English Literature: Its History and Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World | Page 3

the proofs of this book, and have improved
it by their good suggestions.
WILLIAM J. LONG STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT
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CONTENTS


CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION--THE MEANING OF LITERATURE
The Shell and the Book. Qualities of Literature. Tests of Literature. The
Object in studying Literature. Importance of Literature. Summary of
the Subject. Bibliography.


CHAPTER II.
THE ANGLO-SAXON OR OLD-ENGLISH PERIOD

Our First Poetry. "Beowulf." "Widsith." "Deor's Lament." "The
Seafarer." "The Fight at Finnsburgh." "Waldere." Anglo-Saxon Life.
Our First Speech. Christian Writers. Northumbrian Literature. Bede.
Caedmon. Cynewulf. Decline of Northumbrian Literature. Alfred.
Summary. Bibliography. Questions. Chronology.


CHAPTER III.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD
The Normans. The Conquest. Literary Ideals of the Normans. Geoffrey
of Monmouth. Work of the French Writers. Layamon's "Brut." Metrical
Romances. The Pearl. Miscellaneous Literature of the Norman Period.
Summary. Bibliography. Questions. Chronology.


CHAPTER IV.
THE AGE OF CHAUCER
History of the Period. Five Writers of the Age. Chaucer. Langland.
"Piers Plowman." John Wyclif. John Mandeville. Summary.
Bibliography. Questions. Chronology.


CHAPTER V.
THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING

Political Changes. Literature of the Revival. Wyatt and Surrey.
Malory's "Morte d'Arthur." Summary. Bibliography. Questions.
Chronology.


CHAPTER VI.
THE AGE OF ELIZABETH
Political Summary. Characteristics of the Elizabethan Age. The
Non-Dramatic Poets. Edmund Spenser. Minor Poets. Thomas Sackville.
Philip Sidney. George Chapman. Michael Drayton. The Origin of the
Drama. The Religious Period of the Drama. Miracle and Mystery Plays.
The Moral Period of the Drama. The Interludes. The Artistic Period of
the Drama. Classical Influence upon the Drama. Shakespeare's
Predecessors in the Drama. Christopher Marlowe. Shakespeare.
Decline of the Drama. Shakespeare's Contemporaries and Successors.
Ben Jonson. Beaumont and Fletcher. John Webster. Thomas Middleton.
Thomas Heywood. Thomas Dekker. Massinger, Ford, Shirley. Prose
Writers. Francis Bacon. Richard Hooker. Sidney and Raleigh. John
Foxe. Camden and Knox. Hakluyt and Purchas. Thomas North.
Summary. Bibliography. Questions. Chronology.


CHAPTER VII.
THE PURITAN AGE
The Puritan Movement. Changing Ideals. Literary Characteristics. The
Transition Poets. Samuel Daniel. The Song Writers. The Spenserian
Poets. The Metaphysical Poets. John Donne. George Herbert. The
Cavalier Poets. Thomas Carew. Robert Herrick. Suckling and Lovelace.

John Milton. The Prose Writers. John Bunyan. Robert Burton. Thomas
Browne. Thomas Fuller. Jeremy Taylor. Richard Baxter. Izaak Walton.
Summary. Bibliography. Questions. Chronology.


CHAPTER VIII.
PERIOD OF THE RESTORATION
History of the Period. Literary Characteristics. John Dryden. Samuel
Butler. Hobbes and Locke. Evelyn and Pepys. Summary. Bibliography.
Questions. Chronology.


CHAPTER IX.
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE
History of the Period. Literary Characteristics. The Classic Age.
Alexander Pope. Jonathan Swift. Joseph Addison. "The Tatler" and
"The Spectator." Samuel Johnson. Boswell's "Life of Johnson." Later
Augustan Writers. Edmund Burke. Edward Gibbon. The Revival of
Romantic Poetry. Thomas Gray. Oliver Goldsmith. William Cowper.
Robert Burns. William Blake. The Minor Poets of the Romantic
Revival. James Thomson. William Collins. George Crabbe. James
Macpherson. Thomas Chatterton. Thomas Percy. The First English
Novelists. Meaning of the Novel. Precursors of the Novel. Discovery of
the Modern Novel. Daniel Defoe. Samuel Richardson. Henry Fielding.
Smollett and Sterne. Summary. Bibliography. Questions. Chronology.

CHAPTER X.
THE AGE OF ROMANTICISM
Historical Summary. Literary Characteristics of the Age. The Poets of
Romanticism. William Wordsworth. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Robert
Southey. Walter Scott. Byron. Percy Bysshe Shelley. John Keats. Prose
Writers of the Romantic Period. Charles Lamb. Thomas De Quincey.
Jane Austen. Walter Savage Landor. Summary. Bibliography.
Questions. Chronology.


CHAPTER XI.
THE VICTORIAN AGE
Historical Summary. Literary Characteristics. Poets of the Victorian
Age. Alfred Tennyson. Robert Browning. Minor Poets of the Victorian
Age. Elizabeth Barrett. Rossetti. Morris. Swinburne. Novelists of the
Victorian Age. Charles Dickens. William Makepeace Thackeray.
George Eliot. Minor Novelists of the Victorian Age. Charles Reade.
Anthony Trollope. Charlotte Bronte. Bulwer Lytton. Charles Kingsley.
Mrs. Gaskell. Blackmore. Meredith. Hardy. Stevenson. Essayists of the
Victorian Age. Macaulay. Carlyle. Ruskin. Matthew Arnold. Newman.
The Spirit of Modern Literature. Summary. Bibliography. Questions.
Chronology.
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION--THE MEANING OF LITERATURE
Hold the hye wey, and lat thy gost thee lede. Chaucer's Truth On, on,
you noblest English, ... Follow your spirit. Shakespeare's Henry V
THE SHELL AND THE BOOK. A child and a man were one day
walking on the seashore when the child found a little shell and held it to
his ear. Suddenly he heard sounds,--strange, low, melodious sounds, as
if the shell were remembering and repeating to itself the murmurs of its
ocean home. The child's face filled with wonder as he listened. Here in
the little shell, apparently, was a voice from another world, and he
listened with delight to its mystery and music. Then came the man,
explaining that the child heard nothing strange; that the pearly curves
of the shell simply caught a multitude of sounds too faint for human
ears, and filled the glimmering hollows with the murmur