A manual of English literature

The INDEX has been carefully revised. In order that t
additions might not make the volume unwieldy, a smaller, b
still very legible, type has been adopted for the entire wor
The chapters have been divided into sections for greater con
nience of reference, and numbered accordingly.

OXFORD: October 1877.

CONTENTS.

HISTORICAL SECTION.

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

SECTION I. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD: A.D. 449-1066.

Character of Anglo-Saxon Literature.-Works in Latin: Bede, Alcuin.

-Poetry: Gleeman's Song, Beowulf, Caedmon's Paraphrase, Andreas

and Elene, Judith, Brunanburg War-Song.-Prose: Alfred, Saxon

Chronicle

PAGES 1-18

SECTION II. NORMAN PERIOD: 1066-1350.

Decline of the Saxon tongue.-3. Later portion of the Saxon Chronicle.

4. Impulse given to Learning by the Moors.-SCHOLASTIC PHILOSO-

PHY: 6. St. Anselm; Abelard; St. Bernard; 9. Peter Lombard;

Alexander Hales; Duns Scotus; William of Occam.-HISTORIANS

AND CHRONICLERS, 11-30: Eadmer; Ingulfus; William of Malmes-

bury; Ordericus Vitalis; Geoffrey of Monmouth; Simeon of Durham ;

Florence of Worcester; Henry of Huntingdon; Benedictus Abbas;

William of Newbury; Diceto; Giraldus de Barri; Roger de Hoveden;

Roger de Wendover; Matthew Paris; Wikes; Rishanger; Trivet ;

Higden; 30. Monastic Chronicles: Jocelin de Brakelond.-LAW;

MEDICINE; MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS, 31-37: Glanvile; Salerno;

John of Salisbury; Geoffrey Vinsauf; Walter Map; Sewulf; Richard

of Bury.-SCIENCE, 38-40; Adelard; Roger Bacon.-MEANS OF

EDUCATION: Universities; Monasteries; Invention of Paper.-

POETRY: Early English Fragments, 46-49; Canute's Song; St, Go-

dric's Hymn, &c. Leonine Verses; Latin Satires and Epics; Vinsauf,

Iscanus, Wireker, &c. French Poets: Troubadours; Trouvères;

French Romances; the Arthur Cycle; legend of the Saint Graal, 60–

69; other epopees; the Alexandreis, 71; Fabliaux, 72; Satires; Histo-

rical Poems; Wace, Benoit, Gaimar. English Poets, 75-93; ‘Have-

lok'; 'King Horn'; Riming Chroniclers; Lagamon, 81; Robert of

Gloucester; Robert Manning, 85; Religious Poems; Ormulum,' 86;

*Proverbs of Hendyng'; 'Cursor Mundi'; Hampole's 'Pricke of Con-

science.' Occasional Poems, 91; Battle of Lewes,' 'Owl and Night-

ingale,' Moral Poem.-Early English Prose, 94; 'Ancren Riwle,'

Ayenbite of Inwyt'
PAGES 19-76

CHAPTER I.

EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD: 1350-1450.

Latin and French Compositions, 1-7; Froissart, Elmham, Avesbury,

Knyghton, Walsingham, Fordun, Wyclif, Walden. Growth of the

English Language and Literature; Alliterative Poems, 9-20; 'Sainte

Marherete,' Joseph of Arimathie,' William of Palerne,' 'Geste

Hystoriale, Clannesse,'Pacience,' Plowman's Crede': connection

between alliteration and irregularity of versification, 16: Langland's

"Vision of Piers the Plowman.'-Chaucer, Sketch of his life, 21;

authenticity of his writings, 22-27; Chronology of his writings, 28.

His Early Poems, 29–35; Romaunt of the Rose'; the new style:

Assembly of Foules,'' Boke of the Duchesse,' 'Quene Anelyda,'

'Chauceres A B C.'-Poems of Middle Life, 36-40; 'Troylus and

Cryseyde,'' Court of Love,' 'House of Fame,' 'Palamon and Arcite.’—

His Later Poems, 41-64; Legende of Good Women'; ballads and

other short pieces, 43; Canterbury Tales'; their order, 45;

Knightes Tale,' Milleres Tale,' &c.-Gower, 65, 66; Occleve;

Lydgate, 68-72; Minot.-SCOTTISH POETS, 74; Barbour, James

I., Wynton. PROSE WRITERS, 75; Maundevile, Chaucer,

REVIVAL OF LEARNING: 1450-1558.

Decline of Literature; invention of Printing; Caxton; foundation of

Schools and Universities.-POETRY AND ROMANCE, 3: Hardyng,

Malory, Hawes, Barclay, Skelton, Surrey, Wyat; the Mirrour for Ma-

gistrates; first Poet Laureate.-SCOTTISH POETS, 12-17: Henryson,

Blind Harry, Dunbar, Gawain Douglas, Lyndsay.-LEARNING, 18–

28: Grocyn; Linacre; Colet; Lilye's Grammar; Archbishop Warham;
More; the Humanities; state of the Universities.-PROSE WRITERS,
29-39: Pecock, Fortescue, Caxton, Leland, More; his Utopia.
Chroniclers, 33: Capgrave, Fabyan, More, Hall, Grafton; Bale's
Summarium.' Theological Writers, 34: Latimer, Tyndale, More.

Roger Ascham; Elyot.
133-168

CHAPTER III.

ELIZABETHAN PERIOD: 1558-1625.

Brilliant Period of our Literature; connected with the Social Prospe-

rity of the Country---POETS, 3-24: Spenser, the Faerie Queene,'

4: Shakspore's Poems, 8; Southwell, Hall, Warner, Daniel, Drayton,

Donne, Davies, Chapman, Marston, Gascoigne, Sidney, Tusser, Mar-

mo, Raleigh,-Rise and Progress of the English Drama, 25-58

Miracle-plays; Coventry Mysteries; Earliest Comedy, 28; Hey-

wood's Interludes; earliest Tragedy, 31; Plays of Marlowe ; Dramatic

Unities; Greene's Pamphlet. Shakspere, 35; sketch of his life; his

Comedies, 37-8; his Tragedies, 39-40; his historical Plays, 41–2 ;

'Pericles,' 43; Titus Andronicus'; Doubtful Plays, 44. Ben Jonson,

45; Beaumont and Fletcher, 46; Greene, Peele, Nash, Massinger,

Ford, Webster, Marston, Chapman, Dekker, T. Heywood, Middleton,

Rowley, Tourneur, Shirley; Suppression of the Stage, 58.-PROSE

WRITERS, 59: Novels; Lodge; Lyly's 'Euphues'; Sidney's

'Arcadia,' 62; Hall. Books of Travel, 64; Hakluyt, Purchas.

Essays, 65; Bacon, Burton; Criticism, 67; Gascoigne, Webbe, Put-

tenham; Sir Philip Sidney. Earliest Newspaper.-HISTORIANS, 69–

75: Holinshed, Camden, Bacon, Speed, Knolles, Raleigh; Foxe's

'Martyrs.'-THEOLOGIANS, 76-80: Jewel, Hooker, Parsons, Staple-

ton, James I., Andrewes; Translation of the Bible.-PHILOSOPHY,

82: Francis Bacon; explanation of his Method; his Philoso-

phical Works, 84-5. Political Science, 86; Buchanan, Spenser,

Raleigh

PAGES 169-240

CHAPTER IV.

CIVIL WAR PERIOD: 1625-1700.

Sketch of the leading Political Events.-POETRY BEFORE THE RE-

STORATION, 4-28: Jonson; the Fantastic School; Cowley, Waller,

Crashaw. Song-writers, 10. Herbert, Wotton, Corbet, Carew,

Drummond, Cleveland, Suckling, Herrick, Lovelace, Denham, Ha-

bington. Milton: Sketch of his literary life; Wither, Marvell.

POETRY AFTER THE RESTORATION, 29–39: Dryden : Sketch of his lite-

rary life; Roscommon, 37; Butler; Davenant. THE DRAMA, 40-51:

Heroic Plays; Dryden, Otway, Lee, Shadwell, Settle, Crowne, Behn.

Comedy of Manners: Congreve, Etherege, Wycherley; Jeremy Col-

lier's Short View.'-LEARNING, 52-4: Usher, Selden, Gale, &c.

PROSE FICTION: Bunyan, 55.-HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY: Fuller,

Milton, Ludlow, Clarendon, &c.; Wood's Athenæ, Fuller, Pepys,

Evelyn, &c.-THEOLOGY, 59-69; Hall, Chillingworth, Hales, Jeremy

Taylor, Bull; Latitudinarian Divines: Leighton, Pearson, Lightfoot,

Baxter, William Penn.-PHILOSOPHY, 70-76; Hobbes, Cudworth,

Locke, Harrington, Barclay.-ESSAY WRITERS, 77: Hall, Felltham,

Browne, Evelyn's Sylva. SCIENCE: Newton.
241-301

CHAPTER V.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: 1700-1800.

Historical Sketch; general characteristics.-POETRY FROM 1700 to

1745, 3-32: Pope: Sketch of his literary life; Essay on Man, 9; his

politics, 11; Addison, Gay, Parnell, Swift, Thomson, Prior, Congreve,

Montague, Garth, Blackmore, Defoe, Rowe, Tickell, Savage, Dyer,

A. Philips, J. Philips, Watts, Ramsay.-THE DRAMA, same period,

33-8: Addison, Rowe, Thomson, Young, Southern, Steele; Prose

Comedy Farquhar, Vanbrugh, Cibber, Centlivre, Gay,-LEARNING,

same period, 39: Bentley, Lardner.-PROSE WRITERS, same period :

Novelists, 41: Swift. Defoe. Pamphleteers, 43: Swift, Arbuthnot.

Periodical Miscellany, 45: Tatler, Spectator, Guardian, &e. Satiri-

cal Works, 47: Swift's Tale of a Tub.-HISTORIANS: Burnet. Rapin.

-POETRY, 1745-1800, 50–68: Johnson, Gray, Young, Churchill,

Goldsmith, Cowper. Burns: minor Poets; the Road.-THE DRAMA,

same period. 69-71: Home. Johnson, Goldsmith. Sheridan, and

others.-PROSE WRITERS, Same period: Novelists. 73; Richardson,

Fielding, Smollett, Sterne. Johnson, Goldsmith, Miss Burney. God-

win, &c.-Oratory, 78: Chatham, Burke, &c. Pamphleteers, 79:

Junius, Burke-Essayists. 82; Johnson.-Historians, 83: Hume,

Robertson. Gibbon. &c.-Biographers: Boswell, &c.-THEOLOGY,

from 1700 to 1800, 86-92: Sacheverell; the English Deists: Bentley,

Berkeley, Butler's Analogy, Warburton: Methodism: Middleton;

Challoner.-PHILOSOPHY, same period, 93: Berkeley, Hume, Reid,

Butler, Paley, &c.-Political Science. 97: Hume. Burke. Godwin,

Paine-Political Economy, 98: Adam Smith.-Criticism: Burke,

Reynolds, &c. Chesterfield's Letters
PAGES 302-364

CHAPTER VI

MODERN TIMES: 1800-1850.

Reaction against the Ideas of the Eighteenth Century: Theory of the
Spontaneous in Poetry-POETRY, 3-22: Sir Walter Scott: Sketch
of his literary life; Keats, 9: Shelley, Byron, Crabbe, Coleridge,
Southey, Campbell, Wordsworth; his Excursion, 13; Moore. Hood.
Hegg, &c.-THE DRAMA, 22: Sheridan Knowies, Joanna Baillie, xc.
-PROSE WRITERS: Summary account of
365-392

CRITICAL SECTION,

CHAPTER L

Definition of Literature: Poetry and Prose Writings: Classification of

Poetical Compositions: -EPIC POETRY, 37: the Paradise Lost:

DRAMATIC POETRY, $-10: its kinds: Shakspere, Addison. - EBROIC

POETRY, 11-13: The Bruce; the Campaign: Mock Heroic Poems

Pope's Rape of the Lock. —NABBartys Pugtry, 14-30 : 2 Romances.

Sir Isamoras; 2. Tales Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales Fal-

coner. Crabbe: 3. Allegories: Vision of Pers Flowman, Flower and

the Lead the Thistle and the Bose, Svenser's Faurie Queene, Castle

of Indolence: Fables: Gay, s Phrsie, Merrick: 6 3emaacie

Poems: Scurt's Lay and others: Byron's Cremai ales, Lalla Jouki: