 7,manual of ,sins74 ,this book1 written in the ,midland dialect in #acjc1 discourses of the ,seven ,deadly ,sins and the best ways of living a godly life4 ,a careful inspection of the following selection from the ,handlyng ,synne will show that1 aside from the spelling1 the ,english is essentially modern4 ,most persons will be able to understand all but a few words4 ,he was the first prominent ,english writer to use the modern order of words4 ,the end rime is also modern4 ,a beggar1 seeing a beast laden with bread at the house of a rich man1 asks for food4 ,the poem says of the rich man3-- ,he stouped down to seke a stone1 ,but1 as hap was1 than fonde he none4 ,for the stone he toke a lofe1 ,and at the pore man hyt drofe4 ,the pore man hente hyt up belyue1 ,and was thereof ful ferly blythe1 ,to hys felaws fast he ran ,with the lofe1 thys pore man4 ,he stooped down to seek a stone1 ,but1 as chance was1 then found he none4 ,for the stone he took a loaf1 ,and at the poor man it drove4 ,the poor man caught it up quickly1 ,and was thereof full strangely glad1 ,to his fellows fast he ran ,with the loaf this poor man4 ,oliphant says3 ,strange it is that ,dante should have been compiling his ,inferno1 which settled the course of ,italian literature forever1 in the selfsame years that ,robert of ,brunne was compiling the earliest pattern of well-formed ,new ,english444 ,almost every one of the ,teutonic changes in idiom1 distinguishing the ,new ,english from the ,old1 the speech of ,queen ,victoria from the speech of ,hengist1 is to be found in ,manning's work4 ,mandeville's ,travels4--,sir ,john ,mandeville1 who is popularly considered the author of a very entertaining work of travels1 states that he was born in ,st4 ,albans in #acjj1 that he left ,england in #acbb1 and traveled in the ,east for thirty-four years4 ,his ,travels relates what he saw and heard in his wanderings through ,ethiopia1 ,persia1 ,tartary1 ,india1 and ,cathay4 ,what he tells on his own authority1 he vouches for as true1 but what he relates as hearsay1 he leaves to the reader's judgment for belief4 ,illustration3 ,,what ,,madeville ,,saw4 ,old print from ,edition of #agbe4 ,no such single traveler as ,mandeville ever existed4 ,the work attributed to him has been proved to be a compilation from the writings of other travelers4 ,a ,french critic says wittily3 ,he first lost his character as a truthful writer2 then out of the three versions of his book1 ,french1 ,english1 and ,latin1 two were withdrawn from him1 leaving him only the first4 ,existence has now been taken from him1 and he is left with nothing at all4 ,no matter1 however1 who the author was1 the book exists4 ,more manuscripts of it survive than of any other work except the ,scriptures4 ,it is the most entertaining volume of ,english prose that we have before #acfj4 ,the sentences are simple and direct1 and they describe things vividly3-- ,in ,ethiope ben many dyverse folk3 and ,ethiope is clept#ac ,cusis4 ,in that contree ben folk1 that han but o foot3 and thei gon so fast1 that it is marvaylle3 and the foot is so large1 that it schadewethe alle the body azen#ad the ,sonne whanne thei wole#ae lye and reste hem4#af ,mandeville also tells of a bird that used to amuse itself by flying away with an elephant in its talons4 ,in the land of ,prester ,john was a valley where ,mandeville says he saw devils jumping about as thick as grasshoppers4 ,stories like these make the work as interesting as ,gulliver's ,travels4 ,the so-called ,mandeville's ,travels was one of the few works that the unlearned of that age could understand and enjoy4 ,consequently its popularity was so great as to bring large number of ,french words into familiar use4 ,the native againbought is1 however1 used instead of the foreign redeemed4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,wycliffe4 ,from an old print4 ,john ,wycliffe4--,wycliffe 7#acbd-achd7 was born at ,hipswell1 near ,richmond1 in the northern part of ,yorkshire4 ,he became a doctor of divinity and a master of one of the colleges at ,oxford4 ,afterward he was installed vicar of ,lutterworth in ,leicestershire1 where he died4 ,in history he is principally known as the first great figure in the ,english ,reformation4 ,he preceded the other reformers by more than a century4 ,in literature he is best known for the first complete translation of the ,bible1--a work that exerted great influence on ,english prose4 ,all the translation was not made by him personally1 but all was done under his direction4 ,the translation of most of the ,new ,testament is thought to be his own special work4 ,he is the most important prose writer of the fourteenth century4 ,his prose had an influence as wide as the circulation of the ,bible4 ,the fact that it was forced to circulate in manuscript1 because printing had not then been invented1 limited his readers2 but his translation was1 nevertheless1 read by many4 ,to help the cause of the ,reformation1 he wrote argumentative religious pamphlets1 which are excellent specimens of energetic fourteenth-century prose4 ,of his place in literature1 ,ten ,brink says3 ,wycliffe's literary importance lies in the fact that he extended the domain of ,english prose and enhanced its powers of expression4 ,he accustomed it to terse reasoning1 and perfected it as an instrument for expressing rigorous logical thought and argument2 he brought it into the service of great ideas and questions of the day1 and made it the medium of polemics and satire4 ,and above all1 he raised it to the dignity of the national language of the ,bible4 ,the following is a specimen verse of ,wycliffe's translation4 ,we may note that the strong old ,english word againrising had not then been displaced by the ,latin resurrection4 ,jhesu seith to hir1 ,i am agenrisyng and lyf2 he that bileueth in me1 he1 if he schal be deed1 schall lyue4 ,piers ,plowman4--,the ,vision of ,william ,concerning ,piers the ,plowman1 popularly called ,piers ,plowman1 from its most important character1 is the name of an allegorical poem1 the first draft 7,a text7 of which was probably composed about #acfb4 ,later in the century two other versions1 known as texts ,b and ,c appeared4 ,authorities differ in regard to whether these are the work of the same man4 ,the ,vision is the first and the most interesting part of a much longer work1 known as ,liber de ,petro ,plowman 7,the ,book of ,piers the ,plowman74 ,the authorship of the poem is not certainly known1 but it has long been ascribed to ,william ,langland1 born about #acbb at ,cleobury ,mortimer in ,shropshire4 ,the author of ,piers ,plowman seems to have performed certain functions connected with the church1 such as singing at funerals4 ,piers ,plowman opens on a pleasant ,may morning amid rural scenery4 ,the poet falls asleep by the side of a brook and dreams4 ,in his dream he has a vision of the world passing before his eyes1 like a drama4 ,the poem tells what he saw4 ,its opening lines are3-- ,in a somer seson 99 whan soft was the sonne ,i shope#ag me in shroudes#ah 99 as ,i a shepe#ai were ,in habite as an heremite#bj - unholy of workes ,went wyde in is world - wondres to here ,ac on a ,may mornynge - on ,maluerne hulles#ba ,me byfel a ferly#bb - of fairy me thou te ,i was wery forwandred#bc - and went me to reste ,under a brode bank - bi a bornes#bd side1 ,and as ,i lay and lened#be - and loked in e wateres ,i slombred in a slepyng - it sweyved#bf so merye4 ,illustration3 ,,treuthe',s ,,pilgryme ,,atte ,,plow4 ,from a manuscript in ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge4 ,the language of ,piers ,plowman is a mixture of the ,southern and ,midland dialects4 ,it should be noticed that the poem employs the old ,anglo-,saxon alliterative meter4 ,there is no end rime4 ,piers ,plowman is the last great poem written in this way4 ,the actors in this poem are largely allegorical4 ,abstractions are personified4 ,prominent characters are ,conscience1 ,lady ,meed or ,bribery1 ,reason1 ,truth1 ,gluttony1 ,hunger1 and the ,seven ,deadly ,sins4 ,in some respects1 the poem is not unlike the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 for the battle in passing from this life to the next is well described in both2 but there are more humor1 satire1 and descriptions of common life in ,langland4 ,piers is at first a simple plowman1 who offers to guide men to truth4 ,he is finally identified with the ,savior4 ,throughout the poem1 the writer displays all the old ,saxon earnestness4 ,his hatred of hypocrisy is manifest on every page4 ,his sadness1 because things are not as they ought to be1 makes itself constantly felt4 ,he cannot reconcile the contradiction between the real and the ideal4 ,in attacking selfishness1 hypocrisy1 and corruption2 in preaching the value of a life of good deeds2 in showing how men ought to progress toward higher ideals2 in teaching that ,love is the physician of life and nearest our ,lord himself1-- ,piers ,plowman proved itself a regenerating spiritual force1 a stepping-stone toward the later ,reformation4 ,the author of this poem was also a fourteenth-century social reformer1 protesting against the oppression of the poor1 insisting on mutual service and the good and loving life4 ,in order to have a well-rounded conception of the life of the fourteenth century1 we must read ,piers ,plowman4 ,chaucer was a poet for the upper classes4 ,piers ,plowman gives valuable pictures of the life of the common people and shows them working-- ,to kepe kyne ,in e field1 e corne fro e bestes1 ,diken#bg or deluen#bh or dyngen#bi vppon sheues1#cj ,or helpe make mortar or here mukke a-felde4 ,we find in the popular poetry of ,piers ,plowman almost as many words of ,french derivation as in the work of the more aristocratic ,chaucer4 ,this fact shows how thoroughly the ,french element had become incorporated in the speech of all classes4 ,the style of the author of ,piers ,plowman is1 however1 remarkable for the old ,saxon sincerity and for the realistic directness of the bearer of a worthy message4 ,john ,gower4--,gower1 a very learned poet1 was born about #acbe and died in #adjh4 ,as he was not sure that ,english would become the language of his cultivated countrymen1 he tried each of the three languages used in ,england4 ,his first important work1 the ,speculum ,meditantis1 was written in ,french2 his second1 the ,vox ,clamantis1 in ,latin2 his third1 the ,confessio ,amantis1 in ,english4 ,illustration3 ,,early ,,portrait ,,of ,,gower ,,hearing ,,the ,,confession ,,of ,a ,,lover 7,,confessio ,,amantis74 ,from the ,egerton ,,ms41 ,british ,museum4 ,the ,confessio ,amantis 7,confession of a ,lover7 is principally a collection of one hundred and twelve short tales4 ,an attempt to unify them is seen in the design to have the confessor relate1 at the lover's request1 those stories which reveal the causes tending to hinder or to further love4 ,gower had ability in story-telling1 as is shown by the tales about ,medea and the knight ,florent2 but he lacked ,chaucer's dramatic skill and humor4 ,gower's influence has waned because1 although he stood at the threshold of the ,renaissance1 his gaze was chiefly turned backward toward medievalism4 ,his contemporary1 ,chaucer1 as we see1 was affected by the new spirit4 ,,geoffrey ,,chaucer1 #acdj8-adjj4 ,illustration3 ,,geoffrey ,,chaucer4 ,from an old drawing in ,occleve's ,poems1 ,british ,museum4 ,life4--,chaucer was born in ,london about #acdj4 ,his father and grandfather were vintners1 who belonged to the upper class of merchants4 ,our first knowledge of ,geoffrey ,chaucer is obtained from the household accounts of the ,princess ,elizabeth1 daughter-in-law of ,edward ,,iii41 in whose family ,chaucer was a page4 ,an entry shows that she bought him a fine suit of clothes1 including a pair of red and black breeches4 ,such evidence points to the fact that he was early accustomed to associating with the nobility1 and enables us to understand why he and the author of ,piers ,plowman regard life from different points of view4 ,in #acei ,chaucer accompanied the ,english army to ,france and was taken prisoner4 ,edward ,,iii4 thought enough of the youth to pay for his ransom a sum equivalent to-day to about #abjj4 ,after his return he was made valet of the king's chamber4 ,the duties of that office consisted in making the royal bed1 holding torches1 and carrying messages4 ,later1 ,chaucer became a squire4 ,in #acgj he was sent to the continent on a diplomatic mission4 ,he seems to have succeeded so well that during the next ten years he was repeatedly sent abroad in the royal service4 ,he visited ,italy twice and may thus have met the ,italian poet ,petrarch4 ,these journeys inspired ,chaucer with a desire to study ,italian literature1--a literature that had just been enriched by the pens of ,dante and ,boccaccio4 ,we must next note that ,chaucer's life was not that of a poetic dreamer1 but of a stirring business man4 ,for more than twelve years he was controller of customs for ,london4 ,this office necessitated assessing duties on wools1 skins1 wines1 and candles4 ,only a part of this work could be performed by deputy4 ,he was later overseeing clerk of the king's works4 ,the repeated selection of ,chaucer for foreign and diplomatic business shows that he was considered sagacious as well as trustworthy4 ,had he not kept in close touch with life1 he could never have become so great a poet4 ,in this connection we may remark that ,england's second greatest writer1 ,milton1 spent his prime in attending to affairs of state4 ,chaucer's busy life did not keep him from attaining third place on the list of ,england's poets4 ,there are many passages of autobiographical interest in his poems4 ,he was a student of books as well as of men1 as is shown by these lines from the ,hous of ,fame3-- ,for whan thy labour doon al is1 ,and halt y-maad thy rekeninges1 ,in stede of rest and newe thinges1 ,thou gost hoom to thy hous anoon1 ,and1 also domb as any stoon1 ,thou sittest at another boke1 ,til fully daswed#ca is thy loke1 ,and livest thus as an hermyte4#cb ,chaucer was pensioned by three kings1--,edward ,,iii41 ,richard ,,ii41 and ,henry ,,iv4 ,before the reign of ,henry ,,iv41 ,chaucer's pensions were either not always regularly paid1 or they were insufficient for certain emergencies1 as he complained of poverty in his old age4 ,the pension of ,henry ,,iv4 in #acii must have been ample1 however2 since in that year ,chaucer leased a house in the garden of a chapel at ,westminster for as many of fifty-three years as he should live4 ,he had occasion to use this house but ten months1 for he died in #adjj4 ,he may be said to have founded the ,poets' ,corner in ,westminster ,abbey1 as he was the first of the many great authors to be buried there4 ,chaucer's ,earlier ,poems4--,at the age of forty1 ,chaucer had probably written not more than one seventh of a total of about #ce1jjj lines of verse which he left at his death4 ,before he reached his poetic prime1 he showed two periods of influence1--,french and ,italian4 ,during his first period1 he studied ,french models4 ,he learned much from his partial translation of the popular ,french ,romaunt of the ,rose4 ,the best poem of his ,french period is ,dethe of ,blanche the ,duchesse1 a tribute to the wife of ,john of ,gaunt1 the son of ,edward ,,iii4 ,chaucer's journey to ,italy next turned his attention to ,italian models4 ,a study of these was of especial service in helping him to acquire that skill which enabled him to produce the masterpieces of his third or ,english period4 ,this study came at a specially opportune time and resulted in communicating to him something of the spirit of the early ,renaissance4 ,the influence of ,boccaccio and1 sometimes1 of ,dante is noticeable in the principal poems of the ,italian period1--the ,troilus and ,criseyde1 ,hous of ,fame1 and ,legende of ,good ,women4 ,the ,troilus and ,criseyde is a tale of love that was not true4 ,the ,hous of ,fame1 an unfinished poem1 gives a vision of a vast palace of ice on which the names of the famous are carved to await the melting rays of the sun4 ,the ,legende of ,good ,women is a series of stories of those who1 like ,alcestis1 are willing to give up everything for love4 ,in ,a ,dream of ,fair ,women ,tennyson says3-- ',the ,legend of ,good ,women1' long ago ,sung by the morning star of song1 who made ,his music heard below2 ,dan ,chaucer1 the first warbler1 whose sweet breath ,preluded those melodious bursts that fill ,the spacious times of great ,elizabeth ,with sounds that echo still4 ,in this series of poems ,chaucer learned how to rely less and less on an ,italian crutch4 ,he next took his immortal ride to ,canterbury on an ,english ,pegasus4 ,general ,plan of the ,canterbury ,tales4--,people in general have always been more interested in stories than in any other form of literature4 ,chaucer probably did not realize that he had such positive genius for telling tales in verse that the next five hundred years would fail to produce his superior in that branch of ,english literature4 ,illustration3 ,,canterbury ,,cathedral4 ,all that ,chaucer needed was some framework into which he could fit the stories that occurred to him1 to make them something more than mere stray tales1 which might soon be forgotten4 ,chaucer's great contemporary ,italian storyteller1 ,boccaccio1 conceived the idea of representing some of the nobility of ,florence as fleeing from the plague1 and telling in their retirement the tales that he used in his ,decameron4 ,it is not certain that ,chaucer received from the ,decameron his suggestions for the ,canterbury ,tales1 although he was probably in ,florence at the same time as ,boccaccio4 ,in #aagj ,thomas ,becket1 ,archbishop of ,canterbury1 was murdered at the altar4 ,he was considered both a martyr and a saint1 and his body was placed in a splendid mausoleum at the ,cathedral4 ,it was said that miracles were worked at his tomb1 that the sick were cured1 and that the worldly affairs of those who knelt at his shrine prospered4 ,it became the fashion for men of all classes to go on pilgrimages to his tomb4 ,as robbers infested the highways1 the pilgrims usually waited at some inn until there was a sufficient band to resist attack4 ,in time the journey came to be looked on as a holiday1 which relieved the monotony of everyday life4 ,about #ache ,chaucer probably went on such a pilgrimage4 ,to furnish amusement1 as the pilgrims cantered along1 some of them may have told stories4 ,the idea occurred to ,chaucer to write a collection of such tales as the various pilgrims might have been supposed to tell on their journey4 ,the result was the ,canterbury ,tales4 ,characters in the ,tales4--,chaucer's plan is superior to ,boccaccio's2 for only the nobility figure as story-tellers in the ,decameron1 while the ,canterbury pilgrims represent all ranks of ,english life1 from the knight to the sailor4 ,the ,prologue to the ,tales places these characters before us almost as distinctly as they would appear in real life4 ,at the ,tabard ,inn in ,southwark1 just across the ,thames from ,london1 we see that merry band of pilgrims on a pleasant ,april day4 ,we look first upon a manly figure who strikes us as being every inch a knight4 ,his cassock shows the marks of his coat of mail4 ,at mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and of his port as meke as is a mayde4 ,he never yet no vileinye ne sayde ,in al his lyf1 un-to no maner wight4 ,he was a verray parfit gentil knight4 ,his son1 the ,squire1 next catches our attention4 ,we notice his curly locks1 his garments embroidered with gay flowers1 and the graceful way in which he rides his horse4 ,by his side is his servant1 the ,yeoman1 clad in cote and hood of grene1 with a sheaf of arrows at his belt4 ,we may even note his cropped head and his horn suspended from green belt4 ,we next catch sight of a ,nun's gracefully pleated wimple1 shapely nose1 small mouth1 eyes greye as glas1 well-made cloak1 coral beads1 and brooch of gold4 ,she is attended by a second ,nun and three ,priests4 ,the ,monk is a striking figure3-- ,his heed was balled1 that shoon as any glas1 ,and eek his face1 as he hadde been anoint4 ,he was a lord ful fat and in good point4 ,illustration3 ,,pilgrims ,,leaving ,,the ,,tabard ,,inn4 ,from ,urry's ,chaucer4 ,there follow the ,friar with twinkling eyes1 the beste beggere in his hous1 the ,merchant with his forked beard1 the ,clerk 7scholar7 of ,oxford in his threadbare garments1 the ,sergeant-at-,law1 the ,franklyn 7country gentleman71 ,haberdasher1 ,carpenter1 ,weaver1 ,dyer1 ,tapycer 7tapestry maker71 ,cook1 ,shipman1 ,physician1 ,wife of ,bath1 ,parish ,priest1 ,plowman1 ,miller1 ,manciple 7purchaser of provisions71 ,reeve 7bailiff of a farm71 ,summoner 7official of an ecclesiastical court71 and ,pardoner4 ,these characters1 exclusive of ,baily 7the host of ,tabard ,inn7 and ,chaucer himself1 are alluded to in the ,prologue to the ,tales as-- ,wel nyne and twenty in a companye1 ,of sondry folk1 by aventure y-falle ,in felawshipe1 and pilgrims were they alle1 ,that toward ,caunterbury wolden ryde4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,lines ,,describing ,,the ,,franklyn#cc4 ,from the ,cambridge ,university ,,ms4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,franklyn#cd4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,friar4 ,the completeness of the picture of fourteenth century ,english life in the ,canterbury ,tales makes them absolutely necessary reading for the historian as well as for the student of literature4 ,certainly no one who has ever read the ,prologue to the ,tales will question ,chaucer's right to be considered a great original poet1 no matter how much he may have owed to foreign teachers4 ,the ,tales4--,harry ,baily1 the keeper of the ,tabard ,inn1 who accompanied the pilgrims1 proposed that each member of the party should tell four tales1--two going and two returning4 ,the one who told the best story was to have a supper at the expense of the rest4 ,the plan thus outlined was not fully executed by ,chaucer1 for the collection contains but twenty-four tales1 all but two of which are in verse4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,knight4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,prioress4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,squire4 ,the ,knightes ,tale1 which is the first1 is also the best4 ,it is a very interesting story of love and chivalry4 ,two young ,theban nobleman1 ,palamon and ,arcite1 sworn friends1 are prisoners of war at ,athens4 ,looking through the windows of their dungeon1 they see walking in the garden the beautiful sister of the queen4 ,each one swears that he will have the princess4 ,arcite is finally pardoned on condition that he will leave ,athens and never return1 on penalty of death2 but his love for ,emily lures him back to the forbidden land4 ,reduced almost to a skeleton1 he disguises himself1 goes to ,athens1 and becomes a servant in the house of ,king ,theseus4 ,finally1 ,palamon escapes from prison1 and by chance encounters ,arcite4 ,the two men promptly fight1 but are interrupted by ,theseus1 who at first condemns them to death1 but later relents and directs them to depart and to return at the end of a year1 each with a hundred brave knights4 ,the king prescribes that each lover shall then lead his forces in mortal battle and that the victor shall wed the princess4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,clerk ,,of ,,oxford4 ,on the morning of the contest1 ,palamon goes before dawn to the temple of ,venus to beseech her aid in winning ,emily1 while ,arcite at the same time steals to the temple of ,mars to pray for victory in war4 ,each deity not only promises but actually grants the suppliants precisely what they ask2 for ,arcite1 though fatally wounded1 is victorious in the battle1 and ,palamon in the end weds ,emily4 ,although ,boccaccio's ,teseide furnished the general plot for this ,knightes ,tale1 ,chaucer's story is1 as ,skeat says1 to all intents1 a truly original poem4 ,the other pilgrims tell stories in keeping with their professions and characters4 ,perhaps the next best tale is the merry story of ,chanticleer and the ,fox4 ,this is related by the ,nun's ,priest4 ,the ,clerk of ,oxford tells the pathetic tale of ,patient ,griselda1 and the ,nun relates a touching story of a little martyr4 ,chief ,qualities of ,chaucer4--,i4 ,chaucer's descriptions are unusually clear-cut and vivid4 ,they are the work of a poet who did not shut himself in his study1 but who mingled among his fellow-men and noticed them acutely4 ,he says of the ,friar3-- ,his eyes twinkled in his heed aright1 ,as doon the sterres in the frosty night4 ,our eyes and ears distinctly perceive the jolly ,monk1 as he canters along3-- ,and1 whan he rood1 men might his brydel here ,ginglen in a whistling wind as clere1 ,and eek as loude as dooth the chapel-belle4 ,,ii4 ,chaucer's pervasive1 sympathetic humor is especially characteristic4 ,we can see him looking with twinkling eyes at the ,miller1 tolling thrice2 at the ,monk1 full fat and in good point1 hunting with his greyhounds1 swift as fowl in flight1 or smiling before a fat roast swan2 at the ,squire1 keeping the nightingale company2 at the ,doctor1 prescribing the rules of astrology4 ,the ,nun feels a touch of his humor3-- ,ful wel she song the service divyne1 ,entuned in hir nose ful semely4 ,of the lawyer1 he says3-- ,no-wher so bisy a man as he ther nas1 ,and yet he semed bisier than he was4 ,sometimes ,chaucer's humor is so delicate as to be lost on those who are not quick-witted4 ,lowell instances the case of the ,friar1 who1 before setting himself softly down1 drives away the cat1 and adds what is true only of those who have acute understanding3 ,we know1 without need of more words1 that he has chosen the snuggest corner4 ,his humor is often a graceful cloak for his serious philosophy of existence4 ,the humor in the ,prologue does not impair its worth to the student of fourteenth-century life4 ,,iii4 ,although ,chaucer's humor and excellence in lighter vein are such marked characteristics1 we must not forget his serious qualities2 for he has the ,saxon seriousness as well as the ,norman airiness4 ,as he looks over the struggling world1 he says with a sympathetic heart3-- ,infinite been the sorwes and the teres ,of olde folk1 and folk of tendre yeres4#ce ,in like vein1 we have3-- ,this world nis but a thurghfare ful of wo1 ,and we ben pilgrimes1 passinge to and fro2 ,deeth is an ende of every worldly sore4#cf ,her nis non hoom1 her nis but wildernesse4 ,forthe1 pylgrime1 forthe6 forthe1 beste out of thi stal6 ,knowe thi contree1 look up1 thank ,god of al6#cg ,the finest character in the company is that of the ,parish ,priest1 who attends to his flock like a good ,samaritan3-- ,but ,cristes lore1 and his apostles twelve1 ,he taughte1 and first he folwed it him-selve4 ,,iv4 ,the largeness of his view of human nature is remarkable4 ,some poets1 either intentionally or unintentionally1 paint one type of men accurately and distort all the rest4 ,chaucer impartially portrays the highest as well as the lowest1 and the honest man as well as the hypocrite4 ,the pictures of the roguish ,friar and the self-denying ,parish ,priest1 the ,oxford ,scholar and the ,miller1 the ,physician and the ,shipman1 are painted with equal fidelity to life4 ,in the breadth and kindliness of his view of life1 ,chaucer is a worthy predecessor of ,shakespeare4 ,dryden's verdict on ,chaucer's poetry is3 ,here is ,god's plenty4 ,v4 ,his love of nature is noteworthy for that early age4 ,such lines as these manifest something more than a desire for rhetorical effect in speaking of nature's phenomena3-- ,now welcom somer1 with thy sonne softe1 ,that hast this wintres weders over-shake1 ,and driven awey the longe nightes blake#ch6ci ,his affection for the daisy has for five hundred years caused many other people to look with fonder eyes upon that flower4 ,,vi4 ,he stands in the front rank of those who have attempted to tell stories in melodious verse4 ,lowell justly says3 ,one of the world's three or four great story-tellers1 he was also one of the best versifiers that ever made ,english trip and sing with a gayety that seems careless1 but where every foot beats time to the tune of the thought4 ,illustration3 ,,morris ,,dancers4,from a ,manuscript of ,chaucer's ,time4 ,,vii4 ,he is the first great ,english author to feel the influence of the ,renaissance1 which did not until long afterward culminate in ,england4 ,gower has his lover hear tales from a confessor in cloistered quiet4 ,chaucer takes his ,pilgrims out for jolly holidays in the ,april sunshine4 ,he shows the spirit of the ,renaissance in his joy in varied life1 in his desire for knowledge of all classes of men as well as of books1 in his humor1 and in his general reaching out into new fields4 ,he makes us feel that he lives in a merrier ,england1 where both the ,morris dancer and the ,pilgrim may show their joy in life4 ,what ,chaucer did for the ,english ,language4--,before ,chaucer's works1 ,english was1 as we have seen1 a language of dialects4 ,he wrote in the ,midland dialect1 and aided in making that the language of ,england4 ,lounsbury says of ,chaucer's influence3 ,no really national language could exist until a literature had been created which would be admired and studied by all who could read1 and taken as a model by all who could write4 ,it was only a man of genius that could lift up one of these dialects into a preminence over the rest1 or could ever give to the scattered forces existing in any one of them the unity and vigor of life4 ,this was the work that ,chaucer did4 ,for this reason he deserves to be called our first modern ,english poet4 ,at first sight1 his works look far harder to read than they really are1 because the spelling has changed so much since ,chaucer's day4 ,,summary ,the period from the ,norman ,conquest to #adjj is remarkable 7#a7 for bringing into ,england ,french influence and closer contact with the continent2 7#b7 for the development of 7a7 a more centralized government1 7b7 the feudal system and chivalry1 7c7 better civil courts of justice and a more representative government1 ,magna ,charta being one of the steps in this direction2 7#c7 for the influence of religion1 the coming of the friars1 the erection of unsurpassed ,gothic cathedrals2 7#d7 for the struggles of the peasants to escape their bondage1 for a striking decline in the relative importance of the armored knight1 and for ,wycliffe's movement for a religious reformation4 ,this period is also specially important because it gave to ,england a new language of greater flexibility and power4 ,the old inflections1 genders1 formative prefixes1 and capability of making self-explaining compounds were for the most part lost4 ,to supply the places of lost words and to express those new ideas which came with the broader experiences of an emancipated1 progressive nation1 many new words were adopted from the ,french and the ,latin4 ,when the time for literature came1 ,chaucer found ready for his pen the strongest1 sincerest1 and most flexible language that ever expressed a poet's thought4 ,in tracing the development of the literature of this period1 we have noted 7#a7 the metrical romances2 7#b7 ,geoffrey of ,monmouth's 7,latin7 ,history of the ,kings of ,britain1 and ,layamon's ,brut1 with their stories of ,lear1 ,cymbeline and ,king ,arthur2 7#c7 the ,ormulum1 a metrical paraphrase of those parts of the ,gospels used in church service2 7#d7 the ,ancren ,riwle1 remarkable for its natural eloquent prose and its noble ethics1 as well as for showing the development of the language2 7#e7 the lyrical poetry1 beginning to be redolent of the odor of the blossom and resonant with the song of the bird2 7#f7 the ,handlyng ,synne1 in which we stand on the threshold of modern ,english2 7#g7 ,mandeville's ,travels1 with its entertaining stories2 7#h7 ,wycliffe's monumental translation of the ,bible and vigorous religious prose pamphlets2 7#i7 ,piers ,plowman1 with its pictures of homely life1 its intense desire for higher ideals and for the reformation of social and religious life2 7#aj7 ,gower's ,confessio ,amantis1 a collection of tales about love2 and 7#aa7 ,chaucer's poetry1 which stands in the front rank for the number of vivid pictures of contemporary life1 for humor1 love of nature1 melody1 and capacity for story-telling4 ,,references ,,for ,,further ,,study ,,historical ,an account of the history of this period may be found in either ,gardiner#dj1 ,green1 ,lingard1 ,walker1 or ,cheney4 ,volumes ,,ii4 and ,,iii4 of the ,political ,history of ,england1 edited by ,hunt 7,longmans71 give the history in greater detail4 ,for the social side1 consult ,traill1 ,i4 and ,,ii4 ,see also ,rogers's ,six ,centuries of ,work and ,wages4 ,freeman's ,william the ,conqueror1 ,green's ,henry ,,ii41 and ,tout's ,edward ,i4 7,twelve ,english ,statesmen ,series7 are short and interesting4 ,kingsley's ,hereward the ,wake deals with the times of ,william the ,conqueror and ,scott's ,ivanhoe with those of ,richard the ,lion-,hearted4 ,archer and ,kingsford's ,the ,story of the ,crusades1 ,cutt's ,parish ,priests and their ,people in the ,middle ,ages in ,england1 and ,jusserand's ,english ,wayfaring ,life in the fourteenth ,century are good works4 ,,literary ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,vols4 ,i4 and ,,ii4 ,bradley's ,making of ,english4 ,schofield's ,english ,literature from the ,conquest to ,chaucer4 ,ker's ,epic and ,romance4 ,saintsbury's ,the ,flourishing of ,romance and the ,rise of ,allegory4 ,lawrence's ,medieval ,story 7excellent74 ,weston's ,the ,romance ,cycle of ,charlemagne and his ,peers4 ,weston's ,king ,arthur and his ,knights4 ,maynadier's ,the ,arthur of the ,english ,poets4 ,nutt's ,the ,legends of the ,holy ,grail4 ,jusserand's ,piers ,plowman4 ,warren's ,langland's ,vision of ,piers the ,plowman1 ,done into ,modern ,prose4 ,savage's ,old ,english ,libraries4 ,schofield's ,chivalry in ,english ,literature4 ,snell's ,the ,age of ,chaucer4 ,root's ,the ,poetry of ,chaucer4 ,tuckwell's ,chaucer 7#if pp474 ,pollard's ,chaucer 7#adb pp474 ,legouis's ,chaucer4 ,coulton's ,chaucer and his ,england4 ,lowell's ,my ,study ,windows contains one of the best essays ever written on ,chaucer4 ,mackail's ,the ,springs of ,helicon 7,chaucer74 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,romances4--,the student will be interested in reading from ,lawrence's ,medieval ,story1 ,chapters ,,iii41 ,the ,song of ,roland2 ,,iv41 ,the ,arthurian ,romances2 ,v41 ,the ,legend of the ,holy ,grail2 ,,vi41 ,the ,history of ,reynard the ,fox4 ,butler's ,the ,song of ,roland 7,riverside ,literature ,series7 is an ,english prose translation of a popular story from the ,charlemagne cycle4 ,sir ,gawayne and the ,green ,knight has been retold in modern ,english prose by ,j4,l4 ,weston 7,london3 ,david ,nutt74 ,a long metrical selection from this romance is given in ,bronson4#da ,i41 #hc-ajj1 in ,oxford ,treasury1 ,i41 #fj-ha1 and a prose selection in ,century1 #ajjj-ajbb4 ,stories from the ,arthurian cycle may he found in ,newell's ,king ,arthur and the ,table ,round4 ,see also ,maynadier's ,the ,arthur of the ,english ,poets1 and ,tennyson's ,the ,idylls of the ,king4 ,geoffrey of ,monmouth's ,history of the ,kings of ,britain is translated in ,giles's ,six ,old ,english ,chronicles 7,bohn ,library74 ,selections from ,layamon's ,brut may be found in ,bronson1 ,i42 ,p4 ,s42 and ,manly1 ,i4 ,what were the chief subjects of the cycles of ,romance8 ,were they mostly of ,english or ,french origin8 ,what new elements appear1 not found in ,beowulf8 ,which of these cycles has the most interest for ,english readers8 ,how does this cycle still influence twentieth-century ideals8 ,in what respect is the romance of ,gawayne like a sermon8 ,what ,shakespearean characters does ,geoffrey of ,monmouth introduce8 ,how is ,layamon's ,brut related to ,geoffrey's chronicle8 ,point out a likeness between the ,brut and the work of a ,victorian poet4 ,ormulum1 ,lyrics1 and ,robert ,manning of ,brunne4--,selections may be found in ,p4 ,s42 ,bronson1 ,i42 ,oxford 7lyrics1 pp4 #a-aj72 ,manly1 ,i42 ,morris's ,specimens of ,early ,english4 ,among the lyrics1 read specially1 ,sumer is i-cumen in1 ,alysoun1 ,lenten ys come with love to toune1 and ,blow1 ,northern ,wind4 ,what was the purpose of the ,ormulum8 ,what is its subject matter8 ,does it show much ,french influence8 ,what new appreciation of nature do the thirteenth-century lyrics show8 ,point out at least twelve definite concrete references to nature in ,lenten ys come with love to toune4 ,how many such references are there in the ,cuckoo ,song8 ,what difference do you note between the form of ,robert ,manning of ,brunne's ,handling ,synne and ,anglo-,saxon poetry8 ,can you find an increasing number of words of ,french derivation in his work8 ,prose4--,manly's ,english ,prose1 ,morris's ,specimens of ,early ,english1 ,parts ,i4 and ,,ii41 ,chambers1 ,i41 ,craik1 ,i41 contain specimens of the best prose1 including ,mandeville and ,wycliffe4 ,mandeville's ,travels may be found in modern ,english in ,cassell's ,national ,library 7#ae74 ,bosworth and ,waring's edition of the ,gospels contains the ,anglo-,saxon text1 together with the translations of ,wycliffe and ,tyndale4 ,no4 #ajg of ,maynard's ,english ,classics contains selections from both ,wycliffe's ,bible and ,mandeville's ,travels4 ,what is the subject matter of the ,ancren ,riwle8 ,what is the keynote of the work8 ,mention some words of ,french origin found in it4 ,what is the character of ,mandeville's ,travels8 ,why was it so popular8 ,in what does ,wycliffe's literary importance consist8 ,compare some verses of his translation of the ,bible with the #afaa version4 ,piers ,plowman and ,gower4--,selections are given in ,p4 ,s42 ,bronson1 ,i42 ,ward1 ,i42 ,chambers1 ,i42 and ,manly1 ,i4 ,skeat has edited a small edition of ,piers the ,plowman 7,b text7 and also a larger edition1 entitled ,the ,vision of ,william concerning ,piers the ,plowman1 in ,three ,parallel ,texts4 ,g4,c4 ,macaulay has a good volume of selections from ,gower's ,confessio ,amantis4 ,what is the difference between the form of the verse in ,piers ,plowman and ,handling ,synne8 ,who is ,piers8 ,who are some of the other characters in the poem8 ,what type of life is specially described8 ,in what sort of work are the laborers engaged8 ,why may the author of ,piers ,plowman be called a reformer8 ,why was ,gower undecided in what language to write8 ,what is the subject matter of the ,confessio ,amantis8 ,chaucer4--,read the ,prologue and if possible also the ,knightes ,tale 7,liddell's1 or ,morris-,skeat's1 or ,van ,dyke's1 or ,mather's edition74 ,good selections may be found in ,bronson1 ,i42 ,ward1 ,i42 ,p4 and ,s41 and ,oxford ,treasury1 ,i4 ,skeat's ,complete ,works1 #f vols41 is the best edition4 ,skeat's ,oxford ,chaucer in one volume has the same text4 ,the ,globe ,edition of ,chaucer1 edited by ,pollard1 is also a satisfactory single volume edition4 ,root's ,the ,poetry of ,chaucer1 #bib pp41 is a good reference work in connection with the actual study of the poetry4 ,give a clear-cut description of the six of ,chaucer's pilgrims that impress you most strongly4 ,how has the ,prologue added to our knowledge of life in the fourteenth century8 ,give examples of ,chaucer's vivid pictures4 ,what specimens of his humor does the ,prologue contain8 ,do any of ,chaucer's lines in the ,prologue show that the ,reformation spirit was in the air1 or did ,wycliffe and ,langland alone among contemporary authors afford evidence of this spirit8 ,compare ,chaucer's verse with ,langland's in point of subject matter4 ,what qualities in ,chaucer save him from the charge of cynicism when he alludes to human faults8 ,does the ,prologue attempt to portray any of the nobler sides of human nature8 ,is the ,prologue mainly or entirely concerned with the personality of the pilgrims8 ,has ,chaucer any philosophy of life8 ,are there any references to the delights of nature8 ,note any passages that show special powers of melody and mastery over verse4 ,does the poem reveal anything of ,chaucer's personality8 ,in your future reading see if you can find another ,english story-teller in verse who can be classed with ,chaucer4 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,,ii3 ,footnote #a3 ,the ,tempest1 ,v41 ,i4 ,footnote #b3 ,for the location of all the ,english cathedral towns1 see the ,literary ,map1 p4 ,,xii4 ,footnote #c3 and4 ,footnote #d3 ,april4 ,footnote #e3 little4 ,footnote #f3 in her language4 ,footnote #g3 ,spring4 ,footnote #h3 in its turn4 ,footnote #i3 birds4 ,footnote #aj3 song4 ,footnote #aa3 sigh4 ,footnote #ab3 sorely4 ,footnote #ac3 called4 ,footnote #ad3 against4 ,footnote #ae3 will4 ,footnote #af3 them4 ,footnote #ag3 arrayed4 ,footnote #ah3 garments4 ,footnote #ai3 shepherd4 ,footnote #bj3 hermit4 ,footnote #ba3 hills4 ,footnote #bb3 wonder4 ,footnote #bc3 tired out with wandering4 ,footnote #bd3 brook4 ,footnote #be3 reclined4 ,footnote #bf3 sounded4 ,footnote #bg3 to make dykes or ditches4 ,footnote #bh3 to dig4 ,footnote #bi3 to thrash 7ding74 ,footnote #cj3 sheaves4 ,footnote #ca3 dazed4 ,footnote #cb3 hermit4 ,footnote #cc3 ,the ,prologue1 ,lines #cca-cce4 ,footnote #cd3 ,the cuts of the ,pilgrims are from the ,fourteenth ,century ,ellesmere ,,ms4 of ,canterbury ,tales4 ,footnotes #ce-cf3 ,knightes ,tale4 ,footnote #cg3 ,truth3 ,balade de bon ,conseyl4 ,footnote #ch3 black4 ,footnote #ci3 ,the ,parlement of ,foules4 ,footnote #dj3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #ej4 ,footnote #da3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #f4 ,,chapter ,,iii3 ,,from ,,chaucer',s ,,death1 #adjj1 ,,to ,,the ,,accession ,,of ,,elizabeth1 #aeeh ,the ,course of ,english ,history4--,the century and a half that followed the death of ,chaucer appealed especially to ,shakespeare4 ,he wrote or helped to edit five plays that deal with this period1--,henry ,,iv41 ,henry ,v41 ,henry ,,vi41 ,richard ,,iii41 and ,henry ,,viii4 ,while these plays do not give an absolutely accurate presentation of the history of the time1 they show rare sympathy in catching the spirit of the age1 and they leave many unusually vivid impressions4 ,henry ,,iv4 7#acii-adac71 a descendant of ,john of ,gaunt1 ,duke of ,lancaster1 one of the younger sons of ,edward ,,iii41 and therefore not in the direct line of succession1 was the first ,english king who owed his crown entirely to ,parliament4 ,henry's reign was disturbed by the revolt of nobles and by contests with the ,welsh4 ,shakespeare gives a pathetic picture of the king calling in vain for sleep1 nature's tired nurse1 and exclaiming3-- ,uneasy lies the head that wears a crown4 ,henry ,v4 7#adac-adbb7 is one of ,shakespeare's romantic characters4 ,the young king renewed the ,french war1 which had broken out in #accg and which later became known as the ,hundred ,years' ,war4 ,by his victory over the ,french at ,agincourt 7#adae71 he made himself a national hero4 ,shakespeare has him say3-- ,i thought upon one pair of ,english legs ,did march three ,frenchmen4 ,in the reign of ,henry ,,vi4 7#adbb-adfa71 ,joan of ,arc appeared and saved ,france4 ,the setting aside of the direct succession in the case of ,henry ,,iv4 was a pretext for the ,wars of the ,roses 7#adee-adhe7 to settle the royal claims of different descendants of ,edward ,,iii4 ,while this war did not greatly disturb the common people1 it occupied the attention of those who might have been patrons of literature4 ,nearly all the nobles were killed during this prolonged contest2 hence when ,henry ,,vii4 7#adhe-aeji71 the first of the ,tudor line of monarchs1 came to the throne1 there were no powerful nobles with their retainers to hold the king in check4 ,he gave a strong centralized government to ,england4 ,the period following ,chaucer's death opens with religious persecution4 ,in #adja the first ,englishman was burned at the stake for his religious faith4 ,from this time the expenses of burning heretics are sometimes found in the regular accounts of cities and boroughs4 ,henry ,,viii4 7#aeji-aedg7 broke with the ,pope1 dissolved the monasteries1 proclaimed himself head of the church1 and allowed the laity to read the ,bible1 but insisted on retaining many of the old beliefs4 ,in ,germany1 ,martin ,luther 7#adhc-aedf7 was in the same age issuing his famous protests against religious abuses4 ,edward ,,vi4 7#aedg-aeec7 espoused the ,protestant cause4 ,an order was given to introduce into all the churches an ,english prayer book1 which was not very different from that in use to-day in the ,episcopal churches4 ,mary 7#aeec-aeeh7 sought the aid of fagots and the stake to bring the nation back to the old beliefs4 ,illustration3 ,,henry ,,viii4 ,,giving ,,bibles ,,to ,,clergy ,,and ,,laity4 ,from frontispiece to ,coverdale ,bible4 ,while this period did not produce a single great poet or a statesman of the first rank1 it witnessed the destruction of the majority of the nobility in the ,wars of the ,roses1 the increase of the king's power1 the decline of feudalism1 the final overthrow of the knight by the yeoman with his long bow at ,agincourt7#adae71 the freedom of the serf1 and the growth of manufactures1 especially of wool4 ,english trading vessels began to displace even the ships of ,venice4 ,in spite of the religious persecution with which the period began and ended1 there was a remarkable change in religious belief1 the dissolution of the monasteries and the subordination of church to state being striking evidences of this change4 ,an event that had far-reaching consequences on literature and life was the act of ,henry ,,viii4 in ordering a translation of the ,bible to be placed in every parish church in ,england4 ,the death of ,mary may in a measure be said to indicate the beginning of modern times4 ,contrast between the ,spirit of the ,renaissance and of the ,middle ,ages4--,one of the most important intellectual movements of the world is known as the ,renaissance or ,revival of ,learning4 ,this movement began in ,italy about the middle of the fourteenth century and spread slowly westward4 ,while ,chaucer's travels in ,italy2 and his early contact with this new influence are reflected in his work1 yet the ,renaissance did not reach its zenith in ,england until the time of ,shakespeare4 ,this new epoch followed a long period1 known as the ,middle ages1 when learning was mostly confined to the church1 when thousands of the best minds retired to the cloisters1 when many questions1 like those of the revolution of the sun around the earth or the cause of disease1 were determined1 not by observation and scientific proof1 but by the assertion of those in spiritual authority4 ,then1 scientific investigators1 like ,roger ,bacon1 were thought to be in league with the devil and were thrown into prison4 ,in #abeh ,dante's tutor visited ,roger ,bacon1 and1 after seeing his experiments with the mariner's compass1 wrote to an ,italian friend3-- ,this discovery so useful to all who travel by sea1 must remain concealed until other times1 because no mariner dare use it1 lest he fall under imputation of being a magician1 nor would sailors put to sea with one who carried an instrument so evidently constructed by the devil4 ,symonds says3 ,during the ,middle ,ages1 man had lived enveloped in a cowl4 ,he had not seen the beauty of the world1 or had seen it only to cross himself and turn aside1 to tell his beads and pray4 ,before the ,renaissance1 the tendency was to regard with contempt mere questions of earthly progress and enjoyment1 because they were considered unimportant in comparison with the eternal future of the soul4 ,it was not believed that beauty1 art1 and literature might play a part in saving souls4 ,the ,schoolmen of the ,middle ,ages often discussed such subjects as these3 whether the finite can comprehend the infinite at any point1 since the infinite can have no finite points2 whether ,god can make a wheel revolve and be stationary at the same time2 whether all children in a state of innocence are masculine4 ,such debates made remarkable theologians and metaphysicians1 developed precision in defining terms1 accuracy in applying the rules of deductive logic1 and fluency in expression4 ,as a result1 later scientists were able to reason more accurately and express themselves with greater facility4 ,the chief fault of the studies of the ,middle ,ages consisted in neglecting the external world of concrete fact4 ,the discussions of the ,schoolmen would never have introduced printing or invented the mariner's compass or developed any of the sciences that have revolutionized life4 ,the coming of the ,renaissance opened avenues of learning outside of the church1 interested men in manifold questions relating to this world1 caused a demand for scientific investigation and proof1 and made increasing numbers seek for joy in this life as well as in that to come4 ,causes and ,effects of the ,renaissance4--,some of the causes of this new movement were the weariness of human beings with their lack of progress1 their dissatisfaction with the low estimate of the value of this life1 and their yearning for fuller expansion of the soul1 for more knowledge and joy on this side of the grave4 ,another cause was the influence of ,greek literature newly discovered in the fifteenth century by the western world4 ,in #adbc an ,italian scholar brought #bch ,greek manuscripts to ,italy4 ,in #adec the ,turks captured ,constantinople1 the capital of the ,eastern ,roman ,empire and the headquarters of ,grecian learning4 ,because of the remoteness of this capital1 ,english literature had not been greatly influenced by ,greece4 ,when ,constantinople fell1 many of her scholars went to ,italy1 taking with them precious ,grecian manuscripts4 ,as ,englishmen often visited ,italy1 they soon began to study ,grecian masterpieces1 and to fall under the spell of ,homer and the ,athenian dramatists4 ,the renewed study of ,greek and ,latin classics stimulated a longing for the beautiful in art and literature4 ,fourteenth-century ,italian writers1 like ,petrarch and ,boccaccio1 found increasing interest in their work4 ,sixteenth-century artists1 such as ,leonardo da ,vinci1 ,michael ,angelo1 and ,raphael show their magnificent response to a world that had already been born again4 ,many of the other so-called causes of the ,renaissance should strictly be considered its effects4 ,the application of the modern theory of the solar system1 the desire for exploration1 the use of the mariner's compass1 the invention and spread of printing1 were more effects of the new movement than its causes4 ,sir ,thomas ,more 7#adgh-aece71 inspired by the spirit of the ,renaissance1 wrote in ,latin a remarkable book called ,utopia 7#aeaf71 which presents many new social ideals4 ,in the land of ,utopia1 society does not make criminals and then punish them for crime4 ,every one worships as he pleases4 ,only a few hours of work a day are necessary1 and all find genuine pleasure in that4 ,in ,utopia life is given to be a joy4 ,no advantage is taken of the weak or the unfortunate4 ,twentieth-century dreams of social justice are not more vivid and absorbing than ,sir ,thomas ,more's4 ,it is pleasant to think that the ,roman ,catholic church in #ahhf added to her list of saints this lovable man1 martyr to faith and freedom4 ,when the full influences of the ,renaissance reached ,england1 ,shakespeare answered their call1 and his own creations surpass the children of ,utopia4 ,the ,invention of ,printing4--,in #acdd1 about the time of ,chaucer's birth1 a ,bible in manuscript cost as much as three oxen4 ,a century later an amount equal to the wages of a workman for #bff days was paid for a manuscript ,bible4 ,at this time a book on astronomy cost as much as #hjj pounds of butter4 ,one page of a manuscript book cost the equivalent of from a dollar to a dollar and a half to-day4 ,when a member of the ,medici family in ,florence desired a library1 he sent for a book contractor1 who secured forty-five copyists4 ,by rigorous work for nearly two years they produced two hundred volumes4 ,illustration3 ,,book ,,illustration1 ,,early ,,fifteenth ,,century4 ,british ,museum4 ,one of the most powerful agencies of the ,renaissance was the invention of printing1 which multiplied books indefinitely and made them comparatively cheap4 ,people were alive with newly awakened curiosity1 and they read books to learn more of the expanding world4 ,about #adgg ,william ,caxton1 who had set up his press at the ,almonry1 near ,westminster ,abbey1 printed the first book in ,england1 ,the ,dictes and ,notable ,wish ,sayings of the ,philosophers4 ,among fully a hundred different volumes that he printed were ,chaucer's ,canterbury ,tales1 ,malory's ,morte d',arthur1 and an ,english translation of ,vergil's ,a,eneid4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,caxton',s ,,advertisement ,,of ,,his ,,books4 ,bodleian ,library1 ,oxford4 ,malory's ,morte d',arthur4--,the greatest prose work of the fifteenth century was completed in #adgj by a man who styles himself ,sir ,thomas ,malory1 ,knight4 ,we know nothing of the author's life2 but he has left as a monument a great prose epic of the deeds of ,king ,arthur and his ,knights of the ,round ,table4 ,from the various ,french legends concerning ,king ,arthur1 ,malory selected his materials and fashioned than into the completest ,arthuriad that we possess4 ,while his work cannot be called original1 he displayed rare artistic power in arranging1 abridging1 and selecting the various parts from different ,french works4 ,malory's prose is remarkably simple and direct4 ,even in the impressive scene where ,sir ,bedivere throws the dying ,king ,arthur's sword into the sea1 the language tells the story simply and shows no straining after effect3-- ,and then he threw the sword as far into the water as he might1 and there came an arm and an hand above the water1 and met it1 and caught it1 and so shook it thrice and brandished1 and then vanished away the hand with the sword in the water444 ',now put me into the barge1' said the king2 and so he did softly4 ,and there received him three queens with great mourning1 and so they set him down1 and in one of their laps ,king ,arthur laid his head1 and then that queen said1 ',ah1 dear brother1 why have ye tarried so long from me8' ,after the dusky barge has borne ,arthur away from mortal sight1 ,malory writes3 ,here in this world he changed his life4 ,a century before1 ,chaucer had with equal simplicity voiced the ,saxon faith3-- ,his spirit chaunged hous4#a ,sometimes this prose narrative1 in its condensation and expression of feeling1 shows something of the poetic spirit4 ,when the damsel on the white palfrey sees that her knightly lover has been killed1 she cries3-- ,o ,balin6 two bodies hast thou slain and one heart1 and two hearts in one body1 and two souls thou hast lost4' ,and therewith she took the sword from her love that lay dead1 and as she took it1 she fell to the ground in a swoon4 ,illustration3 ,,malory',s ,,morte ,d',,arthur4 ,from ,de ,worde's ,ed41 #aebi4 ,malory's work1 rather than ,layamon's ,brut1 has been the storehouse to which later poets have turned4 ,many nineteenth-century poets are indebted to ,malory4 ,tennyson's ,idylls of the ,king1 ,matthew ,arnold's ,death of ,tristram1 ,swinburne's ,tristram of ,lyonesse1 and ,william ,morris's ,defense of ,guinevere were inspired by the ,morte d',arthur4 ,few ,english prose works have had more influence on the poetry of the ,victorian age4 ,scottish ,poetry4--,the best poetry of the fifteenth century was written in the ,northern dialect1 which was spoken north of the river ,humber4 ,this language was just as much ,english as the ,midland tongue in which ,chaucer wrote4 ,not until the sixteenth century was this dialect called ,scotch4 ,james ,i4 of ,scotland 7#adjf-adcg7 spent nineteen years of his youth as a prisoner in ,england4 ,during his captivity in ,windsor ,castle1 he fell in love with a maiden1 seen at her orisons in the garden1 and wrote a poem1 called the ,king's ,quair1 to tell the story of his love4 ,although the ,king's ,quair is suggestive of ,the ,knightes ,tale1 and indeed owes much to ,chaucer1 it is a poetic record of genuine and successful love4 ,these four lines from the spring song show real feeling for nature3-- ,worshippe1 ye that lovers be1 this ,may1 ,for of your bliss the kalends are begun1 ,and sing with us1 ',away1 ,winter1 away1 ,come1 ,summer1 come1 the sweet season and sun6' ,much of this ,scotch poetry is remarkable for showing in that early age a genuine love of nature4 ,changes are not rung on some typical landscape1 copied from an ,italian versifier4 ,the ,northern poet had his eye fixed on the scenery and the sky of ,scotland4 ,about the middle of the century1 ,robert ,henryson1 a teacher in ,dunfermline1 wrote4-- ,the northin wind had purifyit the air ,and sched the misty cloudis fra the sky4#b ,this may lack the magic of ,shelley's rhythm1 but the feeling for nature is as genuine as in the later poet's lines3-- ,for after the rain when1 with never a stain ,the pavilion of heaven is bare4#c ,william ,dunbar1 the greatest poet of this group1 who lived in the last half of the fifteenth century1 was a loving student of the nature that greeted him in his northland4 ,no ,italian poet1 as he wandered beside a brook1 would have thought of a simile like this3-- ,the stons clear as stars in frosty night4#d ,dunbar takes us with him on a fresh spring morning1 where-- ,enamelled was the field with all colors1 ,the pearly dropps shook in silver showers1#e where we can hear the matin song of the birds hopping among the buds1 while-- ,up rose the lark1 the heaven's minstrel fine4#f ,both ,dunbar and ,gawain ,douglas 7#adgd8-aebb71 the son of a ,scotch nobleman1 had keen eyes for all coloring in sky1 leaf1 and flower4 ,in one line ,dunbar calls our attention to these varied patches of color in a ,scotch garden3 purple1 azure1 gold1 and guls red4 ,in the verses of ,douglas we see the purple streaks of the morning1 the bluish-gray1 blood-red1 fawn-yellow1 golden1 and freckled red and white flowers1 and-- ,some watery-hued1 as the blue wavy sea4#g ,outside the pages of ,shakespeare1 we shall for the next two hundred years look in vain for so genuine a love of scenery and natural phenomena as we find in fifteenth-century ,scottish poetry4 ,these poets obtained many of their images of nature at first hand1 an achievement rare in any age4 ,illustration3 ,,early ,,title ,,page ,,of ,,robin ,,hood4 ,songs for ,man or ,woman1 of ,all ,sizes4--,when ,shakespeare shows us ,autolycus offering such songs at a rustic festival1#h the great poet emphasizes the fondness for the ballad which had for a long time been developing a taste for poetry4 ,while it is difficult to assign exact dates to the composition of many ballads1 we know that they flourished in the fifteenth century4 ,they were then as much prized as the novel is now1 and like it they had a story to tell4 ,the verse was often halting1 but it succeeded in conveying to the hearer tales of love1 of adventure1 and of mystery4 ,these ballads were sometimes tinged with pathos2 but there was an energy in the rude lines that made the heart beat faster and often stirred listeners to find in a dance an outlet for their emotions4 ,even now1 with all the poetry of centuries from which to choose1 it is refreshing to turn to a ,robin ,hood ballad and look upon the greensward1 hear the rustle of the leaves in ,nottingham forest1 and follow the adventures of the hero4 ,we read the opening lines3-- ,there are twelve months in all the year1 ,as ,i hear many say1 ,but the merriest month in all the year ,is the merry month of ,may4 ,now ,robin ,hood is to ,nottingham gone1 ,with a link a down1 and a day1 ,and there he met a silly old woman ,was weeping on the way4 ,of our own accord we finish the ballad to see whether ,robin ,hood rescued her sons1 who were condemned to death for shooting the fallow deer4 ,the ballad of the ,nut-,brown ,maid has some touches that are almost ,shakespearean4 ,some of the carols of the fifteenth century give a foretaste of the ,elizabethan song4 ,one carol on the birth of the ,christ-child contains stanzas like these1 which show artistic workmanship1 imaginative power1 and1 above all1 rare lyrical beauty3-- ,he cam also stylle to his moderes bowr1 ,as dew in ,aprille that ,fallyt on the flour4 ,he cam also stylle ther his moder lay1 ,as dew in ,aprille that fallyt on the spray#i ,we saw that the ,english tongue during its period of exclusion from the ,norman court gained strength from coming in such close contact with life4 ,although the higher types of poetry were for the most part wanting during the fifteenth century1 yet the ballads multiplied and sang their songs to the ear of life4 ,critics may say that the rude stanzas seldom soar far from the ground1 but we are again reminded of the invincible strength of ,antaeus so long as he kept close to his mother earth4 ,english poetry is so great because it has not withdrawn from life1 because it was nurtured in such a cradle4 ,when ,shakespeare wrote his plays1 he found an audience to understand and to appreciate them4 ,not only those who occupied the boxes1 but also those who stood in the pit1 listened intelligently to his dramatic stories4 ,the ballad had played its part in teaching the humblest home to love poetry4 ,these rude fireside songs were no mean factors in preparing the nation to welcome ,shakespeare4 ,william ,tyndale1 #adij8-aecf4--,the ,reformation was another mighty influence1 working side by side with all the other forces to effect a lasting change in ,english history and literature4 ,in the early part of the sixteenth century1 ,martin ,luther was electrifying ,germany with his demands for church reformation4 ,in order to decide which religious party was in the right1 there arose a desire for more knowledge of the ,scriptures4 ,the language had changed much since ,wycliffe's translation of the ,bible1 and1 besides1 this was accessible only in manuscript4 ,william ,tyndale1 a clergyman and an excellent linguist1 who had been educated at both ,oxford and ,cambridge1 conceived the idea of giving the ,english people the ,bible in their own tongue4 ,as he found that he could not translate and print the ,bible with safety in ,england1 he went to the continent1 where with the help of friends he made the translation and had it printed4 ,he was forced to move frequently from place to place1 and was finally betrayed in his hiding place near ,brussels4 ,after eighteen months' imprisonment without pen or books1 he was strangled and his body was burned at the stake4 ,of his translation1 ,brooke says3 ,it was this ,bible which1 revised by ,coverdale1 and edited and redited as ,cromwell's ,bible1 #aeci1 and again as ,cranmer's ,bible1 #aedj1 was set up in every parish church in ,england4 ,it got north into ,scotland and made the ,lowland ,english more like the ,london ,english4 ,it passed over into the ,protestant settlements in ,ireland4 ,after its revival in #afaa it went with the ,puritan ,fathers to ,new ,england and fixed the standard of ,english in ,america4 ,many millions of people now speak the ,english of ,tyndale's ,bible1 and there is no other book which has had1 through the ,authorized ,version1 so great an influence on the style of ,english literature and on the standard of ,english prose4 ,illustration3 ,,william ,,tyndale4 ,from an old print4 ,the following verses from ,tyndale's version show its simplicity directness1 and similarity to the present version3-- ,jesus sayde unto her1 ,thy brother shall ryse agayne4 ,martha sayde unto hym1 ,i knowe wele1 he shall ryse agayne in the resurreccion att the last day4 ,jesus sayde unto her1 ,i am the resurreccion and lyfe2 whosoever beleveth on me1 ye1 though he were deed1 yet shall he lyve4 ,italian ,influence3 ,wyatt and ,surrey4--,during the reign of ,henry ,,viii4 7#aeji-aedg71 the influence of ,italian poetry made itself distinctly felt4 ,the roots of ,elizabethan poetry were watered by many fountains1 one of the chief of which flowed from ,italian soil4 ,to ,sir ,thomas ,wyatt 7#aejc-aedb7 and to the ,earl of ,surrey 7#aeag-aedg7 belongs the credit of introducing from ,italian sources new influences1 which helped to remodel ,english poetry and give it a distinctly modern cast4 ,these poets were the first to introduce the sonnet1 which ,shakespeare1 ,milton1 and ,wordsworth employed with such power in after times4 ,blank verse was first used in ,england by the ,earl of ,surrey1 who translated a portion of ,vergil's ,a,eneid into that measure4 ,when ,shakespeare took up his pen1 he found that vehicle of poetic expression ready for his use4 ,illustration3 ,,sir ,,thomas ,,wyatt4,after ,holbein4 ,wyatt and ,surrey adopted ,italian subject matter as well as form4 ,they introduced the poetry of the amorists1 that is1 verse which tells of the woes and joys of a lover4 ,we find ,shakespeare in his ,sonnets turning to this subject1 which he made as broad and deep as life4 ,in #aeeg1 the year before ,elizabeth's accession1 the poems of ,wyatt and ,surrey appeared in ,tottel's ,miscellany1 one of the earliest printed collections of modern ,english poetry4 ,,summary ,the first part of the century and a half following the death of ,chaucer saw war with ,france and the ,wars of the ,roses1 in which most of the nobles were killed4 ,the reign of ,henry ,,vii4 and his successors in the ,tudor line shows the increased influence of the crown1 freed from the restraint of the powerful lords4 ,the period witnessed the passing of serfdom and the extension of trade and manufactures4 ,the changes in religious views were far-reaching4 ,henry ,,viii4 superseded the ,pope as head of the ,english church1 dissolved the monasteries1 and placed an ,english translation of the ,bible in the churches4 ,henry's son and successor ,edward ,,vi41 established the ,protestant form of worship1 but his half-sister ,mary used persecution in an endeavor to bring back the old faith4 ,the influences of the ,renaissance1 moving westward from ,italy1 were tending toward their culmination in the next period4 ,the study of ,greek literature1 the discovery of the new world1 the decline of feudalism1 the overthrow of the armed knight1 the extension of the use of gunpowder1 the invention of printing1 the increased love of learning1 the demand for scientific investigation1 the decline of monastic influence1 shown in the new interest in this finite world and life1--all figured as causes or effects of the new influence4 ,the most important prose works are ,sir ,thomas ,malory's ,morte d',arthur1 a masterly retelling of the ,arthurian legends2 ,sir ,thomas ,more's ,utopia1 a magnificent ,renaissance dream of a new social world2 and ,tyndale's translation of the ,bible4 ,the best poetry was written in ,scotland1 and this verse anticipates in some measure that love of nature which is a dominant characteristic of the last part of the eighteenth century4 ,the age is noted for its ballads1 which aided in developing among high and low a liking for poetry4 ,at the close of the period1 we find ,italian influences at work1 as may be seen in the verse of ,wyatt and ,surrey4 ,,references ,,for ,,further ,,study ,,historical ,an account of the history of this period may be found in either ,gardiner1#aj ,green1 ,lingard1 ,walker1 or ,cheney4 ,vols4 ,,iv4 and ,v4 of ,the ,political ,history of ,england1 edited by ,hunt 7,longmans71 gives the history in greater detail4 ,for the social side1 consult ,traill's ,social ,england1 ,vols4 ,,ii4 and ,,iii41 also ,cheney's ,industrial and ,social ,history of ,england1 ,field's ,introduction to the ,study of the ,renaissance1 ,einstein's ,the ,italian ,renaissance in ,england1 ,symonds's ,a ,short ,history of the ,renaissance4 ,,literary ,the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,snell's ,the ,age of ,transition1 #adjj-aehj4 ,morley's ,english ,literature1 ,vols4 ,,vi4 and ,,vii4 ,minto's ,characteristics of ,english ,poets1 pp4 #fi-acj4 ,saintsbury's ,short ,history of ,english ,literature1 pp4 #aeg-bah4 ,dictionary of ,national ,biography1 articles on ,malory1 ,caxton1 ,henryson1 ,gawain ,douglas1 ,dunbar1 ,tyndale1 ,wyatt1 and ,surrey4 ,veitch's ,the ,feeling for ,nature in ,scottish ,poetry4 ,percy's ,reliques of ,ancient ,english ,poetry4 ,gummere's ,old ,english ,ballads4 ,child's ,the ,english and ,scotch ,popular ,ballads4 ,collins's ,greek ,influence on ,english ,poetry4 ,tucker's ,the ,foreign ,debt of ,english ,literature4 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,malory4--,craik1#aa ,century1 #ai-cc2 ,swiggett's ,selections from ,malory2 ,wragg's ,selections from ,malory1--all contain good selections4 ,the ,globe ,edition is an inexpensive single volume containing the complete text4 ,the best edition is a reproduction of the original in three volumes with introductions by ,oscar ,sommer and ,andrew ,lang 7,london3 ,david ,nutt74 ,howard ,pyle has retold ,malory's best stories in simple form 7,scribner74 ,compare the death 7or passing7 of ,arthur in ,malory with ,tennyson's ,the ,passing of ,arthur4 ,what special dualities do you notice in the manner of ,malory's telling a story8 ,is his work original8 ,why has it remained so popular8 ,what age specially shows its influence8 ,more4--,the ,english translation of the ,utopia may be found entire in ,everyman's ,library 7#ce74 ,there are good selections in ,craik1 ,i41 #afb-afg4 ,what is the etymological meaning of ,utopia8 ,what is its modern significance8 ,did ,more really give a new word to literature and speech8 ,the ,utopia should be read for an indication of the influence of the ,renaissance and for comparison with twentieth-century ideas of social improvement4 ,tyndale4--,bosworth and ,waring's ,gospels1 containing the ,anglo-,saxon1 ,wycliffe1 and ,tyndale versions4 ,specimens of ,tyndale's prose are given in ,chambers1 ,i41 #acj2 ,craik1 ,i41 #ahe-ahg4 ,why is ,tyndale's translation of the ,bible important to the student of literature8 ,what are some special dualities of this translation8 ,early ,scottish ,poetry4--,selections from fifteenth-century ,scottish poetry may be found in ,bronson1 ,i1 #agj-aig2 ,ward1 ,i1 passim2 ,p4 ,s41 #bdf-bgg2 ,oxford1 #af-cc4 ,from the ,king's ,quair and the poems of ,henryson1 ,dunbar1 and ,gawain ,douglas1 select passages that show first-hand intimacy with nature4 ,compare these with lines from any poet whose knowledge of nature seems to you to be acquired from books4 ,ballads4--,ward4 ,i41 passim1 contains among others three excellent ballads1--,sir ,patrick ,spens1 ,the ,twa ,corbies1 ,robin ,hood ,rescuing the ,widow's ,three ,sons4 ,bronson1 ,i41 #bjc-bed2 ,p4 ,s41 #bhb-cja2 ,oxford1 #cc-ea2 and ,maynard's ,english ,classics1 ,no4 #if1 ,early ,english ,ballads also have good selections4 ,the best collection is ,child's ,the ,english and ,scotch ,popular ,ballads1 #e vols4 ,what are the chief characteristics of the old ballads8 ,why do they interest us today8 ,which of those indicated for reading has proved most interesting8 ,what influence impossible for other forms of literature1 was exerted by the ballad8 ,what did ,autolycus mean 7,winter's ,tale1 ,,iv41 #d7 when he offered songs for man or woman1 of all sizes8 ,have any ballads been written in recent times8 ,wyatt and ,surrey4--,read two characteristic love sonnets by ,wyatt and ,surrey1 ,p4 ,s41 #cac-cai2 ,ward1 ,i41 #bea1 #beg2 ,bronson1 ,,ii41 #a-d4 ,a specimen of the first ,english blank verse employed by ,surrey in translating ,vergil's1 ,a,eneid is given in ,bronson1 ,,ii41 #d1 #e2 in ,p4 ,s41 #cbb1 #cbc2 and ,chambers1 ,i41 #afb4 ,why are ,wyatt and ,surrey called amourists8 ,what contributions did they make to the form of ,english verse8 ,what foreign influences did they help to usher in8 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,,iii3 ,footnote #a3 ,knightes ,tale4 ,footnote #b3 ,testament of ,cresseid4 ,footnote #c3 ,the ,cloud4 ,footnotes #d-f3 ,the ,golden ,targe4 ,footnote #g3 ,prologue to ,a,eneid1 ,book ,,xii4 ,footnote #h3 ,the ,winter's ,tale1 ,,iv41 #d4 ,footnote #i3 ,wright's ,songs and ,carols of the ,fifteenth ,century1 p4 #cj4 ,footnote #aj3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #ej4 ,footnote #aa3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #f4 ,,chapter ,,iv3 ,,the ,,age ,,of ,,elizabeth1 #aeeh-afjc ,the ,reign of ,elizabeth4--,queen ,elizabeth1 who ranks among the greatest of the world's rulers1 was the daughter of ,henry ,,viii4 and his second wife ,anne ,boleyn4 ,elizabeth reigned as queen of ,england from #aeeh until her death in #afjc4 ,the remarkable allowances which she made for difference of opinion showed that she felt the spirit of the ,renaissance4 ,she loved ,england1 and her most important acts were guided1 not by selfish personal motives1 but by a strong desire to make ,england a great nation4 ,she had a law passed restoring the supremacy of the monarch1 as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things as temporal4 ,the prayer book of ,edward ,,vi4 was again introduced and the mass was forbidden4 ,she was broad enough not to inquire too closely into the private religious opinions of her subjects1 so long as they went to the established church4 ,for each absence they were fined a shilling4 ,next to churchgoing and her country1 she loved and encouraged plays4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,elizabeth',s ,,signature ,,to ,a ,,license ,,for ,,the ,,earl ,,of ,,leicester',s ,,company ,,of ,,players1 #aegd4 ,for more than twenty years she was worried by fear that either ,france or ,spain would put her ,catholic cousin1 ,mary ,queen of ,scots1 on the ,english throne4 ,with masterly diplomacy1 ,elizabeth for a long time managed to retain the active friendship of at least one of these great powers1 in order to restrain the other from interfering4 ,she had kept ,mary a prisoner for nineteen years1 fearing to liberate her4 ,at last an active conspiracy was discovered to assassinate ,elizabeth and put ,mary on the throne4 ,elizabeth accordingly had her cousin beheaded in #aehg4 ,spain thereupon prepared her fleet1 the ,invincible ,armada1 to attack ,england4 ,when this became known1 the outburst of patriotic feeling was so intense among all classes in ,england that the queen did not hesitate to put ,lord ,howard1 a ,catholic1 in command of the ,english fleet4 ,the ,armada was utterly defeated1 and ,england was free to enter on her glorious period of influencing the thought and action of the world4 ,in brief1 ,elizabeth's reign was remarkable for the rise of the middle classes1 for the growth of manufactures1 for the appearance of ,english ships in almost all parts of the world1 for the extension of commerce1 for greater freedom of thought and action1 for what the world now calls ,elizabethan literature1 and for the ascendancy of a great mental and moral movement to which we must next call attention4 ,culmination of the ,renaissance and the ,reformation4--,we have seen that the ,renaissance began in ,italy in the fourteenth century and influenced the work of ,chaucer4 ,in the same century1 ,wycliffe's influence helped the cause of the ,reformation4 ,elizabethan ,england alone had the good fortune to experience the culmination of these two movements at one and the same time4 ,at no other period and in no other country have two forces1 like the ,renaissance and the ,reformation1 combined at the height of their ascendancy to stimulate the human mind4 ,one result of these two mighty influences was the work of ,william ,shakespeare1 which speaks to the ear of all time4 ,the ,renaissance1 having opened the gates of knowledge1 inspired the ,elizabethans with the hope of learning every secret of nature and of surmounting all difficulties4 ,the ,reformation gave man new freedom1 imposed on him the gravest individual responsibilities1 made him realize the importance of every act of his own will1 and emphasized afresh the idea of the stewardship of this present life1 for which he would be held accountable4 ,in ,elizabethan days1 these two forces coperated2 in the following ,puritan age they were at war4 ,some ,characteristics of ,elizabethan ,life4--,it became an ambition to have as many different experiences as possible1 to search for that variety craved by youth and by a youthful age4 ,sir ,walter ,raleigh was a courtier1 a writer1 a warden of the tin mines1 a vice admiral1 a captain of the guard1 a colonizer1 a country gentleman1 and a pirate4 ,sir ,philip ,sidney1 who died at the age of thirty-two1 was an envoy to a foreign court1 a writer of romances1 an officer in the army1 a poet and a courtier4 ,shakespeare left the little town where he was born1 to plunge into the more complex life of ,london4 ,the poet1 ,edmund ,spenser1 went to turbulent ,ireland1 where he had enough experiences to suggest the conflicts in the ,faerie ,queene4 ,the greater freedom and initiative of the individual and the remarkable extension of trade with all parts of the world naturally led to the rise of the middle class4 ,the nobility were no longer the sole leaders in ,england's rapid progress4 ,many of ,elizabeth's councilors were said to have sprung from the masses1 but no reign could boast of wiser ministers4 ,it was then customary for the various classes to mingle much more freely than they do now4 ,there was absence of that overspecialization which today keeps people in such sharply separated groups4 ,this mingling was further aided by the tendency to try many different pursuits and by the spirit of patriotism in the air4 ,all classes were interested in repelling the ,spanish ,armada and in maintaining ,england's freedom4 ,it was fortunate for ,shakespeare that the ,elizabethan age gave him unusual opportunity to meet and to become the spokesman of all classes of men4 ,the audience that stood in the pit or sat in the boxes to witness the performance of his plays1 comprised not only lords and wealthy merchants1 but also weavers1 sailors1 and country folk4 ,initiative and ,love of ,action4--,the ,elizabethans were distinguished for their initiative4 ,this term implies the possession of two qualities3 7#a7 ingenuity or fertility in ideas1 and 7#b7 ability to pass at once from an idea to its suggested action4 ,never did action habitually follow more quickly on the heels of thought4 ,the age loved to translate everything into action1 because the spirit of the ,renaissance demanded the exercise of youthful activity to its fullest capacity in order that the power which the new knowledge promised could be acquired and enjoyed before death4 ,as the ,elizabethans felt that real life meant activity in exploring a new and interesting world1 both physical and mental1 they demanded that their literature should present this life of action4 ,hence1 all their greatest poets1 with the exception of ,spenser1 were dramatists4 ,even ,spenser's ,faerie ,queene1 with its abstractions1 is a poem of action1 for the virtues fight with the vices4 ,,elizabethan ,,prose ,,literature ,variety in the ,prose4--,the imaginative spirit of the ,elizabethans craved poetry1 and all the greatest authors of this age1 with the exception of ,francis ,bacon1 were poets4 ,if1 however1 an ,elizabethan had been so peculiarly constituted as to wish to stock his library with contemporary prose only1 he could have secured good works in many different fields4 ,he could1 for instance1 have obtained 7#a7 an excellent book on education1 the ,scholemaster of ,roger ,ascham 7#aeae-aefh72 7#b7 interesting volumes of travel1 such as the ,navigations1 ,voyages1 and ,discoveries of the ,english ,nation1 by ,richard ,hakluyt 7#aeeb-afaf72 and ,the ,discovery of ,guiana1 by ,sir ,walter ,raleigh 7#aeeb-afah72 7#c7 history1 in the important ,chronicles of ,england1 ,ireland1 and ,scotland 7#aegh71 by ,raphael ,holinshed2 the ,chronicle 7,annals of ,england7 and ,survey of ,london1 by ,john ,stow 7#aebe-afjd72 and the ,brittania1 by ,william ,camden 7#aeea-afbc72 7#d7 biography1 in the excellent translation of ,plutarch's ,lives1 by ,sir ,thomas ,north 7#aece-afja872 7#e7 criticism1 in ,the ,apologie for ,poetrie1 by ,sir ,philip ,sidney2 7#f7 essays on varied subjects by ,francis ,bacon2 7#g7 works dealing with religion and faith3 7a7 ,john ,foxe's 7#aeaf-aehg7 ,book of ,martyrs1 which told in simple prose thrilling stories of martyrs and served as a textbook of the ,reformation2 7b7 ,hooker's ,of the ,laws of ,ecclesiastical ,polity1 a treatise on theology2 7#h7 fiction1#a in ,john ,lyly's ,euphues 7#aegi71 ,robert ,greene's ,pandosto 7#aehh71 ,sir ,philip ,sidney's ,arcardia 7#aeij71 ,thomas ,lodge's ,rosalynde 7#aeij71 ,nashe's ,the ,unfortunate ,traveler 7#aeid71 and ,thomas ,deloney's ,the ,gentle ,craft 7#aeig74b ,shakespeare read ,holinshed1 ,north1 ,greene1 ,sidney1 and ,lodge and turned some of their suggestions into poetry1 which we very much prefer to their prose4 ,we are nearly certain that ,shakespeare studied ,lyly's ,euphues1 because we can trace the influence of that work in his style4 ,it was the misfortune of ,elizabethan prose to be almost completely overshadowed by the poetry4 ,this prose was1 however1 far more varied and important than that of any preceding age4 ,the books mentioned on page #abc constitute only a small part of the prose of this period4 ,lyly1 ,sidney1 ,hooker4--,in #aegi1 when ,shakespeare was fifteen years old1 there appeared the first part of an influential prose work1 ,john ,lyly's 7#aeed8-afjf7 ,euphues1 the ,anatomy of ,wit1 followed in #aehj by a second part1 ,euphues and his ,england4 ,much of ,lyly's subject matter is borrowed1 and his form reflects the artificial style then popular over ,europe4 ,euphues1 a young ,athenian1 goes to ,naples1 where he falls in love and is jilted4 ,this is all the action in the first part of the so-called story4 ,the rest is moralizing4 ,in the second part1 ,euphues comes to ,england with a friend1 who falls in love twice1 and finally marries2 but again there is more moralizing than story4 ,euphues returns to ,athens and retires to the mountains to muse in solitude4 ,in its use of a love story1 ,euphues prefigures the modern novel4 ,in ,euphues1 however1 the love story serves chiefly as a peg on which to hang discussions on fickleness1 youthful follies1 friendship1 and divers other subjects4 ,lyly aimed to produce artistic prose1 which would render his meaning clear and impressive4 ,to achieve this object1 he made such excessive use of contrast1 balanced words and phrases1 and far-fetched comparisons1 that his style seems highly artificial and affected4 ,this quotation is typical3-- ,achilles spear could as well heal as hurt1 the scorpion though he sting1 yet he stints the pain1 through the herb ,nerius poison the sheep1 yet is a remedy to man against poison444 ,there is great difference between the standing puddle and the running stream1 yet both water3 great odds between the adamant and the pomice1 yet both stones1 a great distinction to be put between vitrum and the crystal1 yet both glass3 great contrariety between ,lais and ,lucretia1 yet both women4 ,although this selection shows unnatural or strained antithesis1 there is also evident a commendable desire to vary the diction and to avoid the repetition of the same word4 ,to find four different terms for nearly the same idea difference1 odds1 distinction1 and contrariety1 involves considerable painstaking4 ,while it is true that the term euphuism has come to be applied to any stilted1 antithetical style that pays more attention to the manner of expressing a thought than to its worth1 we should remember that ,english prose style has advanced because some writers1 like ,lyly1 emphasized the importance of artistic form4 ,shakespeare occasionally employs euphuistic contrast in an effective way4 ,the sententious ,polonius says in ,hamlet3-- ,give every man thy ear1 but few thy voice4 ,illustration3 ,,philippe ,,sidney4 ,after the miniature by ,isaac ,oliver1 ,windsor ,castle4 ,sir ,philip ,sidney 7#aeed-aehf7 wrote for his sister1 the ,countess of ,pembroke1 a pastoral romance1 entitled ,arcadia 7published in #aeij74 ,unlike ,lyly1 ,sidney did not aim at precision1 emphatic contrast1 and balance4 ,for its effectiveness1 the ,arcadia relies on poetic language and conceptions4 ,the characters in the romance live and love in a ,utopian ,arcadia1 where the morning did strow ,roses and ,violets in the heavenly floor against the coming of the ,sun1 and where the shepherd boy pipes as though he should never be old4 ,passages like the following show ,sidney's poetic style and as much exuberant fancy as if they had been written by a ,celt3-- ,her breath is more sweet than a gentle southwest wind1 which comes creeping over flowery fields and shadowed waters in the extreme heat of summer and yet is nothing compared to the honey-flowing speech that breath doth carry4 ,the ,arcadia furnished ,shakespeare's ,king ,lear with the auxiliary plot of ,gloucester and his two sons and inspired ,thomas ,lodge to write his novel ,rosalynde1 which in turn suggested ,shakespeare's ,as ,you ,like ,it4 ,to ,sidney belongs the credit of having written the first meritorious essay on criticism in the ,english language1 ,the ,apologie for ,poetrie4 ,this defends the poetic art1 and shows how necessary such exercise of the imagination is to take us away from the cold1 hard facts of life4 ,richard ,hooker's 7#aeed8-afjj7 ,of the ,laws of ,ecclesiastical ,polity shows a third aim in ,elizabethan prose1--to express carefully reasoned investigation and conclusion in ,english that is as thoroughly elaborated and qualified as the thought4 ,lyly's striking contrasts and ,sidney's flowery prose do not appeal to ,hooker1 who uses ,latin inversions and parenthetical qualifications1 and adds clause after clause whenever he thinks it necessary to amplify the thought or to guard against misunderstanding4 ,hooker's prose is as carefully wrought as ,lyly's and far more rhythmical4 ,both were experimenting with ,english prose in different fields1 serving to teach succeeding writers what to imitate and to avoid4 ,unlike ,euphues and the ,arcadia1 ,of the ,laws of ,ecclesiastical ,polity is more valuable for its thought than for its form of expression4 ,this work1 which is still studied as an authority1 is an exposition of divine law in its relations to both the world and the church4 ,hooker was personally a compound of sweetness and light1 and his philosophy is marked by sweet reasonableness4 ,he was a clergyman of the ,church of ,england1 but he shows a spirit of toleration toward other churches4 ,he had much of the modern idea of growth in both government and religion1 and he accepts no system of government either in church or state as unalterable4 ,,francis ,,bacon1 #aefa-afbf ,illustration3 ,,francis ,,bacon4 ,from the painting by ,van ,somer1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,a study of ,bacon takes us beyond the limits of the reign of ,elizabeth1 but not beyond the continued influences of that reign4 ,francis ,bacon1 the son of ,sir ,nicholas ,bacon1 ,lord ,keeper of the ,great ,seal under ,elizabeth1 was born in ,london and grew up under the influences of the court4 ,in order to understand some of ,bacon's actions in later life1 we must remember the influences that helped to fashion him in his boyhood days4 ,those with whom he early associated and who unconsciously molded him were not very scrupulous about the way in which they secured the favor of the court or the means which they took to outstrip an adversary4 ,they also encouraged in him a taste for expensive luxuries4 ,these unfortunate influences were intensified when1 at the age of sixteen1 he went with the ,english ambassador to ,paris1 and remained there for two and a half years1 studying statecraft and diplomacy4 ,when ,bacon was nineteen1 his father died4 ,the son1 being without money1 returned from ,paris and appealed to his uncle1 ,lord ,burleigh1 one of ,elizabeth's ministers1 for some lucrative position at the court4 ,in a letter to his uncle1 ,bacon says3 ,i confess ,i have as vast contemplative ends as ,i have moderate civil ends2 for ,i have taken all knowledge to be my province4 ,this statement shows the ,elizabethan desire to master the entire world of the ,new ,learning4 ,instead of helping his nephew1 however1 ,lord ,burleigh seems to have done all in his power to thwart him4 ,bacon thereupon studied law and was admitted to the bar in #aehb4 ,bacon entered ,parliament in #aehd and distinguished himself as a speaker4 ,ben ,jonson1 the dramatist1 says of him ,there happened in my time one noble speaker who was full of gravity in his speaking4 ,no man ever spoke more neatly1 more presly1 more weightily1 or suffered less emptiness1 less idleness1 in what he uttered4 ,his hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss4 ,the fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end4 ,this speaking was valuable training for ,bacon in writing the pithy sentences of his ,essays4 ,a man who uses the long1 involved sentences of ,hooker can never become a speaker to whom people will listen4 ,the habit of directness and simplicity1 which ,bacon formed in his speaking1 remained with him through ,life4 ,among the many charges against ,bacon's personal code of ethics1 two stand out conspicuously4 ,the ,earl of ,essex1 who had given ,bacon an estate then worth #ahjj1 was influential in having him appointed to the staff of counselors to ,queen ,elizabeth4 ,when ,essex was accused of treason1 ,bacon kept the queen's friendship by repudiating him and taking an active part in the prosecution that led to the earl's execution4 ,after ,james ,i4 had made ,bacon ,lord ,high ,chancellor of ,england1 he was accused of receiving bribes as a judge4 ,he replied that he had accepted only the customary presents given to judges and that these made no difference in his decisions4 ,he was tried1 found guilty1 fined #dj1jjj1 and sentenced to be imprisoned in the ,tower during the king's pleasure4 ,after a few days1 however1 the king released him1 forgave the fine1 and gave him an annual pension of #abjj4 ,the question whether he wrote ,shakespeare's plays needs almost as much discussion on the moral as on the intellectual side4 ,james ,spedding1 after studying ,bacon's life and works for thirty years1 said3 ,i see no reason to suppose that ,shakespeare did not write the plays4 ,but if somebody else did1 then ,i think ,i am in a position to say that it was not ,lord ,bacon4 ,after his release1 ,bacon passed the remaining five years of his life in retirement1--studying and writing4 ,his interest in observing natural objects and experimenting with them was the cause of his death4 ,he was riding in a snowstorm when it occurred to him to test snow as a preservative agent4 ,he stopped at a house1 procured a fowl1 and stuffed it with snow4 ,he caught cold during this experiment and1 being improperly cared for1 soon died4 ,the ,essays4--,the first ten of his ,essays1 his most popular work1 appeared in the year #aeig4 ,at the time of his death1 he had increased them to fifty-eight4 ,they deal with a with range of subjects1 from ,studies and ,nobility1 ,on the one hand1 to ,marriage and ,single ,life and ,gardens on the other4 ,the great critic ,hallam say3 ,it would be somewhat derogatory to a man of the slightest claim to polite letters1 were he unacquainted with the ,essays of ,bacon4 ,it is1 indeed1 little worth while to read this or any other book for reputation's1 sake2 but very few in our language so well repay the pains1 or afford more nourishment to the thoughts4 ,illustration3 ,,title ,,page ,,of ,,bacon',s ,,essays1 #aeig4 ,the following sentence from the essay ,of ,studies will show some of the characteristics of his way of presenting thought3-- ,reading maketh a full man1 conference a ready man1 and writing an exact man3 and1 therefore1 if a man write little1 he had need have a great memory2 if he confer little1 he had need have a present wit2 and if he read little1 he need have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not4 ,we may notice here 7#a7 clearness1 7#b7 conciseness1 7#c7 breadth of thought and observation4 ,a shrewd ,scotchman says3 ,it may be said that to men wishing to rise in the world by politic management of their fellowmen1 ,bacon's ,essays are the best handbook hitherto published4 ,in justification of this criticism1 we need only quote from the essay ,of ,negotiating3-- ,it is generally better to deal by speech than by letter444 ,letters are good1 when a man would draw an answer by letter back again1 or when it may serve1 for a man's justification1 afterwards to produce his own letter1 or where it may he danger to be interrupted or heard by pieces4 ,to deal in person is good1 when a man's face breedeth regard1 as commonly with inferiors1 or in tender cases1 where a man's eye upon the countenance of him with whom he speaketh may give him a direction how far to go1 and generally1 where a man will reserve to himself liberty either to disavow or to expound4 ,scientific and ,miscellaneous ,works4--,the ,advancement of ,learning is another of ,bacon's great works4 ,the title aptly expresses the purpose of the took4 ,he insists on the necessity of close observation of nature and of making experiments with various forms of matter4 ,he decries the habit of spinning things out of one's inner consciousness1 without patiently studying the outside world to see whether the facts justify the conclusions4 ,in other words1 he insists on induction4 ,bacon was not the father of the inductive principle1 as is sometimes wrongly stated2 for prehistoric man was compelled to make inductions before he could advance one step from barbarism4 ,the trouble was that this method was not rigorously applied4 ,it was currently believed that our valuable garden toad is venomous and that frogs are bred from slime4 ,for his knowledge of bees1 ,lyly consulted classical authors in preference to watching the insects4 ,bacon's writings exerted a powerful influence in the direction of exact inductive method4 ,bacon had so little faith in the enduring qualities of the ,english language1 that he wrote the most of his philosophical works in ,latin4 ,he planned a ,latin work in six parts1 to cover the whole field of the philosophy of natural science4 ,the most famous of the parts completed is the ,novum ,organum1 which deals with certain methods for searching after definite truth1 and shows how to avoid some ever present tendencies toward error4 ,bacon wrote an excellent ,history of the ,reign of ,henry ,,vii41 which is standard to this day4 ,he is also the author of ,the ,new ,atlantis1 which may be termed a ,baconian ,utopia1 or study of an ideal commonwealth4 ,general ,characteristics4--,in ,bacon's sentences we may often find remarkable condensation of thought in few words4 ,a modern essayist has taken seven pages to express1 or rather to obscure1 the ideas in these three lines from ,bacon3-- ,men of age object too much1 consult too long1 adventure too little1 repent too soon1 and seldom drive business home to the full period1 but content themselves with a mediocrity of success4#c ,his works abound in illustrations1 analogies1 and striking imagery2 but unlike the great ,elizabethan poets1 he appeals more to cold intellect than to the feelings4 ,we are often pleased with his intellectual ingenuity1 for instance1 in likening the ,schoolmen to spiders1 spinning such stuff as webs are made of out of no great quantity of matter4 ,he resembles the ,elizabethans in preferring magnificent to commonplace images4 ,it has been often noticed that if he essays to write of buildings in general1 he prefers to describe palaces4 ,his knowledge of the intellectual side of human nature is especially remarkable1 but1 unlike ,shakespeare1 ,bacon never drops his plummet into the emotional depths of the soul4 ,,the ,,non-,,dramatic ,,poetry--,,lyrical ,,verse ,a ,medium of ,artistic ,expression4--,no age has surpassed the ,elizabethan in lyrical poems1 those short swallow flights of song1 as ,tennyson defines them4 ,the ,english ,renaissance1 unlike the ,italian1 did not achieve great success in painting4 ,the ,englishman embodied in poetry his artistic expression of the beautiful4 ,many lyrics are merely examples of word painting4 ,the ,elizabethan poet often began his career by trying to show his skill with the ingenious and musical arrangement of words1 where an ,italian would have used color and drawing on an actual canvas4 ,we have seen that in the reign of ,henry ,,viii4 ,wyatt and ,surrey introduced into ,england from ,italy the type of lyrical verse known as the sonnet4 ,this is the most artificial of lyrics1 because its rules prescribe a length of exactly fourteen lines and a definite internal structure4 ,the sonnet was especially popular with ,elizabethan poets4 ,in the last ten years of the sixteenth century1 more than two thousand sonnets were written4 ,even ,shakespeare served a poetic apprenticeship by writing many sonnets as well as semi-lyrical poems1 like ,venus and ,adonis4 ,we should1 however1 remember that the sonnet is only one type of the varied lyric expression of the age4 ,many ,elizabethan song books show that lyrics were set to music and used on the most varied occasions4 ,there were songs for weddings1 funerals1 dances1 banquets1--songs for the tinkers1 the barbers1 and other workmen4 ,if modern readers chance to pick up an ,elizabethan novel1 like ,thomas ,lodge's ,rosalynde 7#aeij71 they are surprised to find that prose will not suffice for the lover1 who must evaporate into song like this3-- ,love in my bosom like a bee1 ,doth suck his sweet4 ,now with his wings he plays with me1 ,now with his feet4 ,there are large numbers of ,elizabethan lyrics apparently as spontaneous and unfettered as the song of the lark4 ,the seeming artlessness of much of this verse should not blind us to the fact that an unusual number of poets had really studied the art of song4 ,love ,lyrics4--,the subject of the ,elizabethan sonnets is usually love4 ,sir ,philip ,sidney wrote many love sonnets1 the best of which is the one beginning3-- ,with how sad steps4 ,o ,moon1 thou climb'st the ,skies6 ,edmund ,spencer composed fifty-eight sonnets in one year to chronicle his varied emotions as a lover4 ,we may find among ,shakespeare's #aed sonnets some of the greatest love lyrics in the language1 such1 for instance1 as ,,cxvi41 containing the lines3-- ,love is not love ,which alters when it alteration finds2 or1 as ,,xviii43-- ,shall ,i compare thee to a summer's day8 ,thou art more lovely and more temperate3 ,rough winds do shake the darling buds of ,may1 ,and summer's lease bath all too short a date4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but thy eternal summer shall not fade4 ,sonnets came to be used in much the same way as a modern love letter or valentine4 ,in the latter part of ,elizabeth's reign1 sonnets were even called merchantable ware4 ,michael ,drayton 7#aefc-afca71 a prolific poet1 author of the ,ballad of ,agincourt1 one of ,england's greatest war songs1 tells how he was employed by a lover to write a sonnet which won the lady4 ,drayton's best sonnet is1 ,since there's no help1 come let us kiss and part4 ,outside of the sonnets1 we shall find love lyrics in great variety4 ,one of the most popular of ,elizabethan songs is ,ben ,jonson's3-- ,drink to me only with thine eyes1 ,and ,i will pledge with mine2 ,or leave a kiss but in the cup1 ,and ,i'll not look for wine4 ,the ,elizabethans were called a nest of singing birds because such songs as the following are not unusual in the work of their minor writers3-- ,sweet air1 blow soft2 mount1 lark1 aloft ,to give my love good morrow6 ,winds from the wind to please her mind1 ,notes from the lark ,i'll borrow4#d ,pastoral ,lyrics4--,in ,shakespeare's early youth it was the fashion to write lyrics about the delights of rustic life with sheep and shepherds4 ,the ,italians1 freshly interesting in ,vergil's ,georgics and ,bucolics1 had taught the ,english how to write pastoral verse4 ,the entire joyous world had become a ,utopian sheep pasture1 in which shepherds piped and fell in love with glorified sheperdesses4 ,a great poet named one of his productions1 ,shepherd's ,calendar and ,sir ,philip ,sidney wrote in poetic prose the pastoral romance ,arcadia4 ,christopher ,marlowe's ,the ,passionate ,shepherd to his ,love is a typical poetic expression of the fancied delight in pastoral life3-- 444we will sit upon the rocks1 ,seeing the shepherds feed their flocks ,by shallow rivers1 to whose falls ,melodious birds sing madrigals4 ,miscellaneous ,lyrics4--,as the ,elizabethan age progressed1 the subject matter of the lyrics became broader4 ,verse showing consummate mastery of turns expressed the most varied emotions4 ,some of the greatest lyrics of the period are the songs interspersed in the plays of the dramatists1 from ,lyly to ,beaumont and ,fletcher4 ,the plays of ,shakespeare1 the greatest and most varied of ,elizabethan lyrical poets1 especially abound in such songs4 ,two of the best of these occur in his ,cymbeline4 ,one is the song-- ,hark6 hark6 the lark at heaven's gate sings1 and the other is the dirge beginning3-- ,fear no more the heat o' the sun4 ,ariel's songs in ,the ,tempest fascinate with the witchery of untrammeled existence4 ,two lines of a song from ,twelfth ,night give an attractive presentation of the ,renaissance philosophy of the present as opposed to an elusive future3-- ,what is love8 'tis not hereafter2 ,present mirth hath present laughter4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,donne4 ,from the painting ascribed to ,cornelius ,jansen1 ,south ,kensington ,museum4 ,two of the later ,elizabethan poets1 ,ben ,jonson and ,john ,donne 7#aegc-afca71 specially impress us by their efforts to secure ingenious effects in verse4 ,ben ,jonson often shows this tendency1 as in trying to give a poetic definition of a kiss as something-- ,so sugar'd1 so melting1 so soft1 so delicious1 and in showing so much ingenuity of expression in the cramping limits of an epitaph3-- ,underneath this stone doth lie ,as much beauty as could die1 ,which in life did harbor give ,to more virtue than doth live4 ,the poet most famous for a display of extreme ingenuity in verse is ,john ,donne1 a traveler1 courtier1 and finally dean of ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral1 who possessed1 to quote his own phrase1 an hydroptic immoderate desire of human learning4 ,he paid less attention to artistic form than the earlier ,elizabethans1 showed more cynicism1 chose the abstract rather than the concrete1 and preferred involved metaphysical thought to simple sensuous images4 ,he made few references to nature and few allusions to the characters of classical mythology1 but searched for obscure likenesses between things1 and for conceits or far-fetched comparisons4 ,in his poem1 ,a ,funeral ,elegy1 he shows these qualities in characterizing a fair young lady as3-- ,one whose clear body was so pure and thin1 ,because it need disguise no thought within2 ',twas but a through-light scarf her mind to enroll1 ,or exhalation breathed out from her soul4 ,the idea in ,shakespeare's simpler expression1 the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye1 was expanded by ,donne into3-- ,our eye-beams twisted1 and did thread ,our eyes upon one double string4 ,donne does not always show so much fine-spun ingenuity1 but this was the quality most imitated by a group of his successors4 ,his claim to distinction rests on the originality and ingenuity of his verse1 and perhaps still more on his influence over succeeding poets4#e ,,edmund ,,spenser1 #aeeb-aeii ,illustration3 ,,edmund ,,spenser4,from a painting in ,duplin ,castle4 ,life and ,minor ,poems4--,for one hundred and fifty-two years after ,chaucer's death1 in #adjj1 ,england had no great poet until ,edmund ,spenser was born in ,london in #aeeb4 ,spenser1 who became the greatest non-dramatic poet of the ,elizabethan age1 was twelve years older than ,shakespeare4 ,his parents were poor1 but fortunately in ,elizabethan times1 as well as in our own days1 there were generous men who found their chief pleasure in aiding others4 ,such a man assisted ,spenser in going to ,cambridge4 ,spenser's benefactor was sufficiently wise not to give the student enough to dwarf the growth of self-reliance4 ,we know that ,spenser was a sizar at ,cambridge1 that is1 one of those students who1 to quote ,macaulay1 had to perform some menial services4 ,they swept the court2 they carried up the dinner to the fellows' table1 and changed the plate and poured out the ale of the rulers of society4 ,we know further that ,spenser was handicapped by ill health during a part of his course1 for we find records of allowances paid ,spenser aegrotanti4 ,after leaving ,cambridge ,spenser went to the north of ,england1 probably in the capacity of tutor4 ,while there1 he fell in love with a young woman whom he calls ,rosalind4 ,this event colored his after life4 ,although she refused him1 she had penetration enough to see in what his greatness consisted1 and her opinion spurred him to develop his abilities as a poet4 ,he was about twenty-five years old when he fell in love with ,rosalind2 and he remained single until he was forty-two1 when he married an ,irish maiden named ,elizabeth4 ,in honor of that event1 he composed the ,epithalamion1 the noblest marriage song in any literature4 ,so strong are early impressions that even in its lines he seems to be thinking of ,rosalind and fancying that she is his bride4 ,after returning from the north1 he spent some time with ,sir ,philip ,sidney1 who helped fashion ,spenser's ideals of a chivalrous gentleman4 ,sidney's influence is seen in ,spenser's greatest work1 the ,faerie ,queene4 ,sir ,walter ,raleigh was another friend who left his imprint on ,spenser4 ,in #aegi1 ,spenser published the ,shepherd's ,calendar4 ,this is a pastoral poem1 consisting of twelve different parts1 one part being assigned to each of the twelve months4 ,although inferior to the ,faerie ,queene1 the ,shepherd's ,calendar remains one of the greatest pastoral poems in the ,english language4 ,in #aehj he was appointed secretary to ,lord ,gray1 ,lord ,lieutenant of ,ireland4 ,in one capacity or another1 in the service of the crown1 ,spenser passed in ,ireland almost the entire remaining eighteen years of his life4 ,in #aeia he received in the south of ,ireland a grant of three thousand acres1 a part of the confiscated estate of an ,irish earl4 ,sir ,walter ,raleigh was also given forty-two thousand acres near ,spenser4 ,ireland was then in a state of continuous turmoil4 ,in such a country ,spenser lived and wrote his ,faerie ,queene4 ,of course1 this environment powerfully affected the character of that poem4 ,it has been said that to read a contemporary's account of ,raleigh's adventures with the ,irish chieftains1 his challenges and single combats1 his escapes at fords and woods1 is like reading bits of the ,faerie ,queene in prose4 ,in #aeih the ,irish1 infuriated by the invasion of their country and the seizure of their lands1 set fire to ,spenser's castle4 ,he and his family barely escaped with their lives4 ,he crossed to ,england and died the next year1 according to some accounts1 in want4 ,he was buried1 at the expense of ,lord ,essex1 in ,westminster ,abbey1 near ,chaucer4 ,the ,faerie ,queene4--,in #aeij ,spenser published the first three books of the ,faerie ,queene4 ,the original plan was to have the poem contain twelve books1 like ,vergil's ,a,eneid1 but only six were published4 ,if more were written1 they have been lost4 ,the poem is an allegory with the avowed moral purpose of fashioning a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline4 ,spenser says3 ,i labour to pourtraict in ,arthure1 before he was ,king1 the image of a brave knight1 perfected in the twelve private morall vertues1 as ,aristotle hath devised4 ,twelve ,knights personifying twelve ,virtues were to fight with their opposing ,vices1 and the twelve books were to tell the story of the conflict4 ,the ,knights set out from the court of ,gloriana1 the ,faerie ,queene1 in search of their enemies1 and meet with divers adventures and enchantments4 ,the hero of the tale is ,arthur1 who has figured so much in ,english song and legend4 ,spenser makes him typical of all the ,virtues taken together4 ,the first book1 which is really a complete poem by itself1 and which is generally admitted to be the finest1 contains an account of the adventures of the ,red ,cross ,knight who represents ,holiness4 ,other books tell of the warfare of the ,knights who typify ,temperance1 ,chastity1 ,friendship1 ,justice1 and ,courtesy4 ,the poem begins thus3-- ,a gentle ,knight was pricking#f on the plaine1 ,ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde1 ,wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine1 ,the cruell markes of many' a bloody fielde2 ,yet armes till that time did he never wield4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and on his brest a bloodie ,crosse he bore1 ,the deare remembrance of his dying ,lord1 ,for whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore4 99 99 99 99 99 ,upon a great adventure he was bond4 ,that greatest ,gloriana to him gave1 ,that greatest glorious ,queene of ,faerie lond4 ,the entire poem really typifies the aspirations of the human soul for something nobler and better than can be gained without effort4 ,in ,spenser's imaginative mind1 these aspirations became real persons who set out to win laurels in a fairyland1 lighted with the soft light of the moon1 and presided over by the good genius that loves to uplift struggling and weary souls4 ,the allegory certainly becomes confused4 ,a critic well says3 ,we can hardly lose our way in it1 for there is no way to lose4 ,we are not called on to understand the intricacies of the allegory1 but to read between the lines1 catch the noble moral lesson1 and drink to our fill at the fountain of beauty and melody4 ,spenser a ,subjective ,poet4--,the subjective cast of ,spenser's mind next demands attention4 ,we feel that his is an ideal world1 one that does not exist outside of the imagination4 ,in order to understand the difference between subjective and objective1 let us compare ,chaucer with ,spenser4 ,no one can really be said to study literature without constantly bringing in the principle of comparison4 ,we must notice the likeness and the difference between literary productions1 or the faint impression which they make upon our minds will soon pass away4 ,chaucer is objective2 that is1 he identifies himself with things that could have a real existence in the outside world4 ,we find ourselves looking at the shiny bald head of ,chaucer's ,monk1 at the lean horse and threadbare clothes of the ,student of ,oxford1 at the brown complexion of the ,shipman1 at the enormous hat and large figure of the ,wife of ,bath1 at the red face of the ,summoner1 at the hair of the ,pardoner yelow as wex4 ,these are not mere figments of the imagination4 ,we feel that they are either realities or that they could have existed4 ,while the adventures in the ,irish wars undoubtedly gave the original suggestions for many of the contests between good and evil in the ,faerie ,queene1 ,spenser intentionally idealized these knightly struggles to uphold the right and placed them in fairyland4 ,this great poem is the work of a mind that loved to elaborate purely subjective images4 ,the pictures were not painted from gazing at the outside world4 ,we feel that they are mostly creations of the imagination1 and that few of them could exist in a real world4 ,there is no bower in the bottom of the sea1 built of hollow billowes heaped hye1 and no lion ever follows a lost maiden to protect her4 ,we feel that the principal part of ,shakespeare's world could have existed in reality as well as in imagination4 ,spenser was never able to reach this highest type of art4 ,the world1 however1 needs poets to create images of a higher type of beauty than this life can offer4 ,these images react on our material lives and cast them in a nobler mold4 ,spenser's belief that the subjective has power to fashion the objective is expressed in two of the finest lines that he ever wrote3-- ,for of the soule the bodie forme doth take2 ,for soule is forme1 and doth the bodie make4#g ,chief ,characteristics of ,spenser's ,poetry4--,we can say of ,spencer's verse that it stands in the front rank for 7#a7 melody1 7#b7 love of the beautiful1 and 7#c7 nobility of the ideals presented4 ,his poetry also 7#d7 shows a preference for the subjective world1 7#e7 exerts a remarkable influence over other poets1 and 7#f7 displays a peculiar liking for obsolete forms of expression4 ,spencer's melody is noteworthy4 ,if we read aloud correctly such lines as these1 we can scarcely fail to be impressed with their harmonious flow3-- ,a teme of ,dolphins raunged in aray ,drew the smooth charett of sad ,cymoent3 ,they were all taught by ,triton to obay ,to the long raynes at her commaundement3 ,as swifte as swallowes on the waves they went4 99 99 99 99 99 ,upon great ,neptune's necke they softly swim1 ,and to her watry chamber swiftly carry him4 ,deepe in the bottome of the sea her bowre ,is built of hollow billowes heaped hye4#h ,the following lines will show ,spenser's love for beauty1 and at the same time indicate the nobility of some of his ideal characters4 ,he is describing ,lady ,una1 the fair representative of true religion1 who has lost through enchantment her ,guardian ,knight1 and who is wandering disconsolate in the forest3-- 444,her angel's face1 ,as the great eye of heaven1 shyned bright1 ,and made a sunshine in the shady place2 ,did never mortall eye behold such heavenly grace4 ,it fortuned out of the thickest wood ,a ramping ,lyon rushed suddeinly1 ,hunting full greedy after salvage blood4 ,soone as the royall virgin he did spy1 ,with gaping mouth at her ran greedily1 ,to have att once devoured her tender corse2 ,but to the pray when as he drew more ny1 ,his bloody rage aswaged with remorse1 ,and with the sight amazd1 forgat his furious forse4 ,in stead thereof he kist her wearie feet1 ,and lickt her lilly hands with fawning tong1 ,as he her wronged innocence did weet4 ,o1 how can beautie maister the most strong1 ,and simple truth subdue avenging wrong6#i ,the power of beauty has seldom been more vividly described4 ,as we read the succeeding stanzas and see the lion following her1 like a faithful dog1 to shield her from harm1 we feel the power of both beauty and goodness and realize that with ,spenser these terms are interchangeable1 ,each one of the preceding selections shows his preference for the subjective and the ideal to the actual4 ,spenser searched for old and obsolete words4 ,he used eyne for eyes1 fone for foes1 shend for shame4 ,he did not hesitate to coin words when he needed them1 like mercify and fortunize4 ,he even wrote wawes in place of waves because he wished it to rime with jaws4 ,in spite of these peculiarities1 ,spenser is not hard reading after the first appearance of strangeness has worn away4 ,a critic rightly says that ,spenser repels none but the anti-poetical4 ,his influence upon other poets has been far-reaching4 ,milton1 ,dryden1 ,byron1 ,wordsworth1 ,keats1 and ,shelley show traces of his influence4 ,spenser has been called the poet's poet1 because the more poetical one is1 the more one will enjoy him4 ,,the ,,english ,,drama ,the ,early ,religious ,drama4--,it is necessary to remember at the outset that the purpose of the religious drama was not to amuse1 but to give a vivid presentation of scriptural truth4 ,on the other hand1 the primary aim of the later dramatist has usually been to entertain1 or1 in ,shakespeare's exact words1 to please4 ,shakespeare was1 however1 fortunate in having an audience that was pleased to be instructed1 as well as entertained4 ,before the sixteenth century1 ,england had a religious drama that made a profound impression on life and thought4 ,the old religious plays helped to educate the public1 the playwrights1 and the actors for the later drama4 ,any one may to-day form some idea of the rise of the religious drama1 by attending the service of the ,catholic church on ,christmas or ,easter ,sunday4 ,in many ,catholic churches there may still be seen at ,christmas time a representation of the manger at ,bethlehem4 ,sometimes the figures of the infant ,savior1 of ,joseph and ,mary1 of the wise men1 of the sheep and cattle1 are very lifelike4 ,the events clustering about the ,crucifixion and the ,resurrection furnished the most striking material for the early religious drama4 ,our earliest dramatic writers drew their inspiration from the ,new ,testament4 ,miracle and ,mystery ,plays4--,a ,miracle play is the dramatic representation of the life of a saint and of the miracles connected with him4 ,a ,mystery play deals with gospel events which are concerned with any phase of the life of ,christ1 or with any ,biblical event that remotely foreshadows ,christ or indicates the necessity of a ,redeemer4 ,in ,england there were few1 if any1 pure ,miracle plays1 but the term ,miracle is applied indiscriminately to both ,miracles and ,mysteries4 ,the first ,miracle play in ,england was acted probably not far from #aajj4 ,in the fourteenth1 fifteenth1 and sixteenth centuries these plays had become so popular that they were produced in nearly every part of ,england4 ,shakespeare felt their influence4 ,he must have had frequent opportunities in his boyhood to witness their production4 ,they were seldom performed in ,england after #afjj1 although visitors to ,germany have1 every ten years1 the opportunity of seeing a modern production of a ,mystery in the ,passion ,play at ,oberammergau4 ,the ,subjects4--,four great cycles of ,miracle plays have been preserved3 the ,york1 ,chester1 and ,coventry plays1 so called because they were performed in those places1 and the ,towneley plays1 which take their name from ,towneley ,hall in ,lancashire1 where the manuscript was kept for some time4 ,it is probable that almost every town of importance had its own collection of plays4 ,illustration3 ,,miracle ,,play ,,at ,,coventry4 ,from an old print ,the ,york cycle contains forty-eight plays4 ,a cycle or circle of plays means a list forming a complete circle from ,creation until ,doomsday4 ,the ,york collection begins with ,creation and the fall of ,lucifer and the bad angels from ,heaven1--a theme which was later to inspire the pen of one of ,england's greatest poets4 ,the tragedies of ,eden and the ,flood1 scenes from the lives of ,abraham1 ,isaac1 and ,moses1 the manger at ,bethlehem1 the slaughter of the ,innocents1 the ,temptation1 the resurrection of ,lazarus1 the ,last ,supper1 the ,trial1 the ,crucifixion1 and the ,easter triumph are a few of the ,miracle plays that were acted in the city of ,york4 ,the ,actors and ,manner of ,presentation4--,at first the actors were priests who presented the plays either in the church or in its immediate vicinity on sacred ground4 ,after a while the plays became so popular that the laity presented them4 ,when they were at the height of their popularity1 that is1 during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries1 the actors were selected with great care from the members of the various trades guilds4 ,each guild undertook the entire responsibility for the presentation of some one play1 and endeavored to surpass all the other guilds4 ,illustration3 ,,hell ,,mouth4,from a ,columbia ,university ,model4 ,considerable humor was displayed in the allotment of various plays4 ,the tanners presented the fall of ,lucifer and the bad angels into the infernal regions2 the ship carpenters1 the play of ,noah and the building of the ark2 the bakers1 the ,last ,supper2 the butchers1 the ,crucifixion4 ,in their prime1 the ,miracle plays were acted on wooden platforms mounted on wheels4 ,there were two distinct stories in these movable stages1 a lower one in which the actors dressed1 and an upper one in which they played4 ,the entrance to the lower story1 known as ,hell ,mouth1 consisted of a terrible pair of dragonlike jaws1 painted red4 ,from these jaws issued smoke1 flame1 and horrible outcries4 ,from the entrance leaped red-coated devils to tempt the ,savior1 the saints1 and men4 ,into it the devils would disappear with some wicked soul4 ,they would torture it and make it roar with pain1 as the smoke poured faster from the red jaws4 ,in ,york on ,corpus ,christi ,day1 which usually fell in the first week in ,june1 the actors were ordered to be in their places on these movable theaters at half past three in the morning4 ,certain stations had been selected throughout the city1 where each pageant should stop and1 in the proper order1 present its own play4 ,in this way the enormous crowds that visited ,york to see these performances were more evenly scattered throughout the city4 ,the actors did not always remain on the stage4 ,herod1 for example1 in his magnificent robes used to ride on horseback among the people1 boast of his prowess1 and overdo everything4 ,shakespeare1 who was evidently familiar with the character1 speaks of out-,heroding ,herod4 ,the ,devil also frequently jumped from the stage and availed himself of his license to play pranks among the audience4 ,much of the acting was undoubtedly excellent4 ,in #adgf the council at ,york ordained that four of the best players in the city should examine with regard to fitness all who wished to take part in the plays4 ,so many were desirous of acting that it was much trouble to get rid of incompetents4 ,the ordinance ran3 ,all such as they shall find sufficient in person and cunning1 to the honor of the ,city and worship of the said ,crafts1 for to admit and able2 and all other insufficient persons1 either in cunning1 voice1 or person1 to discharge1 ammove and avoid4 ,a critic says that this ordinance is one of the steps on which the greatness of the ,elizabethan stage was built1 and through which its actors grew up4#aj ,introduction of the ,comic ,element in the ,miracle ,plays4--,while the old drama generally confined itself to religious subjects1 the comic element occasionally crept in1 made its power felt1 and disclosed a new path for future playwrights4 ,in the ,play of ,noah's ,flood1 when the time for the flood has come1 ,noah's wife refuses to enter the ark and a domestic quarrel ensues4 ,finally her children pull and shove her into the ark4 ,when she is safe on board1 ,noah bids her welcome4 ,his enraged wife deals him resounding blows until he calls to her to stop1 because his back is nearly broken4 ,the ,play of the ,shepherds includes a genuine comedy1 the first comedy worthy of the name to appear in ,england4 ,while watching their flocks on ,christmas ,eve1 the shepherds are joined by ,mak1 a neighbor whose reputation for honesty is not good4 ,before they go to sleep1 they make him lie down within their circle2 but he rises when he hears them begin to snore1 steals a sheep1 and hastens home4 ,his wife is alarmed1 because in that day the theft of a sheep was punishable by death4 ,she finally concludes that the best plan will be to wrap the animal in swaddling clothes and put it in the cradle4 ,if the shepherds come to search the house1 she will pretend that she has a child2 and1 if they approach the cradle1 she will caution them against touching it for fear of waking the child and causing him to fill the house with his cries4 ,she speedily hurries ,mak away to resume his slumbers among the shepherds4 ,when they wake1 they miss the sheep1 suspect ,mak1 and go to search his house4 ,his wife allows them to look around thoroughly1 but she keeps them away from the cradle4 ,they leave1 rather ashamed of their suspicion4 ,as they are going out of the door1 a thought strikes one of them whereby they can make partial amends4 ,deciding to give the child sixpence1 he returns1 lifts up the covering of the cradle1 and discovers the sheep4 ,mak and his wife both declare that an elf has changed their child into a sheep4 ,the shepherds threaten to have the pair hanged4 ,they seize ,mak1 throw him on a canvas1 and toss him into the air until they are exhausted4 ,they then lie down to rest and are roused with the song of an angel from ,bethlehem4 ,to produce this comedy required genuine inventive imagination2 for there is nothing faintly resembling this incident in the sacred narrative4 ,these early exercises of the imagination in our drama may resemble the tattering footsteps of a child2 but they were necessary antecedents to the strength1 beauty1 and divinity of movement in ,elizabethan times4 ,illustration3 ,,fool',s ,,head4 ,state properties of the ,vice and ,fool4 ,the ,morality4--,the next step in the development of the drama is known as the ,morality play4 ,this personified abstractions4 ,characters like ,charity1 ,hope1 ,faith1 ,truth1 ,covetousness1 ,falsehood1 ,abominable ,living1 the ,world1 the ,flesh1 and the ,devil1--in short1 all the ,virtues and the ,vices1--came on the stage in the guise of persons1 and played the drama of life4 ,critics do not agree about the precise way in which the ,morality is related to the ,miracle play4 ,it is certain that the ,miracle play had already introduced some abstractions4 ,in one very important respect1 the ,morality marks an advance1 by giving more scope to the imagination4 ,the ,miracle plays had their general treatment absolutely predetermined by the ,scriptural version of the action or by the legends of the lives of saints1 although diverting incidents could be introduced1 as we have seen4 ,in the ,morality1 the events could take any turn which the author chose to give4 ,illustration3 ,,air-,,bag ,,flapper4 ,stage properties of the ,vice and ,fool4 ,in spite of this advantage1 the ,morality is in general a synonym for what is uninteresting4 ,the characters born of abstractions are too often bloodless1 like their parents4 ,the ,morality under a changed name was current a few years ago in the average ,sunday-school book4 ,incompetent writers of fiction today often adopt the ,morality principle in making their characters unnaturally good or bad1 mere puppets who do not develop along the line of their own emotional prompting1 but are moved by machinery in the author's hands4 ,illustration3 ,,lath ,,dagger4 ,stage properties of the ,vice and ,fool4 ,a new character1 the ,vice1 was added as an adjunct to the ,devil1 to increase the interest of the audience in the ,morality play4 ,the ,vice represented the leading spirit of evil in any particular play1 sometimes ,fraud1 ,covetousness1 ,pride1 ,iniquity1 or ,hypocrisy4 ,it was the business of the ,vice to annoy the ,virtues and to be constantly playing pranks4 ,the ,vice was the predecessor of the clown and the fool upon the stage4 ,the ,vice also amused the audience by tormenting the ,devil1 belaboring him with a sword of lath1 sticking thorns into him1 and making him roar with pain4 ,sometimes the ,devil would be kicked down ,hell ,mouth by the offended ,virtues2 but he would soon reappear with saucily curled tail1 and at the end of the play he would delight the spectators by plunging into ,hell ,mouth with the ,vice on his back4 ,illustration3 ,,fool ,,of ,,the ,,old ,,play4 ,court ,plays4--,in the first part of the sixteenth century1 the court and the nobility especially encouraged the production of plays whose main object was to entertain4 ,the influence of the court in shaping the drama became much more powerful than that of the church4 ,wallace says of the new materials which his researches have disclosed in the twentieth century3-- ,they throw into the lime-light a brilliant development of this new drama through the ,chapel ,royal1 a development that took place primarily under the direction of the great musicians who served as masters of the children of the ,chapel and as court entertainers1 the first true poets-laureate1 through the reigns of ,henry ,,viii41 ,edward ,,vi41 ,mary1 and ,elizabeth4#aa ,in #aeji ,henry ,,viii4 appointed ,william ,cornish 7died #aebc7 to be ,master of the ,children of the ,chapel ,royal4 ,this court institution with its choral body of men and boys not only ministered by song to the spiritual well-being of the sovereign and his household1 but also gave them temporal enjoyment in dances1 pageants1 and plays4 ,we must not forget1 however1 that the ,chapel ,royal was originally1 as its name implies1 a religious body4 ,cornish was a capable dramatist1 as well as a musician and a poet2 and he1 unlike the author of ,everyman1 wrote plays simply to amuse the court and its guests4 ,he has even been called the founder of the secular ,english drama4#ab ,the court of ,henry ,,viii4 became especially fond of the ,interlude1 which was a short play1 often given in connection with a banquet or other entertainment4 ,any dramatic incident1 such as the refusal of ,noah's wife to enter the ark1 or ,mak's thievery in ,the ,play of the ,shepherds1 might serve as an ,interlude4 ,cornish and ,john ,heywood 7#adig8--aehj871 a court dramatist of much versatility1 incorporated in the ,interlude many of the elements of the five-act drama4 ,the ,four ,p's1 the most famous ,interlude1 shows a contest between a ,pardoner1 ,palmer1 ,pedlar1 and ,poticary1 to determine who could tell the greatest lie4 ,wallace thinks that the best ,interludes1 such as ,the ,four ,p's and ,the ,pardoner and the ,frere1 were written by ,cornish1 although they are usually ascribed to ,heywood4 ,cornish had unusual ability as a deviser of masques and plays4 ,one of his interludes for children has allegorical characters that remotely suggest some that appear in the modern ,bluebird1 by ,maeterlinck4 ,cornish had ,wind appear in blue with drops of silver2 ,rain1 in black with silver honeysuckles2 ,winter1 in russet with flakes of silver snow2 ,summer1 in green with gold stars2 and ,spring1 in green with gold primroses4 ,in #aebb ,cornish wrote and presented before ,henry ,,viii4 and his guest1 the ,roman emperor1 a political play1 especially planned to indicate the attitude of the ,english monarch toward ,spain and ,france4 ,under court influences1 the drama enlarged its scope and was no longer chiefly the vehicle for religious instruction4 ,early ,comedies4--,two early comedies1 divided1 after the classical fashion1 into acts and scenes1 show close approximation to the modern form of ,english plays4 ,ralph ,royster ,doyster was written not far from the middle of the sixteenth century by ,nicholas ,udall 7#aeje-aeef71 sometime master of ,eton ,college and1 later1 court poet under ,queen ,mary4 ,this play1 founded on a comedy of ,plautus1 shows the classical influence which was so powerful in ,england at this time4 ,ralph1 the hero1 is a conceited simpleton4 ,he falls in love with a widow who has already promised her hand to a man infinitely ,ralph's superior4 ,ralph1 however1 unable to understand why she should not want him1 persists in his wooing4 ,she makes him the butt of her jokes1 and he finds himself in ridiculous positions4 ,the comedy amuses us in this way until her lover returns and marries her4 ,the characters of the play1 which is written in rime1 are of the ,english middle class4 ,gammer ,gurton's ,needle1 the work of ,william ,stevenson1 a little-known pre-,shakespearean writer1 was acted at ,christ's ,college1 ,cambridge1 shortly after the middle of the sixteenth century4 ,this play borrows hardly anything from the classical stage4 ,most of the characters of ,gammer ,gurton's ,needle are from the lowest ,english working classes1 and its language1 unlike that of ,ralph ,royster ,doyster1 which has little to offend1 is very coarse4 ,gorboduc and the ,dramatic ,unities4--,the tragedy of ,gorboduc1 the first regular ,english tragedy written in blank verse1 was acted in #aefa1 three years before the birth of ,shakespeare4 ,this play is in part the work of ,thomas ,sackville 7#aecf-afjh71 a poet and diplomat1 the author of two powerful somber poems1 the ,induction and ,complaint of the ,duke of ,buckingham4 ,in spite of their heavy narrative form1 these poems are in places even more dramatic than the dull tragedy of ,gorboduc1 which was fashioned after the classical rules of ,seneca and the ,greeks4 ,gorboduc requires little action on the stage4 ,there is considerable bloodshed in the play2 but the spectators are informed of the carnage by a messenger1 as they are not permitted to witness a bloody contest on the stage4 ,illustration3 ,,thomas ,,sackville4 ,if ,gorboduc had been taken for a model1 the ,english drama could never have attained ,shakespearean greatness4 ,our drama would then have been crippled by following the classical rules1 which prescribed unity of place and time in the plot and the action4 ,the ancients held that a play should not represent actions which would1 in actual life1 require much more than twenty-four hours for their performance4 ,if one of the characters was a boy1 he had to be represented as a boy throughout the play4 ,the next act could not introduce him as one who had grown to manhood in the interval4 ,the classical rules further required that the action should be performed in one place1 or near it4 ,anything that happened at a great distance had to be related by a messenger1 and not acted on the stage4 ,had these rules been followed1 the ,english drama could never have painted the growth and development of character1 which is not the work of a day4 ,the genius of ,marlowe and ,shakespeare taught them to disregard these dramatic unities4 ,in ,as ,you ,like ,it1 the action is now at the court1 and now in the far-off ,forest of ,arden4 ,shakespeare knew that the imagination could traverse the distance4 ,at the beginning of the play ,oliver is an unnatural1 brutal brother2 but events change him1 so that in the fourth act1 when he is asked if he is the man who tried to kill his brother1 ,oliver replies3-- ',twas ,i2 but 'tis not ,i4 ,,the ,,presentation ,,of ,,elizabethan ,,plays ,illustration3 ,,theater ,,in ,,inn ,,yard4 ,from ,columbia ,university model4 ,the ,elizabethan ,theater4--,before considering the work of the ,elizabethan dramatists1 we should know something of the conditions which they had to meet in order to produce plays for the contemporary stage4 ,the courtyard of ,london inns often served as a playhouse before sufficient regular theaters were built4 ,the stage was in one end of the yard1 and the unused ground space in front served as the pit4 ,two or three tiers of galleries or balconies around the yard afforded additional space for both actors and spectators4 ,these inn yards furnished many suggestions which were incorporated in the early theaters4 ,the first building in ,england for the public presentation of plays was known as ,the ,theater4 ,it was built in ,london in #aegf4 ,in #aeih ,shakespeare and his associates1 failing to secure a lease of the ground on which this building stood1 pulled it down1 carried the materials across the river1 and erected the famous ,globe ,theater on the ,bankside1 as the street running along the south side of the ,thames was called4 ,in late years a careful study of the specifications 7#aeii7 for building the ,fortune ,theater 7see ,frontispiece7 has thrown much light on the ,globe1 which is unusually important from its association with ,shakespeare4 ,although the ,fortune was square1 while the ,globe was octagonal1 the ,fortune was in many essentials modeled after the ,globe4 ,a part of the specifications of the ,fortune read as follows3-- 444the frame of the saide howse to be sett square and to conteine fowerscore foote of lawful assize everye waie square1 without1 and fiftie five foote of like assize square1 everye waie within 444 and the saide frame to conteine three stories in heigth 444 the stadge shall conteine in length fortie and three foote of lawfull assize1 and in breadth to extende to the middle of the yarde of the said howse3 the same stadge to be paled in belowe with goode stronge and sufficyent new oken boardes444 ,and the said stadge to be in all other proportions contryved and fashioned like unto the stadge of the wide ,playhowse called the ,globe4 ,illustration3 ,,reconstructed ,,globe ,,theater1 ,,shakespeare',s ,,england1 ,,earl',s ,,court1 ,,london1 #aiab4 ,from an original drawing4 ,the first part of the twentieth century has made a detailed study of the stage on which the ,great ,elizabethan plays were acted4 ,g4,f4 ,reynolds says3-- ,most students agree that the 'typical' ,elizabethan stage consisted of a platform1 uncurtained in front1 open as well at the sides1 carpeted1 it is generally said1 with rushes1 and surrounded with a railing1 a space behind this platform closed by a sliding curtain1 and a balcony with its own curtains and entrances4 ,there were also a space below the stage reached by trap doors1 a dressing room behind the stage1 machinery by which characters ascended to and descended from some place above1 and in some theaters at least1 a 'heavens1' or roof over part or all of the stage4#ac ,possibly no single stage had every feature mentioned in the above description1 which gives1 however1 a good general idea of a typical stage of the time4 ,we must remember that no one has the right to assert that different ,elizabethan stages did not differ in details4 ,we are not sure that every stage was so planned as to be divided into two parts by a sliding curtain4 ,the drawing of the ,swan ,theater shows no place for such a curtain1 although it is possible that the draftsman forgot to include it4 ,the specifications of the stage of the ,fortune ,theater make no mention of a railing4 ,the ,play and the ,audience4--,it is impossible to criticize ,elizabethan plays properly from the point of view of the twentieth-century stage4 ,many modern criticisms are shown to be without reason when we understand the wishes of the audience and the manner of presenting the plays4 ,the conditions of the entry or the rentry of a player might explain some of those lengthy monologues that seem so inartistic to modern dramatists4 ,the ,elizabethan theaters and the tastes of their patrons had certain important characteristics of their own4 ,i4 ,in the public theaters1#ad the play began in the early afternoon1 usually between two and three o'clock1 and lasted for about two hours4 ,the audience was an alert one1 neither jaded by a long day's business nor rendered impatient by waiting for the adjustment of scenery4 ,the ,elizabethans constituted a vigorous audience1 eager to meet the dramatist and actors more than half way in interpreting what was presented4 ,,ii4 ,in the case of such public theaters as the ,globe and the ,fortune1 even their roofed parts1 which extended around the pit and back of the stage and which contained the galleries and the boxes1 were all exposed to the open air on the inner side4 ,the pit1 which was immediately in front of the stage1 had the sky for a roof and the ground for a floor4 ,the frequenters of the pit1 who often jostled each other for standing room1 were sometimes called the groundlings4 ,occasionally a severe rain would drive them out of the theater to seek shelter4 ,those who attended the ,elizabethan public theater were in no danger of being made drowsy or sick by its bad air4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,bankside ,,and ,,its ,,theaters #a4 ,the ,swan ,theater4 #c4 ,the ,hope ,theater4 #e4 ,old ,st4 ,paul's4 #b4 ,the ,bear ,gardens4 #d4 ,the ,globe ,theater4 #f4 ,the ,temple4 ,,iii4 ,the audiences did not attend merely for relaxation or amusement4 ,they often came for information and education1 and they were probably glad to learn about alchemy from one of ,ben ,jonson's plays4 ,the audience doubtless welcomed long monologues if they were well delivered and presented ideas of worth4 ,the theater took the place of lectures1 newspapers1 magazines1 and1 to a certain extent1 of books4 ,we know that in #afjh the ,blackfriars ,theater acted the part of a newspaper in presenting a scandal about the ,french king and that at another time it gave some humorous information concerning the ,english monarch's newly discovered silver mine in ,scotland4 ,,iv4 ,the ,elizabethans loved good poetry for its imaginative appeal4 ,shakespeare was a poet before he was a dramatist4 ,beautiful poetry presenting high ideals must have met with vigorous appreciation1 or ,shakespeare could not have continued to produce such great work4 ,v4 ,the ,elizabethans also demanded story and incident4 ,modern critics have often noticed that the characterization in ,shakespeare's fourth acts1 e4g41 in ,macbeth1 does not equal that in the preceding part of the play2 but the fourth act of ,macbeth interested the ,elizabethans because there was progress in the complicated story4 ,to modern theatergoers this fourth act seems to drag because they have acquired through novel reading a liking for analysis and dissection4 ,shakespeare succeeded in interesting the ,elizabethans by embodying in story and incident his portrayal of character4 ,because of admiration for the revelation of character in his greatest plays1 modern readers forget their moving incidents1--for instance1 the almost blood-curdling appearances of a ghost1 the actions of a crazed woman1 the killing of an eavesdropper on the stage1 two men fighting at an open grave1 the skull and bones of a human being dug from a grave in full view of the audience1 the fighting to the death on the stage1 which is ghastly with corpses at the close4 ,when we add to this the roar of cannon whenever the king drinks1 as well as when there is some more noteworthy action1 and remember that the very last words of ,hamlet are3 ,go1 bid the soldiers shoot1 we shall realize that there was not much danger of going to sleep even during a performance of ,hamlet4 ,scenery4--,the conditions under which early ,elizabethan plays were sometimes produced are thus described by ,sir ,philip ,sidney3-- ,you shall have ,asia of the one side1 and ,africa of the other1 and so many other under-kingdoms1 that the player when he comes in1 must ever begin with telling you where he is1 or else the tale will not be conceived4 ,now shall you have three ladies walk to gather flowers1 and then we must believe the stage to be a garden4 ,by and by we hear news of a shipwreck in the same place1 then we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock4 ,illustration3 ,,contemporary ,,drawing ,,of ,,interior ,,of ,,an ,,elizabethan ,,theater#ae4 ,those who remember this well-known quotation too often forget that ,sidney wrote before ,shakespeare's plays were produced4 ,we do not know whether ,sidney was describing a private or a public stage1 but the private theaters had the greater amount of scenery4 ,modern research has shown that the manner of presenting plays did not remain stationary while the drama was rapidly evolving4 ,before ,shakespeare died1 there were such stage properties as beds1 tables1 chairs1 dishes1 fetters1 shop wares1 and perhaps also some artificial trees1 mossy banks1 and rocks4 ,a theatrical manager in an inventory of stage properties 7#aeih7 mentions the sittie of ,rome1 which was perhaps a cloth so painted as to present a perspective of the city4 ,he also speaks of a cloth of the ,sone and ,mone4 ,the use of such painted cloths was an important step toward modern scenery4 ,we may1 however1 conclude that the scenery of any ,elizabethan theater would have seemed scant to one accustomed to the detailed setting of the modern stage4 ,the comparatively little scenery in ,elizabethan theaters imposed strenuous imaginative exercise on the spectators4 ,this effort was fortunate for all concerned--for the dramatist and for the actor1 but especially for the spectator1 who became accustomed to give an imaginative interpretation and setting to a play that would mean little to a modern theatergoer4 ,actors4--,those who have seen some of the recent performances of plays under ,elizabethan conditions1 on a stage modeled after that of ,shakespeare's time have been surprised at the increase of the actors' power4 ,the stage projects far enough into the pit to bring the actors close to the audience4 ,their appeal thus becomes far more personal1 direct1 and forceful4 ,the spectator more easily identifies himself with them and almost feels as if he were a part of the play4 ,this has been the experience of those who have seen the old-time reproduction of plays as different as ,the ,tempest1 ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream1 ,the ,merchant of ,venice1 and ,much ,ado ,about ,nothing4 ,in the case of ,the ,tempest1 a very interesting act was presented when all the scenery consisted of a board on which was painted ,prospero ,isle4 ,in ,shakespeare's times1 the plays were probably well acted4 ,while the fame of ,elizabethan actors like ,edward ,alleyn and ,richard ,burbage has come down to modern times1 the success of plays did not depend on single stars4 ,shakespeare is said to have played in minor rles4 ,the audience discouraged bad acting4 ,the occupants of the pit would throw apples or worse missiles at an unsatisfactory player1 and sometimes the disgusted spectators would suddenly leap on the stage and chase an incompetent actor off the boards4 ,prior to the ,restoration in #affj1 the women's parts were taken by boys4 ,while this must have hampered the presentation of characters like ,lady ,macbeth1 it is now known to have been less of a handicap than was formerly thought4 ,the twentieth century has seen feminine parts so well played by carefully trained boys that the most astute women spectators never detected the deception4 ,boys1 especially those of the ,chapel ,royal1 had for a long time acted masculine1 as well as feminine1 parts4 ,as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century1 the choir boys were presenting some of the great ,elizabethan plays in a private theater connected with ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral4 ,rosencrantz in the second act of ,hamlet bears witness to the popularity of these boy actors1 when he calls them little eyases1 that cry on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapped for it4 ,ben ,jonson's touching lyrical epitaph on a boy actor1 ,salathiel ,pavy1 who had for three fill'd zodiacs been the stage's jewel1 shows how highly the ,elizabethans sometimes regarded boy actors4 ,the regular theaters found the companies of boys such strong rivals that1 in #afji1 ,shakespeare and other theatrical managers used modern business methods to suppress competition and agreed to pay the master of the boys of ,st4 ,paul's enough to cause him to withdraw them permanently from competing with the other theaters4 ,,pre-,,shakespearean ,,dramatists ,the ,university ,wits and ,thomas ,kyd4--,five authors1 ,john ,lyly1 ,george ,peele1 ,robert ,greene1 ,thomas ,lodge1 and ,thomas ,nashe1 all graduates of ,oxford or ,cambridge1 were sufficiently versatile to be called university wits4 ,amid various other activities1 all of them were impelled by the spirit of the age to write plays4 ,these intellectual aristocrats hurled the keen shafts of their wit at those dramatists1 who1 without a university education1 were arrogant enough to think that they could write plays4 ,because ,shakespeare had never attended a university1 ,greene called him an upstart ,crow beautified with our feathers4 ,on ,new ,year's1 #aehd1 ,john ,lyly1 the author of ,euphues1 presented in the first ,blackfriars ,theater#af his prose comedy1 entitled ,campaspe4 ,this play relates the love story of ,alexander the ,great's fair ,theban captive1 ,campaspe4 ,the twenty-eight characters necessary to produce this play were obtained from the boys of the ,chapel ,royal and ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral4 ,two months later ,lyly's ,sapho and ,phao was given in the same theater with a cast of seventeen boys4 ,it should be remembered that these plays1 so important in the evolution of the drama1 were acted by boys under royal patronage4 ,campaspe is little more than a series of episodes1 divided into acts and scenes1 but1 unlike ,gorboduc1 ,campaspe has many of the characteristics of an interesting modern play4 ,lyly wrote eight comedies1 all but one in prose4 ,in the history of the drama1 he is important for 7#a7 finished style1 7#b7 good dialogue1 7#c7 considerable invention in the way he secured interest1 by using classical matter in combination with contemporary life1 7#d7 subtle comedy1 and 7#e7 influence on ,shakespeare4 ,it is doubtful whether ,shakespeare could have produced such good early comedies1 if he had not received suggestions from ,lyly's work in this field4 ,the chapel boys also presented at ,blackfriars in the same year ,george ,peele's 7#aeeh-aeig7 ,the ,arraignment of ,paris1 a pastoral drama in riming verse4 ,in ,juno's promise to ,paris1 ,peele shows how the possibilities of the ,new ,world affected his imagination3-- ,xanthus shall run liquid gold for thee to wash thy hands2 ,and if thou like to tend thy flock and not from them to fly1 ,their fleeces shall be curld gold to please their master's eye4 ,while ,the ,arraignment of ,paris and his two other plays1 ,david and ,bathsabe and ,the ,old ,wives' ,tale1 are not good specimens of dramatic construction1 the beauty of some of ,peele's verse could hardly have failed to impress both ,marlowe and ,shakespeare with the poetic possibilities of the drama4 ,peele writes without effort-- ,of moss that sleeps with sound the waters make1 and has ,david build-- 444a kingly bower1 ,seated in hearing of a hundred streams4 ,robert ,greene 7#aefj-aeib7 showed much skill in 7#a7 the construction of plots1 7#b7 the revelation of simple and genuine human feeling1 and 7#c7 the weaving of an interesting story into a play4 ,his best drama is the poetic comedy ,friar ,bacon and ,friar ,bungay4 ,in this play1 he made the love story the central point of interest4 ,thomas ,lodge 7#aeeh-afbe71 author of the story ,rosalynde1 which ,shakespeare used to such good advantage1 wrote in collaboration with ,greene1 ,a ,looking ,glass for ,london and ,england1 and an independent play1 ,the ,wounds of ,civil ,war4 ,thomas ,nashe 7#aefg-afja71 best known for his picaresque novel1 ,the ,unfortunate ,traveler1 wrote a play1 ,summer's ,last ,will and ,testament1 but he and ,lodge had little dramatic ability4 ,thomas ,kyd 7#aeeh-aeid71 although lacking a university education1 succeeded in writing1 about #aehf1 the most popular early ,elizabethan play1 ,the ,spanish ,tragedy1 a blank verse drama1 in which blood flows profusely4 ,although this play is not free from classical influences1 yet its excellence of construction1 effective dramatic situations1 vigor of movement1 and romantic spirit helped to prepare the way for the tragedies of ,marlowe and ,shakespeare4 ,,christopher ,,marlowe1 #aefd-aeic ,life4--,the year #aefd saw the birth of the two greatest geniuses in the ,english drama1 ,marlowe and ,shakespeare4 ,marlowe1 the son of a shoemaker1 was born at ,canterbury1 and educated at ,cambridge4 ,when he was graduated1 the dramatic profession was the only one that gave full scope to genius like his4 ,he became both playwriter and actor4 ,all his extant work was written in about six years4 ,when he was only twenty-nine he was fatally stabbed in a tavern quarrel4 ,shakespeare had at that age not produced his greatest plays4 ,marlowe unwittingly wrote his own epitaph in that of ,dr4 ,faustus3-- ,cut is the branch that might have grown full straight1 ,and burned is ,apollo's laurel-bough4 ,illustration3 ,,marlowe',s ,,memorial ,,statue ,,at ,,canterbury4 ,works4--,marlowe's great tragedies are four in number ,timberline1 ,dr4 ,faustus1 ,the ,jew of ,malta1 and ,edward1 ,,ii44 ,no careful student of ,english literature can afford to be unacquainted with any of them4 ,shakespeare's work appears less miraculous when we know that a predecessor at the age of twenty-four had written plays like ,timberline and ,dr4 ,faustus4 ,timberline shows the supreme ambition for conquest1 for controlling the world with physical force4 ,it is such a play as might have been suggested to an ,elizabethan by watching ,napoleon's career4 ,dr4 ,faustus1 on the other hand1 shows the desire for knowledge that would give universal power1 a desire born of the ,renaissance4 ,the ,jew of ,malta is the incarnation of the passion for the world's wealth1 a passion that towers above common greed only by the magnificence of its immensity4 ,in that play we see that ,marlowe-- ,without control can pick his riches up1 ,and in his house heap pearl like pebble stones1 99 99 99 99 99 ,infinite riches in a little room4 ,edward ,,ii4 gives a pathetic picture of one of the weakest of kings4 ,this shows more evenness and regularity of construction than any of ,marlowe's other plays2 but it is the one least characteristic of him4 ,the others manifest more intensity of imagination1 more of the spirit of the age4 ,dr4 ,faustus shows ,marlowe's peculiar genius at its best4 ,the legend on which the play is based came from ,germany1 but ,marlowe breathed his own imaginative spirit into the tragedy4 ,faustus is wearied with the barren philosophy of the past4 ,he is impatient to secure at once the benefits of the ,new ,learning1 which seems to him to have all the powers of magic4 ,if he can immediately enjoy the fruits of such knowledge1 he says3-- ,had ,i as many souls as there be stars1 ,i'd give them all4 ,in order to acquire this knowledge and the resulting power for twenty-four years1 he sells his soul to ,mephistopheles4 ,faustus then proceeds to enjoy all that the new order of things promised4 ,he commands ,homer to come from the realm of shades to sing his entrancing songs4 ,he summons ,helen to appear before him in the morning of her beauty4 ,the apostrophe to her shows the vividness and exuberance of his imagination3-- ,was this the face that launched a thousand ships ,and burnt the topless towers of ,ilium8 ,sweet ,helen1 make me immortal with a kiss4 99 99 99 99 99 ,oh6 thou art fairer than the evening air ,clad in the beauty of a thousand stars4 ,marlowe left a fragment of a lyrical poem1 entitled ,hero and ,leander1 which is one of the finest productions of its kind in the language4 ,shakespeare accorded him the unusual honor of quoting from this poem4 ,in ,what ,sense is ,marlowe a ,founder of the ,english ,drama8--,his success with blank verse showed ,shakespeare that this was the proper versification for the drama4 ,before ,marlowe1 rime or prose had been chiefly employed in writing plays4 ,sackville had used blank verse in ,gorboduc1 but his verse and ,marlowe's are as unlike as the movements of the ox and the flight of the swallow4 ,the sentences of ,gorboduc generally end with the line1 and the accents usually fall in the same place4 ,marlowe's blank verse shows great variety1 and the major pause frequently does not come at the end of the line4 ,marlowe cast the dramatic unities to the wind4 ,the action in ,dr4 ,faustus occupies twenty-four years1 and the scene changes from country to country4 ,he knew that he was speaking to a people whose imaginations could accompany him and interpret what he uttered4 ,the other dramatists followed him in placing imaginative interpretation above measurements by the foot rule of the intellect4 ,symonds says of him3 ,it was he who irrevocably decided the destinies of the romantic drama2 and the whole subsequent evolution of that species1 including ,shakespeare's work1 can be regarded as the expansion1 rectification1 and artistic ennoblement of the type fixed by ,marlowe's epoch-making tragedies4 ,in very little more than fifty years from the publication of ,tamburlaine1 our drama had run its course of unparalleled energy and splendor4 ,general ,characteristics4--,as we sum up ,marlowe's general qualities1 it is well to note that they exhibit in a striking way the characteristics of the time4 ,in the morning of that youthful age the superlative was possible4 ,tamburlaine1 ,the ,jew of ,malta1 and ,dr4 ,faustus show in the superlative degree the love of conquest1 of wealth1 and of knowledge4 ,everything that ,marlowe wrote is stamped with a love of beauty and of the impossible4 ,tamburlaine speaks like one of the young ,elizabethans-- ,that in conceit bear empires on our spears1 ,affecting thoughts co-equal with the clouds4 ,marlowe voices the new sense of worth of enfranchised man3-- ,thinkest thou heaven glorious thing8 ,i tell thee1 'tis not half so fair as thou1 ,or any man that breathes on earth4 99 99 99 99 99 ',twas made for man1 therefore is man more excellent4#ag ,marlowe's faults are the faults of youth and of his time4 ,exaggeration and lack of restraint are shown in almost all his work4 ,in ,tamburlaine1 written when he was twenty-two1 he is often bombastic4 ,he has hardly any sense of humor4 ,he does not draw fine distinctions between his characters4 ,on the other hand1 using the words of ,tamburlaine1 we may say of all his dramatic contemporaries1 excepting ,shakespeare-- ,if all the heavenly quintessence they still ,from their immortal flowers of poesy1 were gathered into one vial1 it could not surpass the odor from patches of flowers in ,marlowe's garden4 ,these seven lines represent better than pages of description the aspiring spirit of the new ,elizabethan ,renaissance4 ,our souls whose faculties can comprehend ,the wondrous architecture of the world1 ,and measure every wandering planet's course ,still climbing after knowledge infinite1 ,and always moving as the restless spheres1 ,will us to wear ourselves and never rest ,until we reach the ripest fruit of all4#ah ,,william ,,shakespeare1 #aefd-afaf ,illustration3 ,,william ,,shakespeare4 ,from the ,chandos portrait in the ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,birthplace and ,parents4--,william ,shakespeare1 the greatest of the world's writers1 was born in ,stratford-on-,avon1 ,warwickshire4 ,the name originally meant one skilled in wielding a spear4 ,the first ,william ,shakespeare of whom mention is made in the records was hanged for robbery near ,stratford2 but it is only fair to state that in those days hanging was inflicted for stealing even a sheep4 ,illustration3 ,,shakespeare',s ,,birthplace1 ,,stratford-,,on-,,avon4 ,the great dramatist's birthplace lies in the midst of ,england's fairest rural scenery4 ,when two ,englishmen were asked to name the finest walk in ,england1 one chose the walk from ,stratford to ,coventry1 the other1 the walk from ,coventry to ,stratford4 ,a short distance northeast of ,stratford are ,warwick with its castle1 the home of the famous king-maker1 and ,kenilworth ,castle1 whose historic associations were romantic enough to stir the imagination of a boy like ,shakespeare4 ,he was the son of ,john ,shakespeare1 an influential merchant1 who in #aega was elected chief alderman of ,stratford4 ,the poet's mother was the daughter of ,robert ,arden1 a well-to-do farmer4 ,we are told that she was her father's favorite among seven children4 ,perhaps it was due to her influence that he had a happy childhood4 ,his references to plays and sports and his later desire to return to ,stratford are indicative of pleasant boyhood days4 ,probably his mother was the original of some of her son's noblest conceptions of women4 ,his plays have more heroines than heroes4 ,we may fancy that it was his mother who first pointed out to him-- 444daffodils1 ,that come before the swallow dares1 and take ,the winds of ,march with beauty2 violets dim1 ,but sweeter than the lids of ,juno's eyes4#ai ,we may imagine that from her teaching1 as she walked with him over the ,stratford fields1 he obtained suggestions which enabled him to hold captive the ear of the world1 when he sang of the pearl in the cowslip's ear1 of the bank where the wild thyme blows1 of the greenwood tree and the merry note of the bird4 ,many of the references to nature in his plays are unsurpassed in ,english verse4 ,illustration3 ,,classroom ,,in ,,stratford ,,grammar ,,school#bj4 ,what ,he ,learned at ,school4--,in all probability ,shakespeare entered the ,stratford ,grammar ,school at about the age of seven and continued there until he was nearly fourteen4 ,the typical course in grammar schools of that period consisted principally of various ,latin authors4 ,one school in #aehc had twenty-five ,latin books on its list of studies1 while the only required works in ,english were the ,catechism1 ,psalter1 ,book of ,common ,prayer1 and ,new ,testament4 ,children were required to study ,lilly's ,latin ,grammar instead of their mother tongue4 ,among the works that ,shakespeare probably read in ,latin1 ,a,esop's ,fables and ,ovid's ,metamorphoses may be mentioned4 ,although ,english was not taught1 ,shakespeare shows wonderful mastery in the use of his mother tongue4 ,we have the testimony of the schoolmaster1 ,holofernes1 in ,love's ,labor's ,lost to show that the study of ,latin led to facility in the use of ,english synonyms3-- ,the deer was1 as you know1 sanguis1 in blood1 ripe as the pomewater1 who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of caelo1 the sky1 the welkin1 the heaven2 and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra1 the soil1 the land1 the earth4 ,three ,english equivalents are here given for each of the ,latin terms caelo and terra4 ,the same schoolmaster uses seven synonyms in describing the fashion of speech of the ignorant constable1 --undressed1 unpolished1 uneducated1 unpruned1 untrained1 or1 rather unlettered1 or1 ratherest1 unconfirmed1 fashion4 ,when we remember that it was really ,shakespeare who wrote this1 we know that he had been led to study variety of expression4 ,his large vocabulary could not have been acquired by any one without hard work4 ,a good translation of the ,english ,bible was accessible to him4 ,scriptural phrases and references appear in his plays1 and volumes have been written to show the influence of the ,bible on his thought4 ,financial ,reverses of the ,shakespeare ,family4--,it is probable that ,shakespeare at about the age of fourteen was taken from school to assist his father in the store4 ,the elder ,shakespeare was then overtaken by financial reverses and compelled to mortgage his wife's land4 ,his affairs went from bad to worse2 he was sued for debt1 but the court could not find any property to satisfy the claim4 ,it is possible that he was for a short time even imprisoned for debt4 ,finally he was deprived of his alderman's gown4 ,these events must have made a deep impression on the sensitive boy1 and they may have led him to an early determination to try to master fortune4 ,in after years he showed a business sagacity very rare for a poet4 ,marriage and ,departure from ,stratford4--,the most famous lovers' walk in ,england is the footpath from ,stratford1 leading about one mile westward through meadows to the hamlet of ,shottery4 ,perhaps ,william ,shakespeare had this very walk in mind when he wrote the song3-- ,journeys end in lovers' meeting ,every wise man's son doth know4 ,illustration3 ,,anne ,,hathaway',s ,,cottage1 ,,shottery4 ,the end of his walk led to ,anne ,hathaway's home in ,shottery4 ,she was nearly eight years his senior1 but in #aehb at the age of eighteen he married her4 ,there is a record that ,shakespeare's twin children1 ,hamnet and ,judith1 were baptized in #aehe4 ,from this we know that before he was twenty-one ,shakespeare had a wife and family to support4 ,we have no positive information to tell us what he did for the next seven years after the birth of his twins4 ,tradition says that he joined a group of hunters1 killed some of the deer of ,sir ,thomas ,lucy at ,charlecote ,park1 and fled from ,stratford to ,london in consequence of threatened prosecution4 ,there is reason to doubt the truth of this story1 and ,shakespeare may have sought the metropolis merely because it offered him more scope to provide for his rapidly increasing family4 ,connects ,himself with the ,london ,stage4--,the next scene of ,shakespeare's life is laid in ,london4 ,in #aeib ,robert ,greene1 a ,london poet1 dramatist1 and hack-writer1 wrote3-- ,there is an upstart ,crow1 beautified with our feathers1 that with his ,tyger's heart wrapped in a ,player's hide1 supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blank verse as the best of you2 and being an absolute ,iohannes fac-totum1 is in his owne conceit the only ,shake-scene in a countrie4#ba ,the best critics agree that the upstart ,crow and ,shake-scene refer to ,shakespeare4 ,the allusion to ,tyger's heart is from the third part of ,king ,henry ,,vi4 and is addressed by the ,duke of ,york to ,queen ,margaret of ,anjou3-- ,o tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide6 ,greene's satiric thrust shows that ,shakespeare was becoming popular as a playwright4 ,we can only imagine the steps by which he rose to his ascendancy as a dramatist4 ,perhaps he first served the theater in some menial capacity1 then became an actor1 and assisted others in revising or adapting plays before he acquired sufficient skill to write a play entirely by himself4 ,in #aeic he published the non-dramatic poem1 ,venus and ,adonis1 which he dedicated to the ,earl of ,southampton4 ,this nobleman is said to have given ,shakespeare1 on one occasion1 a thousand pounds to enable him to make a purchase which he heard he had a mind to4 ,this would show that ,shakespeare had a capacity for attracting people and making lasting friendships4 ,in #aeig he purchased ,new ,place1 the stateliest house in ,stratford1 and we hear no more of his father's financial troubles4 ,twentieth-century ,discoveries4--,in the first decade of the twentieth century1 ,professor ,c4,w4 ,wallace discovered in the ,london ,record ,office a romantic story in which ,shakespeare was an important figure4 ,this story opens in the year #aeih in the ,london house of a ,french ,huguenot1 ,christopher ,mountjoy1 wig-maker1 with whom ,shakespeare lived4 ,mountjoy took as apprentice for six years1 ,stephen ,bellott1 a young ,frenchman4 ,beside him worked ,mary ,mountjoy1 the proprietor's only daughter1 who looked with favor upon the young apprentice4 ,at the end of his apprenticeship ,stephen left without proposing marriage to ,mary2 but on his return ,mrs4 ,mountjoy asked ,shakespeare to make a match between ,stephen and ,mary1--a task in which he was successful4 ,seven and a half years later ,shakespeare was called into court to testify to all the facts leading to the marriage4 ,after a family quarrel1 ,mr4 ,mountjoy declared that he would never leave ,stephen and ,mary a groat1 and the son-in-law brought suit for a dowry4 ,shakespeare's testimony shows that he remembered ,mrs4 ,mountjoy's commission and the part that he played in mating the pair1 but he forgot the amount of the dowry and when it was to be paid4 ,the puzzled court turned the matter over for settlement to the ,french church in ,london1 but it is not known what decision was reached4 ,the documents in the case show that ,shakespeare was on familiar terms with tradesmen1 that they thought well of him1 that he was willing to undertake to try to make two people happy1 and that he lived in the ,mountjoy house at the corner of ,silver and ,monkwell streets4 ,during the period of ,stephen's apprenticeship 7#aeih-afjd71 ,shakespeare wrote some of his greatest plays1 such as ,hamlet and ,othello4 ,from its connection with ,shakespeare1 this is the most important corner in ,london for literary associations4 ,wallace also found documents showing that ,shakespeare owned at the time of his death a one-seventh interest in the ,blackfriars ,theater and a one-fourteenth interest in the ,globe4 ,the hitherto unknown fact that he continued to hold to the end of his life these important interests1 requiring such skilled supervision1 makes more doubtful the former assumption that he spent the last years of his life entirely at ,stratford4 ,last ,years and ,death4--,shakespeare probably bought ,new ,place in ,stratford as a residence for his family and a retreat for himself out of the theatrical season1 but he doubtless continued to live in ,london for the greater part of his time until a few years before his death in #afaf4 ,the ,mountjoy testimony proves that he was in ,london in ,may1 #afab4 ,we are positive1 however1 that he was living in ,stratford at the time of his death4 ,he may for several years have taken only occasional trips to ,london to look after his interests in his theaters4 ,it is not improbable that his health forced him to retire to ,stratford1 for it is difficult to see how any one could have produced nearly two ,shakespearean plays a year for almost twenty years without breaking down under the strain4 ,he had in addition almost certainly helped to manage the production of the plays1 and tradition says that he was also an actor4 ,some of the parts which he is said to have played are the ghost in ,hamlet1 ,adam in ,as ,you ,like ,it1 and ,old ,knowell in ,ben ,jonson's ,every ,man in his ,humor4 ,illustration3 ,,stratford-,,on-,,avon1 ,,showing ,,church ,,where ,,shakespeare ,,is ,,buried4 ,in #afaf1 at the age of fifty-two1 this master-singer of the world1 who1 in ,de ,quincey's phrase1 was a little lower than the angels1 died and was buried in the parish church at ,stratford4 ,shakespeare knew that in the course of time graves were often opened and the bones thrown into the charnel house4 ,the world is thankful that he deliberately planned to have his resting place remain unmolested4 ,his grave was dug seventeen feet deep and over it was placed the following inscription1 intended to frighten those who might think of moving his bones3-- ,illustration3 ,,inscription ,,over ,,shakespeare',s ,,tomb4 ,publication of his ,plays4--,it is probable that ,shakespeare himself published only two early poems4 ,sixteen of his plays appeared in print during his lifetime2 but the chances are that they were taken either from notes or from stage copies1 more or less imperfect and surreptitiously obtained4 ,the twentieth century has seen one of these careless reprints of a single play sell for more than three times as much as it cost to build a leading ,elizabethan theater4#bb ,if ,shakespeare himself had seen to the publication of his plays1 succeeding generations would have been saved much trouble in puzzling over obscurities due to an imperfect text4 ,we must remember1 however1 that publishing a play was thought to injure its success on the stage4 ,one manager offered a printer a sum now equal to #ajj not to publish a copy of a play that he had secured4 ,the ,first ,folio edition of ,shakespeare's works was published in #afbc1 seven years after his death1 by two of his friends1 ,john ,heming and ,henry ,condell4 ,in their dedication of the plays they say3-- ,we have but collected them and done an office to the dead 444 without ambition either of self profit or fame1 only to keep the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow alive1 as was our ,shakespeare1 by humble offer of his plays4 ,if ,shakespeare had not possessed the art of making friends1 we might to-day be without such plays as ,twelfth ,night1 ,as ,you ,like ,it1 ,the ,winter's ,tale1 ,cymbeline1 ,the ,tempest1 ,julius ,caesar1 ,antony and ,cleopatra1 and ,macbeth4 ,these were printed for the first time in the #afbc ,folio4 ,amount and ,classification of his ,work4--,the ,first ,folio edition contained thirty-five plays1 containing #ajj1abj lines4 ,the ,globe edition1 one of the best modern texts of ,shakespeare1 has thirty-seven plays4 ,even if we give him no credit for the unknown dramas which he assisted in fashioning1 and if we further deduct all doubtful plays from this number1 the amount of dramatic work of which he is certainly the author is only less astonishing than its excellence4 ,his non-dramatic poetry1 comprising ,venus and ,adonis1 ,lucrece1 #aed ,sonnets1 and some other short pieces1 amounts to more than half as many lines as ,milton's ,paradise ,lost4 ,mere genius without wonderful self-control and a well-ordered use of time would not have enabled ,shakespeare to leave such a legacy to the world4 ,the pressure for fresh plays to meet exigencies is sufficient to explain why he did not always do his best work1 even if we suppose that his health was never out of joint4 ,the ,first ,folio gives the current contemporary classification of the plays into ,comedies1 ,histories1 and ,tragedies4 ,we indicate the following as some of the best in each class3-- ,comedies3 ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream1 ,as ,you ,like ,it1 ,twelfth ,night1 ,the ,merchant of ,venice1 ,the ,winter's ,tale1 and ,the ,tempest4 ,histories3 ,richard ,,iii41 ,henry ,,iv41 ,henry ,v41 ,julius ,caesar4 ,tragedies3 ,hamlet1 ,macbeth1 ,lear1 ,othello1 ,romeo and ,juliet4 ,four ,periods of his ,life4--,we may make another classification from a different point of view1 according to the period of his development at the time of writing special plays4 ,in order to study his growth and changing ideals1 it will assist us to divide his work into four periods4 7#a7 ,there was the sanguine period1 showing the exuberance of youthful love and imagination4 ,among the plays that are typical of these years are ,the ,comedy of ,errors1 ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream1 ,romeo and ,juliet1 ,richard ,,ii41 and ,richard ,,iii4 ,these were probably all composed before #aeie4 7#b7 ,the second period1 from #aeie to #afja1 shows progress in dramatic art4 ,there is less exaggeration1 more real power1 and a deeper insight into human nature4 ,there appears in his philosophy a vein of sadness1 such as we find in the sayings of ,jaques in ,as ,you ,like ,it1 and more appreciation of the growth of character1 typified by his treatment of ,orlando and ,adam in the same play4 ,among the plays of this period are ,the ,merchant of ,venice1 ,henry ,,iv41 ,henry ,v41 and ,as ,you ,like ,it4 7#c7 ,we may characterize the third period1 from #afja to #afjh1 as one in which he felt that the time was out of joint1 that life was a fitful fever4 ,his father died in #afja1 after great disappointments4 ,his best friends suffered what he calls1 in ,hamlet1 the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune4 ,in #afja ,elizabeth executed the ,earl of ,essex for treason1 and on the same charge threw the ,earl of ,southampton into the ,tower4 ,even ,shakespeare himself may have been suspected4 ,the great plays of this period are tragedies1 among which we may instance ,julius ,caesar1 ,hamlet1 ,othello1 ,macbeth1 and ,king ,lear4 7#d7 ,the plays of his fourth period1 #afjh-afac1 are remarkable for calm strength and sweetness4 ,the fierceness of ,othello and ,macbeth is left behind4 ,in #afjh ,shakespeare's mother died4 ,her death and the vivid recollection of her kindness and love may have been strong factors in causing him to look on life with kindlier eyes4 ,the greatest plays of this period are ,cymbeline1 ,the ,winter's ,tale1 and ,the ,tempest4 ,while the dates of the composition of these plays are not exactly known1 the foregoing classification is probably approximately correct4 ,it should be followed in studying the development and the changing phases of ,shakespeare's mind4 7,see table1 pp4 #ahh and #ahi47 ,development as a ,dramatist4--,it is possible to study some of ,shakespeare's plays with increased interest1 if we note the reasons for assigning them to certain periods of his life4 ,we conclude that ,love's ,labor's ,lost1 for instance1 is an early play1 because of its form1--excess of rime1 small proportion of blank verse1 lack of mastery of poetic expression1--and also because it suffers from the puns1 conceits1 and overdrawn wit and imagery of his early work4 ,almost one half of the #bghi lines of ,love's ,labor's ,lost rime1 while there are only #egi lines of blank verse4 ,of the #bjfd lines in ,the ,tempest1 one of the last of his plays1 #adeh are in blank verse4 ,the plays of his first period show less freedom in the use of verse4 ,he dislikes to let his meaning run over into the next line without a pause1 and he hesitates to introduce those extra syllables which give such wonderful variety to his later work4 ,as he grows older1 he also uses more prose4 ,romeo and ,juliet has #dje lines of prose in a total of #cjeb lines1 while ,hamlet1 a tragedy of #cica lines1 has #abjh lines of prose4 ,his treatment of his characters is even a more significant index to his growth than the form of his dramas4 ,in the earlier plays1 his men and women are more engaged with external forces than with internal struggles4 ,in as excellent an early tragedy as ,romeo and ,juliet1 the hero fights more with outside obstacles than with himself4 ,in the great later tragedies1 the internal conflict is more emphasized1 as in the cases of ,hamlet and ,macbeth4 ,see thou character became in an increasing degree ,shakespeare's watchword4 ,he grew to care less for mere incident1 for plots based on mistaken identity1 as in ,the ,comedy of ,errors2 but he became more and more interested in the delineation of character1 in showing the effect of evil on ,macbeth and his wife1 of jealousy on ,othello1 of indecision on ,hamlet1 as well as in exploring the ineffectual attempts of many of his characters to escape the consequences of their acts4 ,sources of his ,plots4--,we should have had fewer plays from ,shakespeare1 if he had been compelled to take the time to invent new plots4 ,the sources of the plots of his plays may usually be found in some old chronicle1 novel1 biography1 or older play4 ,holinshed's ,chronicles of ,england1 ,scotland1 and ,ireland1 published when ,shakespeare was fourteen years old1 gives the stories of ,lear1 ,cymbeline1 ,macbeth1 and of all the ,english kings who are the heroes of the historical plays4 ,as ,holinshed is very dry reading1 if ,shakespeare had followed him closely1 for instance1 in ,king ,lear1 the play would have lost its most impressive parts4 ,there is not in ,holinshed even a suggestion of the ,falstaff of ,henry ,,iv41 that veritable comic ,hamlet1 who holds a unique place among the humorous characters of the world4 ,north's translation of ,plutarch's ,lives1 published when ,shakespeare was fifteen years old1 became his textbook of ancient history and furnished him the raw material for plays like ,julius ,caesar and ,antony and ,cleopatra4 ,,table ,,of ,,shakespeare',s ,,plays#bc ,play ,total ,prose ,blank ,penta- ,rimes1 ,songs ,publ- ,supp- of meter ,short ished osed ,lines ,rimes ,lines ,date ,i4--,,plays ,,of ,,first 7,,riming7 ,,period ,love's ,labor's #bghi #ajhf #egi #ajbh #ed #cb #aeih #aehh-i ,lost ,comedy of #aggh #bdj #aaej #chj --- --- #afbc #aehi-ia ,errors #bd ,midsummer #bagd #dda #hgh #gca #ach #fc #afjj #aeij-a ,night's ,dream ,two ,gentlemen #bbid #dji #aeaj #aaf --- #ae #afbc #aeij-b of ,verona ,romeo and #cjeb #dje #baaa #dhf --- --- #aeig #aeia-c ,juliet ,richard ,,ii4 #bgef --- #bajg #ecg --- --- #aeig 8 #aeic ,richard ,,iii4 #cfai #ee8 #ccgd #agj --- --- #aeig 8 #aeid-e ,,ii4--,,histories ,,and ,,comedies ,,of ,,second ,,period ,king ,john #begj --- #bdjc #aej --- --- #afbc #aeid-e ,merchant of #bffj #fgc #ahif #ic #cd #i #afjjbd8 #aeie-f ,venice #a ,henry ,,iv4 #cagf #adfd #afbb #hd --- --- #aeih #aeif-gbe #b ,henry ,,iv4 #cddf #ahfj #adag #gd #g #ae #afjj #aeih-i ,henry ,v4 #cchj #aeca #afgh #aja #b #h #afjj #aeiibe ,merry ,wives #cjah #bgjc #bbg #fi --- #ai #afjb #aeii ,much ,ado1 c4 #bhbf #bajf #fdc #dj #ah #af #afjj #aeii-afjj ,as ,you ,like ,it #bheg #afha #ibe #ga #acj #ig #afbc #aeii-afjjbe ,twelfth ,night #bfij #agda #gfc #abj --- #fj #afbc #afjabe ,all's ,well #biff #adec #abcd #bhj #b #ab #afbc #afja-b 7,love's ,labor's ,won1 #aeij7 ,,iii4--,,tragedies ,,and ,,comedy ,,of ,,third ,,period ,julius ,caesar #bdgh #afe #bbda #cd --- --- #afbc #afjac ,hamlet #cica #abjh #bdij #ha --- #fj #afjcbdafjb-cbe ,measure for #bhba #aacd #aegd #gc #bb #f #afbc 8 #afjc ,measure ,othello #ccaf #eda #bfgb #hf --- #be #afbb 8 #afjd ,macbeth #bajh #aeh #aehh #aah #abi --- #afbc #afje-fbe ,king ,lear #cccd #ijc #bbch #gd --- #hc #afjhbdafje-fbe ,antony and #cjfc #bee #bgfa #db --- #f #afbc #afjf-g ,cleopatra ,coriolanus #cdaj #hbi #beba #db --- --- #afbc 8 #afjg-h ,,iv4--,,plays ,,of ,,fourth ,,period ,tempest #bjfd #deh #adeh #b --- #if #afbc #afji-aj ,cymbeline #ccci #fch #behe #ajg --- #cb #afbc #afji-aj ,winter's ,tale #cjge #hdd #ahbe --- --- #eg #afbc 8 #afaa ,v4--,,doubtful ,,plays ,titus #bebc #dc #bcch #add --- --- #aeid #aehh-ij ,andronicus #a ,henry ,,vi4 #bfgg --- #bcgi #cad --- --- #afbc #aeib-d #b ,henry ,,vi4 #cafb #ddh #befb #abb --- --- #afbc #aeib-d #c ,henry ,,vi4 #bijd --- #bgdi #aee --- --- #afbc #aeib-d ,contention #aieb #cha #aega #dd --- --- #aeid #aehf-h ,true ,tragedy #baja --- #bjce #ff --- --- #aeie #aehf-h ,,vi4--,,plays ,,in ,,which ,,shakespeare ,,was ,,not ,,sole ,,author ,taming of the #bfdi #eaf #aiga #afi #ae --- #afbc #aeif-g ,shrew ,troilus and #cdif #aahf #bjbe #aif --- #af #afji #afjc ,cressida ,timon of #bcgc #eif #aefj #ahd #ah --- #afbc #afjg-h ,athens ,pericles #bchi #dah #adcf #bbe #hi --- #afjibcafjh-ibd ,henry ,,viii4 #bhbb #fg8 #bfac #af --- #ab #afbc #afaj-abbd ,poems published4--,venus and ,adonis1 #aeic2 ,lucrece1 #aeid2 ,passionate ,pilgrim1 #aeii2 ,phoenix and ,turtle in ,chester's ,loves ,martyr1 #afja2 ,sonnets1 #afji1 with ,a ,lover's ,complaint4 ,shakespeare recognized the greatness of ,north's ,plutarch and paid it the compliment of following its thought more closely than that of any other of his sources4 ,shakespeare found suggestions for ,as ,you ,like ,it in ,thomas ,lodge's contemporary novel ,rosalynde1 but ,touchstone and ,adam are original creations4 ,our astonishment is often increased to find that the merest hint led to an imperishable creation1 such as the character of ,lady ,macbeth1 the reference to whom in ,holinshed is confined to these twenty-eight words1 444specially his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the thing1 as she that was very ambitious1 burning in unquenchable desire to bear the name of a queen4 ,his plays are almost as different from the old chronicles or tales as the rose from the soil which nourished it4 ,illustration3 ,,shakespeare--,,the ,d',,avenant ,,bust4 ,discovered in #ahde on site of ,duke's ,theater4 ,,general ,,characteristics ,sympathy4---,his most pronounced characteristic is the broadest sympathy ever shown by an author4 ,he seems to have been able to sympathize with every kind of human soul in every emergency4 ,he plays with the simple rustics in ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream4 ,the portrait of the serving man ,adam1 in ,as ,you ,like ,it1 is as kindly and as discriminating as that of king or nobleman4 ,though he is the scholar and philosopher in ,hamlet1 he can afterward roam the country with the tramp ,autolycus in ,the ,winter's ,tale4 ,women have marveled at the ease with which his sympathy crosses the barriers of sex1 at his portraits of ,portia1 ,rosalind1 ,desdemona1 ,lady ,macbeth1 ,miranda1 ,cleopatra1 and ,cordelia4 ,great actresses have testified to their amazement at his discovery of feminine secrets which they had thought no man could ever divine4 ,illustration3 ,,henry ,,irving ,,as ,,hamlet4 ,universality4--,shakespeare's sympathy might have been broad enough to include all the people of his own time and their peculiar interests1 but might have lacked the power to project itself into the universal heart of humanity4 ,sometimes a writer voices the ideals and aspirations of his own day so effectively that he is called the spokesman of his age1 but he makes slight appeal to future generations4 ,shakespeare was the spokesman of his own time1 but he had the genius also to speak to all ages4 ,he loved to present the eternal truths of the human heart and to invest them with such a touch of nature as to reveal the kinship of the entire world4 ,his contemporary1 the dramatist1 ,ben ,jonson1 had the penetration to say of ,shakespeare3-- ,he was not of an age but for all time4 ,he meant that ,shakespeare does not exhibit some popular conceit1 folly1 or phase of thought1 which is merely the fashion of the hour and for which succeeding generations would care nothing2 but that he voices those truths which appeal to the people of all ages4 ,the grief of ,lear over the dead ,cordelia1 the ambition of ,lady ,macbeth1 the loves of ,rosalind and ,juliet1 the questionings of ,hamlet1 interest us as much today as they did the ,elizabethans4 ,fashions in literature may come and go1 but ,shakespeare's work remains4 ,illustration3 ,,ellen ,,terry ,,as ,,lady ,,macbeth4 ,from the painting by ,sargent4 ,humor4--,shakespeare had the most comprehensive sense of humor of any of the world's great writers1--a humor that was closely related to his sympathy4 ,it has been said that he saved his tragedies from the fatal disease of absurdity1 by inoculating them with his comic virus1 and that his sense of humor kept him from ever becoming shrill4 ,this faculty enabled him to detect incongruity1 to keep from overstressing a situation1 to enter into the personality of others1 to recover quickly from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune1 and in one of his last plays1 ,the ,tempest1 to welcome the brave young world as if he would like to play the game of life again4 ,it was largely because of his humor that the tragedies and pain of life did not sour and subdue ,shakespeare4 ,he soon wearies of a vacant laugh4 ,he has only one strictly farcical play1 ,the ,comedy of ,errors4 ,there are few intellects keen enough to extract all the humor from ,shakespeare4 ,for literal minds the full comprehension of even a slight display of his humor1 such as the following dialogue affords1 is better exercise than the solution of an algebraic problem4 ,dogberry1 a constable in ,much ,ado ,about ,nothing1 thus instructs the ,watch3-- ,dogberry4 ,you shall comprehend all vagrom men2 you are to bid any man stand in the prince's name4 ,watch4 ,how if a' will not stand8 ,dogberry4 ,why1 then1 take no note of him1 but let him go1 and presently call the rest of the watch together1 and thank ,god you are rid of a knave4 ,of all ,shakespeare's qualities1 his humor is the hardest to describe because of its protean forms4 ,falstaff is his greatest humorous creation4 ,so resourceful is he that even defeat enables him to rise like ,antaeus after a fall4 ,his humor is almost a philosophy of existence for those who love to use wit and ingenuity in trying to evade the laws of sober1 orderly living4 ,perhaps it was for this very reason that ,shakespeare consented to send so early to ,arthur's bosom#bf a character who had not a little of the complexity of ,hamlet4 ,illustration3 ,,falstaff ,,and ,,his ,,page4 ,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott4 ,much of ,shakespeare's humor is delicately suffused through his plays4 ,many of them either ripple with the laughter of his characters or are lighted with their smiles4 ,we may pass pleasant hours in the company of his joyous creations1 such as ,rosalind in ,as ,you ,like ,it1 or ,portia in ,the ,merchant of ,venice1 or ,puck as the spokesman for ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream1 who good naturedly exclaims3-- ,lord1 what fools these mortals be6 or ,viola and her companions in ,twelfth ,night1 or ,beatrice and ,benedict in ,much ,ado ,about ,nothing1 or ,ariel in ,the ,tempest playing pranks on the bewildered mariners and singing of the joys of life which come as a reward for service3-- ,merrily1 merrily shall ,i live now ,under the blossom that hangs on the bough4 ,shakespeare is also the one ,english author who is equally successful in depicting the highest type of both comedy and tragedy4 ,he has the power to describe even a deathbed scene so as to invest it with both humor and pathos4 ,dame ,quickly's lines in ,henry ,v41 on the death of ,falstaff1 show this capacity4 ,the next greatest ,english writer is lacking in this sense of humor4 ,john ,milton could write the tragedies of a ,paradise ,lost and a ,samson ,agonistes1 but he could not give us the humor of ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream1 ,the ,comedy of ,errors1 or ,as ,you ,like ,it4 ,we have seen that the next greatest dramatic genius1 ,marlowe1 has little sense of humor4 ,mrs4 ,browning correctly describes the plays of ,shakespeare as filled-- ,with tears and laughters for all time4 ,moral ,ideals4--,to show the moral consequences of acts was the work which most appealed to him4 ,banquo voiced the comprehensiveness of moral law when he said1 ,in the great hand of ,god ,i stand4 ,there is here great divergence between the views of ,shakespeare and of ,bacon4 ,dowden says3-- ,while ,bacon's sense of the presence of physical law in the universe was for his time extraordinarily developed1 he seems practically to have acted upon the theory that the moral laws of the world are not inexorable1 but rather by tactics and dexterity may be cleverly evaded4 ,their supremacy was acknowledged by ,shakespeare in the minutest as well as in the greatest concerns of human life4 ,by employing tactics in sending ,hamlet on a voyage to ,england1 the king hoped to avoid the consequences of his crime4 ,macbeth in vain tried every stratagem to trammel up the consequence4 ,goneril and ,regan drive their white-haired father out into the storm2 but even in ,king ,lear1 where the forces of evil seem to run riot1 let us note the result3-- ,throughout that stupendous ,third ,act the good are seen growing better through suffering1 and the bad worse through success4 ,the warm castle is a room in hell1 the storm-swept heath a sanctuary444 ,the only real thing in the world is the soul with its courage1 patience1 devotion4 ,and nothing outward can touch that4#bg ,shakespeare makes no pessimists4 ,he shows how misfortune crowns life with new moral glory4 ,we rise from the gloom of ,king ,lear1 feeling that we would rather be like ,cordelia than like either of her sisters or any other selfish character who apparently triumphs until life's close4 ,and yet ,cordelia lost everything1 her portion of her father's kingdom and her own life4 ,when we realize that ,shakespeare found one hundred and ten lines in ,king ,lear sufficient not only to confer immortality on ,cordelia1 but also to make us all eager to pay homage to her1 in spite of the fact that the ordinary standard of the world has not ceased to declare such a life a failure1 we may the better understand that his greatest power consisted in revealing the moral victories possible for this rough-hewn human life4 ,shakespeare made a mistake about the seacoast of ,bohemia and the location of ,milan with reference to the sea1 but he was always sure of the relative position of right and wrong and of the ultimate failure of evil4 ,in his greatest plays1 for instance1 in ,macbeth1 he sought to impress the incalculable danger of meddling with evil1 the impossibility of forecasting the tragedy that might thereby result1 the certainty that retribution would follow1 either here or beyond this bank and shoal of time4 ,mastery of his ,mother ,tongue4--,his wealth of expression is another striking characteristic4 ,in a poem on ,shakespeare1 ,ben ,jonson wrote3-- ,thou had'st small ,latin and less ,greek4 ,shakespeare is1 however1 the mightiest master of the ,english tongue4 ,he uses #ae1jjj different words1 while the second greatest writer in our language employs only #gjjj4 ,a great novelist like ,thackeray has a vocabulary of about #ejjj words1 while many uneducated laborers do not use over #fjj words4 ,the combinations that ,shakespeare has made with these #ae1jjj words are far more striking than their mere number4 ,variety of ,style4--,the style of ,milton1 ,addison1 ,dr4 ,johnson1 and ,macaulay has some definite peculiarities1 which can easily be classified4 ,shakespeare1 on the contrary1 in holding the mirror up to nature1 has different styles for his sailors1 soldiers1 courtiers1 kings1 and shepherds1--for ,juliet1 the lover2 for ,mistress ,quickly1 the alewife2 for ,hamlet1 the philosopher2 and for ,bottom1 the weaver4 ,to employ so many styles requires genius of a peculiar kind4 ,in the case of most of us1 our style would soon betray our individuality4 ,when ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson tried to write a drama1 he made all his little fishes talk like whales1 as ,goldsmith wittily remarked4 ,in the same play ,shakespeare's style varies from the dainty lyric touch of ,ariel's song about the cowslip's bell and the blossoming bough1 to a style unsurpassed for grandeur3-- ,the cloud-capp'd towers1 the gorgeous palaces1 ,the solemn temples1 the great globe itself1 ,yea1 all which it inherit1 shall dissolve ,and1 like this insubstantial pageant faded1 ,leave not a rack behind4 ,in the same passage his note immediately changes to the soft vox humana of-- ,we are such stuff ,as dreams are made on1 and our little life ,is rounded with a sleep4 ,his ,influence on ,thought4--,with the exception of the ,scriptures1 ,shakespeare's dramas have surpassed all other works in molding modern ,english thought4 ,if a person should master ,shakespeare and the ,bible1 he would find most that is greatest in human thought1 outside of the realm of science4 ,even when we do not read him1 we cannot escape the influence of others who have been swayed by him4 ,for generations1 certain modes of thought have crystallized about his phrases4 ,we may instance such expressions as these3 ,brevity is the soul of wit4 ,what's in a name8 ,the wish was father to the thought4 ,the time is out of joint4 ,there's the rub4 ,there's a divinity that shapes our ends4 ,comparisons are odorous4 ,it would1 perhaps1 not be too much to say that the play of ,hamlet has affected the thought of the majority of the ,english-speaking race4 ,his grip on ,anglo-,saxon thought has been increasing for more than three hundred years4 ,shakespeare's influence on the thought of any individual has only two circumscribing factors1--the extent of ,shakespearean study and the capacity of interpreting the facts of life4 ,no intelligent person can study ,shakespeare without becoming a deeper and more varied thinker1 without securing a broader comprehension of human existence1--its struggles1 failures1 and successes4 ,if we have before viewed humanity through a glass darkly1 ,shakespeare will gradually lead us where we can see face to face the beauty and the grandeur of the mystery of existence4 ,his most valuable influence often consists in rendering his students sympathetic and in making them feel a sense of kinship with life4 ,shakespeare's readers more quickly realize that human nature shows the shaping touch of divinity4 ,they have the rare joy of discovering the world anew and of exclaiming with ,miranda3-- ,how many goodly creatures are there here6 ,how beauteous mankind is6 ,o brave new world1 ,that has such people in't6#bh ,when we have really become acquainted with ,shakespeare1 our lives will be less prosaic and restricted4 ,after intimate companionship with him1 there will be1 in the words of ,ariel1 hardly any common thing in life-- ,but doth suffer a sea-change ,into something rich and strange4#bi ,,ben ,,jonson1 #aegc8-afcg ,illustration3 ,,ben ,,jonson4 ,from the portrait by ,gerard ,honthorst1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,about nine years after the birth of ,shakespeare his greatest successor in the ,english drama was born in ,london4 ,jonson outlived ,shakespeare twenty-one years and helped to usher in the decline of the drama4 ,ben ,jonson1 the son of a clergyman and the stepson of a master bricklayer1 received a good education at ,westminster ,school4 ,unlike ,shakespeare1 ,jonson learned much ,latin and ,greek4 ,in one respect ,jonson's training was unfortunate for a poet4 ,he was taught to write prose exercises first and then to turn them into poetry4 ,in this way he acquired the habit of trying to express unpoetical ideas in verse4 ,art could change the prose into metrical riming lines1 but art could not breathe into them the living soul of poetry4 ,in after times ,jonson said that ,shakespeare lacked art1 but ,jonson recognized that the author of ,hamlet had the magic touch of nature4 ,jonson's pen rarely felt her all-embracing touch4 ,if ,jonson served an apprenticeship as a bricklayer1 as his enemies afterward said1 he did not continue long at such work4 ,he crossed the ,channel and enlisted for a brief time as a soldier in the ,netherlands4 ,he soon returned to ,london and became a writer for the theater1 and thenceforth lived the life of an author and a student4 ,he loved to study and translate the classics4 ,in fact1 what a novice might think original in ,jonson's plays was often borrowed from the classics4 ,of his relations to the classical writers1 ,dryden says1 ,you track him everywhere in their snow4 ,jonson was known as the most learned poet of the age1 because1 if his plays demanded any special knowledge1 no subject was too hard1 dry1 or remote from common life for him to attempt to master it4 ,he knew the boundaries of ,bohemia1 and he took pleasure in saying to a friend3 ,shakespeare in a play brought in a number of men saying they had suffered shipwreck in ,bohemia1 where is no sea near1 by some hundred miles4 ,jonson's personal characteristics partly explain why he placed himself in opposition to the spirit of the age4 ,he was extremely combative4 ,it was almost a necessity for him to quarrel with some person or with some opinion4 ,he killed two men in duels1 and he would probably have been hanged1 if he had not pleaded benefit of clergy4 ,for the greater part of his life1 he was often occupied with pen and ink quarrels4 ,when ,james ,i4 ascended the throne in #afjc1 ,jonson soon became a royal favorite4 ,he was often employed to write masques1 a peculiar species of drama which called for magnificent scenery and dress1 and gave the nobility the opportunity of acting the part of some distinguished or supernatural character4 ,such work brought ,jonson into intimate association with the leading men of the day4 ,it is pleasant to think that he was a friend of ,shakespeare4 ,jonson's pithy volume of prose1 known as ,discoveries made upon ,men and ,matter1 contains his famous criticism on ,shakespeare1 noteworthy because it shows how a great contemporary regarded him1 ,i loved the man and do honor his memory on this side idolatry as much as any4 ,few ,english writers have received from a great rival author such convincing testimony in regard to lovable personality4 ,illustration3 ,,ben ,,jonson',s ,,tomb ,,in ,,westminster ,,abbey4 ,in #afaf1 the year in which ,shakespeare died1 ,jonson was made poet laureate4 ,when he died in #afcg1 he was buried in an upright position in ,westminster ,abbey4 ,a plain stone with the unique inscription1 ,o ,rare ,ben ,jonson1 marks his grave4 ,plays4--,ben ,jonson's comedies are his best dramatic work4 ,from all his plays we may select three that will best repay reading3 ,volpone1 ,the ,alchemist1 and ,the ,silent ,woman4 ,volpone is the story of an old1 childless1 ,venetian nobleman whose ruling passion is avarice4 ,everything else in the play is made tributary to this passion4 ,the first three lines in the first act strike the keynote of the entire play4 ,volpone says3-- ,good morning to the day2 and next1 my gold6-- ,open the shrine1 that ,i may see my saint4 ,hail the world's soul and mine6 ,the ,alchemist makes a strong presentation of certain forms of credulity in human nature and of the special tricks which the alchemists and impostors of that day adopted4 ,one character wants to buy the secret of the helpful influence of the stars2 another parts with his wealth to learn the alchemist's secret of turning everything into gold and jewels4 ,the way in which these characters are deceived is very amusing4 ,a study of this play adds to our knowledge of a certain phase of the times4 ,in point of artistic construction of plot1 ,the ,alchemist is nowhere excelled in the ,english drama2 but the intrusion of ,jonson's learning often makes the play tedious reading1 as when he introduces the technical terms of the so-called science of alchemy to show that he has studied it thoroughly4 ,one character speaks to the alchemist of-- ,your lato1 azoch1 zernich1 chibrit1 heautarit1 and another asks3-- ,can you sublime and dulcify8 calcine8 ,know you the sapor pontic8 sapor stiptic1 ,or what is homogene1 or heterogene8 ,lines like the following show that ,jonson's acute mind had grasped something of the principle of evolution3-- 444'twere absurd ,to think that nature in the earth bred gold ,perfect in the instant3 something went before4 ,there must be remote matter4 ,the ,silent ,woman is in lighter vein than either of the plays just mentioned4 ,the leading character is called ,morose1 and his special whim or humor is a horror of noise4 ,his home is on a street so narrow at both ends that it will receive no coaches nor carts1 nor any of these common noises4 ,he has mattresses on the stairs1 and he dismisses the footman for wearing squeaking shoes4 ,for a long time ,morose does not marry1 fearing the noise of a wife's tongue4 ,finally he commissions his nephew to find him a silent woman for a wife1 and the author uses to good advantage the opportunity for comic situations which this turn in the action affords4 ,dryden preferred ,the ,silent ,woman to any of the other plays4 ,besides the plays mentioned in this section1 ,jonson wrote during his long life many other comedies and masques as well as some tragedies4 ,marks of ,decline4--,a study of the decline of the drama1 as shown in ,jonson's plays1 will give us a better appreciation of the genius of ,shakespeare4 ,we may change ,jonson's line so that it will state one reason for his not maintaining ,shakespearean excellence3-- ,he was not for all time1 but of an age4 ,his first play1 ,every ,man in his ,humor1 paints1 not the universal emotions of men1 but some special humor4 ,he thus defines the sense in which he uses humor3-- ,as when some one peculiar quality ,doth so possess a man1 that it doth draw ,all his affects1 his spirits and his powers1 ,in their confluctions1 all to run one way1 ,this may be truly said to be a ,humor4 ,unlike ,shakespeare1 ,jonson gives a distorted or incomplete picture of life4 ,in ,volpone everything is subsidiary to the humor of avarice1 which receives unnatural emphasis4 ,in ,the ,alchemist there is little to relieve the picture of credibility and hypocrisy1 while ,the ,silent ,woman has for its leading character a man whose principal humor or aim in life is to avoid noise4 ,no drama which fails to paint the nobler side of womanhood can be called complete4 ,in ,jonson's plays we do not find a single woman worthy to come near the ,shakespearean characters1 ,cordelia1 ,imogen1 and ,desdemona4 ,his limitations are nowhere more marked than in his inability to portray a noble woman4 ,another reason why he fails to present life completely is shown in these lines1 in which he defines his mission3-- ,my strict hand ,was made to seize on vice1 and with a gripe ,squeeze out the humor of such spongy souls ,as lick up every idle vanity4 ,since the world needs building up rather than tearing down1 a remedy for an ailment rather than fault-finding1 the greatest of men cannot be mere satirists4 ,shakespeare displays some fellow feeling for the object of his satire1 but ,jonson's satire is cold and devoid of sympathy4 ,jonson deliberately took his stand in opposition to the romantic spirit of the age4 ,marlowe and ,shakespeare had disregarded the classical unities and had developed the drama on romantic lines4 ,jonson resolved to follow classical traditions and to adhere to unity of time and place in the construction of his plots4 ,the action in the play of ,the ,silent ,woman1 for instance1 occupies only twelve hours4 ,general ,characteristics4--,jonson's plays show the touch of a conscientious artist with great intellectual ability4 ,his vast erudition is constantly apparent4 ,he is the satiric historian of his time1 and he exhibits the follies and the humors of the age under a powerful lens4 ,he is also the author of dainty lyrics1 and forcible prose criticism4 ,among the shortcomings of his plays1 we may specially note lack of feeling and of universality4 ,he fails to comprehend the nature of woman4 ,he is not a sympathetic observer of manifold life1 but presents only what is perceived through the frosted glass of intellect4 ,his art is self-conscious4 ,he defiantly opposed the romantic spirit of the age and weakened the drama by making it bear the burden of the classical unities4 ,,minor ,,dramatists ,beaumont and ,fletcher4--,next to ,marlowe1 ,shakespeare1 and ,ben ,jonson1 the two most influential dramatists were ,francis ,beaumont 7#aehd-afaf7 and ,john ,fletcher 7#aegi-afbe74 ,they are usually mentioned together because they collaborated in writing plays4 ,fletcher had the great advantage of working with ,shakespeare in producing ,henry ,,viii4 ,beaumont died nine years before ,fletcher1 and it is doubtful whether he collaborated with ,fletcher in more than fifteen of the fifty plays published under their joint names4 ,two of their greatest plays1 ,philaster and ,the ,maid's ,tragedy1 are probably their joint production4 ,the ,faithful ,shepherdess and ,bonduca are among the best of about eighteen plays supposed to have been written by ,fletcher alone4 ,after ,beaumont's death1 ,fletcher sometimes collaborated with other dramatists4 ,illustration3 ,,francis ,,beaumont4 ,almost all the so-called ,beaumont and ,fletcher plays are well constructed4 ,these dramatists also have1 in common with the majority of their associates1 the ability to produce occasional passages of exquisite poetry4 ,a character in ,philaster speaks of death in lines that suggest ,hamlet3-- ',tis less than to be born2 a lasting sleep1 ,a quiet resting from all jealousy2 ,a thing we all pursue2 ,i know besides ,it is but giving over of a game ,that must be lost4 ,beaumont and ,fletcher's work is noteworthy for its pictures of contemporary life and manners1 for wealth of incident1 rapidity of movement1 and variety of characters4 ,not long after the beginning of the seventeenth century there was a change in the taste of the patrons of the theater4 ,shakespeare declined in popularity4 ,the playwrights tried to solve the problem of interesting audiences that wished only to be entertained4 ,this attempt led to a change in dramatic methods4 ,changed ,moral ,ideals4--,under ,elizabeth's successors the ,puritan spirit increased and the most religious part of the community seldom attended the theater4 ,the later dramatists pay little attention to the moral development of character and its self-revelation through action4 ,they often merely describe character and paint it from the outside4 ,we have seen that ,shakespeare's great plays are almost a demonstration in moral geometry1 but ,beaumont and ,fletcher are not much concerned over the moral consequences of an action4 ,the gravest charge against them is that they unknit the sequence of moral cause and effect4 ,after reading such plays1 we do not rise with the feeling that there is a divinity that shapes our ends4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,fletcher4 ,coleridge says1 ,shakespeare never renders that amiable which religion and reason alike teach us to detest1 or clothes impurity in the garb of virtue1 like ,beaumont and ,fletcher4 ,much of the work of their contemporary dramatists is marred by such blemishes4 ,unpleasant as are numbers of these plays1 they are less insidious than many which have appeared on the stage in modern times4 ,love of ,surprises4--,the dramatists racked their inventive powers to introduce surprises to interest the audience4 ,here was a marked departure from ,shakespeare's later method4 ,he plans ,macbeth so as to have his audience forecast the logical result4 ,consequences of the most tremendous import1 beside which ,beaumont and ,fletcher's surprises seem trivial1 follow naturally from ,macbeth's actions4 ,in his greatest plays1 ,shakespeare1 unlike the later dramatists1 never relies on illogical surprises to sustain the interest4 ,the witch queen in one of the plays of ,thomas ,middleton 7#aegj-afbg7 suddenly exclaims3-- 444fetch three ounces of the red-haired girl ,i kill'd last midnight4 ,shakespeare's witches suggest only enough of the weird and the horrible to transfix the attention and make the beholder realize the force of the temptation that assails ,macbeth4 ,charles ,lamb truly observes that ,middleton's witches can harm the body1 but ,shakespeare's have power over the soul4 ,middleton could1 however1 write a passage like the following1 which probably suggested to ,milton one of the finest lines in ,lycidas3-- ,upon those lips1 the sweet fresh buds of youth1 ,the holy dew of prayer lies1 like pearl ,dropt from the opening eyelids of the morn ,upon a bashful rose4 ,large ,number of ,playwrights4--,beaumont and ,fletcher were only two of a large number of dramatists who were born in the age of ,elizabeth1 and who1 with few exceptions1 lived into the second quarter of the seventeenth century4 ,their work was the result of earlier ,elizabethan impulses1 and it is rightly considered a part of the great dramatic movement of the ,elizabethan age4 ,the popularity of the drama continued to attract many authors who in a different age might have produced other forms of literature4 ,george ,chapman 7#aeei8-afcd71 who is best known for his fine translation of ,homer's ,iliad1 turned dramatist in middle life1 but found it difficult to enter into the feelings of characters unlike himself4 ,his best two plays1 ,bussy ,d',ambois and ,the ,revenge of ,bussy ,d',ambois1 are tragedies founded on ,french history4 ,thomas ,middleton1 gifted in dramatic technique and dialogue and noted for his comedy of domestic manners1 was the author of ,michaelmas ,term1 ,a ,trick to ,catch the ,old ,one1 ,the ,changeling 7in collaboration with ,william ,rowley1 #aehe8-afdj874 ,john ,marston 7#aegf8-afcd7 wrote ,antonio and ,mellida1 a blood and thunder tragedy1 and collaborated with ,jonson and ,chapman to produce ,eastward ,hoe1 an excellent comic picture of contemporary life4 ,the ,shoemaker's ,holiday of ,thomas ,dekker 7#aegj8-afdj7 is also a good comedy of ,london life and manners4 ,philip ,massinger 7#aehd-afdj71 a later collaborator with ,fletcher1 wrote ,a ,new ,way to ,pay ,old ,debts1 a play very popular in after times4 ,thomas ,heywood 7#aegb8-afej71 one of the most prolific dramatists1 claimed to have had either an entire hand or at the least a main finger1 in two hundred and twenty plays4 ,his best work is ,a ,woman ,killed with ,kindness1 a domestic drama that appealed to the middle classes4 ,a ,tragic ,group4--,three dramatists3 ,john ,webster 7#afjb-afbd71 ,cyril ,tourneur 7#aege8-afbf71 and ,john ,ford 7#aehf-afdj871 had a love for the most somber tragedy4 ,in tragic power1 ,webster approaches nearest to ,shakespeare4 ,webster's greatest play1 ,the ,duchess of ,malfi 7acted in #afaf71 and ,the ,white ,devil1 which ranks second1 show the working of a master hand1 but ,webster's genius comes to a focus only in depicting the horrible4 ,he loves such gloomy metaphors as the following3-- ,you speak as if a man ,should know what fowl is coffined in a baked meat ,afore you cut it open4 ,tourneur's ,the ,atheist's ,tragedy is in ,webster's vein1 but far inferior to ,the ,duchess of ,malfi4 ,ford's ,the ,broken ,heart is a strong1 but unpleasant1 tragedy4 ,he is so fascinated with the horrible that he introduces it even when it is not the logical outcome of a situation4 ,his best but least characteristic play is ,perkin ,warbeck1 which is worthy of ranking second only to ,shakespeare's historical plays4 ,end of the ,elizabethan ,drama4--,james ,shirley 7#aeif-afff71 the last of the ,elizabethans1 endeavored to the best of his ability to continue the work of the earlier dramatists4 ,the ,traitor and ,the ,cardinal are two of the best of his many productions4 ,he was hard at work writing new plays in #afdb1 when the ,puritans closed the theaters4 ,he was thus forced to abandon the profession that he enjoyed and compelled to teach in order to earn a livelihood4 ,the drama has never since regained its ,elizabethan ascendancy4 ,the coarse plays of the ,restoration 7#affj7 flourished for a while1 but the treatment of the later drama forms but a minor part of the history of the best ,english literature4 ,few plays produced during the next two hundred years are much read or acted to-day4 ,she ,stoops to ,conquer 7#aggc71 by ,oliver ,goldsmith1 and ,the ,rivals 7#agge7 and ,the ,school for ,scandal 7#aggg71 by ,richard ,brinsley ,sheridan1 are the chief exceptions before #ahij4 ,,summary ,the ,elizabethan age was a period of expansion in knowledge1 commerce1 religious freedom1 and human opportunities4 ,the defeat of the ,armada freed ,england from fear of ,spanish domination and made her mistress of the sea4 ,england was vivified by the combined influence of the ,renaissance and the ,reformation4 ,knowledge was expanding in every direction and promising to crown human effort with universal mastery4 ,the greater feeling of individuality was partly due to the ,reformation1 which emphasized the direct responsibility of each individual for all acts affecting the welfare of his soul4 ,elizabethans were noted for their resourcefulness1 their initiative1 their craving for new experiences1 and their desire to realize the utmost out of life4 ,as they cared little for ideas that could not be translated into action1 they were particularly interested in the drama4 ,although the prose covers a wide field1 it is far inferior to the poetry4 ,lyly's ,euphues suffers from overwrought conceits and forced antitheses1 but it influenced writers to pay more attention to the manner in which thought was expressed4 ,the flowery prose of ,sidney's ,arcadia presents a pastoral world of romance4 ,his ,apologie for ,poetrie is a meritorious piece of early criticism4 ,while ,hooker indicates advance in solidity of matter and dignity of style1 yet a comparison of his heavy religious prose with the prayer of the king in ,hamlet or with ,portia's words about mercy in ,the ,merchant of ,venice will show the vast superiority of the poetry in dealing with spiritual ideas4 ,bacon's ,essays1 celebrated for pithy condensation of striking thoughts1 is the only prose work that has stood the test of time well enough to claim many readers to-day4 ,poetry1 both lyric and dramatic1 is the crowning glory of the ,elizabethan age4 ,the lyric verse is remarkable for its wide range and for beauty of form and sentiment4 ,the lyrics include love sonnets1 pastorals1 and miscellaneous verse4 ,shakespeare's ,sonnets and the songs in his dramas are the best in this field1 but many poets wrote exquisite artistic lyrics4 ,edmund ,spenser is the only great poet who was not also a dramatist4 ,his ,faerie ,queene fashions an ideal world dominated by a love of beauty and high endeavor4 ,the greatest literary successes of the age were won in writing plays for the stage4 ,in ,england the drama had for centuries slowly developed through ,miracle plays1 ,moralities1 and ,interludes to the plays of ,marlowe1 ,shakespeare1 and ,ben ,jonson4 ,these three are the greatest ,elizabethan dramatists1 but they are only the central figures of a group4 ,the ,english drama in the hands of ,sackville imitated ,seneca and followed the rules of the classic stage4 ,marlowe and ,shakespeare threw off the restraints of the classical unities2 and the romantic drama1 rejoicing in its freedom1 speedily told the story of all life4 ,the innyards were used for the public presentation of plays before the erection of theaters in the last quarter of the sixteenth century4 ,the theaters were a great educational force in ,shakespeare's time4 ,they not only furnished amusement1 but they also took the place of periodicals1 lectures1 and books4 ,the actors1 coming into close contact with their audience and unable to rely on elaborate scenery as an offset to poor acting1 were equal to the task of so presenting ,shakespeare's great plays as to make them popular4 ,shakespeare's plays1 the greatest ever written1 reveal wonderful sympathy1 universality1 humor1 delineation of character1 high moral ideals1 mastery of expression1 and strength1 beauty1 and variety of poetic form4 ,great as is ,ben ,jonson1 he hampered himself by observing the classical unities and by stressing accidental qualities4 ,he lacks ,shakespeare's universality1 broad sympathy1 and emotional appeal4 ,other minor dramatists1 like ,beaumont and ,fletcher show further decline1 because they constructed their plays more from the outside1 showed less development of character in strict accordance with moral law1 and relied more for effect on sensational scenes4 ,the drama has never since taken up the wand that dropped from ,shakespeare's hands4 ,,references ,,for ,,further ,,study ,,historical ,in addition to the chapters on the time in the histories of ,gardiner1 ,green1 ,lingard1 ,walker1 and ,traill1 see ,stephenson's ,the ,elizabethan ,people1 ,creighton's ,queen ,elizabeth1 ,wilson's ,life in ,shakespeare's ,england1 ,stephenson's ,shakespeare's ,london1 ,warner's ,english ,history in ,shakespeare's plays4 ,,literary ,general and ,non-,dramatic ,the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,vols4 ,,iv41 ,v41 and ,,vi4 ,courthope's ,a ,history of ,english ,poetry1 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,schelling's ,english ,literature during the ,lifetime of ,shakespeare4 ,seecombe and ,allen's ,the ,age of ,shakespeare1 #b vols4 ,saintsbury's ,a ,history of ,elizabethan ,literature4 ,dictionary of ,national ,biography for lives of ,lyly1 ,sidney1 ,hooker4 ,bacon1 ,spenser1 and the minor dramatists4 ,walton's ,life of ,hooker4 ,church's ,life of ,bacon4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,church's ,life of ,spenser4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,mackail's ,the ,springs of ,helicon 7,spenser74 ,dowden's ,transcripts and ,studies 7,spenser74 ,lowell's ,among ,my ,books 7,spenser74 ,erskine's ,the ,elizabethan ,lyric4 ,the ,drama#cj ,schelling's ,elizabethan ,drama1 #aeeh-afdb1 #b vols4 ,ward's ,a ,history of ,english ,dramatic ,literature1 #c vols4 ,brooke's ,the ,tudor ,drama4 ,chambers's ,the ,mediaeval ,stage4 ,allbright's ,the ,shakespearean ,stage4 ,lawrence's ,elizabethan ,playhouse and ,other ,studies4 ,smith's ,york ,plays 7,clarendon ,press74 ,symonds's ,shakespeare's ,predecessors in the ,english ,drama4 ,bates's ,the ,english ,religious ,drama4 ,manly's ,specimens of the ,pre-,shakespearean ,drama4 ,wallace's ,the ,evolution of the ,english ,drama up to ,shakespeare4 ,ingram's ,christopher ,marlowe and his ,associates4 ,dowden's ,transcripts and ,studies 7,marlowe74 ,symonds's ,ben ,jonson4 ,swinburne's ,a ,study of ,ben ,jonson4 ,shakespeare ,lee's ,a ,life of ,william ,shakespeare4 ,furnivall and ,munro's ,shakespeare3 ,life and ,work4 ,harris's ,the ,man ,shakespeare and his ,tragic ,life ,story4 ,halliwell-,phillipps's ,outlines of the ,life of ,shakespeare4 ,raleigh's ,shakespeare47,e4,m4,l47 ,baker's ,the ,development of ,shakespeare as a ,dramatist4 ,mac,cracken1 ,pierce1 and ,durham's ,an ,introduction to ,shakespeare4 ,bradley's ,shakespearean ,tragedy 7excellent74 ,bradley's ,oxford ,lectures on ,poetry4 ,dowden's ,shakespeare1 ,his ,mind and ,art4 ,coleridge's ,lectures on ,shakespeare 7pp4 #ba-eh of ,beers's ,selections from the ,prose writings of ,coleridge74 ,lowell's ,shakespeare ,once ,more1 in ,among ,my ,books4 ,wallace's ,shakespeare1 the ,globe1 and ,blackfriars4 ,how ,shakespeare's ,senses were ,trained1 ,chap4 ,x4 in ,halleck's ,education of the ,central ,nervous ,system4 ,rolfe's ,shakespeare the ,boy4 ,boswell-,stone's ,shakespeare's ,holinshed4 ,brooke's ,shakespeare's ,plutarch1 #b vols4 ,madden's ,the ,diary of ,master ,william ,silence3 ,a ,study of ,shakespeare and of ,elizabethan ,sport4 ,winter's ,shakespeare on the ,stage4 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,elizabethan ,prose4--,good selections from ,ascham1 ,hakluyt1 ,raleigh1 ,holinshed1 ,stow1 ,camden1 ,north1 ,sidney1 ,foxe1 ,hooker1 ,lyly1 ,greene1 ,lodge1 and ,nashe are given in ,craik1 ,i4#ca ,chambers1 ,i4 and ,manly1 ,,ii4 also give a number of selections4 ,deloney's ,the ,gentle ,craft may be found in the ,clarendon ,press edition of his ,works4 ,for ,bacon1 see ,craik1 ,,ii4 ,these selections will give the student a broader grasp of the ,elizabethan age4 ,the style and subject matter of ,lyly's ,euphues1 ,sidney's ,arcadia1 ,hooker's ,of the ,laws of ,ecclesiastical ,polity1 and ,bacon's ,essays should be specially noted4 ,which one of these authors exerted the strongest influence on his own age8 ,which one makes the strongest appeal to modern times8 ,in what respects does the style of any ,elizabethan prose writer show an improvement over that of ,mandeville and ,malory8 ,lyrics4--,for specimens of love sonnets1 read ,nos4 #ah1 #cc1 #gc1 #ajd1 #aaa1 and #aaf of ,shakespeare's ,sonnets4 ,compare them with any of ,sidney's ,spenser's sonnets4 ,other love lyrics which should be read are ,spenser's ,prothalamion1 ,lodge's ,love in ,my ,bosom ,like a ,bee and ,ben ,jonson's ,to ,celia4 ,among pastoral lyrics1 read from ,spenser's ,shepherd's ,calendar for ,august1 #aegi1 ,perigo and ,willie's duet1 beginning3-- ,it fell upon a holy eve1 and ,marlowe's ,the ,passionate ,shepherd to ,his ,love4 ,the best pastoral lyrics from the modern point of view are ,shakespeare's two songs3 ,under the ,greenwood ,tree 7,as you like it7 and ,when ,icicles ,hang by the ,wall 7,love's ,labor's ,lost74 ,the best miscellaneous lyrics are the songs in ,shakespeare's ,cymbeline1 ,the ,tempest1 and ,as ,you ,like ,it4 ,drayton's ,ballad of ,agincourt and ,sonnet #fa are his best lyrical verse4 ,read ,ben ,jonson's ,an ,epitaph on ,salathiel ,pavy and1 from his ,pindaric ,ode1 the stanza beginning3-- ,it is not growing like a tree4 ,from ,john ,donne1 read either ,the ,funeral1 ,the ,canonization1 or ,the ,dream4 ,good selections from all varieties of ,elizabethan lyrics may be found in ,bronson1 ,,ii41 ,ward4 ,i41 ,oxford1 ,century1 ,manly1 ,i4 ,nearly all the lyrics referred to in this list1 including the best songs from the dramatists1 are given in ,schelling's ,elizabethan ,lyrics 7#cbg pp41 #ge cents74 ,this work1 together with ,erskine's ,the ,elizabethan ,lyric and ,reed's ,english ,lyrical ,poetry from its ,origins to the ,present ,time1 will serve for a more exhaustive study of this fascinating subject4 ,from your reading1 select from each class the lyric that pleases you most1 and give reasons for your choice4 ,which lyric seems the most spontaneous8 the most artistic8 the most inspired8 the most modern8 the most quaint8 the most and the least instinct with feeling8 ,edmund ,spenser4--,the ,faerie ,queene1 ,book ,i41 ,canto ,i41 should be read4 ,maynard's ,english ,classic ,series1 ,no4 #bg 7#ab cents7 contains the first two cantos and the ,prothalamion4 ,kitchin's edition of ,book ,i4 7,clarendon ,press4 #fj cents7 is an excellent volume4 ,the ,globe edition furnishes a good complete text of ,spenser's work4 ,ample selections are given in ,bronson1 ,,ii41 ,ward1 ,i41 and briefer ones in ,manly1 ,i41 and ,century4 ,,the ,,drama ,the ,best ,volumes of ,selections4--,the least expensive volume to cover nearly the entire field with brief selections is ,vol4 ,,ii4 of ,the ,oxford ,treasury of ,english ,literature1 entitled ,growth of the ,drama 7,clarendon ,press1 #dab pp41 #ij cents74 ,pollard's ,english ,miracle ,plays1 ,moralities1 and ,interludes 7,clarendon ,press1 #bej pp41 #a4ij7 is the best single volume of selections from this branch of the drama4 ,everyman and ,other ,miracle ,plays 7,everyman's ,library1 #ce cents7 is a good inexpensive volume4 ,manly's' ,specimens of the ,pre-,shakespearean ,drama 7three volumes1 #a4be each7 covers this field more fully4 ,morley's ,english ,plays 7published as ,vol4 ,,iii4 of ,cassell's ,library of ,english ,literature1 at eleven and one half shillings7 contains good selections from nearly all the plays mentioned below1 except those by ,shakespeare and ,jonson4 ,williams's ,specimens of the ,elizabethan ,drama1 from ,lyly to ,shirley1 #aehj-afdb 7,clarendon ,press1 #egf pp41 #a4ij7 is excellent for a comprehensive survey of the field covered4 ,lamb's ,specimens of ,english ,poets ,who ,lived about the ,time of ,shakespeare 7,bohn's ,library1 #eeb pp47 contains a large number of good selections4 ,miracle ,plays4--,read the ,chester ,play of ,noah's ,flood1 ,pollard1#cb #h-bj1 and the ,towneley ,play of the ,shepherds1 ,pollard1 #ca-dc2 ,manly's ,specimens1 ,i1 #id-aai2 ,morley's ,english ,plays1 #ab-ah4 ,these two plays best show the germs of ,english comedy4 ,moralities4--,the best ,morality is that known as ,everyman1 ,pollard1 #gf-if2 also in ,everyman's ,library4 ,if ,everyman is not accessible1 ,hycke-,scorner may be substituted1 ,morley2 #ab-ah2 ,manly's ,specimens1 ,i41 #chf-dbj4 ,court ,plays1 ,early ,comedies1 and ,gorboduc4--,the best ,interlude is ,the ,four ,p's4 ,adequate selections are given in ,morley1 #ah-bj1 and in ,symonds's ,shakespeare's ,predecessors in the ,english ,drama1 #ahh-bja4 ,pollard and ,manly give several good selections from other ,interludes4 ,ralph ,royster ,doyster may be found in ,arber's ,reprints2 in ,morley's ,english ,plays1 pp4 #bb-df2 in ,manly's ,specimens1 ,,ii41 #e-ib2 in ,oxford ,treasury1 ,,ii41 #afa-agd1 and in ,temple ,dramatists 7#ce cents74 ,gorboduc is given in ,oxford ,treasury1 ,,ii4 pp41 #dj-ed 7selections72 ,morley's ,english ,plays1 pp4 #ea-fd2 and1 under the title of ,ferrex and ,porrex1 in ,dodsley's ,old ,plays4 ,what were some of the purposes for which ,interludes were written8 ,how did they aid in the development of the drama8 ,in what different forms are ,the ,four-,p's1 ,ralph ,royster ,doyster1 and ,gorboduc written8 ,why would ,shakespeare's plays have been impossible if the evolution of the drama had stopped with ,gorboduc8 ,pre-,shakespearean ,dramatists4--,selections from ,lyly1 ,peele1 ,green1 ,lodge1 ,nashe1 and ,kyd may be found in ,williams's ,specimens4 ,morley and ,oxford ,treasury also contain a number of selections4 ,peele's ,the ,arraignment of ,paris and ,kyd's ,the ,spanish ,tragedy are in ,temple ,dramatists4 ,greene's best plays are in ,mermaid ,series4 ,what are the merits of ,lyly's dialogue and comedy8 ,what might ,shakespeare have learned from ,lyly1 ,peele1 ,greene1 and ,kyd8 ,in what different form did these dramatists write8 ,what progress do they show8 ,marlowe4--,read ,dr4 ,faustus1 in ,masterpieces of the ,english ,drama 7,american ,book ,company7 or in ,everyman's ,library4 ,this play may also be found in ,morley's ,english ,plays1 pp4 #aaf-abh1 or in ,morley's ,universal ,library4 ,selections from various plays of ,marlowe may be found in ,oxford ,treasury1 #fa-he1 #ccj-cef2 and in ,williams's ,specimens1 #be-cd4 ,does ,dr4 ,faustus observe the classical unities8 ,in what way does it show the spirit of the ,elizabethan age8 ,was the poetic form of the play the regular vehicle of dramatic expression8 ,in what does the greatness of the play consist8 ,what are its defects8 ,why do young people sometimes think ,marlowe the greatest of all the ,elizabethan dramatists8 ,shakespeare4--,the student should read in sequence one or more of the plays in each of ,shakespeare's four periods of development 7pp4 #ahe1 #ahh71 such as ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream and ,romeo and ,juliet1 for the first period2 ,as ,you ,like ,it and ,the ,merchant of ,venice1 for the second2 ,hamlet and ,king ,lear or ,macbeth or ,julius ,caesar1 for the third2 and ,the ,winter's ,tale and ,the ,tempest1 for the fourth4 ,among the many good annotated editions of separate plays are the ,clarke and ,wright1 ,rolfe1 ,hudson1 ,arden1 ,temple1 and ,tudor editions4 ,furness's ,variorum ,shakespeare is the best for exhaustive study4 ,the best portable single volume edition is ,craig's ,oxford ,shakespeare1 ,india paper1 #acej pages4 ,the student cannot do better than follow the advice of ,dr4 ,johnson3 ,let him who is unacquainted with the powers of ,shakespeare1 and who desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give1 read every play1 from the first scene to the last1 with utter negligence of all his commentators444 ,let him read on through brightness and obscurity1 through integrity and corruption2 let him preserve his comprehension of the dialogue and his interest in the fable4 ,and when the pleasures of novelty have ceased1 let him attempt exactness and read the commentators4 ,shakespeare's three greatest tragedies1 ,hamlet1 ,king ,lear1 and ,macbeth1 should be read several times4 ,after becoming familiar with the story1 the student should next determine the general aim of the play and analyze the personality and philosophy of each of the leading characters4 ,after reading some of all classes of ,shakespeare's plays1 point out his 7a7 breadth of sympathy1 7b7 humor1 7c7 moral ideals1 7d7 mastery of ,english and variety of style1 and 7e7 universality4 ,what idea of his personality can you form from his plays8 ,if you have read them in sequence1 point out some of the characteristics of each of his four periods4 ,why is ,shakespeare often called a great dramatic artist8 ,how did his audience and manner of presentation of his plays modify his treatment of a dramatic theme8 ,ben ,jonson and ,minor ,dramatists4--,the best plays of ,ben ,jonson1 ,chapman1 ,beaumont and ,fletcher1 ,middleton1 ,massinger1 ,webster1 and ,tourneur may be found in ,masterpieces of the ,english ,drama edited by ,schellinq 7,american ,book ,company74 ,selections from all the minor dramatists mentioned may be found in ,williams's ,specimens4 ,the teacher will need to exercise care in assigning readings4 ,most of the minor dramatists are better suited to advanced students4 ,read ,jonson's ,the ,alchemist or the selection in ,williams's ,specimens4 ,a sufficient selection from ,philaster may be found in ,vol4 ,,ii4 of ,the ,oxford ,treasury1 in ,morley1 and in ,williams's ,specimens4 ,what points of difference between ,shakespeare and ,jonson do you notice8 ,what is his object in ,the ,alchemist8 ,why is its plot called unusually fine8 ,wherein does ,jonson show a decline in the drama8 ,who were ,beaumont and ,fletcher8 ,what movement in the drama do they illustrate8 ,what are the characteristics of some other minor dramatists8 ,what are the chief reasons why the minor dramatists fail to equal ,shakespeare8 ,when and why did this period of the drama close8 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,,iv3 ,footnote #a3 ,for additional mention of ,elizabethan novelists1 see p4 #cag4 ,footnote #b3 ,for references to selections from all these prose writers1 see p4 #bae4 ,footnote #c3 ,of ,youth and ,age4 ,footnote #d3 ,thomas ,heywood's ,matin ,song4 ,footnote #e3 ,suggestions for additional study of ,elizabethan lyrics are given on p4 #bae4 ,footnote #f3 riding4 ,footnote #g3 ,an ,hymne in ,honour of ,beautie4 ,footnote #h3 ,faerie ,queene1 ,book ,,iii41 ,canto #d4 ,footnote #i3 ,ibid41 ,book ,i41 ,canto #c4 ,footnote #aj3 ,smith's ,york ,plays4 ,footnote #aa3 ,c4,w4 ,wallace's ,the ,evolution of the ,english ,drama up to ,shakespeare4 ,footnote #ab3 ,wallace1 op4 cit41 p4#cg4 ,footnote #ac3 ,what ,we ,know of the ,elizabethan ,stage4 ,footnote #ad3 ,performances were often given at night in private theaters4 ,from the records in a lawsuit over the second ,blackfriars ,theater1 we learn that there were in #afjh only three private theaters in ,london1--,blackfriars1 ,whitefriars1 and a ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral playhouse1 in which boys acted4 ,footnote #ae3 ,this drawing of the ,swan ,theater1 ,london1 was probably made near the end of the sixteenth century by van ,buchell1 a ,dutchman1 from a description by his friend1 ,j4 de ,witt4 ,the drawing1 found at the ,university of ,utrecht1 although perhaps not accurate in details1 is valuable as a rough contemporary record of an impression communicated to a draftsman by one who had seen an ,elizabethan play4 ,footnote #af3 ,the lease of the building for the first ,blackfriars ,theater1 on ,ludgate ,hill1 ,london1 was taken in #aegf by ,richard ,farrant1 master of the boys of ,windsor ,chapel1 and canceled in #aehd4 ,in #aeie ,james ,burbage bought a building for the second ,blackfriars ,theater1 near the site of the first4 ,this was a private theater1 competing with the ,globe1 with which ,shakespeare was connected4 ,the chief dramatists for the second ,blackfriars were ,ben ,jonson1 ,george ,chapman1 and ,john ,marston4 ,james ,i4 suppressed the second ,blackfriars in #afjh because its actors satirized him and the ,french king4 ,a few months later1 ,shakespeare and his associates assumed the management of the ,blackfriars and gave performances there as well as at the ,globe4 ,these facts explain ,wallace's discovery that ,shakespeare at the time of his death owned a one-seventh interest in the second ,blackfriars1 a theater that had formerly been a rival to the ,globe4 ,footnote #ag3 ,dr4 ,faustus1 ,scene #f4 ,footnote #ah3 ,tamburlaine1 ,act ,,ii41 ,scene #g4 ,footnote #ai3 ,the ,winter's ,tale1 ,act ,,iv41 ,scene #d4 ,footnote #bj3 ,tradition says that ,shakespeare occupied the desk in the farthest corner4 ,footnote #ba3 ,greene's ,groatsworth of ,wit1 ,grosart's edition of ,greene's ,works1 ,vol4 ,,xii41 p4 #add4 ,footnote #bb3 ,the contract price for building the ,fortune ,theater was #ddj4 ,footnote #bc3 ,adapted from ,furnivall4 ,footnote #bd3 ,entered one year before at ,stationers' ,hall4 ,footnote #be3 ,may be looked on as fairly certain4 ,footnote #bf3 ,henry ,v41 ,act ,,ii41 ,scene #c1 line #aj4 ,footnote #bg3 ,bradley's ,shakespearean ,tragedy1 p4 #cbg4 ,footnote #bh3 ,the ,tempest1 ,act ,v41 ,scene #a4 ,footnote #bi3 ,ibid41 ,act ,i41 ,scene #b4 ,footnote #cj3 ,for a list of books of selections from the drama1 see p4 #baf4 ,footnote #ca3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #f4 ,footnote #cb3 ,for full titles of books of dramatic selections1 see the preceding paragraph4 ,,chapter ,v3 ,,the ,,puritan ,,age1 #afjc-affj ,history of the ,period4--,james ,i4 7#afjc-afbe71 son of ,mary ,stuart1 ,queen of ,scots1 and the first of the ,stuart line to reign in ,england1 succeeded ,elizabeth4 ,his stubbornness and folly not only ended the intense patriotic feeling of the previous reign1 but laid the foundation for the deadly conflict that resulted4 ,in fifty-four years after the defeat of the ,armada1 ,england was plunged into civil war4 ,the guiding belief of ,james ,i4 was that kings governed by divine right1 that they received from the ,deity a title of which no one could lawfully deprive them1 no matter how outrageously they ruled1 and that they were not in any way responsible to ,parliament or to the people4 ,in acting on this belief1 he first trampled on the religious liberty of his subjects4 ,he drove from their churches hundreds of clergymen who would not take oath that they believed that the prayer book of the ,church of ,england agreed in every way with the ,bible4 ,he boasted that he would harry out of the kingdom those who would not conform4 ,during the reign of ,james ,i4 and that of his son1 ,charles ,i4 7#afbe-afdi7 a worse ruler on the same lines1 thousands of ,englishmen came to ,new ,england to enjoy religious liberty4 ,the ,pilgrim ,fathers landed at ,plymouth in #afbj4 ,the exodus was very rapid during the next twenty years1 since those who insisted on worshiping ,god as they chose were thrown into prison and sometimes had their ears cut off and their noses mutilated4 ,in the sixteenth century1 the religious struggle was between ,catholics and ,protestants1 but in this age both of the contestants were ,protestant4 ,the ,church of ,england 7,episcopal church7 was persecuting those who would not conform to its beliefs4 ,side by side with the religious strife was a struggle for constitutional government1 for legal taxes1 for the right of freedom of speech in ,parliament4 ,james ,i4 and ,charles ,i4 both collected illegal taxes4 ,finally1 when ,charles became involved in war with ,spain1 ,parliament forced him in return for a grant of money to sign the ,petition of ,right 7#afbh71 which was in some respects a new ,magna ,charta4 ,charles did not keep his promises4 ,for eleven years he ruled in a despotic way without ,parliament4 ,in #afdb civil war broke out between the ,puritans1 on one side1 and the king1 nobles1 landed gentry1 and adherents of the ,church of ,england1 on the other4 ,the ,puritans under the great ,oliver ,cromwell were victorious1 and in #afdi they beheaded ,charles as a tyrant1 traitor and murderer4 ,cromwell finally became ,protector of the ,commonwealth of ,england4 ,the greatest ,puritan writer1 ,john ,milton1 not only upheld the ,commonwealth with powerful argumentative prose1 but also became the government's most important secretary4 ,though his blindness would not allow him to write after #afeb1 he used to translate aloud1 either into ,latin or the language of the foreign country1 what ,cromwell dictated or suggested4 ,milton's under-secretary1 ,andrew ,marvel1 wrote down this translation4 ,illustration3 ,,cromwell ,,dictating ,,to ,,milton ,,dispatches ,,to ,,the ,,king ,,of ,,france ,,concerning ,,the ,,massacre ,,in ,,piedmont4#a ,from the painting by ,ford ,madox ,brown4 ,the ,puritans remained in the ascendancy until #affj1 when the ,stuart line was restored in the person of ,charles ,,ii4 ,the ,puritan ,ideals4--,the ,renaissance had at first seemed to promise everything1 the power to reveal the secrets of ,nature1 to cause her to gratify man's every wish1 and to furnish a perpetual fountain of happy youth4 ,these expectations had not been fulfilled4 ,there were still poverty1 disease1 and a longing for something that earth had not given4 ,the ,english1 naturally a religious race1 reflected much on this4 ,those who concluded that life could never yield the pleasure which man anticipates1 who determines by purity of living to win a perfect land beyond the shores of mortality1 who made the ,new ,world of earlier dreams a term synonymous with the ,new ,jerusalem1 were called ,puritans4 ,their guide to this land was the ,bible4 ,our ,authorized ,version 7#afaa71 the one which is in most common use to-day1 was made in the reign of ,james ,i4 ,from this time became much easier to get a copy of the ,scriptures1 and their influence was now more potent than ever to shape the ideals of the ,puritans4 ,in fact1 it is impossible to estimate the influence which this ,authorized ,version has had on the ideals and the literature of the ,english race4 ,had it not been for this ,version1 current ,english speech and literature would be vastly different4 ,such words and expressions as scapegoat1 a labor of love1 the eleventh hour1 to cast pearls before swine1 and a howling wilderness are in constant use because the language of this translation of the ,bible has become incorporated in our daily speech1 as well as in our best literature4 ,the ,puritan was so called because he wished to purify the established church from what seemed to him great abuses4 ,he accepted the faith of ,john ,calvin1 who died in #aefd4 ,calvinism taught that no earthly power should intervene between a human soul and ,god1 that life was an individual moral struggle1 the outcome of which would land the soul in heaven or hell for all eternity1 that beauty and art and all the pleasures of the flesh were dangerous because they tended to wean the soul from ,god4 ,the ,puritan was an individualist4 ,the saving of the soul was to him an individual1 not a social1 affair4 ,bunyan's ,pilgrim flees alone from the wrath to come4 ,the twentieth century1 on the other hand1 believes that the regeneration of a human being is both a social and an individual affair1--that the individual1 surrounded by the forces of evil1 often has little opportunity unless society comes to his aid4 ,the individualism of the ,puritan accomplished a great task in preparing the way for democracy1 for fuller liberty in church and state1 in both ,england and ,america4 ,our study of the ,puritan ideals embodied in literature takes us beyond #affj1 the date of the ,restoration1 because after that time two great ,puritan writers1 ,john ,milton and ,john ,bunyan1 did some of their most famous work1 the one in retirement1 the other in jail4 ,such work1 uninfluenced by the change of ideal after the ,restoration1 is properly treated in this chapter4 ,while a change may in a given year seem sufficiently pronounced to become the basis for a new classification1 we should remember the literary influences never begin or end with complete abruptness4 ,,the ,,prose ,,of ,,the ,,puritan ,,age ,variety of ,subject4--,prose showed development in several directions during this ,puritan age3-- ,i4 ,the use of prose in argument and controversy was largely extended4 ,questions of government and of religion were the living issues of the time4 ,innumerable pamphlets and many larger books were written to present different views4 ,we may instance as types of this class almost all the prose writings of ,john ,milton 7#afjh-afgd74 ,,ii4 ,english prose dealt with a greater variety of philosophical subjects4 ,shakespeare had voiced the deepest philosophy in poetry1 but up to this time such subjects had found scant expression in prose4 ,thomas ,hobbes 7#aehh-afgi7 is the great philosophical writer of the age4 ,in his greatest work1 ,leviathan2 or1 ,the ,matter1 ,form1 and ,power of a ,commonwealth1 he considers questions of metaphysical philosophy and of government in a way that places him on the roll of famous ,english philosophers4 ,,iii4 ,history had an increasing fascination for prose writers4 ,sir ,walter ,raleigh's ,history of the ,world 7#afad7 and ,lord ,clarendon's ,history of the ,great ,rebellion1 begun in #afdf1 are specially worthy of mention4 ,,iv4 ,prose was developing its capacity for expressing delicate shades of humor4 ,in ,chaucer and in ,shakespeare1 poetry had already excelled in this respect4 ,thomas ,fuller 7#afjh-affa71 an ,episcopal clergyman1 displays an almost inexhaustible fund of humor in his ,history of the ,worthies of ,england4 ,we find scattered through his works passages like these3-- ,a father that whipped his son for swearing1 and swore at him while he whipped him1 did more harm by his example than good by his correction4 ,illustration3 ,,thomas ,,fuller4 ,speaking of a pious short person1 ,fuller says3-- ,his soul had but a short diocese to visit1 and therefore might the better attend the effectual informing thereof4 ,of the lark1 he writes3-- ,a harmless bird while living1 not trespassing on grain1 and wholesome when dead1 then filling the stomach with meat1 as formerly the ear with music4 ,before ,fuller1 humor was rare in ,english prose writers1 and it was not common until the first quarter of the next century4 ,v4 ,sir ,thomas ,browne 7#afje-afhb71 an ,oxford graduate and physician1 is best known as the author of three prose works3 ,religio ,medici 7,religion of a ,physician1 #afdb71 ,vulgar ,errors 7#afdf71 and ,hydriotaphia or ,urn ,burial 7#afeh74 ,in imagination and poetic feeling1 he has some kinship with the ,elizabethans4 ,he says in the ,religio ,medici3-- ,now for my life1 it is a miracle of thirty years1 which to relate were not a history but a piece of poetry1 and would sound to common ears like a fable444 ,men that look upon my outside1 perusing only my condition and fortunes1 do err in my altitude2 for ,i am above ,atlas's shoulders444 ,there is surely a piece of divinity in us--something that was before the elements and owes no homage unto the sun4 ,the ,religio ,medici1 however1 gives1 not the ,elizabethan1 but the ,puritan1 definition of the world as a place not to live in but to die in4 ,urn ,burial1 which is ,browne's masterpiece1 shows his power as a prose poet of the inevitable hour3-- ,there is no antidote against the opium of time444 ,the greater part must be content to be as though they had not been1 to be found in the register of ,god1 not in the record of man444 ,but man is a ,noble ,animal1 splendid in ashes1 and pompous in the grave1 solemnizing nativities and deaths with equal luster1 not omitting ceremonies of bravery1 in the infamy of his nature4 ,browne's prose frequently suffers from the infusion of too many words derived from the ,latin1 but his style is rhythmical and stately and often conveys the same emotion as the notes of a great cathedral organ at the evening twilight hour4 ,,vi4 ,the ,complete ,angler of ,izaak ,walton 7#aeic-afhc7 is so filled with sweetness and calm delight in nature and life1 that one does not wonder that the book has passed through about two hundred editions4 ,it manifests a genuine love of nature1 of the brooks1 meadows1 flowers4 ,in his pages we catch the odor from the hedges gay with wild flowers and hear the rain falling softly on the green leaves3-- ,but turn out of the way a little1 good scholar1 towards yonder high honeysuckle hedge2 there we'll sit and sing1 whilst this shower falls so gently on the teeming earth1 and gives yet a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that adorn these verdant meadows4 ,illustration3 ,,izaak ,,walton4 ,illustration3 ,,jeremy ,,taylor4 ,,vii4 ,of the many authors busily writing on theology1 ,jeremy ,taylor 7#afac-affg71 an ,episcopal clergyman1 holds the chief place4 ,his imagination was so wide and his pen so facile that he has been called a seventeenth-century prose ,shakespeare4 ,taylor's ,holy ,living and ,holy ,dying used to be read in almost every cottage4 ,this passage shows his powers of imagery as well as the ,teutonic inclination to consider the final goal of youth and beauty3-- ,reckon but from the sprightfulness of youth1 and the fair cheeks and full eyes of childhood1 from the vigorousness and strong texture of the joints of five-and-twenty1 to the hollowness and dead paleness1 to the loathsomeness and horror of a three days' burial1 and we shall perceive the distance to be very great and very strange4 ,but so have ,i seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood1 and at first it was fair as morning1 and full with the dew of heaven as a lamb's fleece 444 and at night1 having lost some of its leaves and all its beauty1 it fell into the portion of weeds and outworn faces4 ,,john ,,bunyan1 #afbh-afhh ,illustration3 ,,john ,,bunyan4 ,from the painting by ,sadler1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,the ,bedfordshire village of ,elstow saw in #afbh the birth of ,john ,bunyan who1 in his own peculiar field of literature1 was to lead the world4 ,his father1 ,thomas ,bunyan1 was a brazier1 a mender of pots and pans1 and he reared his son ,john to the same trade4 ,in his autobiography1 ,john ,bunyan says that his father's house was of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all the families in the land4 ,the boy went to school for only a short time and learned but little from any books except the ,bible4 ,the father1 by marrying a second time within a year after his wife's death1 wounded the feelings of his sixteen-year-old son sufficiently to cause the latter to enlist as a soldier in the ,civil ,war4 ,at about the age of twenty1 ,bunyan married1 though neither he nor his wife had at the time so much as a dish or a spoon4 ,bunyan tells us that in his youth he was very wicked4 ,probably he would have been so regarded from the point of view of a strict ,puritan4 ,his worst offenses1 however1 seem to have been dancing on the village green1 playing hockey on ,sundays1 ringing bells to rouse the neighborhood1 and swearing4 ,when he repented1 his vivid imagination made him think that he had committed the unpardonable sin4 ,in the terror that he felt at the prospect of the loss of his soul1 he passed through much of the experience that enabled him to write the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,bunyan became a preacher of ,god's word4 ,under trees1 in barns1 on the village green1 wherever people resorted1 he told them the story of salvation4 ,within six months after the ,restoration1 he was arrested for preaching without ,episcopal sanction4 ,the officers took him away from his little blind daughter4 ,the roisterers of the ,restoration thought a brazier was too coarse to have feelings2 yet ,bunyan dropped tears on the paper when he wrote of the many hardships1 miseries1 and wants that my poor family were like to meet with1 should ,i be taken from them1 especially my poor blind child1 who lay nearer to my heart than all besides4 ,oh1 the thoughts of the hardship my poor blind one might undergo1 would break my heart to pieces4 ,in spite of his dependent family and the natural right of the freedom of speech1 ,bunyan was thrust into ,bedford jail and kept a prisoner for nearly twelve years4 ,had it not been for his imprisonment in this squalid den1 of which he speaks in the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 we should probably be without that famous work1 a part of which1 at least1 was written in the jail4 ,in #afgb1 as a step toward restoring the ,catholic religion1 ,charles ,,ii4 suspended all penal statutes against the dissenting clergy2 ,bunyan was thereupon released from jail4 ,illustration3 ,,bedford ,,bridge1 ,,showing ,,gates ,,and ,,jail4 ,from an old print4 ,after his release1 he settled down to his life's work of spreading the ,gospel by both pen and tongue4 ,when he visited ,london to preach1 it was not uncommon for twelve hundred persons to come to hear him at seven o'clock in the morning of a week day in winter4 ,the immediate cause of his death was a cold caught by riding in the rain1 on his way to try to reconcile a father and son4 ,in #afhh ,bunyan died as he uttered these words1 ,take me1 for ,i come to ,thee4 ,his ,work4--,bunyan achieved the distinction of writing the greatest of all allegories1 the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,this is the story of ,christian's journey through this life1 the story of meeting ,mr4 ,worldly ,wiseman1 of the straight gate and the narrow path1 of the ,delectable ,mountains of ,youth1 of the valley of ,humiliation1 of the encounter with ,apollyon1 of the wares of ,vanity ,fair1 kept all the year long1 of my lord ,time-server1 of ,mr4 ,anything1 of imprisonment in ,doubting ,castle by ,giant ,despair1 of the flowery land of ,beulah1 lying beyond the valley of the ,shadow of ,death1 through which a deep1 cold river runs1 and of the city of ,all ,delight on the other side4 ,this story still has absorbing interest for human beings1 for the child and the old man1 the learned and the ignorant4 ,bunyan wrote many other works1 but none of them equals the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,his ,holy ,war is a powerful allegory1 which has been called a prose ,paradise ,lost4 ,bunyan also produced a strong piece of realistic fiction1 the ,life and ,death of ,mr4 ,badman4 ,this shows the descent of a soul along the broad road4 ,the story is the counterpart of his great masterpiece1 and ranks second to it in point of merit4 ,illustration3 ,,bunyan',s ,,dream4 ,from ,fourth ,edition ,pilgrim's ,progress1 #afhj4 ,general ,characteristics4--,since the ,pilgrim's ,progress has been more widely read in ,england than any other book except the ,bible1 it is well to investigate the secret of ,bunyan's power4 ,in the first place1 his style is simple4 ,in the second place1 rare earnestness is coupled with this simplicity4 ,he had something to say1 which in his inmost soul he felt to be of supreme importance for all time4 ,only a great man can tell such truths without a flourish of language1 or without straining after effect4 ,at the most critical part of the journey of the ,pilgrims1 when they approach the river of death1 note that ,bunyan avoids the tendency to indulge in fine writing1 that he is content to rely on the power of the subject matter1 simply presented1 to make us feel the terrible ordeal3-- ,now ,i further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river2 but there was no bridge to go over1 and the river was very deep444 ,the ,pilgrims then1 especially ,christian1 began to despond in their minds1 and looked this way and that1 but no way could be found by them by which they might escape the river444 ,they then addressed themselves to the water1 and entering1 ,christian began to sink444 ,and with that1 a great darkness and horror fell upon ,christian1 so that he could not see before him444 ,now1 upon the bank of the river1 on the other side1 they saw the two shining men again1 who there waited for them444 ,now you must note that the city stood upon a mighty hill2 but the ,pilgrims went up that hill with ease1 because they had these two men to lead them up by the arms2 they had likewise left their mortal garments behind them in the river2 for though they went in with them1 they came out without them4 ,illustration3 ,let ,badman's broken leg put check ,to ,badman's course of evil1 ,lest1 next time1 ,badman breaks his neck1 ,and so goes to the devil4 ,,woodcut ,,from ,,the ,,first ,,edition ,,of ,,mr4 ,,badman ,of all the words in the above selection1 eighty per cent are monosyllables4 ,few authors could have resisted the tendency to try to be impressive at such a climax4 ,one has more respect for this world1 on learning that it has set the seal of its approval on such earnest simplicity and has neglected works that strive with every art to attract attention4 ,bunyan furthermore has a rare combination of imagination and dramatic power4 ,his abstractions became living persons4 ,they have warmer blood coursing in their veins than many of the men and women in modern fiction4 ,giant ,despair is a living giant4 ,we can hear the clanking of the chains and the groans of the captives in his dungeon4 ,we are not surprised to learn that ,bunyan imagined that he saw and conversed with these characters4 ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress is a prose drama4 ,note the vivid dramatic presentation of the tendency to evil1 which we all have at some time felt threatening to wreck our nobler selves3-- ,then ,apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way1 and said1 ',i am void of fear in this matter2 prepare thyself to die2 for ,i swear by my infernal den that thou shall go no further2 here will ,i spill thy soul4' ,it would be difficult to find ,english prose more simple1 earnest1 strong1 imaginative1 and dramatic than this4 ,bunyan's style felt the shaping influence of the ,bible more than of all other works combined4 ,he knew the ,scriptures almost by heart4 ,,the ,,poetry ,,of ,,the ,,puritan ,,age ,lyrical ,verse4--,the second quarter of the seventeenth century witnessed an outburst of song that owed its inspiration to ,elizabethan lyrical verse4 ,soon after #afjj a change in lyric poetry is noticeable4 ,the sonnet fell into disfavor with the majority of lyrists4 ,the two poets of greatest influence over this period1 ,ben ,jonson and ,john ,donne1 opposed the sonnet4 ,ben ,jonson complained that it compels all ideas1 irrespective of their worth1 to fill a space of exactly fourteen lines1 and that it therefore operates on the same principle as the bed of ,procrustes4 ,the lyrics of this period1 with the exception of those by ,milton1 were usually less idealistic1 ethereal1 and inspired than the corresponding work of the ,elizabethans4 ,this age was far more imitative1 but it chose to imitate ,jonson and ,donne in preference to ,shakespeare4 ,the greatest lyrical poet of this time thus addresses ,jonson as a patron saint3-- ,candles ,i'll give to thee1 ,and a new altar2 ,and thou1 ,saint ,ben1 shall be ,writ in my psalter4#b ,cavalier ,poets4--,robert ,herrick 7#aeia-afgd71 ,thomas ,carew 7#aeih8-afci871 ,sir ,john ,suckling 7#afji-afdb71 and ,richard ,lovelace 7#afah--afeh7 were a contemporary group of lyrists who are often called ,cavalier poets1 because they sympathized with the ,cavaliers or adherents of ,charles ,i4 ,illustration3 ,,robert ,,herrick4 ,by far the greatest of this school is ,robert ,herrick1 who stands in the front rank of the second class of lyrical poets4 ,he was a graduate of ,cambridge ,university1 who by an accident of the time became a clergyman4 ,the parish1 or living1 given him by the king1 was in the southwestern part of ,devonshire4 ,by affixing the title ,hesperides to his volume of nearly thirteen hundred poems1 ,herrick doubtless meant to imply that they were chiefly composed in the western part of ,england4 ,in the very first poem of this collection1 he announces the subject of his songs3-- ,i sing of brooks1 of blossoms1 birds1 and bowers2 ,of ,april1 ,may1 of ,june1 and ,july flowers4 ,i sing of ,may-poles1 hock-carts1 wassails1 wakes2 ,of bridegrooms1 brides1 and of their bridal cakes 99 99 99 99 99 ,i write of groves1 of twilights1 and ,i sing ,the court of ,mab1 and of the ,fairie-king4 ,i write of hell2 ,i sing and ever shall1 ,of heaven1 and hope to have it after all4 ,his lyric range was as broad as these lines indicate4 ,the most of his poems show the lightness of touch and artistic form revealed in the following lines from ,to the ,virgins3-- ,gather ye rose-buds while ye may3 ,old ,time is still a-flying2 ,and this same flower that smiles to-day1 ,to-morrow will be dying4 ,his facility in melodious poetic expression is evident in this stanza from ,the ,litany1 one of the poems in ,noble ,numbers1 as the collection of his religious verse is called3-- ,when the passing-bell doth toll ,and the furies in a shoal ,come to fright a parting soul1 ,sweet ,spirit1 comfort me4 ,the lyric1 ,disdain ,returned1 of the courtier1 ,thomas ,carew1 shows both a customary type of subject and the serious application often given3-- ,he that loves a rosy cheek1 ,or a coral lip admires1 ,or from starlike eyes doth seek ,fuel to maintain his fires1 ,as old time makes these decay1 ,so his flames must waste away4 ,carew could write with facility on the subjects in vogue at court1 but when he ventures afield in nature poetry1 he makes the cuckoo hibernate6 ,in his poem ,the ,spring1 he says3-- 444wakes in hollow tree ,the drowsy ,cuckoo and the ,humble-bee4 ,in these lines from his poem ,constancy1 ,sir ,john ,suckling shows that he is a typical ,cavalier love poet3-- ,out upon it1 ,i have loved ,three whole days together2 ,and am like to love three more1 ,if it prove fair weather4 ,from ,richard ,lovelace we have these exquisite lines written in prison3-- ,stone walls do not a prison make ,nor iron bars a cage2 ,minds innocent and quiet take ,that for an hermitage4 ,to characterize the ,cavalier school by one phrase1 we might call them lyrical poets in lighter vein4 ,they usually wrote on such subjects as the color in a maiden's cheek and lips1 blossoms1 meadows1 ,may days1 bridal cakes1 the paleness of a lover1 and-- 444wassail bowls to drink1 ,spiced to the brink4 but sometimes weightier subjects were chosen1 when these lighter things failed to satisfy4 ,religious ,verse4--,three lyrical poets1 ,george ,herbert 7#aeic-afcc71 ,henry ,vaughan 7#afbb-afie71 and ,richard ,crashaw 7#afab8-afej871 usually chose religious subjects4 ,george ,herbert1 a ,cambridge graduate and rector of ,bemerton1 near ,salisbury1 wrote ,the ,temple1 a book of religious verse4 ,his best known poem is ,virtue3-- ,sweet day1 so cool1 so calm1 so bright1 ,the bridal of the earth and sky3 ,the dew shall weep the fall to night2 ,for thou must die4 ,the sentiment in these lines from his lyric ,providence has the genuine ,anglo-,saxon ring3-- ,hard things are glorious2 easy things good cheap4 ,the common all men have2 that which is rare1 ,men therefore seek to have1 and care to keep4 ,henry ,vaughan1 an ,oxford graduate and ,welsh physician1 shows the influence of ,george ,herbert4 ,vaughan would have been a great poet if he could have maintained the elevation of these opening lines from ,the ,world3-- ,i saw ,eternity the other night1 ,like a great ring of pure and endless light1 ,all calm1 as it was bright4 ,richard ,crashaw1 a ,cambridge graduate and ,catholic mystic1 concludes his poem1 ,the ,flaming ,heart1 with this touching prayer to ,saint ,teresa3-- ,by all of ,him we have in thee ,leave nothing of myself in me4 ,let me so read my life that ,i ,unto all life of mine may die4 ,his verse1 like that of his contemporaries1 is often marred by fantastic conceits which show the influence of ,donne4 ,although much of ,crashaw's poem1 ,the ,weeper1 is beautiful1 he calls the eyes of ,mary ,magdalene3-- ,two walking baths1 two weeping motions1 ,portable and compendious oceans4 ,,john ,,milton1 #afjh-afgd ,illustration3 ,,john ,,milton4 ,after a drawing by ,w4 ,faithorne1 at ,bayfordbury4 ,his ,youth4--,the second greatest ,english poet was born in ,london1 eight years before the death of ,shakespeare4 ,john ,milton's father followed the business of a scrivener and drew wills and deeds and invested money for clients4 ,as he prospered at this calling1 his family did not suffer for want of money4 ,he was a man of much culture and a musical composer of considerable note4 ,a portrait of the child at the age of ten1 the work of the painter to the court1 still exists and shows him to have been a sweet1 serious1 round-headed boy1 who gave early promise of future greatness4 ,his parents1 seeing that he acted as if he was guided by high ideals1 had the rare judgment to allow him to follow his own bent4 ,they employed the best teachers to instruct him at home4 ,at the age of sixteen he was fully prepared to enter ,christ's ,college4 ,cambridge1 where he took both the ,b4,a4 and ,m4,a4 degrees4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,milton1 ,,aet4 #aj4 ,his ,early ,manhood and ,life at ,horton4--,in #afcb ,milton left ,cambridge and went to live with his father in a country home at ,horton1 about twenty miles west of ,london4 ,milton had been intended for the church2 but he felt that he could not subscribe to its intolerance1 and that he had another mission to perform4 ,his father accordingly provided sufficient funds for maintaining him for over five years at ,horton in a life of studious leisure4 ,the poet's greatest biographer1 ,david ,masson1 says ,until ,milton was thirty-two years of age1 if even then1 he did not earn a penny for himself4 ,such a course would ruin ninety-nine out of every hundred talented young men2 but it was the making of ,milton4 ,he spent those years in careful study and in writing his immortal early poems4 ,illustration3 ,,visit ,,of ,,milton ,,to ,,the ,,blind ,,galileo ,,at ,,the ,,villa ,d',,arcetri ,,near ,,florence ,,in #afch4 ,from the painting by ,t4 ,lessi4 ,in #afch1 when he was in his thirtieth year1 he determined to broaden his views by travel4 ,he went to ,italy1 which the ,englishmen of his day still regarded as the home of art1 culture1 and song4 ,after about fifteen months abroad1 hearing that his countrymen were on the verge of civil war1 he returned home to play his part in the mighty tragedy of the times4 ,milton's ,left ,hand4--,in #afdb the ,civil ,war broke out between the ,royalists and the ,puritans4 ,he took sides in the struggle for liberty1 not with his sword1 but with his pen4 ,during this time he wrote little but prose4 ,he regretted that the necessity of the time demanded prose1 in the writing of which1 he says1 ,i have the use1 as ,i may account it1 but of my left hand4 ,with that left hand he wrote much prose4 ,there is one common quality running through all his prose works1 although they treat of the most varied subjects4 ,every one of these works strikes a blow for fuller liberty in some direction1--for more liberty in church1 in state1 and in home relations1 for the freedom of expressing opinions1 and for a system of education which should break away from the leading strings of the inferior methods of the past4 ,his greatest prose work is the ,areopagitica3 ,a ,speech for the ,liberty of ,unlicensed ,printing4 ,much of his prose is poetic and adorned with figures of rhetoric4 ,he frequently follows the ,latin order1 and inverts his sentences1 which are often unreasonably long4 ,sometimes his left hand astonishes us by slinking mud at his opponents1 and we eagerly await the loosing of the right hand which was to give us ,paradise ,lost4 ,his ,blindness4--,the ,english government from #afdi to #affj is known as the ,commonwealth4 ,the two most striking figures of the time were ,oliver ,cromwell1 who in #afec was styled the ,lord ,protector1 and ,john ,milton1 who was the ,secretary for ,foreign ,tongues4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,milton',s ,,signature ,,in ,,the ,,eleventh ,,year ,,of ,,his ,,blindness4,from his application to wed ,elizabeth ,minshull4 ,feb4 #aa1 #affc4 ,one of the greatest of ,european scholars1 a professor at ,leyden1 named ,salmasius1 had written a book attacking the ,commonwealth and upholding the late king4 ,the ,council requested ,milton to write a fitting answer4 ,as his eyes were already failing him1 he was warned to rest them2 but he said that he would willingly sacrifice his eyesight on the altar of liberty4 ,he accordingly wrote in reply his ,pro ,populo ,anglicano ,defensio1 a ,latin work1 which was published in #afea4 ,this effort cost him his eyesight4 ,in #afeb1 at the age of forty-three1 he was totally blind4 ,in his ,paradise ,lost1 he thus alludes to his affliction3-- ,thus with the year ,seasons return2 but not to me returns ,day1 or the sweet approach of even or morn1 ,or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose1 ,or flocks1 or herds1 or human face divine2 ,but clouds instead and ever-during dark ,surrounds me1 from the cheerful ways of men ,cut off4 ,life after the ,restoration4--,in #affj1 when ,charles ,,ii4 was made king1 the leaders of the ,commonwealth had to flee for their lives4 ,some went to ,america for safety while others were caught and executed4 ,the body of ,cromwell was taken from its grave in ,westminster ,abbey1 suspended from the gallows and left to dangle there4 ,milton was concealed by a friend until the worst of the storm had blown over4 ,then some influential friends interceded for him1 and his blindness probably won him sympathy4 ,illustration3 ,,comus ,,title ,,page4 ,during his old age his literary work was largely dependent on the kindness of friends1 who read to him1 and acted as his amanuenses4 ,his ideas of woman having been formed in the light of the old dispensation1 he had not given his three daughters such an education as might have led them to take a sympathetic interest in his work4 ,they accordingly resented his calling on them for help4 ,during this period of his life1 when he was totally blind1 he wrote ,paradise ,lost1 ,paradise ,regained1 and ,samson ,agonistes4 ,he died in #afgd1 and was buried beside his father in the chancel of ,st4 ,giles1 ,cripplegate1 ,london4 ,minor ,poems4--,in #afbi1 while ,milton was a student at ,cambridge1 and only twenty-one years old1 he wrote a fine lyrical poem1 entitled ,on the ,morning of ,christ's ,nativity4 ,these #bdd lines of verse show that he did not need to be taught the melody of song any more than a young nightingale4 ,four remarkable poems were written during his years of studious leisure at ,horton1--,l',allegro1 ,il ,penseroso1 ,comus1 and ,lycidas4 ,l',allegro describes the charms of a merry social life1 and ,il ,penseroso voices the quiet but deep enjoyment of the scholar in retirement4 ,these two poems have been universal favourites4 ,comus is a species of dramatic composition known as a ,masque1 and it is the greatest of its class4 ,it far surpassess any work of a similar kind by ,ben ,jonson1 that prolific writer of ,masques4 ,some critics1 like ,taine and ,saintsbury1 consider ,comus the finest of ,milton's productions4 ,its #ajbc lines can soon be read2 and there are few poems of equal length that will better repay careful reading4 ,comus is an immortal apotheosis of virtue4 ,while in ,geneva in #afci1 ,milton was asked for his autograph and an expression of sentiment4 ,he chose the closing lines of ,comus3-- ,illustration3 ,,milton',s ,,motto ,,from ,,comus1 ,,with ,,autograph4 ,written in an album at ,geneva4 ,lycidas1 one of the world's great elegies1 was written on the death of ,milton's classmate1 ,edward ,king4 ,mark ,pattison1 one of ,milton's biographers1 says3 ,in ,lycidas we have reached the high-water mark of ,english poesy and of ,milton's own production4 ,he is one of the four greatest ,english sonnet writers4 ,shakespeare alone surpasses him in this field4 ,milton numbers among his pupils ,wordsworth and ,keats1 whose sonnets rank next in merit4 ,paradise ,lost2 ,its ,inception and ,dramatic ,plan4--,cambridge ,university has a list1 written by ,milton before he was thirty-five1 of about one hundred possible subjects for the great poem which he felt it was his life's mission to give to the world4 ,he once thought of selecting ,arthur and his ,knights of the ,round ,table2 but his final choice was ,paradise ,lost1 which stands first on this special list4 ,there are in addition four separate drafts of the way in which he thought this subject should be treated4 ,this proves that the great work of a man like2 ,milton was planned while he was young4 ,it is possible that he may even have written a very small part of the poem earlier than the time commonly assigned4 ,all four drafts show that his early intention was to make the poem a drama1 a gigantic ,miracle play4 ,the closing of the theaters and the prejudice felt against them during the days of ,puritan ascendancy may have influenced ,milton to forsake the dramatic for the epic form1 but he seems never to have shared the common prejudice against the drama and the stage4 ,his sonnet on ,shakespeare shows in what estimation he held that dramatist4 ,subject ,matter and ,form4--,about #afeh1 when ,milton was a widower1 living alone with his three daughters1 he began1 in total blindness1 to dictate his ,paradise ,lost1 sometimes relying on them but more often on any kind friend who might assist him4 ,the manuscript accordingly shows a variety of handwriting4 ,the work was published in #affg1 after some trouble with a narrow-minded censor who had doubts about granting a license4 ,the subject matter can be best given in ,milton's own lines at the beginning of the poem3-- ,of man's first disobedience1 and the fruit ,of that forbidden tree1 whose mortal taste ,brought death into the ,world1 and all our woe1 ,with loss of ,eden1 till one greater ,man ,restore us1 and regain the blissful seat1 ,sing1 ,heavenly ,muse444 ,the poem treats of ,satan's revolt in heaven1 of his conflict with the ,almighty1 and banishment with all the rebellious angels4 ,their new home in the land of fire and endless pain is described with such a gigantic grasp of the imagination1 that the conception has colored all succeeding theology4 ,the action proceeds with a council of the fallen angels to devise means for alleviating their condition and annoying the ,almighty4 ,they decide to strike him through his child1 and they plot the fall of man4 ,in short1 ,paradise ,lost is an intensely dramatic story of the loss of ,eden4 ,the greatest actors that ever sprang from a poet's brain appear before us on the stage1 which is at one time the sulphurous pit of hell1 at another the bright plains of heaven1 and at another the ,elysium of our first parents4 ,in form the poem is an epic in twelve books1 containing a total of #aj1efe lines4 ,it is written in blank verse of wonderful melody and variety4 ,paradise ,regained and ,samson ,agonistes4--,after finishing ,paradise ,lost1 ,milton wrote two more poems1 which he published in #afga4 ,paradise ,regained is in great part a paraphrase of the first eleven verses of the fourth chapters of ,st4 ,matthew4 ,the poem is in four books of blank verse and contains #bjgj lines4 ,although it is written with great art and finish1 ,paradise ,regained shows a falling off in ,milton's genius4 ,there is less ornament and less to arouse human interest4 ,samson ,agonistes 7,samson the ,struggler7 is a tragedy containing #ageh lines1 based on the sixteenth chapter of ,judges4 ,this poem1 modeled after the ,greek drama1 is hampered by a strict observance of the dramatic unities4 ,it is vastly inferior to the ,paradise ,lost4 ,samson ,agonistes contains scarcely any of the glorious imagery of ,milton's earlier poems4 ,it has been called the most unadorned poem that can be found4 ,,characteristics ,,of ,,milton',s ,,poetry ,variety in his ,early ,work4--,a line in ,lycidas says3-- ,he touched the tender stops of various quills1 and this may be said of ,milton4 ,his early poems show great variety4 ,there are the dirge notes in ,lycidas2 the sights1 sounds1 and odors of the country1 in ,l',allegro2 the delights of the studious cloister's pale1 in ,il ,penseroso2 the impelling presence of his great ,task-,master1 in the sonnets4 ,although ,milton is noted for his seriousness and sublimity1 we must not be blind to the fact that his minor poems show great delicacy of touch4 ,the epilogue of the ,spirit at the end of ,comus is an instance of exquisite airy fancy passing into noble imagination at the close4 ,in #afch ,sir ,henry ,wotton wrote to ,milton this intelligent criticism of ,comus3 ,i should much commend the tragical part1 if the lyrical did not ravish me with a certain ,doric delicacy in your ,songs and ,odes1 whereunto ,i must plainly confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language ,ipsa mollities4 ,limitations4--,in giving attention to ,milton's variety1 we should not forget that when we judge him by ,elizabethan standards his limitations are apparent4 ,as varied as are his excellences1 his range is far narrower than ,shakespeare's4 ,he has little sense of humor and less sympathy with human life than either ,shakespeare or ,burns4 ,milton became acquainted with flowers through the medium of a book before he noticed them in the fields4 ,consequently1 in speaking of flowers and birds1 he sometimes makes those mistakes to which the bookish man is more prone than the child who first hears the story of ,nature from her own lips4 ,unlike ,shakespeare and ,burns1 ,milton had the misfortune to spend his childhood in a large city4 ,again1 while increasing age seemed to impose no limitations on ,shakespeare's genius1 his touch being as delicate in ,the ,tempest as in his first plays1 ,milton's style1 on the other hand1 grew frigid and devoid of imagery toward the end of his life4 ,sublimity4--,the most striking characteristic of ,milton's poetry is sublimity1 which consists1 first1 in the subject matter4 ,in the opening lines of ,paradise ,lost he speaks of his adventurous song-- ,that with no middle flight intends to soar ,above the ,aonian mount1 while it pursues ,things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme4 ,milton succeeded in his intention4 ,the ,english language has not another poem that approaches ,paradise ,lost in sustained sublimity4 ,in the second place1 we must note the sublimity of treatment4 ,milton's own mind was cast in a sublime mold4 ,this quality of mind is evident even in his figures of rhetoric4 ,the ,milky ,way appears to him as the royal highway to heaven3-- ,a broad and ample road1 whose dust is gold1 ,and pavement stars4#c ,when ,death and ,satan meet1 ,milton wishes the horror of the scene to manifest something of the sublime4 ,what other poet could1 in fewer words1 have conveyed a stronger impression of the effect of the frown of those powers8 ,so frowned the mighty combatants1 that ,hell ,grew darker at their frown4#d ,george ,saintsbury's verdict is approved by the majority of the greatest modern critics of ,milton3 ,in loftiness--sublimity of thought1 and majesty of expression1 both sustained at almost superhuman pitch1 he has no superior1 and no rival except ,dante4 ,mastery of ,verse4--,milton's verse1 especially in ,paradise ,lost1 is such a symphony of combined rhythm1 poetic expression1 and thought2 it is so harmonious1 so varied1 and yet so apparently simple in its complexity1 that it has never been surpassed in kind4 ,his mastery of rhythm is not so evident in a single line as in a group of lines4 ,the first sentence in ,paradise ,lost contains sixteen lines1 and yet the rhythm1 the pauses1 and the thought are so combined as to make oral reading easy and the meaning apparent4 ,the conception of the music of the spheres in their complex orbits finds some analogy in the harmony of the combined rhythmical units of his verse4 ,denied the use of his eyes as a guide to the form of his later verse1 he must have repeated aloud these groups of lines and changed them until their cadence satisfied his remarkably musical ear4 ,lines like these show the melody of which this verse is capable3-- ,heaven opened wide ,her ever-during gates1 harmonious sound ,on golden hinges moving4#e ,to begin with1 he had1 like ,shakespeare and ,keats an instinctive feeling for the poetic value of words and phrases4 ,milton's early poems abound in such poetic expressions as the frolic wind1 the slumbring morn1 linkd sweetness1 looks commercing with the skies1 dewy-feathered sleep1 the studious cloister's pale1 a dim religious light1 the silver lining of the cloud1 west winds with musky wing1 the laureate hearse where ,lycid lies4 ,his poetic instinct enabled him to take common prosaic words and1 by merely changing the position of the adjective1 transmute them into imperishable verse4 ,his darkness visible and human face divine are instances of this power4 ,illustration3 ,,milton ,,dictating ,,paradise ,,lost ,,to ,,his ,,daughters4 ,from the painting by ,munkacsy4 ,twentieth century criticism is more fully recognizing the debt of subsequent poetic literature to ,milton4 ,saintsbury writes3-- ,milton's influence is omnipresent in almost all later ,english poetry1 and in not a little of later prose ,english literature4 ,at first1 at second1 at third1 hand1 he has permeated almost all his successors4#f ,how the ,paradise ,lost has affected ,thought4--,few people realize how profoundly this poem has influenced men's ideas of the hereafter4 ,the conception of hell for a long time current was influenced by those pictures which ,milton painted with darkness for his canvas and the lightning for his brush4 ,our pictures of ,eden and of heaven have also felt his touch4 ,theology has often looked through ,milton's imagination at the fall of the rebel angels and of man4 ,huxley says that the cosmogony which stubbornly resists the conclusions of science1 is due rather to the account in ,paradise ,lost than to ,genesis4 ,many of ,milton's expressions have become crystallized in modern thought4 ,among such we may mention3-- ,the mind is its own place1 and in itself ,can make a ,heaven of ,hell1 a ,hell of ,heaven1 ,what matter where1 if ,i be still the same8#g ,to reign is worth ambition1 though in ,hell ,better to reign in ,hell1 than serve in ,heaven4#h 444,who overcomes ,by force hath overcome but half his foe4#i ,the effect of ,paradise ,lost on ,english thought is more a resultant of the entire poem than of detached quotations4 ,l',allegro and ,il ,penseroso have furnished as many current quotations as the whole of ,paradise ,lost4 ,the ,embodiment of ,high ,ideals4---,no poet has embodied in his verse higher ideals than ,milton4 ,when twenty-three1 he wrote that he intended to use his talents-- ,as ever in my great ,taskmaster's eye4#aj ,milton's poetry is not universally popular4 ,he deliberately selected his audience4 ,these lines from ,comus show to whom he wished to speak3-- ,yet some there be that by due steps aspire ,to lay their just hands on that golden key ,that opes the palace of eternity4 ,to such my errand is4 ,he kept his promise of writing something which speaks for liberty and for nobility of soul and which the world would not willingly let die4 ,his ideals react on us and raise us higher than we were4 ,to him we may say with ,wordsworth3-- ,thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart2 ,thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea1 ,pure as the naked heavens1 majestic1 free4 #aa ,,summary ,the ,puritan age was one of conflict in religious and political ideals4 ,james ,i4 and ,charles ,i4 trampled on the laws and persecuted the ,puritans so rigorously that many of them fled to ,new ,england4 ,civil war1 in which the ,puritans triumphed1 was the result4 ,the ,puritans1 realizing that neither lands beyond the sea nor the ,new ,learning could satisfy the aspirations of the soul1 turned their attention to the life beyond4 ,bunyan's ,pilgrim felt that the sole duty of life was to fight the forces of evil that would hold him captive in the ,city of ,destruction and to travel in the straight and narrow path to the ,new ,jerusalem4 ,life became a ceaseless battle of the right against the wrong4 ,hence1 much of the literature in both poetry and prose is polemical4 ,milton's ,paradise ,lost is an epic of war between good and evil4 ,the book that had the most influence in molding the thought of the time was the ,king ,james 7#afaa7 version of the ,bible4 ,the minor prose deals with a variety of subjects4 ,there are argumentative1 philosophical1 historical1 biographical1 and theological prose works2 but only the fine presentation of nature and life in ,the ,complete ,angler interests the general reader of to-day1 although the grandeur of ,milton's ,areopagitica1 the humor of ,thomas ,fuller1 the stately rhythmical prose of ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 and the imagery and variety of ,jeremy ,taylor deserve more readers4 ,bunyan's ,pilgrim's ,progress is the masterpiece of ,puritan prose1 written in the simple1 direct language of the #afaa version of the ,bible4 ,the book is a prose epic of the journey of the ,puritan ,christian from the ,city of ,destruction to the ,new ,jerusalem4 ,the ,cavalier poets wrote much lyrical verse1 mostly in lighter vein1 but the religious poets strike a deeper note4 ,the work of these minor poets is often a reflection of the ,elizabethan lyrics of ,donne and ,jonson4 ,john ,milton1 who has the creative power of the ,elizabethans1 is the only great poet of the period4 ,his greatest poems are ,l',allegro1 ,il ,penseroso1 ,lycidas1 ,comus1 and ,paradise ,lost4 ,in sublimity of subject matter and cast of mind1 in nobility of ideals1 in expression of the conflict between good and evil1 he is the fittest representative of the ,puritan spirit in literature4 ,,references ,,for ,,future ,,study ,,historical ,read the chapters on this period in ,gardiner1#ab ,walker1 ,cheney1 ,lingard1 or ,green4 ,for the social life1 see ,traill1 ,,iv4 ,the monumental history of this time has been written in eighteen volumes by ,samuel ,rawson ,gardiner4 ,his ,oliver ,cromwell1 ,i vol41 is excellent1 as is also ,frederick ,harrison's ,oliver ,cromwell4 ,,literary ,the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,vol4 ,,vii4 ,courthope's ,history of ,english ,poetry1 ,vol4 ,,iii4 ,masterman's ,the ,age of ,milton4 ,saintsbury's ,a ,history of ,elizabethan ,literature 7comes down to #affj74 ,dowden's ,puritan and ,anglican ,studies in ,literature4 ,dictionary of ,national ,biography 7for lives of minor writers74 ,froude's ,john ,bunyan4 ,brown's ,john ,bunyan1 his ,life1 ,times1 and ,works4 ,macaulay's ,life of ,bunyan in ,encylopaedia ,britannica or in his ,essays4 ,macaulay's ,essay on ,southey's ,edition of the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 ,masson's ,the ,life of ,john ,milton1 ,narrated in ,connection with the ,political1 ,ecclesiastical1 and ,literary history of his ,time 7#f vols474 ,masson's ,poetical ,works of ,john ,milton1 #c vols41 contains excellent introductions and notes1 and is the standard edition4 ,raleigh's ,milton4 ,pattison's ,milton4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,woodhull's ,the ,epic of ,paradise ,lost4 ,macaulay's ,essay on ,milton4 ,lowell's ,milton 7in ,among ,my ,books74 ,addison's criticisms on ,milton1 beginning in number #bfg of ,the ,spectator1 are suggestive4 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,prose4--,the student will obtain a fair idea of the prose of this age by reading ,milton's ,areopagitica1 ,cassell's ,national ,library 7#ae cents71 or ,temple ,classics 7#de cents72 ,craik1#ac ,,ii41 #dga-dge2 the selections from ,thomas ,hobbes1 ,craik1 ,,ii41 #bad-bba2 from ,thomas ,fuller1 ,craik1 ,,ii41 #cgg-chg2 from ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 ,craik1 ,,ii41 #cah-cce2 from ,jeremy ,taylor1 ,craik1 ,,ii41 #ebi-edb2 and from ,izaak ,walton1 ,craik1 ,,ii41 #cdc-cdi4 ,manly1 ,,ii41 has selections from all these writers2 the ,oxford ,treasury and ,century1 from all but ,hobbes4 ,the student who has the time will wish to read ,the ,complete ,angler entire 7,cassell's ,national ,library1 #ae cents2 or ,temple ,classics1 #de cents74 ,compare 7a7 the sentences1 7b7 general style1 and 7c7 worth of the subject matter of these authors2 then1 to note the development of ,english prose1 in treatment of subject as well as in form1 compare these works with those of 7#a7 ,wycliffe and ,mandeville in the fourteenth century1 7#b7 ,malory in the fifteenth1 and 7#c7 ,tyndale1 ,lyly1 ,sidney1 ,hooker1 and ,bacon 7e4g4 essay ,of ,study1 #aeig71 in the sixteenth4 ,bunyan's ,pilgrim's ,progress should be read entire 7,everyman's ,library1 #ce cents2 ,cassell's ,national ,library1 #ae cents2 ,temple ,classics1 #de cents74 ,selections may be found in ,craik1 ,,iii41 #adh-aff2 ,manly1 ,,ii41 #aci-adc2 ,oxford ,treasury1 #hc-he2 ,century1 #bbe-bce4 ,in what does the secret of ,bunyan's popularity consist--in his style1 or in his subject matter1 or in both8 ,what is specially noteworthy about his style8 ,point out some definite ways in which his style was affected by another great work4 ,suppose that ,bunyan had held the social service ideals of the twentieth century1 how might his idea of saving souls have been modified8 ,lyrical ,poetry4--,specimens of the best work of ,herrick1 ,carew1 ,suckling1 ,lovelace1 ,herbert1 ,vaughan1 and ,crashaw may be found in ,ward1 ,,ii42 ,bronson1 ,,ii42 ,oxford ,treasury1 ,,iii42 ,manly1 ,i42 and ,century4 ,what is the typical subject matter of the ,cavalier poets8 ,what subject do ,herbert1 ,vaughan1 and ,crashaw choose8 ,which lyric of each of these poets pleases you most8 ,what difference do you note between these lyrics and those of the ,elizabethan age8 ,what ,elizabethan lyrists had most influence on these poets8 ,what are some of the special defects of the lyrists of this age8 ,john ,milton4--,l',allegro1 ,il ,penseroso1 ,comus1 ,lycidas 7,american ,book ,company's ,eclectic ,english ,classics1 #bj cents71 and ,paradise ,lost1 ,books ,i4 and ,,ii4 7same series71 should be read4 ,these poems1 including his excellent ,sonnets1 may also be found in ,cassell's ,national ,library1 ,everyman's ,library1 and the ,temple ,classics4 ,selections are given in ,ward1 ,,ii41 #cjf-cgi2 ,bronson1 ,,ii41 #ccd-dbc2 ,oxford ,treasury1 ,,iii41 #cd-gj3 ,manly1 ,i41 and ,century1 passim4 ,which is the greatest of his minor poets8 ,why8 ,is the keynote of ,comus in accord with ,puritan ideals8 ,are there qualities in ,lycidas that justify calling it the high-water mark of ,english lyrical poetry8 ,which poem has most powerfully affected theological thought8 ,which do you think is oftenest read to-day8 ,why8 ,what are the most striking characteristics of ,milton's poetry8 ,contrast ,milton's greatness1 limitations1 and ideals of life1 with ,shakespeare's4 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,v3 ,footnote #a3 ,see ,milton's ,sonnet3 ,on the ,late ,massacre in ,piedmont4 ,footnote #b3 ,robert ,herrick's ,prayer to ,ben ,jonson4 ,footnote #c3 ,paradise ,lost1 ,book ,,vii41 lines #egg-egh4 ,footnote #d3 ,ibid41 ,book ,,ii41 lines #gai-gbj4 ,footnote #e3 ,paradise ,lost1 ,book ,,vii41 lines #bjg-bji4 ,footnote #f3 ,the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,vol4 ,,vii41 p4#aef4 ,footnote #g3 ,paradise ,lost1 ,book ,i41 line #bed4 ,footnote #h3 ,ibid1 line #bfb4 ,footnote #i3 ,ibid1 line #fdi4 ,footnote #aj3 ,sonnet3 ,on ,his ,having ,arrived at the ,age of ,twenty-three4 ,footnote #aa3 ,milton3 ,a ,sonnet4 ,footnote #ab3 ,for full titles1 see list on p4 #ej4 ,footnote #ac3 ,for full titles1 see p4#f4 ,,chapter ,,vi3 ,,from ,,the ,,restoration1 #affj1 ,,to ,,the ,,publication ,,of ,,pamela1 #agdj ,history of the ,period4--,this chapter opens with the ,restoration of ,charles ,,ii4 7#affj-afhe7 in #affj and ends before the appearance1 in #agdj1 of a new literary creation1 ,richardson's ,pamela1 the novel of domestic life and character4 ,this period is often called the age of ,dryden and ,pope1 the two chief poets of the time4 ,when ,oliver ,cromwell died1 the restoration of the monarchy was inevitable4 ,the protest against the ,puritanic view of life had become strong4 ,reaction always results when excessive restraint in any direction is removed4 ,during his exile1 ,charles had lived much in ,france and had become accustomed to the dissolute habits of the ,french court4 ,the court of ,charles ,,ii4 was the most corrupt ever known in ,england4 ,the ,puritan virtues were laughed to scorn by the ribald courtiers who attended ,charles ,,ii4 ,john ,evelyn 7#afbj-agjf7 and ,samuel ,pepys 7#afcc-agjc7 left diaries1 which give interesting pictures of the times4 ,the one by ,pepys is especially vivid4 ,in #affc ,samuel ,butler 7#afab-afhj7 published a famous satire1 entitled ,hudibras4 ,its object was to ridicule everything that savored of ,puritanism4 ,this satire became extremely popular in court circles1 and was the favorite reading of the king4 ,illustration3 ,,samuel ,,butler4 ,charles ,,ii4 excluded all but ,episcopalians from holding office1 either in towns or in ,parliament4 ,only those who sanctioned the ,episcopal prayer book were allowed to preach4 ,in order to keep ,england's friendship and to be able to look to her for assistance in time of war1 ,louis ,,xiv4 of ,france paid ,charles ,,ii4 #ajj1jjj a year to act as a ,french agent4 ,in this capacity1 ,charles ,,ii4 began against ,holland4 ,from a position of commanding importance under ,cromwell1 ,england had become a third-rate power1 a tail to a ,french kite4 ,james ,,ii4 7#afhe-afhh71 who succeeded his brother1 ,charles ,,ii41 undertook to suspend laws and to govern like a despot4 ,he was driven out in the bloodless revolution of #afhh by his son-in-law1 ,william 7#afhi-agjb71 and his daughter ,mary4 ,william of ,orange1 who thus became king of ,england1 was a prince of ,holland4 ,this revolution led to the ,bill of ,rights 7#afhi71 the third pillar of the ,british ,constitution1 the two previous being ,magna ,charta and the ,petition of ,right4 ,the foundations were now firmly laid for a strictly constitutional monarchy in ,england4 ,from this time the king has been less important1 sometimes only a mere figure-head4 ,this revolution1 coupled with the increasing rivalry of ,france in trade and colonial expansion1 altered the foreign policy of ,england4 ,holland was the head of the ,european coalition against ,france2 and ,william ,,iii4 was influential in having ,england join it4 ,for the larger part of the eighteenth century there was intermittent war with ,france4 ,under ,anne 7#agjb-agad7 the ,duke of ,marlborough won many remarkable victories against ,france4 ,the most worthy goal of ,french antagonism1 expansion of trade1 and displacement of the ,french in ,america and ,india1 was not at this time clearly apparent4 ,anne's successor was the ,hanoverian ,elector1 ,george ,i4 7#agad-agbg71 a descendant of the daughter of ,james ,i41 who had married a ,german prince4 ,at the time of his accession1 ,george ,i4 was fifty-four years old and could speak no ,english4 ,he seldom attended the meetings of his cabinet1 since he could not understand the deliberations4 ,this circumstance led to further decline of royal power1 so that his successor1 ,george ,,ii4 7#agbg-agfj71 said3 ,ministers are the king in this country4 ,the history of the rest of this period centers around the great prime minister1 ,robert ,walpole1 whose ministry lasted from #agae-agag and from #agba-agdb4 ,his motto was1 ,let sleeping dogs lie2 and he took good care to offend no one by proposing any reforms1 either political or religious4 ,every man has his price was the succinct statement of his political philosophy2 and he did not hesitate to secure by bribery the adoption of his measures in ,parliament4 ,he succeeded in three aims3 7#a7 in making the house of ,hanover so secure on the throne that it has not since been displaced1 7#b7 in giving fresh impetus to trade and industry at home by reducing taxation1 and 7#c7 in strengthening the navy and encouraging colonial commerce4 ,change in ,foreign ,influence4--,of all foreign influences from the beginning of the ,renaissance to the ,restoration1 the literature of ,italy had been the most important4 ,french influence now gained the ascendancy4 ,there were several reasons for this change4 7#a7 ,france under the great ,louis ,,xiv4 was increasing her political importance4 7#b7 ,she now had among her writers men who were by force of genius fitted to exert wide influence4 ,among such1 we may instance ,molire 7#afbb-afgc71 who stands next to ,shakespeare in dramatic power4 7#c7 ,charles ,,ii4 and many ,cavaliers had passed the time of their exile in ,france4 ,they became familiar with ,french literature1 and when they returned to ,england in #affj1 their taste had already been influenced by ,french models4 ,change in the ,subject ,matter of ,literature4--,the ,elizabethan age impartially held the mirror up to every type of human emotion4 ,the writers of the ,restoration and of the first half of the eighteenth century1 as a class1 avoided any subject that demanded a portrayal of deep and noble feeling4 ,in this age1 we catch no glimpse of a ,lady ,macbeth in the grasp of remorse or of a ,lear bending over a dead ,cordelia4 ,the popular subjects were those which appealed to cold intellect2 and these were1 for the most part1 satirical1 didactic1 and argumentative4 ,the two greatest poets of the period1 ,john ,dryden and his successor1 ,alexander ,pope1 usually chose such subjects4 ,john ,locke 7#afcb-agjd71 a great prose writer of this age1 shows in the very title of his most famous work1 ,of the ,conduct of the ,understanding1 what he preferred to discuss4 ,that book opens with the statement1 ,the last resort a man has recourse to in the conduct of himself is his understanding4 ,this declaration1 which is not strictly true1 embodies a pronounced tendency of the age1 which could not understand that the world of feeling is no less real than that of the understanding4 ,one good result of the ascendancy of the intellect was seen in scientific investigation4 ,the ,royal ,society was founded in #affb to study natural phenomena and to penetrate into the hidden mysteries of philosophy and life4 ,the ,advance of ,prose4--,in each preceding age1 the masterpieces were poetry2 but before the middle of the eighteenth century we find the prose far surpassing the poetry4 ,dryden1 almost immediately after the ,restoration1 shows noteworthy advance in modern prose style4 ,he avoids a ,latinized inversion1 such as the following1 with which ,milton begins the second sentence of his ,areopagitica 7#afdd73-- ,and me perhaps each of these dispositions1 as the subject was whereon ,i entered1 may have at other times variously affected 444 ,here1 the object me is eighteen words in advance of its predicate4 ,the sentence might well have ended with the natural pause at affected1 but ,milton adds fifty-one more words4 ,we may easily understand by comparison why the term modern is applied to the prose of ,dryden and of his successors ,addison and ,steele4 ,to emphasize the precedence of these writers in the development of modern prose is no disparagement to ,bunyan's style1 which is almost as quaint and as excellent as that of the #afaa version of the ,bible4 ,french influence was cumulative in changing the cumbersome style of ,milton's prose to the polished1 neatly-turned sentences of ,addison4 ,matthew ,arnold says3 ,the glory of ,english literature is in poetry1 and in poetry the strength of the eighteenth century does not lie4 ,nevertheless the eighteenth century accomplished for us an immense literary progress1 and its very shortcomings in poetry were an instrument to that progress1 and served it4 ,the example of ,germany may show us what a nation loses from having no prose style444 ,french prose is marked in the highest degree by the qualities of regularity1 uniformity1 precision1 balance444 ,the ,french made their poetry also conform to the law which was molding their prose444 ,this may have been bad for ,french poetry1 but it was good for ,french prose4 ,the same influence which gave vigor1 point1 and definiteness to the prose1 necessary for the business of the world1 helped to dwarf the poetry4 ,if both could not have advanced together1 we may be thankful that the first part of the eighteenth century produced a varied prose of such high excellence4 ,the ,classic ,school4--,the literary lawgivers of this age held that a rigid adherence to certain narrow rules was the prime condition of producing a masterpiece4 ,indeed1 the belief was common that a knowledge of rules was more important than genius4 ,the men of this school are called classicists because they held that a study of the best works of the ancients would disclose the necessary guiding rules4 ,no style that did not closely follow these rules was considered good4 ,horace1 seen through ,french spectacles1 was the classical author most copied by this school4 ,his ,epistles and ,satires were considered models4 ,the motto of the classicists was polished regularity4 ,pope struck the keynote of the age when he said3-- ,true wit is nature to advantage dress'd1 ,what oft was thought1 but ne'er so well express'd4#a ,these two lines show the form of the riming couplet1 which the classical poets adopted4 ,there is generally a pause at the end of each line2 and each couplet1 when detached from the context1 will usually make complete sense4 ,edmund ,waller 7#afjf-afhg71 remembered today for his single couplet3-- ,the soul's dark cottage1 battered and decayed1 ,lets in new light through chinks that time has made1 had used this form of verse before #afcj2 but it was reserved for ,dryden1 and especially for ,pope1 to bring the couplet to a high degree of perfection4 ,a ,french critic advised poets to compose the second line of the couplet first4 ,no better rule could have been devised for dwarfing poetic power and for making poetry artificial4 ,voltaire1 a ,french classicist1 said1 ,i do not like the monstrous irregularities of ,shakespeare4 ,an eighteenth-century classicist actually endeavored to improve ,hamlet's soliloquy by putting it in riming couplets4 ,these lines from ,macbeth show that ,shakespeare will not tolerate such leading strings nor allow the ending of the lines to interfere with his sense3-- 444,besides1 this ,duncan ,hath borne his faculties so meek1 hath been ,so clear in his great office1 that his virtues ,will plead like angels1 trumpet-tongued against ,the deep damnation of his taking-off4 ,a later romantic poet called the riming couplet rocking-horse meter2 and said that the reading of many couplets reminded him of round trips on a rocking-horse4 ,advances are usually made by overstressing some one point4 ,the classicists taught the saving grace of style1 the need of restraint1 balance1 clearness1 common sense4 ,we should therefore not despise the necessary lesson which ,english literature learned from such teaching1--a lesson which has never been forgotten4 ,the ,drama4--,the theaters were reopened at the time of the ,restoration4 ,it is interesting to read in the vivacious ,diary of ,samuel ,pepys how he went in #affa to see ,shakespeare's ,romeo and ,juliet1 a play of itself the worst that ,i ever heard4 ,the next year he characterizes ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream as the most ridiculous play that ,i ever saw4 ,he liked the variety in ,macbeth1 and calls ,the ,tempest the most innocent play that ,i ever saw4 ,the ,restoration dramatists1 who were dominated by ,french influence1 so often sneered at morality and the virtues of the home1 that they have paid the penalty of being little read in after times4 ,the theater has not yet entirely recovered from the deep-seated prejudice which was so intensified by the coarse plays which flourished for fifty years after the ,restoration4 ,although ,john ,dryden is best known among a large number of ,restoration dramatists1#b he did better work in another field4 ,william ,congreve 7#afgj-agbi7 made the mast distinctive contribution to the new comedy of manners4 ,descended from an old landowning family in ,staffordshire1 he was for a while a mate of ,jonathan ,swift at ,trinity ,college1 ,dublin4 ,in #afia ,congreve was entered in the ,middle ,temple1 ,london1 to begin the study of law1 but he soon turned playwright4 ,his four comedies1--,the ,old ,bachelor1 ,the ,double ,dealer1 ,love for ,love1 ,the ,way of the ,world1--and one tragedy1 ,the ,mourning ,bride1 were all written in the last decade of the seventeenth century4 ,after #agjj he wrote no more plays1 although he lived nearly thirty years longer4 ,on his death1 in #agbi1 he was buried in ,westminster ,abbey4 ,congreve attempts to picture the manners of contemporary society1 and he does not penetrate far below the surface of life4 ,he is not read for the depth of his thought1 but for his humor and for the clear1 pointed style of his prose comedies4 ,george ,meredith says3-- ,where ,congreve excels all his ,english rivals is in his literary force1 and a succinctness of style peculiar to him444 ,he is at once precise and voluble4 ,if you have ever thought upon style1 you will acknowledge it to be a signal accomplishment4 ,in this he is a classic1 and he is worthy of treading a measure with ,molire4 ,congreve's best comedies are ,love for ,love and ,the ,way of the ,world4 ,the majority of critics agree with ,meredith in calling ,miss ,millimant1 who is the heroine of the latter play1 an admirable1 almost a lovable heroine4 ,meredith illustrates one phase of his own idea of the comic spirit1 by the language which ,miss ,millimant uses in accepting her lover3 ,if ,i continue to endure you a little longer1 ,i may by degrees dwindle into a wife4 ,congreve's peculiar genius is well shown in his ability to make her manner of speech reveal her characteristics4 ,his plays are unfortunately disfigured with the coarseness of the age4 ,the blemishes in the drama did not exist1 however1 without an emphatic contemporary protest4 ,jeremy ,collier 7#afej-agbi71 a non-conforming bishop1 in his ,short ,view of the ,immorality of the ,stage 7#afih71 complains that the unworthy hero of one of ,congreve's plays is crowned for the man of merit1 has his wishes thrown into his lap1 and makes the happy exit4 ,such attacks had their weight and prepared the way far the more moral sentimental comedies of ,richard ,steele and succeeding playwrights4 ,the sacrifice of plot to moral purpose and the deliberate introduction of scenes designed to force an appeal to sentiment caused the later drama to deteriorate in a different way4 ,we shall see that the natural hearty humor of ,goldsmith's comedy1 ,she ,stoops to ,conquer7#aggc71 afforded a welcome relief from such plays4 ,,john ,,dryden1 #afca-agjj ,illustration3 ,,john ,,dryden4 ,from the painting by ,sir ,godfrey ,knellwe1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,illustration3 ,,birthplace ,,of ,,dryden4 ,from a print4 ,life4--,john ,dryden was born in #afca in the small village of ,aldwinkle1 in the northern part of ,northamptonshire4 ,few interesting facts concerning his life have come down to us4 ,his father was a baronet2 his mother1 the daughter of a rector4 ,young ,dryden graduated from ,cambridge in #afed4 ,during his entire life1 ,dryden was a professional literary man2 and with his pen he made the principal part of his living4 ,this necessity often forced him against his own better judgment to cater to the perverted taste of the ,restoration4 ,when he found that plays had more market value than any other kind of literature1 he agreed to furnish three plays a year for the king's actors1 but was unable to produce that number4 ,for fifteen years in the prime of his life1 ,dryden did little but write plays1 the majority of which are seldom read to-day4 ,his only important poem during his dramatic period was ,annus ,mirabilis 7,the ,wonderful ,year1 #afff71 memorable for the great ,london fire and for naval victories over the ,dutch4 ,by writing the greatest political satire in the language at the age of fifty1 he showed the world where his genius lay4 ,during the last twenty years of his life1 he produced but few plays4 ,his greatest satires1 didactic poems1 and lyrics belong to this period4 ,in his last years he wrote a spirited translation of ,vergil1 and retold in his own inimitable way various stories from ,chaucer and ,boccaccio and ,ovid4 ,these stories were published in a volume entitled ,fables1 ,ancient and ,modern4 ,dryden died in #agjj and was buried in ,westminster ,abbey beside ,chaucer4 ,it is difficult to speak positively of ,dryden's character4 ,he wrote a poem in honor of the memory of ,cromwell1 and a little later another poem1 ,astraea ,redux1 welcoming ,charles ,,ii4 ,he argued in stirring verse in favor of the ,episcopal religion when that was the faith of the court2 but after the accession of ,james ,,ii41 who was a ,catholic1 ,dryden wrote another poem to prove the ,catholic ,church the only true one4 ,he had been appointed poet laureate in #afgj1 but the ,revolution of #afhh1 which drove ,james from the throne1 caused ,dryden to lose the laureateship4 ,he would neither take the oath of fealty to the new government nor change his religion4 ,in spite of adversity and the loss of an income almost sufficient to support him1 he remained a ,catholic for the rest of his life and reared his sons in that faith4 ,he seems to have been of a forgiving disposition and ready to acknowledge his own faults4 ,he admitted that his plays were disfigured with coarseness4 ,he was very kind to young writers and willing to help them with their work4 ,in his chair at ,will's ,coffee ,house1 discoursing to the wits of the ,restoration about matters of literary art1 he was one of the most prominent figures of the age4 ,his ,prose4--,although to the majority of people ,dryden is known only as a poet1 his influence on prose has been so far-reaching as to entitle him to be called one of the founders of modern prose style4 ,the shortening of sentences has been a striking feature in the development of modern ,english prose4 ,edmund ,spenser averages about fifty words to each of his prose sentences2 ,richard ,hooker1 about forty-one4 ,one of the most striking sentences in ,milton's ,areopagitica contains ninety-five words1 although he crowds over three hundred words into some of his long sentences4 ,the sentences in some of ,dryden's pages average only twenty-five words in length4 ,turning to ,macaulay1 one of the most finished masters of modern prose1 we find that his sentences average twenty-two words4 ,dryden helped also to free ,english prose from the inversions1 involutions1 and parenthetical intricacies of earlier times4 ,his influence on both prose and poetry were much the same4 ,in verse he adopted the short1 easily understood unit of the classical couplet2 and in prose1 the short1 direct sentence4 ,dryden's prose deals chiefly with literary criticism4 ,most of his prose is to be found in the prefaces to his plays and poems4 ,his most important separate prose composition is his ,essay of ,dramatic ,poesy1 a work which should be read by all who wish to know some of the foundation principles of criticism4 ,satiric ,poetry4--,no ,english writer has surpassed ,dryden in satiric verse4 ,his greatest satire is ,absalom and ,achitophel1 in which1 under the guise of ,old ,testament characters1 he satirizes the leading spirits of the ,protestant opposition to the succession of ,james1 the brother of ,charles ,,ii41 to the ,english throne4 ,dryden thus satirizes ,achitophel1 the ,earl of ,shaftesbury3-- ,great wits are sure to madness near allied1 ,and thin partitions do their bounds divide2 ,else1 why should he1 with wealth and honor blest1 ,refuse his age the needful hours of rest8 ,punish a body which he could not please1 ,bankrupt of life1 yet prodigal of ease8 ,and all to leave what with his toil he won ,to that unfeathered two-legged thing1 a son4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in friendship false1 implacable in hate1 ,resolved to ruin or to rule the state4 ,zimri1 the ,duke of ,buckingham1 is immortalized thus3-- ,stiff in opinions1 always in the wrong1 ,was everything by starts1 and nothing long4 ,mac ,flecknoe is another satire of almost as great merit1 directed against a certain ,whig poet by the name of ,shadwell4 ,he would have been seldom mentioned in later times1 had it not been for two of ,dryden's lines3-- ,the rest to some faint meaning make pretence1 ,but ,shadwell never deviates into sense4 ,all for ,love1 one of ,dryden's greatest plays1 shows the delicate keenness of his satire in characterizing the cold-blooded ,augustus ,caesar1 or ,octavius1 as he is there called4 ,antony has sent a challenge to ,octavius1 who replies that he has more ways than one to die4 ,antony rejoins3-- ,he has more ways than one2 ,but he would choose them all before that one4 ,ventidius4 ,he first would choose an ague or a fever4 ,antony4 ,no2 it must be an ague1 not a fever2 ,he has not warmth enough to die by that4 ,dryden could make his satire as direct and blasting as a thunderbolt4 ,he thus describes his publisher3-- ,with leering looks1 bull-faced1 and freckled fair1 ,with two left legs1 and ,judas-colored hair1 ,and frowsy pores that taint the ambient air4 ,argumentative or ,didactic ,verse4--,dryden is a master in arguing in poetry4 ,he was not a whit hampered by the restrictions of verse4 ,they were rather an advantage to him1 for in poetry he could make more telling arguments in briefer compass than in prose4 ,the best two examples of his power of arguing in verse are ,religio ,laici1 written in #afhb1 to uphold the ,episcopal religion1 and ,the ,hind and the ,panther1 composed in #afhg1 to vindicate the ,catholic church4 ,verse of this order is called didactic1 because it endeavors to teach or to explain something4 ,the age of the ,restoration delighted in such exercises of the intellect vastly more than in flights of fancy or imagination4 ,lyrical ,verse4--,while most of ,dryden's best poetry is either satiric or didactic1 he wrote three fine lyrical poems3 ,alexander's ,feast1 ,a ,song for ,st4 ,cecilia's ,day1 and ,an ,ode to ,mrs4 ,anne ,killigrew4 ,all are distinguished by remarkable beauty and energy of expression4 ,alexander's ,feast is the most widely read of ,dryden's poems4 ,the opening lines of the ,ode to ,mrs4 ,anne ,killigrew seem almost ,miltonic in their conception1 and they show great power in the field of lyrical poetry4 ,mistress ,killigrew was a young lady of rare accomplishments in both poetry and painting1 who died at the age of twenty-five4 ,dryden thus begins her memorial ode3-- ,thou youngest virgin daughter of the skies1 ,made in the last promotion of the blest2 ,whose palms1 new plucked from ,paradise1 ,in spreading branches more sublimely rise1 ,rich with immortal green above the rest3 99 99 99 99 99 ,thou wilt have time enough for hymns divine1 ,since ,heaven's eternal year is thine4 ,some of his plays have songs and speeches instinct with lyrical force4 ,the following famous lines on the worth of existence are taken from his tragedy of ,aurengzebe3-- ,when ,i consider'd life1 'tis all a cheat1 ,yet1 fool'd with hope1 men favor the deceit1 ,trust on1 and think to-morrow will repay3 ,to-morrow's falser than the former day1 ,lies worse2 and while it says1 we shall be blest ,with some new joys1 cuts off what we possest4 ,strange cozenage6 none would live past years again2 ,yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain4 ,and1 from the dregs of life1 think to receive ,what the first sprightly running could not give4 ,i'm tir'd with waiting for this chemic gold1 ,which fools us young and beggars us when old4 ,general ,characteristics4--,in point of time1 ,dryden is the first great poet of the school of literary artists4 ,his verse does not tolerate the unpruned irregularities and exaggerations of many former ,english poets4 ,his command over language is remarkable4 ,he uses words almost as he chooses1 but he does not invest them with the warm glow of feeling4 ,he is1 however1 something more than a great word artist4 ,many of his ideas bear the stamp of marked originality4 ,in the field of satiric and didactic poetry1 he is a master4 ,the intellectual1 not the emotional1 side of man's nature appeals strongly to him4 ,he heeds not the song of the bird1 the color of the rose1 nor the clouds of evening4 ,although more celebrated for his poetry than for his prose1 he is the earliest of the great modern prose stylists1 and he displays high critical ability4 ,,daniel ,,defoe1 #afei8-agca ,illustration3 ,,daniel ,,defoe4 ,from a print by ,vandergucht4 ,varied ,experiences4--,daniel ,defoe was born in ,london1 probably the year before the ,restoration4 ,his father1 a butcher in good circumstances1 sent the boy to a school in which ,english1 instead of ,latin1 was the medium of instruction4 ,he was taught how to express himself in the simple1 forceful ,english for which he became famous4 ,his education was planned to make him a dissenting minister2 but he preferred a life of varied activity4 ,he became a trader1 a manufacturer of tiles1 a journalist1 and a writer of fiction4 ,by also serving as a government agent and spy1 he incurred the severe criticism of contemporaries4 ,it is doubtful if even ,shakespeare had more varied experiences or more vicissitudes in life4 ,for writing what would to-day be considered a harmless piece of irony1 ,the ,shortest ,way with ,dissenters1 in which ,defoe1 who was himself a dissenter1 advocated banishment or hanging1 he suffered the mortification of exposure for three days in the pillory and of imprisonment in the pestilent ,newgate jail4 ,his business of making tiles was consequently ruined4 ,these experiences1 with which his enemies taunted him1 colored his entire life and made him realize that the support of his wife and six children necessitated care in his choice and treatment of subjects4 ,his life was a succession of changing fortunes4 ,he died in poverty in #agca and was buried in ,bunhill ,fields1 ,london4 ,his grave was marked by only a small headstone1 but the ,english boys and girls who had read ,robinson ,crusoe in the ,victorian age subscribed the money for a monument with a suitable inscription4 ,it is remarkable that ,bunhill ,fields1 which contains the graves of so many humble dissenters1 should be the final resting place of both ,bunyan and ,defoe1 the authors of the first two ,english prose works most often read to-day4 ,a ,journalist and a ,prolific ,writer4--,defoe has at last come to be regarded as the first great ,english journalist4 ,he had predecessors in this field1 for as early as #afbb the ,coranto1 or journal of current foreign news1 appeared4 ,in #afda1 on the eve of the civil war1 the ,diurnall of domestic news was issued4 ,in #afdc1 when ,parliament appointed a licenser1 who gave copyright protection to the catchword or newspaper title1 journalists became a recognized body4 ,newsbooks and especially newsletters grew in popularity4 ,only a few years after the ,restoration1 there appeared ,the ,london ,gazette1 which has been continued to the present time as the medium through which the government publishes its official news4 ,from #agjd to #agac ,defoe issued ,the ,review1 which appeared triweekly for the greater part of the time1 and gave the news current in ,england and in much of ,europe4 ,the ,review1 an unusual achievement for the age1 shows ,defoe to have been a journalist of great ability4 ,this paper had one department1 called ,the ,scandal ,club1 which furnished suggestions for ,the ,tatler and ,the ,spectator4 ,it has been computed that ,defoe wrote for ,the ,review during the nine years of its publication #ejjj pages of essays1 in addition to nearly the same amount of other matter4 ,he also issued many pamphlets1 which performed somewhat the same service as the modern newspaper with its editorials4 ,it is probable that he was the most prolific of all ,english authors4 ,few have discussed as wide a range of matter4 ,he wrote more than two hundred and fifty separate works on subjects as different as social conditions1 the promotion of business1 human conduct1 travels in ,england1 and ghosts4 ,fiction4--,defoe was nearly sixty when he began to write fiction4 ,in #agai he published the first part of ,robinson ,crusoe1 the story of the adventures of a sailor wrecked on a solitary island4 ,the ,frenchman ,daudet said of this work3 ,it is as nearly immortal as any book can ever be4 ,the nineteenth century saw more than one hundred editions of it published in ,london alone4 ,it has been repeatedly issued in almost every language of ,europe4 ,the secret of the success of ,robinson ,crusoe has puzzled hundreds of writers who have tried to imitate it4 ,the world-wide popularity of ,robinson ,crusoe is chiefly due 7#a7 to the peculiar genius of the author2 7#b7 to his journalistic training1 which enabled him to seize on the essential elements of interest and to keep these in the foreground2 7#c7 to the skill with which he presents matter-of-fact details1 sufficient to invest the story with an atmosphere of perfect reality2 7#d7 to his style1 which is as simple and direct as the speech of real life1 and which is made vivid by specific words describing concrete actions1--such as hewing a tree1 sharpening a stake1 hanging up grapes to dry1 tossing a biscuit to a wild cat1 taking a motherless kid in his arms2 and 7#e7 to the skill with which he sets a problem requiring for its solution energy1 ingenuity1 self-reliance1 and the development of the moral power necessary to meet and overcome difficulties4 ,young and old follow with intense interest every movement of the shipwrecked mariner when he first swims to the stranded ship1 constructs a raft1 and places on it bread1 rice1 three ,dutch cheeses1 five pieces of dried goat's flesh1 a little remainder of ,european corn1 and the carpenter's chest4 ,readers do not accompany him passively as he lands the raft and returns4 ,they work with him2 they are not only made a part of all ,crusoe's experience1 but they react on it imaginatively2 they suggest changes2 they hold their breath or try to assist him when he is in danger4 ,defoe's genius in making the reader a partner in ,robinson ,crusoe's adventures has not yet received sufficient appreciation4 ,the author could never have secured such a triumph if he had not compelled readers to take an active part in the story4 ,it was for a long time thought that ,defoe was ignorant1 that he accidentally happened to write ,robinson ,crusoe because he had been told of the recent experience of ,alexander ,selkirk on a solitary island in the ,pacific4 ,it is now known that ,defoe was well educated1 versed in several languages1 and the most versatile writer of his time4 ,robinson ,crusoe was no more of an accident than any other creation of genius4 ,defoe's other principal works of fiction are3 ,memoirs of a ,cavalier1 the story of a soldier's adventures in the seventeenth century2 ,the ,life1 ,adventures1 and ,piracies of the ,famous ,captain ,singleton1 a graphic account of adventures in a journey across ,africa2 ,moll ,flanders1 a story of a well-known criminal2 and ,a ,journal of the ,plague ,year1 a vivid1 imaginative presentation1 in the most realistic way1 of the horrors of the ,london plague in #affe4 ,these works are almost completely overshadowed by ,robinson ,crusoe2 but they also show ,defoe's narrative power and his ability to make fiction seem an absolute reality4 ,in writing ,gulliver's ,travels1 ,swift received valuable hints from ,defoe4 ,stevenson's ,treasure ,island is the most successful of the almost numberless stories of adventure suggested by ,robinson ,crusoe4 ,,jonathan ,,swift1 #affg-agde ,illustration3 ,,jonathan ,,swift4 ,from the painting by ,c4 ,jervas1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,swift1 one of the greatest prose writers of the eighteenth century1 was born of ,english parents in ,dublin in #affg4 ,it is absolutely necessary to know something of his life in order to pass proper judgment on his writings4 ,a cursory examination of his life will show that heredity and environment were responsible for many of his peculiarities4 ,swift's father died a few months before the birth of his son1 and the boy saw but little of his mother4 ,swift's school and college life were passed at ,kilkenny ,school and ,trinity ,college1 ,dublin4 ,for his education he was indebted to an uncle1 who made the boy feel the bitterness of his dependence4 ,in after times he said that his uncle treated him like a dog4 ,swift's early experience seems to have made him misanthropic and hardened to consequences1 for he neglected certain studies1 and it was only by special concession that he was allowed to take his ,a4,b4 degree in #afhf4 ,after leaving college1 he spent almost ten years as the private secretary of ,sir ,william ,temple1 at ,moor ,park in ,surrey1 about forty miles southwest of ,london4 ,temple had been asked to furnish some employment for the young graduate because ,lady ,temple was related to ,swift's mother4 ,here ,swift was probably treated as a dependent1 and he had to eat at the second table4 ,finally1 this life became so intolerable that he took holy orders and went to a little parish in ,ireland2 but after a stay of eighteen months he returned to ,moor ,park1 where he remained until ,temple's death in #afii4 ,swift then went to another little country parish in ,ireland4 ,from there he visited ,london on a mission in behalf of the ,episcopal ,church in ,ireland4 ,he quarreled with the ,whigs1 became a ,tory1 and assisted that party by writing many political pamphlets4 ,the ,tory ministry soon felt that it could scarcely do without him4 ,he dined with ministers of state1 and was one of the most important men in ,london2 but he advanced the interests of his friends much better than his own1 for he got little from the government except the hope of becoming bishop4 ,in #agac he was made dean of ,st4 ,patrick's ,cathedral1 ,dublin4 ,in #agad1 ,queen ,anne died1 the ,tories went out of power1 and ,swift returned to ,ireland1 a disappointed man4 ,he passed the rest of his life there1 with the exception of a few visits to ,england4 ,illustration3 ,,moor ,,park4 ,from a drawing4 ,when ,english politicians endeavored to oppress ,ireland with unjust laws1 ,swift championed the ,irish cause4 ,a man who knew him well1 says3 ,i never saw the poor so carefully and conscientiously attended to as those of his cathedral4 ,he gave up a large part of his income every year for the poor4 ,in ,dublin he was looked upon as a hero4 ,when a certain person tried to be revenged on ,swift for a satire1 a deputation of ,swift's neighbors proposed to thrash the man4 ,swift sent them home1 but they boycotted the man and lowered his income #abjj a year4 ,during the last years of his life1 ,swift was hopelessly insane4 ,he died in #agde1 leaving his property for an asylum for lunatics and incurables4 ,illustration3 ,,swift ,,and ,,stella4 ,from the painting by ,dicksee4 ,the mysteries in ,swift's life may be partly accounted for by the fact that during many years he suffered from an unknown brain disease4 ,this affection1 the galling treatment received in his early years1 and the disappointments of his prime1 largely account for his misanthropy1 for his coldness1 and for the almost brutal treatment of the women who loved him4 ,swift's attachment to the beautiful ,esther ,johnson1 known in literature as ,stella1 led him to write to her that famous series of letters known as the ,journal to ,stella1 in which he gives much of his personal history during the three sunniest years of his life1 from #agaj to #agac1 when he was a lion in ,london4 ,thackeray says3 ,i know of nothing more manly1 more tender1 more exquisitely touching1 than some of these brief notes1 written in what ,swift calls his 'little language' in his ,journal to ,stella4 ,a ,tale of a ,tub and the ,battle of the ,books4--,swift's greatest satire1 the greatest prose satire in ,english1 is known as ,a ,tale of a ,tub4 ,the purpose of the work is to uphold the ,episcopalians and satirize opposing religious denominations4 ,for those not interested in theological arguments1 there is much entertaining philosophy1 as the following quotation will show3-- ,if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness1 as it has respect either to the understanding or the senses1 we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition1--that it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived4 ,and first1 with relation to the mind or understanding it is manifest what mighty advantages fiction has over truth2 and the reason is just at our elbow1 because imagination can build nobler scenes and produce more wonderful revolutions than fortune or nature will be at expense to furnish4 ,swift's satiric definition of happiness as the art of being well deceived is a characteristic instance of a combination of his humor and pessimistic philosophy4 ,in the same volume with ,a ,tale of a ,tub1 there was published a prose satire in almost epic form1 ,an ,account of a ,battle between the ,ancient and ,modern ,books in ,st4 ,james ,library 7#agjd74 ,although this satire apparently aims to demonstrate the superior merits of the great classical writers1 it is mainly an attack on pretentions to knowledge4 ,our greatest surprise in this satire comes not only from discovering the expression1 sweetness and light1 made famous by ,matthew ,arnold in the ,victorian age1 but also from finding that a satirist like ,swift assigned such high rank to these qualities4 ,he says that the ,ancients thus expressed an essential difference between themselves and the ,moderns3-- ,the difference is that1 instead of dirt and poison1 we have rather chosen to fill our lives with honey and wax1 thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things1 which are ,sweetness and ,light4 ,gulliver's ,travels4--,the world is always ready to listen to any one who has a good story to tell4 ,neither children nor philosophers have yet wearied of reading the adventures of ,captain ,lemuel ,gulliver in ,lilliput and ,brobdingnag4 ,gulliver's ,travels is ,swift's most famous work4 ,gulliver makes four remarkable voyages to strange countries4 ,he first visits ,lilliput1 which is inhabited by a race of men about six inches high4 ,everything is on a corresponding scale4 ,gulliver eats a whole herd of cattle for breakfast and drinks several hogsheads of liquor4 ,he captures an entire fleet of warships4 ,a rival race of pygmies endeavors to secure his services so as to obtain the balance of power4 ,the quarrels between these little people seem ridiculous1 and so petty as to be almost beneath contempt4 ,gulliver next visits ,brobdingnag1 where the inhabitants are sixty feet tall1 and the affairs of ordinary human beings appear petty and insignificant4 ,the cats are as large as three oxen1 and the dogs attain the size of four elephants4 ,gulliver eats on a table thirty feet high1 and trembles lest he may fall and break his neck4 ,the baby seizes ,gulliver and tries to swallow his head4 ,afterward the hero fights a desperate battle with two rats4 ,a monkey catches him and carries him to the almost infinite height of the house top4 ,certainly1 the voyages to ,lilliput and ,brobdingnag merit ,leslie ,stephen's criticism of being almost the most delightful children's book ever written4 ,the third voyage1 which takes him to ,laputa1 satirizes the philosophers4 ,we are taken through the academy at ,lagado and are shown a typical philosopher3-- ,he had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers1 which were to be put in vials1 hermetically sealed1 and let out to warm the air in raw1 inclement summers4 ,he told me he did not doubt that in eight years more he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine at a reasonable rate4 ,in this voyage the ,struldbrugs are described4 ,they are a race of men who1 after the loss of every faculty and of every tie that binds them to earth1 are doomed to continue living4 ,dante never painted a stronger or a ghastlier picture4 ,on his fourth voyage1 he visits the country of the ,houyhnhnms and describes the ,yahoos1 who are the embodiment of all the detestable qualities of human beings4 ,the last two voyages are not pleasant reading1 and one might wish that the author of two such inimitable tales as the adventures in ,lilliput and ,brobdingnag had stopped with these4 ,children read ,gulliver's ,travels for the story1 but there is much more than a story in the work4 ,in its pages the historian finds allusions that throw much light on the history of the age4 ,among the ,lilliputians1 for example1 there is one party1 known as the ,bigendians1 which insists that all eggs shall be broken open at the big end1 while another party1 called the ,littleendians1 contends that eggs shall be opened only at the little end4 ,these differences typify the quarrels of the age concerning religion and politics4 ,the ,travels also contains much human philosophy4 ,the lover of satire is constantly delighted with the keenness of the thrusts4 ,general ,characteristics4--,swift is one of the greatest of ,english prose humorists4 ,he is noted also for wit of that satiric kind which enjoys the discomfiture of the victim4 ,a typical instance is shown in the way in which1 under the assumed name of ,isaac ,bickerstaff1 he dealt with an astrologer and maker of prophetic almanacs1 whose name was ,partridge4 ,bickerstaff claimed to be an infallible astrologer1 and predicted that ,partridge would die ,march #bi1 #agjh1 at #aa ,p4,m4 ,when that day had passed1 ,bickerstaff issued a pamphlet giving a circumstantial account of ,partridge's death4 ,partridge1 finding that his customers began to decrease1 protested that he was alive4 ,bickerstaff promptly replied that ,partridge was dead by his own infallible rules of astrology1 and that the man now claiming to be ,partridge was a vile impostor4 ,swift's wit frequently left its imprint on the thought of the time4 ,the results of this special prank with the astrologer were3 first1 to cause the wits of the town to join in the hue and cry that ,partridge was dead2 second1 to increase the contempt for astrologers2 and1 third1 in the words of ,scott3 ,the most remarkable consequence of ,swift's frolic was the establishment of the ,tatler4 ,richard ,steele1 its founder1 adopted the popular name of ,isaac ,bickerstaff4 ,taine says of ,swift3 ,he is the inventor of irony1 as ,shakespeare of poetry4 ,the most powerful instance of ,swift's irony is shown in his attempt to better the condition of the ,irish1 whose poverty forced them to let their children grow up ignorant and destitute1 or often even die of starvation4 ,his ,modest ,proposal for relieving such distress is to have the children at the age of one year served as a new dish on the tables of the great4 ,so apt is irony to be misunderstood and to fail of its mark1 that for a time ,swift was considered merely brutal2 but soon he convinced the ,irish that he was their friend1 willing to contribute both time and money to aid them4 ,his ironical remarks on ,the ,abolishing of ,christianity were also misunderstood4 ,his poems1 such as ,a ,description of a ,city ,shower1 and ,cadenus and ,vanessa1 show the same general characteristics as his prose1 but are inferior to it4 ,we shall search ,swift's work in vain for examples of pathos or sublimity4 ,we shall find his pages caustic with wit1 satire1 and irony1 and often disfigured with coarseness4 ,one of the great pessimists of all time1 he is yet tremendously in earnest in whatever he says1 from his ,drapier's ,letters1 written to protect ,ireland from the schemes of ,english politicians1 to his ,gulliver's ,travels1 where he describes the court of ,lilliput4 ,this earnestness and circumstantial minuteness throw an air of reality around his most grotesque creations4 ,he pretended to despise ,defoe2 yet the influence of that great writer1 who made fiction seem as real as fact1 is plainly apparent in ,gulliver's remarkable adventures4 ,although sublimity and pathos are outside of his range1 his style is remarkably well adapted to his special subject matter4 ,while reading his works1 one scarcely ever thinks of his style1 unless the attention is specially directed to it4 ,only a great artist can thus conceal his art4 ,a style so natural as this has especial merits which will repay study4 ,three of its chief characteristics are simplicity1 flexibility1 and energetic directness4 ,,joseph ,,addison1 #afgb-agai ,illustration3 ,,joseph ,,addison4 ,from the painting by ,sir ,godfrey ,kneller1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,birthplace ,,of ,,addison4 ,life4--,joseph ,addison was born in the paternal rectory at ,milston1 a small village in the eastern part of ,wiltshire4 ,he was educated at ,oxford4 ,he intended to become a clergyman1 but1 having attracted attention by his graceful ,latin poetry1 was dissuaded by influential court friends from entering the service of the church4 ,they persuaded him to fit himself for the diplomatic service1 and secured for him a yearly pension of #cjj4 ,he then went to ,france1 studied the language of that country1 and traveled extensively1 so as to gain a knowledge of foreign courts4 ,the death of ,king ,william in #agjb stopped his pension1 however1 and ,addison was forced to return to ,england to seek employment as a tutor4 ,the great battle of ,blenheim was won by ,marlborough in #agjd4 ,as ,macaulay says1 the ministry was mortified to see such a victory celebrated by so much bad poetry1 and he instances these lines from one of the poems3 ,think of two thousand gentlemen at least1 ,and each man mounted on his capering beast2 ,into the ,danube they were pushed by shoals4 ,the ,chancellor of the ,exchequer went to ,addison's humble lodgings and asked him to write a poem in honor of the battle4 ,addison took the town by storm with a simile in which the great general was likened to the calm angel of the whirlwind4 ,when people reflected how calmly ,marlborough had directed the whirlwind of war1 they thought that no comparison could be more felicitous4 ,from that time ,addison's fortunes rose4 ,since his day no man relying on literary talents alone has risen so high in state affairs4 ,he was made assistant ,secretary of ,state1 ,secretary for ,ireland1 and finally chief ,secretary of ,state4 ,though ,addison was a prominent figure in the political world1 it is his literary life that most concerns us4 ,in his prime he wrote for ,the ,tatler and ,the ,spectator1 famous newspapers of ,queen ,anne's day1 many inimitable essays on contemporary life and manners4 ,most newspaper work is soon forgotten1 but these essays are read by the most cultivated people of to-day4 ,in his own age his most meritorious production was thought to be the dull tragedy of ,cato1 a drama observing the classical unities4 ,some of his ,hymns are much finer4 ,lines like these1 written of the stars1 linger in our memories3-- ,forever singing as they shine1 ,the hand that made us is divine4 ,addison had a singularly pleasing personality4 ,though he was a ,whig1 the ,tories admired and applauded him4 ,he was a good illustration of the truth that if one smiles in the mirror of the world1 it will answer him with a smile4 ,swift said he believed the ,english would have made ,addison king1 if they had been requested to place him on the throne4 ,pope's jealous nature prompted him to quarrel with ,addison1 but the quarrel was chiefly on one side4 ,men like ,macaulay and ,thackeray have exerted their powers to do justice to the kindliness and integrity of ,addison4 ,addison died at the age of forty-seven1 and was buried in ,westminster ,abbey4 ,illustration3 ,,richard ,,steele4 ,collaborates with ,steele4--,under the pen name of ,isaac ,bickerstaff1 ,richard ,steele 7#afgb-agbi71 a former schoolmate and friend of ,addison1 started in #agji ,the ,tatler1 a periodical published three times a week4 ,this discussed matters of interest in society and politics1 and occasionally published an essay on morals and manners4 ,steele was a good-natured1 careless individual1 with a varied experience as soldier1 playwright1 moralist1 keeper of the official gazette1 and pensioner4 ,he says that he always preferred the state of his mind to that of his fortune2 but his mental state was often fickle1 and too much dependent on bodily luxuries1 though he was patriotic enough to sacrifice his personal fortune for what he considered his country's interest4 ,we find ,addison a frequent contributor to ,the ,tatler after its seventeenth number4 ,steele says3 ,i fared like a distressed prince who calls in a powerful neighbor to his aid2 ,i was undone by my auxiliary2 when ,i had once called him in1 ,i could not subsist without dependence on him4 ,the ,tatler was discontinued in #agaa1 and ,steele projected the more famous ,spectator two months later4 ,addison wrote the first number1 but the second issue1 which came from ,steele's pen1 contains sketches of those characters which have become famous in the ,sir ,roger de ,coverley ,papers4 ,steele's first outline of ,sir ,roger is a creation of sweetness and light3-- ,his tenants grow rich1 his servants look satisfied1 all the young women profess to love him1 and the young men are glad of his company4 ,when he comes into a house he calls the servants by their names1 and talks all the way upstairs to a visit4 ,the influence of such a character must have been especially wholesome on the readers of the eighteenth century4 ,without the suggestive originality of ,steele1 we might never have had those essays of ,addison1 which we read most to-day2 but while ,steele should have full credit for the first bold sketches1 the finished portraits in the ,de ,coverley gallery are due to ,addison4 ,steele says of his associate1 ,i claim to myself the merit of having extorted excellent productions from a person of the greatest abilities1 who would not have let them appear by any other means4 ,it is well1 however1 to remember that ,steele did much more work than is popularly supposed4 ,beginning with ,march #a1 #agaa1 there were #eee issues of ,the ,spectator published on succeeding week days4 ,to these were added #hj more numbers at irregular intervals4 ,of these #fce numbers1 ,steele wrote #bcf and ,addison #bgd4 ,in many respects each seemed to be the complement of the other4 ,steele's writings have not the polish or delicate humor of ,addison's1 but they have more strength and pathos4 ,addison had the greater genius1 and he was also more willing to spend time in polishing his prose and making it artistic4 ,from the far greater interest now shown in ,addison1 the student should be impressed by the necessity of artistic finish as well as of excellence in subject matter4 ,addison's ,essays--,the greatest of ,addison's ,essays appeared in ,the ,spectator and charmed many readers in ,queen ,anne's age4 ,the subject matter of these ,essays is extremely varied4 ,on one day there is a pleasant paper on witches2 on another1 a chat about the new woman2 on another1 a discourse on clubs4 ,addison is properly a moral satirist1 and his pen did much more than the pulpit to civilize the age and make virtue the fashion4 ,in ,the ,spectator1 he says3 ,if ,i meet with anything in city1 court1 or country1 that shocks modesty or good manners1 ,i shall use my utmost endeavors to make an example of it4 ,he accomplished his purpose1 not by heated denunciations of vice1 but by holding it up to kindly ridicule4 ,he remembered the fable of the different methods employed by the north wind and the sun to make a man lay aside an ugly cloak4 ,addison stated also that one of his objects was to bring philosophy out of closets and libraries1 schools and colleges1 to dwell in clubs and assemblies1 at tea tables and coffeehouses4 ,his papers on ,milton did much to diminish that great poet's unpopularity in an age that loved form rather than matter1 art rather than natural strength4 ,the ,sir ,roger de ,coverley ,papers4--,the most famous of ,addison's productions are his papers that appeared in ,the ,spectator1 describing a typical country gentleman1 ,sir ,roger de ,coverley1 and his friends and servants4 ,taine says that ,addison here invented the novel without suspecting it4 ,this is an overstatement2 but these papers certainly have the interest of a novel from the moment ,sir ,roger appears until his death1 and the delineation of character is far in advance of that shown in the majority of modern novels4 ,we find ourselves rereading the ,de ,coverley ,papers more than once1 a statement that can be made of but few novels4 ,illustration3 ,,sir ,,roger ,,in ,,church4 ,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott4 ,general ,characteristics4--,addison ranks among the greatest of ,english essayists4 ,some of his essays1 like the series on ,paradise ,lost1 deal with literary criticism2 but most people to-day read little from his pen except the ,sir ,roger de ,coverley ,papers1 which give interesting pictures of eighteenth-century life and manners4 ,before we have read many of ,addison's essays1 we shall discover that he is a humorist of high rank4 ,his humor is of the kind that makes one smile1 rather than laugh aloud4 ,our countenance relaxes when we discover that his rules for an eighteenth-century club prescribe a fine for absence except in case of sickness or imprisonment4 ,we are quietly amused at such touches as this in the delineation of ,sir ,roger3-- ,as ,sir ,roger is landlord to the whole congregation1 he keeps them in very good order1 and will suffer nobody to sleep in it besides himself2 for1 if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon1 upon recovering out of it1 he stands up and looks about him1 and1 if he sees anybody else nodding1 either wakes them himself1 or sends his servants to them4 ,addison is remarkable among a satiric group of writers because he intended his humor to be remedial1--not merely to inflict wounds1 but to exert a moral influence1 to induce human beings to forsake the wrong and to become more kindly4 ,we may smile at ,sir ,roger2 but we have more respect for his kindliness1 after reading in ,spectator ,no4 #chc1 how he selected his boatmen to row him on the ,thames3-- ,we were no sooner come to the ,temple ,stairs1 but we were surrounded with a crowd of watermen1 offering us their respective services4 ,sir ,roger1 after having looked about him very attentively1 spied one with a wooden leg1 and immediately gave him orders to get his boat ready4 ,as we were walking towards it1 ',you must know1' says ,sir ,roger1 ',i never make use of anybody to row me1 that has not either lost a leg or an arm4 ,i would rather bate him a few strokes of his oar than not employ an honest man that had been wounded in the ,queen's service4 ,if ,i was a lord or a bishop1 and kept a barge1 ,i would not put a fellow in my livery that had not a wooden leg4' ,such humor1 which finds its chief point in a desire to make the world kindlier1 must have appealed to the eighteenth century1 or ,the ,spectator could not have reached a circulation of ten thousand copies a day4 ,addison would not now have his legion of warm admirers if his humor had been personal1 like ,pope's1 or misanthropical1 like ,swift's4 ,of his style1 ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson says1 ,whoever wishes to attain an ,english style1 familiar but not coarse1 and elegant but not ostentatious1 must give his days and nights to the study of ,addison4 ,benjamin ,franklin1 as we know from his ,autobiography1 followed this advice with admirable results4 ,addison's style seems as natural and easy as the manners of a well-bred person4 ,when we have given some attention to dissecting his style1 we may indeed discover that a prose model for to-day should have more variety and energy and occasionally more precision2 but such a conclusion does not mean that any writer of this century would like the task of surpassing the ,de ,coverley ,papers4 ,,alexander ,,pope1 #afhh-agdd ,illustration3 ,,alexander ,,pope4 ,from the portrait by ,william ,hoare4 ,life4--,alexander ,pope was born in ,london in #afhh4 ,his father1 a devout ,catholic1 was a linen merchant1 who gave his son little formal schooling1 but allowed him to pick up his education by reading such authors as pleased his fancy4 ,he was a very precocious child4 ,at the age of twelve he was writing an ,ode on ,solitude4 ,he chose his vocation early1 for writing poetry was the business of his life4 ,in his childhood1 his parents removed from ,london to ,binfield1 a village in ,berkshire1 nine miles from ,windsor4 ,when he was nearly thirty years old1 his translation of the ,iliad enabled him to buy a house and grounds at ,twickenham on the ,thames1 about twelve miles above ,london4 ,he lived here for the rest of his life1 indulging his taste for landscape gardening and entertaining the greatest men of the age4 ,after early middle life1 his writings made him pecuniarily independent1 but he suffered much from ill health4 ,in his ,lives of the ,english ,poets1 ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson says of ,pope3-- ,by natural deformity1 or accidental distortion1 his vital functions were so much disordered that his life was a long disease444 ,when he rose1 he was invested in a bodice made of stiff canvas1 being scarce able to hold himself erect till they were laced1 and he then put on a flannel waistcoat4 ,one side was contracted4 ,his legs were so slender that he enlarged their bulk with three pair of stockings444 ,in all his intercourse with mankind1 he had great delight in artifice1 and endeavored to attain all his purposes by indirect and unsuspected methods4 ,he hardly drank tea without a stratagem4 ,the publication of his correspondence tangled him in a mesh of deceptions1 because his desire to appear in a favorable light led him to change letters that he had sent to friends4 ,his double-dealing1 intense jealousy1 and irritability1 due to his physical condition1 caused him to become involved in many quarrels1 which gave him the opportunity to indulge to the utmost his own satiric tendency4 ,in one of his late satires1 ,the ,epistle to ,dr4 ,arbuthnot1 he charged ,addison with the inclination to-- ,damn with faint praise1 assent with civil leer1 ,and without sneering1 teach the rest to sneer4 ,on the basis of what he wrote1 we may divide his life into three periods4 ,during his first thirty years1 he produced various kinds of verse1 like the ,essay on ,criticism and ,the ,rape of the ,lock4 ,the middle period of his life was marked by his translation of ,homer's ,iliad and ,odyssey4 ,in his third period1 he wrote moral and didactic poems1 like the ,essay on ,man1 and satires1 like the ,dunciad4 ,illustration3 ,,pope',s ,,villa ,,at ,,twickenham4 ,from an old print4 ,some ,poems of the ,first ,period3 ,essay on ,criticism and ,the ,rape of the ,lock4--,pope's first published poem1 ,the ,pastorals1 which appeared in #agji1 was followed in #agaa by ,an ,essay on ,criticism1--an exquisite setting of a number of gems of criticism which had for a long time been current4 ,pope's intention in writing this poem may be seen from what he himself says3 ,it seems not so much the perfection of sense to say things that have never been said before1 as to express those best that have been said oftenest4 ,from this point of view1 the poem is remarkable4 ,no other writer1 except ,shakespeare1 has in an equal number of lines said so many things which have passed into current quotation4 ,rare perfection in the form of statement accounts for this4 ,the poem abounds in such lines as these3-- ,for fools rush in where angels fear to tread4 ,to err is human1 to forgive divine4 ,all seems infected that th' infected spy1 ,as all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye4 ,in words1 as fashions1 the same rule will hold1 ,alike fantastic if too new or old3 ,be not the first by whom the new are tried1 ,nor yet the last to lay the old aside4 ,the ,rape of the ,lock1 which is ,pope's masterpiece1 is almost a romantic poem1 even though it is written in classical couplets4 ,it was a favorite with ,oliver ,goldsmith1 and ,james ,russell ,lowell rightly say says3 ,the whole poem more truly deserves the name of a creation than anything ,pope ever wrote4 ,the poem is a mock epic1 and it has the supernatural machinery which was supposed to be absolutely necessary for an epic4 ,in place of the gods and goddesses of the great epics1 however1 the fairy-like sylphs help to guide the action of this poem4 ,the poem1 which is founded on an actual incident1 describes a young lord's theft of a lock of hair from the head of a court beauty4 ,pope composed ,the ,rape of the ,lock to soothe her indignation and to effect a reconciliation4 ,the whole of this poem should be read by the student1 as it is a vivid satiric picture of fashionable life in ,queen ,anne's reign4 ,illustration3 ,,rape ,,of ,,the ,,lock4 ,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott4 ,translation of ,homer4--,pope's chief work during the middle period of his life was his translation of the ,iliad and of the ,odyssey of ,homer4 ,from a financial point of view1 these translations were the most successful of his labors4 ,they brought him in nearly #ijjj1 and made him independent of bookseller or of nobleman4 ,the remarkable success of these works is strange when we remember that ,pope's knowledge of ,greek was very imperfect1 and that he was obliged to consult translations before attempting any passage4 ,the ,greek scholar ,bentley1 a contemporary of ,pope1 delivered a just verdict on the translation3 ,a pretty poem1 ,mr4 ,pope1 but you must not call it ,homer4 ,the historian ,gibbon said that the poem had every merit except faithfulness to the original4 ,homer is simple and direct4 ,he abounds in concrete terms4 ,pope dislikes a simple term and loves a circumlocution and an abstraction4 ,we have the concrete herd of swine translated into a bristly care1 skins1 into furry spoils4 ,the concrete was considered common and undignified4 ,homer says in simple language3 ,his father wept with him1 but ,pope translates this3 ,the father poured a social flood4 ,pope used to translate thirty or forty verses of the ,iliad before rising1 and then to spend a considerable time in polishing them4 ,but half of the translation of the ,odyssey is his own work4 ,he employed assistants to finish the other half2 but it is by no means easy to distinguish his work from theirs4 ,illustration3 ,,alexander ,,pope4 ,from contemporary portrait4 ,some ,poems of his ,third ,period3 ,essay on ,man1 and ,satires4--,the ,essay on ,man is a philosophical poem with the avowed object of vindicating the ways of ,god to man4 ,the entire poem is an amplification of the idea contained in these lines3-- ,all nature is but art unknown to thee2 ,all chance1 direction which thou canst not see2 ,all discord1 harmony not understood2 ,all partial evil1 universal good4 ,and spite of pride1 in erring reason's spite1 ,one truth is clear1 ,whatever is1 is right4 ,the chief merit of the poem consists in throwing into polished form many of the views current at the time1 so that they may be easily understood4 ,before we read very far we come across such old acquaintances as-- ,the proper study of mankind is man4 ,an honest man's the noblest work of ,god4 ,vice is a monster of so frightful mien ,as1 to be hated1 needs but to be seen2 ,yet1 seen too oft1 familiar with her face1 ,we first endure1 then pity1 then embrace4 ,the ,epistle to ,dr4 ,arbuthnot and ,the ,dunciad are ,pope's greatest satires4 ,in ,the ,dunciad1 an epic of the dunces1 he holds up to ridicule every person and writer who had offended him4 ,these were in many cases scribblers who had no business with a pen2 but in a few instances they were the best scholars of that day4 ,a great deal of the poem is now very tiresome reading4 ,much of it is brutal4 ,pope was a powerful agent1 as ,thackeray says1 in rousing that obloquy which has ever since pursued a struggling author4 ,the ,dunciad could be more confidently consulted about contemporary literary history1 if ,pope had avoided such unnecessary misstatements as3-- ,earless on high1 stood unabash'd ,de ,foe4 ,this line is responsible for the current unwarranted belief that the author of ,robinson ,crusoe lost his ears in the pillory4 ,general ,characteristics4---,pope has not strong imagination1 a keen feeling for nature1 or wide sympathy with man4 ,leslie ,stephen says3 ,pope never crosses the undefinable1 but yet ineffaceable line1 which separates true poetry from rhetoric4 ,the debate in regard to whether ,pope's verse is ever genuine poetry may not yet be settled to the satisfaction of all2 but it is well to recognize the undoubted fact that his couplets still appeal to many readers who love clearness and precision and who are not inclined to wrestle with the hidden meaning of greater poetry4 ,one of his poems1 ,the ,rape of the ,lock1 has become almost a universal favorite because of its humor1 good-natured satire1 and entertaining pictures of society in ,queen ,anne's time4 ,he is the poet who best expresses the classical spirit of the eighteenth century4 ,he excels in satiric and didactic verse4 ,he expresses his ideas in perfect form1 and embodies them in classical couplets1 sometimes styled rocking-horse meter2 but he shows no power of fathoming the emotional depths of the soul4 ,in the history of literature1 he holds an important place1 because1 more than any other writer1 he calls attention to the importance of correctness of form and of careful expression4 ,he is the prince of artificial poets4 ,though he erred in exalting form above matter1 he taught his age the needed lesson of careful workmanship4 ,,summary ,the ,restoration and the first part of the eighteenth century display a low moral standard in both church and state4 ,this standard had its effect on literature4 ,the drama shows marked decline4 ,we find no such sublime outbursts of song as characterize the ,elizabethan and ,puritan ages4 ,the writers chose satiric or didactic subjects1 and avoided pathos1 deep feeling1 and sublimity4 ,french influence was paramount4 ,the classical school1 which loved polished regularity1 set the fashion in literature4 ,an old idea1 dressed in exquisite form1 was as welcome as a new one4 ,anything strange1 irregular1 romantic1 full of feeling1 highly imaginative1 or improbable to the intellect1 was unpopular4 ,even in ,gulliver's ,travels1 ,swift endeavored to be as realistic as if he were demonstrating a geometrical proposition4 ,dryden and ,pope are the two chief poets of the classical school4 ,both use the riming couplet and are distinguished for their satiric and didactic verse4 ,their poetry shows more intellectual brilliancy than imaginative power4 ,they display little sympathy with man and small love for nature4 ,the age is far more remarkable for its prose than for its poetry4 ,french influence helped to develop a concise1 flexible1 energetic prose style4 ,the deterioration in poetry was partly compensated for by the rapid advances in prose1 which needed the influences working toward artistic finish4 ,because of its cleverness1 avoidance of long sentences1 and of classical inversions1 ,dryden's prose is essentially modern4 ,defoe's ,robinson ,crusoe is the world's most popular story of adventure1 told in simple and direct1 but seemingly artless1 prose4 ,of all the prose writers since ,swift's time1 few have equaled him and still fewer surpassed him in simplicity1 flexibility1 directness1 and lack of affectation4 ,the essays of ,steele and ,addison constitute a landmark4 ,no preceding ,english prose shows so much grace of style1 delicate humor1 and power of awakening and retaining interest as do the ,sir ,roger de ,coverley ,papers4 ,the influence of this age was sufficient to raise permanently the standard level of artistic literary expression4 ,the unpruned1 shapeless1 and extravagant forms of earlier times will no longer be tolerated4 ,,suggestions ,,for ,,further ,,study ,,historical ,an account of the history of this period may be found in either ,gardiner1#c ,green1 ,walker1 or ,cheney4 ,vols4 ,,viii4 and ,,ix4 of the ,political ,history of ,england give the history in greater detail4 ,for the social side1 consult ,traill1 ,vols4 ,,iv4 and ,v41 and ,cheney's ,industrial and ,social ,history of ,england4 ,lecky's ,history of ,england in the ,eighteenth ,century is an excellent work4 ,,literary ,the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,vols4 ,,viii41 ,,ix41 ,x4 ,courthope's ,a ,history of ,english ,poetry1 ,vols4 ,,iii41 ,,iv41 and ,v4 ,stephen's ,english ,literature in the ,eighteenth ,century4 ,taine's ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,book ,,iii41 ,chaps4 ,i41 ,,ii41 ,,iii4 ,gosse's ,history of ,eighteenth ,century ,literature begins with #affj4 ,garnett's ,the ,age of ,dryden4 ,phillips's ,popular ,manual of ,english ,literature1 ,vol4 ,i4 ,minto's ,manual of ,english ,prose ,literature4 ,saintsbury's ,life of ,dryden4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,macaulay's ,essay on ,dryden4 ,lowell's ,essay on ,dryden in ,among ,my ,books4 ,dryden's ,essays on the ,drama1 edited by ,strunk4 ,fowler's ,life of ,locke4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,stephen's ,history of ,thought in the ,eighteenth ,century4 ,dennis's ,the ,age of ,pope4 ,thackeray's ,english ,humorists 7,swift1 ,addison1 ,steele1 ,pope74 ,stephen's ,life of ,swift4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,craik's ,life of ,swift4 ,courthope's ,life of ,addison4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,macaulay's ,essay on ,addison4 ,stephen's ,life of ,pope4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,de ,quincey's ,essay on ,pope1 and ,on the ,poetry of ,pope4 ,johnson's ,lives of the ,poets 7,dryden1 ,pope1 ,addison74 ,lowell's ,my ,study ,windows 7,pope74 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,dryden4--,from his lyrical verse1 read ,alexander's ,feast or ,a ,song for ,st4 ,cecilia's ,day4 ,the opening lines of ,religio ,laici or of ,the ,hind and the ,panther will serve as a specimen of his argumentative or didactic verse and ,absalom and ,achitophel for his satire4 7,cassell's ,national ,library1 #ae cents47 ,selections are given in ,ward1#d ,,ii41 #ded-dhc2 ,bronson1 ,,iii41 #bj-eh2 ,manly1 ,i41 #bjc-bji2 ,oxford ,treasury1 ,,iii41 #ii-aaj2 ,century1 #bff-bhe4 ,for his critical prose1 read ,an ,essay of ,dramatic ,poesy 7,strunk's edition of ,dryden's ,essays on the ,drama74 ,for selections see ,craik1 ,,iii41 #adh-aed2 ,manly1 ,,ii41 #adf-afc2 ,century1 #bgf-bhe4 ,what is the chief subject matter of ,dryden's verse8 ,point out typical qualities in his argumentative and satiric verse4 ,give definite instances of his power in argument and satire4 ,why is his prose called modern8 ,point out some of its qualities4 ,defoe4--,read or reread ,robinson ,crusoe and point out where he specially shows the skill of the journalist in the presentation of his facts4 ,can you select passages that show the justice of the criticism8 ,how would the interest in the story have been affected1 had ,defoe1 like the author of ,swiss ,family ,robinson1 caused the shipwreck to occur on an island where tropical fruits would have rendered unnecessary ,crusoe's labor to secure food8 ,swift4--,caik's ,english ,prose ,selections1 ,vol4 ,,iii41 pp4 #cia-dbd1 contains representative selections from ,swift's prose4 ,the best of these are ,the ,philosophy of ,clothes1 from ,a ,tale of a ,tub 7,craik1 ,,iii41 #cih72 ,a ,digression concerning ,critics1 from the same 7,craik1 ,,iii41 #djj72 ,the ,emperor of ,lilliput 7,craik1 ,,iii41 #dag7 and ,the ,king of ,brobdingnag 7,craik1 ,,iii41 #dai71 from ,gulliver's ,travels4 ,selections may be found also in ,manly1 ,,ii41 #ahd-aih2 ,oxford ,treasury1 ,,iii41 #abe-abi2 ,century1 #bii-cbc4 ,is ,swift's a good prose style8 ,does he use ornament8 ,can you find a passage where he strives after effect8 ,in what respects do the subjects which he chooses and his manner of treating them show the spirit of the age8 ,why is ,gulliver's ,travels so popular8 ,what are the most important lessons which a young writer may learn from ,swift8 ,in what is he specially lacking8 ,addison and ,steele4--,from the ,sir ,roger de ,coverley ,papers the student should not fail to read ,spectator ,no4 #aab1 ,a ,country ,sunday4 ,he may then read ,spectator ,no4 #b1 by ,steele1 which sketches the ,de ,coverley characters1 and compare the style and characteristics of the two authors4 ,the student who has the time at this point should read all the ,de ,coverley ,papers 7,eclectic ,english ,classics1 ,american ,book ,company74 ,good selections from both ,addison and ,steele may be found in ,craik1 ,,iii41 #dfi-ece2 ,manly1 ,,ii41 #aih-baf2 ,century1 #cbd-cdi4 ,in what did ,addison and ,steele excel8 ,what qualities draw so many readers to the ,de ,coverley ,papers8 ,why may they be called a prelude to the modern novel8 ,select passages which will serve to bring into sharp contrast the style and humor of ,swift and of ,addison4 ,pope4--,read ,the ,rape of the ,lock 7printed with the ,essay on ,man in ,eclectic ,english ,classics1 ,american ,book ,company1 #bj cents74 ,selections from this are given in ,ward1 ,,iii41 #gc-hb4 ,the ,essay on ,man1 ,book ,i4 7,ward1 ,,iii41 #he-ia71 will serve as a specimen of his didactic verse4 ,the ,epistle to ,dr4 ,arbuthnot 7,ward1 ,,iii41 #ajc-aje7 will illustrate his satire1 and the lines from the ,iliad in ,ward1 ,,iii41 #hb1 will show the characteristics of his translation4 ,the ,rape of the ,lock and full selections are given in ,bronson1 ,,iii41 #hi-add2 ,century1 #cej-cfh2 ,manly1 ,i41 #bbh-bec4 ,how does ,pope show the spirit of the classical school8 ,what are his special merits and defects8 ,does an examination of his poetry convince you that ,leslie ,stephen's criticism is right8 ,select lines from six great poets of different periods4 ,place beside these selections some of ,pope's best lines1 and see if you have a clearer idea of the difference between rhetoric and true poetry4 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,,vi3 ,footnote #a3 ,essay on ,criticism1 lines #big1 #bih4 ,footnote #b3 ,for a list of the chief dramatists of the ,restoration and their best work1 see p4 #fbf4 ,footnote #c3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #ej4 ,footnote #d3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #f4 ,,chapter ,,vii3 ,,the ,,second ,,forty ,,years ,,of ,,the ,,eighteenth ,,century1 #agdj-aghj ,the ,colonial ,expansion of ,england4--,the most important movements in ,english history during the second forty years of the eighteenth century are connected with colonial expansion4 ,in #agci friction between ,england and ,spain over colonial trade forced ,robert ,walpole1 the prime minister1 into a war which was not successfully prosecuted1 and which compelled him to resign in #agdb4 ,the humorous statement that he abdicated1 contains a large element of truth1 for he had been a much more important ruler than the king4 ,the contest with ,spain was merged in the unprofitable war of the ,austrian ,succession 7#agdj-aggh71 in which ,england participated4 ,the successors of ,walpole were weak and inefficient2 but in #ageg ,william ,pitt1 the ,elder 7#agjh-aggh71 although merely secretary of state1 obtained the ascendancy in the government4 ,walpole had tried in vain to bribe ,pitt1 who was in politics the counterpart of ,wesley in religious life4 ,pitt appealed to the patriotism and to the sense of honor of his countrymen1 and his appeal was heard4 ,his enthusiasm and integrity1 coupled with good judgment of men1 enabled him to lead ,england to become the foremost power of the world4 ,france had managed her colonial affairs in ,america and in ,india so well that it seemed as if she might in both places displace ,england4 ,pitt1 however1 selected good leaders and planned a comprehensive method of warfare against ,france1 both in ,europe and in the colonies4 ,between #agej and #agfj ,clive was making ,great ,britain mistress of the vast empire of ,india4 ,the ,french and ,indian ,war 7#aged-agfj7 in ,america resulted in favor of ,england4 ,in #agei ,wolfe shattered the power of ,france in ,canada1 which has since remained an ,english colony4 ,england was expanding to the eastward and the westward and taking her literature with her4 ,as ,wolfe advanced on ,quebec1 he was reading ,gray's ,elegy4 ,at the beginning of this century ,england owned one half of the island of ,great ,britain and a few colonial settlements4 ,not until #agjg were ,england and ,scotland united4 ,in #agfc ,england had vast dominions in ,north ,america and ,india4 ,she had become the greatest colonial power in the world4 ,the ,new ,religious ,influence4--,england could not have taken such a commanding position unless the patriotism and morals of her citizens had improved since the beginning of the century4 ,the church had become too lukewarm and respectable to bring in the masses1 who saw more to attract them in taverns and places of public amusement4 ,when religious influence was at the lowest ebb1 two eloquent preachers1 ,john ,wesley and ,george ,whitefield1 started a movement which is still gathering force4 ,wesley did not ask his audience to listen to a sermon on the favorite bloodless abstractions of the eighteenth-century pulpit1 such as ,charity1 ,faith1 ,duty1 ,holiness1 --abstractions which never moved a human being an inch heavenward4 ,his sermons were emotional4 ,they dealt largely with the emotion of love1--,god's love for man4 ,he did not ask his listeners to engage in intellectual disquisitions about the aspects of infinity3 ,he did not preach free-will metaphysics or trouble his hearers with a satisfactory philosophical account of the origin of evil4 ,he spoke about things that reached not only the understanding but also the feelings of plain men4 ,about the same time1 ,whitefield was preaching to the miners near ,bristol4 ,as he eloquently told them the story of salvation he brought tears to the eyes of these rude men and made many resolve to lead better lives4 ,this religious awakening may have been accompanied with too much appeal to the feelings and unhealthy emotional excitement2 but some vigorous movement was absolutely necessary to quicken the spiritual life of a decadent age4 ,the ,american ,revolution4--,the second forty years of the eighteenth century witnessed another movement of great importance to the world1--the revolt of the ,american colonies 7#agge74 ,when ,george ,,iii4 7#agfj-ahbj7 came to the throne1 he determined to be the real ruler of his kingdom1--to combine in himself the offices of king1 prime minister1 and cabinet4 ,he undertook to coerce public opinion at home and abroad4 ,he repeatedly offended the ,american colonies by attempts to tax them and to regulate their trade4 ,they rebelled in #agge and signed their ,declaration of ,independence in #aggf4 ,under the leadership of ,george ,washington1 and with the help of ,france1 they achieved their independence4 ,the battle of ,yorktown 7#agha71 won by ,washington and the ,french navy1 was the last important battle of the ,american ,revolution4 ,in spite of her great loss1 ,england still retained ,canada and her ,west ,india possessions and remained the first colonial power4 ,,change ,,in ,,literary ,,standards3 ,,romanticism ,what is ,romanticism8--,in order to comprehend the dominating spirit of the next age1 it is important to understand the meaning of the romantic movement4 ,between #agdj and #aghj certain romantic influences were at work in opposition to the teaching of the great classical writer1 ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson1 who was almost the literary dictator of the age4 ,the best short definition of romanticism is that of ,victor ,hugo1 who calls it liberalism in literature4 ,this has the merit of covering all kinds of romantic movements4 ,liberalism here means toleration of departures from fixed standards1 such as the classical couplet and didactic and satiric subjects4 ,romanticism is characterized by less regard for form than for matter1 by a return to nature1 and by encouragement of deep emotion4 ,romanticism says3 ,be liberal enough not to sneer at authors when they discard narrow rules4 ,welcome a change and see if variety and feeling will not add more interest to literature4 ,in this period and the far more glorious one that followed1 romanticism made its influence felt for the better in four different ways4 ,an understanding of each of these will make us more intelligent critics4 ,in the first place1 the romantic spirit is opposed to the prosaic4 ,the romantic yearns for the light that never was on sea or land and longs to attain the unfulfilled ambitions of the soul1 even when these in full measure are not possible4 ,sometimes these ambitions are so unrelated to the possible that the romantic has in certain usage become synonymous with the impractical or the absurd2 but this is not its meaning in literature4 ,the romantic may not always be of imagination all compact1 but it has a tendency in that direction4 ,to the romanticists a reality of the imagination is as satisfying as a reality of the prosaic reason2 hence1 unlike the classicists1 the romanticists can enjoy ,the ,tempest and ,a ,midsummer ,night's ,dream4 ,the imagination is the only power that can grasp the unseen4 ,any movements that stimulate imaginative activity must give the individual more points of contact with the part of the world that does not obtrude itself on the physical senses1 and especially with many facts of existence that cold intellectual activity can never comprehend4 ,hence1 romanticism leads to greater breadth of view4 ,in the second place1 the romantic is the opposite of the hackneyed4 ,hence1 too much repetition may take away a necessary quality from what was once considered romantic4 ,the epithets ivory and raven1 when applied to brow and to tresses1 respectively1 were at first romantic2 but much repetition has deprived them of this quality4 ,if an age is to be considered romantic1 it must look at things from a point of view somewhat different from that of the age immediately preceding4 ,this change may be either in the character of the thought or in the manner of its presentation1 or in both4 ,an example of the formal element of change which appeared1 consists in the substitution of blank verse and the ,spenserian stanza for the classical couplets of the ,french school4 ,in the next age1 we shall find that the subject matter is no longer chiefly of the satiric or the didactic type4 ,in the third place1 the highest type of romanticism encourages each author to express himself in an individual way1 to color the world according to his own moods4 ,this individual element often appears in the ideals that we fashion and in our characteristic conceptions of the spiritual significance of the world and its deepest realities4 ,two writers of this period by investing nature with a spirit of melancholy illustrate one of the many ways in which romantic thought seeks individuality of expression4 ,in the fourth place1 the romantic movement encouraged the portrayal of broader experiences and especially the expression of deeper feeling4 ,the mid-eighteenth century novels of ,richardson and ,fielding were strong agencies in this direction2 and they were followed in the next age by the even more intense appeal of the great romantic poets to those thoughts and feelings that lie too deep for tears4 ,the classic school shunned as vulgar all exhibitions of enthusiasm and strong emotion1 such as the love of ,juliet and the jealousy of ,othello2 but the romanticists1 knowing that the feelings had as much value and power as the intellect1 encouraged their expression4 ,sometimes this tendency was carried to an extreme1 both in fiction and in the sentimental drama2 but it was necessary for romanticism to call attention to the fact that great literature cannot neglect the world of feeling4 ,early ,romantic ,influences4--,the reader and imitators of the great romantic poet1 ,edmund ,spenser1 were growing in number4 ,previous to #agej1 there was only one eighteenth-century edition of ,spenser's works published in ,england4 ,in #ageh three editions of the ,faerie ,queene appeared and charmed readers with the romantic enchantment of bowers1 streams1 dark forests1 and adventures of heroic knights4 ,james ,thomson 7#agjj-agdh71 a ,scotch poet1 used the characteristic ,spenserian form and subject matter for his romantic poem1 ,the ,castle of ,indolence 7#agdh74 ,he placed his castle in ,spenser land3-- ,a pleasing land of drowsy-head it was1 ,of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye2 ,and of gay castles in the clouds that pass1 ,forever flushing round a summer sky4 ,the influence of ,shakespeare increased4 ,in #agda the great actor ,david ,garrick captivated ,london by his presentation of ,shakespeare's plays4 ,milton's poetry1 especially his ,il ,penseroso1 with its individual expression of melancholy1 its studious spirit1 commercing with the skies and bringing all ,heaven before the eyes1 left a strong impress on the romantic spirit of the age4 ,the subject matter of his ,paradise ,lost satisfied the romantic requirement for strangeness and strong feeling4 ,in the form of his verse1 ,james ,thomson shows the influence of ,milton as well as of ,spencer4 ,thomson's greatest achievement is ,the ,seasons 7#agcj71 a romantic poem1 written in ,miltonic blank verse4 ,he takes us where-- ,the hawthorn whitens2 and the juicy groves ,put forth their buds4 ,he was one of the earliest poets to place ,nature in the foreground1 to make her the chief actor4 ,he reverses what had been the usual poetic attitude and makes his lovers1 shepherds1 and harvesters serve largely as a background for the reflection of her moods instead of their own4 ,the spring shower1 the gusts sweeping over fields of corn1 the sky saddened with the gathering storm of snow1 are the very fabric of his verse4 ,unlike ,wordsworth1 ,thomson had not sufficient genius to invest ,nature with an intelligent1 loving1 companionable soul2 but his pictures of her were sufficiently novel and attractive to cause such a classicist and lover of the town as ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson to say3-- ,the reader of ,the ,seasons wonders that he never saw before what ,thomson shows him1 and that he never yet has felt what ,thomson impresses4 ,ossian and ,the ,castle of ,otranto4--,two contemporary works proved a romantic influence out of all proportion to the worth of their subject matter4 ,between #agfj and #agfd ,james ,macpherson1 a ,highland schoolmaster1 published a series of poems1 which he claimed to have translated from an old manuscript1 the work of ,ossian1 a ,gaelic poet of the third century4 ,this so-called translation in prose may have been forged either in whole or in part2 but the weirdness1 strange imagery1 melancholy1 and other-world talk of ghosts riding on the tempest at nightfall1 had a pronounced effect on romantic literature4 ,illustration3 ,,horace ,,walpole4 ,the ,castle of ,otranto3 ,a ,gothic ,romance 7#agfe7 by ,horace ,walpole 7#agag-agig7 tells a story of a ,gothic castle where mysterious labyrinths and trap doors lead to the strangest adventures4 ,the term ,gothic had been contemptuously applied to whatever was medieval or out of date1 whether in architecture1 literature1 or any form of art4 ,the unusual improbabilities of this ,gothic romance were welcomed by readers weary of commonplace works where nothing ever happens4 ,the influence of ,the ,castle of ,otranto was even felt across the ,atlantic1 by ,charles ,brockden ,brown 7#agga-ahaj71 the early ,american novelist4 ,some less pronounced traces of such influence are discernible also in the work of ,edgar ,allan ,poe and ,nathaniel ,hawthorne4 ,mrs4 ,anne ,radcliffe 7#agfd-ahbc7 was a successor of ,walpole in the field of ,gothic romance4 ,her stories1 ,the ,romance of the ,forest and ,the ,mysteries of ,udolpho1 have their castle and their thrilling1 unnatural episodes4 ,lack of portrayal of character and excess of supernatural incident were causing fiction to suffer severe deterioration4 ,percy's ,reliques and ,translation of ,mallet's ,northern ,antiquities4--,in #agfe ,thomas ,percy 7#agbi-ahaa7 published ,the ,reliques of ,ancient ,english ,poetry1 an epoch-making work in the history of the romantic movement4 ,the ,reliques is a collection of old ,english ballads and songs1 many of which have a romantic story to tell4 ,scott drew inspiration from them1 and ,wordsworth acknowledged his indebtedness to their influence4 ,so important was this collection that it has been called the ,bible of the ,romantic ,reformation4 ,in #aggj appeared ,percy's translation of ,mallet's ,northern ,antiquities4 ,for the first time the ,english world was given an easily accessible volume which disclosed the ,norse mythology in all its strength and weirdness4 ,as classical mythology had become hackneyed1 poets like ,gray rejoiced that there was a new fountain to which they could turn4 ,thor and his invincible hammer1 the ,frost ,giants1 ,bifrost or the ,rainbow ,bridge1 ,odin1 the ,valkyries1 ,valhal1 the sad story of ,baldur1 and the ,twilight of the ,gods1 have appealed strongly to a race which takes pride in its own mythology1 to a race which today loves to hear ,wagner's translation of these myths into the music of ,die ,walkre1 ,siegfried1 and ,gtterdmmerung4 ,thomas ,chatterton1 #aggb-aggj4--,this ,bristol boy was early in his teens impressed with ,percy's ,reliques and with the fact that ,macpherson's claim to having discovered ,ossian in old manuscripts had made him famous4 ,chatterton spent much time in the interesting old church of ,st4 ,mary ,redcliffe1 of which his ancestors had been sextons for several generations4 ,he studied the manuscripts in an old chest and began to write a series of poems1 which he claimed to have discovered among the parchments left by ,thomas ,rowley1 a fifteenth-century monk4 ,chatterton was unsuccessful in finding a publisher1 and he determined to go to ,london1 where he thought that1 like other authors1 he could live by his pen4 ,in ,april1 #aggj1 at the age of seventeen1 he left ,bristol for ,london1 where he took poison in ,august of the same year to escape a slower death by starvation4 ,his romantic poetry and pathetic end appealed to all the great poets4 ,wordsworth spoke of him as the marvelous boy2 ,coleridge called him young-eyed ,poesy2 ,shelley honored him in ,adonais2 and ,keats inscribed ,endymion to his memory4 ,traces of his influence may be found in ,coleridge and ,keats4 ,the greatest charm of ,chatterton's verse appears in unusual epithets and unexpected poetic turns1 such1 for instance1 as may be noted in these lines from his best ,rowley poem1 ,aella1 a ,tragycal ,enterlude3-- ,sweet his tongue as the throstle's note2 ,quick in dance as thought can be4 ,hark6 the raven flaps his wing ,in the briar'd dell below2 ,hark6 the death-owl loud doth sing1 ,to the night-mares as they go4 ,while ,chatterton did not leave enough verse of surpassing merit to rank him as a great poet1 his work nevertheless entitles him to be chosen from among all his boyish peers to receive the laurel wreath for song4 ,the ,literature of ,melancholy4--,the choice of subjects in which the emotion of melancholy was given full sway shows one direction taken by the romantic movement4 ,here1 the influence of ,milton's ,il ,penseroso can often be traced4 ,the exquisite ,ode to ,evening1 by ,william ,collins 7#agba-agei71 shows the love for nature's solitudes where this emotion may be nursed4 ,lines like these3-- 444be mine the hut1 ,that1 from the mountain's side1 ,views wilds and swelling floods1 ,and hamlets brown1 and dim-discovered spires2 ,and hears their simple bell2 and marks o'er all ,thy dewy fingers draw ,the gradual dusky veil1 caused ,swinburne to say3 ,corot on canvas might have signed his ,ode to ,evening4 ,illustration3 ,,thomas ,,gray4 ,the high-water mark of the poetry of melancholy of this period was reached in ,thomas ,gray's 7#agaf-agga7 ,elegy ,written in a ,country ,churchyard 7#agea74 ,the poet with great art selected those natural phenomena which cast additional gloom upon the scene4 ,we may notice in the very first stanza that the images were chosen with this end in view3-- ,the curfew tolls the knell of parting day1 ,the lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea1 ,the plowman homeward plods his weary way1 ,and leaves the world to darkness and to me ,then we listen to the droning flight of the beetle1 to the drowsy tinklings from a distant fold1 to the moping owl in an ivy-mantled tower4 ,each natural object1 either directly or by contrast1 reflects the mind of man4 ,nature serves as a background for the display of emotion4 ,gosse says in his ,life of ,gray3 ,the ,elegy has exercised an influence on all the poetry of ,europe1 from ,denmark to ,italy1 from ,france to ,russia4 ,with the exception of certain works of ,byron and ,shakespeare1 no ,english poem has been so widely admired and imitated abroad4 ,illustration3 ,,stoke ,,poges ,,churchyard 7,,scene ,,of ,,gray',s ,,elegy74 ,the ,conflict between ,romanticism and ,classicism4--,the influences of this period were not entirely in the direction of romanticism4 ,samuel ,johnson1 the literary dictator of the age1 was unsparing in his condemnation of the movement4 ,the weight of his opinion kept many romantic tendencies in check4 ,even authors like ,gray were afraid to adopt the new creed in its entirety4 ,in one stanza of his ,hymn to ,adversity we find four capitalized abstractions1 after the manner of the classical school3 ,folly1 ,noise1 ,laughter1 ,prosperity2 and the following two lay figures1 little better than abstractions3-- ,the summer ,friend1 the flattering ,foe4 ,these abstractions have little warmth or human interest4 ,after ,gray had studied the ,norse mythology1 we find him using such strong expressions as iron-sleet of arrowy shower4 ,collins's ode on ,the ,passions contains seventeen personified abstractions1 from pale ,melancholy to brown ,exercise4 ,the conflict between these two schools continues2 and many people still think that any poetry which shows polished regularity must be excellent4 ,to prove this statement1 we have only to turn to the magazines and glance at the current poetry1 which often consists of words rather artificially strung together without the soul of feeling or of thought4 ,,the ,,development ,,of ,,the ,,modern ,,novel ,the ,growth of ,prose ,fiction4--,authentic history does not take us back to the time when human beings were not solaced by tales4 ,the ,bible contains stories of marked interest4 ,beowulf1 the medieval romances1 the ,canterbury ,tales1 and the ballads relate stories in verse4 ,for a long time the knight and his adventures held the place of honor in fiction2 but the time came when improbable or impossible achievements began to pall4 ,the knight who meets with all kinds of adventures and rescues everybody1 is admirably burlesqued in ,don ,quixote by the ,spanish author ,cervantes1 which appeared at the beginning of the seventeenth century4 ,this world-famous romance shows by its ridicule that the taste for the impossible adventures of chivalry was beginning to pall4 ,the following title to one of the chapters of ,don ,quixote is sufficiently suggestive3 ,chapter ,,lviii4--,which tells how ,adventures came crowding on ,don ,quixote in ,such ,numbers that they gave him ,no ,breathing ,time4 ,much prose fiction was written during the ,elizabethan ,age4 ,we have seen that ,lyly's ,euphues and ,sidney's ,arcadia contain the germs of romance4 ,two of the novelists of the sixteenth century1 ,robert ,greene 7#aefj8-aeib7 and ,thomas ,lodge 7#aeeh8-afbe71 helped to give to ,shakespeare the plots of two of his plays4 ,greene's novel ,pandosto suggested the plot of ,the ,winter's ,tale1 and ,lodge's ,rosalind was the immediate source of the plot of ,as ,you ,like ,it4 ,although ,greene died in want at the age of thirty-two1 he was the most prolific of the ,elizabethan novelists4 ,his most popular stories deal with the passion of love as well as with adventure4 ,he was also the pioneer of those realistic novelists who go among the slums to study life at first hand4 ,greene made a careful study of the sharpers and rascals of ,london and published his observations in a series of realistic pamphlets4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,blind ,,beggar ,,robbed ,,of ,,his ,,drink4 ,from a ,british ,museum ,,ms4 ,thomas ,nashe 7#aefg-afja7 was the one who introduced into ,england the picaresque novel in ,the ,unfortunate ,traveller1 or the ,life of ,jacke ,wilton 7#aeid74 ,the picaresque novel 7,spanish1 picaro1 a rogue7 is a story of adventure in which rascally tricks play a prominent part4 ,this type of fiction came from ,spain and attained great popularity in ,england4 ,jacke ,wilton is page to a noble house4 ,many of his sharp tricks were doubtless drawn from real life4 ,nashe is a worthy predecessor of ,defoe in narrating adventures that seem to be founded on actual life4 ,in spite of an increasing tendency to picture the life of the time1 ,elizabethan prose fiction did not entirely discard the matter and style of the medieval romances4 ,all types of prose fiction were then too prone to deal with exceptional characters or unusual events4 ,even realists like ,greene did not present typical ,elizabethan life4 ,the greatest realist in the prose fiction of the ,elizabethan ,age was ,thomas ,deloney 7#aedc8-afjj71 who chose his materials from the everyday life of common people4 ,he had been a traveling artisan1 and he knew how to paint the life and love of the ,elizabethan workshop4 ,he wrote ,the ,gentle ,craft1 a collection of tales about shoemakers1 and ,jack of ,newberry1 a story of a weaver4 ,the seventeenth century produced ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 a powerful allegorical story of the journey of a soul toward the ,new ,jerusalem4 ,mrs4 ,aphra ,behn 7#afdj-afhi71 dramatist and novelist1 shows the faults of the ,restoration drama in her short tales1 which helped to prepare the way for the novelists of the next century4 ,her best story is ,oroonoko 7#afeh71 a tale of an ,african slave1 which has been called the first humanitarian novel in ,english1 and a predecessor of ,uncle ,tom's ,cabin4 ,fiction in the ,first ,part of the ,eighteenth ,century4--,defoe's ,robinson ,crusoe shows a great advance over preceding fiction4 ,in the hands of ,defoe1 fiction became as natural as fact4 ,leslie ,stephen rightly calls his stories simple history minus the facts4 ,swift's ,gulliver's ,travels 7#agbf7 is artfully planned to make its impossibilities seem like facts4 ,robinson ,crusoe took another forward step in showing how circumstances and environment react on character and develop the power to grapple with difficulties and overcome them4 ,unlike the majority of modern novels1 ,defoe's masterpiece does not contain a love story4 ,the essay of life and manners at the beginning of the eighteenth century presents us at once with various pigments necessary for the palette of the novelist4 ,students on turning to the second number of ,the ,spectator will find sketches of six different types of character1 which are worthy to be framed and hung in a permanent gallery of ,english fiction4 ,the portrait of ,sir ,roger de ,coverley may even claim one of the places of honor on the walls4 ,distinction between the ,romance and the ,modern ,novel4--,the romances and tales of adventure which had been so long in vogue differ widely from the modern novel4 ,many of them pay but little attention to probability2 but those which do not offend in this respect generally rely on a succession of stirring incidents to secure attention4 ,novels showing the analytic skill of ,thackeray's ,vanity ,fair1 or the development of character in ,george ,eliot's ,silas ,marner would have been little read in competition with stirring tales of adventure1 if such novels had appeared before a taste for them had been developed by habits of trained observation and thought4 ,we may broadly differentiate the romance from the modern novel by saying that the romance deals primarily with incident and adventure for their own sake1 while the novel concerns itself with these only in so far as they are necessary for a faithful picture of life or for showing the development of character4 ,again1 the novel gave a much more prominent position to that important class of human beings who do the most of the world's work1--a type that the romance had been inclined to neglect4 ,illustration3 ,,samuel ,,richardson4 ,from an original drawing4 ,samuel ,richardson1 the ,first ,modern ,english ,novelist4--,samuel ,richardson 7#afhi-agfa7 was born in ,derbyshire4 ,when he was only thirteen years old some of the young women of the neighborhood unconsciously began to train him for a novelist by employing him to conduct their love correspondence4 ,this training partly accounts for the fact that every one of his novels is merely a collection of letters1 written by the chief characters to each other and to their friends1 to narrate the progress of events4 ,at the age of fifteen ,richardson went to ,london and learned the printer's trade1 which he followed for the rest of his life4 ,when he was about fifty years old1 some publishers asked him to prepare a letter writer which would be useful to country people and to others who could not express themselves with a pen4 ,the idea occurred to him of making these letters tell a connected story4 ,the result was the first modern novel1 ,pamela1 published in four volumes in #agdj4 ,this was followed by ,clarissa ,harlowe1 in seven volumes1 in #agdg-dh1 and this by ,sir ,charles ,grandison1 in seven volumes1 in #agec4 ,the affairs in the lives of the leading characters are so minutely dissected1 the plot is evolved so slowly and in a way so unlike the astonishing bounds of the old romance1 that one is tempted to say that ,richardson's novels progress mere slowly than events in life4 ,one secret of his success depends on the fact that we feel that he is deeply interested in all his characters4 ,he is as much interested in the heroine of his masterpiece1 ,clarissa ,harlowe1 as if she were his own daughter4 ,he has the remarkable power of so thoroughly identifying himself with his characters that1 after we are introduced to them1 we can name them when we hear selections read from their letters4 ,the length and slow development of his novels repel modern readers1 but there was so little genuinely interesting matter in the middle of the eighteenth century that many were sorry his novels were no longer4 ,the novelty of productions of this type also added to their interest4 ,his many faults are largely those of his age4 ,he wearies his readers with his didactic aims4 ,he is narrow and prosy4 ,he poses as a great moralist1 but he teaches the morality of direct utility4 ,the drama and the romance had helped to prepare the way for the novel of everyday domestic life4 ,while this way seemed simple1 natural1 and inevitable1 ,richardson was the first to travel in it4 ,defoe had invested fictitious adventure with reality4 ,richardson transferred the real human life around him to the pages of fiction4 ,the ascendancy of ,french influence was noteworthy for a considerable period after the ,restoration4 ,england could now repay some of her debt4 ,richardson exerted powerful influence on the literature of ,france as well as on that of other continental nations4 ,illustration3 ,,henry ,,fielding4 ,from the original sketch by ,hogarth4 ,henry ,fielding1 #agjg-aged4--,the greatest novelist of the eighteenth century1 and one of the greatest that ,england ever produced1 was ,henry ,fielding1 who was born in ,sharpham ,park1 ,somersetshire4 ,after graduating at the ,university of ,leyden1 he became a playwright1 a lawyer1 a judge of a police court1 and1 most important of all1 a novelist1 or a historian of society1 as he preferred to style himself4 ,when ,richardson's ,pamela appeared1 ,fielding determined to write a story caricaturing its morality and sentiment1 which he considered hypocritical4 ,before he had gone very far he discovered where his abilities lay1 and1 abandoning his narrow1 satiric aims1 he wrote ,joseph ,andrews 7#agdb71 a novel far more interesting than ,pamela4 ,jonathan ,wild the ,great 7#agdc7 tells the story of a rogue who was finally hanged4 ,in #agdi appeared ,fielding's masterpiece1 ,tom ,jones1 and in #agea his last novel1 ,amelia4 ,richardson lacks humor1 but ,fielding is one of the greatest humorists of the eighteenth century4 ,fielding is also a master of plot4 ,from all literature1 ,coleridge selected1 for perfection of plot1 ,the ,alchemist1 ,oedipus ,tyrannus1 and ,tom ,jones4 ,fielding's novels often lack refinement1 but they palpitate with life4 ,his pages present a wonderful variety of characters1 chosen from almost all walks of life4 ,he could draw admirable portraits of women4 ,thackeray says of ,amelia1 the heroine of the novel that bears her name3-- ,to have invented that character1 is not only a triumph of art1 but it is a good action4 ,they say it was in his own home that ,fielding knew her and loved her1 and from his own wife that he drew the most charming character in ,english fiction444 ,i admire the author of ,amelia1 and thank the kind master who introduced me to that sweet and delightful companion and friend4 ,amelia1 perhaps1 is not a better story than ,tom ,jones1 but it has the better ethics2 the prodigal repents at least before forgiveness1--whereas that odious broad-backed ,mr4 ,jones carries off his beauty with scarce an interval of remorse for his manifold errors and shortcomings444 ,i am angry with ,jones4 ,too much of the plum cake and rewards of life fall to that boisterous1 swaggering young scapegrace4#a ,the prodigal to whom ,thackeray refers is ,captain ,booth1 the husband of ,amelia1 and ,mr4 ,jones is the hero of ,tom ,jones4 ,fielding's wife1 under the name of ,sophia ,western1 is also the heroine of ,tom ,jones4 ,it is probable that in the characters of ,captain ,booth and ,tom ,jones1 ,fielding drew a partial portrait of himself4 ,he seems1 however1 to have changed in middle life1 for his biographer1 ,austin ,dobson1 says of him3 ,he was a loving father and a kind husband2 he exerted his last energies in philanthropy and benevolence2 he expended his last ink in defence of ,christianity4 ,fielding shows the eighteenth-century love of satire4 ,he hates that hypocrisy which tries to conceal itself under a mask of morality4 ,in the evolution of the plots of his novels1 he invariably puts such characters in positions that tear away their mask4 ,he displays almost savage pleasure in making them ridiculous4 ,perhaps the lack of spirituality of the age finds the most ample expression in his pages2 but ,chaucer's ,parish ,priest and ,fielding's ,parson ,adams are typical of those persisting moral forces that have bequeathed a heritage of power to ,england4 ,illustration3 ,,laurence ,,sterne4 ,illustration3 ,,uncle ,,toby ,,and ,,corporal ,,trim4 ,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott4 ,illustration3 ,,tobias ,,smollett4 ,sterne and ,smollett4--,with ,richardson and ,fielding it is customary to associate two other mid-eighteenth century novelists1 ,lawrence ,sterne 7#agac-agfh7 and ,tobias ,smollett 7#agba-agga74 ,between #agei and #agfg ,sterne wrote his first novel1 ,the ,life and ,opinions of ,tristram ,shandy1 ,gentleman1 which presents the delightfully comic and eccentric members of the ,shandy family1 among whom ,uncle ,toby is the masterpiece4 ,in #agfh ,sterne gave to the world that compound of fiction1 essays1 and sketches of travel known as ,a ,sentimental ,journey through ,france and ,italy4 ,the adjective sentimental in the title should be specially noted1 for it defines ,sterne's attitude toward everything in life4 ,he is habitually sentimental in treating not only those things fitted to awaken deep emotion1 but also those trivial incidents which ordinarily cause scarcely a ripple of feeling4 ,although he is sometimes a master of pathos1 he frequently gives an exhibition of weak and forced sentimentalism4 ,he more uniformly excels in subtle humor1 which is his next most conspicuous characteristic4 ,roderick ,random 7#agdh71 ,peregrine ,pickle 7#agea71 and ,the ,expedition of ,humphrey ,clinker 7#agga7 are ,smollett's best novels4 ,they are composed mainly of a succession of stirring or humorous incidents4 ,in relying for interest more on adventure than on the drawing of character1 he reverts to the picaresque type of story4 ,the ,relation of ,richardson1 ,fielding1 ,sterne1 and ,smollett to ,subsequent ,fiction4--,although the modern reader frequently complains that these older novelists often seem heavy1 slow in movement1 unrefined1 and too ready to draw a moral or preach a sermon1 yet these four men hold an important place in the history of fiction4 ,with varying degrees of excellence1 ,richardson1 ,fielding1 and ,sterne all have the rare power of portraying character from within1 of interpreting real life4 ,some novelists resort to the far easier task of painting merely external characteristics and mannerisms4 ,smollett belongs to the latter class4 ,his effective focusing of external peculiarities and caricaturing of exceptional individuals has had a far-reaching influence1 which may be traced even in the work of so great a novelist as ,charles ,dickens4 ,fielding1 on the other hand1 had great influence of ,thackeray1 who has recorded in ,the ,english ,humorists of the ,eighteenth ,century his admiration for his earlier fellow-craftsman4 ,although subsequent ,english fiction has invaded many new fields1 although it has entered the domain of history and of sociology1 it is not too much to say that later novelists have advanced on the general lines marked out by these four mid-eighteenth century pioneers4 ,we may even affirm with ,gosse that the type of novel invented in ,england about #agdj-ej continued for sixty or seventy years to be the only model for ,continental fiction2 and criticism has traced in every ,french novelist1 in particular1 the stamp of ,richardson1 if not of ,sterne1 and of ,fielding4 ,,philosophical1 ,,historical1 ,,and ,,political ,,prose ,philosophy4--,although the majority of eighteenth-century writers disliked speculative thought and resolutely turned away from it1 yet the age produced some remarkable philosophical works1 which are still discussed1 and which have powerfully affected later thought4 ,david ,hume 7#agaa-aggf7 is the greatest metaphysician of the century4 ,he took for his starting point the conclusions of a contemporary philosopher1 ,george ,berkeley 7#afhe-agec74 ,berkeley had said that ideas are the only real existing entities1 that matter is merely another term for the ideas in the ,mind of the ,infinite and has no existence outside of mind4 ,he maintained that if every quality should be taken away from matter1 no matter would remain2 e4g41 if color1 sweetness1 sourness1 form1 and all other qualities should be taken away from an apple1 there would be no apple4 ,now1 a quality is a mental representation based on a sensation1 and this quality varies as the sensation varies2 in other words1 the object is not a stable immutable thing4 ,it is only a thing as ,i perceive it4 ,berkeley's idealistic position was taken to crush atheistic materialism4 ,hume attempted to rear on ,berkeley's position an impregnable citadel of skepticism4 ,he accepted ,berkeley's conclusion that we know nothing of matter1 and then attempted to show that inferences based on ideas might be equally illusory4 ,hume attacked the validity of the reasoning process itself4 ,he endeavored to show that there is no such thing as cause and effect in either the mental or the material world4 ,hume's ,treatise of ,human ,nature 7#agci-agdj71 in which these views are stated1 is one of the world's epoch-making works in philosophy4 ,its conclusion startled the great ,german metaphysician ,kant and roused him to action4 ,the questions thus raised by ,hume have never been answered to the satisfaction of all philosophers4 ,hume's skepticism is the most thoroughgoing that the world has ever seen2 for he attacks the certainty of our knowledge of both mind and matter4 ,but he dryly remarks that his own doubts disappear when he leaves his study4 ,he avoids a runaway horse and inquires of a friend the way to a certain house in ,edinburgh1 relying as much on the evidence of his eyes and on the directions of his friend as if these philosophic doubts had never been raised4 ,historical ,prose4--,in carefully elaborated and highly finished works of history1 the eighteenth century surpasses its predecessors4 ,the ,history of ,england by ,david ,hume1 the philosopher1 is the first work of the kind to add to the history of politics and the affairs of state an account of the people and their manners4 ,this ,history is distinguished for its polished ease and clearness4 ,unfortunately1 the work is written from a partisan point of view4 ,hume was a ,tory1 and took the side of the ,stuarts against the ,puritans4 ,he sometimes misrepresented facts if they did not uphold his views4 ,his ,history is consequently read more to-day as a literary classic than as an authority4 ,illustration3 ,,edward ,,gibbon4 ,from the painting by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds4 ,edward ,gibbon 7#agcg-agid7 is the greatest historian of the century4 ,his monumental work1 ,the ,history of the ,decline and ,fall of the ,roman ,empire1 in six volumes1 begins with the reign of ,trajan1 ,a4,d4 #ih1 and closes with the fall of the ,eastern ,roman ,empire at ,constantinople in #adec4 ,gibbon constructed a ,roman road through nearly fourteen centuries of history2 and he built it so well that another on the same plan has not yet been found necessary4 ,e4,a4 ,freeman says3 ,he remains the one historian of the eighteenth century whom modern research has neither set aside nor threatened to set aside4 ,in preparing his ,history1 ,gibbon spent fifteen years4 ,every chapter was the subject of long-continued study and careful original research4 ,from the chaotic materials which he found1 he constructed a history remarkable as well for its scholarly precision as for the vastness of the field covered4 ,his sentences follow one another in magnificent procession4 ,one feels that they are the work of an artist4 ,they are thickly sprinkled with fine-sounding words derived from the ,latin4 ,the #afaa version of the first four chapters of the ,gospel of ,john averages #if per cent of ,anglo-,saxon words1 and ,shakespeare #hi per cent1 while ,gibbon's average of #gj per cent is the lowest of any great writer4 ,he has all the coldness of the classical school1 and he shows but little sympathy with the great human struggles that are described in his pages4 ,he has been well styled a skillful anatomical demonstrator of the dead framework of society4 ,with all its excellences1 his work has1 therefore1 those faults which are typical of the eighteenth century4 ,illustration3 ,,edmund ,,burke4 ,from the painting by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,political ,prose4--,edmund ,burke 7#agbi-agig7 was a distinguished statesman and member of the ,house of ,commons in an important era of ,english history1--a time when the question of the independence of the ,american colonies was paramount1 and when the spirit of revolt against established forms was in the air4 ,he is the greatest political writer of the eighteenth century4 ,burke's best productions are ,speech on ,american ,taxation 7#aggd7 and ,speech on ,conciliation with ,america 7#agge74 ,his ,reflections on the ,revolution in ,france is also noteworthy4 ,his prose is distinguished for the following qualities3 7#a7 ,he is one of the greatest masters of metaphor and imagery in ,english prose4 ,only ,carlyle surpasses him in the use of metaphorical language4 7#b7 ,burke's breadth of thought and wealth of expression enable him to present an idea from many different points of view1 so that if his readers do not comprehend his exposition from one side1 they may from another4 ,he endeavors to attach what he says to something in the experience of his hearers or readers2 and he remembers that the experience of all is not the same4 7#c7 ,it follows that his imagery and figures lay all kinds of knowledge under contribution4 ,at one time he draws an illustration from manufacturing2 at another1 from history2 at another1 from the butcher shop4 7#d7 ,his work displays intense earnestness1 love of truth1 strength of logical reasoning1 vividness of imagination1 and breadth of view1 all of which are necessary qualities in prose that is to mold the opinions of men4 ,it is well to note that ,burke's careful study of ,english literature contributed largely to his success as a writer4 ,his use of ,bible phraseology and his familiarity with poetry led a critic to say that any one neglects the most valuable repository of rhetoric in the ,english language1 who has not well studied the ,english ,bible444 ,the cadence of ,burke's sentences always reminds us that prose writing is only to be perfected by a thorough study of the poetry of the language4 ,,oliver ,,goldsmith1 #agbh-aggd ,illustration3 ,,oliver ,,goldsmith4 ,from the painting by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life and ,minor ,works4--,oliver ,goldsmith was born of ,english parents in the little village of ,pallas in the center of ,ireland4 ,his father1 a poor clergyman1 soon moved a short distance to ,lissoy1 which furnished some of the suggestions for ,the ,deserted ,village4 ,goldsmith went as a charity student to ,dublin ,university1 where1 like ,swift1 he graduated at the bottom of his class4 ,goldsmith tried in turn to become a clergyman1 a teacher1 a lawyer1 and a doctor1 but failed in all these fields4 ,then he wandered over the continent of ,europe for a year and accumulated some experiences that he used in writing ,the ,traveler4 ,he returned to ,london in #ageg1 and1 after an ineffectual attempt to live by practicing medicine1 turned to literature4 ,in this profession he at first managed to make only a precarious living1 for the most part as a hackwriter1 working for periodicals and filling contracts to compile popular histories of ,england1 ,greece1 ,rome1 and ,animated ,nature4 ,he had so much skill in knowing what to retain1 emphasize1 or subordinate1 and so much genius in presenting in an attractive style what he wrote1 that his work of this kind met with a readier sale than his masterpieces4 ,of the ,history of ,animated ,nature1 ,johnson said3 ,goldsmith1 sir1 will give us a very fine book on the subject1 but if he can tell a horse from a cow1 that ,i believe may be the extent of his knowledge of natural history4 ,his first literary reputation was gained by a series of letters1 supposed to be written by a ,chinaman as a record of his impressions of ,england4 ,these letters or essays1 like so much of the work of ,addison and ,steele1 appeared first in a periodical2 but they were afterwards collected under the title1 ,citizen of the ,world 7#agfa74 ,the interesting creation of these essays is ,beau ,tibbs1 a poverty-stricken man1 who derives pleasure from boasting of his frequent association with the nobility4 ,illustration3 ,,goldsmith ,,gives ,,dr4 ,,johnson ,,the ,,ms4 ,,of ,,the ,,vicar ,,of ,,wakefield4 ,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott4 ,it was not until the last ten years of his life that ,goldsmith became famous4 ,he certainly earned enough then to be free from care1 had he but known how to use his money4 ,his improvidence in giving to beggars and in squandering his earnings on expensive rooms1 garments1 and dinners1 however1 kept him always in debt4 ,one evening he gave away his blankets to a woman who told him a pitiful tale4 ,the cold was so bitter during the night that he had to open the ticking of his bed and crawl inside4 ,although this happened when he was a young man1 it was typical of his usual response to appeals for help4 ,when his landlady had him arrested for failing to pay his rent1 he sent for ,johnson to come and extricate him4 ,johnson asked him if he had nothing that would discharge the debt1 and ,goldsmith handed him the manuscript of ,the ,vicar of ,wakefield4 ,johnson reported his action to ,boswell1 as follows3-- ,i looked into it and saw its merit2 told the landlady ,i should soon return2 and having gone to a bookseller1 sold it for sixty pounds4 ,illustration3 ,,canonbury ,,tower1 ,,london1 ,,where ,,goldsmith ,,wrote ,,some ,,of ,,his ,,famous ,,work4 ,during his last years1 ,goldsmith sometimes received as much as #hjj in twelve months2 but the more he earned1 the deeper he plunged into debt4 ,when he died1 in #aggd1 at the age of forty-five1 he owed #bjjj4 ,he was loved because-- 444e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side4 ,his grave by the ,temple ,church on ,fleet ,street1 ,london1 is each year visited by thousands who feel genuine affection for him in spite of his shortcomings4 ,masterpieces4--,his best work consists of two poems1 ,the ,traveler and ,the ,deserted ,village2 a story1 ,the ,vicar of ,wakefield2 and a play1,she ,stoops to ,conquer4 ,the object of ,the ,traveler 7#agfe71 a highly polished moral and didactic poem1 was to show that happiness is independent of climate1 and hence to justify the conclusion3-- ,vain1 very vain1 my weary search to find ,that bliss which only centers in the mind4 ,the ,deserted ,village 7#aggj7 also has a didactic aim1 for which we care little4 ,its finest parts1 those which impress us most1 were suggested to ,goldsmith by his youthful experiences4 ,we naturally remember the sympathetic portrait of the poet's father1 the village preacher3-- ,a man he was to all the country dear ,and passing rich with forty pounds a year4 99 99 99 99 99 ,his house was known to all the vagrant train2 ,he chid their wanderings but relieved their pain4 ,the lines relating to the village schoolmaster are almost as well known as ,scripture4 ,previous to this time1 the eighteenth century had not produced a poem as natural1 sincere1 and sympathetic in its descriptions and portraits as ,the ,deserted ,village4 ,the ,vicar of ,wakefield is a delightful romantic novel1 which ,andrew ,lang classes among books to be read once a year4 ,goldsmith's own criticism of the story in the ,advertisement announcing it has not yet been surpassed3-- ,there are an hundred faults in this ,thing1 and an hundred things might be said to prove them beauties4 ,but it is needless4 ,a book may be amusing with numerous errors1 or it may he very dull without a single absurdity4 ,the hero of this piece unites in himself the three greatest characters upon earth3 he is a priest1 an husbandman1 and the father of a family4 ,he is drawn as ready to teach and ready to obey2 as simple in affluence1 and majestic in adversity4 ,illustration3 ,,dr4 ,,primrose ,,and ,,his ,,family4 ,from a drawing by ,g4 ,patrick ,nelson4 ,the ,vicar of ,wakefield has faults of improbability and of plot construction2 in fact1 the plot is so poorly constructed that the novel would have been almost a failure1 had other qualities not insured success4 ,the story lives because ,dr4 ,primrose and his family show with such genuineness the abiding lovable traits of human nature1--kindliness1 unselfishness1 good humor1 hope1 charity1--the very spirit of the ,sermon of the ,mount4 ,goethe rejoiced that he felt the influence of this story at the critical moment of his mental development4 ,goldsmith has added to the world's stock of kindliness1 and he has taught many to avoid what he calls the fictitious demands of happiness4 ,goldsmith wrote two plays1 both hearty comedies4 ,the less successful1 ,the ,good-,natured ,man 7acted #agfh71 brought him in #ejj4 ,his next play1 ,she ,stoops to ,conquer1 a comedy of manners1 is a landmark in the history of the drama4 ,the taste of the age demanded regular1 vapid1 sentimental plays4 ,here was a comedy that disregarded the conventions and presented in quick succession a series of hearty humorous scenes4 ,even the manager of the theater predicted the failure of the play2 but from the time of its first appearance in #aggc1 this comedy of manners has had an unbroken record of triumphs4 ,a century later it ran one hundred nights in ,london4 ,authorities say that it has never been performed without success1 not even by amateurs4 ,like all of ,goldsmith's best productions1 it was based on actual experience4 ,in his young days a wag directed him to a private house for an inn4 ,goldsmith went there and with much flourish gave his orders for entertainment4 ,the subtitle of the comedy is ,the ,mistakes of a ,night2 and the play shows the situations which developed when its hero1 ,tony ,lumpkin1 sent two lovers to a pretended inn1 which was really the home of the young ladies to be wooed4 ,it is interesting to note that his contemporary1 ,richard ,brinsley ,sheridan 7#agea-ahaf71 produced1 shortly after the great success of ,she ,stoops to ,conquer1 the only other eighteenth-century comedies that retain their popularity1 ,the ,rivals 7#agge7 and ,the ,school for ,scandal 7#aggg71 which contributed still further to the overthrow of the sentimental comedy of the age4 ,general ,characteristics4--,goldsmith is a romanticist at heart2 but he felt the strong classical influences of ,johnson and of the earlier school4 ,in his poetry1 ,goldsmith used classical couplets and sometimes classical subject matter1 but the didactic parts of his poems are the poorest4 ,his greatest successes1 such as the pictures of the village preacher and the schoolmaster in ,the ,deserted ,village and of ,dr4 ,primrose and his family in ,the ,vicar of ,wakefield1 show the warm human sympathy of the romantic school4 ,the qualities for which he is most noted are 7#a7 a sane and saving altruistic philosophy of life1 pervaded with rare humor1 and 7#b7 a style of remarkable ease1 grace1 and clearness1 expressed in copious and apt language4 ,she ,stoops to ,conquer marks a change in the drama of the time1 because1 in ,dobson's phrase1 it bade good-bye to sham ,sentiment4 444this play it appears ,dealt largely in laughter and nothing in tears4 ,,samuel ,,johnson1 #agji-aghd ,illustration3 ,,samuel ,,johnson4 ,from the painting by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds4 ,illustration3 ,,samuel ,,johnson',s ,,birthplace4 ,from an old print4 ,early ,struggles4--,michael ,johnson1 an intelligent bookseller in ,lichfield1 ,staffordshire1 was in #agji blessed with a son who was to occupy a unique position in literature1 a position gained not so much by his writings as by his spoken words and great personality4 ,samuel was prepared for ,oxford at various schools and in the paternal bookstore1 where he read widely and voraciously1 but without much system4 ,he said that at the age of eighteen1 the year before he entered ,oxford1 he knew almost as much as at fifty-three4 ,poverty kept him from remaining at ,oxford long enough to take a degree4 ,he left the university1 and1 for more than a quarter of a century1 struggled doggedly against poverty4 ,when he was twenty-five1 he married a widow of forty-eight4 ,with the money which she brought him1 he opened a private school1 but failed4 ,he never had more than eight pupils1 one of whom was the actor1 ,david ,garrick4 ,in #agcg ,johnson went to ,london and sought employment as a hack writer4 ,sometimes he had no money with which to hire a lodging1 and was compelled to walk the streets all night to keep warm4 ,johnson reached ,london in the very darkest days for struggling authors1 who were often subjected to the greatest hardships4 ,they were the objects of general contempt1 to which ,pope's ,dunciad had largely contributed4 ,during this period ,johnson did much hack work for the ,gentleman's ,magazine4 ,he was also the author of two satirical poems1 ,london 7#agch7 and ,the ,vanity of ,human ,wishes 7#agdi71 which won much praise4 ,later ,years4--,by the time he had been for ten years in ,london1 his abilities were sufficiently well known to the leading booksellers for them to hire him to compile a ,dictionary of the ,english ,language for #aege4 ,he was seven years at this work1 finishing it in #agee4 ,between #agej and #agfj he wrote the matter for two periodicals1 ,the ,rambler 7#agej-ageb7 and ,the ,idler 7#ageh-agfj71 which contain papers on manners and morals4 ,he intended to model these papers on the lines of ,the ,tatler and ,the ,spectator1 but his essays are for the most part ponderously dull and uninteresting4 ,in #agfb1 for the first time1 he was really an independent man1 for then ,george ,,iii4 gave him a life pension of #cjj a year4 ,even as late as #agei1 in order to pay his mother's funeral expenses1 ,johnson had been obliged to dash off the romance of ,rasselas in a week2 but from the time he received his pension1 he had leisure to cross his legs and have his talk out in some of the most distinguished gatherings of the eighteenth century4 ,during the rest of his life he produced little besides ,lives of the ,english ,poets1 which is his most important contribution to literature4 ,in #aghd he died1 and was buried in ,westminster ,abbey among the poets whose lives he had written4 ,a ,man of ,character4--,any one who will read ,macaulay's ,life of ,johnson#b may become acquainted with some of ,johnson's most striking peculiarities2 but these do not constitute his claims to greatness4 ,he had qualities that made him great in spite of his peculiarities4 ,he knocked down a publisher who insulted him1 and he would never take insolence from a superior2 but there is no case on record of his having been unkind to an inferior4 ,goldsmith said3 ,johnson has nothing of a bear but the skin4 ,when some one manifested surprise that ,johnson should have assisted a worthless character1 ,goldsmith promptly replied3 ,he has now become miserable1 and that insures the protection of ,johnson4 ,johnson1 coming home late at night1 would frequently slip a coin into the hand of a sleeping street ,arab1 who1 on awakening1 was rejoiced to find provision thus made for his breakfast4 ,he spent the greater part of his pension on the helpless1 several of whom he received into his own house4 ,there have been many broader and more scholarly ,englishmen1 but there never walked the streets of ,london a man who battled more courageously for what he thought was right4 ,the more we know of him1 the more certain are we to agree with this closing sentence from ,macaulay's ,life of ,johnson3 ,and it is but just to say that our intimate acquaintance with what he would himself have called the anfractuosities of his intellect and of his temper serves only to strengthen our conviction that he was both a great and a good man4 ,a ,great ,converser and ,literary ,lawgiver4--,by nature ,johnson was fitted to be a talker4 ,he was happiest when he had intelligent listeners4 ,accordingly1 he and ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 the artist1 founded the famous ,literary ,club in #agfd4 ,during ,johnson's lifetime this had for members such men as ,edmund ,burke1 ,oliver ,goldsmith1 ,charles ,james ,fox1 ,james ,boswell1 ,edward ,gibbon1 and ,david ,garrick4 ,macaulay says3 ,the verdicts pronounced by this conclave on new books were speedily known over all ,london1 and were sufficient to sell off a whole edition in a day1 or to condemn the sheets to the service of the trunk maker and the pastry cook444 ,to predominate over such a society was not easy2 yet even over such a society ,johnson predominated4 ,he was consulted as an oracle on all kinds of subjects1 and his replies were generally the pith of common sense4 ,so famous had ,johnson become for his conversations that ,george ,,iii4 met him on purpose to hear him talk4 ,a committee from forty of the leading ,london booksellers waited on ,johnson to ask him to write the ,lives of the ,english ,poets4 ,there was then in ,england no other man with so much influence in the world of literature4 ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson4--,in #agfc ,james ,boswell 7#agdj-agie71 a ,scotchman1 met ,johnson and devoted much time to copying the words that fell from the great ,doctor's lips and to noting his individual traits4 ,we must go to ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson1 the greatest of all biographies1 to read of ,johnson as he lived and talked2 in short1 to learn those facts which render him far more famous than his written works4 ,illustration3 ,,james ,,boswell4 ,leslie ,stephen saw3 ,i would still hope that to many readers ,boswell has been what he has certainly been to some1 the first writer who gave them a love of ,english literature1 and the most charming of all companions long after the bloom of novelty has departed4 ,i subscribe most cheerfully to ,mr4 ,lewes's statement that he estimates his acquaintances according to their estimate of ,boswell4 ,a ,champion of the ,classical ,school4--,johnson was a powerful adherent of classicism1 and he did much to defer the coming of romanticism4 ,his poetry is formal1 and it shows the classical fondness for satire and aversion to sentiment4 ,the first two lines of his greatest poem1 ,the ,vanity of ,human ,wishes-- ,let observation with extensive view ,survey mankind from ,china to ,peru1 show the classical couplet1 which he employs1 and they afford an example of poetry produced by a sonorous combination of words4 ,observation1 view1 and survey are nearly synonymous terms4 ,such conscious effort centered on word building subtracts something from poetic feeling4 ,his critical opinions of literature manifest his preference for classical themes and formal modes of treatment4 ,he says of ,shakespeare3 ,it is incident to him to be now and then entangled with an unwieldy sentiment1 which he cannot well express 444 the equality of words to things is very often neglected4 ,although there is much sensible1 stimulating criticism in ,johnson's ,lives of the ,poets1 yet he shows positive repugnance to the pastoral references--the flocks and shepherds1 the oaten flute1 the woods and desert caves--of ,milton's ,lycidas4 ,its form1 says ,johnson1 is that of a pastoral1 easy1 vulgar1 and therefore disgusting4 ,general ,characteristics4--,while he is best known in literary history as the great converser whose full length portrait is drawn by ,boswell1 ,johnson left the marks of his influence on much of the prose written within nearly a hundred years after his death4 ,on the whole1 this influence has1 for the following reasons1 been bad4 ,illustration3 ,,cheshire ,,cheese ,,inn1 ,,fleet ,,street1 ,,london4 ,first1 he loved a ponderous style in which there was an excess of the ,latin element4 ,he liked to have his statements sound well4 ,he once said in forcible ,saxon3 ,the ,rehearsal6 has not wit enough to keep it sweet1 but a moment later he translated this into3 ,it has not sufficient vitality to preserve it from putrefaction4 ,in his ,dictionary he defined network as anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances with interstices between the intersections4 ,some wits of the day said that he used long words to make his ,dictionary necessary4 ,in the second place1 ,johnson loved formal balance so much that he used too many antitheses4 ,many of his balancing clauses are out of place or add nothing to the sense4 ,the following shows excess of antithesis3-- ,if the flights of ,dryden1 therefore1 are higher1 ,pope continues longer on the wing4 ,if of ,dryden's fire the blaze is brighter1 of ,pope's the heat is more regular and constant4 ,dryden often surpasses expectation1 and ,pope never falls below it4 ,dryden is read with frequent astonishment1 and ,pope with perpetual delight4 ,as a rule1 ,johnson's prose is too abstract and general1 and it awakens too few images4 ,this is a characteristic failing of his essays in ,the ,rambler and ,the ,idler4 ,even in ,rasselas1 his great work of fiction1 he speaks of passing through the fields and seeing the animals around him2 but he does not mention definite trees1 flowers1 or animals4 ,shakespeare's wounded stag or winking ,mary-buds would have given a touch of life to the whole scene4 ,johnson's latest and greatest work1 ,lives of the ,english ,poets1 is comparatively free from most of these faults4 ,the sentences are energetic and full of meaning4 ,although we may not agree with some of the criticism1 shall find it stimulating and suggestive4 ,before ,johnson gave these critical essays to the world1 he had been doing little for years except talking in a straightforward manner4 ,his constant practice in speaking ,english reacted on his later written work4 ,unfortunately this work has been the least imitated4 ,,summary ,the second part of the eighteenth century was a time of changing standards in church1 state1 and literature4 ,the downfall of ,walpole1 the religious revivals of ,wesley1 the victories of ,clive in ,india and of ,wolfe in ,canada1 show the progress that ,england was making at home and abroad4 ,even her loss of the ,american colonies left her the greatest maritime and colonial power4 ,there began to be a revolt against the narrow classical standards in literature4 ,a longing gradually manifested itself for more freedom of imagination1 such as we find in ,ossian1 ,the ,castle of ,otranto1 ,percy's ,reliques1 and translations of the ,norse mythology4 ,there was a departure from the hackneyed forms and subjects of the preceding age and an introduction of more of the individual and ideal element1 such as can be found in ,gray's ,elegy and ,collins's ,ode to ,evening4 ,dr4 ,johnson1 however1 threw his powerful influence against this romantic movement1 and curbed somewhat such tendencies in ,goldsmith1 who1 nevertheless1 gave fine romantic touches to ,the ,deserted ,village and to much of his other work4 ,this period was one of preparation for the glorious romantic outburst at the end of the century4 ,in prose1 the most important achievement of the age was the creation of the modern novel in works like ,richardson's ,pamela and ,clarissa ,harlowe1 ,fielding's ,tom ,jones1 ,sterne's ,tristram ,shandy1 ,smollett's ,humphrey ,clinker1 and ,goldsmith's ,vicar of ,wakefield4 ,there were also noted prose works in philosophy and history by ,hume and ,gibbon1 in politics by ,burke1 in criticism by ,johnson1 and in biography by ,boswell4 ,goldsmith's comedy of manners1 ,she ,stoops to ,conquer1 won a decided victory over the insipid sentimental drama4 ,,references ,,for ,,further ,,study ,,historical ,for contemporary ,english history1 consult ,gardiner1#c ,green1 ,walker1 or ,cheney4 ,for the social side1 see ,traill1 ,v4 ,lecky's ,history of the ,eighteenth ,century is specially full4 ,,literary ,the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature4 ,courthope's ,history of ,english ,poetry1 ,vol4 ,v4 ,seccombe's ,the ,age of ,johnson4 ,gosse's ,history of ,english ,literature in the ,eighteenth ,century4 ,stephen's ,english ,literature in the ,eighteenth ,century4 ,minto's ,manual of ,english ,prose ,literature4 ,symons's ,the ,romantic ,movement in ,english ,poetry4 ,beers's ,english ,romanticism4 ,phelps's ,beginnings of the ,english ,romantic ,movement4 ,nutt's ,ossian and ,ossianic ,literature4 ,jusserand's ,the ,english ,novel in the ,time of ,shakespeare4 ,cross's ,the ,development of the ,english ,novel4 ,minto's ,defoe 7,e4,m4,l47 ,dobson's ,samuel ,richardson4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,dobson's ,henry ,fielding4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,godden's ,henry ,fielding1 a ,memoir4 ,stephen's ,hours in a ,library 7,defoe1 ,richardson1 and ,fielding74 ,thackeray's ,english ,humorists of the ,eighteenth ,century 7,fielding1 ,smollett1 ,sterne1 ,goldsmith74 ,gosse's ,life of ,gray4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,huxley's ,life of ,hume4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,morrison's ,life of ,gibbon4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,woodrow ,wilson's ,mere ,literature 7,burke74 ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson4 ,stephen's ,life of ,johnson4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,macaulay's ,essay on ,croker's ,edition of ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson4 ,irving's1 ,forster's1 ,dobson's1 ,black's 7,e4,m4,l471 or ,b4 ,frankfort ,moore's ,life of ,goldsmith4 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,the ,romantic ,movement4--,in order to note the difference in feeling1 imagery1 and ideals1 between the romantic and the classic schools1 it will be advisable for the student to make a special comparison of ,dryden's and ,pope's satiric and didactic verse with ,spenser's ,faerie ,queene1 ,milton's ,il ,penseroso1 and with some of the work of the romantic poets in the next period4 ,what is the difference in the general atmosphere of these poems8 ,see if the influence of ,il ,penseroso is noticeable in ,collins's ,ode to ,evening 7,ward#d1 ,,iii41 #bhg2 ,bronson1 ,,iii41 #bbj2 ,oxford1 #eca2 ,manly1 ,i41 #bgc2 ,century1 #chf7 and in ,gray's ,elegy 7,ward1 ,,iii41 #cca2 ,bronson1 ,,iii41 #bch2 ,oxford1 #eaf2 ,manly1 ,i41 #bfg2 ,century1 #cih74 ,what element foreign to ,dryden and ,pope appears in ,thomson's ,seasons 7,ward1 ,,iii41 #agc2 ,bronson4 ,,iii41 #agi2 ,manly1 ,i41 #bee2 ,century1 #cfi-cgb74 ,what signs of a struggle between the romantic and the classic are noticeable in ,goldsmith's ,deserted ,village 7,ward1 ,,iii41 #cgc-cgi2 ,bronson1 ,,iii41 #bhb2 ,manly1 ,i41 #bgh2 ,century1 #dfc74 ,pick out the three finest passages in the poem1 and give the reasons for the choice4 ,read pp4 #agc-agf of ,ossian 7,canterbury ,poets series1 #dj cents2 ,chambers1 ,,ii42 ,manly1 ,,ii41 #bge71 and show why it appealed to the spirit of romanticism4 ,for a short typical selection from ,walpole's ,castle of ,otranto1 see ,chambers4 ,,ii4 ,why is this called romantic fiction8 ,in ,percy's ,reliques1 read the first ballad1 that of ,chevy ,chase1 and explain how the age could turn from ,pope to read such rude verse4 ,in place of ,mallet's ,northern ,antiquities1 twentieth-century readers will prefer books like ,guerber's ,myths of ,northern ,lands and ,mabie's ,norse ,stories ,retold from the ,eddas4 ,from ,chatterton's ,aella read nine stanzas from the song beginning3 ,o sing unto my roundelay4 ,his ,the ,bristowe ,tragedy may be compared with ,percy's ,reliques and with ,coleridge's ,the ,ancient ,mariner4 ,selections from ,chatterton are given in ,bronson1 ,,iii41 ,ward1 ,,iii41 ,oxford1 ,manly1 ,i41 and ,century4 ,the ,novel4--,those who have the time to study the beginnings of the novel will be interested in reading1 ,guy1 ,earl of ,warwick 7,morley's ,early ,prose ,romances7 or ,sir ,gawain and the ,green ,knight1 ,retold in ,modern ,prose1 with ,introduction and ,notes1 by ,jessie ,l4 ,weston 7,london3 ,david ,nutt1 two shillings74 ,two ,elizabethan novels3 ,lodge's ,rosalynde 7the original of ,shakespeare's ,as ,you ,like ,it7 and ,greene's ,pandosto 7the original of ,the ,winter's ,tale7 are published in ,the ,shakespeare ,classics1 edited by ,gollancz 7,duffield ,company1 ,new ,york1 #a each74 ,pandosto may be found at the end of the ,cassell ,national ,library edition of ,the ,winter's ,tale 7#ae cents74 ,selections from ,lodge's ,rosalynde are given in ,craik1 ,i41 #edd-edi4 ,these should be compared with the parallel parts of ,as ,you ,like ,it4 ,selections from ,nashe's ,the ,unfortunate ,traveller are given in ,craik1 ,i41 #egc-egf1 and selections from ,sidney's ,arcadia in the same volume1 pp4 #dji-dai4 ,deloney's ,the ,gentle ,craft and ,jack of ,newberry are given in his ,works1 edited by ,mann 7,clarendon ,press74 ,for the preliminary sketching of characters that might serve as types in fiction1 read ,the ,spectator1 ,no4 #b1 by ,steele4 ,defoe's ,robinson ,crusoe will be read entire by almost every one4 ,in ,craik1 ,,iv41 read the following selections from these four great novelists of the middle of the eighteenth century2 from ,richardson1 pp4 #ei-ff2 from ,fielding1 pp4 #aah-abe2 from ,sterne1 pp4 #bac-bai2 and from ,smollett1 pp4 #bfa-bfd and #bfi-bgb4 ,manly1 ,,ii41 has brief selections4 ,goldsmith's ,vicar of ,wakefield should be read entire by the student 7,eclectic ,english ,classics1 or ,gateway ,series1 ,american ,book ,company74 ,selections may be found in ,craik1 ,,iv41 #cfe-cgj4 ,sketch the general lines of development in fiction1 from the early romance to ,smollett4 ,what type of fiction did ,don ,quixote ridicule8 ,compare ,greene's ,pandosto with ,shakespeare's ,winter's ,tale1 and ,lodge's ,rosalynde with ,as ,you ,like ,it4 ,in what relation do ,steele1 ,addison1 and ,defoe stand to the novel8 ,why is the modern novel said to begin with ,richardson8 ,philosophy4--,two selections from ,berkeley in ,craik1 ,,iv41 #cd-ci1 give some of that philosopher's subtle metaphysics4 ,the same volume1 pp4 #ahi-aie1 gives a selection from ,hume's ,treatise of ,human ,nature4 ,try stating in your own words the substance of these selections4 ,gibbon4--,read ,aurelian's campaign against ,zenobia1 which constitutes the last third of ,chap4 ,,xi4 of the first volume of ,the ,decline and ,fall of the ,roman ,empire4 ,other selections may be found in ,craik1 ,,iv41 #dfj-dgb2 ,century1 #dec-dfb4 ,what is the special merit of ,gibbon's work8 ,what period does he cover8 ,compare his style1 either in description or in narration1 with ,bunyan's4 ,burke4--,let the student who has not the time to read all the speech on ,conciliation with ,america 7,eclectic ,english ,classics1 or ,gateway ,series1 ,american ,book ,company1 #bj cents7 read the selection in ,craik1 ,,iv41 #cgi-che1 and also the selection referring to the decline of chivalry1 from ,reflections on the ,revolution in ,france 7,craik1 ,,iv41 #djb74 ,point out in ,burke's writings the four characteristics mentioned on p4 #cca4 ,compare his style with ,bacon's1 ,swift's1 ,addison's1 and ,gibbon's4 ,goldsmith4--,read his three masterpieces3 ,the ,deserted ,village1 ,the ,vicar of ,wakefield 7,eclectic ,english ,classics1 or ,gateway ,series1 ,american ,book ,company71 ,she ,stoops to ,conquer 7,cassell's ,national ,library2 ,everyman's ,library74 ,select passages that show 7a7 altruistic philosophy of life1 7b7 humor1 7c7 special graces of style4 ,what change did ,she ,stoops to ,conquer bring to the stage8 ,what qualities keep the play alive8 ,johnson4--,representative selections are given in ,craik1 ,,iv41 #ada-ahe4 ,those from ,lives of the ,english ,poets 7,craik1 ,,iv41 #age-ahb2 ,century1 #dje-dai7 will best repay study4 ,let the student who has the time read ,johnson's ,dryden entire4 ,as much as possible of ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson should be read 7,craik1 ,,iv41 #dhb-die2 ,manly1 ,,ii41 #bgg-bib74 ,compare the style of ,johnson with that of ,gibbon and ,burke4 ,for what reasons does ,johnson hold a high position in literature8 ,what special excellences or defects do you note in his ,lives of the ,english ,poets8 ,why is ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson a great work8 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,,vii3 ,footnote #a3 ,the ,english ,humorists of the ,eighteenth ,century4 ,footnote #b3 ,to be found in ,encyclopaedia ,britannica1 or in ,macaulay's collected ,essays4 ,footnote #c3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #ej4 ,footnote #d3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #f4 ,,chapter ,,viii3 ,,the ,,age ,,of ,,romanticism1 #aghj-ahcg ,history of the ,period4--,much of the ,english history of this period was affected directly or indirectly by the ,french ,revolution 7#aghi74 ,the object of this movement was to free men from oppression by the aristocracy and to restore to them their natural rights4 ,the new watchwords were ,liberty1 ,fraternity1 ,equality4 ,the professed principles of the ,french revolutionists were in many respects similar to those embodied in the ,american ,declaration of ,independence4 ,at first the movement was applauded by the liberal-minded ,englishmen2 but the confiscation of property1 executions1 and ensuing reign of terror soon made ,england recoil from this ,revolution4 ,when ,france executed her king and declared her intention of using force to make republics out of ,european powers1 ,england sent the ,french minister home1 and war immediately resulted4 ,with only a short intermission1 this lasted from #agic until #ahae1 the contest caused by the ,french ,revolution having become merged in the ,napoleonic war4 ,the battle of ,waterloo 7#ahae7 ended the struggle with the defeat of ,napoleon by the ,english general1 ,wellington4 ,the ,war of #ahab with the ,united ,states was for ,england only an incident of the war with ,france4 ,england had become so powerful on the sea1 as a result of the victories of ,nelson1 that she not only forbade vessels of a neutral power to trade with ,france1 but she actually searched ,american vessels and sometimes removed their seamen1 claiming that they were ,british deserters4 ,the ,americans won astonishing naval victories2 but the war was concluded without any very definite decision on the points involved4 ,the last part of the eighteenth century saw the invention of spinning and weaving machines1 the introduction of steam engines to furnish power1 the wider use of coal1 the substitution of the factory system for the home production of cloth1 and the impairment of the home by the employment of women and children for unrestricted hours in the factories4 ,the long reign of ,george ,,iii41 interrupted by periods of insanity1 ended in #ahbj4 ,the next two kings were his sons1 ,george ,,iv4 7#ahbj-ahcj7 and ,william ,,iv4 7#ahcj-ahcg74 ,during these two reigns the spirit of reform was in the air4 ,the most important reforms were 7#a7 the revision of the criminal laws1 which had prescribed death for some two hundred offenses1 including stealing as much as five shillings2 7#b7 the removal of political disabilities from ,catholics1 so that for the first time since #afgc they could hold municipal office and sit in ,parliament2 7#c7 the ,reform ,bill of #ahcb1 which 7a7 extended the franchise to the well-to-do middle classes but not to those dependent on day labor1 7b7 gave a fairer apportionment of representatives in ,parliament and abolished the so-called rotten boroughs1 i4e4 those districts which with few or no inhabitants had been sending members to ,parliament1 while the large manufacturing cities in the north were without representatives2 7#d7 the final bill in #ahcc for the abolition of slavery2 7#e7 child labor laws1 which ordered the textile factories to cease employing children under nine years of age1 prescribed a legal working day of eight hours for children between nine and thirteen1 and of twelve hours for those between thirteen and eighteen2 7#f7 the improvement of the poor laws4 ,the increased interest in human rights and welfare is the most important characteristic of this entire period1 but most especially of the reigns of ,george ,,iv4 and ,william ,,iv4 ,sir ,robert ,peel1 the elder1 although an employer of nearly a thousand children1 felt the spirit of the time enough to call the attention of ,parliament to the abuses of child labor4 ,as we shall see1 this new spirit exerted a strong influence on literature4 ,influence of the ,new ,spirit on ,poetry4--,the ,french ,revolution stirred the young ,english poets profoundly4 ,they proclaimed the birth of a new humanity of boundless promise4 ,the possibilities of life again seemed almost as great as in ,elizabethan days4 ,the usually sober-minded ,wordsworth exclaimed3-- ,bliss was it in that dawn to be alive1 ,but to be young was very heaven6#a ,in the age of ,pope1 the only type of man considered worthy a place in the best literature was the aristocrat4 ,the ordinary laborer was an object too contemptible even for satire4 ,burns placed a halo around the head of the honest toiler4 ,in #aghf he could find readers for his ,the ,cotter's ,saturday ,night2 and ten years later he proclaimed thoughts which would have been laughed to scorn early in the century3-- ,is there1 for honest poverty1 ,that hangs his head and a' that8 ,the coward slave1 we pass him by1 ,we dare be poor for a' that6 99 99 99 99 99 ,the rank is but the guinea stamp2 ,the man's the gowd#b for a' that4#c ,wordsworth strikes almost the same chord3-- ,love had he found in huts where poor men lie4#d ,the tenderness and sympathy induced by this new interest in human beings resulted in the annexation to ,english literature of an almost unexplored continent1--the continent of childhood4 ,william ,blake and ,william ,wordsworth set the child in the midst of the poetry of this romantic age4 ,more sympathy for animals naturally followed the increased interest in humanity4 ,the poems of ,cowper1 ,burns1 ,wordsworth1 and ,coleridge show this quickened feeling for a starved bird1 a wounded hare1 a hart cruelly slain1 or an albatross wantonly shot4 ,the social disorder of the ,revolution might make ,wordsworth pause1 but he continued with unabated vigor to teach us-- ,never to blend our pleasure or our pride ,with sorrow of the meanest thing that feels4#e ,new humanitarian interests affected all the great poets of this age4 ,although ,keats was cut off while he was making an ,aeolian response to the beauty of the world1 yet even he1 in his brief life1 heard something of the new message4 ,growth of ,appreciation of ,nature4--,more appreciation of nature followed the development of broader sympathy1 ,burns wrote a lyric full of feeling for a mountain daisy which his plow had turned beneath the furrow4 ,wordsworth exclaimed3-- ,to me the meanest flower that blows can give ,thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears4#f ,for more than a century after ,milton1 the majority of references to nature were made in general terms and were borrowed from the stock illustrations of older poets1 like ,vergil4 ,we find the conventional lark1 nightingale1 and turtledove4 ,nothing new or definite is said of them4 ,increasing comforts and safety in travel now took more people where they could see for themselves the beauty of nature4 ,in the new poetry we consequently find more definiteness4 ,we can hear the whir of the partridge1 the chatter of magpies1 the whistle of the quail4 ,poets speak of a tree not only in general terms1 but they note also the differences in the shade of the green of the leaves and the peculiarities of the bark4 ,previous to this time1 poets borrowed from ,theocritus and ,vergil piping shepherds reclining in the shade1 whom no ,englishman had ever seen4 ,in ,michael ,wordsworth pictures a genuine ,english shepherd4 ,the love for mountains and wild nature is of recent growth4 ,one writer in the seventeenth century considered the ,alps as so much rubbish swept together by the broom of nature to clear the plains of ,italy4 ,a seventeenth century traveler thought the ,welsh mountains better than the ,alps because the former would pasture goats4 ,dr4 ,johnson asked1 ,who can like the ,highlands8 ,the influence of the romantic movement developed the love for wild scenery1 which is so conspicuous in ,wordsworth and ,byron4 ,this age surpasses even the ,elizabethan in endowing ,nature with a conscious soul1 capable of bringing a message of solace and companionship4 ,the greatest romantic poet of nature thus expresses his creed3-- 444,nature never did betray ,the heart that loved her2 'tis her privilege1 ,through all the years of this our life1 to lead ,from joy to joy4#g ,the ,victory of ,romanticism4--,we have traced in the preceding age the beginnings of the romantic movement4 ,its ascendancy over classical rules was complete in the period between #aghj and the ,victorian age4 ,the romantic victory brought to literature more imagination1 greater individuality1 deeper feeling1 a less artificial form of expression1 and an added sense for the appreciation of the beauties of nature and their spiritual significance4 ,swinburne says that the new poetic school1 usually registered as ,wordsworthian1 was actually founded at midnight by ,william ,blake 7#ageg-ahbg7 and fortified at sunrise by ,william ,wordsworth4 ,these lines from ,blake's ,to the ,evening ,star 7#aghc7 may be given to support this statement3-- ,thou fair-haired ,angel of the ,evening1 99 99 99 99 99 ,smile on our loves2 and while thou drawest the ,blue curtains of the sky1 scatter thy silver dew ,on every flower that shuts its sweet eyes ,in timely sleep4 ,let thy ,west ,wind sleep on ,the lake4 ,we may note in these lines the absence of the classical couplet1 the fact that the end of the lines necessitates no halt in thought1 and a unique sympathetic touch in the lines referring to the flower and the wind4 ,blake's ,songs of ,innocence 7#aghi7 and ,songs of ,experience 7#agic7 show not only the new feeling toward nature1 but also a broader sympathy with children and with all suffering creatures4 ,the chimney sweeper1 the lost child1 and even the sick rose are remembered in his verse4 ,in his poem1 ,the ,schoolboy1 he enters as sympathetically as ,shakespeare into the heart of the boy on his way to school1 when he hears the call of the uncaged birds and the fields4 ,these two lines express an oft-recurring idea in ,blake's mystical romantic verse3-- ,the land of dreams is better far1 ,above the light of the morning star4 ,the volume of ,lyrical ,ballads 7#agih71 the joint work of ,wordsworth and ,coleridge1 marks the complete victory of the romantic movement4 ,the ,position of ,prose4--,the eighteenth century1 until near its end1 was1 broadly speaking1 an age of prose4 ,in excellence and variety the prose surpassed the poetry2 but in this age 7#aghj-ahcg7 their position was reversed and poetry regained almost an ,elizabethan ascendancy4 ,much good prose was written1 but it ranks decidedly below the enchanting romantic poetry4 ,prose writers were laying the foundations for the new science of political economy and endeavoring to ascertain how the condition of the masses could be improved4 ,while investigating this subject1 ,thomas ,robert ,malthus 7#agff-ahcd71 an ,episcopal clergyman1 announced his famous proposition1 since known as the ,malthusian theorem1 that population tends to increase faster than the means of subsistence4 ,political economists and philosophers like ,adam ,smith 7#agbc-agij71 professor in the ,university of ,glasgow1 agreed on the let-alone doctrine of government4 ,they held that individuals could succeed best when least interfered with by government1 that a government could not set aside natural law1 but could only impede it and cause harm1 as for instance1 in framing laws to tempt capital into forms of industry less productive than others and away from the employment that it would naturally seek4 ,many did not even believe in legislation affecting the hours of labor or the work of children4 ,this let-alone theory was widely held until the close of the nineteenth century4 ,in moral philosophy1 ,jeremy ,bentham 7#agdh-ahcb71 lawyer and philosopher1 laid down the principle that happiness is the prime object of existence1 and that the basis of legislation should be the greatest happiness to the greatest number1 instead of to the privileged few4 ,he measured the morality of actions by their efficiency in producing this happiness1 and he said that pushpin is as good as poetry1 if it gives as much pleasure4 ,he was followed by ,james ,mill 7#aggc-ahcf71 who maintained that the morality of actions is measured by their utility4 ,the fault with many of the prevalent theories of government and morals lay in their narrow standards of immediate utility1 their failure to measure remote spiritual effects4 ,illustration3 ,,robert ,,southey4 ,the taste of the age encouraged poetry4 ,scott1 although a natural born writer of prose romance1 made his early reputation by such poems as ,marmion and ,the ,lady of the ,lake4 ,robert ,southey 7#aggd-ahdc7 usually classed with ,wordsworth and ,coleridge as one of the three so-called ,lake ,poets1 wrote much better prose than poetry4 ,his prose ,life of ,nelson outranks the poetry in his ,curse of ,kehama4 ,it is probable that1 had he lived in an age of prose ascendancy1 he would have written little poetry1 for he distinctly says that the desire of making money has already led me to write sometimes in poetry what would perhaps otherwise have been better written in prose4 ,this statement shows in a striking way the spirit of those times4 ,if ,coleridge had not written such good poetry1 his excellent critical prose would probably be more read to-day2 but he doubtless continues to have a thousand readers for ,the ,ancient ,mariner to one for his prose4 ,among the prose writers of this age1 the fiction of ,scott and ,jane ,austen seems destined to the longest lease of life and the widest circle of readers4 ,de ,quincey's work1 especially his artistic presentation of his thrilling dreams1 has many admirers4 ,illustration3 ,,charles ,,lamb4 ,from a drawing by ,maclise4 ,the ,essays of ,elia of ,charles ,lamb 7#agge-ahcd7 still charms many readers4 ,for over thirty years he was by day a clerk in the ,india ,house and by night a student of the ,elizabethan drama and a writer of periodical essays1 suggestive of the work of ,addison and ,steele4 ,lamb's pervasive humor in discussing trivial subjects makes him very delightful reading4 ,his well-known ,essays of ,elia first appeared in the ,london ,magazine between #ahbj and #ahcc4 ,the peculiar flavor of his style and humor is shown in his ,a ,dissertation upon ,roast-,pig1 as one of the most popular of these ,essays is called4 ,lamb relates how a ,chinese boy1 ,bo-bo1 having accidentally set his house an fire and roasted a litter of pigs1 happened to acquire a liking for roast pig when he sucked his fingers to cool them after touching a crackling pig4 ,it was considered a crime to eat meat that was not raw2 but the jury fortunately had their fingers burned in the same way and tried ,bo-bo's method of cooling them4 ,the boy was promptly acquitted4 ,lamb gravely proceeds3-- ,the judge1 who was a shrewd fellow1 winked at the manifest iniquity of the decision1 and when the court was dismissed1 went privily and bought up all the pigs that could be had for love or money4 ,in a few days his lordship's town house was observed to be on fire4 ,the thing took wing1 and now there was nothing to be seen but fires in every direction4 ,fuel and pigs grew enormously dear all over the district4 ,the insurance offices one and all shut up shop4 ,people built slighter and slighter every day1 until it was feared that the very science of architecture would in no long time be lost to the world4 ,thus this custom of firing houses continued1 till in process of time1 says my manuscript1 a sage arose1 like our ,locke1 who made a discovery that the flesh of swine1 or indeed of any other animal1 might be cooked 7burnt as they called it7 without the necessity of consuming a whole house to dress it4 ,then began the rude form of a gridiron4 ,illustration3 ,,bo-,,bo ,,and ,,roast ,,pig4 ,from a drawing by ,b4 ,westmacott4 ,other enjoyable essays are ,old ,china1 a lovable picture of his home life with his sister1 ,dream ,children1 ,new ,year's ,eve1 and ,poor ,relations4 ,the results of ,lamb's ,elizabethan studies appeared in the excellent ,tales from ,shakespeare1 which he wrote with his sister1 and in his ,specimens of ,english ,dramatic ,poets who wrote about the ,time of ,shakespeare4 ,this age produced much prose criticism4 ,coleridge remains one of ,england's greatest critics1 and ,lamb and ,de ,quincey are yet two of her most enjoyable ones4 ,walter ,savage ,landor 7#agge-ahfd7 and ,william ,hazlitt 7#aggh-ahcj7 also deserve mention in the history of ,english prose criticism4 ,both men were unusually combative4 ,landor was sent away from ,oxford for criticizing a noisy party with a shot gun1 which he discharged against the closed shutters of the room where the roisterers were holding their festivities4 ,he went to ,italy1 where most of his literary work was done4 ,he avoided people1 and even boasted that he took more pleasure with his own thoughts than with those of others4 ,for companionship1 he imagined himself conversing with other people4 ,the titles of his best two works are ,imaginary ,conversations 7#ahbd-ahdh7 and ,pericles and ,aspasia 7#ahcf71 the latter a series of imaginary letters4 ,his writings are notable for their style1 for an unusual combination of dignity with simplicity and directness4 ,a statement like the following shows how vigorous and sweeping his criticisms sometimes are3 ,a rib of ,shakespeare would have made a ,milton2 the same portion of ,milton1 all poets born ever since4 ,in spite of many splendid passages and of a style that suggests sculpture in marble1 twentieth-century readers often feel that he is under full sail1 either bound for nowhere1 or voyaging to some port where they do not care to land4 ,hazlitt is less polished1 but more suggestive1 and in closer touch with life than ,landor4 ,in seizing the important qualities of an author's works and summarizing them in brief space1 ,hazlitt shows the skill of a trained journalist4 ,his three volumes1 ,characters of ,shakespeare's ,plays 7#ahag71 ,lectures on the ,english ,poets 7#ahah71 and ,lectures on the ,english ,comic ,writers 7#ahai7 contain criticism that remains stimulating and suggestive4 ,he loves to arrive somewhere1 to settle his points definitely4 ,his discussion of the frequently debated question1--whether ,pope is a poet1 shows this characteristic3-- ,the question1--whether ,pope was a poet1 has hardly yet been settled1 and is hardly worth settling2 for if he was not a great poet1 he must have been a great prose writer1 that is1 he was a great writer of some sort4 ,his two volumes of essays1 ,the ,round ,table 7#ahag7 and ,table ,talk 7#ahba-ahbb71 caused him to be called a lesser ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson4 ,while the combative dispositions of ,landor and ,hazlitt did not make them ideal critics of their contemporaries1 the taste of the age liked criticism of the slashing type4 ,the newly established periodicals and reviews1 such as ,the ,edinburgh ,review 7started in #ahjb71 furnished a new market for critical essays4 ,francis ,jeffrey 7#aggc-ahej71 editor of ,the ,edinburgh ,review1 accused ,wordsworth of silliness in his ,lyrical ,ballads2 and said vehemently of a later volume of the same poet's verse3 ,this will never do4 ,the ,quarterly ,review in #ahah spoke of the insanity of the poetry of ,keats4 ,in #ahai ,blackwood's ,edinburgh ,magazine gave a fatherly warning to ,shelley that ,keats as a poet was worthy of sheer and instant contempt1 advised him to select better companions than ,johnny ,keats1 and promised that compliance with this advice would secure him abundance of better praise4 ,even the more genial ,leigh ,hunt 7#aghd-ahei71 the friend of ,shelley and ,keats1 and the writer of many pleasant essays1 called ,carlyle's style a jargon got up to confound pretension with performance4 ,we like ,hunt best when he is writing in the vein of the ,spectator or as a miniature ,lamb4 ,in such papers as ,an ,earth upon ,heaven1 ,hunt tells us that in heaven there can be no clergymen if there are no official duties for them2 that we shall there enjoy the choicest books1 for ,shakespeare and ,spenser should write us new ones4 ,he closes this entertaining paper with the novel assurance3 ,if we choose1 now and then we shall even have inconveniences4 ,,william ,,cowper1 #agca-ahjj ,illustration3 ,,william ,,cowper4 ,from the portrait by ,sir ,thomas ,lawrence4 ,life4--,cowper's life is a tale of almost continual sadness1 caused by his morbid timidity4 ,he was born at ,great ,berkhampstead1 ,hertfordshire1 in #agca4 ,at the age of six1 he lost his mother and was placed in a boarding school4 ,here his sufferings began4 ,the child was so especially terrified by one rough boy that he could never raise his eyes to the bully's face1 but knew him unmistakably by his shoe buckles4 ,there was some happiness for ,cowper at his next school1 the ,westminster ,school1 and also during the twelve succeeding years1 when he studied law2 but the short respite was followed by the gloom of madness4 ,owing to his ungovernable fear of a public examination1 which was necessary to secure the position offered by an uncle1 ,cowper underwent days and nights of agony1 during which he tried in many ways to end his miserable life4 ,the frightful ordeal unsettled his reason1 and he spent eighteen months in an insane asylum4 ,upon his recovery1 he was taken into the house of a ,rev4 ,mr4 ,unwin1 whose wife tended ,cowper as a son during the rest of her life4 ,he was never supremely happy1 and he was sometimes again thrown into madness by the terrible thought of ,god's wrath2 but his life was passed in a quiet manner in the villages of ,weston and ,olney1 where he was loved by every one4 ,the simple pursuits of gardening1 carpentering1 visiting the sick1 caring for his numerous pets1 rambling through the lanes1 studying nature1 and writing verse1 occupied his sane moments when he was not at prayer4 ,works4--,cowper's first works were the ,olney ,hymns4 ,his religious nature is manifest again in the volume which consists of didactic poems upon such subjects as ,the ,progress of ,error1 ,truth1 ,charity1 ,table ,talk1 and ,conversation4 ,these are in the spirit of the formal classical poets1 and contain sententious couplets such as ,an idler is a watch that wants both hands1 ,as useless if it goes as when it stands4#h ,vociferated logic kills me quite2 ,a noisy man is always in the right4#i ,illustration3 ,,cowper',s ,,cottage ,,at ,,weston4 ,the bare didacticism of these poems is softened and sweetened by the gentle1 devout nature of the poet1 and is enlivened by a vein of pure humor4 ,he is one of ,england's most delightful letter writers because of his humor1 which ripples occasionally over the stream of his constitutional melancholy4 ,the ,diverting ,history of ,john ,gilpin is extremely humorous4 ,the poet seems to have forgotten himself in this ballad and to have given full expression to his sense of the ludicrous4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,gilpin',s ,,ride4 ,from a drawing by ,r4 ,caldecott4 ,the work that has made his name famous is ,the ,task4 ,he gave it this title half humorously because his friend1 ,lady ,austen1 had bidden him write a poem in blank verse upon some subject or other1 the sofa1 for instance2 and he called the first book of the poem ,the ,sofa4 ,the ,task is chiefly remarkable because it turns from the artificial and conventional subjects which had been popular1 and describes simple beauties of nature and the joys of country life4 ,cowper says3-- ,god made the country1 and man made the town4 ,to a public acquainted with the nature poetry of ,burns1 ,wordsworth1 and ,tennyson1 ,cowper's poem does not seem a wonderful production4 ,appearing as it did1 however1 during the ascendancy of ,pope's influence1 when aristocratic city life was the only theme for verse1 ,the ,task is a strikingly original work4 ,it marks a change from the artificial style of eighteenth century poetry and proclaims the dawn of the natural style of the new school4 ,he who could write of-- 444rills that slip ,through the cleft rock1 and chiming as they fall ,upon loose pebbles1 lose themselves at length ,in matted grass1 that with a livelier green ,betrays the secret of their silent course1 was a worthy forerunner of ,shelley and ,keats4 ,general ,characteristics4--,cowper's religious fervor was the strongest element in both his life and his writings4 ,perhaps that which next appealed to his nature was the pathetic4 ,he had considerable mastery of pathos1 as may be seen in the drawing of crazed ,kate in ,the ,task1 in the lines ,to ,mary1 and in the touchingly beautiful poem ,on the ,receipt of ,my ,mother's ,picture out of ,norfolk1 beginning with that well-known line3-- ,oh that those lips had language6 ,the two most attractive characteristics of his works are refined1 gentle humor and a simple and true manner of picturing rural scenes and incidents4 ,he says that he described no spot which he had not seen1 and expressed no emotion which he had not felt4 ,in this way1 he restricted the range of his subjects and displayed a somewhat literal mind2 but what he had seen and felt he touched with a light fancy and with considerable imaginative power4 ,,robert ,,burns1 #agei-agif ,illustration3 ,,robert ,,burns4 ,from the painting by ,nasmyth1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,illustration3 ,,birthplace ,,of ,,burns4 ,life4--,the greatest of ,scottish poets was born in a peasant's clay-built cottage1 a mile and a half south of ,ayr4 ,his father was a man whose morality1 industry1 and zeal for education made him an admirable parent4 ,for a picture of his father and the home influences under which the boy was reared1 ,the ,cotter's ,saturday ,night should be read4 ,the poet had little formal schooling1 but under paternal influence he learned how to teach himself4 ,until his twenty-eighth year1 ,robert ,burns was an ordinary laborer on one or another of the ,ayrshire tenant farms which his father or brothers leased4 ,at the age of fifteen1 he was worked beyond his strength in doing a man's full labor4 ,he called his life on the ,ayrshire farms the unceasing toil of a galley slave4 ,all his life he fought a hand-to-hand fight with poverty4 ,in #aghf1 when he was twenty-seven years old1 he resolved to abandon the struggle and seek a position in the far-off island of ,jamaica4 ,in order to secure money for his passage1 he published some poems which he had thought out while following the plow or resting after the day's toil4 ,six hundred copies were printed at three shillings each4 ,all were sold in a little over a month4 ,a copy of this ,kilmarnock edition has since sold in ,edinburgh for #egb4 ,his fame from that little volume has grown as much as its monetary value4 ,some ,edinburgh critics praised the poems very highly and suggested a second edition4 ,burns therefore abandoned the idea of going to ,jamaica and went to ,edinburgh to arrange for a new edition4 ,here he was entertained by the foremost men1 some of whom wished to see how a plowman would behave in polite society1 while others desired to gaze on what they regarded as a freak of nature4 ,the new volume appeared in #aghg1 and contained but few poems which had not been published the previous year4 ,the following winter he again went to ,edinburgh2 but having shocked society by his intemperate habits1 he was almost totally neglected by the leaders of literature and fashion4 ,in #aghh ,burns married ,jean ,armour and took her to a farm which he leased in ,dumfriesshire4 ,the first part of this new period was the happiest in his life4 ,she has been immortalized in his songs3-- ,i see her in the dewy flowers1 ,i see her sweet and fair3 ,i hear her in the tunefu' birds1 ,i hear her charm the air3 ,there's not a bonie flower that springs ,by fountain1 shaw1 or green ,there's not a bonie bird that sings1 ,but minds me o' my ,jean4#aj ,as this farm proved unprofitable1 ,burns appealed to influential persons for some position that would enable him to support his family and write poetry4 ,this was an age of pensions1 but not a farthing of pension did he ever get4 ,he was made an exciseman or gauger1 at a salary of #ej a year1 and he followed that occupation for the few remaining years of his life4 ,robert ,burns wrote and did some things unworthy of a great poet2 but when ,scotland thinks of him1 she quotes the lines which he wrote for ,tam ,samson's ,elegy3-- ,heav'n rest his saul1 whare'er he be6 ,is th' wish o' mony mae than me3 ,he had twa faults1 or maybe three1 ,yet what remead8#aa ,ae social1 honest man want we4 ,burns's ,poetic ,creed4--,we can understand and enjoy ,burns much better if we know his object in writing poetry and the point of view from which he regarded life4 ,it would be hard to fancy the intensity of the shock which the school of ,pope would have felt on reading this statement of the poor plowman's poetic creed3-- ,gie me ae spark o' ,nature's fire1 ,that's a' the learning ,i desire2 ,then tho' ,i drudge thro' dub an' mire ,at pleugh or cart1 ,my ,muse1 though hamely in attire1 ,may touch the heart4#ab ,burns's heart had been touched with the loves and sorrows of life1 and it was his ambition to sing so naturally of these as to touch the hearts of others4 ,with such an object in view1 he did not disdain to use in his best productions much of the ,scottish dialect1 the vernacular of the plowman and the shepherd4 ,the literary men of ,edinburgh1 who would rather have been convicted of a breach of etiquette than of a ,scotticism1 tried to induce him to write pure ,english2 but the ,scotch words which he first heard from his mother's lips seemed to possess more o' ,nature's fire4 ,he ended by touching the heart of ,scotland and making her feel more proud of this dialect1 of him1 and of herself4 ,illustration3 ,,burns ,,and ,,highland ,,mary4 ,from the painting by ,james ,archer4 ,union of the ,elizabethan with the ,revolutionary ,spirit4--,in no respect does the poetry of ,burns more completely part company with the productions of the classical school than in the expression of feeling4 ,the emotional fire of ,elizabethan times was restored to literature4 ,no poet except ,shakespeare has ever written more nobly impassioned love songs4 ,burns's song beginning3-- ,ae fond kiss and then we sever seemed to both ,byron and ,scott to contain the essence of a thousand love tales4 ,this unaffected1 passionate treatment of love had long been absent from our literature2 but intensity of genuine feeling reappeared in ,burns's ,highland ,mary1 ,i ,love ,my ,jean1 ,farewell to ,nancy1 ,to ,mary in ,heaven1 ,o ,wert ,thou in the ,cauld ,blast1 which last ,mendelssohn thought exquisite enough to set to music4 ,the poetry of ,burns throbs with varying emotions4 ,it has been well said that the essence of the lyric is to describe the passion of the moment4 ,burns is a master in this field4 ,the spirit of revolution against the bondage and cold formalism of the past made the poor man feel that his place in the world was as dignified1 his happiness as important1 as that of the rich4 ,a feeling of sympathy for the oppressed and the helpless also reached beyond man to animals4 ,burns wrote touching lines about a mouse whose nest was1 one cold ,november day1 destroyed by his plow4 ,when the wild eddying swirl of the snow beat around his cot1 his heart went out to the poor sheep1 cattle1 and birds4 ,burns can1 therefore1 claim kinship with the ,elizabethans because of his love songs1 which in depth of feeling and beauty of natural utterance show something of ,shakespeare's magic4 ,in addition to this1 the poetry of ,burns voices the democratic spirit of the ,revolution4 ,treatment of ,nature4--,in his verses1 the autumn winds blow over yellow corn2 the fogs melt in limpid air2 the birches extend their fragrant arms dressed in woodbine2 the lovers are coming through the rye2 the daisy spreads her snowy bosom to the sun2 the westlin winds blow fragrant with dewy flowers and musical with the melody of birds2 the brook flows past the lover's ,eden1 where summer first unfolds her robes and tarries longest1 because of the rarest bewitching enchantment of the poet's tale told there4 ,in his poetry those conventional birds1--the lark and the nightingale1--do not hold the chief place4 ,his verses show that the source of his knowledge of birds is not to be sought in books4 ,we catch glimpses of grouse cropping heather buds1 of whirring flocks of partridges1 of the sooty coot and the speckled teal1 of the fisher herons1 of the green-crested lapwing1 of clamoring craiks among fields of flowering clover1 of robins cheering the pensive autumn1 of lintwhites chanting among the buds1 of the mavis singing drowsy day to rest4 ,it is true that on the poetic stage of ,burns1 man always stands in the foreground4 ,nature is employed in order to give human emotion a proper background4 ,burns chose those aspects of nature which harmonized with his present mood1 but the natural objects in his pages are none the less enjoyable for that reason4 ,sometimes his songs complain if nature seems gay when he is sad1 but this contrast is employed to throw a stronger light on his woes4 ,general ,characteristics4--,more people often visit the birthplace of ,burns near ,ayr than of ,shakespeare at ,stratford-on-,avon4 ,what qualities in ,burns account for such popularity8 ,the fact that the ,scotch are an unusually patriotic people and make many pilgrimages to the land of ,burns is only a partial answer to this question4 ,the complete answer is to be found in a study of ,burns's characteristics4 ,in the first place1 with his spark o' ,nature's fire1 he has touched the hearts of more of the rank and file of humanity than even ,shakespeare himself4 ,the songs of ,burns minister in the simplest and most direct way to every one of the common feelings of the human heart4 ,shakespeare surpasses all others in painting universal human nature1 but he is not always simple4 ,sometimes his audience consists of only the cultured few4 ,especially enjoyable is the humor of ,burns1 which usually displays a kindly and intuitive sympathy with human weakness4 ,tam o' ,shanter1 his greatest poem1 keeps the reader smiling or laughing from beginning to end4 ,when the ,scottish ,muse proudly placed on his brow the holly wreath1 she happily emphasized two of his conspicuous qualities1--his love and mirth1 when she said3-- ,i saw thee eye the gen'ral mirth ,with boundless love4#ac ,burns is one of the great masters of lyrical verse4 ,he preferred that form4 ,he wrote neither epic nor dramatic poetry4 ,he excels in short swallow flights of song4 ,there are not many ways in which a poet can keep larger audiences or come nearer to them than by writing verses that naturally lend themselves to daily song4 ,there are few persons1 from the peasant to the lord1 who have not sung some of ,burns's songs such as ,auld ,lang ,syne1 ,coming through the ,rye1 ,john ,anderson my ,jo1 or ,scots ,wha hae wi' ,wallace ,bled4 ,since the day of his death1 the audiences of ,robert ,burns have for these reasons continually grown larger4 ,,walter ,,scott1 #agga-ahcb ,illustration3 ,,walter ,,scott4 ,from the painting by ,william ,nicholson4 ,life4--,walter ,scott1 the son of a solicitor1 was born in ,edinburgh in #agga4 ,in childhood he was such an invalid that he was allowed to follow his own bent without much attempt at formal education4 ,he was taken to the country1 where he acquired a lasting fondness for animals and wild scenery4 ,with his first few shillings he bought the collection of early ballads and songs known as ,percy's ,reliques of ,ancient ,english ,poetry4 ,of this he says1 ,i do not believe ,i ever read a book half so frequently1 or with half the enthusiasm4 ,his grandmother used to delight him with the tales of adventure on the ,scottish border4 ,later1 ,scott went to the ,edinburgh ,high ,school and to the ,university4 ,at the ,high ,school he showed wonderful genius for telling stories to the boys4 ,i made a brighter figure in the yards than in the class1 he says of himself at this time4 ,this early practice of relating tales and noting what held the attention of his classmates was excellent training for the future ,wizard of the ,north4 ,after the apprenticeship to his father1 the son was called to the bar and began the practice of law4 ,he often left his office to travel over the ,scottish counties in search of legendary ballads1 songs1 and traditions1 a collection of which he published under the title of ,minstrelsy of the ,scottish ,border4 ,in #agig he married ,miss ,charlotte ,carpenter1 who had an income of #ejj a year4 ,in #agii1 having obtained the office of sheriff of ,selkirkshire at an annual salary of #cjj1 with very light duties1 he found himself able to neglect law for literature4 ,his early freedom from poverty is in striking contrast to the condition of his fellow ,scotsman1 ,robert ,burns4 ,during the period between thirty and forty years of age1 he wrote his best poems4 ,not until he was nearly forty-three did he discover where his greatest powers lay4 ,he then published ,waverley1 the first of a series of novels known by that general name4 ,during the remaining eighteen years of his life he wrote twenty-nine novels1 besides many other works1 such as the ,life of ,napoleon in nine volumes1 and an entertaining work on ,scottish history under the title of ,tales of a ,grandfather4 ,illustration3 ,,abbotsford1 ,,home ,,of ,,sir ,,walter ,,scott4 ,the crisis that showed ,scott's sterling character came in the winter of #ahbe-ahbf1 when an ,edinburgh publishing firm in which he was interested failed and left an his shoulders a debt of #aag1jjj4 ,had he been a man of less honor1 he might have taken advantage of the bankrupt law1 which would have left his future earnings free from past claims2 but he refused to take any step that would remove his obligation to pay the debt4 ,at the age of fifty four1 he abandoned his happy dream of founding the house of ,scott of ,abbotsford and sat down to pay off the debt with his pen4 ,the example of such a life is better than the finest sermon on honor4 ,he wrote with almost inconceivable rapidity4 ,his novel ,woodstock1 the product of three months' work1 brought him #hbbh4 ,in four years he paid #gj1jjj to his creditors4 ,one day the tears rolled down his cheeks because he could no longer force his fingers to grasp the pen4 ,the king offered him a man-of-war in which to make a voyage to the ,mediterranean4 ,hoping to regain his health1 ,scott made the trip1 but the rest came too late4 ,he returned to ,abbotsford in a sinking condition1 and died in #ahcb1 at the age of sixty-one4 ,illustration3 ,,scott',s ,,grave ,,in ,,dryburgh ,,abbey4 ,poetry4--,scott's three greatest poems are ,the ,lay of the ,last ,minstrel 7#ahje71 ,marmion 7#ahjh71 and ,the ,lady of the ,lake 7#ahaj74 ,they belong to the distinct class of story-telling poetry4 ,like many of the ballads in ,percy's collection1 these poems are stories of old feuds between the ,highlander and the ,lowlander1 and between the border lords of ,england and ,scotland4 ,these romantic tales of heroic battles1 thrilling incidents1 and love adventures1 are told in fresh1 vigorous verse1 which breathes the free air of wild nature and moves with the prance of a war horse4 ,outside of ,homer1 we can nowhere find a better description of a battle than in the sixth canto of ,marmion3 ,a ,tale of ,flodden ,field3-- ,they close1 in clouds of smoke and dust1 ,with sword sway and with lance's thrust2 ,and such a yell was there1 ,of sudden and portentous birth1 ,as if men fought upon the earth1 ,and fiends in upper air2 99 99 99 99 99 ,and in the smoke the pennons flew1 ,as in the storm the white sea mew4 ,the ,lady of the ,lake1 an extremely interesting story of romantic love and adventure1 has been the most popular of ,scott's poems4 ,loch ,katrine and the ,trossachs1 where the scene of the opening cantos is laid1 have since ,scott's day been thronged with tourists4 ,illustration3 ,,loch ,,katrine ,,and ,,ellen',s ,,isle4 ,the most prominent characteristic of ,scott's poetry is its energetic movement4 ,many schoolboys know by heart those dramatic lines which express ,marmion's defiance of ,douglas1 and the ballad of ,lochinvar1 which is alive with the movements of tireless youth4 ,these poems have an interesting story to tell1 not of the thoughts1 but of the deeds1 of the characters4 ,scott is strangely free from nineteenth century introspection4 ,historical ,fiction4--,seeing that ,byron could surpass him as a poet1 and finding that his own genius was best adapted to writing prose tales1 ,scott turned to the composition of his great romances4 ,in #ahad he published ,waverly1 a story of the attempt of the ,jacobite ,pretender to recover the ,english throne in #agde4 ,seventeen of ,scott's works of fiction are historical4 ,when we wish a vivid picture of the time of ,richard ,coeur de ,lion1 of the knight and the castle1 of the ,saxon swineherd ,gurth and of the ,norman master who ate the pork1 we may read ,ivanhoe4 ,if we desire some reading that will make the ,crusaders live again1 we find it in the pages of ,the ,talisman4 ,when we wish an entertaining story of the brilliant days of ,elizabeth1 we turn to ,kenilworth4 ,if we are moved by admiration for the ,scotch ,covenanters to seek a story of their times1 we have ,scott's truest historical tale1 ,old ,mortality4 ,shortly after this story appeared1 ,lord ,holland was asked his opinion of it4 ,opinion6 he exclaimed2 we did not one of us go to bed last night--nothing slept but my gout4 ,the man who could thus charm his readers was called the ,wizard of the ,north4 ,illustration3 ,,walter ,,scott4 ,from a life sketch by ,maclise4 ,scott is the creator of the historical novel1 which has advanced on the general lines marked out by him4 ,carlyle tersely says3 ,these historical novels have taught all men this truth1 which looks like a truism1 and yet was as good as unknown to writers of history and others till so taught3 that the by-gone ages of the world were actually filled by living men1 not by protocols1 state papers1 controversies1 and abstractions of men4 ,the history in ,scott's novels is not always absolutely accurate4 ,to meet the exigencies of his plot1 he sometimes takes liberties with the events of history1 and there are occasional anachronisms in his work4 ,readers may rest assured1 however1 that the most prominent strokes of his brush will convey a sufficiently accurate idea of certain phases of history4 ,although the hair lines in his pictures may be neglected1 most persons can learn more truth from studying his gallery of historic scenes than from poring over volumes of documents and state papers4 ,scott does not look at life from every point of view4 ,the reader of ,ivanhoe1 for instance1 should be cautioned against thinking that it presents a complete picture of the ,middle ,ages4 ,it shows the bright1 the noble side of chivalry1 but not all the brutality1 ignorance1 and misery of the times4 ,novels that are not ,historical4--,twelve of ,scott's novels contain but few attempts to represent historic events4 ,the greatest of these novels are ,guy ,mannering1 ,the ,heart of ,midlothian1 ,the ,antiquary1 and ,the ,bride of ,lammermoor4 ,scott said that his most rapid work was his best4 ,guy ,mannering1 an admirable picture of ,scottish life and manners1 was written in six weeks4 ,some of its characters1 like ,dominie ,sampson1 the pedagogue1 ,meg ,merrilies1 the gypsy1 and ,dick ,hatteraick1 the smuggler1 have more life than many of the people we meet4 ,a century before1 ,pope said that most women had no characters at all4 ,his writings tend to show that this was his real conviction1 as it was that of many others during the time when ,shakespeare was little read4 ,the ,heart of ,midlothian presents in ,jeanie ,deans a woman whose character and feminine qualities have won the admiration of the world4 ,scott could not paint women in the higher walks of life4 ,he was so chivalrous that he was prone to make such women too perfect1 but his humble ,scotch lass ,jeanie ,deans is one of his greatest creations4 ,illustration3 ,,scott',s ,,desk ,,at ,,abbotsford4 ,when we note the vast number of characters drawn by his pen1 we are astonished to find that he repeats so little4 ,many novelists write only one original novel4 ,their succeeding works are merely repetitions of the first4 ,the hero may have put on a new suit of clothes and the heroine may have different colored hair1 or each may be given a new mannerism1 but there is nothing really new in character1 and very little in incident4 ,year after year1 however1 ,scott wrote with wonderful rapidity1 without repeating his characters or his plots4 ,general ,characteristics4--,all critics are impressed with the healthiness of ,scott's work1 with its freedom from what is morbid or debasing4 ,his stories display marked energy and movement1 and but little subtle analysis of feelings and motives4 ,he aimed at broad and striking effects4 ,we do not find much development of character in his pages4 ,his characters have the brilliance and the fixity of portraits4 ,scott does not particularly care to delineate the intense passion of love4 ,only one of his novels1 ,the ,bride of ,lammermoor1 is aflame with this overmastering emotion4 ,he delights in adventure4 ,he places his characters in unusual and dangerous situations1 and he has succeeded in making us feel his own interest in the outcome4 ,he has on a larger scale many of the qualities that we may note in the ,american novelist ,cooper1 whose best stories are tales of adventure in the forest or on the sea4 ,like him1 ,scott shows lack of care in the construction of sentences4 ,few of the most cultured people of to-day could1 however1 write at ,scott's breakneck speed and make as few slips4 ,scott has far more humor and variety than ,cooper4 ,scott's romanticism is seen in his love for supernatural agencies1 which figure in many of his stories4 ,his fondness for adventure1 for mystery1 for the rush of battle1 for color and sharp contrast1 and his love for the past are also romantic traits4 ,sometimes1 however1 he falls into the classical fault of overdescription and of leaving too little to the imagination4 ,in the variety of his creations1 he is equaled by no one4 ,he did more than any other pioneer to aid fiction in dethroning the drama4 ,his influence can be seen in the historical novels of almost every nation4 ,,jane ,,austen1 #agge-ahag ,illustration3 ,,jane ,,austen4 ,from an original family portrait4 ,life and ,works4--,while ,sir ,walter ,scott was laying the foundations of his large family estates and recounting the story of battles1 chivalry1 and brigandage1 a quiet little woman1 almost unmindful of the great world1 was enlivening her father's parsonage and writing about the clergy1 the old maids1 the short-sighted mothers1 the marriageable daughters1 and other people that figure in village life4 ,this cheery1 sprightly young woman was ,jane ,austen1 who was born in ,steventon1 ,hampshire1 in #agge4 ,she spent nearly all her life in ,hampshire1 which furnished her with the chief material for her novels4 ,she loved the quiet life of small country villages and interpreted it with rare sympathy and a keen sense of humor1 as is shown in the following lines from ,pride and ,prejudice3-- ',oh1 ,mr4 ,bennet1 you are wanted immediately2 we are all in an uproar6 ,you must come and make ,lizzy marry ,mr4 ,collins1 for she vows she will not have him2 and if you do not make haste he will change his mind and not have her6' ',come here1 child1' cried her father 444 ',i understand that ,mr4 ,collins has made you an offer of marriage4 ,is it true8' ,elizabeth replied that it was4 ',very well--and this offer of marriage you have refused8' ',i have1 sir4' ',very well4 ,we now come to the point4 ,your mother insists upon your accepting it4 ,is it not so1 ,mrs4 ,bennet8' ',yes1 or ,i will never see her again4' ',an unhappy alternative is before you1 ,elizabeth4 ,from this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents4 ,your mother will never see you again if you do not marry ,mr4 ,collins1 and ,i will never see you again if you do6' ,she began her literary work early1 and at the age of sixteen she had accumulated quite a pile of manuscripts4 ,she wrote as some artists paint1 for the pure joy of the work1 and she never allowed her name to appear on a title page4 ,the majority of her acquaintances did not even suspect her of the guilt of authorship4 ,she disliked ,gothic romances1 such as ,the ,mysteries of ,udolpho1 and she wrote ,northanger ,abbey as a burlesque of that type4 ,in this story the heroine1 ,catherine ,moreland1 who has been fed on such literature1 is invited to visit ,northanger ,abbey in ,gloucestershire1 where with an imagination resolved on alarm1 she is prepared to be agitated by experiences of trapdoors and subterranean passages4 ,on the first night of her visit1 a violent storm1 with its mysterious noises1 serves to arouse the most characteristic ,gothic feelings2 but when the complete awakening comes and the visions of romance are over1 ,catherine realizes that real life is not fruitful of such horrors as are depicted in her favorite novels4 ,pride and ,prejudice is usually considered ,jane ,austen's best work1 although ,sense and ,sensibility1 ,emma1 ,mansfield ,park1 and ,persuasion have their ardent admirers4 ,in fact1 there is an increasing number of discriminating readers who enjoy almost everything that she wrote4 ,during the last five years of the eighteenth century1 she produced some of her best novels1 although they were not published until the period between #ahaa and #ahah4 ,the scenes of her stories are laid for the most part in small ,hampshire villages1 with which she was thoroughly familiar1 the characters being taken from the middle class and the gentry with whom she was thrown4 ,simple domestic episodes and ordinary people1 living somewhat monotonous and narrow lives1 satisfy her4 ,she exhibits wonderful skill in fashioning these into slight but entertaining narratives4 ,in ,pride and ,prejudice1 for example1 she creates some refreshing situations by opposing ,philip ,darcy's pride to ,elizabeth ,bennet's prejudice4 ,she manages the long-delayed reconciliation between these two lovers with a tact that shows true genius and a knowledge of the human heart4 ,illustration3 ,,jane ,,austen',s ,,desk4 ,a strong feature of ,jane ,austen's novels is her subtle1 careful manner of drawing character4 ,she perceives with an intuitive refinement the delicate shadings of emotion1 and describes them with the utmost care and detail4 ,her heroines are especially fine1 each one having an interesting individuality1 thoroughly natural and womanly4 ,the minor characters in ,miss ,austen's works are usually quaint and original4 ,she sees the oddities and foibles of people with the insight of the true humorist1 and paints them with most dexterous cunning4 ,william ,d4 ,howells1 the chief ,american realist of the nineteenth century1 wrote in #ahia of her and her novels3-- ,she was great and they were beautiful because she and they were honest and dealt with nature nearly a hundred years ago as realism deals with it to-day4 ,realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material4 ,she was1 indeed1 a great realist1 and it seems strange that she and ,scott1 the great romanticist1 should have been contemporaries4 ,scott was both broad and big-hearted enough to sum up her chief characteristics as follows3-- ,that young lady has a talent for describing the involvements of feelings and characters of ordinary life1 which is to me the most wonderful ,i ever met with4 ,the big bow-wow strain ,i can do myself1 like any one going2 but the exquisite touch which renders commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me4 ,she died in #ahag at the age of forty-one and was buried in ,winchester ,cathedral1 fourteen miles from her birthplace4 ,the merit of her work was apparent to only a very few at the time of her death4 ,later years have slowly brought a just recognition of the important position that she holds in the history of the realistic novel of daily life4 ,of still greater significance to the majority is the fact that the subtle charm of her stories continues to win for her an enlarged circle of readers4 ,,william ,,wordsworth1 #aggj-ahej ,illustration3 ,,william ,,wordsworth4 ,after the portrait by ,b4,r4 ,haydon4 ,early ,life and ,training4--,william ,wordsworth was born in ,cockermouth1 ,cumberland1 in #aggj4 ,he went to school in his ninth year at ,hawkshead1 a village on the banks of ,esthwaite ,water1 in the heart of the ,lake ,country4 ,the traveler who takes the pleasant journey on foot or coach from ,windermere to ,coniston1 passes through ,hawkshead1 where he may see ,wordsworth's name cut in a desk of the school which he attended4 ,of greater interest is the scenery which contributed so much to his education and aided his development into ,england's greatest nature poet4 ,we learn from his autobiographical poem1 ,the ,prelude1 what experiences molded him in boyhood4 ,he says that the-- 444common face of ,nature spake to me ,rememberable things4 ,in this poem he relates how he absorbed into his inmost being the orange sky of evening1 the curling mist1 the last autumnal crocus1 the souls of lonely places1 and the huge peak1 which terrified him at nightfall by seeming to stride after him and which awoke in him a-- 444dim and undermined sense ,of unknown modes of being4 ,illustration3 ,,boy ,,of ,,winander4 ,from mural painting by ,h4,o4 ,walker1 ,congressional ,library1 ,washington1 ,d4,c4 ,in his famous lines on the ,boy of ,winander1 ,wordsworth tells how-- 444the voice ,of mountain torrents2 or the visible scene ,would enter unawares into his mind ,with all its solemn imagery1 its rocks1 ,its woods1 and that uncertain heaven1 received ,into the bosom of the steady lake4 ,at the age of seventeen he entered ,cambridge ,university1 from which he was graduated after a four years' course4 ,he speaks of himself there as a dreamer passing through a dream4 ,there came to him the strange feeling that he was not for that hour nor for that place2 and yet he says that he was not unmoved by his daily association with the haunts of his illustrious predecessors1 or of-- ,sweet ,spenser1 moving through his clouded heaven ,with the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace1 and of ,milton whose soul seemed to ,wordsworth like a star4 ,influence of the ,french ,revolution4--,his travels on the continent in his last vacation and after his graduation brought him in contact with the ,french ,revolution1 of which he felt the inspiring influence4 ,he was fond of children1 and the sight of a poor little ,french peasant girl seems to have been one of the main causes leading him to become an ardent revolutionist4 ,the ,prelude tells in concrete fullness how he walked along the banks of the ,loire with his friend1 a ,french patriot3-- 444,and when we chanced ,one day to meet a hunger-bitten girl1 ,who crept along fitting her languid gait ,unto a heifer's motion1 by a cord ,tied to her arm1 and picking thus from the lane ,its sustenance1 while the girl with pallid hands ,was busy knitting in a heartless mood ,of solitude1 and at the sight my friend ,in agitation said1 '',tis against that ,that we are fighting4' ,just as ,wordsworth was prepared to throw himself personally into the conflict1 his relatives recalled him to ,england4 ,when the ,revolution passed into a period of anarchy and bloodshed1 his dejection was intense4 ,as he slowly recovered from his disappointment1 he became more and more conservative in politics and less in sympathy with violent agitation2 but he never ceased to utter a hopeful though calm and tempered note for genuine liberty4 ,maturity and ,declining ,years4--,although ,wordsworth was early left an orphan1 he never seemed to lack intelligent care and sympathy4 ,his sister ,dorothy1 a rare soul1 helped to fashion him into a poet4 ,their favorite pastime was walking and observing nature4 ,de ,quincey estimates that ,wordsworth1 during the course of his life1 mast have walked as many as #age1jjj miles4 ,he acted on his belief that-- ,all things that love the sun are out of doors1 and he composed his best poetry during his walks1 dictating it after his return4 ,he must have had the capacity of impressing himself favorably on his associates or he might never have had the leisure to write poetry4 ,when he was twenty-five1 a friend left him a legacy of #ijj to enable him to follow his chosen calling of poet4 ,seven years later1 friends saw that he was appointed distributor of stamps for ,westmoreland1 at the annual salary of #djj4 ,years afterward1 a friend gave him a regular allowance to be spent in traveling4 ,the summer of #agig saw him and ,dorothy begin a golden year at ,alfoxden in ,somersetshire1 in close association with ,coleridge4 ,the result of this companionship was ,lyrical ,ballads1 an epoch-making volume of romantic verse1 containing such gems as ,wordsworth's ,lines composed a ,few ,miles above ,tintern ,abbey1 ,lines written in ,early ,spring1 ,we ,are ,seven1 and ,coleridge's ,the ,ancient ,mariner4 ,all good poetry1 wrote ,wordsworth in the ,preface to the second edition of this volume1 is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings4 ,this is the opposite of the belief of the classical school4 ,in #agig1 after a trip to ,germany1 he and ,dorothy settled at ,dove ,cottage1 ,grasmere1 in the ,lake ,country4 ,she remained a member of the household after he married his cousin1 ,mary ,hutchinson1 in #ahjb4 ,the history of ,english authors shows no more ideal companionship than that of these three kindred souls4 ,dove ,cottage where he wrote the best of his poetry1 remains almost unchanged4 ,it is one of the most interesting literary homes in ,england4 ,illustration3 ,,dove ,,cottage4 ,in #ahac he moved a short distance away1 to ,rydal ,mount1 where he lived the remainder of his life4 ,in #ahdc he was chosen poet laureate4 ,he died in #ahej and was buried in ,grasmere ,churchyard4 ,a ,poet of ,nature4--,wordsworth is one of the world's most loving and thoughtful lyrical poets of ,nature4 ,for him she possessed a soul1 a conscious existence1 an ability to feel joy and love4 ,in ,lines written in ,early ,spring1 he expresses this belief3-- ,and 'tis my faith that every flower ,enjoys the air it breathes4 ,all things seem to him to feel pure joy in existence3-- ,the moon doth with delight ,look round her when the heavens are bare4 ,it was also his poetic creed that ,nature could bring to human hearts a message of solace and companionship4 ,his poem1 ,lines composed a ,short ,distance above ,tintern ,abbey1 is a remarkable exposition of this faith4 ,he would have scorned to be considered merely a descriptive poet of nature4 ,he satirizes those who could do nothing more than correctly apply the color yellow to the primrose3-- ,a primrose by a river's brim ,a yellow primrose was to him ,and it was nothing more4 ,he interprets the sympathetic soul of ,nature1 not merely her outward or her intellectual aspect4 ,he says in ,the ,prelude3-- ,from ,nature and her overflowing soul ,i had received so much1 that all my thoughts ,were steeped in feeling4 ,if we compare ,wordsworth's line-- ,this ,sea that bares her bosom to the moon1#ad with ,tennyson's line from ,the ,princess-- ,a full sea glazed with muffled moonlight1 we may easily decide which shows more feeling and which1 more art4 ,many poets have produced beautiful paintings of the external features of nature4 ,with rare genius1 ,wordsworth looked beyond the color of the flower1 the outline of the hills1 the beauty of the clouds1 to the spirit that breathed through them1 and he communed with ,nature's self1 which is the breath of ,god4 ,he introduced lovers of his poetry to a new world of nature1 a new source of companionship and solace1 a new idea of a ,being in cloud and air and the green leaves among the groves4 ,poetry of ,man3 ,narrative ,poems4--,wordsworth is a poet of man as well as of nature4 ,the love for nature came to him first2 but out of it grew his regard for the people who lived near to nature4 ,his poetry of man is found more in his longer narrative poems1 although in them as well as in his shorter pieces1 he shows the action of nature on man4 ,in ,the ,prelude1 the most remarkable autobiographical poem in ,english1 not only reveals the power in nature to develop man1 but he also tells how the ,french revolution made him feel the worth of each individual soul and a sense of the equality of all humanity at the bar of character and conscience4 ,as his lyrics show the sympathetic soul of nature1 so his narrative poems illustrate the second dominant characteristic of the age1 the strong sense of the worth of the humblest man4 ,illustration3 ,,grasmere ,,lake4 ,michael1 one of the very greatest of his productions1 displays a tender and living sympathy with the humble shepherd4 ,the simple dignity of ,michael's character1 his frugal and honorable life1 his affection for his son1 for his sheep1 and for his forefather's old home1 appealed to the heart of the poet4 ,he loved his subject and wrote the poem with that indescribable simplicity which makes the tale1 the verse1 and the tone of thought and feeling form together one perfect and indissoluble whole4 ,the ,leech-,gatherer and the story of ,margaret in ,the ,excursion also deal with lowly characters and exhibit ,wordsworth's power of pathos and simple earnestness4 ,he could not present complex personalities2 but these characters1 which belonged to the landscapes of the ,lake ,district and partook of its calm and its simplicity1 he drew with a sure hand4 ,his longest narrative poem is ,the ,excursion 7#ahad71 which is in nine books4 ,it contains fine passages of verse and some of his sanest and maturest philosophy2 but the work is not the masterpiece that he hoped to make4 ,it is tedious1 prosy1 and without action of any kind4 ,the style1 which is for the most part heavy1 becomes pure and easy only in some description of a mountain peak or in the recital of a tale1 like that of ,margaret4 ,an ,interpreter of ,child ,life4--,perhaps the ,french ,revolution and the unforgettable incident of the pitiable peasant child were not without influence in causing him to become a great poetic interpreter of childhood4 ,no poem has surpassed his ,alice ,fell1 or ,poverty in presenting the psychology of childish grief1 or his ,we ,are ,seven in voicing the faith of-- 444,a simple child1 ,that lightly draws its breath1 ,and feels its life in every limb1 or the loneliness of the solitary child in ,lucy ,gray3-- ,the sweetest thing that ever grew ,beside a human door4 ,in the poem1 ,three ,years ,she ,grew in ,sun and ,shower1 ,nature seems to have chosen ,wordsworth as her spokesman to describe the part that she would play in educating a child4 ,nature says3-- ,this child ,i to myself will take2 ,she shall be mine1 and ,i will make ,a lady of my own4 99 99 99 99 99 444,she shall lean her ear ,in many a secret place ,where rivulets dance their wayward round1 ,and beauty born of murmuring sound ,shall pass into her face4 ,one of the finest similes in all the poetry of nature may be found in the stanza which likens the charms of a little girl to those of3-- ,a violet by a mossy stone ,half hidden from the eye6 ,fair as a star when only one ,is shining in the sky4 ,finally1 in his ,intimations of ,immortality from ,recollections of ,early ,childhood1 he glorifies universal childhood1 that eye among the blind1 capable of seeing this common earth-- ,appareled in celestial light1 ,the glory and the freshness of a dream4 ,general ,characteristics4--,four of ,wordsworth's characteristics go hand in hand1--sincerity1 feeling1 depth of thought1 and simplicity of style4 ,the union of these four qualities causes his great poems to continue to yield pleasure after an indefinite number of readings4 ,in his garden of poetry1 the daffodil blossoms all the year for the inward eye1 and the wandering voice of the cuckoo never ceases to awaken springtime in the heart4 ,his own age greeted with so much ridicule the excessive simplicity of the presentation of ordinary childish grief in ,alice ,fell1 that he excluded it from many editions of his poems4 ,we now recognize the special charm of his simplicity in expressing those feelings and thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears4 ,wordsworth was most truly great when he seemed to write as naturally as he breathed1 when he appeared unconscious of the power that he wielded4 ,when he attempted to command it at will1 he failed1 as in the dull1 lifeless lines of ,the ,excursion4 ,sometimes even his labored simplicity is no better than prose2 but such simple and natural poems as ,michael1 ,the ,solitary ,reaper1 ,to ,my ,sister1 ,three ,years ,she ,grew in ,sun and ,shower1 and the majority of the poems showing the new attitude toward childhood1 are priceless treasures of ,english literature4 ,of most of these1 we may say with ,matthew ,arnold1 ,it might seem that ,nature not only gave him the matter for his poem1 but wrote his poem for him4 ,illustration3 ,,william ,,wordsworth4 ,from a life sketch in ,fraser's ,magazine4 ,wordsworth lacks humor and his compass is limited2 but within that compass he is surpassed by no poet since ,milton4 ,on the other hand1 no great poet ever wrote more that is almost worthless4 ,matthew ,arnold did much for ,wordsworth's renown by collecting his priceless poems and publishing them apart from the mediocre work4 ,among the fine productions1 his sonnets occupy a high place4 ,only ,shakespeare and ,milton in our language excel him in this form of verse4 ,wordsworth is greatest as a poet of nature4 ,to him nature seemed to possess a conscious soul1 which expressed itself in the primrose1 the rippling lake1 or the cuckoo's song1 with as much intelligence as human lips ever displayed in whispering a secret to the ear of love4 ,this interpretation of nature gives him a unique position among ,english poets4 ,neither ,shakespeare nor ,milton had any such general conception of nature4 ,illustration3 ,,rydal ,,mount ,,near ,,ambleside1 ,,the ,,home ,,of ,,wordsworth',s ,,old ,,age4 ,the bereaved1 the downcast1 and those in need of companionship turn naturally to ,wordsworth4 ,he said that it was his aim to console the afflicted1 to add sunshine to daylight4 ,his critics often say that he does not recognize the indifference1 even the cruelty of nature2 but that he chooses1 instead1 to present the world as a manifestation of love and care for all creatures4 ,when he was shown where a cruel huntsman and his dogs had chased a poor hart to its death1 ,wordsworth wrote3-- ,this beast not unobserved by nature fell2 ,his death was mourned by sympathy divine4 ,the ,being that is in the clouds and air1 ,that is in the green leaves among the groves1 ,maintains a deep and reverential care ,for the unoffending creatures whom he loves4#ae ,whatever view we take of the indifference of nature or of the suffering in existence1 it is necessary for us1 in order to live hopeful and kindly lives1 to feel with ,wordsworth that the great powers of the universe are not devoid of sympathy1 and that they encourage in us the development of a spirit of love for all earth's creatures4 ,it was ,wordsworth's deepest conviction that any one alive to the presence of nature's conscious spiritual force1 that rolls through all things-- ,shall feel an overseeing power ,to kindle or restrain4 ,,samuel ,,taylor ,,coleridge1 #agbb-ahcd ,illustration3 ,,samuel ,,taylor ,,coleridge4 ,from a pencil sketch by ,c4,r4 ,leslie4 ,life4--,the troubled career of ,coleridge is in striking contrast to the peaceful life of ,wordsworth4 ,coleridge1 the thirteenth child of a clergyman1 was born in #aggb at ,ottery ,st4 ,mary1 ,devonshire4 ,early in his life1 the future poet became a confirmed dreamer1 refusing to participate in the play common to boys of his age4 ,before he was five years old1 he had read the ,arabian ,nights4 ,only a few years later1 the boy's appetite for books became so voracious that he devoured an average of two volumes a day4 ,one evening1 when he was about nine years old1 he had a violent quarrel with his brother and ran away1 sleeping out of doors all night4 ,a cold ,october rain fell2 but he was not found until morning1 when he was carried home more dead than alive4 ,i was certainly injured2 he says of this adventure1 for ,i was weakly and subject to ague for many years after4 ,facts like these help to explain why physical pain finally led him to use opium4 ,after his father's death1 young ,coleridge became1 at the age of ten1 a pupil in ,christ's ,hospital1 ,london1 where he remained eight years4 ,during the first half of his stay here1 his health was still further injured by continuing as he was in earlier childhood1 a playless daydreamer1 and by a habit of almost constant reading4 ,he says that the food was cruelly insufficient for those who had no friends to supply them4 ,he writes3-- ,conceive what ,i must have been at fourteen2 ,i was in a continual low fever4 ,my whole being was1 with eyes closed to every object of present sense1 to crumple myself up in a sunny corner1 and read1 read1 read--fancy myself on ,robinson ,crusoe's island1 finding a mountain of plumcake1 and eating a room for myself1 and then eating it into the shapes of tables and chairs--hunger and fancy6 ,a few months after leaving ,christ's ,hospital1 ,coleridge went to ,cambridge1 but he did not remain to graduate4 ,from this time he seldom completed anything that he undertook4 ,it was characteristic of him1 stimulated by the spirit of the ,french ,revolution1 to dream of founding with ,southey a ,pantisocracy on the banks of the ,susquehanna4 ,in this ideal village across the sea1 the dreamers were to work only two hours a day and were to have all goods in common4 ,the demand for poetry was at this time sufficiently great for a bookseller to offer ,coleridge1 although he was as yet comparatively unknown1 thirty guineas for a volume of poems and a guinea and a half for each hundred lines after finishing that volume4 ,with such wealth in view1 ,coleridge married a ,miss ,fricker of ,bristol1 because no single people could join the new ideal commonwealth4 ,southey married her sister2 but the young enthusiasts were forced to abandon their project because they did not have sufficient money to procure passage across the ocean4 ,the tendency to dream1 however1 never forsook ,coleridge4 ,one of his favorite poems begins with this line3-- ,my eyes make pictures when they are shut4#af ,he recognized his disinclination to remain long at work on prearranged lines1 when he said1 ,i think that my soul must have prexisted in the body of a chamois chaser4 ,in #agig-agih ,coleridge lived with his young wife at ,nether-,stowey in ,somerset4 ,wordsworth and his sister ,dorothy moved to a house in the neighborhood in order to be near ,coleridge4 ,the two young men and ,dorothy ,wordsworth seemed to be exactly fitted to stimulate one another4 ,together they roamed over the ,quantock ,hills1 gazed upon the sea1 and planned ,the ,rime of the ,ancient ,mariner1 which is one of the few things that ,coleridge ever finished4 ,in little more than a year he wrote nearly all the the poetry that has made him famous4 ,had he1 like ,keats1 died when he was twenty-five1 the world would probably be wondering what heights of poetic fame ,coleridge might have reached2 but he became addicted to the use of opium and passed a wretched existence of thirty-six years longer1 partly in the ,lake ,district1 but chiefly in a suburb of ,london1 without adding to his poetic fame4 ,during his later years he did hack work for papers1 gave occasional lectures1 wrote critical and philosophical prose1 and became a talker almost as noted as ,dr4 ,johnson4 ,it is only just to ,coleridge to recognize the fact that even if he had never written a line of poetry1 his prose would entitle him to be ranked among ,england's greatest critics4 ,illustration3 ,,coleridge',s ,,cottage ,,at ,,nether-,,stowey4 ,coleridge's wide reading1 continued from boyhood1 made his contemporaries feel that he had the best intellectual equipment of any man in ,england since ,francis ,bacon's time4 ,once ,coleridge1 having forgotten the subject of his lecture1 was startled by the announcement that he would speak on a difficult topic1 entirely different from the one he had in mind2 but he was equal to the emergency and delivered an unusually good address4 ,young men used to flock to him in his old age to draw on his copious stores of knowledge and especially to hear him talk about ,german philosophy4 ,carlyle visited him for this purpose and speaks of the glorious1 balmy1 sunny islets1 islets of the blest and the intelligible1 which occasionally emerged from the mist of ,german metaphysics4 ,he spent the last eighteen years of his life in ,highgate with his kind friend1 ,dr4 ,gillman1 who succeeded in regulating and decreasing the amount of opium which ,coleridge took4 ,he died there in #ahcd and was buried in ,highgate ,cemetery4 ,westminster ,abbey does not have the honor of the grave of a single one of the great poets of this romantic age4 ,poetry4--,the ,ancient ,mariner 7#agih7 is ,coleridge's poetical masterpiece4 ,it is also one of the world's masterpieces4 ,the supernatural sphere into which it introduces the reader is a remarkable creation1 with its curse1 its polar spirit1 the phantom ship1 the seraph band1 and the magic breeze4 ,the mechanism of the poem is a triumph of romantic genius4 ,the meter1 the rhythm1 and the music have well-nigh magical effect4 ,almost every stanza shows not only exquisite harmony1 but also the easy mastery of genius in dealing with those weird scenes which romanticists love4 ,the moral interest of the poem is not inferior to its other charms4 ,the ,mariner killed the innocent ,albatross1 and we listen to the same kind of lesson as ,wordsworth teaches in his ,hart-,leap ,well3-- ,the spirit who bideth by himself ,in the land of mist and snow1 ,he loved the bird that loved the man ,who shat him with his bow4' ,the noble conclusion of the poem has for more than a hundred years continued to influence human conduct3-- ,he prayeth best who loveth best ,all things both great and small2 ,for the dear ,god who loveth us1 ,he made and loveth all4 ,his next greatest poem is the unfinished ,christabel 7#ahaf74 ,a lovely maiden falls under the enchantments of a mysterious ,lady ,geraldine2 but the fragment closes while this malevolent influence continues4 ,we miss the interest of a finished story1 which draws so many readers to ,the ,ancient ,mariner1 although ,christabel is thickly sown with gems4 ,lines like these are filled with the airiness of nature3-- ,there is not wind enough to twirl ,the one red leaf1 the last of its clan1 ,that dances as often as dance it can1 ,hanging so light1 and hanging so high1 ,on the topmost twig that looks up at the sky4 ,in all literature there has been no finer passage written on the wounds caused by broken friendship than the lines in ,christabel relating to the estrangement of ,roland and ,sir ,leoline4 ,after reading this poem and ,kubla ,khan1 an unfinished dream fragment of fifty-four lines1 we feel that the closing lines of ,kubla ,khan are peculiarly applicable to ,coleridge3-- ,for he on honey dew hath fed ,and drunk the milk of ,paradise4 ,swinburne says of ,christabel and ,kubla ,khan3 ,when it has been said that such melodies were never heard1 such dreams never dreamed1 such speech never spoken1 the chief things remain unsaid1 unspeakable4 ,there is a charm upon these poems which can only be felt in silent submission and wonder4 ,general ,characteristics of his ,poetry4--,unlike ,wordsworth1 ,coleridge is not the poet of the earth and the common things of life4 ,he is the poet of air1 of the regions beyond the earth1 and of dreams4 ,by no poet has the supernatural been invested with more charm4 ,he has rare feeling for the beautiful1 whether in the world of morals2 of nature1 or of the harmonies of sound4 ,the motherless ,christabel in her time of danger dreams a beautiful truth of this divinely governed world3-- ,but this she knows1 in joys and woes1 ,that saints will aid if men will call3 ,for the blue sky bends over all4 ,his references to nature are less remarkable for description or photographic details than for suggestiveness and diffused charm1 such as we find in these lines3-- 444the sails made on ,a pleasant noise till noon1 ,a noise like of a hidden brook ,in the leafy month of ,june1 ,that to the sleeping woods all night ,singeth a quiet tune4 ,wordsworth wrote few poems simpler than ,the ,ancient ,mariner4 ,a stanza like this seems almost as simple as breathing3-- ,the moving moon went up the sky1 ,and nowhere did abide2 ,softly she was going up1 ,and a star or two beside4 ,prose4--,coleridge's prose1 which is almost all critical or philosophical1 left its influence on the thought of the nineteenth century4 ,when he was a young man1 he went to ,germany and studied philosophy with a continued vigor unusual for him4 ,he became an idealist and used the idealistic teachings of the ,german metaphysicians to combat the utilitarian and sense-bound philosophy of ,bentham1 ,malthus1 and ,mill4 ,we pass by ,coleridge's ,aids to ,reflection 7#ahbe71 the weightiest of his metaphysical productions1 to consider those works which possess a more vital interest for the student of literature4 ,illustration3 ,,coleridge ,,as ,a ,,young ,,man4 ,from a sketch made in ,germany4 ,his ,lectures on ,shakespeare1 delivered in #ahaa1 contained epoch-making ,shakespearean criticism4 ,we are told that every drawing-room in ,london discussed them4 ,his greatest work on criticism is entitled ,biographia ,literaria 7#b ,vols41 #ahag74 ,there are parts of it which no careful student of the development of modern criticism can afford to leave unread4 ,the central point of this work is the exposition of his theory of the romantic school of poetry4 ,he thus gives his own aim and that of ,wordsworth in the composition of the volume of poems1 known as ,lyrical ,ballads3-- 444it was agreed that my endeavors should be directed to persons and characters supernatural1 or at least romantic2 yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment1 which constitutes poetic faith4 ,mr4 ,wordsworth1 on the other hand1 was to propose to himself as his object1 to give the charm of novelty to things of every day1 and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom1 and directing it to the loveliness and wonders of the world before us4#ag ,coleridge does not hold ,wordsworth's belief that the language of common speech and of poetry should be identical4 ,he shows that ,wordsworth does better than follow his own theories4 ,yet1 when he considers both the excellencies and the defects of ,wordsworth's verse1 ,coleridge's verdict of praise is substantially that of the twentieth century4 ,this is an unusual triumph for a contemporary critic1 sitting in judgment on an author of an entirely new school and rendering a decision in opposition to that of the majority1 who1 he says1 have made it a business to attack and ridicule ,mr4 ,wordsworth444 ,his fame belongs to another age and can neither be accelerated nor retarded4#ah ,,george ,,noel ,,gordon1 ,,lord ,,byron1 #aghh-ahbd ,illustration3 ,,george ,,noel ,,gordon1 ,,lord ,,byron4 ,from a portrait by ,kramer4 ,life4--,byron was born in ,london in #aghh4 ,his father was a reckless1 dissipated spendthrift1 who deserted his wife and child4 ,mrs4 ,byron convulsively clasped her son to her one moment and threw the scissors and tongs at him the next1 calling him the lame brat1 in reference to his club foot4 ,such treatment drew neither respect nor obedience from ,byron1 who inherited the proud1 defiant spirit of his race4 ,his accession to the peerage in #agih did not tend to tame his haughty nature1 and he grew up passionately imperious and combative4 ,being ambitious1 he made excellent progress in his studies at ,harrow1 but when he entered ,cambridge he devoted much of his time to shooting1 swimming1 and other sports1 for which he was always famous4 ,in #ahji he started on a two years' trip through ,spain1 ,greece1 and the far ,east4 ,upon his return1 he published two cantos of ,childe ,harold's ,pilgrimage1 which describe his journey4 ,this poem made him immediately popular4 ,london society neglected its old favorite1 ,scott1 and eagerly sought out the handsome young peer who had burst suddenly upon it4 ,poem after poem was produced by this lion of society1 and each one was received with enthusiasm and delight4 ,probably no other ,english poet knew such instant widespread fame as ,byron4 ,suddenly and unexpectedly this adulation turned to hatred4 ,in #ahae ,byron married ,miss ,milbanke1 an heiress1 but she left him a year later4 ,although no reason for the separation was given1 the public fastened all the blame upon ,byron4 ,the feeling against him grew so strong that he was warned by his friends to prepare for open violence1 and finally1 in #ahaf1 he left ,england forever4 ,his remaining eight years were spent mostly in ,italy4 ,here1 his great beauty1 his exile1 his poetry1 and his passionate love of liberty made him a prominent figure throughout ,europe4 ,notwithstanding this fame1 life was a disappointment to ,byron4 ,baffled but rebellious1 he openly defied the conventions of his country2 and seemed to enjoy the shock it gave to his countrymen4 ,illustration3 ,,byron ,,at ,,seventeen4 ,from a painting4 ,the closing year of his life shone brightest of all4 ,his main activities had hitherto been directed to the selfish pursuit of his own pleasure2 and he had failed to obtain happiness4 ,but in #ahbc ,byron went to ,greece to aid the ,greeks1 who were battling with ,turkey for their independence4 ,into this struggle for freedom1 he poured his whole energies1 displaying a wonderful aptitude for managing the complicated intrigues and plans and selfishnesses which lay in the way4 ,his efforts cost him his life4 ,he contracted fever1 and1 after restlessly battling with the disease1 said quietly1 one ,april morning in #ahbd1 ,now ,i shall go to sleep4 ,his relatives asked in vain for permission to inter him in ,westminster ,abbey4 ,he was buried in the family vault at ,hucknall1 ,notthinghamshire1 not far from ,newstead ,abbey4 ,illustration3 ,,newstead ,,abbey1 ,,byron',s ,,home4 ,early ,works4--,the poems that ,byron wrote during his brilliant sojourn in ,london1 amid the whirl of social gayeties1 are ,the ,giaour1 ,the ,bride of ,abydos1 ,the ,corsair1 ,parisina1 ,lara1 and ,the ,siege of ,corinth4 ,these narrative poems are romantic tales of oriental passion and coloring1 which show the influence of ,scott4 ,they are told with a dash and a fine-sounding rhetoric well fitted to attract immediate attention2 but they lack the qualities of sincere feeling1 lofty thought1 and subtle beauty1 which give lasting fame4 ,his next publication1 ,the ,prisoner of ,chillon 7#ahaf71 is a much worthier poem4 ,the pathetic story is feelingly told in language that often displays remarkable energy and mastery of expression and versification4 ,his picture of the oppressive vacancy which the ,prisoner felt is a well-executed piece of very difficult word painting3-- ,there were no stars1 no earth1 no time1 ,no check1 no change1 no good1 no crime-- ,but silence1 and a stirless breath ,which neither was of life nor death2 ,a sea of stagnant idleness1 ,blind1 boundless1 mute1 and motionless6 ,illustration3 ,,castle ,,of ,,chillon4 ,dramas4--,byron wrote a number of dramas1 the best of which are ,manfred 7#ahag7 and ,cain 7#ahba74 ,his spirit of defiance and his insatiable thirst for power are the subjects of these dramas4 ,manfred is a man of guilt who is at war with humanity1 and who seeks refuge on the mountain tops and by the wild cataract4 ,he is fearless and untamed in all his misery1 and even in the hour of death does not quail before the spirits of darkness1 but defies them with the cry3-- ,back to thy hell6 ,thou hast no power upon me1 that ,i feel6 ,thou never shall possess me1 that ,i know2 ,what ,i have done is done2 ,i bear within ,a torture which could nothing gain from thine2 99 99 99 99 99 ,back1 ye baffled fiends6 ,the hand of death is on me--but not yours6 ,cain1 while suffering remorse for the slaying of ,abel1 is borne by ,lucifer through the boundless fields of the universe4 ,cain yet dares to question the wisdom of the ,almighty in bringing evil1 sin1 and remorse into the world4 ,a critic has remarked that ,milton wrote his great poem to justify the ways of ,god to man2 ,byron's object seems to be to justify the ways of man to ,god4 ,the very soul of stormy revolt breathes through both ,manfred and ,cain1 but ,cain has more interest as a pure drama4 ,it contains some sweet passages and presents one lovely woman1--,adah4 ,but ,byron could not interpret character wholly at variance with his own4 ,he possessed but little constructive skill1 and he never overcame the difficulties of blank verse4 ,a drama that does not show wide sympathy with varied types of humanity and the constructive capacity to present the complexities of life is lacking in essential elements of greatness4 ,childe ,harold1 ,the ,vision of ,judgment1 and ,don ,juan4--,his best works are the later poems1 which require only a slight framework or plot1 such as ,childe ,harold's ,pilgrimage1 ,the ,vision of ,judgement1 and ,don ,juan4 ,the third and fourth cantos of ,childe ,harold1 published in #ahaf and #ahah1 respectively1 are far superior to the first two4 ,these later cantos continue the travels of ,harold1 and contain some of ,byron's most splendid descriptions of nature1 cities1 and works of art4 ,rome1 ,venice1 the ,rhine1 the ,alps1 and the sea inspired the finest lines4 ,he wrote of ,venice as she-- 444,sate in state1 throned on her hundred isles6 99 99 99 99 99 ,she looks a sea ,cybele1 fresh from ocean1 ,rising with her tiara of proud towers ,at airy distance4 ,he calls ,rome-- ,the ,niobe of nations6 there she stands4 ,childless and crownless1 in her voiceless woe2 ,an empty urn within her wither'd hands1 ,whose holy dust was scattered long ago4 ,the following description1 from ,canto ,,iii1 of a wild stormy night in the mountains is very characteristic of his nature poetry and of his own individuality3-- ,and this is in the night3--,most ,glorious night6 ,thou wert not sent for slumber6 let me be ,a sharer in thy fierce and far delight-- ,a portion of the tempest and of thee6 ,how the lit lake shines1 a phosphoric sea1 ,and the big rain comes dancing to the earth6 ,and now again 'tis black1--and now1 the glee of the loud hills shakes with its mountain-mirth ,as if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth ,when ,george ,,iii4 died1 ,southey wrote a poem filled with absurd flattery of that monarch4 ,byron had such intense hatred for the hypocrisy of society that he wrote his ,vision of ,judgment 7#ahbb7 to parody ,southey's poem and to make the author the object of satire4 ,pungent wit1 vituperation1 and irony were here handled by ,byron in a brilliant manner1 which had not been equaled since the days of ,dryden and ,pope4 ,the parodies of most poems are quickly forgotten1 but we have here the strange case of ,byron's parody keeping alive ,southey's original4 ,don ,juan 7#ahai-ahbd71 a long poem in sixteen cantos1 is ,byron's greatest work4 ,it is partly autobiographic4 ,the sinister1 gloomy ,don ,juan is an ideal picture of the author1 who was sore and bitter over his thwarted hopes of liberty and happiness4 ,therefore1 instead of strengthening humanity with hope for the future1 this poem tears hope from the horizon1 and suggests the possible anarchy and destruction toward which the world's hypocrisy1 cant1 tyranny1 and universal stupidity are tending4 ,the poem is unfinished4 ,byron followed ,don ,juan through all the phases of life known to himself4 ,the hero has exciting adventures and passionate loves1 he is favored at courts1 he is driven to the lowest depths of society1 he experiences a godlike happiness and a demoniacal despair4 ,don ,juan is a scathing satire upon society4 ,all its fondest idols1--love1 faith1 and hope1--are dragged in the mire4 ,there is something almost grand in the way that this ,titanic scoffer draws pictures of love only to mock at them1 sings patriotic songs only to add-- ,thus sung1 or would1 or could1 or should have sung ,the modern ,greek in tolerable verse1 and mentions ,homer1 ,milton1 and ,shakespeare only to show how accidental and worthless is fame4 ,amid the splendid confusion of pathos1 irony1 passion1 mockery1 keen wit1 and brilliant epigram1 which display ,byron's versatile and spontaneous genius at its height1 there are some beautiful and powerful passages4 ,there is an ideal picture of the love of ,don ,juan and ,haidee3-- ,each was the other's mirror1 and but read ,joy sparkling in their dark eyes like a gem4 444they could not be ,meant to grow old1 but die in happy spring1 ,before one charm or hope had taken wing4 ,as she lightly slept-- 444her face so fair ,stirr'd with her dream1 as rose-leaves with the air2 ,or as the stirring of a deep clear stream ,within an ,alpine hollow1 when the wind ,walks o'er it4 ,general ,characteristics4--,the poetry of ,wordsworth and ,coleridge shows the revolutionary reaction against classicism in literature and tyranny in government2 but their verse raises no cry of revolt against the proprieties and moral restrictions of the time4 ,byron was so saturated with the revolutionary spirit that he rebelled against these also2 and for this reason ,england would not allow him to be buried in ,westminster ,abbey4 ,as ,byron frequently wrote in the white heat of passionate revolt1 his verse shows the effects of lack of restraint4 ,unfortunately he did not afterwards take the trouble to improve his subject matter1 or the mold in which it was cast4 ,swinburne says1 ,his verse stumbles and jingles1 stammers and halts1 where is most need for a swift and even pace of musical sound4 ,illustration3 ,,byron',s ,,home ,,at ,,pisa4 ,the great power of ,byron's poetry consists in its wealth of expression1 its vigor1 its rush and volume of sound1 its variety1 and its passion4 ,lines like the following show the vigorous flow of the verse1 the love for lonely scenery1 and a wealth of figurative expression3-- ,mont ,blanc is the monarch of mountains1 ,they crowned him long ago ,on a throne of rocks1 in a robe of clouds ,with a diadem of snow4#ai ,scattered through his works we find rare gems1 such as the following-- 444when ,music arose with its voluptuous swell1 ,soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again1 ,and all went merry as a marriage bell4#bj ,we may also frequently note the working of an acute intellect1 as1 for instance1 in the lines in which he calls his own gloomy type of mind-- 444the telescope of truth1 ,which strips the distance of its phantasies1 ,and brings life near in utter nakedness1 ,making the cold reality too real6#ba ,the answers to two questions which are frequently asked1 will throw more light on ,byron's characteristics3-- ,i4 ,why has his poetic fame in ,england decreased so much from the estimate of his contemporaries1 by whom he seemed worthy of a place beside ,goethe8 ,the answer is to be sought in the fact that ,byron reflected so powerfully the mood of that special time4 ,that reactionary period in history has passed and with it much of ,byron's influence and fame4 ,he was1 unlike ,shakespeare1 specially fitted to minister to a certain age4 ,again1 much of ,byron's verse is rhetorical1 and that kind of poetry does not wear well4 ,on the other hand1 we might reread ,shakespeare's ,hamlet1 ,milton's ,lycidas1 and ,wordsworth's ,intimations of ,immortality every month for a lifetime1 and discover some new beauty and truth at every reading4 ,,ii4 ,why does the continent of ,europe class ,byron among the very greatest ,english poets1 next even to ,shakespeare8 ,it is because ,europe was yearning for more liberty1 and ,byron's words and blows for freedom aroused her at an opportune moment4 ,historians of continental literature find his powerful impress on the thought of that time4 ,georg ,brandes1 a noted ,european critic1 says3-- ,in the intellectual life of ,russia and ,poland1 of ,spain and ,italy1 of ,france and ,germany1 the seeds which he had sown1 fructified444 ,the ,slavonic nations 444seized on his poetry with avidity444 ,the ,spanish and ,italian exile poets took his war cry444 ,heine's best poetry is a continuation of ,byron's work4 ,french ,romanticism and ,german ,liberalism are both direct descendants of ,byron's ,naturalism4 ,swinburne gives as another reason for ,byron's ,european popularity the fact that he actually gains by translation into a foreign tongue4 ,his faulty meters and careless expressions are improved1 while his vigorous way of stating things and his rolling rhetoric are easily comprehended4 ,on the other hand1 the delicate shades of thought in ,shakespeare's ,hamlet cannot be translated into some ,european tongues without distinct loss4 ,,percy ,,bysshe ,,shelley1 #agib-ahbb ,illustration3 ,,percy ,,bysshe ,,shelley4 ,from the portrait by ,amelia ,curran1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,another fiery spirit of the ,revolution was ,shelley1 born in #agib1 in a home of wealth1 at ,field ,place1 near ,horsham1 ,sussex4 ,he was one of the most ardent1 independent1 and reckless ,english poets inspired by the ,french ,revolution4 ,he was a man who could face infamy and defy the conventionalities of the world1 and1 at the same moment1 extend a helpful hand of sympathy to a friend or sit for sixty hours beside the sick bed of his dying child4 ,tender1 pitying1 fearless1 full of a desire to reform the world1 and of hatred for any form of tyranny1 ,shelley failed to adjust himself to the customs and laws of his actual surroundings4 ,he was calumniated and despised by the public at large1 and almost idolized by his intimate friends4 ,at ,eton he denounced the tyranny of the larger boys4 ,at ,oxford he decried the tyranny of the church over freedom of thought1 and was promptly expelled for his pamphlet1 ,the ,necessity of ,atheism4 ,this act so increased his hatred for despotic authority that he almost immediately married ,harriet ,westbrook1 a beautiful school girl of sixteen1 to relieve her from the tyranny of her father who wanted her to return to school4 ,shelley was then only nineteen and very changeable4 ,he would make such a sudden departure from a place where he had vowed to live forever1 that specially invited guests sometimes came to find him gone4 ,he soon fell in love with ,mary ,wollstonecraft ,godwin1 the brilliant woman who later wrote the weird romance ,frankenstein1 and he married her after ,harriet ,shelley had drowned herself4 ,these acts alienated his family and forced him to forfeit his right to ,field ,place4 ,illustration3 ,,shelley',s ,,birthplace1 ,,field ,,place4 ,his repeatedly avowed ideas upon religion1 government1 and marriage brought him into conflict with public opinion4 ,unpopular at home1 he left ,england in #ahah1 never to return4 ,like ,byron1 he was practically an exile4 ,the remaining four years of ,shelley's life were passed in comparative tranquillity in the ,paradise of exiles1 as he called ,italy4 ,he lived chiefly at ,pisa1 the last eighteen months of his life4 ,byron rented the famous ,lanfranchi ,palace in ,pisa and became ,shelley's neighbor1 often entertaining him and a group of ,english friends1 among whom were ,edward ,trelawny1 the ,boswell of ,shelley's last days1 and ,leigh ,hunt1 biographer and essayist4 ,on ,july #g1 #ahbb1 ,shelley said3 ,if ,i die to-morrow1 ,i have lived to be older than my father4 ,i am ninety years of age4 ,the young poet was right in claiming that it is not length of years that measures life4 ,he had lived longer than most people who reach ninety4 ,the next day he started in company with two others to sail across the ,bay of ,spezzia to his summer home4 ,friends watching from the shore saw a sudden tempest strike his boat4 ,when the cloud passed1 the craft could not be seen4 ,not many months before1 he had written the last stanza of ,adonais3-- 444my spirit's bark is driven ,far from the shore1 far from the trembling throng ,whose sails were never to the tempest given2 ,the massy earth and sphered skies are riven6 ,i am borne darkly1 fearfully1 afar2 ,whilst1 burning through the inmost veil of heaven1 ,the soul of ,adonais1 like a star1 ,beacons from the abode where the ,eternal are4 ,shelley's body was washed ashore1 ,july #ah1 and it was burned near the spot1 in accordance with ,italian law2 but the ashes and the unconsumed heart were interred in the beautiful ,protestant cemetery at ,rome1 not far from where ,keats was buried the previous year4 ,few poets have been loved more than ,shelley4 ,twentieth century visitors to his grave often find it covered with fresh flowers4 ,the direction which he wrote for finding the tomb of ,keats is more applicable to ,shelly's own resting place3-- ,pass1 till the ,spirit of the spot shall lead ,thy footsteps to a slope of green access1 ,where1 like an infant's smile1 over the dead ,a light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread4#bb ,works4--,alastor1 or the ,spirit of ,solitude 7#ahaf7 is a magnificent expression of ,shelley's own restless1 tameless spirit1 wandering among the grand solitudes of nature in search of the ineffably lovely dream maiden1 who was his ideal of beauty4 ,he travels through primeval forests1 stands upon dizzy abysses1 plies through roaring whirlpools1 all of which are symbolic of the soul's wayfaring1 until at last1-- ,when on the threshold of the green recess1 his dying glance rests upon the setting moon and the sufferer finds eternal peace4 ,the general tone of this poem is painfully despairing1 but this is relieved by the grandeur of the natural scenes and by many imaginative flights4 ,illustration3 ,,grave ,,of ,,shelley1 ,,protestant ,,cemetery1 ,,rome4 ,the year #ahai saw the publication of a work unique among ,shelley's productions1 ,the ,cenci4 ,this is a drama based upon the tragic story of ,beatrice ,cenci4 ,the poem deals with human beings1 human passions1 real acts1 and the natural world1 whereas ,shelley usually preferred to treat of metaphysical theories1 personified abstractions1 and the world of fancy4 ,this strong drama was the most popular of his works during his lifetime4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,stanza ,,from ,,to ,a ,,skylark4 ,he returned to the ideal sphere again in one of his great poems1 the lyrical drama ,prometheus ,unbound 7#ahbj74 ,this poem is the apotheosis of the ,french ,revolution4 ,prometheus1 the friend of mankind1 lies tortured and chained to the mountain side4 ,as the hour redemption approaches1 his beloved ,asia1 the symbol of nature1 arouses the soul of ,revolution1 represented by ,demogorgon4 ,he rises1 hurls down the enemies of progress and freedom1 releases ,prometheus1 and spreads liberty and happiness through all the world4 ,then the ,moon1 the ,earth1 and the ,voices of the ,air break forth into a magnificent chant of praise4 ,the most delicate fancies1 the most gorgeous imagery1 and the most fiery1 exultant emotions are combined in this poem with something of the stateliness of its ,greek prototype4 ,the swelling cadences of the blank verse and the tripping rhythm of the lyrics are the product of a nature rich in rare and wonderful melodies4 ,the ,witch of ,atlas 7#ahbj71 ,epipsychidion 7#ahba71 ,adonais 7#ahba71 and the exquisite lyrics1 ,the ,cloud1 ,to a ,skylark and ,ode to the ,west ,wind are the most beautiful of the remaining works4 ,the first two mentioned are the most elusive of ,shelley's poems4 ,with scarcely an echo in his soul of the shadows and discords of earth1 the poet paints1 in these works1 lands-- 444'twixt ,heaven1 ,air1 ,earth1 and ,sea1 ,cradled1 and hung in clear tranquillity2 where all is-- ,beautiful as a wreck of ,paradise4#bc ,adonais is a lament for the early death of ,keats1 and it stands second in the language among elegiac poems1 ranking next to ,milton's ,lycidas4 ,shelley referred to ,adonais as perhaps the least imperfect of my compositions4 ,his biographer1 ,edward ,dowden1 calls it the costliest monument ever erected to the memory of an ,english singer1 who 444bought1 with price of purest breath1 ,a grave among the eternal4 ,mrs4 ,shelley put some of her most sacred mementos of the poet between the leaves of ,adonais1 which spoke to her of his own immortality and omnipresence3-- ,naught we know dies4 ,shall that alone which knows ,be as a sword consumed before the sheath ,by sightless lightning8 99 99 99 99 99 ,he is a portion of the loveliness1 ,which once he made more lovely4 ,although some of ,shelley's shorter poems are more popular1 nothing that he ever wrote surpasses ,adonais in completeness1 poetic thought1 and perfection of artistic finish4 ,treatment of ,nature4--,shelley was not interested in things themselves1 but in their elusive1 animating spirit4 ,in the lyric poem1 ,to ,night1 he does not address himself to mere darkness1 but to the active1 dream-weaving ,spirit of ,night4 ,the very spirit of the autumnal wind seems to him to breathe on the leaves and turn them-- ,yellow1 and black1 and pale1 and hectic red1 ,pestilence-stricken multitudes4#bd ,in his spiritual conception of nature1 he was profoundly affected by ,wordsworth2 but he goes farther than the older poet in giving expression to the strictly individual forms of nature4 ,wordsworth pictures nature as a reflection of his own thoughts and feelings4 ,in ,the ,prelude he says3-- ,to unorganic natures were transferred ,my own enjoyments4 ,shelley1 on the other hand1 is most satisfying and original when his individual spirit forms in night1 cloud1 skylark1 and wind are made to sing1 not as a reflection of his own mood1 but as these spirit forces might themselves be supposed to sing1 if they could express their song in human language without the aid of a poet4 ,in the lyric1 ,the ,cloud1 it is the animating spirit of the ,cloud itself that sings the song3-- ,i bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers1 ,from the seas and the streams2 ,i bear light shade for the leaves when laid ,in their noonday dreams4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i sift the snow on the mountains below ,and their great pines groan aghast4 ,he thus begins the song1 ,to a ,skylark-- ,hail to thee1 blithe spirit6 ,bird thou never wert1 and he likens the lark to an unbodied joy4 ,he peoples the garden in his lyric1 ,the ,sensitive ,plant1 with flowers that are definite1 individual manifestations of the ,spirit of ,love felt everywhere1 the same power on which ,shelley enthusiastically relied for the speedy transformation of the world4 ,a ,sensitive ,plant in a garden grew1 ,and the young winds fed it with silver dew4 ,the tulip tall1 the ,naiad-like lily1 the jessamine faint1 the sweet tuberose1 were all ministering angels to the companionless ,sensitive ,plant1 and each tried to be a source of joy to all the rest4 ,no one who had not caught the new spirit of humanity could have imagined that garden4 ,in the exquisite ,ode to the ,west ,wind1 he calls to that breath of ,autumn's being to express its own mighty harmonies through him3-- ,o wild ,west ,wind1 thou breath of ,autumn's being1 99 99 99 99 99 ,make me thy lyre1 even as the forest is3 ,what if my leaves are falling like its own6 ,the tumult of thy mighty harmonies ,will take from both a deep1 autumnal tone1 ,sweet though in sadness4 ,we may fancy that the spirit forms of nature which appear in cloud and night1 in song of bird and western wind1 are content to have found in ,shelley a lyre that responded to their touch in such entrancing notes4 ,general ,characteristics4--,shelley's is the purest1 the most hopeful1 and the noblest voice of the ,revolution4 ,wordsworth and ,coleridge lost their faith and became ,tories1 and ,byron was a selfish1 lawless creature2 but ,shelley had the martyr spirit of sacrifice1 and he trusted to the end in the wild hopes of the revolutionary enthusiasts4 ,his ,queen ,mab1 ,revolt of ,islam1 ,ode to ,liberty1 ,ode to ,naples1 and1 above all1 his ,prometheus ,unbound1 are some of the works inspired by a trust in the ideal democracy which was to be based on universal love and the brotherhood of man4 ,this faith gives a bounding elasticity and buoyancy to ,shelley's thought1 but also tinges it with that disgust for the old1 that defiance of restraint1 and that boyish disregard for experience which mark a time of revolt4 ,the other subject that ,shelley treats most frequently in his verse is ideal beauty4 ,he yearned all his life for some form beautiful enough to satisfy the aspirations of his soul4 ,alastor1 ,epipsychidion1 ,the ,witch of ,atlas1 and ,prometheus ,unbound1 all breathe this insatiate craving for that ,spirit of ,beauty1 that awful ,loveliness4 ,many of his efforts to describe in verse this democracy and this ideal beauty are impalpable and obscure4 ,it is difficult to clothe such shadowy abstractions in clear1 simple form4 ,he is occasionally vague because his thoughts seem to have emerged only partially from the cloud lands that gave them birth4 ,at other times1 his vagueness resembles ,plato's because it is inherent in the subject matter4 ,like ,byron1 ,shelley is sometimes careless in the construction and revision of his verse4 ,we shall1 however1 search in vain for these faults in ,shelley's greatest lyrics4 ,he is one of the supreme lyrical geniuses in the language4 ,of all the lyric poets of ,england1 he is the greatest master of an ethereal1 evanescent1 phantomlike beauty4 ,,john ,,keats1 #agie-ahba ,illustration3 ,,john ,,keats4 ,from the painting by ,hilton1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,john ,keats1 the son of a keeper of a large livery stable1 a man fine in common sense and native respectability1 was born in ,moorfields1 ,london1 in #agie4 ,he attended school at ,enfield1 where he was a prize scholar4 ,he took special pleasure in studying ,grecian mythology1 the influence of which is so apparent in his poetry4 ,while at school1 he also voluntarily wrote a translation of much of ,vergil's ,a,eneid4 ,it would seem as if he had also been attracted to ,shakespeare2 for ,keats is credited with expressing to a young playmate the opinion that no one1 if alone in the house1 would dare read ,macbeth at two in the morning4 ,when ,keats was left an orphan in his fifteenth year1 he was taken from school and apprenticed to a surgeon at ,edmonton1 near ,london4 ,when seventeen1 he walked some distance to borrow a copy of ,spenser's ,faerie ,queene4 ,a friend says3 ,keats ramped through the scenes of the romance like a young horse turned into a spring meadow4 ,his study of ,grecian mythology and ,elizabethan poetry exerted a stronger influence over him than his medical instructor4 ,one day when ,keats should have been listening to a surgical lecture1 there came1 he says1 a sunbeam into the room and with it a whole troop of creatures floating in the ray3 and ,i was off with them to ,oberon and fairy land4 ,he made a moderately good surgeon2 but finding that his heart was constantly with ,oberon and the fairy land of poesy1 he gave up his profession in #ahag and began to study hard1 preparatory to a literary career4 ,his short life was a brave struggle against disease1 poverty1 and unfriendly criticism2 but he accomplished more than any other ,english author in the first twenty-five years of life4 ,success under such conditions would have been impossible unless he had had flint and iron in him4 ,he wrote3-- ,i must think that difficulties nerve the spirit of a man4 ,they make his ,prime ,objects a ,refuge as well as a ,passion4 ,late in #ahah1 after he had published his first volume of verse1 he met ,fanny ,brawne1 a girl of eighteen1 and soon fell desperately in love with her4 ,the next six months were the happiest and the most productive period of his life4 ,his health was then such that he could take long walks with her4 ,in the first spring after he had met her1 he wrote in less than three hours his wonderful ,ode to a ,nightingale1 while he was sitting in the garden of his home at ,wentworth ,place1 ,hampstead1 near ,london1 listening to the song of the bird4 ,most of his famous poems were written in the year after meeting her4 ,in ,february1 #ahbj1 his health began to decline so rapidly that he knew that his days were numbered4 ,his mother and one of his brothers had died of consumption1 and he had been for some time threatened with the disease4 ,he offered to release ,miss ,brawne from her engagement1 but she would not listen to the suggestion4 ,she and her mother tried to nurse him back to health4 ,few events in the history of ,english authors are tinged with a deeper pathos than his engagement to ,miss ,brawne4 ,some of the letters that he wrote to her or about her are almost tragic4 ,after he had taken his last leave of her he wrote1 ,i can bear to die--,i cannot bear to leave her4 ,illustration3 ,,wentworth ,,place1 ,,keats',s ,,home ,,in ,,hampstead4 ,acting on insistent medical advice1 ,keats sailed for ,italy in ,september1 #ahbj1 accompanied by a stanch friend1 the artist ,joseph ,severn4 ,on this voyage1 ,keats wrote a sonnet which proved to be his swan song3-- ,bright star6 would ,i were steadfast as thou art-- ,not in lone splendor hung aloft the night ,and watching1 with eternal lids apart1 ,like ,nature's patient1 sleepless ,eremite1 ,the moving waters at their priestlike task ,of pure ablution round earth's human shores4 ,while he lay on his sick bed in ,rome1 he said3 ,i feel the flowers growing over me4 ,in ,february1 #ahba1 he died1 at the age of twenty-five years and four months4 ,on the modest stone which marks his grave in the ,protestant ,cemetery in ,rome1 there was placed at his request3 ,here lies one whose name was writ in water4 ,his most appropriate epitaph is ,shelley's ,adonais4 ,illustration3 ,,grave ,,of ,,keats1 ,,rome4 ,poems4--,in #ahag he published his first poems in a thin volume1 which did not attract much attention1 although it contained two excellent sonnets3 ,on ,first ,looking into ,chapman's ,homer and ,on the ,grasshopper and ,cricket1 which begins with the famous line3-- ,the poetry of earth is never dead4 ,we may also find in this volume such lines of promise as3-- ,life is the rose's hope while yet unblown ,the reading of an ever changing tale4 ,a year later1 his long poem1 ,endymion1 appeared4 ,the inner purpose of this poetic romance is to show the search of the soul for absolute ,beauty4 ,the first five lines are a beautiful exposition of his poetic creed4 ,endymion1 however1 suffers from immaturity1 shown in boyish sentimentality1 in a confusion of details1 and in an overabundance of ornament4 ,this poem met with a torrent of abuse4 ,one critic even questioned whether ,keats was the real name of the author1 adding1 we almost doubt whether any man in his senses would put his real name to such a rhapsody4 ,keats showed himself a better critic than the reviewers4 ,it is unusual for a poet to recognize almost at once the blemishes in his own work4 ,he acknowledged that a certain critic-- 444is perfectly right in regard to the 'slipshod' ,endymion444 it is as good as ,i had the power to make it by myself4 ,i have written independently1 without judgement1 ,i may write independently and with judgement hereafter4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,original ,,ms4 ,,of ,,endymion4 ,the quickness of his development is one of the most amazing facts in literary history4 ,he was twenty-three when ,endymion was published1 but in the next eighteen months he had almost finished his life's work4 ,in that brief time1 he perfected his art and wrote poems that rank among the greatest of their kind1 and that have influenced the work of many succeeding poets1 such as ,tennyson1 ,lowell1 and ,swinburne4 ,illustration3 ,,endymion4 ,from mural painting by ,h4,o4 ,walker1 ,congressional ,library1 ,washington1 ,d4,c4 ,nearly all his greatest poems were written in #ahai and published in his #ahbj volume4 ,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes 7,january1 #ahai7 and the ,ode to a ,nightingale 7,may1 #ahai7 are perhaps his two most popular poems2 but his other masterpieces are sufficiently great to make choice among them largely a matter of individual preference4 ,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes is an almost flawless narrative poem1 romantic in its conception and artistic in its execution4 ,porphyro1 a young lover1 gains entrance to a hostile castle on the eve of ,st4 ,agnes to see if he cannot win his heroine1 ,madeline1 on that enchanted evening4 ,the interest in the story1 the mastery of poetic language1 the wealth and variety of the imagery1 the atmosphere of medieval days1 combine to make this poem unusually attractive4 ,the following lines appeal to the senses of sight1 odor1 sound1 and temperature1#be as well as to romantic human feeling and love of the beautiful3-- 444like a throbbing star ,seen mid the sapphire heaven's deep repose2 ,into her dream he melted1 as the rose ,blendeth its odor with the violet1-- ,solution sweet3 meantime the frost-wind blows ,like ,love's alarum pattering the sharp sleet ,against the window panes2 ,st4 ,agnes' moon hath set4 ,the fact that ,keats could write the ,ode to a ,nightingale in three hours is proof of genius4 ,this poem pleases lovers of music1 of artistic expression1 of nature1 of romance1 and of human pathos4 ,such lines as these show that the strength and beauty of his verse are not entirely dependent on images of sense3-- ,darkling ,i listen2 and1 for many a time ,i have been half in love with easeful ,death1 ,call'd him soft names in many a musd rhyme1 ,to take into the air my quiet breath4 ,the ,ode on a ,grecian ,urn1 ,to ,autumn1 ,la ,belle ,dame sans ,merci1 ,ode on ,melancholy1 ,lamia1 and ,isabella1--all show the unusual charm of ,keats4 ,he manifests the greatest strength in his unfinished fragment ,hyperion1 the ,gtterdmmerung of the early ,grecian gods4 ,the opening lines reveal the artistic perfection of form and the effectiveness of the sensory images with which he frames the scene3-- ,deep in the shady sadness of a vale ,far sunken from the healthy breath of morn1 ,far from the fiery noon1 and eve's one star1 ,sat gray-hair'd ,saturn1 quiet as a stone1 ,still as the silence round about his lair2 ,forest on forest hung about his head ,like cloud on cloud4 ,general ,characteristics4--,keats is the poetic apostle of the beautiful4 ,he specially emphasizes the beautiful in the world of the senses2 but his definition of beauty grew to include more than mere physical sensations from attractive objects4 ,in his ,ode to a ,grecian ,urn1 he says that ,beauty is truth1 truth beauty1 and he calls to the ,grecian pipes to play-- ,not to the sensual ear1 but1 more endeared1 ,pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone4 ,those poets who thought that they could equal ,keats by piling up a medley of sense images have been doomed to disappointment4 ,the transforming power of his imagination is more remarkable than the wealth of his sensations4 ,his mastery in choosing1 adapting1 and sometimes even creating1 apt poetic words or phrases1 is one of his special charms4 ,matthew ,arnold says3 ,no one else in ,english poetry1 save ,shakespeare1 has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of ,keats4 ,some of his descriptive adjectives and phrases1 such as the deep-damasked wings of the tiger-moth1 have been called miniature poems4 ,in the eighty lines of the ,ode to a ,nightingale1 we may note the full-throated ease of the nightingale's song1 the vintage cooled in the deep-delved earth1 the beaded bubbles winking at the brim of the beaker full of the warm ,south1 the coming musk-rose1 full of dewy wine1 the sad ,ruth amid the alien corn1 and the faery lands forlorn4 ,a contemporary critic accused ,keats of spawning new words1 of converting verbs into nouns1 of forming new verbs1 and of making strange use of adjectives and adverbs4 ,some contemporaries might object to his torchd mines1 flawblown sleet1 liegeless air1 or even to the calm-throated thrush of the immortals4 ,modern lovers of poetry1 however1 think that he displayed additional proof of genius by enriching the vocabulary of poetry more than any other writer since ,milton4 ,keats was not1 like ,byron and ,shelley1 a reformer4 ,he drew his first inspiration from ,grecian mythology and the romantic world of ,spenser1 not from the ,french ,revolution or the social unrest of his own day4 ,it is1 however1 a mistake to say that he was untouched by the new human impulses4 ,there is modern feeling in the following lines which introduce us to the two cruel brothers in ,isabella3-- 444for them many a weary hand did swelt ,in torchd mines and noisy factories4 99 99 99 99 99 ,for them the ,ceylon diver held his breath1 ,and went all naked to the hungry shark2 ,for them his ears gushed blood2 for them in death ,the seal on the cold ice with piteous bark ,lay full of darts4 ,in the last quarter of the nineteenth century ,matthew ,arnold wrote of ,keats3 ,he is with ,shakespeare4 ,andrew ,bradley1 a twentieth century professor of poetry in the ,university of ,oxford1 says3 ,keats was of ,shakespeare's tribe4 ,these eminent critics do not mean that ,keats had the breadth1 the humor1 the moral appeal of ,shakespeare1 but they do find in ,keats much of the youthful ,shakespeare's lyrical power1 mastery of expression1 and intense love of the beautiful in life4 ,when ,keats said3 ,if a sparrow comes before my window1 ,i take part in its existence and pick about the gravel1 he showed another ,shakespearean quality in his power to enter into the life of other creatures4 ,at first he wrote of the beautiful things that appealed to his senses or his fancies1 but when he came to ask himself the question3-- ,and can ,i ever bid these joys farewell8 he answered3-- ,yes1 ,i must pass them for a nobler life1 ,where ,i may find the agonies1 the strife ,of human hearts4#bf ,in ,isabella1 the ,ode to a ,nightingale1 ,lamia1 and ,hyperion1 he was beginning to paint these agonies and the strife2 but death swiftly ended further progress on this road4 ,before he passed away1 however1 he left some things that have an ,elizabethan appeal4 ,among such1 we may mention his welcome to easeful death1 his artistic setting of a puzzling truth3-- 444,joy1 whose hand is ever at his lips1 ,bidding adieu1 his line to which the young world still responds3-- ,forever wilt thou love and she be fair1 and especially the musical call of his own young life1 yearning like a ,god in pain4 ,,thomas ,,de ,,quincey1 #aghe-ahei ,illustration3 ,,thomas ,,de ,,quincey4 ,from the painting by ,sir ,j4,w4 ,gordon1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4-,thomas de ,quincey was born in ,manchester in #aghe4 ,being a precocious child1 he became a remarkable student at the age of eight4 ,when he was only eleven1 his ,latin verses were the envy of the older boys at the ,bath school1 which he was then attending4 ,at the age of fifteen1 he was so thoroughly versed in ,greek that his professor said of him to a friend3 ,that boy could harangue an ,athenian mob better than you or ,i could address an ,english one4 ,de ,quincey was sent in this year to the ,manchester grammar school2 but his mind was in advance of the instruction offered there1 and he unceremoniously left the school on his seventeenth birthday4 ,for a time he tramped through ,wales1 living on an allowance of a guinea a week4 ,hungering for books1 he suddenly posted to ,london4 ,as he feared that his family would force him to return to school1 he did not let them know his whereabouts4 ,he therefore received no money from them1 and was forced to wander hungry1 sick1 and destitute1 through the streets of the metropolis1 with its outcasts and waifs4 ,he describes this part of his life in a very entertaining manner in his ,confessions of an ,english ,opium-,eater4 ,when his family found him1 a year later1 they prevailed on him to go to ,oxford2 and1 for the next four years1 he lived the life of a recluse at college4 ,in #ahjh he took the cottage at ,grasmere that ,wordsworth had quitted1 and enjoyed the society of the three ,lake poets4 ,here ,de ,quincey married and lived his happiest years4 ,the latter part of his life was clouded by his indulgence in opium1 which he had first taken while at college to relieve acute neuralgia4 ,at one time he was in the habit of taking an almost incredible amount of laudanum4 ,owing to a business failure1 his money was lost4 ,it then became necessary for him to throw off the influence of the narcotic sufficiently to earn a livelihood1 ,in #ahba he began to write4 ,from that time until his death1 in #ahei1 his life was devoted mainly to literature4 ,illustration3 ,,room ,,in ,,dove ,,cottage ,,occupied ,,by ,,wordsworth1 ,,coleridge1 ,,and ,,de ,,quincey4 ,works4--,nearly all ,de ,quincey's writings were contributed to magazines4 ,his first and greatest contribution was ,the ,confessions of an ,english ,opium-,eater1 published in the ,london ,magazine4 ,these ,confessions are most remarkable for the brilliant and elaborate style in which the author's early life and his opium dreams are related4 ,his splendid1 yet melancholy1 dreams are the most famous in the language4 ,de ,quincey's wide reading1 especially of history1 supplied the material for many of them4 ,in these dreams he saw the court ladies of the unhappy times of ,charles ,i41 witnessed ,marius pass by with his ,roman legions1 ran into pagodas in ,china1 where he was fixed1 for centuries1 at the summit1 or in secret rooms1 and was buried for a thousand years1 in stone coffins1 in narrow chambers at the heart of eternal pyramids in ,egypt4 ,his dreams were affected also by the throngs of people whom he had watched in ,london4 ,he was haunted by the tyranny of the human face4 ,he says3-- ,faces imploring1 wrathful1 despairing1 surged upwards by thousands1 by myriads1 by generations1 by centuries3 my agitation was infinite1 my mind tossed1 and surged with the ocean4 ,sound also played a large part in the dreams4 ,music1 heart-breaking lamentations1 and pitiful echoes recurred frequently in the most magnificent of these nightly pageants4 ,one of the most distressing features of the dreams was their vastness4 ,the dreamer lived for centuries in one night1 and space swelled1 and was amplified to an extent of unutterable infinity4 ,to present with such force and reality these grotesque and weird fancies1 these vague horrors1 and these deep oppressions required a powerful imaginative grasp of the intangible1 and a masterly command of language4 ,in no other work does ,de ,quincey reach the eminence attained in the ,confessions1 although his scholarly acquirements enabled him to treat philosophical1 critical1 and historical subjects with wonderful grace and ease4 ,his biographer1 ,masson1 says1 ,de ,quincey's sixteen volumes of magazine articles are full of brain from beginning to end4 ,the wide range of his erudition is shown by the fact that he could write such fine literary criticisms as ,on ,wordsworth's ,poetry and ,on the ,knocking at the ,gate in ,macbeth1 such clear1 strong1 and vivid descriptions of historical events and characters as ,the ,caesars1 ,joan of ,arc1 and ,the ,revolt of the ,tartars1 and such acute essays on unfamiliar topics as ,the ,toilette of a ,hebrew ,lady1 ,the ,casuistry of ,roman ,meals1 and ,the ,spanish ,military ,nun4 ,he had a contemplative1 analytic mind which enjoyed knotty metaphysical problems and questions far removed from daily life1 such as the first principles of political economy1 and of ,german philosophy4 ,while he was a clear thinker in such fields1 he added little that was new to ,english thought4 ,the works which rank next to ,the ,confessions of an ,english ,opium-,eater are all largely autobiographical1 and reveal charming glimpses of this dreamy1 learned sage4 ,those works are ,suspiria de ,profundis 7,sighs from the ,depths71 ,the ,english ,mail ,coach1 and ,autobiographic ,sketches4 ,none of them contains any striking or unusual experience of the author4 ,their power rests upon their marvelous style4 ,levana and ,our ,ladies of ,sorrow in ,suspiria de ,profundis and the ,dream ,fugue in the ,mail ,coach are among the most musical1 the most poetic1 and the most imaginative of the author's productions4 ,general ,characteristics4--,de ,quincey's essays show versatility1 scholarly exactness1 and great imaginative power4 ,his fame1 however1 rests in a large degree upon his style4 ,one of its most prominent characteristics is1 precision4 ,there are but few ,english essayists who can compare with him in scrupulous precision of expression4 ,he qualifies and elaborates a simple statement until its exact meaning becomes plainly manifest4 ,his vocabulary is extraordinary4 ,in any of the multifarious subjects treated by him1 the right word seems always at hand4 ,two characteristics1 which are very striking in all his works1 are harmony and stateliness4 ,his language is so full of rich harmonies that it challenges comparison with poetry4 ,his long1 periodic sentences move with a quiet dignity1 adapted to the treatment of lofty themes4 ,de ,quincey's work possesses also a light1 ironic humor1 which is happiest in parody4 ,the essay upon ,murder ,considered as ,one of the ,fine ,arts is the best example of his humor4 ,this selection is one of the most whimsical3-- ,for1 if once a man indulges himself in murder1 very soon he come1 to think little of robbing2 and from robbing he comes next to drinking and ,sabbath breaking1 and from that to incivility and procrastination4 ,once begin upon this downward path1 you never know where you are to stop4 ,de ,quincey's gravest fault is digression4 ,he frequently leaves his main theme and follows some line of thought that has been suggested to his well-stored mind4 ,these digressions are often very long1 and sometimes one leads to another1 until several subjects receive treatment in a single paper4 ,de ,quincey1 however1 always returns to the subject in hand and defines very sharply the point of digression and of return4 ,another of his faults is an indulgence in involved sentences1 which weaken the vigor and simplicity of the style4 ,despite these faults1 ,de ,quincey is a great master of language4 ,he deserves study for the three most striking characteristics of his style1--precision1 stateliness1 and harmony4 ,,summary ,the tide of reaction1 which had for same time been gathering force1 swept triumphantly over ,england in this age of ,romanticism4 ,men rebelled against the aristocracy1 the narrow conventions of society1 the authority of the church and of the government1 against the supremacy of cold classicism in literature1 against confining intellectual activity to tangible commonplace things1 and against the repression of imagination and of the soul's aspirations4 ,the two principal forces behind these changes were the ,romantic movement1 which culminated in changed literary ideals1 and the spirit of the ,french ,revolution1 which emphasized the close kinship of all ranks of humanity4 ,the time was preeminently poetic4 ,the ,elizabethan age alone excels it in the glory of its poetry4 ,the principal subjects of verse in the age of ,romanticism were nature and man4 ,nature became the embodiment of an intelligent1 sympathetic1 spiritual force4 ,cowper1 ,burns1 ,scott1 ,wordsworth1 ,coleridge1 ,byron1 ,shelley1 and ,keats constitute a group of poets who gave to ,english literature a new poetry of nature4 ,the majority of these were also poets of man1 of a more ideal humanity4 ,the common man became an object of regard4 ,burns sings of the ,scotch peasant4 ,wordsworth pictures the life of shepherds and dalesmen4 ,byron's lines ring with a cry of liberty for all1 and ,shelley immortalizes the dreams of a universal brotherhood of man4 ,keats1 the poet of the beautiful1 passed away before he heard clearly the message of the still sad music of humanity4 ,while the prose does not take such high rank as the poetry1 there are some writers who will not soon be forgotten4 ,scott will be remembered as the great master of the historical novel1 ,jane ,austen as the skillful realistic interpreter of everyday life1 ,de ,quincey for the brilliancy of his style and the vigor of his imagination in presenting his opium dreams1 and ,lamb for his exquisite humor4 ,in philosophical prose1 ,mill1 ,bentham1 and ,malthus made important contributions to moral1 social1 and political philosophy1 while ,coleridge opposed their utilitarian and materialistic tendencies1 and codified the principles of criticism from a romantic point of view4 ,,references ,,for ,,further ,,study ,,historical ,gardiner#bg1 ,green1 ,walker1 or ,cheney4 ,for the social side1 see ,traill1 ,v41 ,,vi41 and ,cheney's ,industrial and ,social ,history of ,england4 ,,literary ,the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature1 ,vols4 ,,xi41 ,,xii4 ,courthope's ,a ,history of ,english ,poetry1 ,vol4 ,,vi4 ,elton's ,a ,survey of ,english ,literature from #aghj-ahcj1 #b vols4 ,herford's ,the ,age of ,wordsworth4 ,brandes's ,naturalism in ,england 7,vol4 ,,iv4 of ,main ,currents in ,nineteenth ,century ,literature47 ,the ,revolution in ,english ,poetry and ,fiction 7,chap4 ,,xxii4 of ,vol4 ,x4 of ,cambridge ,modern ,history47 ,hancock's ,the ,french ,revolution and the ,english ,poets4 ,scudder's ,life of the ,spirit in the ,modern ,english ,poets4 ,symons's ,the ,romantic ,movement in ,english ,poetry4 ,reynolds's ,the ,treatment of ,nature in ,english ,poetry between ,pope and ,wordsworth4 ,mackie's ,nature ,knowledge in ,modern ,poetry4 ,brookes's ,studies in ,poetry 7,blake1 ,scott1 ,shelley1 ,keats74 ,symons's ,william ,blake4 ,payne's ,the ,greater ,english ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century 7,keats1 ,shelley1 ,byron1 ,coleridge1 ,wordsworth74 ,stephen's ,hours in a ,library1 #c vols4 7,scott1 ,de ,quincey1 ,cowper1 ,wordsworth1 ,shelley1 ,coleridge74 ,dowden's ,studies in ,literature1 #ahgi-ahgg4 ,bradley's ,oxford ,lectures on ,poetry 7,wordsworth1 ,shelley1 ,keats74 ,lowell's ,among my ,books1 ,second ,series 7,wordsworth1 ,keats74 ,ainger's ,life of ,lamb4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,lucas's ,life of ,charles ,lamb4 ,goldwin ,smith's ,life of ,cowper4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,wright's ,life of ,cowper4 ,shairp's ,robert ,burns4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,carlyle's ,essay on ,burns4 ,lockhart's ,life of ,scott41 ,hutton's ,life of ,scott4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,yonge's ,life of ,scott4 7,g4,w47 ,goldwin ,smith's ,life of ,jane ,austen4 7,g4,w47 ,helm's ,jane ,austen and her ,country ,house ,comedy4 ,mitton's ,jane ,austen and her ,times4 ,adams's ,the ,story of ,jane ,austen's ,life4 ,knight's ,life of ,wordsworth1 #c vols41 ,myers's ,life of ,wordsworth 7,e4,m4,l471 ,raleigh's ,wordsworth4 ,robertson's ,wordsworth and the ,english ,lake ,country4 ,traill's ,life of ,coleridge 7,e4,m4,l471 ,caine's ,life of ,coleridge 7,g4,w471 ,garnett's ,coleridge4 ,sneath's ,wordsworth1 ,poet of ,nature and ,poet of ,man4 ,mayne's ,the ,new ,life of ,byron1 #b vols1 ,nichol's ,life of ,byron 7,e4,m4,l471 ,noel's ,life of ,byron4 7,g4,w47 ,trelawney's ,recollections of the ,last ,days of ,shelley and ,byron4 ,dowden's ,life of ,shelley1 #b vols41 ,symonds's ,life of ,shelley 7,e4,m4,l471 ,sharp's ,life of ,shelley 7,g4,w474 ,francis ,thompson's ,shelley4 ,clutton-,brock's ,shelley3 ,the ,man and the ,poet4 ,hogg's ,life of ,percy ,bysshe ,shelley7contemporary74 ,angeli's ,shelley and his ,friends in ,italy4 ,colvin's ,life of ,keats 7,e4,m4,l471 ,rossetti's ,life of ,keats 7,g4,w471 ,hancock's ,john ,keats4 ,miller's ,leigh ,hunt's ,relations with ,byron1 ,shelley1 and ,keats4 ,arnold's ,essays in ,criticism1 ,second ,series 7,keats74 ,h4 ,buxton ,forman's ,complete ,works of ,john ,keats 7includes the ,letters1 the best edition74 ,masson's ,life of ,de ,quincey4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,minto's ,manual of ,english ,prose ,literature 7,de ,quincey74 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,blake4--,some of his best poems are given in ,ward1 ,,iv41 #fja-fjh2 ,bronson1 ,,iii41 #che-djc2 ,manly1 ,i41 #cja-cjd2 ,oxford1 #eeh-eff2 ,century1 #dhe-dhi1 and in the volume in ,the ,canterbury ,poets4 ,point out in ,blake's verse 7a7 the new feeling for nature1 7b7 evidences of wide sympathies1 7c7 mystical tendencies1 and 7d7 compare his verses relating to children and nature with ,wordsworth's poems on the same subjects4 ,cowper4--,read the opening stanzas of ,cowper's ,conversation and note the strong influence of ,pope in the cleverly turned but artificial couplets4 ,compare this poem with the one ,on the ,receipt of my ,mother's ,picture or with ,the ,task1 ,book ,,iv41 lines #a-da and #bfg-ccb1 ,cassell's ,national ,library1 ,canterbury ,poets1 or ,temple ,classics and point out the marked differences in subject matter and style4 ,what forward movement in literature is indicated by the change in ,cowper's manner8 ,john ,gilpin should be read for its fresh1 beguiling humor4 ,for selections1 see ,bronson1#bh ,,iii41 #caj-cbi2 ,ward1 ,,iii41 #dbb-dhe2 ,century1 #dgj-dgi2 ,manly1 ,i41 #bhe-bid4 ,burns4--,read ,the ,cotter's ,saturday ,night1 ,for a' ,that and a' ,that1 ,to a ,mouse1 ,highland ,mary1 ,to ,mary in ,heaven1 ,farewell to ,nancy1 ,i ,love ,my ,jean1 ,a ,red1 ,red ,rose4 ,the teacher should read to the class parts of ,tam o' ,shanter4 ,the ,globe edition contains the complete poems of ,burns with ,glossary4 ,inexpensive editions may be found in ,cassell's ,national ,library1 ,everyman's ,library1 and ,canterbury ,poets4 ,for selections1 see ,bronson1 ,,iii41 #cch-che2 ,ward4 ,,iii41 #eab-ega2 ,century1 #dij-ejb2 ,manly1 ,i41 #cji-cbf2 ,oxford1 #dib-ejf4 ,in what ways do the first three poems mentioned above show ,burns's sympathy with democracy8 ,quote some of ,burns's fine descriptions of nature and describe the manner in which he treats nature4 ,how does he rank as a writer of love songs8 ,what qualities in his poems have touched so many hearts8 ,compare his poetry with that of ,dryden1 ,pope1 and ,shakespeare4 ,scott4--,read ,the ,lady of the ,lake1 ,canto ,,iii41 stanzas iii4-xxv41 or ,marmion1 ,canto ,,vi41 stanzas xiii4-xxvii4 7,american ,book ,company's ,eclectic ,english ,classics1 ,cassell's ,national ,library1 or ,everyman's ,library47 ,read in ,craik1 ,v41 ,the ,gypsy's ,curse 7,guy ,mannering71 pp4 #ad-ag1 ,the ,death of ,madge ,wildfire 7,heart of ,middlothian71 pp4 #cj-ce1 and ,the ,grand ,master of the ,templars 7,ivanhoe71 pp4 #cg-db4 ,the student should put on his list for reading at his leisure3 ,guy ,mannering1 ,old ,mortality1 ,ivanhoe1 ,kenilworth1 and ,the ,talisman4 ,in what kind of poetry does ,scott excel8 ,quote some of his spirited heroes1 and point out their chief excellences4 ,how does his poetry differ from that of ,burns8 ,in the history of fiction1 does ,scott rank as an imitator or a creator8 ,as a writer of fiction1 in what do his strength and his weakness consist8 ,has he those qualities that will cause him to be popular a century hence8 ,what can be said of his style8 ,jane ,austen4--,in ,craik1 ,v41 or ,manly4 ,,ii1 read the selections from ,pride and ,prejudice4 ,the student at his leisure should read all this novel4 ,what world does she describe in her fiction8 ,what are her chief qualities8 ,how does she differ from ,scott8 ,why is she called a realist8 ,wordsworth4--,read ,i ,wandered ,lonely as a ,cloud1 ,the ,solitary ,reaper1 ,to the ,cuckoo1 ,lines ,written in ,early ,spring1 ,three ,years ,she ,grew in ,sun and ,shower1 ,to my ,sister1 ,she ,dwelt among the ,untrodden ,ways1 ,she ,was a ,phantom of ,delight1 ,alice ,fell1 ,lucy ,gray1 ,we ,are ,seven1 ,intimations of ,immortality from ,recollection of ,early ,childhood1 ,ode to ,duty1 ,hart-,leap ,well1 ,lines ,composed a ,few ,miles above ,tintern ,abbey1 ,michael and the sonnets3 ,it is a beauteous evening1 calm and free1 ,milton1 thou shouldst be living at this hour1 and ,the world is too much with us1 late and soon4 ,some students will also wish to read ,the ,prelude 7,temple ,classics or ,a4,j4 ,george's edition71 which describes the growth of ,wordsworth's mind4 ,all the above poems 7excepting ,the ,prelude7 may be found in the volume ,poems of ,wordsworth1 chosen and edited by ,matthew ,arnold 7,golden ,treasury ,series1 #cca pp41 #a74 ,nearly all may also be found in ,page's ,british ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century 7#ibc pp41 #b74 ,for selections1 see ,bronson1 ,,iv41 #a-ed2 ,ward1 ,,iv41 #a-hh2 ,oxford #eid-fah2 ,century1 #ejc-eda2 ,manly1 ,i41 #cbi-cde4 ,refer to ,wordsworth's ,general ,characteristics 7pp4 #cic-cif7 and select the poems that most emphatically show his special qualities4 ,which of the above poems seems easiest to write8 ,in which is his genius most apparent8 ,which best presents his view of nature8 ,which best stand the test of an indefinite number of readings8 ,in what do his poems of childhood excel8 ,coleridge4--,read ,the ,ancient ,mariner1 ,christabel1 ,kubla ,khan1 ,hymn before ,sunrise in the ,vale of ,chamouni1 ,youth and ,age2 ,bronson1 ,i41 #ed-ic2 ,ward1 ,,iv41 #ajb-aed2 ,page1 #ff-ajc2 ,century1 #eec-efe2 ,manly1 ,i41 #cec-cfd2 ,oxford1 #fbh-fef4 ,how do ,the ,ancient ,mariner and ,christabel manifest the spirit of ,romanticism8 ,what are the chief reasons for the popularity of ,the ,ancient ,mariner8 ,would you call this poem didactic8 ,select stanzas specially remarkable for melody1 for beauty1 for telling much in few words1 for images of nature1 for conveying an ethical lesson4 ,what feeling almost unknown in early poetry is common in ,coleridge's ,the ,ancient ,mariner1 ,wordsworth's ,hart-,leap ,well1 ,burns's ,to a ,mouse1 ,on ,seeing a ,wounded ,hare ,limp by ,me1 ,a ,winter ,night1 and ,cowper's ,on a ,goldfinch ,starved to ,death in his ,cage8 ,the advanced student should read some of ,coleridge's prose criticism in his ,biographia ,literaria 7,everyman's ,library74 ,the parts best worth reading have been selected in ,george's ,coleridge's ,principles of ,criticism 7#bbf pp41 #fj cents7 and in ,beers's ,selections for the ,prose ,writings of ,coleridge 7including criticisms of ,wordsworth and ,shakespeare1 #adf pp41 #ej cents74 ,note how fully ,coleridge unfolds in these essays the principles of romantic criticism1 which have not been superseded4 ,byron4--,read ,the ,prisoner of ,chillon 7,selections from ,byron1 ,eclectic ,english ,classics71 ,childe ,harold1 ,canto ,,iii41 stanzas xxi-xxv4 and cxiii41 ,canto ,,iv41 stanzas lxxviii41 and lxxix4 ,oh1 ,snatch'd away in ,beauty's ,bloom1 ,there's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away1 and from ,don ,juan1 ,canto ,,iii41 the song inserted between stanzas lxxxvi4 and lxxxvii4 ,all these poems will be found in the two volumes of ,byron's works in the ,canterbury ,poets' series4 ,selections are given in ,bronson1 ,,iv41 #abe-agd2 ,ward1 ,,iv41 #bdd-cjc2 ,page1 #agj-bgb2 ,oxford1 #fhh-fid2 ,century1 #ehf-fac2 ,manly1 ,i41 #cgh-cic4 ,from the stanzas indicated in ,childe ,harold1 select1 first1 the passages which best illustrate the spirit of revolt1 and1 second1 the passages of most poetic beauty4 ,what natural phenomena appeal most to ,byron8 ,what qualities make ,the ,prisoner of ,chillon a favorite8 ,why is his poetry often called rhetorical8 ,shelley4--,read ,adonais1 ,to a ,skylark1 ,ode to the ,west ,wind1 ,to ,night1 ,the ,cloud1 ,the ,sensitive ,plant1 and selections from ,alastor and ,prometheus ,unbound4 ,shelley's ,poetical ,works1 edited by ,edward ,dowden 7,globe ,poets71 contains all of ,shelley's extant poetry4 ,less expensive editions are in ,canterbury ,poets1 ,temple ,classics1 and ,everyman's ,library4 ,selections are given in ,bronson1 ,,iv41 #ahb-bbg2 ,ward1 ,,iv41 #cdh-daf2 ,page1 #bge-cfi2 ,oxford1 #fig-gag2 ,century1 #fad-fch2 ,manly1 ,i41 #cid-daa4 ,under what different aspects do ,adonais and ,lycidas view the life after death8 ,has ,shelley modified ,wordsworth's view of the spiritual force in nature8 ,does ,shelley use either the cloud or the skylark for the direct purpose of expressing his own feelings8 ,why is he sometimes called a metaphysical poet8 ,what is the most striking quality of ,shelley's poetic gift8 ,keats4--,read ,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes1 ,ode to a ,nightingale1 ,ode on a ,grecian ,urn1 ,to ,autumn1 ,hyperion 7first #acd lines71 ,la ,belle ,dame sans ,merci1 ,isabella1 and the sonnets3 ,on ,first ,looking into ,chapman's ,homer1 ,on the ,grasshopper and ,cricket1 ,when ,i have ,fears that ,i ,may ,cease to ,be1 ,bright ,star6 ,would ,i ,were ,steadfast as ,thou ,art4 ,the best edition of the works of ,keats is that by ,buxton ,forman4 ,the ,canterbury ,poets and ,everyman's ,library have less expensive editions4 ,all the poems indicated above may be found in ,page's ,british ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century4 ,for selections1 see ,bronson1 ,,iv41 #bcj-bfe2 ,ward1 ,,iv41 #dbg-dfd2 ,oxford1 #gba-gdd2 ,century1 #fci-fee2 ,manly1 ,i41 #dac-dbe4 ,by direct reference to the above poems1 justify calling ,keats the apostle of the beautiful1 in both thought and language4 ,give examples of his felicitous use of words and phrases4 ,show by illustrations his mastery in the use of the concrete4 ,to what special senses do his images appeal8 ,was he at all affected by the new human movement8 ,why does ,arnold say1 ,keats is with ,shakespeare8 ,in what respects is he like the ,elizabethans8 ,de ,quincey4--,read ,levana and ,our ,ladies of ,sorrow 7,craik1 ,v41 #bfd-bgj74 ,the first chapters of ,the ,confessions of an ,english ,opium-,eater 7,everyman's ,library2 ,temple ,classics2 ,century1 #fhc-fij2 ,manly1 ,,ii41 #ceg-cff7 are entertaining and will repay reading4 ,does his prose show any influence of a romantic and poetic age8 ,compare his style with that of ,addison1 ,gibbon1 and ,burke4 ,in what respects does ,de ,quincey succeed1 and in what does he fail1 as a model for a young writer8 ,lamb4--,from the ,essays of ,elia 7,cassell's ,national ,library2 ,everyman's ,library1 ,temple ,classics7 read any two of these essays3 ,a ,dissertation upon ,roast ,pig1 ,old ,china1 ,dream ,children1 ,new ,year's ,eve1 ,poor ,relations4 ,for selections1 see ,craik1 ,v41 #aaf-abf2 ,century1 #ege-egh2 ,manly1 ,,ii41 #ccg-cde4 ,in what does ,lamb's chief charm consist8 ,point out resemblances and differences between his ,essays and ,addison's4 ,landor1 ,hazlitt1 and ,hunt4--,good selections are given in ,craik1 ,v42 ,chambers1 ,,iii42 ,manly1 ,,ii4 ,inexpensive editions of ,landor's ,imaginary ,conversations and ,pericles and ,aspasia may be found in the ,camelot ,series4 ,hazlitt's ,characters of ,shakespeare's ,plays1 ,lectures on the ,english ,poets1 ,lectures on the ,english ,comic ,writers1 and ,table ,talk are published in ,everyman's ,library4 ,the ,camelot ,series and the ,temple ,classics also contain some of ,hazlitt's works4 ,a selection from ,leigh ,hunt's ,essays is published in the ,camelot ,series4 ,what are the main characteristics of ,landor's style8 ,select a passage which justifies the criticism3 ,he writes in marble4 ,give some striking thoughts from his ,imaginary ,conversations4 ,compare his style and subject matter with ,hazlitt's4 ,show that ,hazlitt has the power of presenting in an impressive way the chief characteristics of authors4 ,select some pleasing passages from ,leigh ,hunt's ,essays4 ,compare him with ,addison and ,lamb4 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,,viii3 ,footnote #a3 ,prelude1 ,book ,,xi4 ,footnote #b3 gold4 ,footnote #c3 ,for a' ,that and a' ,that4 ,footnote #d3 ,song at the ,feast of ,brougham ,castle4 ,footnote #e3 ,hart-,leap ,well4 ,footnote #f3 ,intimations of ,immortality4 ,footnote #g3 ,wordsworth's ,lines ,composed a ,few ,miles above ,tintern ,abbey4 ,footnote #h3 ,retirement4 ,footnote #i3 ,conversation4 ,footnote #aj3 ,i ,love ,my ,jean4 ,footnote #aa3 remedy4 ,footnote #ab3 ,epistle to ,john ,lapraik4 ,footnote #ac3 ,the ,vision4 ,footnote #ad3 ,sonnet3 ,the world is too much with us4 ,footnote #ae3 ,hart ,leap ,well4 ,footnote #af3 ,a ,day-,dream4 ,footnote #ag3 ,biographia ,literaria1 ,chapter ,,xiv4 ,footnote #ah3 ,ibid41 ,chapter ,,xxii4 ,footnote #ai3 ,manfred1 ,act ,i4 ,footnote #bj3 ,childe ,harold's ,pilgrimage1 ,canto ,,iii4 ,footnote #ba3 ,the ,dream4 ,footnote #bb3 ,adonais1 ,stanza xlix ,footnote #bc3 ,epipsychidion4 ,footnote #bd3 ,ode to the ,west ,wind4 ,footnote #be3 ,for a discussion of the different sensory images of the poets1 see the author's ,education of the ,central ,nervous ,system1 pages #aji-bjh4 ,footnote #bf3 ,sleep and ,poetry4 ,footnote #bg3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #ej4 ,footnote #bh3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #f4 ,,chapter ,,ix3 ,,the ,,victorian ,,age1 #ahcg-aijj ,history of the ,period4--,in the two periods of ,english history most remarkable for their accomplishment1 the ,elizabethan and the ,victorian1 the throne was occupied by women4 ,queen ,victoria1 the granddaughter of ,george ,,iii41 ruled from #ahcg to the beginning of #aija4 ,her long reign of sixty-three years may be said to close with the end of the nineteenth century4 ,for nearly fifty years after the battle of ,waterloo 7#ahae71 ,england had no war of magnitude4 ,in #ahed she joined ,france in a war against ,russia to keep her from taking ,constantinople4 ,tennyson's well-known poem1 ,the ,charge of the ,light ,brigade1 commemorates an incident in this bloody contest1 which was successful in preventing ,russia from dismembering ,turkey4 ,when the ,turks massacred the ,christians in ,bulgaria in #ahgf1 ,russia fought and conquered ,turkey4 ,england again intervened1 this time after the war1 in the ,berlin ,congress 7#ahgh74 ,in return for her diplomatic services and for a guaranty to maintain the integrity of certain ,turkish territory1 ,england received from ,turkey the island of ,cyprus4 ,as a result of this ,congress1 the principalities of ,roumania1 ,servia1 and ,bulgaria were formed1 but the ,turk was allowed to remain in ,europe4 ,a later ,english prime minister1 ,lord ,salisbury 7#ahcj-aijc71 referring to ,england's espousal of the ,turkish cause1 said that she had backed the wrong horse4 ,the bloody war of #aiab-aiac between ,turkey and the allied armies of ,bulgaria1 ,servia1 ,montenegro1 and ,greece was the result of this mistake4 ,an important part of ,england's history during this period centers around the expansion1 protection1 and development of her colonies in ,asia1 ,australia1 ,africa1 and ,america4 ,england was then constantly agitated by the fear that ,russia might grow strong enough to seize ,india or some other ,english colonial possessions4 ,a serious rebellion in ,india 7#aheg7 led ,england to take from the ,east ,india ,company the government of that colony4 ,empress of ,india was later 7#ahgf7 added to the titles of ,queen ,victoria4 ,had ,india not been an ,english colony1 literature might not have had ,kipling's fascinating ,jungle ,books and ,hindu stories4 ,england's protectorate over ,egypt 7#ahhb7 was assumed in order to strengthen her control over the newly completed ,suez ,canal 7#ahfi71 which was needed for her communication with ,india and her ,australian colonies4 ,the ,boer war in ,south ,africa 7#ahii-aijb7required the largest number of troops that ,england ever mustered into service in any of her wars4 ,the final outcome of this desperate struggle was the further extension of her ,south ,african possessions4 ,in the nineteenth century1 ,england's most notable political achievement was her successful rule over colonies1 ranging from ,india1 with its #bhj1jjj1jjj subjects1 to ,fanning ,island with its population of thirty4 ,her tactful guidance was for the must part directed toward enabling them to develop and to govern themselves4 ,she had learned a valuable lesson from the ,american revolution4 ,ireland1 however1 failed to secure her share of the benefits that usually resulted from ,english rule4 ,she was neither regarded as a colony1 like ,australia1 nor as an integral part of ,england4 ,for the greater part of the century her condition was deplorable4 ,the great prime minister1 ,william ,e4 ,gladstone 7#ahji-ahih71 tried to secure needed home rule for her1 but did not succeed4 ,toward the end of the century1 more liberal laws regarding the tenure of the land and more self-government afforded some relief from unjust conditions4 ,during the ,victorian age the government of ,england became more democratic4 ,two reform bills 7#ahfg and #ahhd7 gave almost unrestricted suffrage to men4 ,the extension of the franchise and the granting of local self-government to her counties 7#ahhh7 made ,england one of the most democratic of all nations4 ,her monarch has less power than the president of the ,united ,states4 ,the ,victorian age saw the rise of trades unions and the passing of many laws to improve the condition of the working classes4 ,as the tariff protecting the home grower of wheat had raised the price of bread and caused much suffering to the poor1 ,england not only repealed this duty 7#ahdf7 but also became practically a free-trade country4 ,the age won laurels in providing more educational facilities for all1 in abridging class privileges1 and in showing increasing recognition of human rights1 without a bloody revolution such as took place in ,france4 ,a rough indication of the amount of social and moral progress is the decrease in the number of convicts in ,england1 from about #ej1jjj at the accession of ,victoria to less than #fjjj at her death4 ,an ,age of ,science and ,invention4--,in the extent and the variety of inventions1 in their rapid improvement and utilization for human needs1 and in general scientific progress1 the sixty-three years of the ,victorian age surpassed all the rest of historic time4 ,when ,victoria ascended the throne1 the stage coach was the common means of traveling2 only two short pieces of railroad had been constructed2 the electric telegraph had not been developed2 few steamships had crossed the ,atlantic4 ,the modern use of the telephone would then have seemed as improbable as the wildest ,arabian ,nights' tale4 ,before her reign ended1 the railroad1 the telegraph1 the steamship1 and the telephone had wrought an almost magical change in travel and in communication4 ,the ,victorian age introduced anaesthetics and antiseptic surgery1 developed photography1 the sciences of chemistry and physics1 of biology and zology1 of botany and geology4 ,the enthusiastic scientific worker appeared in every field1 endeavoring to understand the laws of nature and to apply them in the service of man4 ,science also turned its attention to human progress and welfare4 ,the new science of sociology had earnest students4 ,illustration3 ,,charles ,,darwin4 ,the ,influence of ,science on ,literature4--,the ,victorian age was the first to set forth clearly the evolution hypothesis1 which teaches the orderly development from simple to complex forms4 ,while the idea of evolution had suggested itself to many naturalists1 ,charles ,darwin 7#ahji-ahhb7 was the first to gain a wide hearing for the theory4 ,after years of careful study of nature1 he published in #ahei ,the ,origin of ,species by ,natural ,selection1 an epoch-making work1 which had a far-reaching effect on the thought of the age4 ,the influence of his doctrine of evolution is especially apparent in ,tennyson's poetry1 in ,george ,eliot's fiction1 in religious thought1 and in the change in viewing social problems4 ,in his ,synthetic ,philosophy1 ,herbert ,spencer 7#ahbj-aijc71 philosopher and metaphysician1 applied the doctrine of evolution not only to plants and animals but also to society1 morality1 and religion4 ,two eminent scientists1 ,john ,tyndall 7#ahbj-ahic7 and ,thomas ,huxley 7#ahbe-ahie71 did much to popularize science and to cause the age to seek a broader education4 ,tyndall's ,fragments of ,science 7#ahga7 contains a fine lecture on the ,scientific ,use of the ,imagination1 in which he becomes almost poetic in his imaginative conception of evolution3-- ,not alone the more ignoble forms of animalcular or animal life1 not alone the nobler forms of the horse and lion1 not alone the exquisite and wonderful mechanism of the human body1 but the human mind itself1--emotion1 intellect1 will1 and all their phenomena1--were once latent in a fiery cloud444 ,all our philosophy1 all our poetry1 all our science1 and all our art1--,plato1 ,shakespeare1 ,newton1 and ,raphael1--are potential in the fires of the sun4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,tyndall4 ,unlike ,keats in his ,lamia1 ,tyndall is firm in his belief that science will not clip the wings of imagination4 ,in the same lecture he says3-- ,how are we to lay hold of the physical basis of light1 since1 like that of life itself1 it lies entirely without the domain of the senses8 ,we are gifted with the power of imagination and by this power we can lighten the darkness which surrounds the world of the senses444 ,bounded and conditioned by coperant reason1 imagination becomes the mightiest instrument of the physical discoverer4 ,newton's passage from a falling apple to a falling moon was at the outset a leap of the imagination4 ,huxley was even a more brilliant interpreter of science to popular audiences4 ,his so-called ,lay ,sermons 7#ahgj7 are invigorating presentations of scientific and educational subjects4 ,he awakened many to a sense of the importance of knowing the laws of the physical world and the relations of cause and effect therein4 ,nowhere is he more impressive than where he forces us to admit that we must all play the chess game of life against an opponent that never makes an error and never fails to count our mistakes against us4 ,illustration3 ,,thomas ,,huxley4 ,from the painting by ,collier1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,the chess-board is the world1 the pieces are the phenomena of the universe1 the rules of the game are what we call the laws of ,nature4 ,the player on the other side is hidden from us4 ,we know that his play is always fair1 just1 and patient4 ,but we also know1 to our cost1 that he never overlooks a mistake1 or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance4 ,to the man who plays well1 the highest stakes are paid1 with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong man shows delight in strength4 ,and one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste1 but without remorse4 99 99 99 99 99 ,well1 what ,i mean by ,education is learning the rules of this mighty game4 ,in other words1 education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of ,nature1 under which name ,i include not merely things and their forces1 but men and their ways2 and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws4#a ,we find the influence of science manifest in much of the general literature of the age1 as well as in the special writings of the scientists4 ,science introduced to literature a new interest in humanity and impressed on writers what is known as the growth idea4 ,preceding literature1 with the conspicuous exception of ,shakespeare's work1 had for the most part presented individuals whose character was already fixed4 ,this age loved to show the growth of souls4 ,george ,eliot's novels are frequently ,darwinian demonstrations of the various steps in the moral growth or the perversion of the individual4 ,in ,rabbi ,ben ,ezra1 ,browning thus expresses this new idea of the working of the ,divine ,power3-- ,he fixed thee mid this dance ,of plastic circumstance4 ,the ,trend of ,prose2 ,minor ,prose ,writers4--,the prose of this age is remarkable for amount and variety4 ,in addition to the work of the scientists1 there are the essays and histories of ,macaulay and ,carlyle1 the essays and varied prose of ,newman1 the art and social philosophy of ,ruskin1 the critical essays of ,matthew ,arnold and ,swinburne4 ,one essayist1 ,walter ,pater 7#ahci-ahid71 an ,oxford graduate and teacher1 who kept himself aloof from contemporary thought1 produced almost a new type of serious prose1 distinguished for color1 ornamentation1 melody1 and poetic thought4 ,even such prosaic objects as wood and brick were to his retrospective gaze half mere soul-stuff1 floated thither from who knows where4 ,his object was to charm his reader1 to haunt him with vague suggestions rather than to make a logical appeal to him1 or to add to his world of vivid fact1 after the manner of ,macaulay4 ,a quotation from ,pater's most brilliant essay1 ,leonardo ,da ,vinci1 in the volume1 ,the ,renaissance3 ,studies in ,art and ,poetry#b 7#ahgc7 will show some of the characteristics of his prose4 ,this description of ,da ,vinci's masterpiece1 the portrait of ,mona ,lisa1 has added to the world-wide fame of that picture-- ,hers is the head upon which all 'the ends of the world are come1' and the eyelids are a little weary4 ,it is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh1 the deposit1 little cell by cell1 of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions4 ,set it for a moment beside one of those white ,greek goddesses or beautiful women of antiquity1 and how would they be troubled by this beauty1 into which the soul with its maladies has passed6444 ,she is older than the rocks among which she sits2 like the vampire1 she has been dead many times1 and learned the secrets of the grave2 and has been a diver in deep seas1 and keeps their fallen day about her2 and trafficked for strange webs with ,eastern merchants3 and1 as ,leda1 was the mother of ,helen of ,troy1 and1 as ,saint ,anne1 the mother of ,mary2 and all this has been to her but as the sound of lyres and flutes1 and lives only in the delicacy with which it has molded the changing lineaments1 and tinged the eyelids and the hands4 ,the period from #aghj to #ahcg had only two great writers of fiction1--,scott and ,jane ,austen2 but the ,victorian age saw the novel gain the ascendancy that the drama enjoyed in ,elizabethan times4 ,in addition to the chief novelists1--,dickens1 ,thackeray1 ,george ,eliot1 ,stevenson1 ,thomas ,hardy1 ,george ,meredith1 and ,kipling1--there were many other writers who produced one or more excellent works of fiction4 ,in this class are the ,bront sisters1 especially ,charlotte ,bront 7#ahaf-ahee7 and ,emily ,bront 7#ahah-ahdh71 the daughters of a clergyman1 who lived in ,haworth1 ,yorkshire4 ,they had genius1 but they were hampered by poverty1 lack of sympathy1 and peculiar environment4 ,charlotte ,bront's ,jane ,eyre 7#ahdg7 is a thrilling story1 which centers around the experiences of one of the great nineteenth-century heroines of fiction4 ,this virile novel1 an unusual compound of sensational romance and of intense realism1 lives because the highly gifted author made it pulsate with her own life4 ,unlike ,jane ,eyre1 ,emily ,bront's powerful novel1 ,wuthering ,heights 7#ahdg7 is not pleasant reading4 ,this romantic novel is really her imaginative interpretation of the ,yorkshire life that she knew4 ,if she had humanized ,wuthering ,heights1 it could have been classed among the greatest novels of the ,victorian age4 ,she might have learned this art1 had she not died at the age of thirty4 ,stronger than a man1 simpler than a child1 her nature stood alone1 wrote ,charlotte ,bront of her sister ,emily4 ,among the other authors who deserve mention for one or more works of fiction are3 ,bulwer ,lytton 7#ahjc-ahgc71 a versatile writer whose best-known work is ,the ,last ,days of ,pompeii2 ,elizabeth ,gaskell 7#ahaj-ahfe71 whose ,cranford 7#ahec7 is an inimitable picture of mid-nineteenth century life in a small ,cheshire village2 ,anthony ,trollope 7#ahae-ahhb71 whose ,barchester ,towers is a realistic study of life in a cathedral town2 ,charles ,kingsley 7#ahai-ahge71 who stirs the blood in ,westward ,ho6 7#ahee71 a tale of ,elizabethan seamen2 ,charles ,reade 7#ahad-ahhd71 author of ,the ,cloister and the ,hearth 7#ahfa71 a careful and fascinating study of fifteenth-century life2 ,r4,d4 ,blackmore 7#ahbe-aijj71 whose ,lorna ,doone 7#ahfi7 is a thrilling ,north ,devonshire story of life and love in the latter part of the seventeenth century2 ,j4,m4 ,barrie 7#ahfj- 71 whose ,the ,little ,minister 7#ahia7 is a richly human1 sympathetic1 and humorous story1 the scene of which is laid in ,kirriemuir1 a town about sixty miles north of ,edinburgh4 ,his ,sentimental ,tommy 7#ahif71 although not so widely popular1 is an unusually original1 semi-autobiographical story of imaginative boyhood4 ,this entire chapter could be filled with merely the titles of ,victorian novels1 many of which possess some distinctive merit4 ,the changed character of the reading public furnished one reason for the unprecedented growth of fiction4 ,the spread of education through public schools1 newspapers1 cheap magazines1 and books caused a widespread habit of reading1 which before this time was not common among the large numbers of the uneducated and the poor4 ,the masses1 however1 did not care for uninteresting or abstruse works4 ,the majority of books drawn from the circulating libraries were novels4 ,the scientific spirit of the age impelled the greatest novelists to try to paint actual life as it impressed them4 ,dickens chose the lower classes in ,london2 ,thackeray1 the clubs and fashionable world2 ,george ,eliot1 the country life near her birthplace in ,warwickshire2 ,hardy1 the people of his ,wessex2 ,meredith1 the cosmopolitan life of egotistical man2 ,kipling1 the life of ,india both in jungle and camp1 as well as the life of the great outer world4 ,these writers of fiction all sought a realistic background1 although some of them did not hesitate to use romantic touches to heighten the general effect4 ,stevenson was the chief writer of romances4 ,the ,trend of ,poetry3 ,minor ,poets4--,the ,victorian age was dominated by two great poets1--,robert ,browning and ,alfred ,tennyson4 ,browning showed the influence of science in his tendency to analyze human motives and actions4 ,in one line of ,fra ,lippo ,lippi1 he voices the new poetic attitude toward the world3-- ,to find its meaning is my meat and drink4 ,browning advanced into new fields1 while ,tennyson was more content to make a beautiful poetic translation of much of the thought of the age4 ,in his youth he wrote3-- ,here about the beach ,i wander'd1 nourishing a youth sublime ,with the fairy tales of science1 and the long result of ,time4 ,from merely reading ,tennyson's verse1 one could gauge quite accurately the trend of ,victorian scientific thought4 ,the poetry of both ,browning and ,tennyson is so resonant with faith that they have been called great religious teachers4 ,rudyard ,kipling1 the poet of imperialistic ,england1 of her far-flung battle line1 attributes her dominion over palm and pine to faith in the ,lord ,god of ,hosts4 ,in the minor poets1 there is often a different strain4 ,arnold is beset with doubt1 and hears no clear call1 such as ,tennyson voices in ,crossing the ,bar4 ,swinburne1 seeing the pessimistic side of the shield of evolution1 exclaims3-- ,thou hast fed one rose with dust of many men4 ,arthur ,hugh ,clough 7#ahai-ahfa71 ,oxford tutor1 traveler1 and educational examiner1 was a poet who struggled with the doubt of the age4 ,he loved-- ,to finger idly some old ,gordian knot1 ,unskilled to sunder1 and too weak to cleave1 ,and with much toil attain to half-believe4 ,his verse would be forgotten if it expressed only such an uncertain note2 but his greatest poem thus records his belief in the value of life's struggle and gives a hint of final victory3-- ,say not the struggle naught availeth1 ,the labor and the wounds are vain1 ,the enemy faints not1 nor faileth1 ,and as things have been they remain4 ,if hopes were dupes1 fears may be liars2 ,it maybe1 in yon smoke concealed1 ,your comrades chase e'en now the fliers1 ,and1 but for you1 possess the field4 ,although he paid too little attention to the form of his verse1 some of his poems have the vitality of an earnest1 thoughtful sincerity4 ,two poets1 ,w4 ,e4 ,henley 7#ahdi-aijc7 and ,robert ,bridges 7#ahdd- 71 although they do not possess ,robert ,browning's genius1 yet have much of his capacity to inspire others with joy in the mere living4 ,henley1 a cripple and a great sufferer1 was a poet1 critic1 and ,london editor4 ,his message is the joy of life 3-- 444the blackbird sings but a box-wood flute1 ,but ,i lose him best of all ,for his song is all of the joy of life4 ,his verse1 which is elemental1 full of enthusiasm and beauty1 often reminds us of the work of the thirteenth-century lyrists4 ,robert ,bridges1 an ,oxford graduate1 physician1 critic1 and poet1 also had for his creed3 ,life and joy are one4 ,his universe1 like ,shelley's1 is an incarnation of the spirit of love3-- ,love can tell1 and love alone1 ,whence the million stars were strewn1 ,why each atom knows its own1 ,how1 in spite of woe and death1 ,gay is life1 and sweet is breath4 ,he wishes for no happier day than the present one4 ,bridges has been called a classical poet because he often selects ,greek and ,roman subjects for his verse1 and because he writes with a formality1 purity1 and precision of style4 ,he is1 however1 most delightful in such volumes as ,shorter ,poems and ,new ,poems4#c wherein he describes in a simple1 artless manner ,english rural scenes and fireside joys4 ,in #aiac he was appointed poet laureate1 to succeed ,alfred ,austin4 ,john ,davidson 7#aheg-aiji71 a ,scotch poet1 who came to ,london and wrestled with poverty1 produced much uneven work4 ,in his best verse1 there is often a pleasing combination of poetic beauty and vigorous movement4 ,lines like these from his ,ballad of a ,nun have been much admired3-- ,on many a mountain's happy head ,dawn lightly laid her rosy hand4 ,the adventurous son took heaven by storm1 ,clouds scattered largesses of rain4 ,davidson later became an offensively shrill preacher of materialism and lost his early charm4 ,some of the best of his poetry may be found in ,fleet ,street ,ecologues4 ,francis ,thompson 7#ahfj-aijg71 a ,catholic poet1 who has been called a nineteenth-century ,crashaw1 passed much of his short life of suffering in ,london1 where he was once reduced to selling matches on a street corner4 ,his greatest poem1 ,the ,hound of ,heaven 7#ahic71 is an impassioned lyrical rendering of the passage in the ,psalms beginning3 ,whither shall ,i go from thy ,spirit8 or whither shall ,i flee from thy presence8 ,while fleeing down the long savannahs of the blue1 the poet hears a ,voice say3-- ,naught shelters thee1 who wilt not shelter ,me4 ,william ,watson 7#aheh- 71 a ,london poet1 looked to ,milton1 ,wordsworth1 and ,arnold as his masters4 ,some of ,watson's best verse1 such as ,wordsworth's ,grave1 is written in praise of dead poets4 ,his early volume ,epigrams 7#ahhd71 containing one hundred poems of four lines each1 shows his power of conveying poetic thought in brief space4 ,one of these poems is called ,shelley and ,harriet ,westbrook3-- ,a star looked down from heaven and loved a flower1 ,grown in earth's garden--loved it for an hour3 ,let eyes that trace his orbit in the spheres ,refuse not1 to a ruin'd rosebud1 tears4#d ,many expected to see ,watson appointed poet-laureate to succeed ,tennyson4 ,possibly mental trouble1 which had temporarily affected him1 influenced the choice2 for ,alfred ,austin 7#ahce-aiac7 received the laureateship in #ahif4 ,like the ,pre-,raphaelites1 ,watson disliked those whom he called a phrase-tormenting fantastic chorus of poets4 ,his best verse shows depth of poetic thought1 directness of expression1 and a strong sense of moral values4 ,the ,victorian age has provided poetry to suit almost all tastes4 ,in striking contrast with those who wrestled with the eternal verities are such poets and essayists as ,austin ,dobson 7#ahdj- 71 long a clerk of the ,london ,board of ,trade1 and ,arthur ,symons 7#ahfe- 71 a poet and discriminating prose critic4 ,austin ,dobson1 who is fond of eighteenth-century subjects1 is at his best in graceful society verse4 ,his poems show the touch of a highly skilled metrical artist who has been a careful student of ,french poetry4 ,his ease of expression1 freshness1 and humor charm readers of his verse without making serious demands on their attention4 ,his best poems are found in ,vignettes in ,rhyme 7#ahgc71 ,at the ,sign of the ,lyre 7#ahhe71 and ,collected ,poems 7#aiac74 ,in choice of subject matter1 ,arthur ,symons sometimes suggests the ,cavalier poets4 ,he has often squandered his powers in acting on his theory that it is one of the provinces of verse to record any momentary mood1 irrespective of its value4 ,his deftness of touch and acute poetic sensibility are evident in such short poems as ,rain on the ,down1 ,credo1 ,a ,roundel of ,rest and ,the ,last ,memory4#e ,illustration3 ,,dante ,,gabriel ,,rossetti4 ,from the drawing by himself1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,the ,pre-,raphaelite ,movement4--,in #ahdh three artists1 ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti 7#ahbh-ahhb71 ,william ,holman-,hunt 7#ahbg-aiaj71 and ,john ,everett ,millais 7#ahbi-ahif71 formed the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,others soon joined the movement which was primarily artistic1 not literary4 ,painting had become imitative4 ,the uppermost question in the artist's mind was1 ,how would ,raphael or some other authority have painted this picture8 ,the new school determined to paint things from a direct study of nature1 without a thought of the way in which any one else would have painted them4 ,they decided to assume the same independence as the ,pre-,raphaelite artists1 who expressed their individuality in their own way4 ,keats was the favorite author of the new school4 ,the artists painted subjects suggested by his poems1 and ,rossetti thought him the one true heir of ,shakespeare4 ,when the ,pre-,raphaelite paintings were violently attacked1 ,ruskin examined them and decided that they conformed to the principles which he had already laid down in the first two volumes of ,modern ,painters 7#ahdc1 #ahdf71 so he wrote ,pre-,raphaelitism 7#ahea7 as the champion of the new school4 ,it has been humorously said that some of the painters of this school1 before beginning a new picture1 took an oath to paint the truth1 the whole truth1 and nothing but the truth4 ,the new movement in poetry followed this revolt in art4 ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti1 the head of the literary ,pre-,raphaelites1 though born in ,london1 was of ,italian parentage in which there was a strain of ,english blood4 ,his poem1 ,the ,blessed ,damozel 7first published in #ahej71 has had the greatest influence of any ,pre-,raphaelite literary production4 ,this poem was suggested by ,the ,raven 7#ahde71 the work of the ,american1 ,edgar ,allan ,poe4 ,rossetti said3-- ,i saw that ,poe had done the utmost it was possible to do with the grief of the lover an earth1 and ,i determined to reverse the conditions1 and give utterance to the yearnings of the loved one in heaven4 ,his ,blessed ,damozel1 wearing a white rose1 ,mary's gift1 leaning out from the gold bar of heaven1 watching with sad eyes1 deeper than the depth of waters stilled at even1 for the coming of her lover1 has left a lasting impression on many readers4 ,simplicity1 beauty1 and pathos are the chief characteristics of this poem1 which1 like ,bryant's ,thanatopsis1 was written by a youth of eighteen4 ,painting was the chief work of ,rossetti's life1 but he wrote many other poems4 ,some of the most characteristic of these are the two semi-ballads1 ,sister ,helen and ,the ,king's ,tragedy1 ,rose ,mary1 ,love's ,nocturn1 and ,sonnets4 ,one of the earliest of these ,sonnets1 ,mary's ,girlhood1 describes the child as3-- ,an angel-watered lily1 that near ,god ,grows and is quiet4 ,his sister1 ,christina ,rossetti 7#ahcj-ahid71 the author of much religious verse1 shows the unaffected naturalness of the new movement4 ,this stanza from her ,amor ,mundi 7,love of the ,world7 is characteristic3-- ,so they two went together in glowing ,august weather1 ,the honey-breathing heather lay to their left and right2 ,and dear she was to doat on1 her swift feet seemed to float on ,the air like soft twin pigeons too sportive to alight4 ,william ,morris 7#ahcd-ahif71 ,oxford graduate1 decorator1 manufacturer1 printer1 and poet1 was born near ,london4 ,he was fascinated by ,the ,blessed ,damozel1 and his first and most poetical volume1 ,the ,defence of ,guinevere and ,other ,poems 7#aheh71 shows ,rossetti's influence4 ,the simplicity insisted on by the new school is evident in such lines as these from ,two ,red ,roses across the ,moon3-- ,there was a lady lived in a hall1 ,large in the eyes and slim and tall2 ,and ever she sung from noon to noon1 ,two red roses across the moon4 ,morris later wrote a long series of narrative poems1 called ,the ,earthly ,paradise 7#ahfh-ahgj7 and an epic1 ,sigurd the ,volsung 7#ahgf74 ,he turned from ,pre-,raphaelitism to become an earnest social reformer4 ,in literature1 the ,pre-,raphaelite movement disdained the old conventions and started a miniature romantic revival1 which emphasized individuality1 direct expression1 and the use of simple words4 ,its influence soon became merged in that of the earlier and far greater romantic school4 ,,thomas ,,babington ,,macaulay1 #ahjj-ahei ,illustration3 ,,thomas ,,babington ,,macaulay4 ,from the painting by ,sir ,f4 ,grant1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,a prominent figure in the social and political life of ,england during the first part of the century was ,thomas ,babington ,macaulay1 a man of brilliant intellectual powers1 strict integrity of character1 and enormous capacity for work4 ,he loved ,england and gloried in her liberties and her commercial prosperity4 ,he served her for many years in the ,house of ,commons1 and he bent his whole energy and splendid forensic talent in favor of the ,reform ,bill of #ahcb1 which secured greater political liberty for ,england4 ,he was not a theorizer1 but a practical man of affairs4 ,notwithstanding the fact that his political opinions were ready made for him by the ,whig party1 his career in the ,house was never inconsistent with rectitude of intention and independence of spirit4 ,he voted conscientiously for measures1 although he personally sacrificed hundreds of pounds by so doing4 ,he was a remarkable talker4 ,a single speech of his has been known to change an entire vote in ,parliament4 ,unlike ,coleridge1 he did not indulge in monologue1 but showed to finest advantage in debate4 ,his power of memory was wonderful4 ,he often startled an opponent by quoting from a given chapter and page of a book4 ,he repeated long passages from ,paradise ,lost2 and it is said he could have restored it complete1 had it all been lost4 ,his disposition was sweet and his life altogether fortunate4 ,his biographer says of him3 ,descended from ,scotch ,presbyterians --ministers many of them--on his father's side1 and from a ,quaker family on his mother's1 he probably united as many guaranties of 'good birth1' in the moral sense of the word1 as could be found in these islands at the beginning of the century4 ,he was born at ,rothley ,temple1 ,leicestershire1 in #ahjj4 ,he was prepared for college at good private schools1 and sent to ,cambridge when he was eighteen4 ,he studied law and was admitted to the bar in #ahbe2 but1 in the following year1 he determined to adopt literature as a profession1 owing to the welcome given to his ,essay on ,milton4 ,as he had written epics1 histories1 and metrical romances prior to the age of ten1 his choice of a profession was neither hasty nor unexpected4 ,he continued from this time to write for the ,edinburgh ,review1 but literature was not the only field of his activity4 ,he had a seat in ,parliament1 and he held several positions under the ,government4 ,he was never unemployed4 ,many of his ,essays were written before breakfast2 while the other members of the household were asleep4 ,he was a voracious reader4 ,if he walked in the country or in ,london1 he always carried a book to read4 ,he spent some years in the government's service in ,india4 ,on the long voyage over1 he read incessantly1 and on the return trip he studied the ,german language4 ,he was beyond the age of forty when he found the leisure to begin his ,history of ,england4 ,he worked uninterruptedly1 but broke down early1 dying at the age of fifty-nine4 ,with his large1 fine physique1 his sturdy common sense1 his interest in practical matters1 and his satisfaction in the physical improvements of the people1 ,macaulay was a fine specimen of the ,english gentleman4 ,essays and ,poetry4--,like ,de ,quincey1 ,macaulay was a frequent contributor to periodicals4 ,he wrote graphic essays on men of action and historical periods4 ,the essays most worthy of mention in this class are ,sir ,william ,temple1 ,lord ,clive1 ,warren ,hastings1 and ,william ,pitt1 ,earl of ,chatham4 ,some of his essays on ,english writers and literary subjects are still classic4 ,among these are ,milton1 ,dryden1 ,addison1 ,southey's ,edition of ,pilgrim's ,progress1 ,croker's ,edition of ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson1 and the biographical essays on ,bunyan1 ,goldsmith1 and ,johnson1 contributed to the ,encyclopaedia ,britannica4 ,although they may lack deep spiritual insight into the fundamental principles of life and literary criticism1 these essays are still deservedly read by most students of ,english history and literature4 ,gosse says3 ,the most restive of juvenile minds1 if induced to enter one of ,macaulay's essays1 is almost certain to reappear at the other end of it gratified1 and1 to an appreciable extent1 cultivated4 ,these ,essays have developed a taste for general reading in many who could not have been induced to begin with anything dry or hard4 ,many who have read ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson during the past fifty years say that ,macaulay first turned their attention to that fascinating work4 ,in the following quotation from an essay on that great biography1 we may note his love for interesting concrete statements1 presented in a vigorous and clear style3-- ,johnson grown old1 ,johnson in the fullness of his fame and in the enjoyment of a competent fortune1 is better known to us than any other man in history4 ,everything about him1 his chat1 his wig1 his figure1 his face1 his scrofula1 his ,st4 ,vitus's dance1 his rolling walk1 his blinking eye1 the outward signs which too clearly marked his approbation of his dinner1 his insatiable appetite for fish sauce and veal pie with plums1 his inextinguishable thirst for tea1 his trick of touching the posts as he walked 444 all are as familiar to us as the objects by which we have been surrounded from childhood4 ,macaulay wrote some stirring ballad poetry1 known as ,lays of ,ancient ,rome1 which gives a good picture of the proud ,roman ,republic in its valorous days4 ,these ballads have something of ,scott's healthy1 manly ring4 ,they contain rhetorical and martial stanzas1 which are the delight of many boys2 but they lack the spirituality and beauty that are necessary for great poetry4 ,history of ,england4--,macaulay had for some time wondered why some one should not do for real history what ,scott had done for imaginary history4 ,macaulay accordingly proposed to himself the task of writing a history that should be more accurate than ,hume's and possess something of the interest of ,scott's historical romances4 ,in #ahdh appeared the first two volumes of ,the ,history of ,england from the ,accession of ,james ,,ii4 ,macaulay had the satisfaction of seeing his work1 in sales and popular appreciation1 surpass the novels4 ,he intended to trace the development of ,english liberty from ,james ,,ii4 to the death of ,george ,,iii42 but his minute method of treatment allowed him to unfold only sixteen years 7from #afhe to #agja7 of that period1 so important in the constitutional and religious history of ,england4 ,macaulay's pages are not a graveyard for the dry bones of history4 ,the human beings that figure in his chapters have been restored to life by his touch4 ,we see ,charles ,,ii4 before the dew was off in ,st4 ,james's ,park striding among the trees1 playing with his spaniels1 and flinging corn to his ducks4 ,we gaze for a moment with the ,english courtiers at ,william ,,iii43-- ,they observed that the king spoke in a somewhat imperious tone1 even to the wife to whom he owed so much1 and whom he sincerely loved and esteemed4 ,they were amused and shocked to see him1 when the ,princess ,anne dined with him1 and when the first green peas of the year were put on the table1 devour the whole dish without offering a spoonful to her ,royal ,highness1 and they pronounced that this great soldier and politician was no better than a low ,dutch bear4#f ,parts of the ,history are masterpieces of the narrator's art4 ,a trained novelist1 unhampered by historical facts1 could scarcely have surpassed the last part of ,macaulay's eighth chapter in relating the trial of the seven ,bishops4 ,our blood tingles to the tips of our fingers as we read in the fifth chapter the story of ,monmouth's rebellion and of the ,bloody ,assizes of ,judge ,jeffreys4 ,macaulay shirked no labor in preparing himself to write the ,history4 ,he read thousands of pages of authorities and he personally visited the great battlefields in order to give accurate descriptions4 ,notwithstanding such preparation1 the value of his ,history is impaired1 not only because he sometimes displays partisanship1 but also because he fails to appreciate the significance of underlying social movements4 ,he does not adopt the modern idea that history is a record of social growth1 moral as well as physical4 ,while a graphic picture of the exterior aspects of society is presented1 we are given no profound insight into the interior movements of a great constitutional epoch4 ,we may say of both ,gibbon and ,macaulay that they are too often mere surveyors1 rather than geologists1 of the historic field4#g ,the popularity of the ,history is not injured by this method4 ,macaulay's grasp of fact never weakens1 his love of manly courage never relaxes1 his joy in bygone time never fails1 his zeal for the free institutions of ,england never falters1 and his style is never dull4 ,general ,characteristics4--,the chief quality of ,macaulay's style is its clearness4 ,contemporaries said that the printers' readers never had to read his sentences a second time to understand them4 ,this clearness is attained1 first1 by the structure of his sentences4 ,he avoids entangling clauses1 obscure references in his pronouns1 and long sentences whenever they are in danger of becoming involved and causing the reader to lose his way4 ,in the second place1 if the idea is a difficult one or not likely to be apprehended at its full worth1 ,macaulay repeats his meaning from a different point of view and throws additional light on the subject by varied illustrations4 ,in the third place1 his works abound in concrete ideas1 which are more readily grasped than abstract ones4 ,he is not content to write3 ,the smallest actual good is better than the most magnificent promise of impossibilities3 but he gives the concrete equivalent3 ,an acre in ,middlesex is worth a principality in ,utopia4 ,it is possible for style to be both clear and lifeless1 but his style is as energetic as it is clear4 ,in narration he takes high rank4 ,his erudition1 displayed in the vast stores of fact that his memory retained for effective service in every direction1 is worthy of special mention4 ,while his excellences may serve as a model1 he has faults that admirers would do well to avoid4 ,his fondness for contrast often leads him to make one picture too bright and the other too dark4 ,his love of antithesis has the merit of arousing attention in his readers and of crystallizing some thoughts into enduring epigrammatic form2 but he is often led to sacrifice exact truth in order to obtain fine contrasts1 as in the following3-- ,the ,puritan hated bear-baiting1 not because it gave pain to the bear1 but because it gave pleasure to the spectators4 ,macaulay is more the apostle of the material than of the spiritual4 ,he lacked sympathy with theories and aspirations that could not accomplish immediate practical results4 ,while his vigorous1 easily-read pages exert a healthy fascination1 they are not illumined with the spiritual glow that sheds luster on the pages of the great ,victorian moral teachers1 like ,carlyle and ,ruskin4 ,he has1 however1 had more influence on the prose style of the last half of the nineteenth century than any other writer4 ,many continue to find in him their most effective teacher of a clear1 energetic form of expression4 ,,john ,,henry1 ,,cardinal ,,newman1 #ahja-ahij ,illustration3 ,,john ,,henry1 ,,cardinal ,,newman4 ,from the painting by ,emmeline ,deane4 ,life4--,newman1 who was born in ,london the year after ,macaulay1 represents a different aspect of ,english thought4 ,macaulay was thrilled in contemplating the great material growth and energy of the nation4 ,newman's interest was centered in the development of the spiritual life4 ,this son of a practical ,london banker was writing verses at nine1 a mock drama at twelve1 and at fourteen1 he broke out into periodicals1 ,the ,spy and ,anti-,spy1 intended to answer one another4 ,of his tendency toward mysticism in youth1 he wrote3-- ,i used to wish the ,arabian ,tales were true2 my imagination ran on unknown influences1 on magical powers and influences4 ,i thought life might be a dream1 or ,i an angel1 and all this world a deception1 my fellow angels by a playful device concealing themselves from me1 and deceiving me with the semblance of a material world4 ,in his youth he imitated the style of ,addison1 ,johnson1 and ,gibbon4 ,few boys of his generation had as much practice in writing ,english prose4 ,at the age of fifteen years and ten months he entered ,trinity ,college1 ,oxford1 from which he was graduated at nineteen4 ,two years later he won an ,oxford fellowship1 and in #ahbd he became a clergyman of the ,church of ,england4 ,the rest of his life belongs mainly to theological history4 ,he became one of the leaders of the ,oxford ,movement 7#ahcc-ahda7 toward stricter ,high-,church principles1 as opposed to liberalism1 and in #ahde he joined the ,catholic ,church4 ,he was rector of the new ,catholic ,university at ,dublin from #ahed to #aheh4 ,in #ahgi he was made a cardinal4 ,most of his later life was spent at ,edgbaston 7near ,birmingham7 at the ,oratory of ,st4 ,philip ,neri4 ,works and ,general ,characteristics4--,newman was a voluminous writer4 ,an edition of his works in thirty-six volumes was issued during his lifetime4 ,most of these properly belong to the history of theological thought4 ,his ,apologia pro ,vita ,sua1 which he wrote in reply to an attack by ,charles ,kingsley1 an ,episcopal clergyman1 is really1 as its sub-title indicates1 ,a ,history of ,his ,religious ,opinions4 ,this intimate1 sympathetic account of his religious experiences won him many friends4 ,he wrote two novels3 ,loss and ,gain 7#ahdh71 which gives an excellent picture of ,oxford society during the last days of the ,oxford ,movement1 and ,callista 7#aheb71 a vivid story of an early ,christian martyr in ,africa4 ,his best-known hymn1 ,lead kindly ,light1 remains a favorite with all ,christian denominations4 ,the ,dream of ,gerontius 7#ahfe7 is a poem that has been called the happiest effort to represent the unseen world that has been made since the time of ,dante4 ,those who are not interested in ,newman's ,episcopal or ,catholic sermons or in his great theological treatises will find some of his best prose in the work known as ,the ,idea of a ,university4 ,this volume1 containing #eba pages1 is composed of discussions1 lectures1 and essays1 prepared while he was rector of the ,university at ,dublin4 ,newman's prose is worthy of close study for the following reasons3-- 7#a7 ,his style is a clear1 transparent medium for the presentation of thought4 ,he molded his sentences with the care of an artist4 ,he said3-- ,i have been obliged to take great pains with everything ,i have ever written1 and ,i often write chapters over and over again1 besides innumerable corrections and interlinear additions4 ,his definition of style is a thinking out into language1 not an ornamental addition from without4 ,he employs his characteristic irony in ridiculing those who think that one man could do the thought and another the style3-- ,we read in ,persian travels of the way in which young gentlemen go to work in the ,east1 when they would engage in correspondence with those who inspire them with hope or fear4 ,they cannot write one sentence themselves2 so they betake themselves to the professional letter writer444 ,the man of thought comes to the man of words2 and the man of words duly instructed in the thought1 dips the pen of desire into the ink of devotedness1 and proceeds to spread it over the page of desolation4 ,then the nightingale of affection is heard to warble to the rose of loveliness1 while the breeze of anxiety plays around the brow of expectation4 ,this is what the ,easterns are said to consider fine writing2 and it seems pretty much the idea of the school of critics to whom ,i have been referring4#h ,it was a pleasure to him to think out expressions like the following3-- ,ten thousand difficulties do not make a doubt4 ,calculation never made a hero4 ,here below to live is to change1 and to be perfect is to have changed often4 7#b7 ,like ,macaulay1 ,newman excelled in the use of the concrete4 ,in his ,historical ,sketches1 he imagines the agent of a ,london company sent to inspect ,attica3-- ,he would report that the climate was mild2 the hills were limestone2 there was plenty of good marble2 more pasture land than at first survey might have been expected1 sufficient certainly for sheep and goats2 fisheries productive2 silver mines once1 but long since worked out2 figs fair2 oil first rate2 olives in profusion444 ,he would not tell how that same delicate and brilliant atmosphere freshened up the pale olive till the olive forgot its monotony1 and its cheek glowed like the arbutus or the beech of the ,umbrian hills4 ,a general statement about superseding the operation of the laws of the universe in a multitude of ways does not satisfy him4 ,he specifies in those ways when he records his belief that saints have raised the dead to life1 crossed the sea without vessels1 multiplied grain and bread1 cured incurable diseases4 7#c7 ,he modestly called himself a rhetorician1 but he possessed also the qualities of an acute thinker4 ,he displayed unusual sagacity in detecting the value of different arguments in persuasion4 ,he could arrange in proper proportion the most complex tangle of facts1 so as to make one clear impression4 ,such power made him one of the great ,victorian masters of argumentative prose4 ,,thomas ,,carlyle1 #agie-ahha ,illustration3 ,,thomas ,,carlyle4 ,from the painting by ,james ,mc,neil ,whistler1 ,glasgow ,art ,galleries4 ,life4--,thomas ,carlyle1 who became one of the great tonic forces of the nineteenth century1 was also most interested in spiritual growth4 ,he specially emphasized the gospel of work as the only agency that could develop the atmosphere necessary for such growth1 and1 though deeply religious1 he cared little for any special faith or creed4 ,the son of a ,scotch stone mason1 ,thomas ,carlyle was born in #agie at ,ecclefechan1 ,dumfriesshire4 ,at the age of fourteen1 the boy was ready for the ,university of ,edinburgh1 and he walked the eighty miles between it and his home4 ,after he was graduated1 he felt that he could not enter the ministry1 as his parents wished4 ,he therefore taught while he was considering what vocation to follow4 ,in #ahba he met ,jane ,welsh1 a brilliant and beautiful girl1 descended on her father's side from ,john ,knox and on her mother's from ,william ,wallace4 ,with the spirit of ,wallace1 she climbed in her girlhood up to places that a boy would have considered perilous4 ,when she was forbidden to take up such a masculine study as ,latin1 she promptly learned to decline a ,latin noun4 ,carlyle had much trouble in winning her2 but she finally consented to be his wife1 and they were married in #ahbf4 ,in #ahbh they went to live for six lonely years on her farm at ,craigenputtock1 sixteen miles north of ,dumfries1 where it was so quiet that ,mrs4 ,carlyle said she could hear the sheep nibbling the grass a quarter of a mile away4 ,ralph ,waldo ,emerson visited them here and formed a lifelong friendship with ,carlyle4 ,it was here that ,carlyle fought the intense spiritual battle of his early life1 here that he wrote his first great work1 ,sartor ,resartus1 which his wife pronounced a work of genius1 dear4 ,illustration3 ,,craigenputtock4 ,it would be difficult to overestimate the beneficent influence which ,mrs4 ,carlyle exerted over her husband in those trying days of poverty and spiritual stress4 ,when her private correspondence was inadvisedly published after his death1 she unwittingly became her husband's ,boswell4 ,for many years after the appearance of her letters1 his personality and treatment of her were more discussed than his writings4 ,her references to marital unhappiness were for awhile given undue prominence2 but with the passing of time there came a recognition of the fact that she was almost as brilliant a writer as her husband1 that1 like him1 she was frequently ill1 and that in expressing things in a striking way1 she sometimes exercised his prerogative of exaggeration4 ,carlyle has to take a journey always after writing a book1 she declared1 and then gets so weary with knocking about that he has to write another book to recover from it4 ,she once said that living with him was as bad as keeping a lunatic asylum4 ,illustration3 ,,mrs4 ,,carlyle4 ,unfortunately1 his early privations had caused him to have chronic indigestion4 ,he thought that the worst punishment he could suggest for ,satan would be to compel him to try to digest for all eternity with my stomach4 ,this disorder rendered ,carlyle peculiarly irascible and explosive4 ,his wife's quick temper sometimes took fire at his querulousness2 but her many actions1 which spoke much louder than her words1 showed how deeply she loved him and how proud she was of his genius4 ,after their removal to ,london1 she would quietly buy the neighbors' crowing roosters1 which kept him awake1 and she prepared food that would best suit his disordered digestion4 ,she complained of his seeming lack of appreciation4 ,you don't want to be praised for doing your duty1 he said4 ,i did1 though1 she wrote4 ,carlyle's lack of restraint was most evident in little things4 ,a ,german who came from ,weimar to see him was unfortunately admitted during a period of stress in writing4 ,a minute later the ,german was seen rapidly descending the stairs and leaving the house4 ,carlyle immediately hurried to the room where his wife was receiving a visitor1 and tragically asked what he had done to cause the ,almighty to send a ,german all the way from ,weimar to wrench off the handles of his cupboard doors4 ,carlyle did not then appear to realize that the frightened ,german had mistaken the locked cupboard doors for the exit from the room4 ,on the other hand1 when the great political economist1 ,john ,stuart ,mill1 was responsible for the loss of the borrowed manuscript of the first volume of ,the ,french ,revolution1 ,carlyle said to his wife3 ,well1 ,mill1 poor fellow1 is terribly cut up2 we must endeavor to hide from him how very serious the business is to us4 ,to rewrite this volume cost ,carlyle a year's exhausting labor4 ,in #ahcd ,carlyle went to ,london1 where he lived for the rest of his life in ,cheyne ,row1 ,chelsea4 ,the publication of ,the ,french ,revolution in #ahcg made him famous4 ,other works of his soon appeared1 to add to his fame4 ,his essays1 collected and published in #ahci under the title1 ,critical and ,miscellaneous ,essays1 contained his sympathetic ,essay on ,burns1 which no subsequent writer has surpassed4 ,cromwell's ,letters and ,speeches1 with ,elucidations 7#ahde7 permanently raised ,england's estimation of that warrior statesman4 ,carlyle's writings1 his lectures on such subjects as ,heroes and ,hero ,worship 7#ahda71 and his oracular criticism on government and life made him as conspicuous a figure as ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson had been in the previous century4 ,carlyle's last great work1 ,history of ,friedrich ,,ii41 was fortunately finished in #ahfe1 the year before his great misfortune4 ,in the latter part of #ahfe the students of the ,university of ,edinburgh elected ,carlyle ,lord ,rector of that institution because they considered him the man most worthy to receive such high honor4 ,in the spring of #ahff1 he went to ,edinburgh to deliver his inaugural address4 ,before he returned1 he received a telegram stating that his wife had died of heart failure while she was taking a drive in ,london4 ,the blow was a crushing one4 ,the epitaph that he placed on her monument shows his final realization of her worth and of his irreparable loss4 ,he said truly that the light of his life had gone out4 ,during his remaining years1 he produced little of value except his ,reminiscences1 a considerable part of which had been written long before4 ,honors1 however1 came to him until the last4 ,the ,prussian ,order of ,merit was conferred on him in #ahgd4 ,the ,english government offered him the ,grand ,cross of ,bath and a pension1 both of which he declined4 ,on his eightieth birthday1 more than a hundred of the most distinguished men of the ,english-speaking race joined in giving him a gold medallion portrait4 ,when he died in #ahha1 an offer of interment in ,westminster ,abbey was declined and he was laid beside his parents in the graveyard at ,ecclefechan4 ,sartor ,resartus4--,like ,coleridge1 ,carlyle was a student of ,german philosophy and literature4 ,his earliest work was ,the ,life of ,friedrich ,schiller 7#ahbc-ahbe71 which won for him the appreciation and friendship of the ,german poet1 ,goethe4 ,carlyle's first great original work1 the one in which he best delivers his message to humanity1 is ,sartor ,resartus 7,the ,tailor ,patched74 ,this first appeared serially in ,fraser's ,magazine in #ahcc-ahcd4 ,he feigned that he was merely editing a treatise on ,the ,philosophy of ,clothes1 the work of a ,german professor1 ,diogenes ,teufelsdrckh4 ,this professor is really ,carlyle himself2 but the disguise gave him an excuse for writing in a strange style and for beginning many of his nouns with capitals1 after the ,german fashion4 ,when ,sartor ,resartus first appeared1 ,mrs4 ,carlyle remarked that it was completely understood and appreciated only by women and mad people4 ,this work did not for some years receive sufficient attention in ,england to justify publication in book form4 ,the case was different in ,america1 where the first edition with a preface by ,emerson was published in #ahcf1 two years before the appearance of the ,english edition4 ,in the year of ,carlyle's death1 a cheap ,london edition of #cj1jjj copies was sold in a few weeks4 ,carlyle calls ,sartor ,resartus a ,philosophy of ,clothes4 ,he uses the term ,clothes symbolically to signify the outward expression of the spiritual4 ,he calls ,nature the ,living ,garment of ,god4 ,he teaches us to regard these vestments only as semblances and to look beyond them to the inner spirit1 which is the reality4 ,the century's material progress1 which was such a cause of pride to ,macaulay1 was to ,carlyle only a semblance1 not a sign of real spiritual growth4 ,he says of the utilitarian philosophy1 which he hated intensely3-- ,it spreads like a sort of ,dog-madness2 till the whole ,world-kennel will be rabid4 ,the majority of readers cared nothing for the symbolism of ,sartor ,resartus2 but they responded to its effective presentation of the gospel of work and faced the duties of life with increased energy4 ,carlyle seemed to stand before them saying3-- ,do the ,duty which lies nearest thee1 which thou knowest to be a ,duty6 ,thy second ,duty will already have become clearer444 ,the ,situation that has not its ,duty1 its ,ideal was never yet occupied by man4 ,yes here1 in this poor miserable1 hampered1 despicable ,actual1 wherein thou even now standest1 here or nowhere is thy ,ideal3 work it out therefrom2 and working1 believe1 live1 be free4 ,fool6 the ,ideal is in thyself1 the impediment too is in thyself3 thy ,condition is but the stuff thou art to shape that same ,ideal out of 444 ,the ,french ,revolution4--,in #ahcg when ,carlyle finished the third volume of his historic masterpiece1 ,the ,french ,revolution1 he handed the manuscript to his wife for her criticism1 saying3 ,this ,i could tell the world3 ',you have not had for a hundred years any book that comes more direct and flamingly from the heart of a living man4' ,his ,scotch blood boiled over the injustice to the ,french peasants4 ,his temperature begins to rise when he refers to the old law authorizing a ,french hunter1 if a nobleman1 to kill not more than two serfs4 ,carlyle brings before us a vast stage where the actors in the ,french ,revolution appear3 in the background1 five full-grown millions of gaunt figures with their hungry faces2 in the foreground1 one young mother of seven children1 looking sixty years of age1 although she is not yet twenty-eight1 and trying to respond to the call for seven different kinds of taxes2 and1 also in the foreground1 a perfumed ,seigneur1 taking part of the children's dinner4 ,the scene changes2 the great individual actors in the ,revolution enter3 the tocsin clangs2 the stage is reddened with human blood and wreathed in flames4 ,we feel that we are actually witnessing that great historic tragedy4 ,carlyle had something of ,shakespeare's dramatic imagination1 which pierced to the heart of men and movements4 ,more detailed and scholarly histories of this time have been written2 but no other historian has equaled ,carlyle in presenting the ,french ,revolution as a human tragedy that seems to be acted before our very eyes4 ,he did not attempt to write a complete history of the time4 ,he used the dramatist's legitimate privilege of selection4 ,from a mass of material that would have bewildered a writer of less ability1 he chose to present on the center of the stage the most significant actors and picturesque incidents4 ,carlyle's ,real ,kings4--,carlyle believed that universal history1 the history of what man has accomplished in this world1 is at bottom the history of the great men who have worked here4 ,in accordance with this belief1 he studied1 not the slow growth of the people1 but the lives of the world's great geniuses4 ,in his course of lectures entitled ,heroes and ,hero ,worship 7#ahda71 he considers ,the ,hero as ,prophet1 ,the ,hero as ,poet1 ,the ,hero as ,priest1 and ,the ,hero as ,king1 and shows how history has been molded by men like ,mohammed1 ,shakespeare1 ,luther1 and ,napoleon4 ,it is such men as these whom ,carlyle calls kings1 beside whom emperors1 popes1 and potentates are as nothing4 ,he believed that there was always living some man worthy to be the real king over men1 and such a kingship was ,carlyle's ideal of government4 ,oliver ,cromwell was one of these real kings4 ,in the work entitled ,cromwell's ,letters and ,speeches1 with ,elucidations1 ,carlyle was the first to present the character of the ,protector in its full strength and greatness and to demonstrate once for all that he was a hero whose memory all ,englishmen should honor4 ,the ,life of ,john ,sterling 7#ahea7 is a fair1 true1 and touching biography of ,carlyle's most intimate friend1 the man who had introduced him to ,jane ,welsh4 ,after reading this book1 ,george ,eliot said she wished that more men of genius would write biographies4 ,carlyle's next attempt at biography grew into the massive ,history of ,friedrich ,,ii4 7#aheh-ahfe71 which includes a survey of ,european history in that dreary century which preceded the ,french ,revolution4 ,friedrich is by no means one of the perfect demigods4 ,he is to the last a questionable hero4 ,however1 in his way he is a ,reality1 one feels that he always means what he speaks2 grounds his actions1 too1 on what he recognizes for the truth2 and1 in short1 has nothing of the ,hypocrite or ,phantasm4 ,despite his tyranny and his bloody career1 he1 therefore1 is another of ,carlyle's real kings4 ,while this work is a history of modern ,europe1 ,friedrich is always the central figure4 ,he gives to these six volumes a human note1 a glowing interest of personal adventure1 and a oneness that are remarkable in so vast a work4 ,general ,characteristics4--,carlyle's writings must be classed among the great social and democratic influences of the nineteenth century1 in spite of the fact that he did not believe in pure democracy4 ,it was his favorite theory that a great man1 like ,oliver ,cromwell1 could govern better than the unintelligent multitude4 ,however much he rebelled against democracy in government1 his sympathies were with the toiling masses4 ,his work entitled ,past and ,present 7#ahdc7 suggests the organization of labor and introduces such modern expressions as a fair day's wages for a fair day's work4 ,in ,sartor ,resartus1 he specially honors the toilworn ,craftsman1 that with earthmade implement laboriously conquers the ,earth and makes her ,man's4 ,carlyle had a large fund of incisive wit and humor1 which often appear in picturesque setting1 as when he said to a physician3 ,a man might as well pour his sorrows into the long hairy ear of a jackass4 ,as the satiric censor of his time1 ,carlyle found frequent occasion for caustic wit4 ,he lashed the age for its love of the swine's trough1 of ,pig-science1 ,pig-enthusiasm and devotion4 ,although his intentions were good1 his satire was not always just or discriminating1 and he was in consequence bitterly criticized4 ,the following ,dutch parable is in some respects specially applicable to ,carlyle3-- ,there was a man once1--a satirist4 ,in the natural course of time his friends slew him and he died4 ,and the people came and stood about his corpse4 ',he treated the whole round world as his football1' they said indignantly1 'and he kicked it4' ,the dead man opened one eye4 ',but always toward the goal1' he said4 ,this goal toward which ,carlyle struggled to drive humanity was the goal of moral achievement4 ,young people on both sides of the ,atlantic responded vigorously to his appeals4 ,the scientist ,john ,tyndall said to his students3-- ,the reading of the works of two men has placed me here to-day4 ,these men are the ,english ,carlyle and the ,american ,emerson4 ,i must ever remember with gratitude that through three long1 cold ,german winters1 ,carlyle placed me in my tub1 even when ice was on its surface1 at five o'clock every morning 444 determined1 whether victor or vanquished1 not to shrink from difficulty444 ,they told me what ,i ought to do in a way that caused me to do it1 and all my consequent intellectual action is to be traced to this purely moral force444 ,they called out4 ',act6' ,i hearkened to the summons4 ,huxley aptly defined ,carlyle as a great tonic1--a source of intellectual invigoration and moral stimulus4 ,carlyle is not only a great ,awakener but also a great literary artist4 ,his style is vivid1 forceful1 and often poetic4 ,he loves to present his ideas with such picturesqueness that the corresponding images develop clearly in the reader's mind4 ,impressive epithets and phrases abound4 ,his metaphors are frequent and forceful4 ,mirabeau's face is pictured as rough-hewn1 seamed1 carbuncled4 ,in describing ,daniel ,webster1 ,carlyle speaks of the tanned complexion1 that amorphous crag-like face2 the dull black eyes under their precipice of brows1 like dull anthracite furnaces needing only to be blown1 the mastiff-mouth1 accurately closed4 ,he formed many new compound words after the ,german fashion1 such as mischief-joy2 and when he pleased1 he coined new words1 like dandiacal and croakery4 ,his frequent exclamations and inversions make his style seem choppy1 like a wave-tossed sea2 but his sentences are so full of vigor that they almost call aloud from the printed page4 ,his style was not an imitation of the ,german1 but a characteristic form of expression1 natural to him and to his father4 ,the gift of verse was denied him1 but he is one of the great prose poets of the nineteenth century4 ,much of ,sartor ,resartus is highly poetic and parts of ,the ,french ,revolution resemble a dramatic poem4 ,,john ,r,u,s,kl,n1 #ahai-aijj ,illustration3 ,,john ,,ruskin4 ,from a photograph ,life4--,the most famous disciple of ,carlyle is ,john ,ruskin1 the only child of wealthy parents1 who was born in ,london in #ahai4 ,when he was four years old the family moved to ,herne ,hill1 a suburb south of ,london1 where his intense love of nature developed as he looked over open fields1 animate with cow and buttercup1 over softly wreathing distances of domestic wood1 to the distant hills4 ,his entertaining autobiography1 ,praeterita 7#ahhe-ahhi71 relates how he was reared3-- ,i had never heard my father's or mother's voice once raised in any question with each other 444 ,i had never heard a servant scolded 444 ,i obeyed word or lifted finger1 of father or mother1 simply as a ship her helm 444nothing was ever promised me that was not given2 nothing ever threatened me that was not inflicted1 and nothing ever told me that was not true444 ,peace1 obedience1 faith2 these three for chief good2 next to these1 the habit of fixed attention with both eyes and mind4 ,he grew up a solitary child without playmates4 ,this solitude was relieved when his parents took him on occasional trips through ,england1 ,switzerland1 and ,italy4 ,in ,praeterita he tells in an inimitable way how the most portentious interruption to his solitude came in #ahcf1 when his father's ,spanish partner came with his four beautiful daughters to visit ,herne ,hill4 ,these were the first girls in his own station to whom he had spoken4 ,virtually convent-bred more closely than the maids themselves1 says ,ruskin1 ,i was thrown1 bound hand and foot1 in my unaccomplished simplicity1 into the fiery furnace4 ,in four days he had fallen so desperately in love with the oldest1 ,clotilde ,adle ,domecq1 a graceful blonde of fifteen1 that he was more than four years in recovering his equilibrium4 ,she laughed at his protestations of love2 but she repeatedly visited his parents1 and he did not give up hope until #ahdj1 when she married a ,french baron4 ,his biographer says that the resulting emotional strain doubtless was contributory to his breakdown at ,oxford and to his enforced absence for a recuperative trip on the continent4 ,his feminine attachments usually showed some definite results in his writing4 ,miss ,domecq's influence during the long period of his devotion inspired him to produce much verse1 which received such high praise that his father desired him to become a poet4 ,although some of ,ruskin's verse was good1 he finally had the penetration to see that it ranked decidedly below the greatest1 and he later laid down the dictum3 with second-rate poetry in quality no one ought to be allowed to trouble mankind4 ,in #ahhf1 he had the humor to allude as follows to ,miss ,domecq and her influence on his rimes1 444her sisters called her ,clotilde1 after the queen-saint1 and ,i1 ,adle1 because it rimed to shell1 spell1 and knell4 ,before he was graduated from ,oxford in #ahdb1 he wrote the beautiful altruistic story1 ,the ,king of the ,golden ,river 7#ahda7 for ,euphemia ,gray1 the young girl unhappily chosen by his mother to become his wife4 ,he married her in #ahdh1 but was divorced from her in #ahed4 ,in #ahee she was married to the ,pre-,raphaelite artist1 ,john ,millais4 ,another attachment led to his writing some of the finest parts of his most popular work1 ,sesame and ,lilies 7#ahfd74 ,i wrote ,lilies1 he says1 to please one girl4 ,he is here referring to ,rose ,la ,touche1 a bright1 ardent1 religious enthusiast1 to whom he began to teach drawing when she was ten years old4 ,his affection for her grew so strong that he finally asked her to become his wife4 ,he was then a man of forty while she was scarcely grown4 ,her religious scruples kept her from definitely accepting him1 because his belief was not sufficiently orthodox4 ,the attachment1 however1 continued until her early death4 ,she was in some respects a remarkable character1 and he seems to have had her in mind when he wrote in ,sesame and ,lilies the pearly passage about ,shakespeare's heroines4 ,although ,ruskin's wealth relieved him from earning a living1 he was rarely idle4 ,he studied1 sketched1 arranged collections of minerals1 prepared ,turner's pictures for the ,national ,gallery1 became professor of art at ,oxford ,university1 and wrote and lectured on art and social subjects4 ,his later activities1 before his health gave way1 were in many respects similar to those of a twentieth-century social-service worker4 ,the realization of the misery that overwhelmed so much of human life caused him to turn from art to consider remedies for the evils that developed as the competitive industries of the nation expanded4 ,he endeavored to improve the condition of the working classes in such ways as building sanitary tenements1 establishing a tea shop1 and forming an altruistic association1 known as ,st4 ,george's ,guild4 ,nearly all his inheritance of #ahj1jjj was expended in such activities4 ,the royalties coming from the sale of his books supported him in old age4 ,ruskin suffered from periods of mental depression during his last years1 which were spent at ,brantwood on ,coniston ,water in the ,lake ,district4 ,he died in #aijj at the age of eighty-one and was buried in the cemetery at ,coniston4 ,art ,works4--,ruskin published the first volume of ,modern ,painters in #ahdc1 the year after he was graduated from ,oxford1 and the fifth and last volume1 seventeen years later1 in #ahfj4 ,many of his views changed during this period2 but he honestly declared them and left to his readers the task of reconciling the divergent ideas in ,modern ,painters4 ,the purpose of this book was1 in his own words1 to declare the perfectness and eternal beauty of the work of ,god2 and test all works of man by concurrence with1 or subjection to that4 ,modern ,painters contains painstaking descriptions of ,god's handiwork in cloud formation1 mountain structure1 tree architecture1 and water forms4 ,in transferring these aspects of nature to canvas1 ,ruskin shows the superiority of modern to ancient painting4 ,he emphasizes the moral basis of true beauty1 and the necessity of right living as a foundation for the highest type of art4 ,perhaps ,modern ,painters achieved its greatest success in freeing men from the bondage of a conventional criticism that was stifling art1 in sending them direct to nature as a guide1 and in developing a love for her varied manifestations of beauty4 ,two of ,ruskin's works on architecture1 ,the ,seven ,lamps of ,architecture 7#ahdi7 and ,the ,stones of ,venice 7#ahea-ahec71 had a decided effect on ,british taste in building4 ,the three volumes of the ,the ,stones of ,venice give a history of the ,venetians and of their ,gothic architecture4 ,he aims to show that the beauty of such buildings as ,st4 ,mark's ,cathedral and the ,doges' ,palace is due to the virtue and patriotism of the people1 the nobility of the designers1 and the joy of the individual workmen1 whose chisels made the very stones of ,venice tell beautiful stories4 ,the most important of his many other writings on art is the volume entitled ,lectures on ,art1 ,delivered before the ,university of ,oxford1 #ahgj4 ,in his famous ,inaugural of this series1 he thus states what he considers the central truth of his teaching3 ,the art of any country is the exponent of its social and political virtues4 ,social ,works4--,by turning from the criticism of art to consider the cause of humanity1 ,ruskin shows the influence of the ethical and social forces of the age4 ,in middle life he was overwhelmed with the amount of human misery and he determined to do his best to relieve it4 ,he wrote3-- ,i simply cannot paint1 nor read1 nor look at minerals1 nor do anything else that ,i like1 and the very light of the morning sky1 when there is any--which is seldom1 nowadays1 near ,london--has become hateful to me1 because of the misery that ,i know of1 and see signs of1 where ,i know it not1 which no imagination can interpret too bitterly4#i ,after #ahfj his main efforts with both pen and purse were devoted to improving the condition of his fellow men4 ,his attempts to provide a remedy led him to write ,unto this ,last 7#ahfj71 his first and most complete work on political economy1 ,munera ,pulveris 7#ahfc71 ,time and ,tide by ,weare and ,tyne 7#ahfh71 ,fors ,clavigera 7#ahga-ahhd71 which is a long series of letters to workingmen1 and a number of other works1 that also present his views on social questions4 ,he abhorred the old political economy1 which he defined as the professed and organized pursuit of money4 ,instead of considering merely the question of the production and distribution of articles1 his interest lay in the causes necessary to produce healthy1 happy workmen4 ,it seemed to him that the manufacture of souls ought to be exceedingly lucrative4 ,this statement and his maxim1 ,there is no wealth but life1 were called unscientific4 ,in his fine book of essays1 entitled ,sesame and ,lilies 7#ahfd71 he actually had printed in red those pathetic pages describing how an old cobbler and his son worked night and day to try to keep a little home of one room1 until the father died from exhaustion and the son had a film come over his eyes4 ,john ,ruskin1 social reformer1 has an important place in the social movement of the nineteenth century4 ,many of his theories1 which were considered revolutionary1 have since become the commonplace expressions of twentieth-century social economists4 ,general ,characteristics4--,ruskin was a champion of the ,pre-,raphaelite school of art4 ,he used his powerful influence to free art from its conventional fetters and to send people direct to nature for careful loving study of her beautiful forms4 ,his chief strength lies in his moral enthusiasm and his love of the beautiful in nature4 ,like his master1 ,carlyle1 ,ruskin is a great ethical teacher2 but he aimed at more definite results in the reformation of art and of social life4 ,he moralized art and humanized political economy4 ,some of his art criticisms and social theories are fanciful1 narrow1 and sometimes even absurd4 ,he did not seem to recognize with sufficient clearness the fact that immoral individuals might produce great works of art2 but no one can successfully assail his main contention that there must be a connection between great art and the moral condition of a people4 ,his rejection of railroads and steam machinery as necessary factors in modern civilization caused many to pay little attention to any of his social theories4 ,much of the gospel that he preached has1 however1 been accepted by the twentieth century4 ,he was in advance of his time when he said in #ahgj that the object of his art professorship would be accomplished if the ,english nation could be made to understand that the beauty which is indeed to be a joy forever must be a joy for all4 ,at the age of fifty-eight1 he thus summed up the principal work of his life3-- ,modern ,painters taught the claim of all lower nature on the hearts of men2 of the rock1 and wave1 and herb1 as a part of their necessary spirit life444 ,the ,stories of ,venice taught the laws of constructive ,art1 and the dependence of all human work or edifice1 for its beauty1 on the happy life of the workman4 ,under this ,last taught the laws of that life itself and its dependence on the ,sun of ,justice2 the ,inaugural ,oxford ,lectures1 the necessity that it should be led1 and the gracious laws of beauty and labor recognized1 by the upper1 no less than the lower classes of ,england2 and1 lastly1 ,fors ,clavigera has declared the relation of these to each other1 and the only possible conditions of peace and honor1 for low and high1 rich and poor444 ,ruskin has written remarkable descriptive prose4 ,a severe ,english critic1 ,george ,saintsbury1 says of ,ruskin's works 444they will he found to contain the very finest prose 7without exception and beyond comparison7 which has been written in ,english during the last half of the nineteenth century444 ,the ,stones of ,venice 444 is the book of descriptive prose in ,english1 and all others toil after it in vain4 ,ruskin could be severely plain in expression1 but much of his earlier prose is ornate and almost poetic4 ,the following description of the ,rhone deserves to be ranked with the painter's art3-- ,there were pieces of wave that danced all day as if ,perdita were looking on to learn2 there were little streams that skipped like lambs and leaped like chamois2 there were pools that shook the sunshine all through them1 and were rippled in layers of overlaid ripples1 like crystal sand2 here were currents that twisted the light into golden braids1 and inlaid the threads with turquoise enamel2 there were strips of stream that had certainly above the lake been mill streams1 and were busily looking for mills to turn again4#aj ,,charles ,,dickens1 #ahab-ahgj ,illustration3 ,,charles ,,dickens4 ,from a photograph taken in ,america1 #ahfh4 ,life4--,the first of the great ,victorian novelists to make his mark was ,charles ,dickens4 ,this great portrayer of child life had a sad painful childhood4 ,he was born in #ahab at ,landport1 a district of the city of ,portsmouth1 ,hampshire1 where his father was a clerk in the ,navy ,pay ,office4 ,john ,dickens1 the prototype of ,mr4 ,micawber1 was a kind1 well-intentioned man1 who knew far better how to harangue his large household of children than how to supply it with the necessities of life4 ,he moved from place to place1 sinking deeper into poverty and landing finally in a debtors' prison4 ,the dreams of a fine education and a brilliant career1 which the future novelist had fondly cherished in his precocious little brain1 had to be abandoned4 ,at the age of eleven the delicate child was called upon to do his part toward maintaining the family4 ,he was engaged1 at six-pence a week1 to paste labels on blacking bottles4 ,he was poorly clothed1 ill fed1 forced to live in the cheapest place to be found1 and to associate with the roughest kind of companions4 ,this experience was so bitter and galling to the sensitive boy that years after1 when he was a successful1 happy man1 he could not look back upon it without tears in his eyes4 ,owing to a rupture between his employer and the elder ,mr4 ,dickens1 ,charles was removed from this place and sent to school4 ,at fifteen1 however1 he had to seek work again4 ,this time he was employed in an attorney's office at ,gray's ,inn4 ,it was impossible1 of course1 for this ambitious boy to realize that he was receiving an education in the dirty streets1 the warehouses1 the tenements1 and the prisons4 ,yet1 for his peculiar bent of mind1 these furnished far richer stores of learning than either school or college could have given4 ,he had marvelous powers of observation4 ,he noted everything1 from the saucy street waif to the sorrowful prison child1 from the poor little drudge to the brutal schoolmaster1 and he transplanted them from life to fiction1 in such characters as ,sam ,weller1 ,little ,dorrit1 the ,marchioness1 ,mr4 ,squeers1 and a hundred others4 ,while in the attorney's office1 ,dickens began to study shorthand1 in order to become a reporter4 ,this was the beginning of his success4 ,his reports were accurate and racy1 even when they happened to be written in the pouring rain1 in a shaking stagecoach1 or by the light of a lantern4 ,they were also promptly handed in at the office1 despite the fact that the stages sometimes broke down and left their passengers to plod on foot through the miry roads leading into ,london4 ,these reports and newspaper articles soon attracted attention2 and ,dickens received an offer for a series of humorous sketches1 which grew into the famous ,pickwick ,papers1 and earned #bj1jjj for the astonished publishers4 ,he was able to make his own terms for his future novels4 ,fame came to him almost at a bound4 ,he was loved and toasted in ,england and ,america before he had reached the age of thirty4 ,when1 late in life1 he made lecture tours through his own country1 or through ,scotland or ,america1 they were like triumphal marches4 ,in his prime ,dickens was an energetic1 high-spirited1 fun-loving man4 ,he made a charming host1 and was never happier than when engineering theatrical entertainments at his delightful home1 ,gads ,hill4 ,he was esteemed by all the literary men of ,london1 and idolized by his children and friends4 ,as his strong personality was communicated to his audiences and his readers1 his death in #ahgj was felt as a personal loss throughout the ,english-speaking world4 ,illustration3 ,,dickens',s ,,home1 ,,gads ,,hill4 ,works4--,pickwick ,papers 7#ahcf-ahcg71 ,dickens's first long story1 is one of his best4 ,mr4 ,pickwick1 with his genial nature1 his simple philosophy1 and his droll adventures1 and ,sam ,weller1 with his ready wit1 his acute observations1 and his almost limitless resources1 are amusing from start to finish4 ,the book is brimful of its author's high spirits4 ,it has no closely knit plot1 but merely a succession of comical incidents1 and vivid caricatures of ,mr4 ,pickwick and his friends4 ,yet the fun is so good-natured and infectious1 and the looseness of design is so frankly declared that the book possesses a certain unity arising from its general atmosphere of frolic and jollity4 ,oliver ,twist 7#ahcg-ahch7 is a powerful story1 differing widely from ,pickwick ,papers4 ,while the earlier work is delightful chiefly for its humor1 ,oliver ,twist is strong in its pictures of passion and crime4 ,bill ,sykes the murderer1 ,fagin the ,jew1 who teaches the boys deftness of hand in stealing1 and poor ,nancy1 are drawn with such power that they seem to be still actually living in some of ,london's dark alleys4 ,little ,oliver1 born in the poor-house1 clothed by charity1 taught by the evil genius of the streets1 starved in body and soul1 is one of the many pathetic portraits of children drawn with a sure and loving hand by ,dickens4 ,there are some improbable features about the plot and some overwrought sentimental scenes in this story4 ,dickens reveled in the romantic and found it in robbers' dens1 in bare poverty1 in red-handed crime4 ,the touching pathos and thrilling adventures of ,oliver ,twist make a strong appeal to the reader's emotions4 ,with the prodigality of a fertile genius1 ,dickens presented his expectant and enthusiastic public with a new novel on an average of once a year for fourteen years2 and1 even after that1 his productivity did not fall off materially4 ,the best and most representative of these works are ,nicholas ,nickleby 7#ahch-ahci71 ,barnaby ,rudge 7#ahda71 ,martin ,chuzzlewit 7#ahdc-ahdd71 ,dombey and ,son 7#ahdf-ahdh71 ,david ,copperfield 7#ahdi-ahej71 ,bleak ,house 7#aheb-ahec71 ,hard ,times 7#ahed71 ,a ,tale of ,two ,cities 7#ahei71 and ,our ,mutual ,friend 7#ahfd74 ,of these1 ,david ,copperfield is at once ,dickens's favorite work and the one which the world acclaims as his masterpiece4 ,the novel is in part an autobiography4 ,some incidents are taken directly from ,dickens's early experiences and into many more of ,david's childish sorrows1 boyish dreams1 and manly purposes1 ,dickens has breathed the breath of his own life4 ,david ,copperfield is thus a vitally interesting and living character4 ,the book contains many of ,dickens's most human men and women4 ,petted ,little ,em'ly with her pathetic tragedy is handled with deep sympathy and true artistic delicacy4 ,peggotty and ,mrs4 ,steerforth are admirably drawn and contrasted4 ,mrs4 ,gummidge's thoughtful care of ,peggotty exhibits ,dickens's fine perception of the self-sacrificing spirit among the very poor4 ,uriah ,heep remains the type of the humble sycophant1 and ,mr4 ,micawber1 the representative of the man of big words and pompous manners4 ,these various characters and separate life histories are bound in same way to the central story of ,david4 ,general ,characteristics4--,england has produced no more popular novelist than ,charles ,dickens4 ,his novels offer sound and healthy entertainment1 hearty laughter1 a wide range of emotions1 and a wonderful array of personalities4 ,he presents the universal physical experiences of life that are understood by all men1 and irradiates this life with emotion and romance4 ,he keeps his readers in an active state of feeling4 ,they laugh at the broad humor in ,sam ,weller's jokes2 they chuckle over the sly exposure of ,mr4 ,pecksniff in ,martin ,chuzzlewit2 they weep in ,dombey and ,son over poor ,paul crammed with grown-up learning when he wanted to be just a child2 they rejoice over ,david ,copperfield's escape from his stepfather into the loving arms of whimsical1 clever ,aunt ,betsey ,trotwood2 they shiver with horror in ,our ,mutual ,friend during the search for floating corpses on the dark river2 and they feel more kindly toward the whole world after reading ,a ,christmas ,carol and taking ,tiny ,tim into their hearts4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,ms4 ,,of ,a ,,christmas ,,carol4 ,dickens excels in the portrayal of humanity born and reared in poverty and disease4 ,he grasps the hand of these unfortunates in a brother's clasp4 ,he says in effect ,i present to you my friends1 the beggar1 the thief1 the outcast4 ,they are men worth knowing4 ,he does not probe philosophically into complex causes of poverty and crime4 ,his social creed was well formulated by ,dowden in these words3 ,banish from earth some few monsters of selfishness1 malignity1 and hypocrisy1 set to rights a few obvious imperfections in the machinery of society1 inspire all men with a cheery benevolence1 and everything will go well with this excellent world of ours4 ,every student of the science of society1 however1 owes a debt to ,dickens4 ,he did what no science or knowledge or logic can do alone4 ,he reached the heart1 awoke the conscience1 and pierced the obtuseness of the public4 ,he aroused its protests because his genius painted prisons and hovels and dens of vice so vividly that his readers actually suffered from the scenes thus presented and wanted such horrors abolished4 ,dickens's infectious humor is a remarkable and an unfailing quality of his works4 ,it pervades entire chapters1 colors complete incidents1 and displays the temper of the optimist through the darkest pictures of human suffering4 ,a hypocrite is an abomination to ,dickens4 ,speaking of ,mr4 ,pecksniff in ,martin ,chuzzlewit1 ,dickens says3 ,some people likened him to a direction-post1 which is always telling the way to a place1 and never goes there4 ,his humor can be fully appreciated only by reading long passages1 such as the scene of ,mr4 ,pickwick's trial1 the descriptions of ,mr4 ,micawber and of ,miss ,betsey ,trotwood1 or the chapter on ,podsnappery in ,our ,mutual ,friend4 ,dickens's humor has an exuberant richness1 which converts men and women into entertaining figures of comedy4 ,closely allied to his fund of humor is his capacity for pathos1 especially manifest in his treatment of childhood4 ,dickens has a large gallery of children's portraits1 fondly and sympathetically executed4 ,david ,copperfield1 enduring ,mr4 ,murdstone's cruel neglect1 ,florence ,dombey pining for her father's love1 the ,marchioness starving upon cold potatoes1 ,tom and ,louise ,gradgrind1 stuffed with facts and allowed no innocent amusement1 and the waifs of ,tom's-,all-,alone dying from abject poverty and disease1 are only a few of the sad-eyed children peering from the pages of ,dickens and yearning for love and understanding4 ,he wrings the heart2 but1 happily1 his books have improved the conditions of children1 not only in public asylums1 factories1 and courts1 but also in schools and homes4 ,dickens's chief faults arise from an excess of sensibility and humor4 ,his soft heart and romantic spirit lead him to exaggerate4 ,in such passages as the death of ,little ,nell in ,the ,old ,curiosity ,shop and the interviews between ,dora and ,david in ,david ,copperfield1 ,dickens becomes mawkish and sentimental4 ,while his power of portraiture is amazing1 he often overleaps the line of character drawing and makes side-splitting caricatures of his men and women4 ,they are remembered too often by a limp or a mannerism of speech1 or by some other little peculiarity1 instead of by their human weaknesses and accomplishments4 ,dickens is not a master in the artistic construction of his plots4 ,the majority of his readers do not1 however1 notice this failing because he keeps them in such a delightful state of interest and suspense by the sprightliness with which he tells a story4 ,he was a very rapid writer1 and his ,english is consequently often careless in structure and in grammar4 ,as he was not a man of books1 he never acquired that half-unconscious knowledge of fine phrasing which comes to the careful student of literature4 ,no novelist has1 however1 told more graphically such appealing stories of helpless childhood and of the poor and the outcast4 ,,william ,,makepeace ,,thackeray1 #ahaa-ahfc ,illustration3 ,,william ,,makepeace ,,thackeray4 ,from the painting by ,samuel ,laurence1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,though nearly a year older than ,dickens1 ,thackeray made his way to popularity much more slowly4 ,these two men1 who became friends and generous rivals1 were very different in character and disposition4 ,instead of possessing the self-confidence1 energy1 and industry that brought ,dickens fame in his youth1 ,thackeray had to contend with a somewhat shy and vacillating temperament1 with extreme modesty1 and with a constitutional aversion to work4 ,born in ,calcutta in #ahaa1 he was sent to ,england to be educated4 ,he passed through ,charter ,house and went one year to ,cambridge4 ,he was remembered by his school friends for his skill in caricature sketching4 ,he hoped to make painting a profession and went to ,paris to study2 but he never attained correctness in drawing1 and when he offered to illustrate the works of ,dickens1 the offer was declined4 ,thackeray certainly added to the charm of his own writings by his droll and delightful illustrations4 ,when ,thackeray came of age in #ahcb1 he inherited a small fortune1 which he soon lost in an ,indian bank and in newspaper investments4 ,he was then forced to overcome his idle1 procrastinating habits4 ,he became a literary hack1 and contributed humorous articles to such magazines as ,fraser and ,punch4 ,while his pen was causing mirth and laughter in ,england1 his heart was torn by suffering4 ,his wife1 whom he had married in #ahcg1 became insane4 ,he nursed her patiently with the vain hope that she could recover2 but he finally abandoned hope and put her in the care of a conscientious attendant4 ,his home was consequently lonely1 and the club was his only recourse4 ,here1 his broad shoulders and kindly face were always greeted with pleasure2 for his affable manners and his sparkling humor1 which concealed an aching heart1 made him a charming companion4 ,illustration3 ,,caricature ,,of ,,thackeray ,,by ,,himself4 ,it is pleasant to know that the later years of his life were happier4 ,they were cheered by the presence of his daughters1 and were free from financial worries4 ,he had the satisfaction of knowing that1 through the sales of his book2 and the returns from his lectures1 he had recovered his lost fortune4 ,novels4--,vanity ,fair 7#ahdg-ahdh7 is ,thackeray's masterpiece4 ,for the lifelikeness of its characters1 it is one of the most remarkable creations in fiction4 ,thackeray called this work ,a ,novel without a ,hero4 ,he might have added and without a heroine2 for neither clever ,becky ,sharp nor beautiful ,amelia ,sedley satisfies the requirements for a heroine4 ,no perfect characters appear in the book1 but it is enlivened with an abundance of genuine human nature4 ,few people go through life without meeting a ,george ,osborne1 a ,mrs4 ,bute ,crawley1 or a ,mrs4 ,sedley4 ,even a penurious1 ridiculous1 old ,sir ,pitt ,crawley is sometimes seen4 ,the greatest stroke of genius in the book1 however1 is the masterly portrayal of the artful1 scheming ,becky ,sharp1 who alternately commands respect for her shrewdness and repels by her moral depravity4 ,in ,vanity ,fair certain classes of society are satirized4 ,their intrigues1 frivolities1 and caprices are mercilessly dealt with4 ,thackeray probes almost every weakness1 vanity1 or ambition that leads humanity to strive for a place in society1 to long for a bow from a lord1 and to stint in private in order to shine in public4 ,he uncovers the great social farce of life1 which is acted with such solemn gravity by the snobs1 the hypocrites1 and the other superficial dramatis personae4 ,amid these satirized frivolities there appear occasional touches of true pathos and deep human tragedy1 which are strangely effective in their unsympathetic surroundings4 ,illustration3 ,,thackeray',s ,,home ,,where ,,vanity ,,fair ,,was ,,written4 ,thackeray gives in ,henry ,esmond 7#aheb7 an enduring picture of high life in the eighteenth century4 ,this work is one of the great historical novels in our language4 ,the time of queen ,anne is reconstructed with remarkable skill4 ,the social etiquette1 the ideals of honor1 the life and spirit of that bygone day1 reappear with a powerful vividness4 ,thackeray even went so far as to disguise his own natural1 graceful style1 and to imitate eighteenth-century prose4 ,henry ,esmond is a dangerous rival of ,vanity ,fair4 ,the earlier work has a freshness of humor and a spontaneity of manner that are not so apparent in ,henry ,esmond4 ,on the other hand1 ,esmond has a superior plot and possesses a true hero4 ,in ,the ,newcomes 7#ahed-ahee71 ,thackeray exhibits again his incisive power of delineating character4 ,this book would continue to live if for nothing except the simple-hearted1 courtly ,colonel ,newcome4 ,few scenes in ,english fiction are more affecting than those connected with his death4 ,the accompanying lines will show what a simple pathos ,thackeray could command3-- ,at the usual evening hour the chapel bell begin to toll1 and ,thomas ,newcome's hands outside the bed feebly beat time--and just as the last bell struck1 a peculiar sweet smile shone over his face1 and he lifted up his head a little1 and quickly said1 ',adsum'--and fell back4 ,it was the word we used at school when names were called2 and1 lo6 he whose heart was as that of a little child had answered to his name1 and stood in the presence of the ,master6 ,the ,history of ,pendennis 7#ahdi7 and ,the ,virginians 7#aheg-ahei7 are both popular novels and take rank inferior only to the author's three greatest works4 ,the ,virginians is a sequel to ,esmond1 and carries the ,castlewood family through adventures in the ,new ,world4 ,essays4--,thackeray will live in ,english literature as an essayist as well as a novelist4 ,the ,english ,humorists of the ,eighteenth ,century 7#ahec7 and ,the ,four ,georges 7#ahfj7 are among the most delightful essays of the age4 ,the author of ,henry ,esmond knew ,swift1 ,addison1 ,fielding1 and ,smollett1 almost as one knows the mental peculiarities of an intimate friend4 ,in ,the ,english ,humorists of the ,eighteenth ,century1 ,thackeray writes of their conversations1 foibles1 and strong points of character1 in a most easy and entertaining way4 ,there is a constant charm about his manner1 which1 without effort or display of learning1 brings the authors vividly before the reader4 ,in addition to this presentation of character1 the essays contain appreciative literary criticism4 ,the essence of the humor in these eighteenth-century writers is distilled in its purest1 most delicate flavor1 by this nineteenth-century member of their brotherhood4 ,the ,four ,georges deals with ,england's crowned heads in a satiric vein1 which caused much comment among ,thackeray's contemporaries4 ,the satire is1 however1 mild and subdued1 never venomous4 ,for example1 he says in the essay on ,george ,,iii43-- ,king ,george's household was a model of an ,english gentleman's household4 ,it was early2 it was kindly2 it was charitable2 it was frugal2 it was orderly2 it must have been stupid to a degree which ,i shudder now to contemplate4 ,no wonder all the princes ran away from the lap of that dreary domestic virtue4 ,it always rose1 rode1 dined1 at stated intervals4 ,day after day was the same4 ,at the same hour at night the ,king kissed his daughters' jolly cheeks2 the ,princesses kissed their mother's hand2 and ,madame ,thielke brought the royal nightcap4 ,general ,characteristics4--,dickens and ,thackeray have left graphic pictures of a large portion of contemporary ,london life4 ,dickens presents interesting pictures of the vagabonds1 the outcasts1 and the merchants1 and ,thackeray portrays the suave1 polite leisure class and its dependents4 ,thackeray is an uncompromising realist and a satirist4 ,he insisted upon picturing life as he believed that it existed in ,london society2 and1 to his satiric eye1 that life was composed chiefly of the small vanities1 the little passions1 and the petty quarrels of commonplace people1 whose main objects were money and title4 ,he could conceive noble men and women1 as is proved by ,esmond1 ,lady ,castlewood1 and ,colonel ,newcome2 but such characters are as rare in ,thackeray as he believed they were in real life4 ,the following passage upon mankind's fickleness is a good specimen of his satiric vein in dealing with human weakness3-- ,there are no better satires than letters4 ,take a bundle of your dear friend's letters of ten years back--your dear friend whom you hate now4 ,look at a pile of your sister's6 ,how you clung to each other until you quarreled about the twenty-pound legacy6444 ,vows1 love promises1 confidence1 gratitude1--how queerly they read after a while6444,the best ink for ,vanity ,fair use would be one that faded utterly in a couple of days1 and left the paper clean and blank1 so that you might write on it to somebody else4 ,the phases of life that he describes have had no more subtle interpreter4 ,he does not label his characters with external marks1 but enters into communion with their souls4 ,his analytic method of laying bare their motives and actions is strictly modern4 ,his great master1 ,fielding1 would have been baffled by such a complex personality as ,becky ,sharp4 ,amid the throng of ,thackeray's men and women1 there are but few who are not genuine flesh and blood4 ,the art of describing the pathetic is unfailing in ,thackeray4 ,he never jars upon the most sensitive feelings nor wearies them by too long a treatment4 ,with a few simple but powerful expressions he succeeds in arousing intense emotions of pity or sorrow4 ,he has been wrongly called a cynic2 for no man can be a cynic who shows ,thackeray's tenderness in the treatment of pathos4 ,thackeray is master of a graceful1 simple prose style4 ,in its ease and purity1 it most resembles that of ,swift1 ,addison1 or ,goldsmith4 ,thackeray writes as a cultured1 ideal1 old gentleman may be imagined to talk to the young people1 while he sits in his comfortable armchair in a corner by the fireplace4 ,the charm of freshness1 quaintness1 and colloquial familiarity is seldom absent from the delightfully natural pages of ,thackeray4 ,,george ,,eliot1 #ahai-ahhj ,illustration3 ,,george ,,eliot4 ,from a drawing by ,sir ,e4,w4 ,burton1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,mary ,ann ,evans1 known to her family as ,marian and to her readers as ,george ,eliot1 was born in #ahai1 at ,south ,farm1 in ,arbury1 ,warwickshire1 about twenty-two miles north of ,stratford-on-,avon4 ,a few months later1 the family moved to a spacious ivy-covered farmhouse at ,griff1 some two miles east1 where the future novelist lived until she was twenty-two4 ,she was a thoughtful1 precocious child4 ,she lived largely within herself1 passed much time in reverie1 and pondered upon deep problems4 ,she easily outstripped her schoolmates in all mental accomplishments1 and1 from the first1 gave evidence of a clear1 strong intellect4 ,the death of her mother and the marriage of a sister left the entire care of the house and dairy to ,marian before she was seventeen years old4 ,her labors were quite heavy for the neat six years4 ,at the end of that time1 she and her father moved to ,foleshill1 near ,coventry1 where she had ample leisure to pursue her studies and music4 ,at ,foleshill1 she came under the influence of free-thinking friends and became an agnostic1 which she remained through the rest of her life4 ,this home was again broken up in #ahdi by the death of her father4 ,through the advice of friends she sought comfort in travel on the continent4 ,upon her return1 she settled in ,london as assistant editor of the ,westminster ,review4 ,by this time she had become familiar with five languages1 had translated abstruse metaphysical books from the ,german into ,english1 and had so thoroughly equipped her naturally strong intellect that she was sought after in ,london by such men as ,herbert ,spencer and ,george ,henry ,lewes4 ,a deep attachment sprang up between ,mr4 ,lewes and ,miss ,evans1 and they formed an alliance that lasted until his death4 ,george ,eliot's early literary labors were mainly critical and scientific1 being governed by the circle in which she moved4 ,when she came under the influence of ,mr4 ,lewes1 she was induced to attempt creative work4 ,her novels1 published under the pen name of ,george ,eliot1 quickly became popular4 ,despite this success1 it is doubtful whether she would have possessed sufficient self-reliance to continue her work without ,mr4 ,lewes's encouragement and protecting love1 which shielded her from contact with publishers and from a knowledge of harsh criticisms4 ,their companionship was so congenial that her friends were astonished when she formed another attachment after his death in #ahgh1 and married ,mr4 ,cross4 ,her husband said that her affectionate nature required some deep love to which to cling4 ,she had never been very robust1 and1 during her later years1 she was extremely frail4 ,she died in #ahhj4 ,illustration3 ,,george ,,eliot',s ,,birthplace4 ,works4--,george ,eliot was fast approaching forty when she found the branch of literature in which she was to achieve fame4 ,her first volume of stories1 ,scenes of ,clerical ,life 7#aheh71 showed decisively that she was master of fiction writing4 ,three novels followed rapidly1 ,adam ,bede 7#ahei71 ,the ,mill on the ,floss 7#ahfj71 and ,silas ,marner 7#ahfa74 ,her mind was stored with memories of the ,midland counties1 where her young life was spent2 and these four books present with a powerful realism this rich rural district and its quaint inhabitants1 who seem flushed with the warmth of real life4 ,adam ,bede is the freshest1 healthiest1 and most delightful of her books4 ,this story leaves upon the memory a charming picture of peace and contentment1 with its clearly drawn and interesting characters1 its ideal dairy1 the fertile stretches of meadow lands1 the squire's birthday party1 the harvest supper1 and the sweet ,methodist woman preaching on the green4 ,the ,mill on the ,floss also gives a fine picture of village life4 ,this novel is one of ,george ,eliot's most earnest productions4 ,she exhibits one side of her own intense1 brooding girlhood1 in the passionate heroine1 ,maggie ,tulliver4 ,there is in this tragic story a wonderfully subtle revelation of a young nature1 which is morbid1 ambitious1 quick of intellect1 and strong of will1 and which has no hand firm enough to serve as guide at the critical period of her life4 ,silas ,marner1 artistically considered1 is ,george ,eliot's masterpiece4 ,in addition to the ruddy glow of life in the characters1 there is an idyllic beauty about the pastoral setting1 and a poetic1 half mystic charm about the weaver's manner of connecting his gold with his bright-haired ,eppie4 ,the slight plot is well planned and rounded1 and the narrative is remarkable for ease and simplicity4 ,romola 7#ahfc7 is a much bolder flight4 ,it is an attempt to present ,florence of the fifteenth century1 to contrast ,savonarola's ardent ,christianity with the ,greek aestheticism of the ,medicis1 and to show the influence of the time upon two widely different characters1 ,romola and ,tito ,melema4 ,this novel is the greatest intellectual achievement of its author2 but it has neither the warmth of life1 nor the vigor of her ,english stories4 ,though no pains is spared to delineate ,romola1 ,tito1 and the inspiring monk1 ,savonarola1 yet they do not possess the genuineness and reality that are felt in her ,warwickshire characters4 ,middlemarch 7#ahga-ahgb7 and ,daniel ,deronda 7#ahgf7 marked the decline of ,george ,eliot's powers4 ,although she still possessed the ability to handle dialogue1 to analyze subtle complex characters1 and to attain a philosophical grasp of the problems of existence1 yet her weakening powers were shown in the length of tedious passages1 in an undue prominence of ethical purpose1 in the more studied and1 on the whole1 duller characters1 and in the prolixity of style4 ,george ,eliot's poetry does not bear comparison with her prose4 ,the ,spanish ,gypsy 7#ahfh7 is her most ambitious poem1 and it contains some fine dramatic passages4 ,her most beautiful poem is the hymn beginning3-- ,oh1 may ,i join the choir invisible ,of those immortal dead who live again ,in minds made better by their presence6 ,there is a strain of noble thought and lofty feeling in her poems1 and she rises easily to the necessary passion and fervor of verse2 but her expression is hampered by the metrical form4 ,general ,characteristics4--,george ,eliot is more strictly modern in spirit than either of the other two great contemporary novelists4 ,this spirit is exhibited chiefly in her ethical purpose1 her scientific sympathies1 and her minute dissection of character4 ,her writings manifest her desire to benefit human beings by convincing them that nature's laws are inexorable1 and that an infraction of the moral law will be punished as surely as disobedience to physical laws4 ,she strives to arouse people to a knowledge of hereditary influences1 and to show how every deed brings its own results1 and works1 directly or indirectly1 toward the salvation or ruin of the doer4 ,she throws her whole strength into an attempt to prove that joy is to be found only in strict attendance upon duty and in self-renunciation4 ,in order to carry home these serious lessons of life1 she deals with powerful human tragedies1 which impart a somberness of tone to all her novels4 ,in her early works she treats these problems with artistic beauty2 but in her later books she often forgets the artist in the moralist1 and uses a character to preach a sermon4 ,the analytical tendency is pronounced in ,george ,eliot's works1 which exhibit an exhaustive study of the feelings1 the thoughts1 the dreams1 and purposes of the characters4 ,they become known more through description than through action4 ,a striking characteristic of her men and women is their power to grow4 ,they do not appear ready-made and finished at the beginning of a story1 but1 like real human beings amid the struggles of life1 they change for the better or the worse4 ,tito ,melema in ,romola is an example of her skill in evolving character4 ,at the outset1 he is a beautiful ,greek boy with a keen zest for pleasure4 ,his selfishness1 however1 which betrays itself first in ingratitude to his benefactor1 leads step by step to his complete moral degradation4 ,the consequences of his deeds entangle him finally in such a network of lies that he is forced to betray every trust that was reposed in him1 that he might keep himself safe4 ,george ,eliot occasionally brightens the seriousness of her works with humor4 ,her stories are not permeated with joyousness1 like those of ,dickens1 nor do they ripple with quiet amusement1 like the novels of ,thackeray2 but she puts witty and aphoristic sayings into the conversations of the characters4 ,the scene at the ,rainbow inn is bristling with mother wit4 ,mr4 ,macey observes3-- ',there's allays two 'pinions2 there's the 'pinion a man has of himsen1 and there's the 'pinion other folks have on him4 ,there'd be two 'pinions about a cracked bell if the bell could hear itself4'#aa ,great precision and scholarlike correctness mark the style of ,george ,eliot4 ,her vocabulary1 though large1 is too full of abstract and scientific terms to permit of great flexibility and idiomatic purity of ,english4 ,she is master of powerful figures of speech1 original1 epigrammatic turns of expression1 and1 sometimes1 of a stirring eloquence4 ,,robert ,,louis ,,stevenson1 #ahej-ahid ,illustration3 ,,robert ,,louis ,,stevenson4 ,from a photograph4 ,life4--,by preferring romantic incident to the portrayal of character1 ,stevenson differed from his great ,victorian predecessors in the field of fiction4 ,he was born in #ahej in the romantic city of ,edinburgh1 which he has described so well in his ,picturesque ,notes on ,edinburgh4 ,being an invalid from early childhood1 he was not sent regularly to school2 yet he was ready at the age of seventeen to enter ,edinburgh ,university4 ,he says of himself that in college he neglected all the studies that did not appeal to him1 to read with avidity ,english poetry and fiction1 ,scottish legend and history4 ,during his summer vacations he worked at lighthouse engineering4 ,the out-of-door life was just what he liked2 but the office work was irksome to him4 ,when finally he made his dislike known1 his father1 although bitterly disappointed at his son's aversion to the calling followed by two generations of ,stevensons1 nevertheless consented to a change2 and they compromised on the law4 ,in #ahge ,stevenson succeeded in gaining admission to the bar2 but he soon realized that he would never feel at home in this profession4 ,moreover1 he had always wanted to be a writer4 ,he says3-- ,all through my boyhood and youth444 ,i was always busy on my own private end1 which was to learn to write4 ,i kept always two books in my pocket1 one to read1 one to write in4 ,as ,i walked1 my mind was busy fitting what ,i saw with appropriate words4 444,thus ,i lived with words4 ,and what ,i thus wrote was for no ulterior use2 it was written consciously for practice4 ,illustration3 ,,stevenson ,,as ,a ,,boy4 ,the next year1 therefore1 he decided to devote himself entirely to literature4 ,he was by heredity predisposed to weak lungs4 ,for the greater part of his life he moved from place to place1 searching for some location that would improve his health and allow him to write4 ,he lived for a while in ,switzerland1 in the south of ,france1 in the south of ,england1 in the ,adirondack ,mountains1 and in ,california4 ,in #ahhj he married in ,california1 ,mrs4 ,fanny ,osbourne1 of whom he wrote3-- ,steel-true and blade-straight1 ,the great artificer made my mate4 ,by a former marriage she had a son1 who1 at the age of thirteen1 inspired ,stevenson to write that exciting romance of adventure1 ,treasure ,island1 published in book form in #ahhc4 ,this and the remarkable story1 ,the ,strange ,case of ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde 7#ahhf71 made him so famous that when he visited ,new ,york in #ahhg1 a newspaper there offered him #aj1jjj for a weekly article during the year4 ,he preferred to accept an offer of #cejj for twelve monthly articles for a magazine4 ,the most romantic part of his life began in #ahhh1 when he chartered a yacht in ,san ,francisco for a cruise among the ,south ,sea ,islands4 ,he had the enthusiasm of a boy for this trip1 which was planned to benefit his health4 ,almost as many adventures befell him as ,robinson ,crusoe4 ,at one time ,stevenson became so ill that he was left with his wife on one of the ,society ,islands while the yacht sailed away for repairs4 ,before the boat returned1 both his food and money were exhausted1 and he and ,mrs4 ,stevenson were forced to live on the bounty of the natives1 who adopted him into one of their tribes and gave him the name of ,tusitala4 ,he wandered for three and a half years among the islands of the ,southern ,pacific1 visiting ,australia twice4 ,on one trip he called at thirty-three small coral islands1 and wrote1 ,hackney cabs have more variety than atolls4 ,he finally selected for his residence the island of ,samoa1 where he spent the last three and a half years of his life4 ,he died suddenly in his forty-fifth year1 and was buried on the summit of a ,samoan mountain near his home4 ,in #ahic he wrote to ,george ,meredith3-- ,in fourteen years ,i have not had a day's real health2 ,i have wakened sick and gone to bed weary2 and ,i have done my work unflinchingly4 ,i have written in bed1 and written out of it1 written in sickness1 written torn by coughing1 written when my head swam for weakness444 ,many have found in ,stevenson's life an inspiration to overcome obstacles1 to cease complaining1 and to bear a message of good cheer4 ,these lines from his volume of poems called ,underwoods 7#ahhg71 are especially characteristic3-- ,if ,i have faltered more or less ,in my great task of happiness2 ,if ,i have moved among my race ,and shown no glorious morning face2 ,if beams from happy human eyes ,have moved me not2 if morning skies1 ,books1 and my food1 and summer rain ,knocked on my sullen heart in vain3-- ,lord1 thy most pointed pleasure take ,and stab my spirit broad awake4 ,works4--,stevenson wrote entertaining travels1 such as ,an ,inland ,voyage 7#ahgh71 the record of a canoe journey from ,antwerp to ,pontoise1 ,travels with a ,donkey through the ,cvennes 7#ahgi71 and ,in the ,south ,seas 7published in book form in #ahif74 ,early in life he wrote many essays1 the best of which are included in the volumes1 ,virginibus ,puerisque 7,to ,girls and ,boys1 #ahha7 and ,familiar ,studies of ,men and ,books 7#ahhb74 ,valuable papers presenting his views of the technique of writing may be found in the volumes called ,memories and ,portraits 7#ahhg7 and ,essays in the ,art of ,writing 7collected after his death74 ,there is a happy blending of style1 humor1 and thought in many of these essays4 ,perhaps the most unusual and original of all is ,child's ,play 7,virginibus ,puerisque74 ,this is a psychological study1 which reveals one of his strongest characteristics1 the power of vividly recalling the events and feelings of childhood4 ,when my cousin and ,i took our porridge of a morning1 we had a device to enliven the course of the meal4 ,he ate his with sugar1 and explained it to be a country continually buried under snow4 ,i took mine with milk1 and explained it to be a country suffering gradual inundation4 ,you can imagine us exchanging bulletins2 how here was an island still unsubmerged1 here a valley not yet covered with snow2 444and how1 in fine1 the food was of altogether secondary importance1 and might even have been nauseous1 so long as we seasoned it with these dreams4 ,the simplicity and apparent artlessness of his ,a ,child's ,garden of ,verse 7#ahhe7 have caused many critics to neglect these poems2 but the verdict of young children is almost unanimous against such neglect4 ,these songs ,lead onward into fairy land1 ,where all the children dine at five1 ,and all the playthings come alive4 ,it is quite possible that the verses in this little volume may in the coming years appeal to more human beings than all the remainder of ,stevenson's work4 ,he and his ,american contemporary1 ,eugene ,field 7#ahej-ahie71 had the peculiar genius to delight children with a type of verse in which only a very few poets have excelled4 ,boys and young men love ,stevenson best for his short stories and romances4 ,after a careful study of ,poe and ,hawthorne1 the ,american short story masters1 ,stevenson made the ,english impressionistic short story a more artistic creation4 ,some of the best of his short stories are ,will o' the ,mill 7#ahgh71 ,the ,sire de ,maltroit's ,door 7#ahgh71 and ,markheim 7#ahhe74 ,his best-known single production1 ,the ,strange ,case of ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde1 is really a short story that presents a remarkable psychological study of dual personality4 ,the short stories served as an apprenticeship for the longer romances1 of which ,treasure ,island is the best constructed and the most interesting4 ,among a number of other romances1 the four which deal with eighteenth-century ,scottish history are the best3 ,kidnapped 7#ahhf71 ,the ,master of ,ballantrae 7#ahhi71 ,david ,balfour 7,catriona1 #ahic71 and the unfinished ,weir of ,hermiston1 published two years after his death4 ,illustration3 ,,edinburgh ,,memorial ,,of ,,robert ,,louis ,,stevenson4 ,by ,augustus ,st4 ,candeus4 ,general ,characteristics4--,unlike the majority of the ,victorian writers of fiction1 ,stevenson preferred the field of romance and adventure4 ,it is natural to compare him with ,scott1 who showed a far wider range1 both in subject matter and in the portrayal of human beings4 ,stevenson1 however1 surpassed ,scott in swift delineation of incident1 in pictorial vividness1 and in literary form4 ,scott dashed off some of his long romances in six weeks2 while ,stevenson said that his printer's copy was sometimes the result of ten times that amount of writing4 ,the year before he died1 he spent three weeks in writing twenty-four pages4 ,stevenson's romances are remarkable for artistic style1 clearness of visual image1 and boyish love of adventure4 ,he made little attempt to portray more than the masculine half of the human race4 ,his simple verses possess rare power to charm children4 ,the most evident quality of all his prose is its artistic finish4 ,,george ,,meredith1 #ahbh-aiji ,illustration3 ,,george ,,meredith4 ,from the painting by ,g4,f4 ,watts1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,george ,meredith was the only child of a ,welsh father and an ,irish mother4 ,he was born in #ahbh over his grandfather's tailor shop in ,portsmouth1 ,hampshire4 ,the father proved incompetent in handling the excellent tailoring business to which he fell heir2 and he soon abandoned his son4 ,the mother died when the boy was five years old1 and he was then cared for by relatives4 ,when he was fourteen1 he was sent to school in ,germany for two years2 but he did not consider his schooling of much benefit to him and he was forced to educate himself for his life's work4 ,on his return to ,england1 he was articled to a ,london solicitor2 but by the age of twenty-one1 ,meredith had abandoned the law and had begun the literary life which was to receive his undivided attention for nearly sixty years4 ,the struggle was at first extremely hard4 ,some days1 indeed1 he is said to have lived on a single bowl of porridge4 ,while following his work as a novelist1 he tried writing for periodicals1 served as a newspaper correspondent1 and later became a literary adviser for a large ,london publishing firm4 ,in this capacity1 he proved a sympathetic friend to many a struggling young author4 ,thomas ,hardy says that he received from ,meredith's praise sufficient encouragement to persevere in the field of literature4 ,meredith's marriage in #ahdi was unhappy and resulted in a separation4 ,three years after his wife's death1 which occurred in #ahfa1 he married a congenial helpmate and went to live in ,flint ,cottage1 near ,burford ,bridge1 ,surrey1 where most of his remaining years were spent4 ,not until late in life were the returns from his writings sufficient to relieve him from unceasing daily toil at his desk4 ,he was widely hailed as a literary master and recognized as a force in fiction before he attained financial independence4 ,after the death of ,tennyson1 ,meredith was elected president of the ,society of ,british ,authors4 ,toward the end of the nineteenth century1 his reply to the ,who's ,who query about his recreations was1 a great reader1 especially of ,french literature2 has in his time been a great walker4 ,during his last sixteen years of life1 he suffered from partial paralysis and was compelled to abandon these long walks1 which had been a source both of recreation and of health4 ,he died in #aiji at the age of eighty-one and was laid beside his wife in the ,dorking cemetery4 ,the following words from his novel1 ,vittoria1 are on his tombstone3 ,life is but a little holding1 lent to do a mighty labor4 ,poetry4--,during his long career1 ,meredith wrote much verse1 which was collected in #aiab in a volume of #egh pages4 ,the quality of his poetry is very uneven4 ,in such exquisite poems as ,love in the ,valley1 ,the ,lark ,ascending1 and ,melanthus1 the fancy and melody are artistically intertwined4 ,many have admired the felicity of the description and the romance of the sentiment in this stanza from ,love in the ,valley3-- ,shy as the squirrel and wayward as the swallow1 ,swift as the swallow along the river's light ,circleting the surface to meet his mirrored winglets1 ,fleeter she seems in her stay than in her flight4 ,shy as the squirrel that leaps among the pine-tops1 ,wayward as the swallow overhead at set of sun1 ,she whom ,i love is hard to catch and conquer1 ,hard1 but ,o the glory of the winning were she won6 ,some of his songs are pure music1 and an occasional descriptive passage in his verse shows the deftness of touch of a skilled lyrical poet4 ,such poems as ,jump-to-,glory ,jane1 ,juggling ,jerry1 ,the ,beggar's ,soliloquy1 and ,the ,old ,chartist1 are character sketches of humble folk and show genuine pathos and humor4 ,in his poetry1 ,meredith is1 however1 more often the moralist and philosopher than the singer and simple narrator4 ,he treats of love1 life1 and death as metaphysical problems4 ,he ponders over the duties of mankind and the greatest sources of human strength and courage4 ,he roams through a region that seems timeless and spaceless4 ,he neighbors the invisible4 ,the obscurities in many of these poems are due to the abstract nature of the subject matter1 to excessive condensation of thought1 to frequent omission of connecting words1 and to an abundance of figurative language4 ,novels4--,meredith's novels comprise the largest and most noteworthy part of his writings4 ,his most important works of fiction are ,the ,ordeal of ,richard ,feverel 7#ahei71 ,the ,egoist 7#ahgi71 and ,diana of the ,crossways 7#ahhe74 ,the ,ordeal of ,richard ,feverel is the story of a beautiful first love4 ,the courtship of ,richard and ,lucy1 amid scenes that inspire poetic descriptions1 is in itself a true prose lyric4 ,their parting interview is one of the most powerfully handled chapters to be found in ,english novels4 ,it is heart-rending in its emotional intensity and almost faultless in expression4 ,the ,ordeal of ,richard ,feverel1 like most of ,meredith's works1 contains more than a love story4 ,many chapters of high-class comedy and epigrammatical wit serve to explode a fallacious educational theory4 ,the ,egoist has for its special aim the portrayal and exposure of masculine egotism4 ,this was a favorite subject with ,meredith and it recurs frequently in his novels4 ,the plot of ,the ,egoist is slight4 ,the interest is centered on the awakening of ,clara ,middleton and ,laetitia ,dale to the superlative selfishness of ,sir ,willoughby's egotism4 ,scintillating repartee1 covert side-thrusts1 shrewd observations1 subtle innuendoes1 are all used to assist in the revelation of this egotism4 ,one fair ,april morning1 after his return to ,england from a three years' absence1 ,sir ,willoughby met ,laetitia ,dale1 an early sweetheart whom he no longer loved4 ,he sprang out of the carriage and seized her hand4 ',laetitia ,dale6' he said4 ,he panted4 ',your name is sweet ,english music6 ,and you are well8' ,the anxious question permitted him to read deep in her eyes4 ,he found the man he sought there1 squeezed him passionately1 and let her go4 ,the delicate irony of this passage is a mild example of the rich vein of humor running through this work4 ,the ,egoist is the most ,meredithian of the author's novels1 and it displays most exuberantly his comic spirit1 intent upon photographing mankind's follies4 ,this book has been called a comedy in narrative4 ,diana1 the heroine of ,diana of the ,crossways1 is the queen of ,meredith's heroines4 ,she is intellectual1 warm-hearted1 and courageous4 ,she thinks and talks brilliantly2 but when she acts1 she is often carried away by the momentary impulse4 ,she therefore keeps the reader alternately scolding and forgiving her4 ,her betrayal of a state secret1 which cannot be condoned1 remains the one flaw in the plot4 ,with this exception1 the story is absorbing4 ,the men and women belong to the world of culture4 ,among them are some of ,meredith's most interesting characters1 notably ,redworth1 the noblest man in any of the novels4 ,the scene of the story is in ,london's highest political circle and the discussions sparkle with cleverness4 ,evan ,harrington 7#ahfa71 the story of a young tailor1 is one of the lightest and brightest of ,meredith's novels4 ,it presents in the author's most inimitable manner a comic picture of the struggle for social position4 ,in two of the characters1 ,great ,mel and ,mrs4 ,mel1 are found the pen portraits of ,meredith's grandparents4 ,rhoda ,fleming 7#ahfe7 is in its style the simplest of his novels4 ,the humble tragedy is related in the plain speech of the people1 without the ,gaelic wit usually characteristic of ,meredith4 ,the first half of ,the ,adventures of ,harry ,richmond has been called by some critics ,meredith's best piece of writing1 but the last half shows less power4 ,meredith grew more introspective in his later years1 as is shown in such long1 analytical novels as1 ,one of ,our ,conquerors 7#ahia71 ,lord ,ormont and ,his ,aminta 7#ahid71 and ,the ,amazing ,marriage 7#ahie74 ,general ,characteristics4-,meredith's novels afford him various opportunities for an exposition of his views on education1 divorce1 personal liberty1 conventional narrow-mindedness1 egotism1 sentimentalism1 and obedience to law4 ,his own personality creeps into the stories when he has some favorite sermon to preach2 and he sometimes taxes the reader's patience by unduly delaying the narrative or even directing its course in order to accentuate the moral issue4 ,the chief excellences of his novels lie in the strong and subtle character portrayal1 in the brilliant conversations1 in the power with which intense scenes are presented1 and in the well-nigh omnipresent humor4 ,meredith's humor frequently arises from his keen intellectual perception of the paradoxes in life4 ,one of his egotistical lovers1 talking to the object of his undying affections1 could pledge himself to eternity1 but shrank from being bound to eleven o'clock on the morrow morning4 ,meredith does not fly into a passion1 like ,carlyle1 because society is sentimental and shallow and loves to pose4 ,he proceeds in the coolest manner to draw with unusual distinctness the shallow dilettante1 the sentimentalist1 the egotist1 and the hypocrite4 ,by placing these characters in the midst of men and women actuated by simple and genuine motives1 he develops situations that seem especially humorous to readers who are alert to detect incongruity4 ,this veiled humor1 which has been aptly styled the laughter of the mind1 gives to ,meredith's works their most distinctive flavor4 ,his prose style is epigrammatic1 rich in figures1 subtle1 sometimes tortuous and even obscure4 ,he abhors the trite and obvious1 and1 in escaping them to indulge in witty riddles1 fanciful expressions1 and difficult allusions1 he imperils his clearness4 ,in the presence of genuine emotion1 he is always as simple in style as he is serious in attitude2 but there are times when he seems to revel in the extravagant and grotesque4 ,meredith is the novelist of men and women in the world of learning1 of letters1 and of politics2 he is the satirist of social shams2 and he is the sparkling epigrammatist2 but he is also the optimist with the sane and vigorous message for his generation1 and the realist who keeps a genuine rainbow of idealism in his sky4 ,,thomas ,,hardy1 #ahdj- ,illustration3 ,,thomas ,,hardy4 ,from the painting by ,winifred ,thompson4 ,life4--,the subtle1 comic aspects of cosmopolitan life1 which were such a fascination to ,meredith1 did not appeal to that somber realist1 ,thomas ,hardy1 whose genius enabled him to paint impressive pictures of the retired elemental life of ,wessex4 ,hardy was born in #ahdj in the little village of ,bockhampton1 ,dorsetshire1 a few miles out of ,dorchester4 ,he received his early education at the local schools1 attended evening classes at ,king's ,college1 ,london1 and studied ,gothic architecture under ,sir ,arthur ,blomfield4 ,the boy was articled at the early age of sixteen to an ecclesiastical architect and1 like the hero in his novel1 ,a ,pair of ,blue ,eyes1 made drawings and measurements of old churches in rural ,england and planned their remodeling4 ,he won medals and prizes in this profession before he turned from it to authorship4 ,his first published work1 ,how ,i ,built ,myself a ,house1 was an outgrowth of some early experiences as an architect4 ,hardy married ,miss ,emma ,lavinia ,gifford in #ahgd and went to live at ,sturminster ,newton4 ,later he spent some time in ,london2 but he returned finally to his birthplace1 the land of his novels1 and built himself a home at ,max ,gate1 ,dorchester1 in #ahhe4 ,his life has been a retired one4 ,he always shunned publicity1 but he was happy to receive in #aiaj the freedom of his native town1 an honor bestowed upon him as a mark of love and pride4 ,works4--,thomas ,hardy is one of the greatest realists in modern ,england1 and also one of the most uncompromising pessimists4 ,his characters are developed with consummate skill1 but usually their progression is toward failure or death4 ,these men and women are largely rustics who subsist by means of humble toil1 such as tending sheep or cutting furze4 ,the orbit of their lives is narrow4 ,the people are simple1 primitive1 superstitious4 ,they are only half articulate in the expression of their emotions4 ,in ,far ,from the ,madding ,crowd1 for example1 ,gabriel ,oak wished to have ,bathsheba know his impressions2 but he would as soon have thought of carrying an odor in a net as of attempting to convey the intangibilities of his feelings in the coarse meshes of language4 ,so he remained silent4 ,on the other hand1 the speech is sometimes racy1 witty1 and flavored by the daily occupation of the speaker4 ,the scenes usually selected for ,hardy's stories are from his own county and those immediately adjacent1 to which section of country he has given the name of ,wessex4 ,he knows it so intimately and paints it so vividly that its moors1 barrows1 and villages are as much a part of the stories as the people dwelling there4 ,in fact1 ,egdon ,heath has been called the principal character in the novel1 ,the ,return of the ,native 7#ahgh74 ,the upland with its shepherd's hut1 the sheep-shearing barn1 the harvest storm1 the hollow of ferns1 and the churchyard with its dripping water spout are part of the wonderful landscape in ,far ,from the ,madding ,crowd 7#ahgd7 ,this is the finest artistic product of ,hardy's genius4 ,it contains strongly-drawn characters1 dramatic incidents1 a most interesting story1 and some homely native humor4 ,the heroine1 ,bathsheba1 is one of the brainiest and most independent of all ,hardy's women4 ,she has grave faults2 but the tragic experiences through which she passes soften her and finally mold her into a lovable woman4 ,steady1 resourceful1 dumb ,gabriel ,oak and clever1 fencing ,sergeant ,troy are delightful foils to each other1 and are every inch human4 ,illustration3 ,,max ,,gate4 ,the ,home of ,hardy near ,dorchester 7the ,casterbridge of the ,novels74 ,the ,mayor of ,casterbridge 7#ahhf7 and ,the ,woodlanders 7#ahhf-ahhg7 deserve mention with ,far from the ,madding ,crowd and ,the ,return of the ,native as comprising the best four novels of the so-called ,wessex stories4 ,hardy's later works exhibit an increasing absorption in ethical and religious problems4 ,tess of the ,d',urbervilles 7#ahib7 is one of ,hardy's most powerful novels4 ,it has for its heroine a strong1 sweet1 appealing woman1 whose loving character and tragic fate are presented with fearless vigor and deep sympathetic insight4 ,the personal intensity of the author1 which is felt to pervade this book1 is present again in ,jude the ,obscure 7#ahie71 that record of an aspiring soul1 struggling against hopeless odds1 heavy incumbrances1 and sordid realities4 ,general ,characteristics4--,hardy's novels leave a sense of gloom upon the reader4 ,he explains his view of modern life as a thing to be put up with1 replacing the zest for existence which was so intense in early civilization4 ,his pessimistic philosophy strikes at the core of life and human endeavor4 ,sorrow appears in his work1 not as a punishment for crime1 but as an unavoidable result of human life and its inevitable mistakes4 ,events1 sometimes comic but generally tragic1 play upon the weaknesses of his characters and bring about entanglements1 misunderstandings1 and suffering far in excess of the deserts of these well-intentioned people4 ,no escape is suggested4 ,resignation to misfits1 mistakes1 and misfortune is what remains4 ,hardy is one of the great ,victorian story-tellers4 ,his personality is never obtruded on his readers4 ,his humor is not grafted on his scenes1 but is a natural outgrowth of his rustic gatherings and conversations4 ,he relates a straightforward tale1 and makes his characters act and speak for themselves4 ,he selects the human nature1 the rural scene1 and the moral issue upon which his whole being can be centered4 ,the result is a certainty of design1 a somberness of atmosphere1 and an intensity of feeling1 such as are found in elegiac poetry4 ,natural laws1 physical nature1 and human life are engaged in an uneven struggle1 and the result is usually unsatisfactory for human life4 ,the novels are pitilessly sad1 but they are nevertheless products of a genuine artist in temperament and technique4 ,his novels show almost as much unity of plot and mood as many of the greatest short stories4 ,,matthew ,,arnold1 #ahbb-ahhh ,illustration3 ,,matthew ,,arnold4 ,from the painting of ,g4,f4 ,watts1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,matthew ,arnold1 ,robert ,browning1 ,alfred ,tennyson1 ,a4,c4 ,swinburne1 and the much younger ,rudyard ,kipling are the most noted among a large number of ,victorian poets4 ,all of these1 with the exception of the two greatest1 ,browning and ,tennyson1 also wrote prose4 ,matthew ,arnold was born in #ahbb1 at ,laleham1 ,middlesex4 ,his father1 ,dr4 ,thomas ,arnold1 was the eminent head master of ,rugby ,school1 and the author of ,history of ,rome1 ,lectures on ,modern ,history1 and ,sermons4 ,under the guidance of such a father1 ,matthew ,arnold enjoyed unusual educational advantages4 ,in #ahcg he entered ,rugby1 and from there went to ,baliol ,college1 ,oxford4 ,he was so ambitious and studious that he won two prizes at ,oxford1 was graduated with honors1 and1 a year later1 was elected fellow of ,oriel ,college4 ,arnold's name1 like ,thomas ,gray's1 is associated with university life4 ,from #ahdg to #ahea1 ,arnold was private secretary to ,lord ,lansdowne4 ,in #ahea he married the daughter of ,justice ,wightman4 ,after relinquishing his secretaryship1 ,arnold accepted a position that took him again into educational fields4 ,he was made lay inspector of schools1 a position which he held to within two years of his death4 ,this office called for much study in methods of education1 and he visited the continent three times to investigate the systems in use there4 ,in addition1 he held the chair of poetry at ,oxford for ten years1 between #aheg and #ahfg4 ,one of the most scholarly courses of lectures that he delivered there was ,on ,translating ,homer4 ,from this time until his death1 in #ahhh1 he was a distinguished figure in ,english educational and literary circles4 ,poetical ,works4--,matthew ,arnold's poetry belongs to the middle of the century1 that season of doubt1 perplexity1 and unrest1 when the strife between the church and science was bitterest and each threatened to overthrow the other4 ,in his home1 ,arnold was taught a devout faith in revealed religion1 and at college he was thrown upon a world of inquiring doubt4 ,both influences were strong4 ,his feelings yearned after the early faith1 and his intellect sternly demanded scientific proof and explanation4 ,he was1 therefore1 torn by a conflict between his emotions and reason1 and he was thus eminently fitted to be the poetic exponent of what he calls-- 444this strange disease of modern life1 ,with its sick hurry1 its divided aims1 ,its heads o'ertaxed1 its palsied hearts4#ab ,arnold felt that there were too much hurry and excitement in the age4 ,in the midst of opposing factions1 theories1 and beliefs1 he cries out for rest and peace4 ,we rush from shadow to shadow-- ,and never once possess our soul ,before we die4#ac ,again1 in the ,stanzas in ,memory of the ,author of ,obermann1 he voices the unrest of the age-- ,what shelter to grow ripe is ours8 ,what leisure to grow wise8 ,like children bathing on the shore1 ,buried a wave beneath1 ,the second wave succeeds1 before ,we have had time to breathe4 ,but ,arnold is not the seer to tell us how to enter the vale of rest1 how to answer the voice of doubt4 ,he passes through life a lonely figure-- ,wandering between two worlds1 one dead1 ,the other powerless to be born4 #ad ,the only creed that he offers humanity is one born of the scientific temper1 a creed of stoical endurance and unswerving allegiance to the voice of duty4 ,many readers miss in ,arnold the solace that they find in ,wordsworth and the tonic faith that is omnipresent in ,browning4 ,arnold himself was not wholly satisfied with his creed2 but his cool reason refused him the solace of an unquestioning faith4 ,arnold has been called the poet of the ,universities1 because of the reflective scholarly thought in his verse4 ,it breathes the atmosphere of books and of the study4 ,such poetry cannot appeal to the masses4 ,it is for the thinker4 ,the style of verse that lends itself best to ,arnold's genius is the elegiac lyric4 ,the ,scholar ,gypsy and its companion piece ,thyrsis1 ,memorial ,verses1 ,stanzas from the ,grande ,chartreuse1 and ,stanzas in ,memory of the ,author of ,obermann are some of his best elegies4 ,sohrab and ,rustam and ,balder ,dead are ,arnold's finest narrative poems4 ,they are stately1 dignified recitals of the deeds of heroes and gods4 ,the series of poems entitled ,switzerland and ,dover ,beach are among ,arnold's most beautiful lyrics4 ,a fine description of the surf is contained in the last-named poem3-- ,listen6 you hear the grating roar ,of pebbles which the waves draw back1 and fling1 ,at their return1 up the high strand1 ,begin1 and cease1 and then again begin1 ,with tremulous cadence slow1 and bring ,the eternal note of sadness in4 ,neither the movement of the narrative nor the lightness of the lyric is wholly congenial to ,arnold's introspective melancholy muse4 ,prose ,works4--,although ,arnold's first works were in poetry1 he won recognition as a prose writer before he was widely known as a poet4 ,his works in prose comprise such subjects as literary criticism1 education1 theology1 and social ethics4 ,as a critic of literature1 he surpasses all his great contemporaries4 ,neither ,macaulay nor ,carlyle possessed the critical acumen1 the taste1 ana the cultivated judgment of literary works1 in such fullness as ,matthew ,arnold4 ,his greatest contributions to critical literature are the various magazine articles that were collected in the two volumes entitled ,essays in ,criticism 7#ahfe-ahhh74 ,in these essays ,arnold displays great breadth of culture and fairness of mind4 ,he rises superior to the narrow provincialism and racial prejudices that he deprecates in other criticisms of literature4 ,he gives the same sympathetic consideration to the ,german ,heine and the ,frenchman ,joubert as to ,wordsworth4 ,arnold further insists that ,frenchmen should study ,english literature for its serious ethical spirit1 and that ,englishmen would be benefited by a study of the lightness1 precision1 and polished form of ,french literature4 ,arnold's object in all his criticism is to discover the best in both prose and poetry1 and his method of attaining this object is another illustration of his scholarship and mental reach4 ,he says in his ,introduction to ,ward's ,english ,poets3-- ,indeed1 there can be no more useful help for discovering what poetry belongs to the class of the truly excellent1 and can therefore do us most good1 than to have always in one's mind lines and expressions of the great masters1 and to apply them as a touchstone to other poetry4 ,when ,arnold seeks to determine an author's true place in literature1 his keen critical eye seems to see at a glance all the world's great writers1 and to compare them with the man under discussion4 ,in order to ascertain ,wordsworth's literary stature1 for example1 ,arnold measures the height of ,wordsworth by that of ,homer1 of ,dante1 of ,shakespeare1 and of ,milton4 ,another essential quality of the critical mind that ,arnold possessed is sweet reasonableness4 ,his judgments of men are marked by a moderation of tune4 ,his strong predilections are sometimes shown1 but they are more often restrained by a clear1 honest intellect4 ,arnold's calm1 measured criticisms are not marred by such stout partisanship as ,macaulay shows for the ,whigs1 by the hero worship that ,carlyle expresses1 or by the exaggerated praise and blame that ,ruskin sometimes bestows4 ,on the other hand1 ,arnold loses what these men gain2 for while his intellect is less biased than theirs1 it is also less colored and less warmed by the glow of feeling4 ,the analytical quality of ,arnold's mind shows the spirit of the age4 ,his subjects are minutely classified and defined4 ,facts seem to divide naturally into brigades1 regiments1 and battalions of marching order4 ,his literary criticisms note subtleties of style1 delicate shadings in expression1 and many technical excellences and errors that ,carlyle would have passed over unheeded4 ,in addition to the ,essays in ,criticism1 the other works of ,arnold that possess his fine critical dualities in highest degree are ,on ,translating ,homer 7#ahfa7 and ,the ,study of ,celtic ,literature 7#ahfg74 ,general ,characteristics4--,the impression that ,arnold has left upon literature is mainly that of a keen1 brilliant intellect4 ,in his poetry there is more emotion than in his prose2 but even in his poetry there is no passion or fire4 ,the sadness1 the loneliness1 the unrest of life1 and the irreconcilable conflict between faith and doubt are most often the subjects of his verse4 ,his range is narrow1 but within it he attains a pure1 noble beauty4 ,his introspective1 analytical poetry is distinguished by a majesty of grief1 depth of thought1 calm1 classic repose1 and a dignified simplicity4 ,in prose1 ,arnold attains highest rank as a critic of literature4 ,his culture1 the breadth of his literary sympathies1 his scientific analyses1 and his lucid literary style make his critical works the greatest of his age4 ,he has a light1 rather fanciful1 humor1 which gives snap and spice to his style4 ,he is also a master of irony1 which is galling to an opponent4 ,he himself never loses his suavity or good breeding4 ,arnold's prose style is as far removed from ,carlyle's as the calm simplicity of the ,greeks is from the powerful passion of the ,vikings4 ,the ornament and poetic richness of ,ruskin's style are also missing in ,arnold's4 ,his style has a classic purity and refinement4 ,he has a terseness1 a crystalline clearness1 and a precision that have been excelled in the works of few even of the greatest masters of ,english prose4 ,,robert ,,browning1 #ahab-ahhi ,illustration3 ,,robert ,,browning4 ,from the painting by ,g4 ,f4 ,watts1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,life4--,the long and peaceful lives of ,browning and ,tennyson1 the two most eminent poets of the ,victorian age1 are in marked contrast to the short and troubled careers of ,byron1 ,shelley1 and ,keats4 ,robert ,browning's life was uneventful but happy4 ,he inherited a magnificent physique and constitution from his father1 who never knew a day's illness4 ,with such health1 ,robert ,browning felt a keen relish for physical existence and a robust joyousness in all kinds of activity4 ,late in life he wrote1 in the poem ,at the ,mermaid3-- ,have you found your life distasteful8 ,my life did1 and does1 smack sweet4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i find earth not gray but rosy1 ,heaven not grim but fair of hue4 ,do ,i stoop8 ,i pluck a posy4 ,do ,i stand and stare8 ,all's blue4 ,again1 in ,saul1 he burst forth with the lines3-- ,how good is man's life1 the mere living6 how fit to employ ,all the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy8 ,these lines1 vibrant with life and joy1 could not have been written by a man of failing vitality or physical weakness4 ,robert ,browning was born in #ahab at ,camberwell1 whose slopes overlook the smoky chimneys of ,london4 ,in this beautiful suburb he spent his early years in the companionship of a brother and a sister4 ,a highly gifted father and a musical mother assisted intelligently in the development of their children4 ,browning's education was conducted mainly under his father's eye4 ,the boy attended neither a large school nor a college4 ,after he had passed from the hands of tutors1 he spent some time in travel1 and was wont to call ,italy his university4 ,although his training was received in an irregular way1 his scholarship cannot be doubted by the student of his poetry4 ,he early determined to devote his life to poetry1 and his father wisely refrained from interfering with his son's ambitions4 ,illustration3 ,,elizabeth ,,barrett ,,browning4 ,from the painting by ,field ,talfourd1 ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,romantic ,marriage with ,elizabeth ,barrett ,barrett1--,her ,poetry4--,in #ahde1 after ,browning had published some ten volumes of verse1 among which were ,paracelsus 7#ahce71 ,pippa ,passes 7#ahda71 and ,dramatic ,lyrics 7#ahdb71 he met ,miss ,elizabeth ,barrett ,barrett 7#ahjf-ahfa71 whose poetic reputation was then greater than his own4 ,the publication in #ahih of ,the ,letters of ,robert ,browning and ,elizabeth ,barrett ,barrett disclosed an unusual romance4 ,when he first met her1 she was an invalid in her father's ,london house1 passing a large part of her time on the couch1 scarcely able to see all the members of her own family at the same time4 ,his magnetic influence helped her to make more frequent journeys from the sofa to an armchair1 then to walk across the room1 and soon to take drives4 ,her father1 who might have sat for the original of ,meredith's ,egoist1 had decided that his daughter should be an invalid and remain with him for life4 ,when ,browning proposed to ,miss ,barrett that he should ask her father for her hand1 she replied that such a step would only make matters worse4 ,he would rather see me dead at his feet than yield the point1 she said4 ,in #ahdf ,miss ,barrett1 accompanied by her faithful maid1 drove to a church and was married to ,browning4 ,the bride returned home2 but ,browning did not see her for a week because he would not indulge in the deception of asking for ,miss ,barrett4 ,seven days after the marriage1 they quietly left for ,italy1 where ,mrs4 ,browning passed nearly all her remaining years4 ,she repeatedly wrote to her father1 telling him of her transformed health and happy marriage1 but he never answered her4 ,before ,miss ,barrett met ,browning1 the woes of the factory children had moved her to write ,the ,cry of the ,children4 ,after ,edgar ,allan ,poe had read its closing lines3-- 444the child's sob in the silence curses deeper ,than the strong man in his wrath1 he said that she had depicted a horror1 sublime in its simplicity1 of which ,dante himself might have been proud4 ,her best work1 ,sonnets from the ,portuguese1 written after ,browning had won her affection1 is a series of love lyrics1 strong1 tender1 unaffected1 true1 from the depth of a woman's heart4 ,sympathetic readers1 who know the story of her early life and love1 are every year realizing that there is nothing else in ,english literature that could exactly fill their place4 ,browning called them the finest sonnets written in any language since ,shakespeare's4 ,those who like the simple music of the heart strings will find it in lines like these3-- ,i love thee to the level of every day's ,most quiet need1 by sun and candlelight1 ,i love thee freely1 as men strive for right2 ,i love thee purely1 as they turn from praise4 ,i love thee with the passion put to use ,in my old griefs1 and with my childhood's faith4 ,i love thee with a love ,i seemed to lose ,with my lost saints--,i love thee with the breath1 ,smiles1 tears1 of all my life6--and1 if ,god choose1 ,i shall but love thee better after death4 ,after fifteen years of happy married life1 she died in #ahfa1 and was buried in ,florence4 ,when thinking of her1 ,browning wrote his poem ,prospice 7#ahfa7 welcoming death as-- 444a peace out of pain1 ,then a light1 then thy breast1 ,o thou soul of my soul6 ,i shall clasp thee again1 ,and with ,god be the rest4 ,his ,later ,years4--,soon after his wife's death1 he began his long poem of over twenty thousand lines1 ,the ,ring and the ,book4 ,he continued to write verse to the year of his death4 ,in #ahha the ,browning ,society was founded for the study and discussion of his works1--a most unusual honor for a poet during his lifetime4 ,the leading universities gave him honorary degrees1 he was elected life-governor of ,london ,university1 and was tendered the rectorship of the ,universities of ,glasgow and ,st4 ,andrew's and the presidency of the ,wordsworth ,society4 ,during the latter part of his life1 he divided most of his time between ,london and ,italy4 ,when he died1 in #ahhi1 he was living with his son1 ,robert ,barrett ,browning1 in the ,palazzo ,rezzonico1 ,venice4 ,over his grave in ,westminster ,abbey was chanted ,mrs4 ,browning's touching lyric3-- ,he giveth his belovd1 sleep4 ,dramatic ,monologues4--,browning was a poet of great productivity4 ,from the publication of ,pauline in #ahcc to ,asolando in #ahhi1 there were only short pauses between the appearances of his works4 ,unlike ,tennyson1 ,browning could not stop to revise and recast2 but he constantly sought expression1 in narratives1 dramas1 lyrics1 and monologues1 for new thoughts and feelings4 ,the study of the human soul held an unfailing charm for ,browning4 ,he analyzes with marked keenness and subtlety the experiences of the soul1 its sickening failures1 and its eager strivings amid complex1 puzzling conditions4 ,in nearly all his poems1 whether narrative1 lyric1 or dramatic1 the chief interest centers about some incidents in the development of a soul4 ,the poetic form that he found best adapted to the development of a soul was the dramatic monologue1 of which he is one of the greatest masters4 ,requiring but one speaker1 this form narrows the interest either to the speaker or to the one described by him4 ,most of his best monologues are to be found in the volumes known as ,dramatic ,lyrics 7#ahdb71 ,dramatic ,romances and ,lyrics 7#ahde71 ,men and ,women 7#ahee71 ,dramatis ,personae 7#ahfd74 ,my ,last ,duchess1 ,andrea del ,sarto1 ,saul1 ,abt ,vogler1 and ,the ,last ,ride ,together are a few of his strong representative monologues4 ,the speaker in ,my ,last ,duchess is the widowed duke1 who is describing the portrait of his lost wife4 ,in his blind conceit1 he is utterly unconscious that he is exhibiting clearly his own coldly selfish nature and his wife's sweet1 sunny disposition4 ,the chief power of the poem lies in the astonishing ease with which he is made to reveal his own character4 ,the interest in ,andrea del ,sarto is in the mental conflict of this faultless painter4 ,he wishes1 on the one hand1 to please his wife with popular pictures1 and yet he yearns for higher ideals of his art4 ,he says3-- ,ah1 but a man's reach should exceed his grasp1 ,or what's a heaven for8 ,as he sits in the twilight1 holding his wife's hand1 and talking in a half-musing way1 it is readily seen that his love for this beautiful but soulless woman has caused many of his failures and sorrows in the past1 and will continue to arouse conflicts of soul in the future4 ,abt ,vogler1 one of ,browning's noblest and most melodious poems1 voices the exquisite raptures of a musician's soul3-- ,but ,god has a few of us whom ,he whispers in the ear2 ,the rest may reason and welcome3 'tis we musicians know4 ,the beautiful song of ,david in the poem entitled ,saul shows a wonderful sympathy with the old ,hebrew prophecies4 ,cleon expresses the views of an early ,greek upon the teachings of ,christ and ,st4 ,paul4 ,the ,soliloquy of a ,spanish ,cloister describes the development of a coarse1 jealous nature in monastic life4 ,the ,last ,ride ,together is one of ,browning's many passionate poems on the ennobling power of love4 ,that remarkable1 grotesque poem1 ,caliban upon ,setebos1 transcends human fields altogether1 and displays the brutelike theology of a fiend4 ,in these monologues1 ,browning interprets characters of varying faiths1 nationalities1 stations1 and historic periods4 ,he shows a wide range of knowledge and sympathy4 ,one type1 however1 which he rarely presents1 is the simple1 commonplace man or woman4 ,browning excels in the portrayal of unusual1 intricate1 and difficult characters that have complicated problems to face1 weaknesses to overcome1 or lofty ambitions to attain4 ,the ,ring and the ,book4--,when ,browning was asked what he would advise a student of his poetry to read first1 he replied3 ,the ,ring and the ,book1 of course4 ,he worked on this masterly study of human souls for many years in the decade in which his wife died4 ,this poem 7#ahfh71 which has been facetiously called a ,roman murder story1 was suggested to him by a square old yellow book1 which he purchased for a few cents at ,florence in #ahfj4 ,this manuscript1 dated #afih1 gives an account of the trial of ,guido ,franceschini for the murder of his wife4 ,out of this mere ring metal1 ,browning fashioned his ,ring1 a poem twice the length of ,paradise ,lost4 ,the subject of the story is an innocent girl1 ,pompilia1 who1 under the protection of a noble priest1 flees from her brutal husband and seeks the home of her foster parents4 ,her husband wrathfully pursues her and kills both her and her parents4 ,while this is but the barest outline1 yet the story in its complete form is very simple4 ,as is usual with ,browning1 the chief stress is laid upon the character portrayal4 ,he adopted the bold and unique plan of having different classes of people in ,rome and the various actors in the tragedy tell the story from their own point of view and thus reveal their own bias and characteristics4 ,each relation makes the story seem largely new4 ,browning shows that all this testimony is necessary to establish a complete circle of evidence in regard to the central truth of the tragedy4 ,the poem thus becomes a remarkable analytic study of the psychology of human minds4 ,the four important characters1--,guido1 the husband2 ,caponsacchi1 the priest2 ,pompilia1 the girl-wife2 and the ,pope1--stand out in strong relief4 ,the greatest development of character is seen in ,guido1 who starts with a defiant spirit of certain victory1 but gradually becomes more subdued and abject1 when he finds that he is to be killed1 and finally shrieks in agony for the help of his victim1 ,pompilia4 ,in ,caponsacchi there is the inward questioning of the right and the wrong4 ,he is a strongly-drawn character1 full of passion and noble desires4 ,pompilia1 who has an intuitive knowledge of the right1 is one of ,browning's sweetest and purest women4 ,from descriptions of ,mrs4 ,browning1 such as ,nathaniel ,hawthorne gave1 we may conclude that she furnished the suggestion for many of ,pompilia's characteristics4 ,the ,pope1 with his calm1 wise judgment and his lofty philosophy1 is probably the greatest product of ,browning's intellect4 ,the books containing the monologues of these characters take first place among ,browning's writings and occupy a high position in the century's work4 ,they have a striking originality1 intensity1 vigor1 and imaginative richness4 ,the remaining books are incomparably inferior1 and are marked at times by mere acuteness of reason and thoroughness of legal knowledge4 ,a ,dramatic ,poet4--,although ,browning's genius is strongly dramatic1 his best work is not found in the field of the drama4 ,strafford 7#ahcg71 ,a ,blot in the ',scutcheon 7#ahdc71 and ,colombe's ,birthday 7#ahdd7 have been staged successfully1 but they cannot be called great acting plays4 ,the action is slight1 the characters are complex1 the soliloquies are lengthy1 and the climaxes are too often wholly dependent upon emotional intensity rather than upon great or exciting deeds4 ,the strongest interest of these dramas lies in their psychological subtlety1 which is more enjoyable in the study than in the theater4 ,browning's dramatic power is well exhibited in poems like ,in a ,balcony or ,pippa ,passes1 in which powerful individual scenes are presented without all the accompanying details of a complete drama4 ,the great force of such scenes lies in his manner of treating moments of severe trial4 ,he selects such a moment1 focuses his whole attention upon it1 and makes the deed committed stand forth as an explanation of all the past emotions and as a prophecy of all future acts4 ,in a ,balcony shows the lives of three characters converging toward a crisis4 ,the hero of this drama thus expresses his theory of life's struggles in the development of the soul3-- 444,i count life just stuff ,to try the soul's strength on1 educe the man4 ,pippa ,passes is one of ,browning's most artistic presentations of such dramatic scenes4 ,the little silk weaver1 ,pippa1 rises on the morning of her one holiday in the year1 with the intention of enjoying in fancy the pleasures of the ,happiest ,four in our ,asolo1 not knowing1 in her innocence1 of their misery and guilt4 ,she wanders from house to house1 singing her pure1 significant refrains1 and1 in each case1 her songs arrest the attention of the hearer at a critical moment4 ,she thus becomes unconsciously a means of salvation4 ,the first scene is the most intense4 ,she approaches the home of the lovers1 ,sebald and ,ottima1 after the murder of ,ottima's husband4 ,as ,sebald begins to reflect on the murder1 there comes this song of ,pippa's1 like the knocking at the gate in ,macbeth1 to loose the floodgates of remorse3-- ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,ms4 ,,from ,,pippa ,,passes4 ,his ,optimistic ,philosophy4--,it has been seen that the ,victorian age1 as presented by ,matthew ,arnold1 was a period of doubt and negation4 ,browning1 however1 was not overcome by this wave of doubt4 ,although he recognized fully the difficulties of religious faith in an age just awakening to scientific inquiry1 yet he retained a strong1 fearless trust in ,god and in immortality4 ,browning's reason demanded this belief4 ,in this earthly life he saw the evil overcome the good1 and beheld injustice1 defeat1 and despair follow the noblest efforts4 ,if there exists no compensation for these things1 he says that life is a cheat1 the moral nature a lie1 and ,god a fiend4 ,in ,asolando1 ,browning thus presents his attitude toward life3-- ,one who never turned his back but marched breast forward1 ,never doubted clouds would break1 ,never dreamed1 tho' right were worsted1 wrong would triumph1 ,held we fall to rise1 are baffled to fight better1 ,sleep to wake4 ,there is no hesitancy in this philosophy of ,browning's4 ,with it1 he does not fear to face all the problems and mysteries of existence4 ,no other poet strikes such a resonant1 hopeful note as he4 ,his ,rabbi ,ben ,ezra is more a song of triumphant faith than anything written since the ,puritan days3-- ,our times are in ,his hand ,who saith1 ',a whole ,i planned1 ,youth shows but half2 trust ,god3 see all1 nor be afraid6' 99 99 99 99 99 ,earth changes1 but thy soul and ,god stand sure3 ,what entered into thee1 ,that was1 is1 and shall be3 ,time's wheel runs back or stops3 ,potter and clay endure4 ,general ,characteristics4--,browning is a poet of striking originality and impelling force4 ,his writings are the spontaneous outpourings of a rich1 full nature1 whose main fabric is intellect1 but intellect illumined with the glittering light of spiritual hopefulness and flushed with the glow of deep human passion4 ,the subject of his greatest poetry is the human soul4 ,while he possesses a large portion of dramatic suggestiveness1 he nevertheless does not excel in setting off character against character in movement and speech1 but rather in a minute1 penetrating analysis1 by which he insinuates himself into the thoughts and sensations of his characters1 and views life through their eyes4 ,he is a pronounced realist4 ,his verse deals not only with the beautiful and the romantic1 but also with the prosaic and the ugly1 if they furnish true pictures for the panorama of real life4 ,the unconventionality and realism of his poetic art will be made manifest by merely reading through the titles of his numerous works4 ,browning did not write to amuse and entertain1 but to stimulate thought and to sting the conscience to activity4 ,the meaning of his verse is1 therefore1 the matter of paramount importance1 far overshadowing the form of expression4 ,in the haste and carelessness with which he wrote many of his difficult abstruse poems1 he laid himself open to the charge of obscurity4 ,his style has a strikingly individual stamp1 which is marked far more by strength than by beauty4 ,the bare and rugged style of his verse is often made profoundly impressive by its strenuous earnestness1 its burning intensity1 which seems to necessitate the broken lines and halting1 interrupted rhythm4 ,the following utterance of ,caponsacchi1 as he stands before his judges1 will show the intensity and ruggedness of ,browning's blank verse3-- ,sirs1 how should ,i lie quiet in my grave ,unless you suffer me wring1 drop by drop1 ,my brain dry1 make a riddance of the drench ,of minutes with a memory in each8 ,his lines are often harsh and dissonant4 ,even in the noble poem ,rabbi ,ben ,ezra1 this jolting line appears3-- ,irks care the crop-full bird8 ,frets doubt the maw-crammed beast8 and in ,sordello1 ,browning writes3-- ,the ,troubadour who sung ,hundreds of songs1 forgot1 its trick his tongue1 ,its craft his brain4 ,no careful artist tolerates such ugly1 rasping inversions4 ,in spite of these inharmonious tendencies in ,browning1 his poetry at times shows a lyric lightness1 such as is heard in these lines3-- ,oh1 to be in ,england ,now that ,april's there1 ,and whoever wakes in ,england ,sees1 some morning1 unaware1 ,that the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf ,round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf1 ,while the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough ,in ,england--now6#ae ,his verse often swells and falls with a wavelike rhythm as in ,saul or in these lines in ,abt ,vogler3-- ,there shall never be one lost good6 ,what was1 shall live as before2 ,the evil is null1 is nought1 is silence implying sound2 ,what was good shall be good1 with1 for evil1 so much good more2 ,on the earth the broken arc2 in the heaven1 a perfect round4 ,while1 therefore1 ,browning's poetry is sometimes harsh1 faulty1 and obscure1 at times his melodies can be rhythmically simple and beautiful4 ,he is one of the subtlest analysts of the human mind1 the most original and impassioned poet of his age1 and one of the most hopeful1 inspiring1 and uplifting teachers of modern times4 ,,alfred ,,tennyson1 #ahji-ahib ,illustration3 ,,alfred ,,tennyson4 ,from a photograph by ,mayall4 ,life4--,alfred ,tennyson1 one of the twelve children of the rector of ,somersby1 ,lincolnshire1 was born in that hamlet in #ahji1 a year memorable1 both in ,england and ,america for the birth of such men as ,charles ,darwin1 ,william ,e4 ,gladstone1 ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes1 ,edgar ,allan ,poe1 and ,abraham ,lincoln4 ,visitors to the ,somersby rectory1 in which ,tennyson was born1 note that it fits the description of the home in his fine lyric1 ,the ,palace of ,art3-- 444an ,english home1--gray twilight pour'd ,on dewy pastures1 dewy trees1 ,softer than sleep--all things in order stored1 ,a haunt of ancient peace4 ,his mother1 one of the beauties of ,lincolnshire1 had twenty-five offers of marriage4 ,of her ,tennyson said in ,the ,princess3-- ,happy he ,with such a mother6 faith in womankind ,beats with his blood1 and trust in all things high ,comes easy to him1 and tho' he trip and fall1 ,he shall not blind his soul with clay4 ,it is probable that ,tennyson holds the record among ,english poets of his class for the quantity of youthful verse produced4 ,at the age of eight1 he was writing blank verse in praise of flowers2 at twelve1 he began an epic which extended to six thousand lines4 ,in #ahbh he entered ,cambridge ,university2 but in #ahca his father's sickness and death made it impossible for him to return to take his degree4 ,before leaving ,cambridge1 ,tennyson had found a firm friend in a young college mate of great promise1 ,arthur ,henry ,hallam1 who became engaged to the poet's sister1 ,emily ,tennyson4 ,hallam's sudden death in #ahcb was a profound shock to ,tennyson and had far-reaching effects on his poetic development4 ,for a long time he lived in comparative retirement1 endeavoring to perfect himself in the poetic art4 ,his golden year was #ahej1 the year of the publication of ,in ,memoriam1 of his selection as poet laureate1 to succeed ,wordsworth1 and of his marriage to ,emily ,sellwood4 ,he had been in love with her for fourteen years1 but insufficient income had hitherto prevented marriage4 ,illustration3 ,,farringford4 ,in #ahee ,oxford honored him by bestowing on him the degree of ,d4,c4,l4 ,the students gave him an ovation and they properly honored his greatest poem1 ,in ,memoriam by mentioning it first in their loud calls2 but they also paid their respects to his ,may ,queen1 asking in chorus3 ,did they wake and call you early1 call you early1 ,alfred dear8 ,the rest of his life was outwardly uneventful4 ,he became the most popular poet of his age4 ,schools and colleges had pupils translate his poems into ,latin and ,greek verse4 ,of ,enoch ,arden 7#ahfd71 at that time his most popular narrative poem1 sixty thousand copies were sold almost as as soon as it was printed4 ,he made sufficient money to be able to maintain two beautiful residences1 a winter home at ,farringford on the ,isle of ,wight1 and a summer residence at ,aldworth in ,sussex4 ,in #ahhd he was raised to the peerage1 with the title of ,baron of ,aldworth and ,farringford4 ,he died in #ahib1 at the age of eighty-three1 and was buried beside ,robert ,browning in ,westminster ,abbey4 ,early ,verse4--,tennyson published a small volume of poems in #ahcj1 the year before he left college1 and another volume in #ahcb4 ,although these contained some good poems1 he was too often content to toy with verse that had exquisite melody and but little meaning4 ,the ,airy1 fairy ,lilian and ,sweet1 pale ,margaret type of verse had charmed him overmuch4 ,the volumes of #ahcj and #ahcb were severely criticized4 ,blackwood's ,magazine called same of the lyrics drivel1 and ,carlyle characterized the aesthetic verse as lollipops4 ,this adverse criticism and the shock from ,hallam's death caused him to remain silent for nearly ten years4 ,his son and biographer says that his father during this period profited by friendly and unfriendly criticism1 and in silence1 obscurity1 and solitude1 perfected his art4 ,in his thirty-third year 7#ahdb71 ,tennyson broke his long silence by publishing two volumes of verse1 containing such favorites as ,the ,poet1 ,the ,lady of ,shalott1 ,the ,palace of ,art1 ,the ,lotos ,eaters1 ,a ,dream of ,fair ,women1 ,morte d',arthur1 ,oenone1 ,the ,miller's ,daughter1 ,the ,gardener's ,daughter1 ,dora1 ,ulysses1 ,locksley ,hall1 ,the ,two ,voices1 and ,sir ,galahad4 ,unsparing revision of numbers of these poems that had been published before1 entitles them to be classed as new work4 ,some critics think that ,tennyson never surpassed these #ahdb volumes4 ,his verse shows the influence of ,keats1 of whom ,tennyson said3 ,there is something of the innermost soul of poetry in almost everything that he wrote4 ,one of ,tennyson's most distinctive qualities1 his art in painting beautiful word-pictures1 is seen at its best in stanzas from ,the ,palace of ,art4 ,his mastery over melody and the technique of verse is evident in such lyrics as ,sir ,galahad1 and ,the ,lotos ,eaters4 ,when the prime minister1 ,sir ,robert ,peel1 read from ,ulysses the passage beginning3-- ,i am a part of all that ,i have met1 he gave ,tennyson a much-needed annual pension of #bjj4 ,these volumes show that he was coming into touch with the thought of the age4 ,locksley ,hall communicates the thrill which he felt from the new possibilities of science3-- ,for ,i dipt into the future1 far as human eye could see1 ,saw the ,vision of the world1 and all the wonder that would be4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i the heir of all the ages1 in the foremost files of time4 ,hallam's death had also developed in him the human note1 resonant in the lyric1 ,break1 break1 break3-- ,but ,o for the touch of a vanish'd hand1 ,and the sound of a voice that is still4 ,the ,princess1 ,in ,memoriam1 and ,maud4--,tennyson had produced only short poems in his #ahdb volumes1 but his next three efforts1 ,the ,princess 7#ahdg71 ,in ,memoriam 7#ahej71 and ,maud 7#ahee71 are of considerable length4 ,the ,princess3 ,a ,medley1 as ,tennyson rightly called it1 contains #cbbc lines of blank verse4 ,this poem1 which is really a discussion of the woman question1 relates in a half humorous way the story of a princess who broke off her engagement to a prince1 founded a college for women1 and determined to elevate her life to making them equal to men4 ,the poem abounds in beautiful imagery and exquisite melody2 but the solution of the question by the marriage of the princess has not completely satisfied modern thought4 ,the finest parts of the poem are its artistic songs4 ,in ,memoriam1 an elegy in memory of ,arthur ,henry ,hallam1 was begun at ,somersby in #ahcc1 the year of ,hallam's death1 and added to at intervals for nearly sixteen years4 ,when ,tennyson first began the short lyrics to express his grief1 he did not intend to publish them2 but in #ahej he gave them to the world as one long poem of #gbe four-line stanzas4 ,in ,memoriam was directly responsible for ,tennyson's appointment as poet-laureate4 ,queen ,victoria declared that she received more comfort from it than from any other book except the ,bible4 ,the first stanza of the poem 7quoted on page #i7 has proved as much of a moral stimulus as any single utterance of ,carlyle or of ,browning4 ,this work is one of the three great elegies of a literature that stands first in elegiac poetry4 ,milton's ,lycidas has more of a massive commanding power1 and ,shelley's ,adonais rises at times to poetic heights that ,tennyson did not reach2 but neither ,lycidas nor ,adonais equals ,in ,memoriam in tracing every shadow of bereavement1 from the first feeling of despair until the mourner can realize that-- 444the song of woe ,is after all an earthly song1 and can express his unassailable faith in-- ,one ,god1 one law1 one element1 ,and one far-off divine event ,to which the whole creation moves4 ,with this hopeful assurance closes ,tennyson's most noble and beautiful poem4 ,maud1 a lyrical melodrama1 paints the changing emotions of a lover who passes from morbid gloom to ecstasy4 ,then1 in a moment of anger1 he murders ,maud's brother4 ,despair1 insanity1 and recovery follow1 but he sees ,maud's face no more4 ,while the poem as a whole is not a masterpiece1 it contains some of ,tennyson's finest lyrics4 ,the eleven stanzas of the lover's song to ,maud1 the-- ,queen ,rose of the rosebud garden of girls1 are such an exquisite blending of woodbine spice and musk of rose1 of star and daffodil sky1 of music of flute and song of bird1 of the soul of the rose with the passion of the lover1 of meadows and violets1--that we easily understand why ,tennyson loved to read these lines4 ,the ,idylls of the ,king4--,in #ahei ,tennyson published ,lancelot and ,elaine1 one of a series of twelve ,idylls1 the last of which appeared in #ahee4 ,together these form an epic on the subject of ,king ,arthur and his knights of the ,round ,table4 ,tennyson relied mainly on ,malory's ,morte d',arthur for the characters and the stories4 ,these ,idylls show the struggle to maintain noble ideals4 ,arthur relates how he collected-- ,in that fair order of my ,table ,round1 ,a glorious company1 the flower of men1 ,to serve as model for the mighty world1 ,and be the fair beginning of a time4 ,he made his knights swear to uphold the ideals of his court-- ,to ride abroad redressing human wrongs1 ,to speak no slander1 no1 nor listen to it1 ,to honor his own word as if his ,god's1 ,to lead sweet lives in purest chastity1 ,to love one maiden only1 cleave to her1 ,and warship her by years of noble deeds ,until they won her4 ,the twelve ,idylls have as a background those different seasons of the year that accord with the special mood of the story4 ,in ,gareth and ,lynette1 the most interesting of the ,idylls1 the young hero leaves his home in spring1 when the earth is joyous with birds and flowers4 ,in the last and most nobly poetic of the series1 ,the ,passing of ,arthur1 the time is winter1 when the knights seem to be clothed with their own frosty breath4 ,sin creeps into ,king ,arthur's realm and disrupts the order of the ,table ,round4 ,he receives his mortal wound1 and passes to rule in a kindlier realm that welcomed him as a king returning from the wars4 ,although the ,idylls of the ,king are uneven in quality and sometimes marred by overprofusion of ornament and by deficiency of dramatic skill1 their limpid style1 many fine passages of poetry1 appealing stories1 and high ideals have exerted a wider influence than any other of ,tennyson's poems4 ,later ,poetry4--,tennyson continued to write poetry until almost the time of his death2 but with the exception of his short swan song1 ,crossing the ,bar1 he did not surpass his earlier efforts4 ,his ,locksley ,hall ,sixty ,year ,after 7#ahhf7 voices the disappointments of the ,victorian age and presents vigorous social philosophy4 ,some of his later verse1 like ,the ,northern ,farmer and ,the ,children's ,hospital1 are in closer touch with life than many of his earlier poems4 ,he wrote also several historical dramas1 the best of which is ,becket 7#ahhd72 but his genius was essentially lyrical1 not dramatic4 ,crossing the ,bar1 written in his eighty-first year1 is not only the finest product of his later years1 but also one of the very best of ,victorian lyrics4 ,illustration3 ,,facsimile ,,of ,,ms4 ,,of ,,crossing ,,the ,,bar4 ,general ,characteristics4--,tennyson is a poetic interpreter of the thought of the ,victorian age4 ,huxley called him the first poet since ,lucretius who understood the drift of science4 ,in these four lines from ,the ,princess1 ,tennyson gives the evolutionary history of the world1 from nebula to man3-- ,this world was once a fluid haze of light4 ,till toward the center set the starry tides1 ,and eddied into suns1 that wheeling cast ,the planets3 then the monster1 then the man4 ,tennyson's poetry of nature is based on almost scientific observation of natural phenomena4 ,unlike ,wordsworth1 ,tennyson does not regard nature as a manifestation of the divine spirit of love4 ,he sees her more from the new scientific point of view1 as red in tooth and claw with rapine4 ,the hero of ,maud says3-- ,for nature is one with rapine1 a harm no preacher can heal2 ,the ,mayfly is torn by the swallow1 the sparrow spear'd by the shrike4 ,and the whole little wood where ,i sit is a world of plunder and prey4 ,the constant warfare implied in the evolutionary theory of the survival of the fittest did not keep ,tennyson from also presenting nature in her gentler aspects4 ,in ,maud1 the lover sings-- 444whenever a ,march-wind sighs1 ,he sets the jewel-print of your feet ,in violets blue as your eyes1 and he tells how the soul of the rose passed into his blood1 and how the sympathetic passion-flower dropped a splendid tear4 ,as beautiful as is much of ,tennyson's nature poetry1 he has not ,wordsworth's power to invest it with the light of setting suns1 or to cause it to awaken thoughts that do lie too deep for tears4 ,the conflict between science and religion1 the doubts and the sense of world-pain are mirrored in ,tennyson's verse4 ,the ,two ,voices begins3-- ,a still small voice spoke unto me1 ,thou art so full of misery ,were it not better not to be8 ,his poetry is1 however1 a great tonic to religious faith4 ,the closing lines of ,in ,memoriam and ,crossing the ,bar show how triumphantly he met all the doubts and the skepticism of the age4 ,like ,milton1 ,tennyson received much of his inspiration from books1 especially from the classical writers2 but this characteristic was more than counterbalanced by his acute observation and responsiveness to the thought of the age4 ,locksley ,hall ,sixty ,years ,after shows that he was keenly alive to the social movements of the time4 ,tennyson said that the scenes in his poems were so vividly conceived that he could have drawn them if he had been an artist4 ,a twentieth century critic#af says that ,tennyson is almost the inventor of such pictorial lyrics as ,a ,dream of ,fair ,women and ,the ,palace of ,art4 ,the artistic finish of ,tennyson's verse is one of its great charms4 ,he said to a friend3 ,it matters little what we say2 it is how we say it--though the fools don't knew it4 ,his poetry has1 however1 often been criticized for lack of depth4 ,the variety in his subject matter1 mode of expression1 and rhythm renders his verse far more enjoyable than that of the formal age of ,pope4 ,tennyson's extraordinary popularity in his own time was largely due to the fact that he voiced so clearly and attractively the thought of the age4 ,as another epoch ushers in different interests1 they will naturally be uppermost in the mind of the new generation4 ,we no longer feel the intense interest of the ,victorians in the supposed conflict between science and religion4 ,their theory of evolution has been modified and has lost the force of novelty4 ,theories of government and social ideals have also undergone a gradual change4 ,for these reasons much of ,tennyson's verse has ceased to have its former wide appeal4 ,tennyson has1 however1 left sufficient work of abiding value1 both for its exquisite form and for its thought1 to entitle him to be ranked as a great poet4 ,we cannot imagine a time when ,crossing the ,bar1 ,the ,passing of ,arthur1 and the central thought of ,in ,memoriam-- ',tis better to have loved and lost ,than never to have loved at all1 will no longer interest readers4 ,to ,tennyson belong-- ,jewels five words long ,that on the stretch'd forefinger of all ,time ,sparkle forever4 ,,algernon ,,charles ,,swinburne1 #ahcg-aiji ,illustration3 ,,algernon ,,charles ,,swinburne1 #ahcg-aiji4 ,from the painting by ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 ,life4--,swinburne was born in ,london in #ahcg4 ,his father was an admiral in the ,english navy1 and his mother1 the daughter of an earl4 ,the boy passed his summers in ,northumberland and his winters in the ,isle of ,wight4 ,he thus acquired that fondness for the sea1 so noticeable in his poetry4 ,his early experiences are traceable in lines like these3-- ,our bosom-belted billowy-blossoming hills1 ,whose hearts break out in laughter like the sea4 ,he went to ,oxford for three years1 but left without taking his degree4 ,the story is current that he knew more ,greek than his teachers but that he failed in an examination on the ,scriptures4 ,he sought to complete his education by wide reading and by travel1 especially in ,france and ,italy4 ,when he was twenty-five1 he went to live for a short time at #af ,cheyne ,walk1 ,chelsea1 in the western part of ,london1 in the same house with ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti and ,george ,meredith4 ,swinburne admired ,rossetti's poetry and was much impressed with the ,pre-,raphaelite virtues of simplicity and directness4 ,swinburne never married4 ,his deafness caused him to pass much of his long life in comparative retirement4 ,his last thirty years were spent with his friend1 the critic and poet1 ,theodore ,watts-,dunton1 at ,putney on the ,thames1 a few miles southwest of ,london4 ,swinburne died in #aiji and was buried at ,bonchurch in the ,isle of ,wight4 ,works4--,in #ahfd ,england was enchanted with the melody of the choruses in his ,atalanta in ,calydon1 a dramatic poem in the old ,greek form4 ,lines like the following from the chorus1 ,the ,youth of the ,year1 show the quality for which his verse is most famous3-- ,when the hounds of spring are on winter's traces1 ,the mother of months in meadow or plain ,fills the shadows and windy places ,with lisp of leaves and ripple of rain4 ,the first series of his ,poems and ,ballads 7#ahff7 contains ,the ,garden of ,proserpine1 one of his best known poems4 ,proserpine forgets the earth her mother and goes to her bloomless garden3-- ,and spring and seed and swallow ,take wing for her and follow ,where summer song rings hollow ,and flowers are put to scorn4 ,many volumes came in rapid succession from his pen4 ,in #aijd his poems were collected in six octavo volumes containing #bceg pages4 ,this collection includes the long narrative poems1 ,tristram of ,lyonesse and ,the ,tale of ,balen1 a faithful retelling of famous medieval stories4 ,he1 however1 had more ability as a writer of lyrics than of narrative verse4 ,his poetic dramas fill five additional volumes4 ,chastelard 7#ahfe71 one of the three dramas relating to ,mary ,queen of ,scots1 is the best of his plays4 ,he had1 however1 neither the power to draw character nor the repression of speech necessary for a great dramatist4 ,the best parts of his plays are really lyrical verse4 ,many critics think that ,swinburne's reputation would be as great as it now is1 if he had ceased to write verse in #ahff1 at the age of twenty-nine1 after producing ,atalanta in ,calydon and the first series of his ,poems and ,ballads4 ,although his interests widened and his poetic range increased1 much of his work during his last forty years is a repetition of earlier successes4 ,his ,songs before ,sunrise1 however 7#ahga71 and the next two volumes of ,poems and ,ballads 7#ahgh and #ahhi7 contain some poems that rank among his best4 ,later in life he wrote a large amount of prose criticism1 much of which deals with the ,elizabethan dramatists4 ,his ,a ,study of ,shakespeare 7#ahhj7 and his shorter ,shakespeare 7#aije7 are especially suggestive4 ,in spite of the fact that the reader must make constant allowance for his habit of using superlatives1 he was an able critic4 ,general ,characteristics4--,swinburne's poetry suffers from his tendency to drown his ideas in a sea of words4 ,sometimes we gain no more definite ideas from reading many lines of his verse than from hearing music without words4 ,much of his poetry was suggested by wide reading1 not by close personal contact with life4 ,his verse sometimes offends from disregarding moral proprieties and from so expressing his atheism as to wound the feelings of religious people4 ,his idea of a ,supreme ,power was colored by the old ,grecian belief in ,fate4 ,in exact opposition to ,wordsworth1 ,swinburne's youthful poems show that he regarded ,nature as the incarnation of a ,power malevolent to man4 ,he lacked the optimism of ,browning and the faith of ,tennyson4 ,the mantle of ,byron and ,shelley fell on ,swinburne as the poet of revolt against what seemed to be religious or political tyranny4 ,after ,tennyson's death1 in #ahib1 ,swinburne was the greatest living ,english poet2 but1 even if his verse had not offended ,queen ,victoria for the foregoing reasons1 she would not have appointed him poet-laureate after the misery of the ,russians had moved him in #ahij to write1 referring to the ,czar3-- ,night hath naught but one red star--,tyrannicide4 ,god or man1 be swift2 hope sickens with delay3 ,smite and send him howling down his father's way4 ,swinburne's crowning glory is his unquestioned mastery1 unsurpassed by any poet since ,milton1 of the technique of varied melodious verse4 ,this quality is evident1 no matter whether he is describing the laughter of a child3-- ,sweeter far than all things heard1 ,hand of harper1 tone of bird1 ,sound of woods at sundawn stirr'd1 ,welling water's winsome ward1 ,wind in warm wan weather1 or expressing his fierce hatred for any condition or place where-- 444a curse was or a chain ,a throne for torment or a crown for bane ,rose1 moulded out of poor men's molten pain1 or singing the song of a lover-- ,if love were what the rose is1 ,and ,i were like the leaf1 ,our lives would grow together ,in sad or singing weather1 ,blown fields or flowerful closes1 ,green pleasure or grey grief2 ,if love were what the rose is1 ,and ,i were like the leaf2 or voicing his early creed-- ,that no life lives forever2 ,that dead men rise up never2 ,that even the weariest river ,winds somewhere safe to sea1 or chanting in far nobler strains the ,anglo-,saxon belief in the molding power of an infinite presence-- ,i am in thee to save thee1 ,as my soul in thee saith1 ,give thou as ,i gave thee1 ,thy life-blood and breath1 ,green leaves of thy labor1 white flowers of thy thought1 and red fruit of thy death4 ,,rudyard ,,kipling1 #ahfe- ,illustration3 ,,rudyard ,,kipling4 ,from the painting by ,john ,collier4 ,life4--,rudyard ,kipling1 the youngest of the great ,victorians1 was born in ,bombay1 ,india1 in #ahfe4 ,his parents were people of culture and artistic training1 the father1 ,john ,lockwood ,kipling1 being a recognized authority on ,indian art4 ,like most ,english children born in ,india1 ,kipling1 when very small1 was sent to ,england to escape the fatal ,indian heat4 ,afterwards in the story ,baa1 ,baa1 ,black ,sheep1 ,kipling told the tragic experience of two ,anglo-,indian children when separated from their parents4 ,if it is true that this story is largely autobiographical1 the separation must have been a trying ordeal in ,kipling's childhood4 ,later he spent several years at ,westward ,ho1 ,devonshire1 in a school conducted mainly for the sons of ,indian officials4 ,stalky and ,co41 a broadly humorous book of schoolboy life1 gives the ,kipling of this period1 in the character of the egregious ,beetle4 ,when only seventeen1 he returned to ,india and immediately began journalistic work4 ,for seven years1 first at ,lahore and later at ,allahabad1 he was busy with the usual hackwork of a small newspaper4 ,during these impressionable years1 from seventeen to twenty-four1 he gained his intimate knowledge of the strangely-colored1 many-sided ,indian life4 ,his first stories and poems1 often written in hot haste1 to fill the urgent need of more copy1 appeared as waifs and strays in the papers for which he wrote4 ,a collection of verse1 ,departmental ,ditties1 published at ,lahore in #ahhf1 was well received2 and it was quickly followed by several volumes of short stories4 ,his ability thus gained early recognition in ,india4 ,at the age of twenty-four1 he left ,india for ,london4 ,here his books found a publisher almost at once1 and he was hailed as a new literary genius4 ,his work became so popular that he was able to devote his whole time to writing4 ,it is doubtful whether any writer since ,dickens has received such quick and enthusiastic recognition from all classes of the ,english-speaking race4 ,even the street-car conductors were heard quoting him4 ,in #ahib he married ,miss ,caroline ,balestier1 an ,american1 and afterwards lived for four years at ,brattleboro1 ,vermont4 ,later he settled in ,sussex1 ,england1 whence he has made long journeys to ,south ,africa1 ,canada1 and ,egypt1 amassing more knowledge of the ,english around the ,seven ,seas4 ,probably the most remarkable feature of ,kipling's career is the early age at which his genius developed4 ,before he left ,india he had published one book of verse and seven prose collections4 ,by the time he was thirty1 he had written ,the ,jungle ,books1 most of his best short stories1 and some of his finest verse4 ,prose4--,as a master of the modern short story1 ,kipling stands unsurpassed4 ,his journalistic work helped him to acquire a direct1 concentrated style of narrative1 to find interest in an astonishing variety of subjects1 and to seize on the right details for vivid presentation4 ,he was fortunate in discovering in ,india a new literary field1 in which his genius appears at its best4 ,some of his early tales of ,indian life are marred by crudeness and by lack of feeling2 but these faults decreased as he matured4 ,kipling's stories depend for their interest on incident1 not on analysis4 ,he embodies romantic adventure and action in masterpieces as different as the terrible tragedy of ,the ,man ,who would be ,king 7#ahhh71 the tender love story of ,without ,benefit of ,clergy 7#ahij71 and the mystic dream-land of ,the ,brushwood ,boy 7#ahie74 ,he specially enjoyed portraying the ,english soldier4 ,perhaps his best-known characters are the privates ,mulvaney1 ,ortheris1 and ,learoyd1 whom we meet in such tales of mingled comedy and tragedy as ,with the ,main ,guard 7#ahhh71 ,on ,greenhow ,hill 7#ahia71 ,the ,incarnation of ,krishna ,mulvaney 7#ahia71 ,the ,courting of ,dinah ,shadd 7#aiha74 ,when ,kipling traveled to new lands1 he wrote stories of ,america1 ,africa1 and the deep sea2 but his later tales show an unfortunate increase in the use of technical terms and a lessening of his former dash and spontaneity4 ,there are1 however1 readers who prefer such a delicate1 subtle1 story as ,they 7#aije71 to his earlier masterpieces of strenuous action4 ,in ,the ,jungle ,book 7#ahid7 and ,the ,second ,jungle ,book 7#ahie71 ,kipling has accomplished the greatest of feats1--an original creation4 ,from the moment the little brown baby1 ,mowgli1 crawls into ,mother ,wolf's cave away from ,shere ,khan1 the tiger1 until the time for him to graduate from the jungle1 we follow him under the spell of a fascination different from any that we have known before4 ,the animals of the jungle have real personalities1 from the chattering ,bandar-log to the lumbering kindly ,baloo4 ,with all their intense individuality1 they remain animals1 each one true to his kind1 hating or loving men1 thinking mainly through their instincts1 and surpassing human schoolmasters in teaching ,mowgli the great laws of the jungle1--that obedience is the head and the hoof of the ,law1 that nothing was ever yet lost by silence1 that1 in the jungle1 life and food depend on keeping one's temper1 that no one shall kill for the pleasure of killing4 ,illustration3 ,,mowgli ,,and ,,his ,,brothers4 ,by permission of ,century ,company4 ,above all stands the character of ,mowgli1 the wolf-adopted man-cub1 human and yet brother to the animals4 ,with a touch of genius1 ,kipling revealed the kinship between ,mowgli and the denizens of the jungle4 ,kipling's eyes could see both the harsh realism of animal existence and the genuine idealism of ,mother ,wolf and the ,pack and the ,jungle-law4 ,just ,so ,stories 7#aijb71 written primarily for children1 but entertaining to all1 is a collection of romantic stories1 mostly of animals1 illustrated by ,kipling himself4 ,one of the best of these tales is ,the ,cat that ,walked by ,himself1 which has distinct ethical value in showing how the cat through service won his place by the fireside4 ,though ,kipling has written four novels1 only two1 ,the ,light that ,failed 7#ahia7 and ,kim 7#aija71 can compare with his best short stories4 ,the ,light that ,failed1 the tragedy of an artist who becomes blind1 proves that ,kipling was able to handle a long plot sufficiently well to sustain interest4 ,kim is an attempt to present as a more completed whole that ,india of which the stories give only glimpses4 ,on the slenderest thread of plot is strung a bewildering array of scenes1 characters1 and incidents4 ,his intimate knowledge of ,india and his photographic power of description are here used with remarkable picturesque effect4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,cat ,,that ,,walked4 ,copyright1 #aijb1 by ,rudyard ,kipling4 ,verse4--,kipling's poetry has many of the same qualities as his prose1--originality1 force1 love of action4 ,in ,barrack ,room ,ballads 7#ahib71 the soldier is again celebrated in vigorous songs with swinging choruses4 ,mandalay1 ,fuzzy-,wuzzy1 ,danny ,deever1 show what spirited verse can be fashioned from a common ballad meter and a bold use of dialect4 ,so 'ere's to you1 ,fuzzy-,wuzzy1 at your 'ome in the ,soudan2 ,you're a pore benighted 'eathen1 but a first class fightin' man2 ,an' 'ere's to you1 ,fuzzy-,wuzzy1 with your 'ayrick 'ead of 'air-- ,you big black boundin' beggar--for you broke a ,british square6 ,much of his verse is political4 ,his opinion of questions at issue is sometimes given with much heat1 but always with sincerity and true patriotism4 ,the best known of his patriotic songs1 and perhaps his noblest poetic effort1 ,the ,recessional 7#ahig71 was inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of ,victoria's reign4 ,the ,truce of the ,bear 7#ahih7 is a warning against ,russia4 ,the ,native-,born is a toast to the colonies in every clime4 ,kipling's verse breaks with many of the accepted standards of ,english verse4 ,he does not aim at such pure beauty of form as we find in ,tennyson4 ,he can handle skillfully many kinds of meter1 as is shown in ,the ,song of the ,english1 ,the ,ballad of ,east and ,west1 ,the ,song of the ,banjo1 and many sea lyrics4 ,yet he uses mostly the common measures1 attaining with these a free swing1 a fitting of sound to sense1 that are irresistible to the many-- ,common tunes that make you choke and blow your nose1 ,vulgar tunes that bring the laugh that brings the groan-- ,i can rip your very heart-strings out with those4#ag ,some of his later work shows increasing seriousness of tone4 ,the ,recessional and the ,hymn before ,action are elevated in thought and expression4 ,the bigness of ,l',envoi shows poetic power capable of higher flights3-- ,and only the ,master shall praise us1 and only the ,master shall blame2 ,and no one shall work for money1 and no one shall work for fame2 ,but each for the joy of the working1 and each1 in his separate star1 ,shall draw the ,thing as he sees ,it for the ,god of ,things as ,they ,are6#ah ,general ,characteristics4--,kipling has carried to their highest development the principles of the ,bret ,harte ,school of short story writers4 ,his style possesses those qualities necessary for telling a short tale1--directness1 force1 suggestiveness4 ,rarely has any writer so mastered the technique1 the craftsmanship of this particular literary form4 ,he has the gift of force and dramatic power1 rather than of beauty and delicacy4 ,he excels in suggestive vivid description1 and he draws wonderful pictures of all out-of-doors1 especially of the sea2 but nature remains merely the background for the human figures4 ,much of his vividness lies in the use of specific words4 ,if he should employ the phraseology of his jungle laws to frame the first commandment for writers1 it would be3 ,seven times never be vague4 ,few authors have at the very beginning of their career more implicitly heeded such a commandment1 obedience to which is evident in the following description from ,the ,courting of ,dinah ,shadd3-- ,over our heads burned the wonderful ,indian stars1 which are not all pricked in on one plane1 but preserving an orderly perspective1 draw the eye through the velvet darkness of the void up to the barred doors of heaven itself4 ,the earth was a grey shadow more unreal than the sky4 ,we could hear her breathing lightly in the pauses between the howling of the jackals1 the movement of the wind in the tamarisks1 and the fitful mutter of musketry-fire leagues away to the left4 ,a native woman from some unseen hut began to sing1 the mail train thundered past on its way to ,delhi1 and a roosting crow cawed drowsily4 ,abundant and vivid use of metaphors serves to render his concreteness more varied and impressive4 ,we find these in such expressions as the velvet darkness1 the kiss of the rain1 the tree-road4 ,his celestial artists splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comet's hair4 ,five words from ,mulvaney explain why he does not wish to leave his tent3 ',tis rainin' intrenchin' tools outside4 ,kipling's spirit is essentially masculine4 ,he prefers to write of men1 work1 and battle1 rather than of women and love4 ,since his interest is mainly in action1 he shows small ability in character drawing4 ,his people are clear-cut and alive1 but we do not see them grow and develop as do ,george ,eliot's characters4 ,above all1 he stands as the interpreter of the ideals and the interests of the ,anglo-,saxons of his time4 ,those tendencies of the age1 which seem to others so dangerously materialistic1 are the very causes of his zest in life4 ,in an age of machinery1 he writes of the romance of steam1 the soul of an engine1 the flight of an airship4 ,his is a work-a-day world2 but in work well done1 in obedience to the established law1 and in courage1 he sees the proving of manhood1 the test of the true gentleman-- ,who had done his work and held his peace and had no fear to die4 ,underlying all his thought is a deep belief in the ,god of our fathers1 a ,god just to punish or reward1 whom the ,english have reverenced through all their history4 ,linked with this faith is an intense feeling of patriotism toward that larger ,england of his imperialistic vision4 ,these qualities justly brought ,kipling the #aijg ,nobel prize for idealism in literature4 ,he is truly the idealist of a practical age1 teaching the romance1 the joy1 the vision in the common facts and virtues of present-day life4 ,,summary ,the history and literature of the ,victorian age show the influence of science4 ,darwin's conception of evolution affected all fields of thought4 ,the tendency toward analysis and dissection is a result of scientific influence4 ,in describing the prose of the ,victorian age1 we have considered the work of thirteen writers2 namely1 ,macaulay1 the brilliant essayist and historian of the material advancement of ,england2 ,newman1 essayist and theologian1 who is noted for clear style1 acute thought1 and argumentative power2 ,carlyle1 who awoke in his generation a desire for greater achievement1 and who championed the spiritual interpretation of life in philosophy and history2 ,ruskin1 the apostle of the beautiful and of more ideal relations in social life2 the essayist ,pater1 whose prose is tinged with poetic color and mystic thought2 ,arnold1 the great analytical critic2 ,dickens1 educational and social reformer1 whose novels deal chiefly with the lower classes2 ,thackeray1 whose fiction is not surpassed in keen1 satiric analysis of the upper classes of society2 ,george ,eliot1 whose realistic stories of middle-class life show the influence of science in her conception of character as an orderly ethical growth2 ,stevenson1 an artist in style1 writer of romances1 essays1 and poems for children2 ,meredith1 subtle novelist1 distinguished for his comic spirit and portrayal of male egotism2 ,hardy1 realistic novelist of the lowly life of ,wessex2 ,kipling1 whose ,jungle ,books are an original creation1 and whose short stories surpass those of all other contemporaries4 ,in poetry1 the age is best represented by five men2 namely1 ,arnold1 who voices the feeling of doubt and unrest2 ,browning1 who1 by his optimistic philosophy1 leads to impregnable heights of faith1 who analyzes emotions and notes the development of souls as they struggle against opposition from within and without1 until they reach moments of supreme victory or defeat2 ,tennyson1 whose careful art mirrors in beautiful verse much of the thought of the age1 the influence of science1 the unrest1 the desire to know the problems of the future1 as well as to steal occasional glances at beauty for its own sake2 ,swinburne1 the greatest artist since ,milton in the technique of verse2 and ,kipling1 the poet of imperialistic ,england1 whose ballads sing of her soldiers and sailors1 and whose lyrics proclaim the ,anglo-,saxon faith and joy in working4 ,,references ,,for ,,further ,,study ,,historical ,walker's ,essentials in ,english ,history1 ,cheney's ,a ,short ,history of ,england1 ,mc,carthy's ,history of ,our ,own ,times1 ,cheney's ,industrial and ,social ,history of ,england1 ,traill's ,social ,england1 ,,vi4 ,,literary ,the ,cambridge ,history of ,english ,literature4 ,walker's ,the ,literature of the ,victorian ,era4 ,magnus's ,english ,literature in the ,nineteenth ,century4 ,saintsbury's ,a ,history of ,english ,literature in the ,nineteenth ,century4 ,kennedy's ,english ,literature1 #ahhj-aije4 ,walker's ,greater ,victorian ,poets4 ,brownell's ,victorian ,prose ,masters4 ,payne's ,the ,greater ,english ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century4 ,brooke's ,four ,victorian ,poets 7,rossetti1 ,arnold1 ,morris74 ,perry's ,a ,study of ,prose ,fiction4 ,benson's ,rossetti4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,noyes's ,william ,morris4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,trevelyan's ,life and ,letters of ,macaulay4 ,morrison's ,macaulay4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,minto's ,english ,prose ,literature 7,macaulay and ,carlyle74 ,barry's ,newman4 ,ward's ,the ,life of ,john ,henry1 ,cardinal ,newman1 #b vols4 ,newman's ,letters and ,correspondence1 with a ,brief ,autobiography4 ,carlyle's ,reminiscences4 ,froude's ,thomas ,carlyle1 #b vols4 ,nichol's ,carlyle4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,garnett's ,thomas ,carlyle4 7,g4,w47 ,froude's ,jane ,welsh ,carlyle1 #b vols4 ,t4 and ,a4 ,carlyle's ,new ,letters and ,memorials of ,jane ,welsh ,carlyle4 ,cook's ,the ,life of ,john ,ruskin1 #b vols4 ,ruskin's ,praeterita1 ,scenes and ,thoughts of ,my ,past ,life4 ,benson's ,ruskin3 ,a ,study in ,personality4 ,earland's ,ruskin and his ,circle4 ,harrison's ,john ,ruskin4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,birrell's ,life of ,charlotte ,bront4 ,foster's ,life of ,dickens 7abridged and revised by ,gissing74 ,kitton's ,dickens1 his ,life1 ,writings1 and ,personality4 ,gissing's ,charles ,dickens3 ,a ,critical ,study4 ,chesterton's ,charles ,dickens4 ,hughes's ,dickens as an ,educator4 ,philip's ,a ,dickens ,dictionary4 ,melville's ,william ,makepeace ,thackeray1 #b vols4 ,trollope's ,thackeray4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,merivale and ,marzials's ,life of ,thackeray4 7,g4,w47 ,mudge and ,sears's ,a ,thackeray ,dictionary4 ,cross's ,george ,eliot's ,life as ,related in her ,letters and ,journals4 ,browning's ,life of ,george ,eliot4 7,g4,w47 ,stephens's ,george ,eliot4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,cook's ,george ,eliot3 ,a ,critical ,study of her ,life1 ,writings1 and ,philosophy4 ,olcott's ,george ,eliot3 ,scenes and ,people in ,her ,novels4 ,hamilton's ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 ,balfour's ,the ,life of ,robert ,louis ,stevenson1 #b vols4 ,the ,letters of ,robert ,louis ,stevenson1 edited by ,sidney ,colvin4 ,raleigh's ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 ,hamerton's ,stevensoniana4 ,japp's ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 ,hamerton's ,george ,meredith3 ,his ,life and ,art in ,anecdote and ,criticism4 ,letters of ,george ,meredith1 #b vols4 ,sturge ,henderson's ,george ,meredith4 ,bailey's ,the ,novels of ,george ,meredith3 ,a ,study4 ,trevelyan's ,the ,poetry and ,philosophy of ,george ,meredith4 ,beach's ,the ,comic ,spirit in ,george ,meredith4 ,lionel ,johnson's ,the ,art of ,thomas ,hardy4 ,macdonell's ,thomas ,hardy4 ,abercrombie's ,thomas ,hardy3 ,a ,critical ,study4 ,saxelby's ,thomas ,hardy ,dictionary4 ,phelps's ,essays on ,modern ,novelists 7,hardy1 ,kipling1 ,stevenson74 ,benson's ,walter ,pater4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,paul's ,matthew ,arnold4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,saintsbury's ,matthew ,arnold4 ,letters of ,robert ,browning and ,elizabeth ,barrett ,barrett4 ,griffin and ,minchin's ,the ,life of ,robert ,browning4 ,chesterton's ,robert ,browning4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,sharp's ,life of ,browning4 7,g4,w47 ,symons's ,an ,introduction to the ,study of ,browning4 ,foster's ,the ,message of ,robert ,browning4 ,orr's ,a ,handbook to the works of ,robert ,browning4 ,alfred1 ,lord ,tennyson1 ,a ,memoir1 by his son4 ,benson's ,alfred ,tennyson 7the best brief work74 ,lyall's ,tennyson4 7,e4,m4,l47 ,brooke's ,tennyson3 ,his ,art and ,relation to ,modern ,life4 ,van ,dyke's ,the ,poetry of ,tennyson4 ,gordon's ,the ,social ,ideals of ,alfred ,tennyson4 ,lackyer's ,tennyson as a ,student and ,poet of ,nature4 ,luce's ,handbook to the ,works of ,alfred1 ,lord ,tennyson4 ,woodberry's ,swinburne4 ,thomas's ,algernon ,charles ,swinburne3 ,a ,critical ,study4 ,knowles's ,kipling ,primer4 ,le ,galliene's ,rudyard ,kipling1 ,a ,criticism4 ,clemens's ,a ,ken of ,kipling4 ,young's ,dictionary of the ,characters and ,scenes in the ,stories and ,poems of ,rudyard ,kipling4 ,canby's ,the ,short ,story in ,english 7,kipling74 ,cooper's ,some ,english ,story ,tellers 7,kipling74 ,leeb-,lundberg's ,word ,formation in ,kipling 7excellent74 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,the ,pre-,raphaelites4--,read ,rossetti's ,the ,blessed ,damozel1 ,sister ,helen1 ,the ,king's ,tragedy1 ,love's ,nocturne1 and ,mary's ,girlhood4 ,all of these are given in ,page's ,british ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century4 ,selections may be found in ,bronson1#ai ,,iv41 ,century1 ,oxford ,book of ,victorian verse1 and ,manly1 ,i4 ,selections from ,christina ,rossetti's ,pre-,raphaelite verse are given in all except ,page4 ,from ,william ,morris1 read ,two ,red ,roses ,across the ,moon1 ,the ,defence of ,guenevere 7,page's ,british ,poets71 and the selections from ,the ,earthly ,paradise in either ,page1 ,century1 ,bronson1 ,,iv41 or ,manly1 ,i4 ,what part did ,ruskin play in this new movement8 ,point out the simplest1 the most affecting1 and the most pleasing stanza in ,the ,blessed ,damozel4 ,what ,pre-,raphaelite qualities in this poem have made it such a favorite8 ,what are the chief characteristics of ,rossetti's other verse8 ,note specially ,miss ,rossetti's religious verse4 ,what ,pre-,raphaelite qualities do ,morris's ,two ,red ,roses across the ,moon 7#aheh7 and ,the ,defence of ,guenevere 7#aheh7 show8 ,compare this early verse with the selections from ,the ,earthly ,paradise 7#ahfh-ahgj74 ,macaulay4--,read either the ,essay on ,milton or the ,essay on ,addison 7,eclectic ,english ,classics or ,gateway ,series7 or the selections in ,craik1 ,v41 ,manly1 ,,ii41 ,century1 or ,dickinson and ,roe's ,nineteenth ,century ,prose4 ,read ,history of ,england1 ,chap4 ,,ix41 or the selections in ,craik ,v41 or ,century1 or ,manly1 ,,ii4 ,what are some of the qualities that cause ,macaulay's writings to outstrip in popularity other works of a similar nature8 ,what qualities in his style may be commended to young writers8 ,what are his special defects8 ,contrast his narrative style in ,chap4 ,,ix4 of the ,history with ,carlyle's in ,the ,french ,revolution1 ,vol4 ,i41 ,book ,v41 ,chap4 ,,vi4 ,newman4--,the best volume of selections is edited by ,lewis ,e4 ,gates 7#bbh pages1 #ge cents74 ,dickinson and ,roe's ,nineteenth ,century ,english ,prose contains ,newman's essay on ,literature4 ,selections are given in ,craik ,v41 ,century1 and ,manly1 ,,ii4 ,compare his style with ,macaulay's and note the resemblance and the difference4 ,why did ,newman call himself a rhetorician8 ,what qualities does he add to those of a rhetorician8 ,select passages that show his special clearness1 concreteness1 also his rhetorical and argumentative power4 ,carlyle4--,read the ,essay on ,robert ,burns 7,eclectic ,english ,classics or ,gateway ,series72 ,sartor ,resartus1 ,book ,,iii41 ,chap4 ,,vi4 7,everyman's ,library72 ,the ,french ,revolution1 ,vol4 ,i41 ,book ,v41 ,chap4 ,,vi4 7,everyman's ,library74 ,selections may be found in ,craik1 ,v41 ,century1 ,manly1 ,,ii41 and ,evans's ,carlyle 7,masters of ,literature74 ,what marked difference in manner of treatment is shown in ,macaulay's ,milton or ,addison and ,carlyle's ,burns8 ,what was ,carlyle's message in ,sartor ,resartus8 ,what did ,huxley and ,tyndale say of his influence8 ,what are the most noteworthy qualities of ,the ,french ,revolution8 ,what are the chief characteristics of ,carlyle's style8 ,ruskin4--,in ,vol4 ,i41 ,part ,,ii41 of ,modern ,painters1 read the first part of ,chap4 ,i4 of ,sec4 ,,iii41 ,chap4 ,i4 of ,sec4 ,,iv41 and ,chap4 ,i4 of ,sec4 ,v41 and note ,ruskin's surprising accuracy of knowledge in dealing with aspects of the natural world4 ,the ,stones of ,venice1 ,vol4 ,,iii41 ,chap4 ,,iv41 states ,ruskin's theory of art and its close relation to morality4 ,excellent selections from the various works of ,ruskin will be found in ,an ,introduction to the ,writings of ,john ,ruskin1 by ,vida ,d4 ,scudder4 ,selections are also given in ,century1 ,manly1 ,,ii41 ,riverside ,literature ,series1 and ,bronson's ,english ,essays 7,modern ,painters and ,fors ,clavigera74 ,sesame and lilies1 ,the ,king of the ,golden ,river1 and ,the ,stones of ,venice are published in ,everyman's ,library4 ,what was the message of ,modern ,painters8 of ,the ,stones of ,venice8 of ,fors ,clavigera8 ,why is ,ruskin called a disciple of ,carlyle8 ,select a passage from ,ruskin's descriptive prose and indicate its chief qualities4 ,bront1 ,bulwer ,lytton1 ,gaskell1 ,trollope1 ,kingsley1 ,reade1 ,blackmore1 and ,barrie4--,jane ,eyre 7,charlotte ,bront71 ,wuthering ,heights 7,emily ,bront71 ,last ,days of ,pompeii 7,lytton71 ,cranford 7,gaskell71 ,barchester ,towers 7,trollope71 ,westward ,ho6 7,kingsley71 ,the ,cloister and the ,hearth 7,reade71 and ,lorna ,doone 7,blackmore7 are all published in ,everyman's ,library4 ,barrie's ,the ,little ,minister is included in ,burt's ,home ,library4 ,the works of the ,bront sisters will be much more appreciated if ,mrs4 ,gaskell's ,life of ,charlotte ,bront 7,everyman's ,library7 is read first4 ,the novels by the ,bront sisters1 ,mrs4 ,gaskell1 ,trollope1 and ,barrie record their impressions of contemporary life4 ,the other novels are historical4 ,lytton gives a vivid account of the last days of ,pompeii4 ,kingsley thrills with his story of the sailors of ,elizabeth's time4 ,reade1 who studied libraries to insure the accuracy of ,the ,cloister and the ,hearth1 portrays vividly the oncoming of the ,renaissance in he fifteenth century4 ,blackmore's great story1 which records some incidents of the ,monmouth rebellion 7#afhe71 is written more to interest than to throw light on history4 ,dickens4--,the first works of ,dickens to be read are ,pickwick ,papers1 ,a ,christmas ,carol1 and ,david ,copperfield4 ,these are all published in ,everyman's ,library4 ,craik1 ,v41 gives ,mr4 ,pickwick on the ,ice1 ,christmas at the ,cratchit's1 and two scenes from ,david ,copperfield4 ,select passages that show 7a7 humor1 7b7 pathos1 7c7 sympathy with children1 7d7 optimism4 ,describe some one of the characters4 ,can you instance a case here a mannerism is made to take the place of other characterization8 ,is ,dickens a master of plot8 of style8 ,thackeray4--,read ,henry ,esmond 7,eclectic ,english ,classics7 and ,the ,english ,humorists of the ,fifteenth ,century 7,macmillan's ,pocket ,classics74 ,craik1 ,v41 and ,manly1 ,,ii4 give selections4 ,contrast the manner of treatment in ,thackeray's historical novel1 ,henry ,esmond1 and in ,scott's historical romance1 ,ivanhoe4 ,thackeray says3 ,the best humor is that which contains most humanity--that which is flavored throughout with tenderness and kindness4 ,would this serve as a definition of ,thackeray's own style of humor8 ,state definitely how he differs from ,dickens in portraying character4 ,compare ,thackeray's ,english ,humorists with ,macaulay's ,milton and ,carlyle's ,burns4 ,which essay leaves the most definite ideas8 ,which is the most interesting8 ,which has the most atmosphere8 ,how should you characterize ,thackeray's style8 ,george ,eliot4--,read ,silas ,marner 7,eclectic ,english ,classics or ,gateway ,series71 or selections in ,craik1 ,v41 or ,manly1 ,,ii4 ,in what does the chief strength of ,silas ,marner consist1--in the plot1 the characters1 or the description8 ,does the ethical purpose of this novel grow naturally out of the story8 ,is the inner life or only the outward appearance of the characters revealed8 ,wherein do they show growth8 ,stevenson4--,read ,treasure ,island 7,eclectic ,english ,classics or ,gateway ,series71 ,inland ,voyage1 and ,travels with a ,donkey 7,gateway ,series74 ,from the essays read ,child's ,play1 ,aes ,triplex 7both in ,virginibus ,puerisque74 ,some of the essays and best short stories 7including ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde7 are given in ,canby and ,pierce's ,selections from ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 ,from the volume of poems called ,underwoods1 read ,the ,celestial ,surgeon and ,requiem4 ,a ,child's ,garden of ,verse may be read entire in an hour4 ,compare ,treasure ,island with ,robinson ,crusoe4 ,what are the chief characteristics of ,an ,inland ,voyage and ,travels with a ,donkey8 ,why is he called a romantic writer8 ,as an essayist1 compare him with ,thackeray4 ,what are the special qualities of his style8 ,george ,meredith4--,the ,egoist is ,meredith's most representative novel4 ,the ,ordeal of ,richard ,feverel and ,diana of the ,crossways are also masterpieces4 ,from the ,poems read ,love in the ,valley1 ,the ,lark ,ascending1 ,melanthus1 ,jump-to-,glory ,jane4 ,what is the central purpose of ,the ,egoist8 ,select specially ,meredithian passages which show his general characteristics4 ,can you find any other author whose humor resembles ,meredith's8 ,would he naturally be more popular with men or with women8 ,hardy4--,hardy's most enjoyable novel is ,far from the ,madding ,crowd4 ,the ,return of the ,native is one of his strongest works4 ,what are some of the most striking differences between him and ,meredith8 ,which one is naturally the better story-teller8 ,where are the scenes of most of ,hardy's novels laid8 ,what is his theory of life8 ,arnold4--,read ,dover ,beach1 ,memorial ,verses1 ,stanzas in ,memory of the ,author of ,obermann and ,sohrab and ,rustum 7,page's ,british ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century1 ,bronson1 ,,iv41 ,manly1 ,i474 ,is ,arnold the poet of fancy or of reflection8 ,how does his poetry show one phase of nineteenth-century thought8 ,arnold's ,essays1 ,literary and ,critical are published in ,everyman's ,library4 ,the best volume of selections from the prose writings of ,arnold is the one edited by ,lewis ,e4 ,gates 7#cdh pages1 #ge cents74 ,good selections are given in ,craik1 ,v41 ,manly1 ,i4 7,sweetness and light71 ,century 7,the ,study of ,poetry74 ,arnold's ,introduction to ,ward1 ,i41 is well worth reading4 ,what quality specially marks ,arnold's criticism8 ,compare him as a critic with ,coleridge1 ,macaulay1 ,carlyle1 and ,thackeray4 ,what are the advantages and disadvantages of a style like ,arnold's8 ,pater4--,read the essay1 ,leonardo da ,vinci 7,dickinson and ,roe's ,nineteenth ,century ,prose1 pp4 #cch-cfh71 from ,pater's golden book1 ,the ,renaissance3 ,studies in ,art and ,literature4 ,e4,e4 ,hale's ,selections from ,walter ,pater 7#bfh pages1 #ge cents7 gives representative selections4 ,manly1 ,,ii41 and ,century give the essay on ,style4 ,what are the chief characteristics of ,pater's style8 ,compare it with ,macaulay's1 ,newman's1 ,ruskin's1 and ,matthew ,arnold's4 ,has ,pater a message8 ,does he show the spirit of the time8 ,the ,brownings4--,from ,elizabeth ,barrett ,browning1 read ,cowper's ,grave1 the ,cry of the ,children1 and from her ,sonnets from the ,portuguese1 ,nos4 ,i41 ,,iii41 ,,vi41 ,x41 ,,xviii41 ,,xx41 ,,xxvi41 ,,xxviii41 ,,xli41 ,,xliii4 ,mrs4 ,browning's verse comes from the heart and should be felt rather than criticized4 ,fresh interest may1 however1 by given to a study of her ,sonnets from the ,portuguese1 by comparing them with any other series of love sonnets1 excepting ,shakespeare's4 ,robert ,browning's shorter poems are best for the beginner1 who should read ,rabbi ,ben ,ezra1 ,abt ,vogler1 ,home ,thoughts from ,abroad1 ,prospice1 ,saul1 ,the ,pied ,piper of ,hamelin4 ,baker's ,browning's ,shorter ,poems 7,macmillan's ,pocket ,classics7 contains a very good collection of his shorter poems4 ,representative selections from ,browning's poems are given in ,page's ,british ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century1 ,oxford ,book of ,victorian ,verse1 ,bronson1 ,,iv41 ,manly1 ,i41 and ,century4 ,browning's masterpiece1 ,the ,ring and the ,book 7,oxford ,edition1 ,oxford ,university ,press7 would be apt to repel beginners4 ,this should be studied only after a previous acquaintance with his shorter poems4 ,define ,browning's creed as found in ,rabbi ,ben ,ezra4 ,is he an ethical teacher8 ,is there any similarity between his teaching and ,carlyle's8 ,what most interests ,browning1--word-painting1 narration1 action1 psychological analysis1 or technique of verse8 ,see whether a comparison of his ,prospice with ,tennyson's ,crossing the ,bar does not help you to understand ,browning's peculiar cast of mind4 ,what qualities in ,browning entitle him to be ranked as a great poet8 ,tennyson4--,from his #ahdb volume1 read the poems mentioned on page #eef4 ,from ,the ,princess1 read the lyrical songs2 from ,in ,memoriam1 the parts numbered ,,xli41 ,,liv41 ,,lvii41 and ,,cxxxi42 from ,maud1 the eleven stanzas beginning3 ,come into the garden1 ,maud2 from ,the ,idylls of the ,king1 read ,gareth and ,lynette1 ,lancelot and ,elaine1 ,the ,passing of ,arthur 7,van ,dyke's edition in ,gateway ,series72 from his later poems1 ,the ,higher ,pantheism1 ,locksley ,hall ,sixty ,years ,after1 and ,crossing the ,bar4 ,the best single volume edition of ,tennyson's works is published in ,macmillan's ,globe ,poets4 ,selections are given in ,page's ,british ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century1 ,bronson1 ,,iv41 ,oxford ,book of ,victorian ,verse1 ,manly1 ,i41 and ,century4 ,in ,the ,palace of ,art1 study carefully the stanzas from ,,xiv4 to ,,xxiii41 which are illustrative of ,tennyson's characteristic style of description4 ,compare ,locksley ,hall with ,locksley ,hall ,sixty ,years ,after1 and note the difference in thought and metrical form4 ,does the later poem show a gain over the earlier8 ,compare ,tennyson's nature poetry with that of ,keats and ,wordsworth4 ,to what is chiefly due the pleasure in reading ,tennyson's poetry3 to the imagery1 form1 thought8 ,what idea of his faith do you gain from ,in ,memoriam and ,the ,passing of ,arthur8 ,in what is ,tennyson the poetic exponent of the age8 ,is it probable that ,tennyson's popularity will increase or wane8 ,select some of his verse that you think will be as popular a hundred years hence as now4 ,swinburne4--,read ,a ,song in ,time of ,order1 ,the ,youth of the ,year 7,atlanta in ,calydon71 ,a ,match1 ,the ,garden of ,proserpine1 ,hertha1 ,by the ,north ,sea1 ,the ,hymn of ,man1 ,the ,roundel1 ,a ,child's ,laughter4 ,the most of the above are given in ,page's ,british ,poets of the ,nineteenth ,century1 ,bronson1 ,,iv41 ,manly1 ,i41 ,century1 ,oxford ,book of ,victorian ,verse4 ,compare both the metrical skill and poetic ideas of ,swinburne and ,tennyson4 ,can you find any poet who surpasses ,swinburne in the technique of verse8 ,what are his chief excellencies and faults8 ,kipling4--,read ,the ,jungle ,books4 ,the following are among the best of his short stories3 ,the ,man ,who ,would be ,king1 ,the ,brushwood ,boy1 ,the ,courting of ,dinah ,shadd1 ,drums of the ,fore and ,aft1 ,without ,benefit of ,clergy1 ,on ,greenhow ,hill4 ,from his poems read ,mandalay1 ,fuzzy-,wuzzy1 ,danny ,deever1 ,the ',eathen1 ,ballad of ,east and ,west1 ,recessional1 ,the ,white ,man's ,burden2 also ,song of the ,banjo1 and ,l',envoi from ,seven ,seas1 published by ,doubleday1 ,page and ,company4 ,why is ,the ,jungle ,book called an original creation8 ,what are the most distinctive dualities of ,kipling's short stories8 ,point out in what respects they show the methods of the journalist4 ,how does ,kipling sustain the interest8 ,what limitations do you notice8 ,what is specially remarkable about his style8 ,what are the principal characteristics of his verse8 ,what subjects appeal to him8 ,why is his verse so popular8 ,minor ,poets4--,read the selections from ,clough1 ,henley1 ,bridges1 ,davidson1 ,thompson1 ,watson1 ,dobson and ,symons in either ,the ,oxford ,book of ,victorian ,verse or ,stevenson's ,the ,home ,book of ,verse4 ,the ,poetical ,works of ,robert ,bridges is inexpensively published by the ,oxford ,university ,press4 ,dobson's verse has been gathered into the single volume ,collected ,poems 7#aiac74 ,what are the chief characteristics of each of the above authors8 ,do these minor versifiers fill a want not fully supplied by the great poets8 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,,ix3 ,footnote #a3 ,a ,liberal ,education and ,where to ,find ,it 7,lay ,sermons74 ,footnote #b3 ,for suggested readings in ,pater1 see p4 #ehd4 ,footnote #c3 ,pp4 #bbe-cfd of the ,oxford ,university ,press edition of his ,poetical ,works4 ,footnote #d3 ,printed by permission of ,the ,macmillan ,company4 ,footnote #e3 ,given in ,stevenson's ,home ,book of ,verse and ,the ,oxford ,book of ,victorian ,verse4 ,footnote #f3 ,history of ,england1 ,vol4 ,,iii1 ,chap4 ,,xi4 ,footnote #g3 ,morison's ,life of ,macaulay1 p4 #aci4 ,footnote #h3 ,the ,idea of a ,university 7,literature3 ,a ,lecture74 ,footnote #i3 ,for ,claviers1 ,letter ,i4 ,footnote #aj3 ,praeterita1 ,vol4 ,,ii41 ,chap4 ,v4 ,footnote #aa3 ,silas ,marner1 ,chap4 ,,vi4 ,footnote #ab3 ,the ,scholar ,gypsy4 ,footnote #ac3 ,a ,southern ,light4 ,footnote #ad3 ,the ,grande ,chartreuse4 ,footnote #ae3 ,home ,thoughts from ,abroad4 ,footnote #af3 ,a4,c4 ,benson's ,alfred ,tennyson1 p4 #aeg4 ,footnote #ag #ah3 ,printed by permission of ,rudyard ,kipling and ,doubleday1 ,page and ,company4 ,footnote #ai3 ,for full titles1 see p4 #f4 ,,chapter ,x3 ,,twentieth-,,century ,,literature ,interest in the ,present4--,one result of the growing scientific spirit has been an increasing interest in contemporary problems and literature4 ,at the beginning of the ,victorian age1 the chief part of the literature studied in college was nearly two thousand years old4 ,when ,english courses were finally added1 they frequently ended with ,milton4 ,to-day1 however1 many colleges have courses in strictly contemporary literature4 ,the scientific attitude toward life has caused a recognition of the fact that he who disregards current literature remains ignorant of a part of the life and thought of to-day and that he resembles the mathematician who neglects one factor in the solution of a problem4 ,it is true that the future may take a different view of all contemporary things1 including literature2 but this possibility does not justify neglect of the present4 ,we should also remember that different stages in the growth of nations and individuals constantly necessitate changes in estimating the relative importance of the thought of former centuries4 ,the ,trend of ,contemporary ,literature4--,the diversity of taste in the wide circle of twentieth-century readers has encouraged authors of both the realistic and the romantic schools4 ,the main tendency of scientific influence and of the new interest in racial welfare is toward realism4 ,in his stories of the ,five ,towns1 ,arnold ,bennett shows how the dull industrial life affects the character of the individual4 ,much of the fiction of ,h4,g4 ,wells presents matter of scientific or sociological interest4 ,poets like ,john ,masefield and ,wilfrid ,gibson sing with an almost prosaic sincerity of the life of workmen and of the squalid city streets4 ,the drama is frequently a study of the conditions affecting contemporary life4 ,twentieth-century writers are not1 however1 neglecting the other great function of literature1--to charm life with romantic visions and to bring to it deliverance from care4 ,the poetry of ,noyes takes us back to the days of ,drake and to the ,mermaid ,inn1 where we listen to ,shakespeare1 ,marlowe1 and ,jonson4 ,the ,irish poets and dramatists disclose a world of the ,ever-,young1 where there is3-- ,a laughter in the diamond air1 a music in the trembling grass4 ,the influence of the great ,german skeptic1 ,friedrich ,nietzsche 7#ahdd-aijj71 appears in some of ,shaw's dramas1 as well as in the novels of ,wells2 but the poets of this age seem to have more faith than ,swinburne or ,matthew ,arnold or some of the minor versifiers of the last quarter of the nineteenth century4 ,two prominent essayists1 ,arthur ,christopher ,benson 7#ahfb- 7 and ,gilbert ,k4 ,chesterton 7#ahgd- 7 are sincere optimists4 ,such volumes of ,benson's essays as ,from a ,college ,window 7#aijf71 ,beside ,still ,waters 7#aijg71 and ,thy ,rod and ,thy ,staff 7#aiab7 have strengthened faith and proved a tonic to many4 ,chesterton is a suggestive and stimulating essayist in spite of the fact that he often bombards his readers with too much paradox4 ,early in life he was an agnostic and a follower of ,herbert ,spencer1 but he later became a champion of ,christian faith4 ,sometimes ,chesterton seems to be merely clever1 but he is usually too thought-provoking to be read passively4 ,his ,robert ,browning 7#aijc71 ,varied ,types 7#aijc71 ,heretics 7#aije71 ,george ,bernard ,shaw 7#aiji71 and ,the ,victorian ,age in ,literature 7#aiac7 keep most readers actively thinking4 ,,the ,,novel ,joseph ,conrad4--,this son of distinguished ,polish exiles from ,russia1 ,joseph ,conrad ,korzeniowski1 as he was originally named1 was born in the ,ukraine1 in #aheg4 ,until his nineteenth year he was unfamiliar with the ,english language4 ,instead of following the literary or military traditions of his family1 he joined the ,english merchant marine4 ,sailing the seas of the world1 touching at strange tropical ports and uncharted islands1 elbowing all the races of the globe1 hearing all the languages spoken by man1--such were ,conrad's activities between his twentieth and thirty-seventh years4 ,illustration3 ,,joseph ,,conrad4 ,at thirty-seven1 needing a little rest1 he settled in ,england and began to write4 ,short stories1 novels1 and an interesting autobiographical volume1 ,a ,personal ,record 7#aiab71 represent ,conrad's production4 ,among his ablest books are ,tales of ,unrest 7#ahih71 a volume of sea stories1 and ,lord ,jim 7#aijj71 a novel full of the fascination of strange seas and shores1 but still more remarkable for its searching analysis of a man's recovery of self-respect after a long period of remorse for failure to meet a momentary crisis4 ,youth1 ,a ,narrative1 and ,two ,other ,tales 7#aijb71 contains one of ,conrad's strongest stories1 ,the ,end of the ,tether4 ,this is a tender story of an old sea captain1 who for the sake of a cherished daughter holds his post against terrific odds1 including blindness and disgrace4 ,typhoon 7#aijc7 is an almost unrivaled account of a ship's fight against mad hurricanes and raging seas4 ,one of ,conrad's prime distinctions is his power to visualize scenes4 ,the terror1 beauty1 caprice1 and mercilessness of the sea2 the silence and strangeness of the impenetrable tropical forest2 atmospheres tense with storm or brilliant with sunshine1--these he records with strong effect4 ,but though he has gained his fame largely as a chronicler of remote seas and shores1 his handling of the human element is but little less impressive4 ,conrad's method is unusual4 ,though his sentences are sufficiently direct and terse1 his general order of narration is not straightforward4 ,he often seems to progress slowly at the start1 but after the characters have been made familiar1 the story proceeds to its powerful and logical conclusion4 ,arnold ,bennett4--,bennett was born in ,hanley1 ,north ,staffordshire1 in #ahfg4 ,he studied law1 but abandoned it to become for seven years an editor of ,woman1 a ,london periodical4 ,in #aijj he resigned this position to devote himself entirely to literature4 ,he went to ,france to live1 and began to write novels under the influence of the ,french and ,russian realistic novelists4 ,illustration3 ,,arnold ,,bennett4 ,bennett is the author of many works of uneven merit4 ,some of these were written merely to strike the popular taste and to sell4 ,his serious1 careful work is seen at its best in his stories of the ,five ,towns1 so called from the small towns of his native ,staffordshire4 ,one of the best of these novels1 ,the ,old ,wives' ,tale 7#aijh71 is a painstaking record of the different temperaments and experiences of two sisters1 from their happy childhood to a pathetic1 disillusioned old age4 ,the intimate1 homely revelations and the literal fidelity to life in ,the ,old ,wives' ,tale give it a high rank among twentieth-century ,english novels4 ,clayhanger 7#aiaj7 is another strong story of life in the ,five ,towns pottery district of ,staffordshire4 ,although the hero1 ,edwin ,clayhanger1 is not a strong personality1 ,bennett's art makes us keenly interested in ,edwin's simple1 impressionable nature1 in his eagerness for life1 and in his experiences as a young dreamer1 lover1 son1 and brother4 ,hilda ,lessways 7#aiaa71 a companion volume to ,clayhanger1 but a story of less power1 continues the history of the same characters4 ,bennett reveals in these novels one of his prime gifts1--the skill to paint domestic pictures vividly and to invest them with a distinct local atmosphere4 ,his art has won a signal triumph in arousing interest in simple scenes and average characters4 ,he can present the romance of the commonplace1--of gray1 dull monotonous1 almost negative existence4 ,he has enlivened the contemporary stage with a few brisk comedies4 ,milestones was written in collaboration with ,edward ,knoblauch1 an ,american author4 ,its characters1 representing three generations1 illustrate humorously the truth that what is to-day's innovation becomes to-morrow's ,august convention4 ,the ,honeymoon 7#aiaa7 is a farce of misunderstandings adroitly handled4 ,although ,bennett has shown great versatility1 yet his individual1 strong1 and vital work is found in the one field where he brings us face to face with the circumscribed1 but appealing life of the ,five ,towns district of his youth4 ,john ,galsworthy4--,john ,galsworthy was born in ,coombe1 ,surrey1 in #ahfg4 ,he was graduated from ,oxford with an honor degree in law in #ahhi and was called to the bar in #ahij4 ,he traveled for a large part of two years1 visiting1 among other places1 ,russia1 ,canada1 ,australia1 ,south ,africa1 and the ,fiji ,islands4 ,on one of these trips he met ,joseph ,conrad1 then a sailor1 and they became warm friends4 ,galsworthy was twenty-eight when he began to write4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,galsworthy4 ,four of his novels deal with the upper classes of ,english society4 ,the ,man of ,property 7#aijf7 treats of the wealthy class1 ,the ,country ,house 7#aijg7 presents the conservative country squire1 ,fraternity 7#aiji7 portrays the intellectual class1 and ,the ,patrician 7#aiaa7 pictures the aristocrat4 ,galsworthy is the relentless analyist of well-to-do1 conventional ,english society4 ,as ,frederic ,taber ,cooper well says1 ,british stolidity1 ,british conservatism1 the unvarying fixity of the social system1 the sacrifice of individual needs and cravings to caste and precedent and public opinion1--these are the themes which ,mr4 ,galsworthy never wearies of satirizing with a mordant irony4 ,since his object is to present problems of life1 many of his characters are but types4 ,on the other hand1 ,soames ,forsyte in ,the ,man of ,property1 ,lord ,miltoun1 ,mrs4 ,noel1 and ,lady ,casterley in ,the ,patrician1 are among the most brilliant and real characters in modern fiction4 ,galsworthy's style is clear1 his plot construction is excellent1 and his humor in caricaturing social types has many of the qualities of ,dickens's4 ,herbert ,george ,wells4--,wells was born in ,bromley1 ,kent1 in #ahff4 ,he expected to be a shopkeeper and was apprenticed in his fourteenth year to a chemist2 but this did not satisfy his ambition4 ,later1 however1 he won scholarships that enabled him to take a degree in science4 ,while preparing himself to graduate from the ,university of ,london1 he worked in ,huxley's laboratory4 ,the experiments there inspired him to write stories based on scientific facts and hypotheses1 such as ,the ,time ,machine 7#ahie7 and ,in the ,days of the ,comet 7#aijf74 ,wells is also vitally interested in problems of sociology4 ,the ,discovery of the ,future 7#aijb7 and ,the ,future in ,america 7#aijf7 present possibilities of scientifically planning man's further development4 ,kipps3 ,the ,story of a ,simple ,soul 7#aije7 and ,marriage 7#aiab7 are his best works1 considered as actual novels of character4 ,kipps is a bitter but strong portrayal of the pretense and hypocrisy of society and of its inertia in responding to human needs1 and ,marriage is a subtle1 psychological analysis of a conjugal misunderstanding and an attempted readjustment4 ,wells's study of man as a biological development and his preference of actual facts to sentimental conclusions are in accord with the trend of modern social science4 ,illustration3 ,,herbert ,,george ,,wells4 ,the work of ,wells covers a wide range of subjects4 ,he has written scientific romances1 blood-curdling tales1 strange phantasies1 prophetic ,utopias1 and sociological novels4 ,he shows an increasing tendency to depict the human struggle with environment1 heredity1 and the manifold forces that affect the earning of a livelihood4 ,his characters are more often remembered as specimens exhibiting some phase of life than as attractive or repellent personalities4 ,increasing power of portraying character1 however1 is evident in his later work4 ,he has a daring imagination1 a sense of humor1 satiric power1 and a capacity for expressing himself in vivid and picturesque ,english4 ,eden ,phillpotts was born in ,india in #ahfb4 ,his novels1 however1 are as definitely associated with ,devonshire as ,hardy's are with ,wessex1 and ,bennett's with ,north ,staffordshire4 ,phillpotts is noted for his power to paint landscapes with figures4 ,the figures are the farmers1 villagers1 and shepherds of that part of ,devon1 known as ,dartmoor2 and the landscapes are the granite crags1 the moors2 and farmlands of good red earth4 ,widecombe ,fair 7#aiac7 is the twentieth volume that he has published as a result of twenty years' work among these children of ,devon4 ,sometimes the roughness and untutored emotions of the ,dartmoor characters repel the readers2 but these characters form strong1 picturesque groups of human beings1 and their dialect adds a pleasant flavor to the novels4 ,phillpotts's frequent use of coincidences weakens the effect and mars the naturalness of the plot1 since their recurrence comes to be anticipated4 ,children of the ,mist 7#ahih7 and ,demeter's ,daughter 7#aiaa7 are among his ablest novels4 ,maurice ,hewlett was born in ,kent in #ahfa1 of an old ,somerset family4 ,he began writing in his boyhood1 giving proof even then of his skill in catching the manner of other writers4 ,his style to-day rechoes his reading of many authors in ,latin1 ,french1 ,italian1 and ,english4 ,the ,life and ,death of ,richard ,yea-and-,nay 7#aijj7 shows ,hewlett's romantic fancy and love for historical characters and pageants4 ,while this novel is full of life1 color1 and movement1 it displays his proneness to allow the romantic vein to run to the fantastic in both episode and style4 ,the ,stooping ,lady 7#aijg7 deals with the love of a lady of high degree for a humble youth whom her devotion ennobles4 ,hewlett's style is finished and richly poetical1 but often too ornate and too encrusted with archaic terms and other artificial forms4 ,sir ,arthur ,quiller-,couch1 born in ,cornwall in #ahfc1 is a fiction writer1 critic1 poet1 and anthologist4 ,having much of ,stevenson's love for romantic adventure1 he was chosen to finish ,st4 ,ives1 left incomplete by ,stevenson4 ,the ,splendid ,spur 7#ahhi71 a spirited tale of romance and war in the perturbed time of ,charles ,i41 is one of his best stories of adventure4 ,among his books on simple ,cornish life may be mentioned ,the ,delectable ,duchy 7#ahic74 ,it is a collection of short stories and sketches4 ,quiller-,couch sees life without a touch of morbid somberness and he commands a vivacious1 highly-trained style4 ,william ,frend ,de ,morgan was born in ,london1 in #ahci4 ,he published his first novel1 ,joseph ,vance 7#aijf71 at the age of sixty-seven4 ,this plain1 straightforward story of a little boy befriended by a generous-hearted ,london doctor won for ,de ,morgan wide and hearty applause4 ,while some contemporary writers fashion their style and select their material on the models of ,french or ,russian realists1 ,de ,morgan goes to the great ,english masters1 ,thackeray and ,dickens4 ,like them1 ,de ,morgan writes copiously and leisurely4 ,alice-for-,short 7#aijg7 and ,somehow ,good 7#aijh7 are strong novels1 but ,joseph ,vance1 with its carelessly constructed plot and power to awaken tears and smiles1 remains ,de ,morgan's best piece of fiction4 ,william ,john ,locke was born in the ,barbados in #ahfc4 ,he gained much of his reputation from his tenth book1 ,the ,beloved ,vagabond 7#aijf74 ,the book takes its charm from the whimsical and quixotic temperament of the hero4 ,he is typical of ,locke's other leading characters1 who1 like ,hamlet's friend1 ,horatio1 take fortune's buffets and rewards with equal thanks4 ,like other novels by the same author1 this story is pervaded by a distinctly ,bohemian atmosphere1 wherein the ordinary conventions of society are disregarded4 ,locke's humor1 his deft characterization1 his toleration of human failings1 largely compensate for his lack of significant plots4 ,he is sometimes whimsical to the point of eccentricity1 and his high spirits often verge on extravagance2 but at his best he has the power of refreshing the reader with gentle irony1 genial laughter1 and love for human kind4 ,israel ,zangwill1 the ,jewish writer1 was born in ,london in #ahfd4 ,he first won fame by interpreting the ,jewish temperament as he saw it manifested in ,london's dingy1 pitiful ,ghetto quarter4 ,this ,ghetto ,london of ours1 he says1 is a region where1 amid uncleanness and squalor1 the rose of romance blows yet a little longer in the raw air of ,english reality1 a world of dreams as fantastic and poetic as the mirage of the ,orient where they were woven4 ,in his volume1 ,the ,children of the ,ghetto 7#ahib71 ,zangwill admirably chronicles the lives of these people and the sharp contrasts between their quaint traditions and a great modern commercial city's customs4 ,,poetry ,the ,celtic ,renaissance4--,some of the best recent ,english verse has been written by poets of ,irish birth or sympathies4 ,because of the distinctive quality of both the poetry and prose of these ,celtic writers1 the term ,celtic ,renaissance has been applied to their work1 which glows with spiritual emotion and discloses a world of dreams1 fairies1 and romantic aspiration4 ,as ,richard ,wagner received from the ,scandinavian folk-lore the inspiration for his great music1 as ,tennyson found the incentive for ,the ,idylls of the ,kings in ,malory's ,morte d',arthur1 so the modern ,celtic poets turned back to the primitive legends of their country for tales of ,cuchulain who fought the sea1 ,caolte who besieged the castle of the gods1 ,oisin1 who wandered three hundred years in the land of the immortals1 and ,deirdre who stands in the same relation to ,celtic literature as ,helen to ,greek and ,brunnhilde to ,german literature4 ,some of the fascination that the past and its fairy kingdom exerted over these poets may be found in this stanza from ,russell's ,the ,gates of ,dreamland3-- ,oh1 the gates of the mountain have opened once again ,and the sound of song and dancing falls upon the ears of men1 ,and the ,land of ,youth lies gleaming1 flushed with rainbow light and mirth4 ,and the old enchantment lingers in the honey-heart of earth4#a ,william ,butler ,yeats4--,one of the most talented and active workers in this ,celtic ,renaissance is ,william ,butler ,yeats1 born in #ahfe in ,dublin1 ,ireland4 ,he came from an artistic family1 his father1 brother1 and sisters being either artists or identified with the arts and crafts movement4 ,yeats himself studied art in ,dublin1 but poetry was more attractive to him than painting4 ,he was greatly influenced by spending his youthful days with his grandparents in ,county ,sligo1 where he heard the old ,irish legends told by the peasants1 who still believed them4 ,he translated these stories from ,irish into ,english and wrote poems and essays relating to them4 ,after reaching the age of thirty-four1 he became engaged in writing dramas and in assisting to establish the ,irish ,national ,theater in ,dublin4 ,in thus reviving ,ireland's heroic history1 ,yeats has served his country and his art4 ,illustration3 ,,william ,,butler ,,yeats4 ,the ,wanderings of ,oisin 7#ahhi7 is his best narrative poem4 ,oisin1 one of the ancient ,celtic heroes1 returns1 after three hundred years of adventure1 to find ,ireland ,christianized4 ,st4 ,patrick hears him relate that he had been carried by his immortal wife1 ,niamh1 to the land of the ,ever-,young1-- ,where broken faith has never been known1 ,and the blushes of first love never have flown1#b that he had battled for a hundred years with an undying foe1 and that his strength had not waned during his stay on those immortal shores1 although he had felt the effect of age when his foot again touched his native land4 ,the days of gods and fighting men are brought back in this romantic poem4 ,the battles1 however1 are not such gory conflicts as ,scott and ,kipling can paint4 ,yeats's contemplative genius presents bloodless battles1 symbolic of life's continued fight1 and accentuates the eternal hope and peace in the land of immortal youth4 ,among his shorter narrative poems1 which show some of the power of ,the ,wanderings of ,oisin1 are ,the ,death of ,cuchulain1 ,the ,old ,age of ,queen ,maeve1 and ,baile and ,aillinn4 ,baille and ,aillinn are the ,irish ,romeo and ,juliet1 each of whom hears from the baleful ,aengus the false report that the other is dead4 ,each lover unhesitatingly seeks death in order to meet the other at once beyond these mortal shores4 ,yeats has also told simple stories in simple verse1 as may be seen in ,the ,ballad of ,father ,gilligan or ,the ,fiddler of ,dooney4 ,the most striking characteristic of ,yeats's work is the pensive yearning for a spiritual love1 for an unchecked joy1 and an unchanging peace beyond what mortal life can give4 ,these qualities are strikingly illustrated by such poems as ,into the ,twilight1 ,the ,everlasting ,voices1 ,the ,hosting of the ,sidhe 7,fairies71 ,the ,stolen ,child4 ,the very spirit of ,celtic poetry is seen in these lines from ,the ,lake ,isle of ,innisfree3-- ,and ,i shall have some peace there1 for peace comes dropping slow1 ,dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings2 ,there midnight's all a glimmer1 and noon a purple glow1 ,and evening full of the linnet's wings4#c ,yeats's verse has been called dream-drenched poems4 ,the term is admirably descriptive of his romantic1 lyrical verse4 ,george ,w4 ,russell4--,among the most prominent of these ,celtic imaginative writers is ,george ,w4 ,russell 7#ahfg- 71 the ,irish ,emerson1 popularly known as ,a4,e4 ,he is a poet1 a painter1 a mystic1 and a dramatist4 ,with ,lady ,gregory and ,yeats1 he has been one of the most active workers for the ,irish ,national ,theater4 ,he is an efficient member of those coperative societies which are trying to improve ,ireland's industrial and agricultural conditions4 ,russell's poetry is highly spiritual4 ,sometimes it is so mystical that like ,prospero's messenger1 ,ariel1 it vanishes into thin air4 ,his shadowy pictures of nature and his lyrical beauty and tenderness are evident in two little volumes of his verse1 ,homeward ,songs by the ,way 7#ahid7 and ,the ,divine ,vision 7#aijd74 ,this ,stanza from ,beauty1 in ,the ,divine ,vision1 shows his spiritual longing for quiet1 peace1 and beauty1 in which to worship his ,creator3-- ,oh1 twilight1 fill in pearl dew1 each healing drop may bring ,some image of the song the ,quiet seems to sing4 ,my spirit would have beauty to offer at the shrine1 ,and turn dull earth to gold and water into wine1 ,and burn in fiery dreams each thought till thence refined ,it may have power to mirror the mighty ,master's mind4#d ,fiona ,macleod4--,all the work of ,william ,sharp that he published under the pseudonym of ,fiona ,macleod belongs to this ,celtic ,renaissance4 ,born in #ahef at ,paisley1 ,scotland1 he settled in ,london in #ahgh1 and became widely known as ,william ,sharp1 the critic4 ,when he turned to his boyhood's home1 the ,west ,highlands of ,scotland1 for inspiration1 he wrote1 under the pen-name of ,fiona ,macleod1 poetic prose stories and many poems about these ,scotch ,celts4 ,he kept the secret of his identity so well that not until his death in #aije was it known that ,fiona ,macleod1 the mystic1 was ,william ,sharp1 the critic4 ,mountain ,lovers 7#ahie71 a romantic novel of primitive people who live with nature in her loneliness1 mystery1 and terror1 and who possess an instinctive1 speechless1 and poetic knowledge of her moods1 is one of the earliest and most interesting of his long novels4 ,he excels in the short story4 ,some of his finest work in this field is in ,the ,sin ,eater 7#ahie71 which contains uncanny tales of quaint1 strongly-marked highland characters with their weird traditions4 ,from the ,hills of ,dream 7#aija7 and ,the ,hour of ,beauty 7#aijg7 are two small volumes of short poems full of the witchery of dreams1 of death1 of youth1 and of lonely scenes4 ,these poems come from a land far off from our common world4 ,delicacy of fancy1 a freedom from any touch of impurity1 a beauty as of dew-sweet moon-flowers glimmering white through the mirk of a dust laden with sea-mist1 are the qualities of ,fiona ,macleod's best verse4 ,john ,masefield4--,instead of looking to the land of dreams and the misty past1 like the ,celtic writers1 ,masefield and ,gibson1 two younger ,english poets1 have found in the everyday life of the present time the themes for their verse4 ,masefield was born in #ahge in ,shropshire4 ,he was a seafarer in his youth1 and later1 a traveler by land and sea4 ,these varied experiences contributed color and vividness to his narrative verse4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,masefield4 ,he has written several long narrative poems on unromantic subjects4 ,dauber 7#aiab7 contains some of his best lines and its story is the most poetic4 ,this poem follows the fortunes of a poor youth who1 wishing to be a painter of ships1 went to sea to study his mode at first hand4 ,masefield describes1 with much power1 the young artist's ambition1 his rough handling by the uncouth sailors1 and his perilous experiences while rounding ,cape ,horn4 ,dauber exhibits the poet's power of vividly picturing human figures and landscapes4 ,this poem1 like most of ,masefield's long narrative poems1 is a story of human failure1--a dull prosaic failure1 such as prose fiction presents in its pessimistic moods4 ,a strong and cheerful note is struck in some of ,masefield's short lyrics1 notably in ,laugh and be ,merry1 ,roadways1 ,the ,seekers1 and ,being ,her ,friend4 ,in ,laugh and be ,merry1 the song is almost triumphant3-- ,laugh and be proud to belong to the old proud pageant of man4 99 99 99 99 99 ,laugh and battle1 and work1 and drink of the wine outpoured ,in the dear green earth1 the sign of the joy of the ,lord4#e ,masefield's fancy does not busy itself with dreams and impossible visions4 ,he paints life in its grayness and sordidness and dull mediocrity4 ,sometimes his verse is merely plain rimed prose1 but again it becomes vigorous1 picturesque1 and vivid in description1 as in the following lines from ,dauber3-- 444then the snow ,whirled all about1 dense1 multitudinous cold1 ,mixed with the wind's one devilish thrust and shriek ,which whiffled out men's tears1 deafened1 took hold1 ,flattening the flying drift against the cheek4#f ,wilfred ,w4 ,gibson4--,gibson1 who was born in ,hexham in #ahgh1 sings of the struggling oppressed work-a-day people3-- ,crouched in the dripping dark ,with steaming shoulders stark ,the man who hews the coal to feed the fires4#g ,his poem1 ,the ,machine1 awakens sympathy for the printer of ,christmas story books and reveals ,gibson as the twentieth-century ,thomas ,hood of ,the ,song of the ,shirt4 ,one of the most richly human of his poems is ,the ,crane1 the story of the seamstress mother and her lame boy4 ,his realistic volume of verse bearing the significant title1 ,daily ,bread 7#aiaj71 contains a number of narrative poems1 which endeavor to set to music the one measure to which all life moves1--the earning of daily bread4 ,gibson owes much of his popularity to his spirit of democracy and to the story form of his verse4 ,like ,masefield1 he sacrifices beauty to dull realism4 ,gibson manifests less range1 less dramatic feeling1 than ,masefield1 but avoids ,masefield's uncouthness and repellent dramatic episodes4 ,these two poets illustrate a tendency to introduce a new realistic poetry4 ,wordsworth wrote of ,michael and the ,westmoreland peasantry1 but ,masefield and ,gibson have taken as subjects of verse the toilers of factory1 foundry1 and forecastle4 ,closeness to life and simplicity of narration characterize these authors4 ,they approximate the subject matter and technique of realistic fiction4 ,alfred ,noyes4--,alfred ,noyes was born in #ahhj in ,wolverhampton ,staffordshire4 ,he wrote verse while an ,oxford undergraduate and he has since become one of the leading poets of the twentieth century4 ,he has traveled in ,england and in ,america1 reading his poems and lecturing on literary subjects4 ,illustration3 ,,alfred ,,noyes4 ,the ,flower of ,old ,japan 7#aijc7 is a fairy tale of children who dream of the pictures on blue china plates and ,japanese fans4 ,the poem is symbolic4 ,the children are ourselves2 and ,japan is but the kingdom of those dreams which 444are the sole reality worth living and dying for4 ,the poet says of this kingdom3-- ,deep in every heart it lies ,with its untranscended skies2 ,for what heaven should bend above ,hearts that own the heaven of love8#h ,the ,forest of ,wild ,thyme 7#aije7 affords another ,hour to hunt the fairy gleam ,that flutters through this childish dream4#i ,there is also a deeper meaning to be read into this poem4 ,the mystery of life1 small as well as great1 is found simply told in these lines3-- ,what does it take to make a rose1 ,mother-mine8 ,the ,god that died to make it knows ,it takes the world's eternal wars1 ,it takes the moon and all the stars1 ,it takes the might of heaven and hell ,and the everlasting ,love as well1 ,little child4#aj ,noyes has published several volumes of lyrical verse4 ,some of it possesses the lightness of these elfish tales4 ,the ,barrel ,organ1 ,the ,song of ,re-,birth1 and ,forty ,singing ,seamen are among his finest lyrics4 ,they display much rhythmic beauty and variety4 ,he strikes a deeply sorrowful and passionate note in ,the ,haunted ,palace and ,de ,profundis4 ,a line like this in ,the ,haunted ,palace-- 444,i saw the tears ,bleed through her eyes with the slow pain of years1#aa indicates the strong emotional metaphor that occasionally deepens the passion of his verse4 ,england's sea power1 immortalized in song from ,beowulf to ,swinburne1 often inspires ,noyes4 ,his finest long poem is ,drake3 ,an ,english ,epic 7#aijh71 which relates the adventures of this ,elizabethan sea-captain and his victory over the ,armada4 ,the spirit of a daring romantic age of discovery is shown in these lines that tell how ,drake and his men-- 444went out ,to danger as to a sweetheart far away1 ,who even now was drawing the western clouds ,like a cymar of silk and snow-white furs ,close to her1 till her body's beauty seemed ,clad in a mist of kisses4#ab ,another volume of poems1 ,tales of the ,mermaid ,tavern 7#aiac71 brings us into the company of ,shakespeare1 ,marlowe1 ,spencer1 ,jonson1 ,raleigh1 and others of the great ,elizabethan group that made the ,mermaid ,tavern their chosen resort4 ,greene's farewell to ,shakespeare1-- ,you took my clay and made it live1#ac shows that ,noyes has caught something of the spirit that animated ,elizabethan ,england4 ,noyes is one of the most spontaneous and fluent writers of modern ,english poetry4 ,whether he is mystical1 dramatic1 playful1 or marching along the course of a long narrative poem1 he handles his verse with ease and facility4 ,his language1 his rhythm1 and his thought are most happily blended in his graceful singing lyrics4 ,the work of ,noyes is inspired by the desire to show that all things and all souls are-- ,one with the dream that triumphs beyond the light of the spheres1 ,we come from the ,loom of the ,weaver that weaves the ,web of ,years4#ad ,,the ,,modern ,,drama ,the revival of the drama is a characteristic feature of the latter part of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century4 ,the plays of the ,norwegian1 ,henrik ,ibsen 7#ahbh-aijf71 affected ,england profoundly in the last decade of the nineteenth century and proved an impetus to a new dramatic movement1 seen in the work of men like ,shaw4 ,the great literary school of dramatists passed away soon after the death of ,shakespeare4 ,while it is true that the writing of plays has been practically continuous since the time of the ,restoration1 yet for more than two hundred years after that event1 the history of the drama has had little memorable work to record4 ,there were two brief interesting comic periods3 7#a7 the period of ,congreve at the close of the seventeenth century1 and 7#b7 of ,goldsmith and ,sheridan nearly a hundred years later4 ,the literary plays of the ,victorians1--,browning1 ,tennyson1 and ,swinburne1--were lacking in dramatic essentials4 ,the modern drama has accomplished certain definite results4 ,pinero's work is typical of vast improvement in technique4 ,shaw is noted for his power of investing modern conversation with vivacity and point4 ,j4,m4 ,synge has won distinction for presenting the great elemental forces that underlie the actions of primitive human beings4 ,the playwrights are making the drama perform some of the functions that have been filled by the novel4 ,the modern drama is also wrestling with the problem of combining literary form1 poetic spirit1 and good dramatic action4 ,some of the modern plays deal with unpleasant subjects1 and some of the least worthy are immoral in their tendencies4 ,such plays will be forgotten1 for the ,anglo-,saxon race has never yet immortalized an unwholesome drama4 ,fortunately1 however1 the influence of a large proportion of the plays is pure and wholesome4 ,in this class may be included the dramas of the ,irish school and of ,barrie1 the majority by ,galsworthy1 and a number by ,phillips and ,shaw4 ,jones and ,pinero4--,the work of ,henry ,arthur ,jones and ,sir ,arthur ,wing ,pinero marks the advance of the ,english drama from artificiality and narrowness of scope toward a wider1 closer relation to life4 ,henry ,arthur ,jones1 both a playwright and a critic1 was born in ,grandborough1 ,buckinghamshire1 in #ahea4 ,contemporary ,english life is the subject of his numerous plays4 ,the ,manoeuvers of ,jane 7#ahih7 and ,mrs4 ,dane's ,defence 7#aijj71 are among his best works4 ,illustration3 ,,henry ,,arthur ,,jones4 ,sir ,arthur ,wing ,pinero1 born in #ahee in ,london1 began his career as an actor4 ,illustration3 ,,arthur ,,wing ,,pinero4 ,his real ambition1 however1 was to write for the stage4 ,more than forty works1 including farces1 comedies of sentiment1 and serious dramas of ,english life1 attest his zeal as a dramatist4 ,among his most successful farces are ,the ,magistrate 7#ahhe71 ,the ,school ,mistress 7#ahhf71 and ,the ,amazons 7#ahic74 ,clever invention of absurd situations and success in starting infectious laughter are the prime qualities of these plays4 ,the ,second ,mrs4 ,tanqueray 7#ahic7 is by most critics considered ,pinero's masterpiece4 ,the failure of a character to regain respectability once forfeited supplies the nucleus for the dramatic situations4 ,excellent in craftsmanship as it is disagreeable in theme1 this play contains no superfluous word to retard the action or mar the technical economy4 ,adolphus ,william ,ward says3 ,with ,the ,second ,mrs4 ,tanqueray the ,english acted drama ceased to be a merely insular product1 and took rank in the literature of ,europe4 ,here was a play which1 whatever its faults1 was 444an epoch-marking play4 ,one great service of ,pinero and ,jones to the twentieth-century drama has been excellent craftsmanship4 ,their technical skill may be specifically noted in the naturalness of the dialogues1 in the movement of the characters about the stage1 in the performance of some acts apparently trivial but really significant1 and in the substitution of devices to take the place of the old soliloquies and asides4 ,of the two1 ,pinero is the better craftsman1 since ,jones1 in his endeavor to paint a moral1 sometimes weakens his dramatic effect4 ,george ,bernard ,shaw4--,shaw was born in ,dublin1 ,ireland1 in #ahef4 ,he was willful and took refuge in idleness at school4 ,his education consisted mainly in studying music with his talented mother1 in haunting picture galleries1 and in wide reading4 ,at the age of twenty1 he went to ,london and began his literary career4 ,he was at various times a journalist1 a critic of art1 music1 and the drama1 a lecturer1 a novelist1 and a playwright4 ,shaw describes himself as a man up to the chin in the life of his times4 ,he is a vegetarian1 an anti-vivisectionist1 an advocate for woman's suffrage1 and a socialist4 ,illustration3 ,,george ,,bernard ,,shaw4 ,arms and the ,man1 ,candida1 ,you ,never ,can ,tell1 and ,the ,man of ,destiny1 published 7#ahih7 in the second volume of ,plays1 ,pleasant and ,unpleasant2 and ,the ,devil's ,disciple1 published 7#aijj7 in ,three ,plays for ,puritans1 are among his best dramas4 ,with their stage directions and descriptions1 they are as delightful to read as novels4 ,of these plays1 ,candida is first in character drawing and human interest4 ,the dramatic action is wholly within the mental states of the three chief actors1 but the situations are made intense through a succession of unique1 absorbing1 entertaining1 and well-developed conversations4 ,shaw is more destructive than constructive in his philosophy as expressed in his plays2 and he criticizes so many of the institutions held sacred by society that people have refused to accept him seriously1 even when he has written expository prefaces to his dramas4 ,in ,arms and the ,man1 he satirizes the romantic admiration for the soldier's calling2 in ,the ,doctor's ,dilemma 7#aijf71 he attacks the professional man2 in ,widowers' ,houses 7#ahih71 he assails the rich property holder with his high rents on poor people's houses3 and in ,man and ,superman 7#aijc71 he dissects love and home until the sentiment is entirely taken out of them4 ,shaw's chief object is to place before his audience facts1 reasons1 and logical conclusions4 ,he will not tolerate romantic emotions or sentimentalism1 which he ridicules with a reckless audacity1 a literal incisiveness1 and a satiric wit that none of his contemporaries can excel4 ,his chief claim to his present important position among playwrights is based on his originality and fearlessness of thought1 the unfailing sprightliness of his conversation1 the infectious spirit of raillery in his comedies1 and his mastery of the requirements of the modern stage4 ,j4,m4 ,barrie4--,with the successful stage production of ,the ,little ,minister 7#ahig71 ,barrie passed from novelist to playwright4 ,the qualities of humor1 fancy1 and quaint characterization1 which were such a charm in his novels1 reappear in his plays4 ,illustration3 ,,james ,,matthew ,,barrie4 ,the ,admirable ,crichton1 produced in #aijc1 is one of ,barrie's most successful comedies4 ,he displays skill and humor in handling the absurd situation of a peer's family wrecked on a desert island1 where the butler1 as the most resourceful member of the party1 takes command4 ,in ,peter ,pan 7#aijd71 the dramatization of the novel1 ,the ,little ,white ,bird1 care-free1 prankish ,peter ,pan visits three children in their sleep and teaches them to fly away with him4 ,he carries them to the little people of the fairy world1 to the pirate ship1 to other scenes dear to children's hearts1 and finally to his home in the tree tops4 ,the play is a mixture of fancy1 symbolism1 and realism4 ,these are woven into a bright phantasy by an imagination that is near to childhood and has not lost its morning's brightness4 ,what ,every ,woman ,knows 7produced in #aijh7 shows ,barrie's dramatic art at its height4 ,he knows how to introduce variety and to give his characters an opportunity to reveal themselves4 ,every word1 every movement of the heroine1 ,maggie ,shand1 adds to the unfolding of a fascinating personality4 ,a period of intensely dramatic action may be followed by a comparative pause1 such as occurs when the audience sees ,maggie's husband slowly realize her cleverness and helpfulness1 --qualities that had been long apparent to every one else4 ,barrie shows the ability to present dramatically situations that are emotionally appealing or delightfully humorous4 ,his plays exhibit admirably the deep feelings1 the momentary moods1 the resourcefulness1 or the peculiar whimsicalities of men and women4 ,john ,galsworthy4--,as a means of presenting social problems1 ,galsworthy utilizes the drama even more than the novel4 ,faulty prison systems1 discords between labor and capital1 discrepancies between law and justice1 are some of the themes he chooses to dramatize4 ,the ,silver ,box 7#aijf7 ironically interprets ,justice as blind rather than impartial4 ,the poor man is often punished while the more fortunate man goes free4 ,strife 7#aiji71 in some respects the most powerful of his plays1 illustrates the clash between capital and labor4 ,in ,the ,eldest ,son 7#aiab71 the conflict is between two social orders4 ,justice 7#aiaj71 which secured reforms in the ,english prison system1 shows how a young man is affected by an inflexible but legal punishment2 and how such a method fails to assist him humanely to a better manhood1 but drives him to lower and lower depths4 ,in ,joy 7#aijg71 a delightful play1 ,galsworthy momentarily relinquishes social problems for a drama of more personal emotion4 ,in the mystical1 poetical composition1 ,the ,little ,dream 7#aiaa71 he presents an allegory of the maiden in the ,alps1 dreaming first of the simple mountain life and then of the life in cities4 ,with its spiritual note and delicate fancy1 ,the ,little ,dream turns a golden key on the ideal world beyond the strife and gloom dramatized in the sociological plays4 ,galsworthy has good stagecraft4 ,his characterization is distinct and consistent4 ,his plays are simple in construction and direct in movement4 ,he strictly avoids rhetorical and theatrical effects1 but his dramatic economies often sacrifice all charm and aesthetic appeal4 ,his gray world leaves no hope save the desperate one that conditions so grim may shame and spur society to reform4 ,stephen ,phillips4--,this dramatist and poet was born at ,somerton1 near ,oxford1 in #ahfd4 ,the boy was sent to ,shakespeare's birthplace1 ,stratford-on-,avon1 to attend school4 ,he entered ,cambridge1 but at the end of his first term he left the university to join a company of ,shakespearean players4 ,his six years with them initiated him into the technique of stagecraft1 which he later applied in the writing of his poetic dramas4 ,illustration3 ,,stephen ,,phillips4 ,before producing the plays for which he is known1 he wrote some narrative and lyric verse4 ,marpessa 7#ahij71 a blank verse poem1 is a beautiful treatment of the old ,greek myth1 in which ,apollo1 the god1 and ,idas1 the mortal1 woo ,marpessa4 ,marlowe might have written the lines in which ,apollo promises to take her to a home above the world1 where movement is ecstasy and repose is thrilling4 ,in some of his non-dramatic poems1 ,christ in ,hades 7#ahif71 ,cities of ,hell 7#aijg71 and ,the ,new ,inferno 7#ahif71 ,phillips shows how the subject of life and punishment after death attracts him4 ,with the appearance of his ,paolo and ,francesca in #ahii1 the poetic drama seemed phoenix-like to arise from its ashes4 ,tennyson and ,browning had failed to write successful plays4 ,in fact1 since the death of ,dryden1 poetry and drama had seemed to be afraid to approach each other4 ,phillips effected at least a temporary union4 ,his several plays have distinctly dramatic qualities and many passages of poetic beauty4 ,from both a dramatic and a poetic point of view1 ,paolo and ,francesca is ,phillips's best play4 ,its dramatic values lie chiefly in its power to create and sustain a sense of something definitely progressing toward a certain point4 ,the poetic elements of the play consist in the beauty of atmosphere and the charm of the lines4 ,giovanni ,malatesta1 the ugly tyrant of ,rimini1 being at war when his marriage draws near1 sends his young brother ,paolo to escort ,francesca to ,rimini4 ,on the journey ,paolo and ,francesca fall in love with each other4 ,when ,giovanni discovers this1 his jealous hand slays them4 ,to such a tragic climax1 ,phillips drives steadily onward from the first scene1 thus focusing the interest on a concrete dramatic situation4 ,herod 7#aijj7 is a drama of ambition versus love4 ,herod1 the great historic king of the ,jews1 though passionately in love with his wife ,mariamne1 sacrifices her brother ,aristobulus to his suspicions1 fearing that this young prince1 the last of the ,maccabees1 may supplant him on the throne4 ,this sacrifice1 prompted by evil counselors1 results in a train of tragic episodes1 including ,mariamne's death and ,herod's madness4 ,the lines in which ,herod speaks of thinking in gold and dreaming in silver call to mind the hyperbole and music of ,marlowe's mighty line4 ,ulysses 7#aijb71 more of a panorama than a play1 is founded on the ,homeric story4 ,its scenes are laid in ,olympus1 in ,hades1 on ,calypso's isle1 and finally in ,ithaca4 ,calypso tries to retain ,ulysses upon her isle1 beautiful-- ,with sward of parsley and of violet ,and poplars shimmering in a silvery dream4#ae ,he struggles against her enchantment1 returns home1 finds his wife surrounded by her suitors1 joins in their bow-drawing contest1 and1 in a most exciting and dramatic scene1 surpasses all rivals and claims his faithful1 beautiful ,penelope4 ,the plays of ,phillips not infrequently lack that clinching power that stretches the interest taut4 ,many scenes are admirably spectacular1 suggestive of richly decorated tapestries1 which hang separately in spacious rooms2 but the plays need more forceful dramatic action1 moving through changes to a climax4 ,phillips's diction1 though sometimes rhetorical1 is also often ornately beautiful and highly poetical4 ,we feel that even in his plays1 he is greater as a poet than as a dramatist4 ,,celtic ,,dramatists ,strong national feeling1 interest in the folklore and peasant life of ,ireland1 and ambition to establish a national theater1 have led to a distinct and original ,irish drama4 ,in #ahii1 with a fund of two hundred and fifty dollars1 ,lady ,gregory1 ,william ,butler ,yeats1 ,g4,w4 ,russell1 and other playwrights and patrons succeeded in establishing in ,dublin the ,irish ,literary ,theater now known as the ,irish ,national ,theater4 ,the object of this theater is twofold4 ,in the first place1 it aims to produce literary plays1 not the vapid1 panoramic kind that merely pass away the time4 ,in the second place1 the ,irish plays present fabled and historical ,irish heroes and the humble ,irish peasant4 ,patriotism inspired many writers to assist in this national movement4 ,some gathered stories from the lips of living ,irish-speaking peasants2 others collected and translated into ,english the old legends of heroes4 ,dr4 ,douglas ,hyde's translations of ,the ,five ,songs of ,connacht 7#ahid7 and ,the ,religious ,songs of ,connacht 7#aijf7 are valuable works and have greatly influenced the ,irish writers4 ,lady ,augusta ,gregory4--,lady ,gregory1 born in #aheb1 in ,roxborough1 ,county ,galway1 has made some of the best of these translations in her works1 ,cuchulain of ,muirthemma1 and ,gods and ,fighting ,men4 ,these two books have come to many as a first revelation of the treasures buried in ,gaelic literature1 and they are destined to do much for the floating of old ,irish story upon the world4 ,they aim to do for the great cycles of ,irish romance what ,malory did for the ,arthurian stories4#af ,illustration3 ,,lady ,,gregory4 ,lady ,gregory wrote also for the ,irish ,theater plays that have been acted successfully not only in ,ireland but in ,england and in ,america4 ,among her best serious plays are ,the ,gaol ,gate 7#aijf71 a present-day play1 the hero of which dies to save a neighbor1 ,the ,rising of the ,moon 7#aijg71 and ,grania 7#aiab74 ,mc,donough's ,wife 7#aiac7 is an excellent brief piece with an almost heroic note at the close4 ,the great vagabond piper1 ,mc,donough1 master of wonderful music1 returns from wandering1 to find his wife dead1 and1 because of his thriftlessness1 about to be denied honorable burial4 ,mc,donough steps to the door1 pipes his marvelous tunes1 and immediately the village flocks to do homage to his wife4 ,lady ,gregory's farces have primarily made her fame4 ,spreading the ,news 7#aijd71 ,hyacinth ,halvey 7#aijf71 ,the ,image 7#aiaj71 and ,the ,bogie ,men 7#aiac7 are representative of her vigorous and well-constructed farces4 ,they are varied in subject1 the incidents are well developed1 the characters are genuine ,irish peasants and villagers1 and the humor is infectious4 ,it is interesting to note that ,lady ,gregory has continued to write farces because of the demand for them in the ,irish ,national ,theater1 in order to offset the large number of tragedies by other authors4 ,william ,butler ,yeats4--,in addition to delightful poetic fancy1 ,yeats possesses considerable dramatic ability and stagecraft4 ,in ,the ,countess ,cathleen 7rewritten in #aiab71 the poor peasants are driven by a famine to the verge of starvation4 ,many die2 but some are fed by the ,countess ,cathleen1 while others sell their souls for the price of food to demons disguised as merchants4 ,when these demons steal ,countess ,cathleen's stores in order to stop her charities1 with instant ,irish quickness and generosity1 she sells her soul for a great price to the demons1 in order to save her people here and hereafter4 ,such a tremendous sacrifice1 however1 is not permitted4 ,because of the purity of her motive1 armed angels save her soul in the last impressive act4 ,supernatural powers1 both pagan and ,christian1 participate in the play4 ,spirits haunt the woods1 enter the peasants' cottages1 and cast spells on the inhabitants4 ,the play is ,irish in story1 in symbolism1 and in the fancifulness of the conception4 ,the ,land of ,heart's ,desire is another drama that has sprung from the soil and folklore of ,ireland4 ,this play was one of the first ,celtic dramas to be produced1 and in its present revised form 7#aiab7 it is one of the most engaging of the ,irish plays4 ,partly in prose and partly in verse1 it is the story of a young bride who tires of her monotonous life and calls upon the fairies to release her4 ,the old parents tell her that duty comes before love of the fairies4 ,the good priest begs her not to forsake her faithful young husband2 but the fairy wins1 and1 leaving a dead bride in the cottage1 bears away the living bride to a land where-- ,the fairies dance in a place apart1 ,shaking their milk-white feet in a ring1 ,tossing their milk-white arms in the air2 ,for they have heard the wind laugh and murmur and sing ,of a land where even the old are fair1 ,and even the wise are merry of tongue4#ag ,patriotic love for ,ireland is the very breath of ,cathleen ni ,hoolihan 7#aijb71 a one-act prose play in which ,cathleen symbolizes ,ireland4 ,the ,shadowy ,waters 7#aijj7 and ,deirdre 7#aijg7 are more poetic than dramatic4 ,the first of these with the mysterious harper1 the far-sailing into unknown seas1 the parting with everything but the loved one1 shows ,yeats in his deeply mystical mood4 ,in ,deirdre is dramatized part of a popular legend of the great queen by that name1 who was too beautiful for happiness4 ,she has seven long years of joy and then accepts her fate in the calm1 triumphant way of the old heroic times4 ,yeats's plays reflect the childlike superstitions and lively imagination of his country4 ,he loves the fairies1 the dreams of eternal youth1 the symbolizing of things of the spirit by lovely things of earth4 ,his plays are poetical1 fanciful1 and romantic4 ,john ,millington ,synge4--,one of the most notable of the ,irish writers1 ,j4,m4 ,synge1 was born near ,dublin in #ahga and died in that city in #aiji4 ,his brief span of life has yielded only scanty biographical data4 ,he came of an old ,wicklow family2 he was graduated from ,trinity ,college1 ,dublin2 afterwards he wandered through much of ,europe1 finally settling in ,france4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,synge4 ,in #ahii1 ,william ,butler ,yeats discovered him in ,paris1 a man all folded up in brooding intellect1 writing essays on ,french authors1--on ,molire1 for example1 from whom he learned the trick of characterization2 on ,racine1 who taught him concentration2 on ,rabelais1 who infected him with love of deep laughter4 ,yeats1 suspecting that ,synge could be an original writer as well as an interpreter of others1 persuaded him to go back to ,ireland1 to the ,aran ,islands1 off ,galway4 ,synge discovered there a lost kingdom of the imagination1 a place where spontaneous feeling and primitive imagination had not been repressed by the outside world's customs and discipline1 and where the constant voice of the ocean1 the touch of the mysterious1 all-embracing mist1 and the gleam of the star through a rift in the clouds banished all sense of difference between the natural and the supernatural4 ,when ,synge died in his thirty-eighth year1 he had written only six short plays1 all between #aijc and #aiji4 ,two of these1 ,in the ,shadow of the ,glen and ,riders to the ,sea1 contain only one act4 ,the ,tinker's ,wedding has two acts1 and the rest are three-act plays4 ,in the ,shadow of the ,glen1 ,riders to the ,sea1 and ,the ,well of the ,saints1 produced respectively in #aijc1 #aijd1 and #aije1 show that ,synge came at once into full possession of his dramatic power4 ,even in his earliest written play1 ,the ,well of ,the ,saints1 we find a style stripped of superfluous verbiage and vibrant with emotion4 ,in the ,shadow of the ,glen1 his first staged play1 consumes only a half hour4 ,the scene is laid in a cabin far off in a lonely glen1 and the four actors1--a woman oppressed by loneliness1 an unfeeling husband who feigns death1 and two visitors1--make a singularly well-knit impressive drama4 ,riders to the ,sea has been pronounced the greatest drama of the modern ,celtic school4 ,some critics consider this the most significant tragedy produced in ,english since ,shakespeare4 ,simple and impressive as a ,greek tragedy1 it has for its central figure an old mother whose husband and five sons have been lost at sea4 ,the simple but poignant feeling of the drama focuses on the death of ,maurya's sixth and last son1 ,bartley4 ,this tragic episode1 simply presented1 touches the depths of human sympathy4 ,in old ,maurya1 ,synge created an impressive figure of what ,macbeth calls rooted sorrow4 ,the ,playboy of the ,western ,world1 produced first in #aijg1 is a three-act play4 ,it is as fantastically humorous as the ,riders to the ,sea is tragical4 ,dread of his father ties this peasant to his stupid toil4 ,a fearful deed frees the youth and throws him into the company of the lovely maiden1 ,pegeen1 and admiring friends4 ,the latent poetry and wild joy of living awake in him1 and1 under the spur of praise1 he performs great feats4 ,he who had never before dared to face girls1 makes such love to ,pegeen that poesy itself seems to be talking4 ,the ,playboy is one of the wildest conceptions of character in modern drama4 ,his very extravagance compels interest4 ,pegeen is a fitting sweetheart for him4 ,her father is a stalwart figure1 possessing a shrewd philosophy and rare strength of speech1 as fully flavored as nut or apple4 ,some critics object to such a boisterous play1 but they should remember that it is intended to be an extravagant peasant fantasia4 ,deirdre of the ,sorrows1 another three-act play1 produced first in #aiaj1 tells the story of the beautiful princess ,deirdre1 of her isolated young life1 and her seven years of perfect union with her lover ,naisi4 ,when her lover is slain1 this true and tender queen of the ,north loosens the knot of life to accompany him4 ,synge belongs in the first rank of modern dramatists4 ,the forty ,irish characters that he has created reveal the basal elements of universal human nature4 ,his purpose is like ,shakespeare's1--to reveal throbbing life1 not to talk in his own person1 nor to discuss problems4 ,synge has dramatized the primal hope1 fear1 sorrow1 and loneliness of life4 ,although his plays are written in prose and have the distinctive flavor of his lowly characters1 yet a recent critic justly says that ,synge for the first time sets ,english dramatic prose to a rhythm as noble as the rhythms of blank verse4 ,,summary ,the twentieth century shows two main lines of development1--the realistic and the romantic4 ,the two leading essayists of the period1 ,a4,c4 ,benson and ,g4,k4 ,chesterton1 are both idealists and champions of religious faith4 ,among the novelists1 ,conrad tells impressive stories of distant seas and shores2 ,bennett's strongest fiction gives realistic pictures of life in ,english industrial towns2 ,galsworthy's novels present the problems that affect the upper class of ,englishmen2 ,wells writes scientific romances and sociological novels4 ,some of the best poetry1 full of the fascination of a dreamy far-off world1 has been written by the ,celtic poets1 ,yeats1 ,russell1 and ,fiona ,macleod4 ,masefield and ,gibson have produced much realistic verse about the life of the common toiler4 ,noyes has written ,drake1 a romantic epic1 and a large amount of graceful lyrical verse1 in some of which there is much poetic beauty4 ,the most distinctive work of recent times has been in the field of the drama4 ,pinero has improved its technique2 ,shaw has given it remarkable conversational brilliancy2 ,barrie has brought to it fancy and humor and sweetness2 ,galsworthy has used it to present social problems2 ,phillips has tried to restore to it the ,elizabethan poetic spirit4 ,the ,celtic dramatists form a separate school4 ,lady ,gregory1 ,yeats1 and ,synge have all written plays based on ,irish life1 folklore1 or mythology4 ,the plays of ,synge1 the greatest member of the group1 reveal the universal primitive emotions of human beings4 ,,conclusion ,three distinctive moral influences in ,english literature specially impress us1--the call to strenuous manhood3-- 444this thing is ,god1 ,to be man with thy might1 the increasing sympathy with all earth's children3-- ,ye blessed creatures1 ,i have heard the call1 ,ye to each other make1 and the persistent expression of ,anglo-,saxon faith4 ,as we pause in our study1 we may hear in the twentieth-century song of ,alfred ,noyes1 the echo of the music from the loom of the ,infinite ,weaver3-- ,under the breath of laughter1 deep in the tide of tears1 ,i hear the loom of the ,weaver that weaves the ,web of ,years4#ah ,,reference ,,for ,,further ,,study ,kennedy's ,english ,literature1 #ahhj-ahie 7,shaw1 ,wells1 ,fiona ,macleod1 ,yeats74 ,kelman's ,mr4 ,chesterton's ,point of ,view 7in ,among ,famous ,books74 ,cooper's ,some ,english ,story ,tellers4 ,conrad's ,a ,personal ,record4 ,phelps's ,essays on ,modern ,novelists 7,de ,morgan74 ,yeats's ,celtic ,twilight4 ,figgis's ,studies and ,appreciations 7,mr4 ,w4,b4 ,yeats's ,poetry4 ,the ,art of ,j4,m4 ,synge47 ,more's ,drift of ,romanticism 7,fiona ,macleod74 ,borsa's ,the ,english ,stage of ,to-day4 ,jones's 7,henry ,arthur7 ,the ,foundation of a ,national ,drama3 ,a ,collection of ,essays1 ,lectures1 and ,speeches1 ,delivered and ,written in the ,years #ahif-aiab4 ,hamilton's ,the ,theory of the ,theater4 ,hunt's ,the ,play of ,to-day4 ,hale's ,dramatists of ,to-day4 ,henderson's ,george ,bernard ,shaw3 ,his ,life and ,works1 #b vols4 ,chesterton's ,george ,bernard ,shaw4 ,weygandt's ,irish ,plays and ,playwrights 7excellent74 ,krans's ,william ,butler ,yeats and the ,irish ,literary ,revival4 ,howe's ,j4,m4 ,synge3 ,a ,critical ,study4 ,yeats's ,j4,m4 ,synge and the ,ireland of ,his ,time 7in ,the ,cutting of an ,agate1 #aiab74 ,bickley's ,j4,m4 ,synge and the ,irish ,dramatic ,movement4 ,elton's ,living ,irish ,literature 7in ,modern ,studies74 ,,suggested ,,readings ,,with ,,questions ,,and ,,suggestions ,essays4--,from ,a4,c4 ,benson1 read one of these collections of essays3 ,the ,altar ,fire1 ,beside ,still ,waters1 ,thy ,rod and ,thy ,staff1 and one or more of these biographies3 ,tennyson1 ,john ,ruskin1 ,rossetti 7,e4,m4,l471 ,walter ,pater 7,e4,m4,l472 from ,chesterton1 one of these collections of essays3 ,varied ,types1 ,heretics1 ,orthodoxy1 and one or more of these biographies3 ,george ,bernard ,shaw1 ,charles ,dickens1 ,robert ,browning 7,e4,m4,l474 ,for other twentieth-century essays1 see the preceding bibliography and the paragraph following this4 ,the ,novel4--,from ,conrad1 read ,youth1 ,typhoon1 ,lord ,jim2 from ,bennett1 ,the ,old ,wives' ,tale1 ,clayhanger2 from ,galsworthy1 ,the ,man of ,property1 ,the ,patrician2 from ,wells1 ,the ,time ,machine1 ,kipps1 ,the ,future in ,america 7essay72 from ,phillpotts1 ,children of the ,mist1 ,demeter's ,daughter2 from ,hewlett1 ,life and ,death of ,richard ,yea and ,nay1 ,the ,stooping ,lady2 from ,quiller-,couch1 ,the ,splendid ,spur1 ,the ,delectable ,duchy2 from ,de ,morgan1 ,joseph ,vance1 ,somehow ,good2 from ,locke1 ,the ,beloved ,vagabond1 ,the ,adventures of ,aristide ,pujol2 from ,zangwill1 ,the ,children of the ,ghetto1 ,the ,melting ,pot 7play74 ,poetry4--,from ,the ,poetical ,works of ,william ,b4 ,yeats 7,macmillan71 read ,the ,wanderings of ,oisin1 ,the ,lake ,isle of ,innisfree1 ,the ,hosting of the ,sidhe1 ,the ,voice of the ,waters2 from ,fiona ,macleod's ,poems and ,dramas 7,duffield71 ,the ,vision1 ,the ,lonely ,hunter1 ,the ,rose of ,flame2 from ,masefield1 the part of ,dauber describing the rounding of ,cape ,horn1 beginning p4 #aai1 in ,the ,story of a ,round-,house 7,macmillan72 from ,gibson's ,fires 7,macmillan71 ,the ,crane1 ,the ,machine2 from ,noyes's ,poems 7,macmillan1 #aijf71 ,the ,song of ,re-,birth1 ,the ,barrel ,organ1 ,forty ,singing ,seamen1 ,the ,highwayman2 ,book ,,ii from his ,drake3 ,an ,english ,epic 7,stokes74 ,the ,drama4--,from ,jones1 read ,the ,manoeuvers of ,jane1 ,mrs4 ,dane's ,defence 7,samuel ,french72 from ,pinero1 ,the ,amazons1 ,the ,school ,mistress1 or ,sweet ,lavender 7,w4,h4 ,baker72 from ,shaw's ,plays ,pleasant and ,unpleasant 7,brentano71 ,candida1 ,you ,never ,can ,tell1 ,arms and the ,man from ,barrie1 ,peter ,pan1 ,what ,every ,woman ,knows2 from ,galsworthy1 ,strife1 ,joy1 ,the ,little ,dream2 from ,phillips1 ,marpessa 7poem71 ,ulysses 7,macmillan71 ,herod2 from ,lady ,gregory's1 ,seven ,short ,plays 7,putnam71 ,the ,gaol ,gate1 ,spreading the ,news2 from her ,new ,comedies 7,putnam1 #aiac71 ,mc,donough's ,wife1 ,the ,bogie ,men2 from ,yeats's ,poetical ,works1 ,vol4 ,,ii4 7,macmillan71 ,the ,land of ,heart's ,desire1 ,countess ,cathleen2 from ,synge1 ,riders to the ,sea1 ,the ,playboy of the ,western ,world1 ,deirdre of the ,sorrows 7,john ,w4 ,luce74 ,questions and ,suggestions4--,stevenson's ,the ,home ,book of ,verse and ,the ,oxford ,book of ,victorian ,verse contain selections from a number of the poets4 ,mc,carthy's ,irish ,literature1 #aj vols41 gives selections from work written prior to #aijd4 ,the majority of the indicated readings can be found only in the original works of the authors4 ,give an outline of the most important thoughts from one essay and one biography1 by both ,benson and ,chesterton4 ,what distinctive subject matter do you find in each of the novelists8 ,how do same reflect the spirit of the age8 ,what are the chief characteristics of each of the poets8 ,what does the phrase ,celtic ,renaissance signify8 ,in brief1 what had the drama accomplished from the time of the closing of the theaters in #afdb to #ahij8 ,what distinctive contributions to the modern drama have ,pinero1 ,shaw1 and ,barrie made8 ,describe the work of ,lady ,gregory1 ,yeats1 and ,synge4 ,in what does ,synge's special power consist8 ,,footnotes ,,to ,,chapter ,x3 ,footnotes #a-aa3 ,printed by permission of ,the ,macmillan ,company4 ,footnotes #ab-ac3 ,printed by permission of ,frederick ,a4 ,stokes ,company4 ,footnotes #ad-ae3 ,printed by permission of the ,macmillan ,company4 ,footnote #af3 ,krans's ,william ,butler ,yeats and the ,irish ,literary ,revival4 ,footnotes #ag-ah3 ,printed by permission of ,the ,macmillan ,company4 ,,supplementary ,,list ,,of ,,authors ,,and ,,their ,,chief ,,works3 #adjj-aeeh3 ,john ,lydgate 7#acgj8-adea873 ,falls of ,princes4 ,thomas ,occleve 7#acgj8-adej873 ,mother of ,god2 ,governail of ,princes4 ,sir ,john ,fortescue 7#acid8-adgf873 ,difference between an ,absolute and ,limited ,monarchy4 ,the ,paston ,letters 7#adbb-aeji74 ,stephen ,hawes 7d4 #aebc873 ,pastime of ,pleasure4 ,john ,skelton 7#adfj8-aebi73 ,bowge of ,court2 ,philip ,sparrow4 ,alex4 ,barclay 7#adge8-aeeb73 ,ship of ,fools4 ,sir ,thomas ,more 7#adgh-aece73 ,utopia2 ,history of ,edward ,v4 and ,richard ,,iii4 ,hugh ,latimer 7#adhe8-aeee73 ,sermon on the ,ploughers4 ,sir ,david ,lindsay 7#adij-aeee73 ,satire of the ,three ,estates4 #aeeh-afjc3 ,john ,knox7#aeje-aegb73 ,admonition2 ,history of the ,reformation of ,religion within the ,realm of ,scotland2 ,sermons4 ,george ,puttenham 7d4 #aeij873 ,art of ,english ,poesie4 ,edward ,dyer 7#aeej8-afjg73 ,my ,mind to ,me a ,kingdom ,is4 ,samuel ,daniel 7#aefb-afai73 ,the ,complaint of ,rosamund2 ,a ,defence of ,rhyme 7prose74 ,fulke ,greville 7,lord ,brooke1 #aeed-afbh73 ,caelica4 ,stephen ,gosson 7#aeee-afbd73 ,the ,school of ,abuse4 ,george ,gascoigne 7#aebe8-aegg73,the ,steele ,glas4 ,william ,warner 7#aeeh8-afji73 ,albion's ,england4 #afjc-affj3 ,prose ,writers4--,robert ,burton 7#aegg-afdj73 ,the ,anatomy of ,melancholy4 ,john ,selden 7#aehd-afed73 ,table ,talk4 ,richard ,baxter 7#afae-afia73 ,the ,saints' ,everlasting ,rest4 ,poets and ,dramatists4--,phineas ,fletcher 7#aehb-afej873 ,the ,purple ,island4 ,william ,drummond 7#aehe-afdi73 ,sonnets2 ,the ,cypresse ,grove 7prose74 ,giles ,fletcher 7#aehh8-afbc73 ,christ's ,victory and ,triumph4 ,george ,wither 7#aehh-affg73 ,juvenilia4 ,william ,browne 7#aeia-afdc87 ,britannia's ,pastorals4 ,sir ,william ,d',avenant 7#afjf-affh73 ,gondibert4 ,edmund ,waller 7#afjf-afhg73 ,poems2 ,song--,go1 lovely ,rose4 ,richard ,crashaw 7#afac8--afdi73 ,steps to the ,temple2 ,the ,delights of the ,muses4 ,sir ,john ,denham 7#afae-affi73 ,cooper's ,hill4 ,abraham ,cowley 7#afah-affg73 ,anacreontiques4 ,andrew ,marvell 7#afba-afgh73 ,the ,garden4 #affj-agdj3 ,dramatists of the ,restoration4--,sir ,william ,d',avenant 7#afjf-affh73 ,love and ,honor4 ,george ,etherege 7#afce8-afia873 ,the ,man of ,mode4 ,william ,wycherley 7#afdj-agae73 ,the ,plain ,dealer4 ,thomas ,shadwell 7#afdb8-afib73 ,epson ,wells4 ,thomas ,otway 7#afeb-afhe73 ,venice ,preserved4 ,john ,vanbrugh 7#afff8-agbf73 ,the ,confederacy4 ,colley ,cibber 7#afga-ageg73 ,the ,careless ,husband4 ,george ,farquhar 7#afgh-agjg73 ,the ,beaux' ,stratagem4 ,prose ,writers4--,sir ,william ,temple 7#afbh-afii73 ,essays4 ,isaac ,barrow 7#afcj-afgg73 ,sermons4 ,robert ,south 7#afcd-agaf73 ,sermons4 ,richard ,bentley 7#affb-agdb73 ,epistles of ,phalaris4 ,gilbert ,burnet 7#afdc-agae73 ,sermons4 ,john ,arbuthnot 7#affg-agce73 ,the ,history of ,john ,bull4 ,lord ,bolingbroke 7#afgh-agea73 ,letter to ,sir ,william ,windham4 ,bishop ,berkeley 7#afhe-agec73 ,alciphron or the ,minute ,philosopher4 ,lady ,mary ,wortley ,montagu 7#afhi-agfb73 ,letters4 ,bishop ,butler 7#afib-ageb73 ,analogy of ,natural and ,revealed ,religion4 ,william ,warburton 7#afih-aggi73 ,the ,divine ,legation of ,moses4 ,poets4--,matthew ,prior 7#affd-agba73 ,shorter ,poems4 ,isaac ,watts 7#afgc-agdh73 ,psalms and ,hymns4 ,thomas ,parnell 7#afgi-agah73 ,a ,night-,piece on ,death2 ,the ,hermit4 ,john ,gay 7#afhe-agcb73 ,fables2 ,the ,beggar's ,opera4 ,allan ,ramsay 7#afhf-ageh73 ,the ,gentle ,shepherd4 ,john ,dyer 7#agjj8-ageh73 ,grongar ,hill4 #agdj-aghj3 ,prose ,writers4--,gilbert ,white 7#agbj-agic73 ,natural ,history of ,selborne4 ,william ,robertson 7#agba-agic73 ,history of the ,reign of ,charles ,v4 ,adam ,smith 7#agbc-agij73 ,wealth of ,nations4 ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds 7#agbc-agib73 ,discourses on ,painting4 ,thomas ,warton 7#agbh-agij73 ,history of ,english ,poetry4 ,sir ,philip ,francis 7#agdj-ahah73 ,letters of ,junius4 ,fanny ,burney 7#ageb-ahdj73 ,evelina4 ,poets4--,edward ,young 7#afha-agfe73 ,night ,thoughts4 ,charles ,wesley 7#agjh-aghh73 ,hymns4 ,mark ,akenside 7#agba-ahjc73 ,the ,minstrel4 ,robert ,fergusson 7#agej-aggd73 ,braid ,claith2 ,ode to the ,gowdspink4 #aghj-ahcg3 ,philosophers4--,william ,paley 7#agdc-ahje73 ,natural ,theology4 ,jeremy ,bentham 7#agdh-ahcb73 ,principles of ,morals and ,legislation4 ,william ,godwin 7#agef-ahcf73 ,inquiry concerning ,political ,justice4 ,thomas ,robert ,malthus 7#agff-ahcd73 ,essay on the ,principle of ,population4 ,david ,ricardo 7#aggb-ahbc73 ,principles of ,political ,economy4 ,james ,mill 7#aggc-ahcf73 ,analysis of the ,human ,mind4 ,historians4--,john ,lingard 7#agga-ahea73 ,history of ,england4 ,henry ,hallam 7#aggg-ahei73 ,constitutional ,history of ,england4 ,sir ,william ,napier 7#aghe-ahfj73 ,history of the ,peninsular ,war4 ,essayists4--,william ,cobbett 7#agfb-ahce73 ,rural ,rides in ,england4 ,sydney ,smith 7#agga-ahde73 ,letters of ,peter ,plymley4 ,francis ,jeffrey 7#aggc-ahej73 ,essays4 ,john ,wilson 7#aghe-ahed73 ,noctes ,ambrosianae4 ,john ,gibson ,lockhard 7#agid-ahed73 ,life of ,sir ,walter ,scott4 ,novelists and ,dramatists4--,william ,beckford 7#agei-ahdd73 ,vathek4 ,maria ,edgeworth 7#agfg-ahdi73 ,castle ,rackrent4 ,jane ,porter 7#aggf-ahej73 ,scottish ,chiefs4 ,john ,galt 7#aggi-ahci73 ,the ,annals of the ,parish4 ,james ,sheridan ,knowles 7#aghd-ahfb73 ,the ,hunchback2 ,the ,love ,chase4 ,thomas ,love ,peacock 7#aghe-ahff73 ,nightmare ,abbey4 ,mary ,russell ,mitford 7#aghg-ahee73 ,our ,village4 ,poets4--,george ,crabbe 7#aged-ahcb73 ,the ,borough4 ,joanna ,baillie 7#agfb-ahea73 ,poems4 ,james ,hogg 7#aggj-ahce73 ,queen's ,wake4 ,thomas ,campbell 7#aggg-ahdd73 ,the ,pleasures of ,hope4 ,thomas ,moore 7#aggi-aheb73 ,irish ,melodies2 ,lalla ,rookh4 ,ebenezer ,elliott 7#agha-ahdi73 ,corn ,law ,rhymes4 ,bryan ,w4 ,procter 7#aghg-ahgd73 ,english ,songs4 ,john ,keble 7#agib-ahff7 ,the ,christian ,year4 ,felicia ,hemans 7#agic-ahce73 ,songs of the ,affections4 ,thomas ,hood 7#agii-ahde73 ,the ,song of the ,shirt2 ,the ,bridge of ,sighs4 ,winthrop ,praed 7#ahjb-ahci73 ,the ,season2 ,the ,letter of ,advice4 ,thomas ,beddoes 7#ahjc-ahdi73 ,lyrics from ,death's ,jest ,book and from ,the ,bride's ,tragedy4 #ahcg-aijj3 ,philosophers and ,scientists4--,sir ,william ,hamilton 7#aghh-ahef7 ,lectures on ,metaphysics and ,logic4 ,michael ,faraday 7#agia-ahfg73 ,experimental ,researches4 ,sir ,charles ,lyell 7#agig-ahge73 ,principles of ,geology2 ,antiquity of ,man4 ,john ,stuart ,mill 7#ahjf-ahgc73 ,system of ,logic2 ,utilitarianism4 ,george ,henry ,lewes 7#ahag-ahgh73 ,a ,biographical ,history of ,philosophy2 ,problems of ,life and ,mind4 ,sir ,henry ,maine 7#ahbb-ahhh73 ,ancient ,law2 ,village ,communities4 ,historians4--,henry ,hart ,milman 7#agia-ahfh73 ,history of ,latin ,christianity down to the ,death of ,pope ,nicholas ,v4 ,george ,grote 7#agid-ahga73 ,history of ,greece4 ,james ,anthony ,froude 7#ahah-ahid73 ,history of ,england from the ,fall of ,wolsey to the ,defeat of the ,spanish ,armada4 ,henry ,thomas ,buckle 7#ahba-ahfb73 ,history of ,civilization4 ,edward ,augustus ,freeman 7#ahbc-ahib73 ,the ,history of the ,norman ,conquest4 ,william ,stubbs 7#ahbe-aija73 ,the ,constitutional ,history of ,england in its ,origin and ,development4 ,samuel ,rawson ,gardiner 7#ahbi-aijb73 ,history of ,england from the ,accession of ,james ,i4 to the ,outbreak of ,civil ,war1 #afjc-afdb2 ,history of the ,great ,civil ,war1 #afdb-afdi2 ,history of the ,commonwealth and the ,protectorate1 #afdi-affj4 ,justin ,m',carthy 7#ahcj-aiab73 ,a ,history of ,our ,own ,times4 ,john ,richard ,green 7#ahcg-ahhc73 ,a ,short ,history of the ,english ,people4 ,william ,edward ,hartpole ,lecky 7#ahch-aijc73 ,history of ,england in the ,eighteenth ,century4 ,james ,bryce 7#ahch- 73 ,the ,holy ,roman ,empire2 ,the ,american ,commonwealth4 ,rt4 ,rev4 ,abbot ,gasquet1 ,d4,d41 ,o4,s4,b4 7#ahdf- 73 ,henry ,,viii and the ,english ,monasteries2 ,the ,greater ,abbeys of ,england4 ,wilfrid ,ward 7#ahef- 73 ,aubrey de ,vere2 ,life and ,times of ,cardinal ,newman4 ,essayists and ,critics4--,george ,barrow 7#ahjc-ahha73 ,the ,bible in ,spain2 ,lavengro4 ,walter ,bagehot 7#ahbf-ahgg73 ,literary ,studies2 ,the ,english ,constitution4 ,leslie ,stephen 7#ahcb-aijd73 ,hours in a ,library2 ,history of ,english ,thought in the ,eighteenth ,century4 ,john ,morley 7#ahch- 73 ,studies in ,literature2 ,edmund ,burke2 ,life of ,gladstone4 ,john ,addington ,symonds 7#ahdj-ahic73 ,the ,history of the ,renaissance in ,italy4 ,austin ,dobson 7#ahdj- 73 ,eighteenth ,century ,vignettes2 ,henry ,fielding1 ,samuel ,richardson1 ,oliver ,goldsmith2 also ,collected ,poems4 ,edward ,dowden 7#ahdc-aiac73 ,shakespeare1 ,his ,mind and ,art2 ,life of ,shelley2 ,studies in ,literature1 #aghi-ahgg4 ,andrew ,lang 7#ahdd-aiab73 ,letters to ,dead ,authors2 ,essays in ,little2 ,the ,iliad in ,english ,prose 7assisted by ,leaf and ,myers72 also ,ballads and ,lyrics of old ,france4 ,augustine ,birrell 7#ahej- 73 ,obiter ,dicta2 ,men1 ,women1 and ,books2 ,in the ,name of the ,bodleian ,a4 ,c4 ,bradley 7#ahea- 73 ,shakespearean ,tragedy2 ,oxford ,lectures on ,poetry ,alice ,meynell 7#ahee- 73 ,the ,rhythm of ,life2 ,the ,spirit of ,place2 also ,collected ,poems4 ,william ,archer 7#ahef- 73 ,poets of the ,younger ,generation2 ,masks or ,faces3 ,a ,study in the ,psychology of ,acting4 ,john ,w4 ,mackail 7#ahei- 73 ,the ,springs of ,helicon2 ,life of ,william ,norris4 ,novelists4--,wilkie ,collins 7#ahbd-ahii73 ,the ,moonstone4 ,dinah ,maria ,craik 7#ahbf-ahgg73 ,john ,halifax1 ,gentleman4 ,charles ,l4 ,dodgson 7,lewis ,carroll #ahcb-ahih73 ,alice in ,wonderland2 ,through the ,looking ,glass4 ,joseph ,h4 ,shorthouse 7#ahcd-aijc73 ,john ,inglesant4 ,walter ,besant 7#ahcf-aija73 ,all ,sorts and ,conditions of ,men4 ,william ,black 7#ahda-ahih73 ,a ,daughter of ,heth4 ,canon ,w4 ,barry1 ,d4,d4 7#ahdi- 73 ,the ,two ,standards4 ,mrs4 ,humphry ,ward 7#ahea- 73 ,marcella4 ,canon ,p4,a4 ,sheehan1 ,d4,d4 7#aheb- 73 ,my ,new ,curate2 ,the ,queen's ,fillet4 ,hall ,caine 7#ahec- 73 ,the ,manxman4 ,rider ,haggard 7#ahef- 73 ,king ,solomon's ,mines4 ,george ,gissing 7#aheg-aijc73 ,new ,grub ,street2 ,the ,private ,papers of ,henry ,ryecroft4 ,john ,ascough 7,rt4 ,rev4 ,mgr4 ,bicherstaffe-,drew1 #aheh- 73 ,marotz4 ,kenneth ,grahame 7#ahei- 73 ,the ,golden ,age2 ,dream ,days4 ,a4 ,conan ,doyle 7#ahei- 73 ,the ,white ,company2 ,adventures of ,sherlock ,holmes4 ,r4,h4 ,benson 7#ahga- 73 ,by ,what ,authority2 ,the ,queen's ,tragedy4 ,mrs4 ,wilfrid ,ward3 ,great ,possessions4 ,poets4--,richard ,h4 ,barham 7#aghh-ahde73 ,ingoldsby ,legends4 ,james ,c4 ,mangan 7#ahjc-ahdi73 ,selected ,poems4 ,edward ,fitzgerald 7#ahji-ahhc73 ,rubaiyat of ,omar ,khayyam 7translation74 ,aubrey de ,vere 7#ahad-aijb73 ,irish ,odes4 ,coventry ,patmore 7#ahbc-ahif73 ,the ,angel in the ,house2 ,amelia4 ,sidney ,dobell 7#ahbd-ahgd73 ,the ,roman2 ,balder4 ,adelaide ,anne ,procter 7#ahbe-ahfd73 ,legends and ,lyrics4 ,jean ,ingelow 7#ahcj-ahig73 ,poems4 ,edwin ,arnold 7#ahcb-aijd73 ,the ,light of ,asia4 ,lewis ,morris 7#ahcc-aijg73 ,epic of ,hades4 ,james ,thompson 7#ahcd-ahhb73 ,the ,city of ,dreadful ,night4 ,j4,b4,l4 ,warren 7,lord de ,tabley1 #ahce-ahie73 ,poems3 ,dramatic and ,lyrical4 ,alfred ,austin 7#ahce-aiac1 appointed poet-laureate in #ahif73 ,english ,lyrics1 edited by ,william ,watson4 ,theodore ,watts-,dunton 7#ahcb- 73 ,the ,coming of ,love4 ,philip ,bourke ,marston 7#ahej-ahhg73 ,song-,tide and ,other ,poems2 ,wind ,voices4 ,oscar ,wilde 7#ahed-aijj73 ,ave ,imperatrix2 ,the ,ballad of ,reading ,gaol2 ,de ,profundis 7prose74 #aijj- ,essayists4--,vernon ,lee 7,violet ,paget1 #aheg- 73 ,the ,enchanted ,woods and ,other ,essays2 ,the ,sentimental ,traveler4 ,lawrence ,pearsall ,jacks 7#ahfj- 73 ,mad ,shepherds1 and ,other ,human ,studies4 ,arthur ,symons 7#ahfe- 73 ,william ,blake2 ,the ,romantic ,movement in ,english ,poetry4 ,edward ,verrall ,lucas 7#ahfh- 73 ,life of ,charles ,lamb2 ,old ,lamps for ,new2 also the stories ,over ,bemerton's and ,mr4 ,ingleside4 ,hilaire ,belloc 7#ahgj- 73 ,on ,everything4 ,novelists4--,justin ,huntley ,m',carthy 7#ahfj- 73 ,the ,proud ,prince2 ,if ,i ,were ,king4 ,w4,w4 ,jacobs 7#ahfc- 73 ,many ,cargoes2 ,ship's ,company4 ,anthony ,hope ,hawkins 7,anthony ,hope1 #ahfc- 73 ,the ,prisoner of ,zenda2 ,rupert of ,hentzau4 ,marie ,corelli 7#ahfd- 73 ,thelma2 ,ardath4 ,robert ,s4 ,hichens 7#ahfd- 73 ,the ,garden of ,allah4 ,g4,w4 ,birmingham 7rev4 ,j4,o4 ,hannay1 #ahfe- 73 ,spanish ,gold4 ,seumas ,macmanus 7#ahgj- 73 ,the ,chimney ,corner2 ,donegal ,fairy ,stories4 ,j4,c4 ,snaith 7#ahgf- 73 ,araminta2 ,broke of ,covenden4 ,may ,sinclair3 ,the ,divine ,fire4 ,poets4--,a4,e4 ,housman 7#ahei- 73 ,a ,shropshire ,lad4 ,katherine ,tynan ,hinkson 7#ahfa- 73 ,collected ,poems2 ,new ,poems 7#aiaa74 ,arthur ,christopher ,benson 7#ahfb- 73 ,collected ,poems2 ,paul ,the ,minstrel4 ,henry ,newbolt 7#ahfb- 73 ,admirals ,all4 ,herbert ,trench 7#ahfe- 73 ,deirdre ,wedded and ,nineteen ,other ,poems2 ,collected ,poems4 ,ethna ,carberry 7#ahff-aijb73 ,the ,passing of the ,gael4 ,richard ,le ,gallienne 7#ahff- 73 ,robert ,louis ,stevenson and ,other ,poems2 ,attitudes and ,avowals 7essays72 ,the ,end of the ,rainbow 7stories74 ,lionel ,johnson 7#ahfg-aijb73 ,poems4 ,lawrence ,binyon 7#ahfi- 73 ,london ,visions2 ,atilla 7poetic drama74 ,nora ,hopper ,chesson 7#ahga-aijf73 ,under ,quicken ,boughs4 ,dora ,sigerson ,shorter 7#ahgc- 73 ,collected ,poems4 ,john ,drinkwater 7#ahhb- 73 ,poems of ,love and ,death2 ,king ,cophetua4 ,richard ,middleton4 7#ahhb-aiaa73 ,poems and ,songs4 ,lascelles ,abercrombie3 ,interludes4 ,james ,stephens3 ,hill of ,vision2 ,crock of ,gold 7prose fiction74 ,t4 ,sturge ,moore3 ,aphrodite against ,artemis2 ,poems4 ,celtic ,dramatists4--,george ,moore 7#ahec- 73 ,the ,bending of the ,bough4 ,edward ,martyn 7#ahei- 73 ,the ,heather ,field4 ,william ,boyle3 ,the ,building ,fund4 ,padric ,colum3 ,thomas ,muskerry2 the ,fiddler's ,house4 ,lennox ,robinson3 ,patriots4 ,rutherford ,mayne3 ,the ,turn of the ,road4 ,h4 ,granville ,barker 7,english dramatist1 #ahgg- 73 ,the ,voysey ,inheritance4 ,,index ,abercrombie1 ,lascelles ,absalom and ,achitophel ,abt ,vogler ,actors1 in early plays in ,elizabethan theater ,adam ,bede ,addison1 ,joseph1 collaborates with ,steele incidental reference to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,admirable ,crichton1 ,the ,adonais ,advancement of ,learning ,adventures of ,harry ,richmond ,a,elfric ,aids to ,reflection ,akenside1 ,mark ,alastor ,alchemist1 ,the ,alexander's ,feast ,alfred1 ,king ,alice-for-,short ,all for ,love ,alysoun ,amazing ,marriage1 ,the ,amazone1 ,the ,amelia ,american ,taxation1 ,speech on ,amorists ,ancient ,mariner ,ancren ,riwle ,andrea del ,sarto ,andreas ,anglo-,norman period and ,chaucer's ,age characteristics of ,normans history language metrical romances poets prose writers references on suggested readings and question summary ,anglo-,saxon ,chronicle ,anglo-,saxon language ,anglo-,saxon period history home1 migrations and religion of ,anglo-,saxons language mission of ,english literature poetry prose references on subject matter and aim suggested readings and questions summary ,anglo-,saxons1 earliest literature of ,annus ,mirabilis ,antiquary1 ,the ,apologia1 ,newman's ,apologie for ,poetrie ,arbuthnot1 ,john ,arcadia ,archer1 ,william ,areopagitica ,arnold1 ,edwin ,arnold1 ,matthew general characteristics of incidental references to life of poetical works prose works quoted references on suggested readings in ,arnold1 ,thomas ,arthur1 ,king ,ascham1 ,roger ,astraea ,redux ,as ,you ,like ,it ,atalanta in ,calydon ,atterbury1 ,francis ,aurengzebe ,austen1 ,jane1 incidental references to life and works of references on suggested readings in ,austin1 ,alfred ,autobiography1 ,franklin's ,ayseough1 ,john ,bacon1 ,francis1 incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,bacon1 ,roger ,bagehot1 ,walter ,baillie1 ,joanna ,balder ,dead ,bale1 ,john ,ballad of ,agincourt ,ballads1 ,english in fifteenth century ,barchester ,towers ,barclay1 ,alexander ,barham1 ,richard ,h4 ,barker1 ,h4 ,granville ,barnaby ,rudge ,barrack ,room ,ballads ,barrie1 incidental references to suggested readings in ,barrow1 ,isaac ,battle of ,brunnburh ,battle of the ,books ,baxter1 ,richard ,beattie1 ,james ,beaumont1 ,frances ,becket ,becket1 ,thomas ,beckford1 ,william ,beddoes1 ,thomas ,bede1 ,ecclesiastical ,history references on suggested readings in works of ,behn1 ,mrs4 ,aphra ,belloc1 ,hilaire ,bennett1 ,arnold suggested readings in ,benson1 ,arthur ,christopher suggested readings in ,benson1 ,r4,h4 ,bentham1 ,jeremy ,bentley1 ,richard ,beowulf suggested readings in ,berkeley1 ,george ,besant1 ,walter ,bible1 ,king ,james version ,tyndale's translation of ,wycliffe's translation of ,bickerstaff1 ,isaac ,bickerstaffe-,drew1 ,rt4 ,rev4 ,mgr4 ,binyon1 ,lawrence ,biographia ,literaria ,birmingham1 ,g4,w4 7,hanney1 ,rev4 ,j4,o47 ,birrell1 ,augustine ,black1 ,william ,blackmore1 ,richard ,d4 suggested readings in ,blackwood's ,edinburgh ,magazine ,blake1 ,william references on suggested readings in ,blank verse in eighteenth century introduction into ,england ,shakespeare's and ,marlowe's use of ,bleak ,house ,blessed ,damozel1 ,the ,blot in the ',scutcheon ,bolingbroke1 ,lord ,bonduca ,book of ,martyrs ,borrow1 ,george ,boswell1 ,james ,boy actors ,boyle1 ,william ,bradley1 ,andrew ,brandes1 ,georg1 quoted ,bret ,harte ,bride of ,lammermoor ,bridges1 ,robert suggested readings in ,bront1 ,charlotte references for suggested readings in ,bront1 ,emily ,brooke1 ,stopford1 quoted ,brown1 ,charles ,brockden ,browne1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 ,william ,browning1 ,elizabeth ,barrett1 life of quoted references on suggested readings in ,browning1 ,robert general characteristics of incidental references to life of optimistic philosophy of references on suggested readings in works of ,brut ,layamon's ,wace's ,bryce1 ,james ,buckle1 ,henry ,thomas ,bulwer ,lytton suggested readings in ,bunyan general characteristics of incidental references to life of references for suggested readings in works of ,burke1 ,edmund references for suggested readings in ,burnet1 ,gilbert ,burney1 ,fanny ,burns1 ,robert general characteristics of incidental references to life of love songs of poetic creed of references on suggested readings in works of ,burton1 ,robert ,butler1 ,bishop ,butler1 ,samuel ,byron1 ,lord compared with ,shakespeare dramas of general characteristics incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,caedmon compared with ,milton ,caedmonian ,cycle ,cain ,caine1 hall ,caliban upon ,setebos ,camden1 ,william ,campbell1 ,thomas ,canterbury ,tales ,carberry1 ,ethna ,carew1 ,thomas suggested readings in ,carlyle1 ,thomas general characteristics of incidental references to life of quoted references on ,sartor ,resartus suggested readings in works of ,carols of fifteenth century ,carroll1 ,lewis ,castle of ,indolence ,castle of ,otranto ,cathedrals1 ,gothic ,cato ,cavalier poets ,caxton1 ,william ,celtic dramatists ,celtic imagery ,celtic ,renaissance ,cenci1 ,the ,crvantes ,chapel ,royal ,chapman1 ,george ,charge of the ,light ,brigade ,chatterton1 ,thomas suggested readings in ,chaucer1 ,geoffrey ,canterbury ,tales compared with ,spenser earlier poems of incidental references to influence on ,english language life of qualitites of quoted references on suggested readings in ,chaucer's age4 ,see ,anglo-,norman period ,chesson1 ,nora ,hopper ,chester plays ,chesterton1 ,gilbert ,k4 references on suggested readings in ,childe ,harold's ,pilgrimage ,child's ,garden of ,verse1 ,a ,christ1 ,cynewulf's ,christabel ,christmas ,carol1 ,a ,chronicle1 ,the1 ,stow's ,chronicles of ,england1 ,ireland and ,scotland ,cibber1 ,colley ,citizen of the ,world ,clarendon1 ,lord ,clarissa ,harlowe ,classical couplet ,classic school ,clive1 ,robert ,cloister and the ,hearth ,cloud1 ,the ,clough1 ,arthur ,hugh suggested readings in ,cobbett1 ,william ,coleridge1 ,samuel ,taylor association with ,wordsworth general characteristics of incidental references to life of poetry of prose of quoted references on suggested readings in ,collier1 ,jeremy ,collins1 ,wilkie suggested readings in ,collins1 ,william ,colloquium ,colombe's ,birthday ,colum1 ,padric ,comedies1 early ,comedy of ,errors1 ,the ,complete ,angler ,comus ,conciliation with ,america1 ,burke's speech on ,conduct of the ,understanding ,confessio ,amantis ,confessions of an ,english ,opium-,eater ,congreve1 ,william ,conrad1 ,joseph references on suggested readings in ,cooper1 ,frederic ,taber1 quoted ,corelli1 ,marie ,cornish1 ,william ,cotter's ,saturday ,night ,couplet1 classical riming ,court plays ,coventry plays ,cowley1 ,abraham ,cowper1 ,william general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,crabbe1 ,george ,craik1 ,dinah ,maria ,cranford ,cranmer's ,bible ,crashaw1 ,richard ,critical writings ,addison's ,age of ,romanticism ,arnold's ,carlyle's ,coleridge's ,de ,quincey's ,dryden's ,johnson's ,pope's ,swinburne's ,criticism1 first essay on ,cromwell's ,bible ,cross1 ,john ,w4 ,crossing the ,bar ,cry of the ,children ,curse of ,kehama ,cymbeline ,cynewulf ,cynewulf ,cycle suggested readings in ,daniel ,deronda ,daniel1 ,samuel ,darwin1 ,charles ,d',avenant1 ,sir ,william ,david and ,bathsabe ,david ,balfour ,david ,copperfield ,davidson1 ,john suggested readings in ,deathe of ,blanche the ,duchesse ,decameron1 framework of similar to ,canterbury ,tales ,de-foe1 ,daniel a journalist incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,dekker1 ,thomas ,deloney1 ,thomas suggested readings in ,de ,morgan1 ,william ,frend references on suggested readings in ,denham1 ,sir ,john ,departmental ,ditties ,de ,quincey1 ,thomas general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,deserted ,village1 ,the ,de ,vere1 ,aubrey ,diana of the ,crossways ,diary1 ,evelyn's ,pepys's ,dickens1 ,charles contrasted with ,thackeray general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,dictionary of the ,english ,language1 ,johnson's ,didactic verse ,discovery of ,guiana1 ,the ,disdain ,returned ,diurnall ,divine ,vision1 ,the ,dobell1 ,sidney ,dobson1 ,austin quoted suggested readings in ,dodgson1 ,charles ,l4 7,lewis ,carroll7 ,dombey and ,son ,don ,juan ,donne1 ,john opposes sonnet suggested readings in ,don ,quixote ,double ,dealer1 ,the ,douglas1 ,gawain ,dover ,beach ,dowden1 ,edward quoted ,doyle1 ,a4 ,conan ,dr4 ,faustus ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde ,drake3 ,an ,english ,epic ,drama1 ,english and the unities actors in early ,beaumont and ,fletcher in comedies1 early court plays decline of during ,restoration early religious end of ,elizabethan interlude ,irish ,marlowe1 founder of ,english miracle and mystery plays modern morality plays suggested readings in ,see also ,elizabethan ,age1 ,jonson1 ,marlowe1 ,shakespeare1 etc4 ,dramatic ,lyrics1 ,browning's ,dramatic ,romances and ,lyrics1 ,browning's ,dramatic unities ,dramatis ,personae ,drapier's ,letters ,drayton1 ,michael suggested readings in ,dream ,children ,dream of ,fair ,women1 ,a ,dream of ,gerontius ,drinkwater1 ,john ,drummond1 ,william ,dryden1 ,john general characteristics of incidental references to life of prose of quoted references on suggested readings in ,spenser's influence on works of ,duchess of ,malfi1 ,the ,dunbar1 ,william ,dunciad ,dyer1 ,edward ,dyer1 ,john ,earthly ,paradise ,edgeworth1 ,maria ,edinburgh ,review ,edward ,,ii ,egoist1 ,the ,eighteenth century1 early literature4 ,see ,restoration period1 etc4 ,eighteenth century1 later literature history literary characteristics novelists poets prose writers references on romanticism suggested readings and questions summary ,elegy ,written in a ,country ,churchyard ,elene ,eliot1 ,george general characteristics incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,elizabeth1 ,queen ,elizabethan age history ,jonson life of ,marlowe minor dramatists miracle and mystery plays morality plays poetry 7non-dramatic7 presentation of ,elizabethan plays prose writers references on ,shakespeare suggested readings in summary ,elliott1 ,ebenezer ,emma ,endymion ,england1 origin of name of ,english humorists of the ,eighteenth ,century ,english language1 ,chaucer's influence on emergence of modern ,english literature mission of subject matter and aim of ,epigrams1 ,watson's ,epipsychidion ,epistle to ,dr4 ,arbuthnot ,epithalamion ,essay of ,dramatic ,poesy ,essay on ,criticism ,essay on ,man ,essays ,addison's ,arnold's ,bacon's ,benson's ,carlyle's ,chesterton's ,de ,quincey's ,goldsmith's ,johnson's ,lamb's ,macaulay's ,newman's ,pater's ,pope's ,stevenson's ,swinburne's ,thackeray's ,essays in ,criticism ,essays of ,elia ,etherege1 ,george ,ethical purposes1 in literature4 ,see ,moral ideals ,euphues ,euphuism ,evan ,harrington ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes ,evelyn1 ,john ,every ,man in ,his ,humor ,excursion ,exeter ,book ,expedition of ,humphrey ,clinker ,fables1 ,ancient and modern ,faerie ,queene ,faithful ,shepherdess ,familiar ,studies of ,men and ,books ,far ,from the ,madding ,crowd ,far ,traveler1 ,the ,faraday1 ,michael ,farquhar1 ,george ,faustus1 ,dr4 ,fergusson1 ,robert ,field1 ,eugene ,fielding1 ,henry references on suggested readings in works of ,fight at ,finnsburg ,fiona ,macleod4 ,see ,sharp1 ,william ,fitzgerald1 ,edward ,fleet ,street ,eclogues ,fletcher1 ,giles ,fletcher1 ,john ,fletcher1 ,phineas ,flower of ,old ,japan ,ford ,forest of ,wild ,thyme ,fors ,clavigera ,fortescue1 ,sir ,john ,fortunes of ,men ,four ,georges ,four ,p's ,fox1 ,charles ,james ,foxe1 ,john ,fragments of ,science ,francis1 ,sir ,philip ,frankenstein ,franklin1 ,benjamin ,freeman1 ,edward ,augustus quoted ,french element in ,english ,french ,revolution1 influence on literature ,french ,revolution 7,carlyle's7 ,fronde1 ,james ,anthony ,fuller1 ,thomas ,funeral ,elegy ,galsworthy1 ,john suggested readings in ,galt1 ,john ,gammer ,gurton's ,needle ,gaol ,gate ,gardiner1 ,samuel ,rawson ,gardiner's ,daughter1 ,the ,garrick1 ,david ,gascoigne1 ,george ,gaskell1 ,elizabeth ,c4 suggested readings in ,gasquet1 ,rt4 ,rev4 ,abbot ,gates of ,dreamland ,gawayne and the ,green ,knight ,gay1 ,john ,general reference list for ,english literature ,gentle ,craft ,geoffrey of ,monmouth ,gibbon1 ,edward quoted suggested readings in ,gibson1 ,wilfrid suggested readings in ,gissing1 ,george ,gladstone1 ,william ,e4 ,gleeman songs of ,globe ,theater ,godwin1 ,william ,goldsmith1 ,oliver general characteristics of incidental references to life of quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,good-,natured ,man1 ,the ,gorboduc ,gosse4 ,edmund1 quoted ,gosson1 ,stephen ,gower1 ,john suggested readings in ,grahame1 ,kenneth ,gray1 ,thomas references for suggested readings in ,green1 ,john ,richard ,greene1 ,robert ,gregory1 ,lady ,augusta suggested readings in ,gregory1 ,pope ,greville1 ,fulke 7,lord ,brooke7 ,grote1 ,george ,gulliver's ,travels ,guy ,mannering ,haggard1 ,rider ,hakluyt1 ,richard ,hallam1 ,arthur ,henry ,hamilton1 ,sir ,william ,hamlet ,handlyng ,synne ,hard ,times ,hardy1 ,thomas general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,harleian1 ,m4,s4 ,hawes1 ,stephen ,hawkins1 ,anthony ,hope 7,anthony ,hope7 ,hazlitt1 ,william suggested readings in ,heart of ,midlothian ,heine1 ,heinrich ,hemans1 ,felicia ,henley1 ,w4,e4 suggested readings in ,henry ,esmond ,henry ,,iv ,henry ,v ,henry ,,viii ,henryson1 ,robert ,herbert1 ,george ,hero and ,leander ,herod ,heroes and hero ,worship ,herrick1 ,robert suggested readings in ,hesperides ,hewlett1 ,maurice suggested readings in ,heywood1 ,john ,heywood1 ,thomas ,hichens1 ,robert ,s4 ,hilda ,lessways ,hind and the ,panther ,hinkson1 ,catherine ,tynan ,historical prose ,historical ,sketches1 ,newman's ,history1 ,english1 ,age of ,romanticism ,anglo-,norman period ,anglo-,saxon period ,eighteenth century ,elizabethan age ,puritan age ,renaissance ,restoration period ,victorian age ,history of ,england1 ,hume's ,macaulay's ,history of ,friedrich ,,ii ,history of the ,decline and ,fall of the ,roman ,empire1 ,the ,history of the ,great ,rebellion ,history of the ,kings of ,britain ,history of the ,reign of ,henry ,,vii ,history of the ,world ,history of the ,worthies of ,england 7,fuller's7 ,hobbes1 ,thomas ,hogg1 ,james ,holinshed1 ,raphael ,holman-,hunt1 ,william ,holy ,dying ,holy ,living ,holy ,war ,homer1 ,chapman's ,homer1 ,pope's translation of ,homeward ,songs by the ,way ,homilies ,hood1 ,thomas ,hooker1 ,richard references on suggested readings in ,hope1 ,anthony 7,hawkins7 ,horace1 influence of ,hous of ,fame ,housman1 ,a4,e4 ,howells1 ,william ,d41 quoted ,hudibras ,hugo1 ,victor1 quoted ,hume1 ,david references on suggested readings in ,humor ,addison's ,arnold's ,barrie's ,burns's ,carlyle's ,chaucer's ,cowper's ,de ,quincey's ,dickens's ,fielding's ,fuller's ,goldsmith's ,locke's ,meredith's ,pope's ,sterne's ,swift's ,thackeray's ,hundred ,years' ,war ,hunt1 ,leigh suggested readings in ,huxley1 ,thomas quoted ,hyde1 ,dr4 ,douglas ,hydriotaphia ,hymns1 ,addison's ,hyperion ,ibsen1 ,henrik1 influence of ,idea of a ,university ,ideals4 ,see ,moral ideals4 ,idler ,idylls of the ,king ,il ,penseroso ,iliad1 ,pope's translation of ,imaginary ,conversations ,in a ,balcony ,in ,memoriam ,in the ,south ,seas ,induction 7,sackville's7 ,ingelow1 ,jean ,inland ,voyage ,interlude ,invention1 age of ,irish drama ,irish ,national ,theater ,isabella ,ivanhoe ,jack of ,newberry ,jacks1 ,lawrence ,pearsall ,jacobs1 ,w4,w4 ,james ,i of ,scotland ,jane ,eyre ,jeffrey1 ,francis ,jew of ,malta ,john ,gilpin ,johnson1 ,lionel ,johnson ,samuel ,boswell's life of converser and literary lawgiver general characteristics of incidental references to life of quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,jonathan ,wild the ,great ,jones1 ,henry ,arthur suggested readings in ,jonson1 ,ben general characteristics of incidental references to life of opposes sonnet plays of quoted references on suggested readings in ,joseph ,andrews ,joseph ,vance ,journal of the ,plague ,year ,journal to ,stella ,jude the ,obscure ,judith ,juliana ,julius ,caesar ,jungle ,books ,jury system1 development of ,just ,so ,stories ,kant ,keats1 ,john general characteristics incidental references to life of poems of references on suggested readings in ,keble1 ,john ,kenilworth ,kidnapped ,kim ,king ,lear ,king of the ,golden ,river1 ,the ,king's ,quair1 ,the ,kingsley1 ,charles suggested readings in ,kipling1 ,rudyard general characteristics of incidental references to life of ,nobel prize awarded to prose of references on suggested readings in verse of ,knighte's ,tale1 ,chaucer's ,knoblauch1 ,edward ,knowles1 ,james ,sheridan ,knox1 ,john ,kubla ,khan ,kyd1 ,thomas ,lady of the ,lake ,lake ,poets ,l',allegro ,lamb1 ,charles quoted references on suggested readings in ,lamia ,landor1 ,walter ,savage suggested readings in ,lang1 ,andrew ,lngland1 ,william references on suggested readings in ,language1 new ,english ,languages1 after ,norman ,conquest ,last ,days of ,pompeii ,latimer1 ,hugh ,layamon suggested readings in ,lay of the ,last ,minstrel ,lay ,sermons1 ,huxley's ,lays of ,ancient ,rome ,lecky1 ,william ,edward ,hartpole ,lectures on ,art ,lectures on ,shakespeare ,lee1 ,vernon 7,violet ,paget7 ,le ,gallienne1 ,richard ,legende of ,good ,women ,leviathan ,lewes1 ,george ,henry ,life and ,death of ,mr4 ,badman ,life of ,johnson ,boswell's ,macaulay's ,life of ,nelson ,light that ,failed1 ,the ,lindsay1 ,sir ,david ,lingard1 ,john ,literary ,club ,literary ,england literary itinerary references on ,literature change in subject-matter after ,restoration childhood introduced into definitions of influence of spirit of reform on ,pre-,raphaelite movement ,reformation influences ,little ,minister ,little ,white ,bird ,lives of the ,english ,poets ,lives of the ,saints ,locke1 ,john references on ,locke1 ,william ,john suggested readings in ,lockhart1 ,john ,gibson ,locksley ,hall ,locksley ,hall ,sixty ,years ,after ,lodge1 ,thomas suggested readings in ,london ,lord ,ormont and ,his ,aminta ,lorna ,doone ,lounsbury1 ,t4,r41 quoted ,love lyrics ,lovelace1 ,richard ,love's ,labor's ,lost ,lowell1 ,james ,russell1 quoted ,lucas1 ,edward ,verrall ,lucrece ,luther1 ,martin ,lycidas ,lydgate1 john ,lyell1 ,sir ,charles ,lyly1 ,john references on suggested readings in ,lyrical ,ballads1 ,coleridge's ,wordsworth's ,lyrical verse in ,elizabethan age ,lytton1 ,edward ,bulwer ,macaulay1 ,thomas ,babington general characteristics of ,history of ,england incidental references to life of quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,macbeth ,m',carthy1 ,justin ,huntley ,mac ,flecknoe ,mackail1 ,john w4 ,macleod1 ,fiona4 ,see ,sharp1 ,william ,macmanus1 ,seumas ,macpherson1 ,james ,magna ,charta ,maid's ,tragedy ,maine1 ,sir ,henry ,malory1 ,sir ,thomas ,malthus1 ,thomas ,robert ,malthusian theorem ,mandeville1 ,sir ,john ,manfred ,mangan1 ,james ,c4 ,mansfield ,park ,marlowe1 ,christopher general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,marmion ,marston1 ,john ,marston1 ,philip ,bourke ,martin ,chuzzlewit ,martyn1 ,edward ,marvell1 ,andrew ,masefield1 ,john suggested readings in ,masque ,massinger1 ,philip ,masson1 ,david1 quoted ,master of ,ballantrae ,maud ,mayor of ,casterbridge ,melancholy1 literature of ,memoirs of a ,cavalier ,memories and ,portraits ,men and ,women ,merchant of ,venice ,meredith1 ,george general characteristics of incidental references to life of quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,metrical romances ,meynell1 ,alice ,michael ,michaelmas ,term ,middle ,ages ,middlemarch ,middleton1 ,richard ,middleton1 ,thomas ,midsummer ,night's ,dream ,mill1 ,james ,mill1 ,john ,stuart ,mill on the ,floss ,millais1 ,john ,everett ,milman1 ,henry ,hart ,milton1 ,john characteristics of poetry compared with ,shakespeare incidental references to influence of ,paradise ,lost life of ,macaulay's essay on ,paradise ,lost quoted references on ,spenser's influence on suggested readings in works of ,minstrelsy of the ,scottish ,border ,miracle plays suggested readings in ,mitford1 ,mary ,russell ,modern ,painters ,modest ,proposal ,molire ,moll ,flanders ,montagu1 ,lady ,mary ,wortley ,moore1 ,george ,moore1 ,thomas ,moore1 ,t4 ,sturge ,moral ideals1 ,addison's ,browning's ,carlyle's ,dickens's ,george ,eliot's in ,beowulf ,meredith's ,milton's of ,alfred the ,great of ,puritan age ,richardson's ,ruskin's ,shakespeare's ,swinburne's under minor dramatists ,moralitites1 suggested readings for ,morality play ,more1 ,sir ,thomas suggested readings in ,morley1 ,henry1 quoted ,morley1 ,john ,morris1 ,lewis ,morris1 ,william references on suggested readings in ,morte d',arthur ,mourning ,bride ,much ,ado ,about ,nothing ,mysteries of ,udolpho ,mystery plays ,napier1 ,sir ,william ,nashe1 ,thomas suggested readings in ,nature as depicted in ,scottish poetry ,burns's1 treatment of ,byron's1 poetry of ,chaucer's love of ,coleridge's treatment of ,cowper's poems of ,dunbar a student of ,gray's poetry of growth of appreciation of ,keats's treatment of poetry of ,ruskin's love of ,scott's treatment of ,shakespeare's treatment of ,shelley's treatment of ,tennyson's poetry of ,thomason's poetry of ,walton's love of ,wordsworth's poetry of ,navigations1 ,voyages1 and ,discoveries of the ,english ,nation ,necessity of ,atheism ,new ,atlantis ,new ,year's ,eve ,newbolt1 ,henry ,newcomes1 ,the ,newman1 ,cardinal ,john ,henry general characteristics of life of references on suggested readings in works of ,news books ,news letters ,newspapers ,nicholas ,nickleby ,nietzsche1 ,friedrich ,nightingale1 ,to a ,noble ,numbers ,norman conquest ,north1 ,sir ,thomas ,northanger ,abbey ,novel1 development of development of modern in eighteenth century in sixteenth century in twentieth century in ,victorian age 7,see also ,scott1 ,dickens1 ,eliot1 ,thackeray1 etc47 picaresque suggested readings for ,novum ,organum ,noyes1 ,alfred suggested readings in ,nut-,brown maid1 ,the ,obermmergau ,passion ,play ,occleve1 ,thomas ,ode on a ,grecian ,urn ,ode on the ,passions ,ode to ,evening ,ode to ,mrs4 ,anne ,killigrew ,ode to the ,west ,wind ,odyssey1 ,pope's translation of ,of the ,laws of ,ecclesiastical ,polity ,old ,bachelor1 ,the ,old ,china ,old ,curiosity ,shop1 ,the ,old ,mortality ,oliver ,twist ,olney ,hymns ,on the ,morning of ,christ's ,nativity ,on ,translating ,homer ,ordeal of ,richard ,feverel ,origin of ,species ,orm's ,ormulum ,oroonoke ,orosius 7,alfred's7 ,ossian ,othello ,otway1 ,thomas ,our ,mutual ,friend ,palace of ,art ,paley1 ,william ,pamela ,pandosto ,paracelsus ,paradise ,lost ,paradise ,regained ,paraphrase1 ,caedmon's ,parnell1 ,thomas ,passion ,play at ,obermmergau ,past and ,present ,pastoral lyrics ,pater1 ,walter references on suggested readings in ,patmore1 ,coventry ,peacock1 ,thomas ,love ,peele1 ,george ,pendennis ,pepys1 ,samuel ,percy1 ,thomas ,peregrine ,pickle ,pericles and ,aspasia ,perkin ,warbeck ,persuasion ,peter ,pan ,philaster ,phillips1 ,stephen suggested readings in ,phillpotts1 ,eden suggested readings in ,philosophical prose ,coleridge's of age of ,romantiscism of eighteenth century ,philosophical prose1 of ,puritan age ,phoenix ,picaresque novel ,pickwick ,papers ,piers ,plowman references on suggested readings for ,pilgrim's ,progress ,pinero1 ,sir ,arthur ,wing suggested readings in ,pipp ,passes ,play of ,noah's ,flood ,play of the ,shepherds ,playboy of the ,western ,world ,plays1 ,pleasant and ,unpleasant ,plutarch's ,lives ,poe1 ,edgar ,allan1 quoted ,poet1 ,the ,pope1 ,alexander general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in translation of ,homer works of ,pope ,gregory ,porter1 ,jane ,praed1 ,winthrop ,praeterita ,prelude1 ,the ,pre-,raphaelite movement suggested readings in ,pre-,raphaelitism ,pride and ,prejudice ,princess1 ,the ,printing1 invention of ,prior1 ,matthew ,procter1 ,adelaide ,anne ,procter1 ,bryan ,w4 ,prometheus ,unbound ,puritan age history poets prose writers references on suggested readings and questions summary ,puttenham1 ,george ,quarterly ,review ,quiller-,couch 7,cooch71 ,sir ,arthur suggested readings in ,rabbi ,ben ,ezra ,radcliffe1 ,mrs4 ,anne ,raleigh1 ,sir ,walter ,ralph ,royster ,doyster ,rambler1 ,the ,ramsay1 ,allan ,rape of the ,lock ,rasselas ,reade1 ,charles suggested readings in ,readings1 suggestions for ,recessional ,references1 historical and literary ,references for literary ,england ,reflections on the ,revolution in ,france ,reformation ,religio ,laici ,religio ,medici ,religion1 effect of on literature ,religious drama ,reliques of ,ancient ,english ,poetry ,reminiscences1 ,carlyle's ,renaissance causes and effects of the ,renaissance culmination of history in ,elizabeth's reign influence on ,chaucer invention of printing poets prose writers references on suggested readings and questions summary ,renaissance2 ,studies in ,art and ,poetry ,restoration period and early eighteenth-century literature dramatists history poets prose writers references on suggested readings and questions summary ,return of the ,native ,review ,revolt of ,islam ,reynolds1 ,g4,f41 quoted ,reynolds1 ,sir ,joshua ,rhoda ,fleming ,ricardo1 ,david ,richard ,,ii ,richard ,,iii ,richardson1 ,samuel references on suggested readings in ,ring and the ,book ,rivals ,robert of ,brunne ,robertson1 ,william ,robin ,hood ,robinson ,crusoe ,robinson1 ,lennox ,roderick ,random ,romance1 distinguished from modern novel ,romance of the ,forest ,romantiscism age of appreciation of nature history literary characteristics poets prose writers ,romanticism1 references on suggested readings and questions summary ,romaunt of the ,rose ,romeo and ,juliet ,romola ,rosalynde ,rossetti1 ,christina ,rossetti1 ,dante ,gabriel references on ,round ,table ,rowley1 ,thomas ,rowley1 ,william ,ruskin1 ,john art works of general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,russell1 ,george ,w4 suggested readings in ,sackville1 ,thomas ,saintsbury1 ,george1 quoted ,samson ,agonistes ,sartor ,resartus ,satire1 ,addison's ,carlyle's ,dryden's ,fielding's ,meredith's ,pope's ,swift's ,thackeray's ,saul ,saxon4 ,see ,anglo-,saxon4 ,scenery1 in early theater ,scenes of ,clerical ,life ,scholar-,gypsy ,scholemaster1 ,the ,school for ,scandal ,school ,mistress1 ,the ,schoolmen ,science1 age of influence on literature ,scop songs of ,scott1 ,sir ,walter general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,seafarer1 ,the ,seasons1 ,the ,second ,mrs4 ,tanqueray1 ,the ,selden1 ,john ,sense and ,sensibility ,sentimental ,journey through ,france and ,italy ,sentimental ,tommy ,sesame and ,lilies ,seven ,lamps of ,architecture ,shadwell1 ,thomas ,shakespeare1 ,william amount and classification of work connection with ,london stage development as dramatist general characteristics of incidental references to influence of ,bible on life of publication of plays quoted references on sonnets sources of plots suggested readings in table of plays variety of style ,sharp1 ,william 7,fiona ,macleod7 references on suggested readings in ,shaw1 ,george ,bernard references on suggested readings in ,she ,stoops to ,conquer ,sheehan1 ,canon1 ,p4,a4 ,shelley1 ,mrs4 ,shelley1 ,percy ,bysshe general characteristics of incidental references to life of lyrical genius references on suggested readings in works of ,shepherd's ,calendar ,sheridan1 ,richard ,brinsley ,shirley1 ,james ,shoemaker's ,holiday ,short ,view of the ,immorality of the ,stage ,shorter1 ,dora ,sigerson ,shorthouse1 ,joseph ,h4 ,sidney1 ,sir ,philip quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,sigurd1 the ,volsung ,silas ,marner ,silent ,woman1 ,the ,sinclair1 ,may ,sir ,charles ,grandison ,sir ,roger de ,coverley ,papers ,skeltin1 ,john ,skylark1 ,to a ,smith1 ,adam ,smith1 ,sydney ,smollett1 ,tobias references on ,smollett1 suggested readings in ,snaith1 ,j4,c4 ,social movement of nineteenth century ,sohrab and ,rustum ,somehow ,good ,song of ,roland ,songs before ,sunrise ,songs of ,experience ,songs of ,innocence ,sonnets in ,elizabethan ,age introduction of ,jonson and ,donne oppose ,keats's ,milton's ,shakespeare's ,sidney's ,spenser's ,wordsworth's ,sonnets from the ,portuguese ,sordello ,southey1 ,robert ,spanish ,gypsy1 ,the ,spanish ,tragedy1 ,the ,specimens of ,english ,dramatic ,poets ,spectator1 ,the ,spodding1 ,james1 quoted ,speech on ,american ,taxation 7,burke's7 ,speech on ,conciliation with ,america 7,burke's7 ,spencer1 ,herbert ,spenser1 ,edmund1 chief characteristics of poetry of ,faerie ,queene incidental references to life of references on sonnets of subjective poet suggested readings in ,st4 ,francis ,stage1 in early ,english theater ,stalky and ,co4 ,steele1 ,richard suggested readings in ,stephen1 ,leslie quoted ,stephens1 ,james ,sterne1 ,laurence references on suggested reading in ,stevenson1 ,robert ,louis general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,stevenson1 ,william ,stones of ,venice1 ,the ,story1 short ,stow1 ,john ,strafford ,strange ,case of ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde ,stubbs1 ,william ,study of ,celtic ,literature ,suckling1 ,sir ,john suggested readings in ,suggested readings ,summaries ,summer's ,last ,will and ,testament ,surrey1 ,earl of sonnets of suggested readings in ,survey of ,london ,sweet1 ,professor1 quoted ,swift1 ,jonathon general characteristics of incidental references to life of references on suggested readings in works of ,swinburne1 ,algernon ,charles general characteristics of incidental references to life of quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,switzerland ,symonds1 ,john ,addington quoted ,symons1 ,arthur suggested readings in ,synge1 ,john ,millington references on ,synthetic ,philosophy ,table ,talk ,taine1 ,h4,a41 quoted ,tale of a ,tub ,tale of ,two ,cities ,tales from ,shakespeare ,tales of a ,grandfather ,tales of a ,mermaid ,tavern ,talisman ,tam o',shanter ,tamburlaine ,task1 ,the ,tatler ,taylor1 ,jeremy ,tempest1 ,the ,ten ,brink1 quoted ,tennyson1 ,alfred general characteristics of incidental references to life of quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,tess of the ,d',urberville's ,thackeray1 ,william ,makepeace general characteristics of incidental references to life of quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,theater1 ,elizabethan ,thompson1 ,frances suggested readings in ,thompson1 ,james ,thomson1 ,james suggested readings in ,thoreau1 quoted ,thyrnie ,time and ,tide by ,weare and ,tyne ,tom ,jones ,tottel's ,miscellany ,tourneur1 ,cyril ,traitor1 ,the ,traveller1 ,the ,travels1 ,mandeville's ,travels with a ,donkey ,treasure ,island ,treatise of ,human ,nature ,trelawny1 ,edward ,trench1 ,herbert ,trick to ,catch the ,old ,one ,tristram and ,iseule ,tristram of ,lioness ,tristram ,shandy ,troilus and ,criseyde ,trollope1 ,anthony suggested readings in4 ,twelfth ,night ,twentieth-century literature dramatists essayists novelists poets references on suggested readings and questions summary trend of contemporary literature ,two ,voices1 ,the ,tyndale1 ,william suggested readings in ,tyndall1 ,john quoted ,udall1 ,nicholas ,ulysses ,underwoods ,unfortunate ,traveler ,unities1 dramatic ,university wits ,unto this ,last ,urn ,burial ,utopia ,vanbrugh1 ,john ,vanity ,fair ,vanity of ,human ,wishes ,vaughan1 ,henry ,venus and ,adonis ,vercelli ,book ,vicar of ,wakefield ,vice1 in old plays ,victorian age essayists history of novelists poets references on scientific writers short stories suggested readings and questions summary ,vignettes in ,rhyme ,virginians ,vision of ,judgement ,volpone ,voltaire ,vox ,clamantis ,vulgar ,errors ,wace ,wagner1 ,richard ,wallace1 ,professor ,c4,w4 quoted ,waller1 ,edmund ,walpole1 ,horace suggested readings in ,walpole1 ,herbert ,walton1 ,izaak ,wanderer1 ,the ,warburton1 ,william ,ward1 ,mrs4 ,humphry ,ward1 ,mrs4 ,wilfrid ,ward1 ,wilfrid ,warner1 ,william ,warren1 ,j4,b4,l4 7,lord de ,tabley7 ,war of the ,roses ,warton1 ,thomas ,watson1 ,william suggested readings in ,watts1 ,isaac ,waits-,dunton1 ,theodore ,waverly ,way of the ,world ,webster1 ,john ,war of ,hermiston ,wells1 ,herbert ,george references on suggested readings in ,wesley1 ,charles ,wesley1 ,john ,westward ,ho ,what ,every ,woman ,knows ,white ,devil1 ,the ,white1 ,gilbert ,whitefield1 ,george ,widecombe ,fair ,widsi ,wilde1 ,oscar ,wilson1 ,john ,winter's ,tale ,witch of ,atlas ,wither1 ,george ,woman ,killed with ,kindness1 ,a ,woodlanders1 ,the ,woodstock ,wordsworth1 ,william general characteristics of incidental references to life of poet of child life poet of man poet of nature quoted references on suggested readings in works of ,world1 ,the ,wotton1 ,sir ,henry1 quoted ,wounds of ,civil ,war ,wright ,wuthering ,heights ,wyatt1 ,sir ,thomas suggested readings in ,wycherley1 ,william ,wycliffe1 ,john ,yeats1 ,william ,butler references on suggested reading in ,york plays ,young1 ,edward ,youth of the ,year ,zangwill1 ,israel suggested readings in