Chapter I: Preface

It may be of use to explain briefly the principles underlying the construction of this book.

In the first place the aim has been to make the book comprehensive. All first-class and nearly all second-class authors (so far as such classification is generally accepted) have been included. Due proportion between the two groups has been attempted by giving the more important authors greater space. The complete index should assist in making the book a handy volume of reference as well as a historical sketch.

In accordance with the plan of making the volume as comprehensive as possible, a chapter has been added dealing with modern writers. An attempt of this kind has certain obvious drawbacks; but it has at least the double advantage of demonstrating the living nature of our literature, and of setting modern authors to scale against the larger historical background.

Secondly, the endeavor has been to make the book practical. Discussion has been avoided; facts, so far as they are known and verifiable, are simply stated; dates are quoted whenever it is possible to do so, and where any doubt exists as to these the general opinion of the best authorities has been taken; there are frequent tabulated summaries to assist the mind and eye; and, lastly, there are the exercises.

It would be as easy to overpraise as it is to underestimate the value of the exercises. But in their favor one can at least point out that they enable the student to work out for himself some simple literary and historical problems; that they supply a collection of _obiter dicta_ by famous critics; and that they are a storehouse of many additional extracts. The index to all the extracts in the book should assist the student in locating every quotation from any writer he may have in view.

While he has never neglected the practical aspect of his task, the writer of the present work has never been content with a bleak summary of our literary history. It has been his ambition to set out the facts with clearness, vivacity, and some kind of literary elegance. How far he has succeeded the reader must judge.

The use of the Bibliography (Appendix II) is strongly urged upon all readers. Such a book as the present cannot avoid being fragmentary and incomplete. The student should therefore pursue his inquiries into the volumes mentioned in the Appendix. Owing to the restrictions of space, the Bibliography is small. But all the books given are of moderate price or easily accessible. Moreover, they have been tested by repeated personal use, and can be recommended with some confidence.

There remains to set on record the author’s gratitude to his colleagues and good friends, for their skill and good-nature in revising the manuscript and in making many excellent suggestions. E. A. EDINBURGH

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD 1

II. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 15

III. THE AGE OF CHAUCER 32

IV. FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER 57

V. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH 87

VI. THE AGE OF MILTON 159

VII. THE AGE OF DRYDEN 190

VIII. THE AGE OF POPE 231

IX. THE AGE OF TRANSITION 281

X. THE RETURN TO NATURE 362

XI. THE VICTORIAN AGE 451

XII. THE POST-VICTORIAN AGE 518

GENERAL QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 562

APPENDIX I: GENERAL TABLES 581

APPENDIX II: BIBLIOGRAPHY 591

INDEX TO EXTRACTS 601

GENERAL INDEX 607

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Permissions to use copyrighted material have been courteously granted by the following American publishers:

_Brentano’s, Inc._ for the right to print extracts from the works of Bernard Shaw; _E. P. Dutton & Company_ for Siegfried Sassoon; _Duffield & Company_ for H. G. Wells; _Dodd Mead & Company_ for Rupert Brooke; _Harper & Brothers_ for Thomas Hardy; _John W. Luce & Company_ for J. M. Synge; and _Charles Scribner’s Sons_ for John Galsworthy, and R. L. Stevenson.

We have also obtained from the literary agents of Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, and J. E. Flecker, permission to use the selections included from these authors. To all the above we wish to express our acknowledgment and thanks.

A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE