Halleck\'s New English Literature - Reuben P. Halleck
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HALLECKS'S NEW ENGLISH LITERATURE
by REUBEN POST HALLECK, M.A., LL.D.
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 used; namely, suggestiveness, clearness, organic
unity, interest, and the power to awaken thought and to stimulate the
student to further reading.
The book furnishes a concise account of the history and growth of
English literature from the earliest times to the present day. It lays
special emphasis on literary movements, on the essential qualities
that differentiate one period from another, and on the spirit that
animates each age. Above all, the constant purpose has been to arouse
in the student an enthusiastic desire to read the works of the authors
discussed. Because of the author's belief in the guide-book function
of a history of literature, he has spent much time and thought in
preparing the unusually detailed _Suggested Readings_ that follow each
chapter.
It was necessary for several reasons to prepare a new book. 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 Shakespeare. The new social spirit has changed the
critical viewpoint concerning authors as different as Wordsworth,
Keats, Ruskin, Dickens, and Tennyson. Wordsworth's treatment of
childhood, for instance, now requires an amount of space that would a
short time ago have seemed disproportionate. Later Victorian writers,
like Meredith, Hardy, Swinburne, and Kipling, can no longer be
accorded the usual brief perfunctory treatment. Increased modern
interest in contemporary life is also demanding some account of the
literature already produced by the twentieth century. An entire
chapter is devoted to showing how this new literature reveals the
thought and ideals of this generation.
Other special features of this new work are the suggestions and
references for a literary trip through England, the historical
introductions to the chapters, the careful treatment of the modern
drama, the latest bibliography, and the new illustrations, some of
which have been specially drawn for this work, while others have been
taken from original paintings in the National Portrait Gallery,
London, and elsewhere. The illustrations are the result of much
individual research by the author during his travels in England.
The greater part of this book was gradually fashioned in the
classroom, during the long period that the author has taught this
subject. Experience with his classes has proved to him the
reasonableness of the modern demand that a textbook shall be definite
and stimulating.
The author desires to thank the large number of teachers who have
aided him by their criticism. Miss Elizabeth Howard Spaulding and Miss
Sarah E. Simons deserve special mention for valuable assistance. The
entire treatment of Rudyard Kipling is the work of Miss Mary Brown
Humphrey. The greater part of the chapter, _Twentieth-Century
Literature_, was prepared by Miss Anna Blanche McGill. Some of the
best and most difficult parts of the book were written by the author's
wife. R.P.H.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION--LITERARY ENGLAND
CHAPTERS:
I. FROM 449 A.D. TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066
II. FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066, TO CHAUCER'S DEATH 1400
III. FROM CHAUCER'S DEATH 1400, TO THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH, 1558
IV. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH 1558-1603
V. THE PURITAN AGE, 1603-1660
VI. FROM THE RESTORATION, 1660, TO THE PUBLICATION OF PAMELA, 1740
VII. THE SECOND FORTY YEARS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 1740-1780
VIII. THE AGE OF ROMANTICISM, 1780-1837
IX. THE VICTORIAN AGE, 1837-1900
X. TWENTIETH-CENTURY LITERATURE
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF AUTHORS AND THEIR CHIEF WORKS
INDEX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:
1. Woden.
2. Exeter Cathedral.
3. Anglo-Saxon Gleeman. (From the tapestry designed by H.A. Bone).
4. Facsimile of beginning of Cotton MS. of Beowulf.(British Museum).
5. Facsimile of Beginning of Junian MS. of Caedmon.
6. Anglo-Saxon Musicians. (From illuminated MS., British Museum).
7. The Beginning of Alfred's Laws. (From illuminated MS., British
Museum).
8. The Death of Harold at Hastings. (From the Bayeux tapestry).
9. What Mandeville Saw. (From Edition of 1725).
10. John Wycliffe. (From an old print).
11. Treuthe's Pilgryme atte Plow. (From a MS. in Trinity College,
Cambridge).
12. Gower Hearing the Confession of a Lover. (From Egerton MS.,
British Museum).
13. Geoffrey Chaucer. (From an old drawing in the MS. of Occleve's
Poems, British Museum).
14. Canterbury Cathedral.
15. Pilgrims Leaving the Tabard Inn. (From Urry's Chaucer).
16. Facsimile of Lines Describing the Franklyn. (From the Cambridge
University MS.).
17. Franklyn, Friar, Knight, Prioress, Squire, Clerk of Oxford. (From
the Ellesmere MS.).
18. Morris Dancers. (From MS. of Chaucer's Time).
19. Henry VIII, giving Bibles to Clergy and Laity. (From frontispiece
to Coverdale Bible).
20. Book Illustration, Early Fifteenth Century. (British Museum).
21. Facsimile of Caxton's Advertisement of his Books. (Bodleian
Library, Oxford).
22. Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_. (From DeWorde's Edition, 1529).
23. Early Title Page of _Robin Hood_. (Copland Edition, 1550).
24. William Tyndale. (From an old print).
25. Sir Thomas Wyatt. (After Holbein).
26. Facsimile of Queen Elizabeth's Signature.
27. Sir Philip Sidney. (After the miniature by Isaac Oliver, Windsor
Castle).
28. Francis Bacon. (From the painting by Van Somer, National Portrait
Gallery).
29. Title page of _Bacon's Essays_, 1597.
30. John Donne. (From the painting by Jansen, South Kensington
Museum).
31. Edmund Spenser. (From a painting in Dublin Castle).
32. Miracle Play at Coventry. (From an old print).
33. Hell Mouth in the Old Miracle Play. From a Columbia University
Model.
34. Fool's Head.
35. Air-Bag Flapper and Lath Dagger.
36. Fool of the Old Play.
37. Thomas Sackville.
38. Theater in Inn Yard. (From Columbia University model).
39. Reconstructed Globe Theater, Earl's Court, London.
40. The Bankside and its Theaters. (From the Hollar engraving, about
1620).
41. Contemporary Drawing of Interior of an Elizabethan Theater.
42. Marlowe's Memorial Statue at Canterbury.
43. William Shakespeare. (From the Chandos portrait, National
Portrait Gallery).
44. Shakespeare's Birthplace. Stratford-on-Avon.
45. Classroom in Stratford Grammar School.
46. Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Shottery.
47. View of Stratford-on-Avon.
48. Inscription over Shakespeare's Tomb.
49. Shakespeare--The D'Avenant Bust. (Discovered in 1845).
50. Henry Irving as Hamlet.
51. Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (From the painting by Sargent).
52. Falstaff and his Page. (From a drawing by B. Westmacott).
53. Ben Jonson. (From the portrait by Honthorst, National Portrait
Gallery).
54. Ben Jonson's Tomb in Westminster Abbey.
55. Francis Beaumont.
56. John Fletcher.
57. Cromwell Dictating Dispatches to Milton. (From the painting by
Ford Maddox Brown).
58. Thomas Fuller.
59. Izaak Walton.
60. Jeremy Taylor.
61. John Bunyan. (From the painting by Sadler, National Portrait
Gallery).
62. Bedford Bridge, Showing Gates and Jail. (From an old print).
63. Bunyan's Dream. (From Fourth Edition _Pilgrim's Progress_, 1680).
64. Woodcut from the First Edition of Mr. Badman.
65. Robert Herrick.
66. John Milton. (After a drawing by W. Faithorne, at Bayfordbury).
67. John Milton, AEt. 10.
68. Milton's Visit to Galileo in 1638. (From the painting by T.
Lessi).
69. Facsimile of Milton's Signature. 1663.
70. Title Page to _Comus_, 1637.
71. Milton's Motto from _Comus_, with Autograph, 1639.
72. Milton Dictating _Paradise Lost_ to his Daughter. (From the
painting by Munkacsy).
73. Samuel Butler.
74. John Dryden. (From the painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, National
Portrait Gallery).
75. Birthplace of Dryden. (From a print).
76. Daniel Defoe. (From a print by Vandergucht).
77. Jonathan Swift. (From the painting by C. Jervas, National
Portrait Gallery).
78. Moor Park. (From a drawing).
79. Swift and Stella. (From the painting by Dicksee).
80. Joseph Addison. (From the painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller,
National Portrait Gallery.)
81. Birthplace of Addison.
82. Richard Steele.
83. Sir Roger de Coverley in Church. (From a drawing by B.
Westmacott).
84. Alexander Pope. (From the portrait by William Hoare).
85. Pope's Villa at Twickenham. (From an old print).
86. Rape of the Lock. (From a drawing by B. Westmacott).
87. Alexander Pope. (From a contemporary portrait).
88. Horace Walpole.
89. Thomas Gray.
90. Stoke Poges Churchyard.
91. A Blind Beggar Robbed of his Drink. (From a British Museum MS.)
92. Samuel Richardson. (From an original drawing).
93. Henry Fielding. (From the drawing by Hogarth).
94. Laurence Sterne.
95. Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim. (From a drawing by B. Westmacott).
96. Tobias Smollett.
97. Edward Gibbon. (From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds).
98. Edmund Burke. (From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, National
Portrait Gallery).
99. Oliver Goldsmith. (From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
National Portrait Gallery).
100. Goldsmith and Dr. Johnson. (From a drawing by B. Westmacott).
101. Goldsmith's Lodgings, Canonbury Tower, London.
102. Dr. Primrose and his Family. (From a drawing by G. Patrick
Nelson).
103. Samuel Johnson. (From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds).
104. Samuel Johnson's Birthplace. (From an old print).
105. James Boswell.
106. Cheshire Cheese Inn To-day.
107. Robert Southey.
108. Charles Lamb. (From a drawing by Maclise).
109. Bo-Bo and Roast Pig. (From a drawing by B. Westmacott).
110. William Cowper. (From the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence).
111. Cowper's cottage at Weston.
112. John Gilpin's Ride. (From a drawing by R. Caldecott).
113. Robert Burns. (From the painting by Nasmyth National Portrait
Gallery).
114. Birthplace of Burns.
115. Burns and Highland Mary. (From the painting by James Archer).
116. Sir Walter Scott. (From the painting by William Nicholson).
117. Abbotsford, Home of Sir Walter Scott.
118. Scott's Grave in Dryburgh Abbey.
119. Loch Katrine and Ellen's Isle.
120. Walter Scott. (From a life sketch by Maclise).
121. Scott's Desk and "Elbow Chair" at Abbotsford.
122. Jane Austen. (From an original family portrait).
123. Jane Austen's Desk.
124. William Wordsworth. (From the portrait by B.R. Haydon).
125. Boy of Winander. (From the painting by H.O. Walker, Congressional
Library).
126. Wordsworth's Home at Grasmere--Dove Cottage.
127. Grasmere Lake.
128. William Wordsworth. (From a sketch in _Fraser's Magazine_).
129. Rydal Mount near Ambleside.
130. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (From a pencil sketch by C.R. Leslie).
131. Coleridge's Cottage at Nether-Stowey.
132. Coleridge as a Young Man. (From a sketch made in Germany).
133. Lord Byron. (From a portrait by Kramer).
134. Byron at Seventeen. (From a painting).
135. Newstead Abbey, Byron's Home.
136. Castle of Chillon.
137. Byron's Home at Pisa.
138. Percy Bysshe Shelley. (From the portrait by Amelia Curran,
National Portrait Gallery).
139. Shelley's Birthplace, Field Place.
140. Grave of Shelley, Protestant Cemetery, Rome.
141. Facsimile of Stanza from _To a Skylark_.
142. John Keats. (From the painting by Hilton, National Portrait
Gallery).
143. Keats's Home, Wentworth Place.
144. Grave of Keats, Rome.
145. Facsimile of Original MS. of _Endymion_.
146. Endymion. (From the painting by H.O. Walker, Congressional
Library).
147. Thomas de Quincy. (From the painting by Sir J.W. Gordon, National
Portrait Gallery).
148. Room in Dove Cottage.
149. Charles Darwin.
150. John Tyndall.
151. Thomas Huxley. (From the painting by John Collier, National
Portrait Gallery).
152. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. (From the drawing by himself, National
Portrait Gallery).
153. Thomas Babington Macaulay. (From the painting by Sir. F. Grant,
National Portrait Gallery).
154. Cardinal Newman. (From the painting by Emmeline Deane).
155. Thomas Carlyle. (From the painting by James McNeill Whistler).
156. Craigenputtock.
157. Mrs. Carlyle. (From a miniature portrait).
158. John Ruskin. (From a photograph).
159. Charles Dickens. (From a photograph taken in America, 1868).
160. Dicken's Home, Gads Hill.
161. Facsimile of MS. of _A Christmas Carol_.
162. William Makepeace Thackeray. (From the painting by Samuel
Laurence, National Portrait Gallery).
163. Caricature of Thackeray by Himself.
164. Thackeray's Home where _Vanity Fair_ was Written.
165. George Eliot. (From a drawing by Sir F.W. Burton, National
Portrait Gallery).
166. George Eliot's Birthplace.
167. Robert Louis Stevenson. (From a photograph).
168. Stevenson as a Boy.
169. Edinburgh Memorial of Robert Louis Stevenson. (By St. Gaudens).
170. George Meredith. (From the painting by G.F. Watts, National
Portrait Gallery).
171. Thomas Hardy. (From the painting by Winifred Thompson).
172. Max Gate. (The Home of Hardy).
173. Matthew Arnold. (From the painting by G.F. Watts, National
Portrait Gallery).
174. Robert Browning. (From the painting by G.F. Watts, National
Portrait Gallery).
175. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (From the painting by Field Talfourd,
National Portrait Gallery).
176. Facsimile of MS. from _Pippa Passes_.
177. Alfred Tennyson. (From a photograph by Mayall).
178. Farringford.
179. Facsimile of MS. of _Crossing the Bar_.
180. Algernon Charles Swinburne. (From the painting by Dante Gabriel
Rossetti).
181. Rudyard Kipling. (From the painting by John Collier).
182. Mowgli and his Brothers. (From _The Jungle Book_).
183. The Cat That Walked. (From Kipling's drawing for _Just-So
Stories_).
184. Joseph Conrad.
185. Arnold Bennett.
186. John Galsworthy.
187. Herbert George Wells.
188. William Butler Yeats.
189. John Masefield.
190. Alfred Noyes.
191. Henry Arthur Jones.
192. Arthur Wing Pinero.
193. George Bernard Shaw. (From the bust by Rodin).
194. James Matthew Barrie.
195. Stephen Phillips.
196. Lady Gregory.
197. John Synge.
[Illustration: LITERARY MAP OF ENGLAND]
[Illustration: 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 work. We feel in much closer touch with
Shakespeare after merely reading about Stratford-on-Avon; but we seem
to share his experiences when we actually walk from Stratford-on-Avon
to Shottery and Warwick. The scenery and life of the Lake Country are
reflected in Wordsworth's poetry. Ayr and the surrounding country
throw a flood of light on the work of Burns. The streets of London are
a commentary on the novels of Dickens. A journey to Canterbury aids us
in recreating the life of Chaucer's Pilgrims.
Much may be learned from a study of literary England. Whether one does
or does not travel, such study is necessary. 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 visited;
for when the opportunity for the trip finally comes, 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 abounds.
Whenever an author is studied, his birthplace should be located on the
literary map. Baedeker's _Great Britain_ will be indispensable in
making an itinerary. 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 authors.
The following suggestions from the author's experience are intended to
serve merely as an illustration of how to begin an itinerary. The
majority of east-bound steamships call at Plymouth, a good place to
disembark for a literary trip. From Plymouth, the traveler may go to
Exeter (a quaint old town with a fine cathedral, the home of _Exeter
Book_,) thence by rail to Camelford in Cornwall and by coach four
miles to the fascinating Tintagel (King Arthur), where, as Tennyson
says in his _Idylls of the King_:--
"All down the thundering shores of Bude and Bos,
There came a day as still as heaven, and then
They found a naked child upon the sands
Of dark Tintagil by the Cornish sea,
And that was Arthur."
Next, the traveler may go by coach to Bude (of which Tennyson
remarked, "I hear that there are larger waves at Bude than at any
other place. I must go thither and be alone with God") and to unique
Clovelly and Bideford (Kingsley), by rail to Ilfracombe, by coach to
Lynton (Lorna Doone), and the adjacent Lynmouth (where Shelley passed
some of his happiest days and alarmed the authorities by setting
afloat bottles containing his _Declaration of Rights_), by coach to
Minehead, by rail to Watchet, driving past Alfoxden (Wordsworth) to
Nether-Stowey (Coleridge) and the Quantock Hills, by motor and rail to
Glastonbury (Isle of Avalon, burial place of King Arthur and Queen
Guinevere), by rail to Wells (cathedral), to Bath (many literary
associations), to Bristol (Chatterton, Southey), to Gloucester (fine
cathedral, tomb of Edward II), and to Ross, the starting point for a
remarkable all day's row down the river Wye to Tintern Abbey
(Wordsworth), stopping for dinner at Monmouth (Geoffrey of Monmouth).
After a start similar to the foregoing, the traveler should begin to
make an itinerary of his own. He will enjoy a trip more if he has a
share in planning it. From Tintern Abbey he might proceed, for
instance, to Stratford-on-Avon (Shakespeare); then to Warwick,
Kenilworth, and the George Eliot Country in North Warwickshire and
Staffordshire.
Far natural beauty, there is nothing in England that is more
delightful than a coaching trip through Wordsworth's Lake Country
(Cumberland and Westmoreland). From there it is not far to the Carlyle
Country (Ecclefechan, Craigenputtock), to the Burns Country (Dumfries,
Ayr), and to the Scott Country (Loch Katrine, The Trossachs,
Edinburgh, and Abbotsford). In Edinburgh, William Sharp's statement
about Stevenson should be remembered, "One can, in a word, 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 walls."
If the traveler lands at Southampton, he is on the eastern edge of
Thomas Hardy's Wessex, Dorchester in Dorsetshire being the center. The
Jane Austen Country (Steventon, Chawton) is in Hampshire. To the east,
in Surrey, is Burford Bridge near Dorking, where Keats wrote part of
his _Endymion_, where George Meredith had his summer home, and where
"the country of his poetry" is located.
In London, it is a pleasure to trace some of the greatest literary
associations in the world. We may stand at the corner of Monkwell and
Silver streets, on the site of a building in which Shakespeare wrote
some of his greatest plays. Milton lived in the vicinity and is buried
not far distant in St. Giles Church. In Westminster Abbey we find the
graves of many of the greatest authors, from Chaucer to Tennyson.
London is not only Dickens Land and Thackeray Land, but also the
"Land" of many other writers. We may still eat in the Old Cheshire
Cheese, where Johnson and Goldsmith dined.
Those interested in literary England ought to include the cathedral
towns in their itinerary, so that they may visit the wonderful "poems
in stone," some of which, _e.g_., Canterbury (Chaucer), Winchester
(Izaak Walton, Jane Austen), Lichfield (Johnson), have literary
associations. For this reason, all of the cathedral towns in England
have been included in the literary map.
REFERENCE LIST FOR LITERARY ENGLAND:
Baedeker's _Great Britain_ (includes England and Scotland).
Baedeker's _London and its Environs_.
Adcock's _Famous Houses and Literary Shrines of London_.
Lang's _Literary London_.
Hutton's _Literary Landmarks in London_.
Lucas's _A Wanderer in London_.
Shelley's _Literary By-Paths in Old England_.
Baildon's _Homes and Haunts of Famous Authors_.
Bates's _From Gretna Green to Land's End_.
Masson's _In the Footsteps of the Poets_.
Wolfe's _A Literary Pilgrimage among the Haunts of Famous British
Authors_.
Salmon's _Literary Rambles in the West of England_.
Hutton's _A Book of the Wye_.
Headlam's _Oxford (Medieval Towns Series)_.
Winter's _Shakespeare's England_.
Murray's _Handbook of Warwickshire_.
Lee's _Stratford-on-Avon, from the Earliest Times to the Death of
Shakespeare_.
Tompkins's _Stratford-on-Avon_ (Dent's _Temple Topographies_).
Brassington's _Shakespeare's Homeland_.
Winter's _Grey Days and Gold_ (Shakespeare).
Collingwood's _The Lake Counties_ (Dent's County Guides).
Wordsworth's _The Prelude_ (Books I.-V.).
Rawnsley's _Literary Associations of the English Lakes_.
Knight's _Through the Wordsworth Country_.
Bradley's _Highways and Byways in the English Lakes_.
Jerrold's _Surrey_ (Dent's County Guides).
Dewar's _Hampshire with Isle of Wight_ (Dent's County Guides).
Ward's _The Canterbury Pilgrimage_.
Harper's _The Hardy Country_.
Snell's _The Blackmore Country_.
Melville's _The Thackeray Country_.
Kitton's _The Dickens Country_.
Sloan's _The Carlyle Country_.
Dougall's _The Burns Country_.
Crockett's _The Scott Country_.
Hill's _Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends_.
Cook's _Homes and Haunts of John Ruskin_.
William Sharp's _Literary Geography and Travel Sketches_ (Vol. IV. of
_Works_) contains chapters on _The Country of Stevenson, The Country
of George Meredith, The Country of Carlyle, The Country of George.
Eliot, The Bronte Country, Thackeray Land_, The Thames from Oxford to
the Nore_.
Hutton's _Literary Landmarks of Edinburgh_.
Stevenson's _Picturesque Notes on Edinburgh_.
Loftie's _Brief Account of Westminster Abbey_.
Parker's _Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture_.
Stanley's _Memorials of Westminster Abbey_.
Kimball's _An English Cathedral Journey_.
Singleton's _How to Visit the English Cathedrals_.
Bond's _The English Cathedrals_ (200 illustrations).
Cram's _The Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain_ (6 illustrations).
Home's _What to See in England_.
Boynton's _London in English Literature_.
GENERAL REFERENCE LIST FOR THE STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE[1]:
_Cambridge History of English Literature_, 14 vols.
Garnett and Gosse's _English Literature_, 4 vols.
Morley's _English Writers_, 11 vols.
Jusserand's _Literary History of the English People_.
Taine's _English Literature_.
Courthope's _History of English Poetry_, 6 vols.
Stephens and Lee's _Dictionary of National Biography_ (dead authors).
_New International Cyclopedia_ (living and dead authors).
_English Men of Letters Series_ (abbreviated reference, E.M.L.)
_Great Writers' Series_ (abbreviated reference. G.W.).
Poole's _Index_ (and continuation volumes for reference to critical
articles in periodicals).
_The United States Catalogue_ and _Cumulative Book Index_.
SELECTIONS FROM ENGLISH LITERATURE[2]:
*Pancoast and Spaeth's _Early English Poems_. (P. & S.)[3]
*Warren's _Treasury of English Literature, Part I_. (Origins to
Eleventh Century: London, One Shilling.) (Warren.)
*Ward's _English Poets_, 4 vols. (Ward.)
*Bronson's _English Poems_, 4 vols. (Bronson.)
_Oxford Treasury of English Literature_, Vol. I., _Beowulf to
Jacobean_;
*Vol. II., _Growth of the Drama_; Vol. III., _Jacobean to Victorian_.
(Oxford Treasury.)
*_Oxford Book of English Verse_. (Oxford.)
*Craik's _English Prose_, 5 vols. (Craik.)
*Page's _British Poets of the Nineteenth Century_. (Page.)
Chambers's _Cyclopedia of English Literature_. (Chambers.)
Manly's _English Poetry_ (from 1170). (Manly I.)
Manly's _English Prose_ (from 1137). (Manly II.)
_Century Readings for a Course in English Literature_. (Century.)
CHAPTER I: FROM 449 A.D. TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066
Subject Matter and Aim.--The history of English literature traces
the development of the best poetry and prose written in English by the
inhabitants of the British Isles. For more than twelve hundred years
the Anglo-Saxon race has been producing this great literature, which
includes among its achievements the incomparable work of Shakespeare.
This literature is so great in amount that the student who approaches
the study without a guide is usually bewildered. He needs a history of
English literature for the same reason that a traveler in England
requires a guidebook. Such a history should do more than indicate
where the choicest treasures of literature may be found; it should
also show the interesting stages of development; it should emphasize
some of the ideals that have made the Anglo-Saxons one of the most
famous races in the world; and it should inspire a love for the
reading of good literature.