Chapter I: Before Shakespeare 31

I. Remote origin of the novel--Old historical romances or
epics--Beowulf.

The French conquest of England in the eleventh
century--The mind and literature of the new-comers--Their
romances, their short tales 31

II. Effects of the conquest on the minds of the English
inhabitants--Slow awakening of the native
writers--Awakening of the clerks, of the translators and
imitators--The English inhabitants connected through a
literary imposture with Troy and the classical nations of
antiquity--Consequences of this imposture.

Chaucer--His lack of influence on later prose
novelists--The short prose tales of the French never
acclimatized in England before the Renaissance--More's
Latin "Utopia" 37

III. Printing--Caxton's _role_--Part allotted to fiction
in the list of his books--Morte Darthur.

Development of printing--Mediaeval romances set in type in
the sixteenth century 52

CHAPTER II.

_TUDOR TIMES--THE FASHIONS AND THE NOVEL_ 69

I. The Renaissance and the awakening of a wider
curiosity--Travelling in Italy--Ascham's censures 69

II. Italian invasion of England--Italian books
translated, Boccaccio, Ariosto, Tasso, &c.

English collections of short stories imitated from the
French or Italian--Separate short stories--Lucrece of
Sienna--A "travelling literature" 74

III. Learning--Erasmus' judgment and prophecies--The part
played by women--They want books written for
themselves--Queen Elizabeth, her talk, her tastes, her
dress, her portraits--The "paper work" architecture of
the time 87

CHAPTER III.

_LYLY AND HIS "EUPHUES"_ 103

I. "Euphues," a book for women 103

II. "Euphuism," its foreign origin--How embellished and
perfected by Lyly--Fanciful natural history of the
time--The mediaeval bestiaries--Topsell's scientific works 106

III. The plot of the novel--Moral tendencies of
"Euphues"--Lyly's precepts concerning men, women and
children 123

IV. Lyly's popularity--Courtly talk of the
time--Translations and abbreviations of "Euphues" in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 135

CHAPTER IV.

_LYLY'S LEGATEES_ 145

I. Lyly's influence--His principal heirs and successors,
Riche, Dickenson, Melbancke, Munday, Warner, Greene,
Lodge, &c. 145

II. Robert Greene's biography--His autobiographical
tales--His life and repentance, characteristic of the
times 150

III. His love stories and romantic tales--His
extraordinary success--His tales of real life--His fame
at home and abroad 167

IV. N. Breton, an imitator of Greene--Thomas Lodge, a
legatee of Lyly--His life--His "Rosalynd" and other
works--His relation to Shakespeare 192