Outlines of English and American Literature | Page 2

strives hard enough for that virtue; but after all his striving,
remembering the difficulty of criticism and the perversity of names and
dates that tend to error as the sparks fly upward, he must still trust
heaven and send forth his work with something of Chaucer's feeling
when he wrote:
O littel bookë, thou art so unconning, How darst thou put thy-self in
prees for drede?
Which may mean, to one who appreciates Chaucer's wisdom and
humor, that having written a little book in what seemed to him an
unskilled or "unconning" way, he hesitated to give it to the world for
dread of the "prees" or crowd of critics who, even in that early day,
were wont to look upon each new book as a camel that must be put
through the needle's eye of their tender mercies.
In the selection and arrangement of his material the author has aimed to
make a usable book that may appeal to pupils and teachers alike.
Because history and literature are closely related (one being the record

of man's deed, the other of his thought and feeling) there is a brief
historical introduction to every literary period. There is also a review of
the general literary tendencies of each age, of the fashions, humors and
ideals that influenced writers in forming their style or selecting their
subject. Then there is a biography of every important author, written
not to offer another subject for hero-worship but to present the man
exactly as he was; a review of his chief works, which is intended
chiefly as a guide to the best reading; and a critical estimate or
appreciation of his writings based partly upon first-hand impressions,
partly upon the assumption that an author must deal honestly with life
as he finds it and that the business of criticism is, as Emerson said, "not
to legislate but to raise the dead." This detailed study of the greater
writers of a period is followed by an examination of some of the minor
writers and their memorable works. Finally, each chapter concludes
with a concise summary of the period under consideration, a list of
selections for reading and a bibliography of works that will be found
most useful in acquiring a larger knowledge of the subject.
In its general plan this little volume is modeled on the author's more
advanced English Literature and American Literature; but the material,
the viewpoint, the presentation of individual writers,--all the details of
the work are entirely new. Such a book is like a second journey through
ample and beautiful regions filled with historic associations, a journey
that one undertakes with new companions, with renewed pleasure and,
it is to be hoped, with increased wisdom. It is hardly necessary to add
that our subject has still its unvoiced charms, that it cannot be
exhausted or even adequately presented in any number of histories. For
literature deals with life; and life, with its endlessly surprising variety
in unity, has happily some suggestion of infinity.
WILLIAM J. LONG
STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT

CONTENTS

ENGLISH LITERATURE
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION: AN ESSAY OF LITERATURE
What is Literature? The Tree and the Book. Books of Knowledge and
Books of Power. The Art of Literature. A Definition and Some
Objections.
CHAPTER II.
BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
Tributaries of Early Literature. The Anglo-Saxon or Old-English
Period. Specimens of the Language. The Epic of Beowulf.
Anglo-Saxon Songs. Types of Earliest Poetry. Christian Literature of
the Anglo-Saxon Period. The Northumbrian School. Bede. Cædmon.
Cynewulf. The West-Saxon School. Alfred the Great. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle.
The Anglo-Norman or Early Middle-English Period. Specimens of the
Language. The Norman Conquest. Typical Norman Literature.
Geoffrey of Monmouth. First Appearance of the Legends of Arthur.
Types of Middle-English Literature. Metrical Romances. Some Old
Songs. Summary of the Period. Selections for Reading. Bibliography.
CHAPTER III.
THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING
Specimens of the Language. History of the Period. Geoffrey Chaucer.
Contemporaries and Successors of Chaucer. Langland and his Piers
Plowman. Malory and his Morte d' Arthur. Caxton and the First
Printing Press. The King's English as the Language of England. Popular
Ballads. Summary of the Period. Selections for Reading. Bibliography.
CHAPTER IV.

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE
Historical Background. Literary Characteristics of the Period. Foreign
Influence. Outburst of Lyric Poetry. Lyrics of Love. Music and Poetry.
Edmund Spenser. The Rise of the Drama. The Religious Drama.
Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes. The Secular Drama. Pageants
and Masques. Popular Comedies. Classical and English Drama.
Predecessors of Shakespeare. Marlowe. Shakespeare. Elizabethan
Dramatists after Shakespeare. Ben Jonson. The Prose Writers. The
Fashion of Euphuism. The Authorized Version of the Scriptures.
Francis Bacon. Summary of the Period. Selections for Reading.
Bibliography.
CHAPTER V.
THE PURITAN AGE AND THE RESTORATION
Historical Outline. Three Typical Writers. Milton. Bunyan. Dryden.
Puritan and Cavalier Poets. George Herbert. Butler's