Chapter II: Preface

In so brief a history of so rich a literature, the problem is how to get room enough to give, not an adequate impression--that is impossible--but any impression at all of the subject. To do this I have crowded out everything but _belles-lettres_. Books in philosophy, history, science, etc., however important in the history of English thought, receive the merest incidental mention, or even no mention at all. Again, I have omitted the literature of the Anglo-Saxon period, which is written in a language nearly as hard for a modern Englishman to read as German is, or Dutch. Caedmon and Cynewulf are no more a part of English literature than Vergil and Horace are of Italian. I have also left out {8} the vernacular literature of the Scotch before the time of Burns. Up to the date of the union Scotland was a separate kingdom, and its literature had a development independent of the English, though parallel with it.

In dividing the history into periods, I have followed, with some modifications, the divisions made by Mr. Stopford Brooke in his excellent little _Primer of English Literature_. A short reading course is appended to each chapter.

HENRY A. BEERS.

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER, 1066-1400 . . . . . 11
II. FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER, 1400-1599 . . . . . . . 42
III. THE AGE OF SHAKSPERE, 1564-1616 . . . . . . . . . 76
IV. THE AGE OF MILTON, 1608-1674 . . . . . . . . . . 125
V. FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEATH OF
POPE, 1660-1744 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
VI. FROM THE DEATH OF POPE TO THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION, 1744-1789 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
VII. FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE DEATH
OF SCOTT, 1789-1832 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
VIII. FROM THE DEATH OF SCOTT TO THE PRESENT
TIME, 1832-1886 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
IX. THEOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE IN
GREAT BRITAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

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OUTLINE SKETCH

OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE.