At the accession of Victoria the romantic movement had spent its force; Wordsworth had written his best work; the other romantic poets, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and Byron, had passed away; and for a time no new development was apparent in English poetry. Though the Victorian Age produced two great poets, Tennyson and Browning, the age, as a whole, is remarkable for the variety and excellence of its prose. A study of all the great writers of the period reveals four general characteristics: (1) Literature in this Age has come very close to daily life, reflecting its practical problems and interests, and is a powerful instrument of human progress. (2) The tendency of literature is strongly ethical; all the great poets, novelists, and essayists of the age are moral teachers. (3) Science in this age exercises an incalculable influence. On the one hand it emphasizes truth as the sole object of human endeavor; it has established the principle of law throughout the universe; and it has given us an entirely new view of life, as summed up in the word "evolution," that is, the principle of growth or development from simple to complex forms. On the other hand, its first effect seems to be to discourage works of the imagination. Though the age produced an incredible number of books, very few of them belong among the great creative works of literature. (4) Though the age is generally characterized as practical and materialistic, it is significant that nearly all the writers whom the nation delights to honor vigorously attack materialism, and exalt a purely ideal conception of life. On the whole, we are inclined to call this an idealistic age fundamentally, since love, truth, justice, brotherhood--all great ideals--are emphasized as the chief ends of life, not only by its poets but also by its novelists and essayists.
In our study we have considered: (1) The Poets; the life and works of Tennyson and Browning; and the chief characteristics of the minor poets, Elizabeth Barrett (Mrs. Browning), Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. (2) The Novelists; the life and works of Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot; and the chief works of Charles Reade, Anthony Trollope, Charlotte Brontë, Bulwer-Lytton, Kingsley, Mrs. Gaskell, Blackmore, George Meredith, Hardy, and Stevenson. (3) The Essayists; the life and works of Macaulay, Matthew Arnold, Carlyle, Newman, and Ruskin. These were selected, from among many essayists and miscellaneous writers, as most typical of the Victorian Age. The great scientists, like Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, Wallace, Tyndall, and Spencer, hardly belong to our study of literature, though their works are of vast importance; and we omit the works of living writers who belong to the present rather than to the past century.
Selections for Reading. Manly's English Poetry and Manly's English Prose (Ginn and Company) contain excellent selections from all authors of this period. Many other collections, like Ward's English Poets, Garnett's English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria, Page's British Poets of the Nineteenth Century, and Stedman's A Victorian Anthology, may be used to advantage. All important works may be found in the convenient and inexpensive school editions given below. (For full titles and publishers see the General Bibliography.)
Tennyson. Short poems, and selections from Idylls of the King, In Memoriam, Enoch Arden, and The Princess. These are found in various school editions, Standard English Classics, Pocket Classics, Riverside Literature Series, etc. Poems by Tennyson, selected and edited with notes by Henry Van Dyke (Athenaeum Press Series), is an excellent little volume for beginners.
Browning. Selections, edited by R.M. Lovett, in Standard English Classics. Other school editions in Everyman's Library, Belles Lettres Series, etc.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Selections, edited by Elizabeth Lee, in Standard English Classics. Selections also in Pocket Classics, etc.
Matthew Arnold. Sohrab and Rustum, edited by Trent and Brewster, in Standard English Classics. The same poem in Riverside Literature Series, etc. Selections in Golden Treasury Series, etc. Poems, students' edition (Crowell). Essays in Everyman's Library, etc. Prose selections (Holt, Allyn & Bacon, etc.).
Dickens. Tale of Two Cities, edited by J.W. Linn, in Standard English Classics. A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and Pickwick Papers. Various good school editions of these novels in Everyman's Library, etc.
Thackeray. Henry Esmond, edited by H.B. Moore, in Standard English Classics. The same novel, in Everyman's Library, Pocket Classics, etc.
George Eliot. Silas Marner, edited by R. Adelaide Witham, in Standard English Classics. The same novel, in Pocket Classics, etc.
Carlyle. Essay on Burns, edited by C.L. Hanson, in Standard English Classics, and Heroes and Hero Worship, edited by A. MacMechan, in Athenaeum Press Series. Selections, edited by H.W. Boynton (Allyn & Bacon). Various other inexpensive editions, in Pocket Classics, Eclectic English Classics, etc.
Ruskin. Sesame and Lilies, edited by Lois G. Hufford, in Standard English Classics. Other editions in Riverside Literature, Everyman's Library, etc. Selected Essays and Letters, edited by Hufford, in Standard English Classics. Selections, edited by Vida D. Scudder (Sibley); edited by C.B. Tinker, in Riverside Literature.
Macaulay. Essays on Addison and Milton, edited by H.A. Smith, in Standard English Classics. Same essays, in Cassell's National Library, Riverside Literature, etc. Lays of Ancient Rome, in Standard English Classics, Pocket Classics, etc.
Newman. Selections, with introduction by L.E. Gates (Holt); Selections from prose and poetry, in Riverside Literature. The Idea of a University, in Manly's English Prose.
Bibliography. (note. For full titles and publishers of general reference books, see General Bibliography.) History. Text-book, Montgomery, pp. 357-383; Cheyney, pp. 632-643. General Works. Gardiner, and Traill. Special Works. McCarthy's History of Our Own Times; Bright's History of England, vols. 4-5; Lee's Queen Victoria; Bryce's Studies in Contemporary Biography.
Literature. General Works. Garnett and Gosse, Taine. Special Works. Harrison's Early Victorian Literature; Saintsbury's A History of Nineteenth Century Literature; Walker's The Age of Tennyson; same author's The Greater Victorian Poets; Morley's Literature of the Age of Victoria; Stedman's Victorian Poets; Mrs. Oliphant's Literary History of England in the Nineteenth Century; Beers's English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century; Dowden's Victorian Literature, in Transcripts and Studies; Brownell's Victorian Prose Masters.
Tennyson. Texts: Cabinet edition (London, 1897) is the standard. Various good editions, Globe, Cambridge Poets, etc. Selections in Athenaeum Press (Ginn and Company).
Life: Alfred Lord Tennyson, a Memoir by his son, is the standard; by Lyall (in English Men of Letters); by Horton; by Waugh. See also Anne T. Ritchie's Tennyson and His Friends; Napier's The Homes and Haunts of Tennyson; Rawnsley's Memories of the Tennysons.
Criticism: Brooke's Tennyson, his Art and his Relation to Modern Life; A. Lang's Alfred Tennyson; Van Dyke's The Poetry of Tennyson; Sneath's The Mind of Tennyson; Gwynn's A Critical Study of Tennyson's Works; Luce's Handbook to Tennyson's Works; Dixon's A Tennyson Primer; Masterman's Tennyson as a Religious Teacher; Collins's The Early Poems of Tennyson; Macallum's Tennyson's Idylls of the King and the Arthurian Story; Bradley's Commentary on In Memoriam; Bagehot's Literary Studies, vol. 2; Brightwell's Concordance; Shepherd's Bibliography.
Essays: By F. Harrison, in Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill, and Other Literary Estimates; by Stedman, in Victorian Poets; by Hutton, in Literary Essays; by Dowden, in Studies in Literature; by Gates, in Studies and Appreciations; by Forster, in Great Teachers; by Forman, in Our Living Poets. See also Myers's Science and a Future Life.
Browning. Texts: Cambridge and Globe editions, etc. Various editions of selections. (See Selections for Reading, above.)
Life: by W. Sharp (Great Writers); by Chesterton (English Men of Letters); Life and Letters, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr; by Waugh, in Westminster Biographies (Small & Maynard).
Criticism: Symons's An Introduction to the Study of Browning; same title, by Corson; Mrs. Orr's Handbook to the Works of Browning; Nettleship's Robert Browning; Brooke's The Poetry of Robert Browning; Cooke's Browning Guide Book; Revell's Browning's Criticism of Life; Berdoe's Browning's Message to his Times; Berdoe's Browning Cyclopedia.
Essays: by Hutton, Stedman, Dowden, Forster (for titles, see Tennyson, above); by Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by Chapman, in Emerson and Other Essays; by Cooke, in Poets and Problems; by Birrell, in Obiter Dicta.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Texts: Globe and Cambridge editions, etc.; various editions of selections. Life: by J. H. Ingram; see also Bayne's Two Great Englishmen. Kenyon's Letters of E. B. Browning.
Criticism: Essays, by Stedman, in Victorian Poets; by Benson, in Essays.
Matthew Arnold. Texts: Poems, Globe edition, etc. See Selections for Reading, above. Life: by Russell; by Saintsbury; by Paul (English Men of Letters); Letters, by Russell.
Criticism: Essays by Woodberry, in Makers of Literature; by Gates, in Three Studies in Literature; by Hutton, in Modern Guides of English Thought; by Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters; by F. Harrison (see Tennyson, above).
Dickens. Texts: numerous good editions of novels. Life: by J. Forster; by Marzials (Great Writers); by Ward (English Men of Letters); Langton's The Childhood and Youth of Dickens.
Criticism: Gissing's Charles Dickens; Chesterton's Charles Dickens; Kitten's The Novels of Charles Dickens; Fitzgerald's The History of Pickwick. Essays: by F. Harrison (see above); by Bagehot, in Literary Studies; by Lilly, in Four English Humorists; by A. Lang, in Gadshill edition of Dickens's works.
Thackeray. Texts: numerous good editions of novels and essays. Life: by Melville; by Merivale and Marzials (Great Writers); by A. Trollope (English Men of Letters); by L. Stephen, in Dictionary of National Biography. See also Crowe's Homes and Haunts of Thackeray; Wilson's Thackeray in the United States.
Criticism: Essays, by Lilly, in Four English Humorists; by Harrison, in Studies in Early Victorian Literature; by Scudder, in Social Ideals in English Letters; by Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters.
George Eliot. Texts: numerous editions. Life: by L. Stephen (English Men of Letters); by O. Browning (Great Writers); by her husband, J.W. Cross.
Criticism: Cooke's George Eliot, a Critical Study of her Life and Writings. Essays: by J. Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by H. James, in Partial Portraits; by Dowden, in Studies in Literature; by Hutton, Harrison, Brownell, Lilly (see above). See also Parkinson's Scenes from the George Eliot Country.
Carlyle. Texts: various editions of works. Heroes, and Sartor Resartus, in Athenaeum Press (Ginn and Company); Sartor, and Past and Present, 1 vol. (Harper); Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 1 vol. (Appleton); Letters and Reminiscences, edited by C. E. Norton, 6 vols. (Macmillan).
Life: by Garnett (Great Writers); by Nichol (English Men of Letters); by Froude, 2 vols. (very full, but not trustworthy). See also Carlyle's Reminiscences and Correspondence, and Craig's The Making of Carlyle.
Criticism: Masson's Carlyle Personally and in his Writings. Essays: by Lowell, in My Study Windows; by Harrison, Brownell, Hutton, Lilly (see above).
Ruskin. Texts: Brantwood edition, edited by C.E. Norton; various editions of separate works. Life: by Harrison (English Men of Letters); by Collingwood, 2 vols.; see also Ruskin's Praeterita.
Criticism: Mather's Ruskin, his Life and Teaching; Cooke's Studies in Ruskin; Waldstein's The Work of John Ruskin; Hobson's John Ruskin, Social Reformer; Mrs. Meynell's John Ruskin; Sizeranne's Ruskin and the Religion of Beauty, translated from the French; White's Principles of Art; W. M. Rossetti's Ruskin, Rossetti, and Pre-Raphaelitism.
Essays: by Robertson, in Modern Humanists; by Saintsbury, in Corrected Impressions; by Brownell, Harrison, Forster (see above).
Macaulay. Texts: Complete works, edited by his sister, Lady Trevelyan (London, 1866); various editions of separate works (see Selections for Reading, above). Life: Life and Letters, by Trevelyan, 2 vols.; by Morrison (English Men of Letters).
Criticism: Essays, by Bagehot, in Literary Studies; by L. Stephen, in Hours in a Library; by Saintsbury, in Corrected Impressions; by Harrison, in Studies in Early Victorian Literature; by Matthew Arnold.
Newman. Texts: Uniform edition of important works (London, 1868-1881); Apologia (Longmans); Selections (Holt, Riverside Literature, etc.). Life: Jennings's Cardinal Newman; Button's Cardinal Newman; Early Life, by F. Newman; by Waller and Barrow, in Westminster Biographies. See also Church's The Oxford Movement; Fitzgerald's Fifty Years of Catholic Life and Progress.
Criticism: Essays, by Donaldson, in Five Great Oxford Leaders; by Church, in Occasional Papers, vol. 2; by Gates, in Three Studies in Literature; by Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by Hutton, in Modern Guides of English Thought; by Lilly, in Essays and Speeches; by Shairp, in Studies in Poetry and Philosophy. See also Button's Cardinal Newman.
Rossetti. Works, 2 vols. (London, 1901). Selections, in Golden Treasury Series. Life: by Knight (Great Writers); by Sharp; Hall Caine's Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Gary's The Rossettis; Marillier's Rossetti; Wood's Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement; W.M. Hunt's Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Criticism: Tirebuck's Rossetti, his Work and Influence. Essays: by Swinburne, in Essays and Studies; by Forman, in Our Living Poets; by Pater, in Ward's English Poets; by F.W.H. Myers, in Essays Modern.
Morris. Texts: Story of the Glittering Plain, House of the Wolfings, etc. (Reeves & Turner); Early Romances, in Everyman's Library; Sigurd the Volsung, in Camelot Series; Socialistic writings (Humboldt Publishing Co.). Life: by Mackail; by Cary; by Vallance.
Criticism: Essays, by Symons, in Studies in Two Literatures; by Dawson, in Makers of Modern English; by Saintsbury, in Corrected Impressions. See also Nordby's Influence of Old Norse Literature.
Swinburne. Texts: Complete works (Chatto and Windus); Poems and Ballads (Lovell); Selections (Rivington, Belles Lettres Series, etc.). Life: Wratislaw's Algernon Charles Swinburne, a Study.
Criticism: Essays, by Forman, Saintsbury (see above); by Lowell, in My Study Windows; see also Stedman's Victorian Poets.
Charles Keade. Texts: Cloister and the Hearth, in Everyman's Library; various editions of separate novels. Life: by C. Reade.
Criticism: Essay, by Swinburne, in Miscellanies.
Anthony Trollope. Texts: Royal edition of principal novels (Philadelphia, 1900); Barchester Towers, etc., in Everyman's Library. Life: Autobiography (Harper, 1883).
Criticism: H.T. Peck's Introduction to Royal edition, vol. 1. Essays: by H. James, in Partial Portraits; by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature. See also Cross, The Development of the English Novel.
Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Texts: Works, Haworth edition, edited by Mrs. H. Ward (Harper); Complete works (Dent, 1893); Jane Eyre, Shirley, and Wuthering Heights, in Everyman's Library. Life of Charlotte Brontë: by Mrs. Gaskell; by Shorter; by Birrell (Great Writers). Life of Emily Brontë: by Robinson. See also Leyland's The Brontë Family.
Criticism: Essays, by L. Stephen, in Hours in a Library; by Gates, in Studies and Appreciations; by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature; by G.B. Smith, in Poets and Novelists. See also Swinburne's A Note on Charlotte Brontë.
Bulwer-Lytton. Texts: Works, Knebsworth edition (Routledge); various editions of separate works; Last Days of Pompeii, etc., in Everyman's Library. Life: by his son, the Earl of Lytton; by Cooper; by Ten Brink.
Criticism: Essay, by W. Senior, in Essays in Fiction.
Mrs. Gaskell. Various editions of separate works; Cranford, in Standard English Classics, etc. Life: see Dictionary of National Biography. Criticism: see Saintsbury's Nineteenth-Century Literature.
Kingsley. Texts: Works, Chester edition; Hypatia, Westward Ho! etc., in Everyman's Library. Life: Letters and Memories, by his wife; by Kaufmann.
Criticism: Essays, by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature; by L. Stephen, in Hours in a Library.
Stevenson. Texts: Works (Scribner); Treasure Island, in Everyman's Library; Master of Ballantrae, in Pocket Classics; Letters, edited by Colvin (Scribner). Life: by Balfour; by Baildon; by Black; by Cornford. See also Simpson's Edinburgh Days; Eraser's In Stevenson's Samoa; Osborne and Strong's Memories of Vailima.
Criticism: Raleigh's Stevenson; Alice Brown's Stevenson. Essays: by H. James, in Partial Portraits; by Chapman, in Emerson and Other Essays.
Hardy. Texts: Works (Harper). Criticism: Macdonnell's Thomas Hardy; Johnson's The Art of Thomas Hardy. See also Windle's The Wessex of Thomas Hardy; and Dawson's Makers of English Fiction.
George Meredith. Texts: Novels and Selected Poems (Scribner).
Criticism: Le Gallienne's George Meredith; Hannah Lynch's George Meredith. Essays: by Henley, in Views and Reviews; by Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters; by Monkhouse, in Books and Plays. See also Bailey's The Novels of George Meredith; Curie's Aspects of George Meredith; and Cross's The Development of the English Novel.
Suggestive Questions. (NOTE. The best questions are those which are based upon the books, essays, and poems read by the pupil. As the works chosen for special study vary greatly with different teachers and classes, we insert here only a few questions of general interest.) 1. What are the chief characteristics of Victorian literature? Name the chief writers of the period in prose and poetry. What books of this period are, in your judgment, worthy to be placed among the great works of literature? What effect did the discoveries of science have upon the literature of the age? What poet reflects the new conception of law and evolution? What historical conditions account for the fact that most of the Victorian writers are ethical teachers?
2. Tennyson. Give a brief sketch of Tennyson's life, and name his chief works. Why is he, like Chaucer, a national poet? Is your pleasure in reading Tennyson due chiefly to the thought or the melody of expression? Note this figure in "The Lotos Eaters":
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.
What does this suggest concerning Tennyson's figures of speech in general? Compare "Locksley Hall" with "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After." What differences do you find in thought, in workmanship, and in poetic enthusiasm? What is Tennyson's idea of faith and immortality as expressed in In Memoriam?
3. Browning. In what respects is Browning like Shakespeare? What is meant by the optimism of his poetry? Can you explain why many thoughtful persons prefer him to Tennyson? What is Browning's creed as expressed in "Rabbi Ben Ezra"? Read "Fra Lippo Lippi" or "Andrea del Sarto," and tell what is meant by a dramatic monologue. In "Andrea" what is meant by the lines,
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?
4. Dickens. What experiences in Dickens's life are reflected in his novels? What are his favorite types of character? What is meant by the exaggeration of Dickens? What was the serious purpose of his novels? Make a brief analysis of the Tale of Two Cities, having in mind the plot, the characters, and the style, as compared with Dickens's other novels.
5. Thackeray. Read Henry Esmond and explain Thackeray's realism. What is there remarkable in the style of this novel? Compare it with Ivanhoe as a historical novel. What is the general character of Thackeray's satire? What are the chief characteristics of his novels? Describe briefly the works which show his great skill as a critical writer.
6. George Eliot. Read Silas Marner and make a brief analysis, having in mind the plot, the characters, the style, and the ethical teaching of the novel. Is the moral teaching of George Eliot convincing; that is, does it suggest itself from the story, or is it added for effect? What is the general impression left by her books? How do her characters compare with those of Dickens and Thackeray?
7. Carlyle. Why is Carlyle called a prophet, and why a censor? Read the Essay on Burns and make an analysis, having in mind the style, the idea of criticism, and the picture which this essay presents of the Scotch poet. Is Carlyle chiefly interested in Burns or in his poetry? Does he show any marked appreciation of Burns's power as a lyric poet? What is Carlyle's idea of history as shown in Heroes and Hero Worship? What experiences of his own life are reflected in Sartor Resartus? What was Carlyle's message to his age? What is meant by a "Carlylese" style?
8. Macaulay. In what respects is Macaulay typical of his age? Compare his view of life with that of Carlyle. Read one of the essays, on Milton or Addison, and make an analysis, having in mind the style, the interest, and the accuracy of the essay. What useful purpose does Macaulay's historical knowledge serve in writing his literary essays? What is the general character of Macaulay's History of England? Rqad a chapter from Macaulay's History, another from Carlyle's French Revolution, and compare the two. How does each writer regard history and historical writing? What differences do you note in their methods? What are the best qualities of each work? Why are both unreliable?
9. Arnold. What elements of Victorian life are reflected in Arnold's poetry? How do you account for the coldness and sadness of his verses? Read Sohrab and Rustum and write an account of it, having in mind the story, Arnold's use of his material, the style, and the classic elements in the poem. How does it compare in melody with the blank verse of Milton or Tennyson? What marked contrasts do you find between the poetry and the prose of Arnold?
10. Ruskin. In what respects is Ruskin "the prophet of modern society"? Read the first two lectures in Sesame and Lilies and then give Ruskin's views of labor, wealth, books, education, woman's sphere, and human society. How does he regard the commercialism of his age? What elements of style do you find in these lectures? Give the chief resemblances and differences between Carlyle and Ruskin.
11. Read Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford and describe it, having in mind the style, the interest, and the characters of the story. How does it compare, as a picture of country life, with George Eliot's novels?
12. Read Blackmore's Lorna Doone and describe it (as in the question above). What are the romantic elements in the story? How does it compare with Scott's romances in style, in plot, in interest, and in truthfulness to life?
| CHRONOLOGY | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nineteenth Century | |||
| HISTORY | LITERATURE | ||
| 1825. | Macaulay's Essay on Milton | ||
| 1826. | Mrs. Browning's early poems | ||
| 1830. | William IV | 1830. | Tennyson's Poems, Chiefly Lyrical |
| 1832. | Reform Bill | ||
| 1833. | Browning's Pauline | ||
| 1833-1834. | Carlyle's Sartor Resartus | ||
| 1836-1865. | Dickens's novels | ||
| 1837. | Victoria (d. 1901) | 1837. | Carlyle's French Revolution |
| 1843. | Macaulay's essays | ||
| 1844. | Morse's Telegraph | 1843-1860. | Ruskin's Modern Painters |
| 1846. | Repeal of Corn Laws | ||
| 1847-1859. | Thackeray's important novels | ||
| 1847-1857. | Charlotte Brontë's novels | ||
| 1848-1861. | Macaulay's History | ||
| 1853. | Kingsley's Hypatia | ||
| Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford | |||
| 1854. | Crimean War | ||
| 1853-1855. | Matthew Arnold's poems | ||
| 1856. | Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh | ||
| 1857. | Indian Mutiny | ||
| 1858-1876. | George Eliot's novels | ||
| 1859-1888. | Tennyson's Idylls of the King | ||
| 1859. | Darwin's Origin of Species | ||
| 1864. | Newman's Apologia | ||
| Tennyson's Enoch Arden | |||
| 1865-1888. | Arnold's Essays in Criticism | ||
| 1867. | Dominion of Canada | ||
| established | 1868. | Browning's Ring and the Book | |
| 1869. | Blackmore's Lorna Doone | ||
| 1870. | Government schools | ||
| established | |||
| 1879. | Meredith's The Egoist | ||
| 1880. | Gladstone prime minister | ||
| 1883. | Stevenson's Treasure Island | ||
| 1885. | Ruskin's Praeterita begun | ||
| 1887. | Queen's jubilee | ||
| 1889. | Browning's last work, Asolando | ||
| 1892. | Death of Tennyson | ||
| 1901. | Edward VII | ||
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Every chapter in this book includes two lists, one of selected readings, the other of special works treating of the history and literature of the period under consideration. The following lists include the books most useful for general reference work and for supplementary reading.
A knowledge of history is of great advantage in the study of literature. In each of the preceding chapters we have given a brief summary of historical events and social conditions, but the student should do more than simply read these summaries. He should review rapidly the whole history of each period by means of a good textbook. Montgomery's English History and Cheyney's Short History of England are recommended, but any other reliable text-book will serve the purpose.
For literary texts and selections for reading a few general collections, such as are given below, are useful; but the important works of each author may now be obtained in excellent and inexpensive school editions. At the beginning of the course the teacher, or the home student, should write for the latest catalogue of such publications as the Standard English Classics, Everyman's Library, etc., which offer a very wide range of reading at small cost. Nearly every publishing house issues a series of good English books for school use, and the list is constantly increasing.
History
Text-books: Montgomery's English History; Cheyney's Short History of England (Ginn and Company).
General Works: Green's Short History of the English People, 1 vol., or A History of the English People, 4 vols. (American Book Co.).
Traill's Social England, 6 vols. (Putnam).
Bright's History, of England, 5 vols., and Gardiner's Students' History of England (Longmans).
Gibbins's Industrial History of England, and Mitchell's English Lands, Letters, and Kings, 5 vols. (Scribner).
Oxford Manuals of English History, Handbooks of English History, and Kendall's Source Book of English History (Macmillan).
Lingard's History of England until 1688 (revised, 10 vols., 1855) is the standard Catholic history.
Other histories of England are by Knight, Froude, Macaulay, etc. Special works on the history of each period are recommended in the preceding chapters.
History of Literature
Jusserand's Literary History of the English People, 2 vols. (Putnam).
Ten Brink's Early English Literature, 3 vols. (Holt).
Courthope's History of English Poetry (Macmillan).
The Cambridge History of English Literature, many vols., incomplete (Putnam).
Handbooks of English Literature, 9 vols. (Macmillan).
Garnett and Gosse's Illustrated History of English Literature, 4 vols. (Macmillan).
Morley's English Writers, 11 vols. (Cassell), extends through Elizabethan literature. It is rather complex and not up to date, but has many quotations from authors studied.
Taine's English Literature (many editions), is brilliant and interesting, but unreliable.
Literary Criticism
Lowell's Literary Essays.
Hazlitt's Lectures on the English Poets.
Mackail's The Springs of Helicon (a study of English poetry from Chaucer to Milton).
Dowden's Studies in Literature, and Dowden's Transcripts and Studies.
Minto's Characteristics of English Poets.
Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism.
Stevenson's Familiar Studies in Men and Books.
Leslie Stephen's Hours in a Library.
Birrell's Obiter Dicta.
Hales's Folia Litteraria.
Pater's Appreciations.
NOTE. Special works on criticism, the drama, the novel, etc., will be found in the Bibliographies on pp. 9, 181, etc.
Texts and Helps (inexpensive school editions).
Standard English Classics, and Athenaeum Press Series (Ginn and Company).
Everyman's Library (Dutton).
Pocket Classics, Golden Treasury Series, etc. (Macmillan).
Belles Lettres Series (Heath).
English Readings Series (Holt).
Riverside Literature Series (Houghton, Mifflin).
Canterbury Classics (Rand, McNally).
Academy Classics (Allyn & Bacon).
Cambridge Literature Series (Sanborn).
Silver Series (Silver, Burdett).
Student's Series (Sibley).
Lakeside Classics (Ainsworth).
Lake English Classics (Scott, Foresman).
Maynard's English Classics (Merrill).
Eclectic English Classics (American Book Co.).
Caxton Classics (Scribner).
The King's Classics (Luce).
The World's Classics (Clarendon Press).
Little Masterpieces Series (Doubleday, Page).
Arber's English Reprints (Macmillan).
New Mediaeval Library (Duffield).
Arthurian Romances Series (Nutt).
Morley's Universal Library (Routledge).
Cassell's National Library (Cassell).
Bohn Libraries (Macmillan).
Temple Dramatists (Macmillan).
Mermaid Series of English Dramatists (Scribner).
NOTE. We have included in the above list all the editions of which we have any personal knowledge, but there are doubtless others that have escaped attention.
Biography
Dictionary of National Biography, 63 vols. (Macmillan), is the standard.
English Men of Letters Series (Macmillan).
Great Writers Series (Scribner).
Beacon Biographies (Houghton, Mifflin).
Westminster Biographies (Small, Maynard).
Hinchman and Gummere's Lives of Great English Writers (Houghton, Mifflin) is a good single volume, containing thirty-eight biographies.
NOTE. For the best biographies of individual writers, see the Bibliographies at the ends of the preceding chapters.
Selections
Manly's English Poetry and Manly's English Prose (Ginn and Company) are the best single-volume collections, covering the whole field of English literature.
Pancoast's Standard English Poetry, and Pancoast's Standard English Prose (Holt).
Oxford Book of English Verse, and Oxford Treasury of English Literature, 3 vols. (Clarendon Press).
Page's British Poets of the Nineteenth Century (Sanborn).
Stedman's Victorian Anthology (Houghton, Mifflin).
Ward's English Poets, 4 vols.; Craik's English Prose Selections, 5 vols.; Chambers's Encyclopedia of English Literature, etc.
Miscellaneous
The Classic Myths in English Literature (Ginn and Company).
Adams's Dictionary of English Literature.
Ryland's Chronological Outlines of English Literature.
Brewer's Reader's Handbook.
Botta's Handbook of Universal Literature.
Ploetz's Epitome of Universal History.
Hutton's Literary Landmarks of London.
Heydrick's How to Study Literature.
For works on the English language see Bibliography of the Norman period, p. 65.
INDEX
KEY TO PRONUNCIATION
[=a], as in fate; [)a], as in fat; ä, as in arm; [a:], as in all; [a.], as in what; â, as in care
[=e], as in mete; [)e], as in met; ê, as in there
[=i], as in ice; [)i], as in it; ï, as in machine
[=o], as in old; [)o], as in not; [o:], as in move; [.o], as in son; ô, as in horse; [=oo] as in food; [)oo], as in foot
[=u], as in use; [)u], as in up; û, as in fur; [:u], as in rule; [.u], as in pull
[=y], as in fly; [)y], as in baby
c, as in call; ç, as in mice; ch, as in child; [-c]h, as in school
g, as in go; [.g], as in cage
s, as in saw; [s=], as in is
th, as in thin; th, as in then
x, as in vex; [x=], as in exact.
NOTE. Titles of books, poems, essays, etc., are in italics.
Absalom and Achitophel ([=a]-chit'o-fel)
Abt Vogler (äpt v[=o]g'ler)
Actors, in early plays;
Elizabethan
Addison;
life;
works;
hymns;
influence;
style
Adonais (ad-[=o]-n[=a]'is)
Aesc (esk)
Aidan, St. ([=i]'dan)
Aids to Reflection
Alastor ([)a]-l[)a]s-tôr)
Alchemist, The
Alexander's Feast
Alfred, King;
life and times;
works
All for Love
Alysoun, or Alisoun (äl'[)y]-sown or äl'[)y]-zoon), old form of Alice
Amelia
American Taxation, Burke's speech on
An Epistle
Anatomy of Melancholy
Ancren Riwle (angk'ren rol)
Andrea del Sarto (än-dr[=a]'yä del sär't[=o])
Andreas
Angeln
Angles, the
Anglo-Norman Period;
literature;
ballads;
lyrics;
summary;
selections for reading;
bibliography;
questions on;
chronology
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Period;
early poetry;
springs of poetry;
language;
Christian writers;
source books;
summary;
selections for reading;
bibliography;
questions on;
chronology
Anglo-Saxons;
the name;
life;
language;
literature,
see Anglo-Saxon Period.
Annus Mirabilis
Anselm
Apologia, Newman's
Apologie for Poetrie
Arcadia
Areopagitica ([)a]r'=[=e]-[)o]p-[)a]-j[)i]t'[)i]-cä)
Arnold, Matthew;
life;
poetry;
prose works;
characteristics
Art, definition of
Arthurian romances
Artistic period of drama
Artistic quality of literature
Ascham, Roger
Assonance
Astraea Redux ([)a]s-tr[=e]'ä r[=e]'duks)
Astrophel and Stella ([)a]s'tr[=o]-fel)
Atalanta in Calydon ([)a]t-[)a]-l[)a]n'tä, k[)a]l'[)i]-d[)o]n)
Augustan Age, meaning. See
Eighteenth-century literature
Aurora Leigh ([a:]-r[=o]'rä l[=e])
Austen, Jane; life;
novels; Scott's criticism of
Bacon, Francis; life; works;
place and influence
Bacon, Roger
Ballad, the
Ballads and Sonnets
Barchester Towers
Bard, The
Bard of the Dimbovitza (dim-bo-vitz'ä),
Roumanian folk songs
Battle of Agincourt (English, [)a]j'in-k[=o]rt)
Battle of Brunanburh
Battle of the Books
Baxter, Richard
Beaumont, Francis (b[=o]'mont)
Becket
Bede; his history; his account
of Cædmon
Bells and Pomegranates
Benefit of clergy
Beowulf (b[=a]'[=o]-wulf), the poem;
history; poetical form;
manuscript of
Beowulf's Mount
Bibliographies, study of literature;
Anglo-Saxon Period; Norman;
Chaucer; Revival of Learning;
Elizabethan; Puritan;
Restoration; Eighteenth
century; Romanticism;
Victorian; general
Bickerstaff Almanac
Biographia Literaria
Blackmore, Richard
Blake, William; life; works
Blank verse
Blessed Damozel
Blot in the 'Scutcheon, A
Boethius (b[=o]-[=e]'thi-us)
Boileau (bwa-l[=o]'), French critic
Boke of the Duchesse
Book of Martyrs
Borough, The
Boswell, James. See also Johnson
Boy actors
Breton, Nicholas
Brontë, Charlotte and Emily
Browne, Thomas; works
Browning, Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Robert; life;
works; obscurity of; as
a teacher; compared with
Shakespeare; with Tennyson;
periods of work; soul
studies; place and message
Brut, Layamon's; quotation from
Brutus, alleged founder of Britain
Bulwer Lytton
Bunyan, John; life; works;
his style
Burke, Edmund; life; works;
analysis of his orations
Burney, Fanny (Madame D'Arblay)
Burns, Robert; life; poetry;
Carlyle's essay on
Burton, Robert
Butler, Samuel
Byron; life; works;
compared with Scott
Cædmon (k[)a]d'mon), life; works;
his Paraphrase; school of
Cain
Callista
Calvert, Raisley
Camden, William
Campaign, The
Campion, Thomas
Canterbury Tales; plan of;
prologue; Dryden's criticism
of
Canynge's coffer
Carew, Thomas
Carlyle; life; works;
style and message
Carols, in early plays
Casa Guidi Windows (kä'sä gw[=e]'d[=e])
Castell of Perseverance
Castle of Indolence
Cata
Cavalier poets
Caxton; specimen of printing
Celtic legends
Chanson de Gestes
Chanson de Roland
Chapman, George; his Homer;
Keats's sonnet on
Chatterton, Thomas
Chaucer, how to read; life;
works; form of his poetry;
melody; compared with Spenser
Chaucer, Age of: history; writers;
summary; selections for reading;
bibliography; questions on; chronology
Chester plays
Cheyne Row
Childe Harold
Child's Garden of Verses
Chocilaicus (k[=o]-kil-[=a]'[=i]-cus)
Christ, The, of Cynewulf
Christabel
Christian Year
Christmas Carol, A
Christ's Hospital, London
Chronicle, The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle plays
Chronicles, riming
Chronology: Anglo-Saxon Period;
Norman-French; Age of Chaucer;
Revival of Learning; Elizabethan;
Puritan; Restoration; Eighteenth Century;
Romanticism; Victorian
Citizen of the World
Clarissa
Classic and classicism
Classic influence on the drama
Cloister and the Hearth
Clough, Arthur Hugh
Cockaygne, Land of (k[=o]-k[=a]n')
Coleridge; life; works; critiqal writings
Collier, Jeremy
Collins, William
Comedy, definition; first English; of the court
Complete Angler, The
Comus, Masque of
Conciliation with America, Burke's speech
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Consolations of Philosophy
Cotter's Saturday Night
Couplet, the
Court comedies
Covenant of 1643
Coventry plays
Cowley, Abraham
Cowper, William; life; works
Crabbe, George
Cranford
Crashaw, Richard
Critic, meaning of
Critical writing, Dryden; Coleridge;
in Age of Romanticism;
in Victorian Age
Criticism, Arnold's definition
Cross, John Walter
Crown of Wild Olive
Culture and Anarchy
Curse of Jfehama (k[=e]-hä'mä)
Cursor Mundi
Cycles, of plays; of romances
Cynewulf (kin'[)e]-wulf), 36-38
Cynthia's Revels (sin'thi-ä)
Daniel, Samuel
Daniel Deronda
D'Arblay, Madame (Fanny Burney)
Darwin and Darwinism
Death, Raleigh's apostrophe to
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Defense of Poesie
Defensio pro Populo Anglicano
Defoe; life; works
Dekker, Thomas
Delia
Democracy and Romanticism;
in Victorian Age
Dear's Lament
De Quincey; life; works; style
De Sapientia Veterum
Deserted Village, The
Dethe of Blanche the Duchesse
Diary, Evelyn's; Pepys's; selections from
Dickens;
life;
works;
general plan of novels;
his characters;
his public;
limitations
Dictionary, Johnson's
Discoverie of Guiana (g[=e]-ä'nä)
Divina Commedia (d[=e]-v[=e]'nä kom-m[=a]'d[=e]-ä)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Domestic drama
Donne, John
his poetry
Dotheboys Hall (do-the-boys)
Drama, in Elizabethan Age
origin,
periods of,
miracle and mystery plays,
interludes,
classical influence on,
unities,
the English,
types of,
decline of.
See also Elizabethan Age, Shakespeare,
Jonson, Marlowe, etc.
Dramatic unities
Dramatists, methods of See
Shakespeare, Marlowe, etc.
Drapier's Letters
Drayton, Michael
Dream of Gerontius, The (j[)e]-r[)o]n'sh[)i]-us)
Dryden
life,
works,
influence,
criticism of Canterbury Tales
Duchess of Malfi (mäl'f[=e])
Dunciad, The (dun's[)i]-ad)
Ealhild, queen ([=e]-äl'hild)
Earthly Paradise
Eastward Ho!
Economic conditions, in Age of Romanticism
Edgeworth, Maria
Edward II
Egoist, The
Eighteenth-Century Literature:
history of the period,
literary characteristics,
the Classic Age,
Augustan writers,
romantic revival,
the first novelists,
summary,
selections for reading,
bibliography,
questions,
chronology,
Eikon Basilike ([=i]'kon b[)a]-sil'[)i]-k[=e])
Eikonoklastes ([=i]-kon-[=o]-klas't[=e]z)
Elegy, Gray's
Elene
Elizabethan Age
history,
non-dramatic poets,
first dramatists,
Shakespeare's predecessors,
Shakespeare,
Shakespeare's contemporaries and successors,
prose writers,
summary,
selections,
bibliography,
questions,
chronology
Endymion
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
English Humorists
English Idyls
Eormanric ([=e]-or'man-ric)
Epicaene ([)e]p'[=i]-sen), or The Silent Woman
Epithalamium ([)e]p-[)i]-th[=a]-l[=a]'m[)i]-um)
Erasmus
Essay concerning Human Understanding
Essay of Dramatic Poesy
Essay on Burns
Essay on Criticism
Essay on Man
Essay on Milton
Essays,
Addison's,
Bacon's
Essays in Criticism
Essays of Elia ([=e]'l[)i]-ä)
Ethics of the Dust
Euphues and euphuism ([=u]'f[=u]-[=e]z)
Evans, Mary Ann. See George Eliot
Evelyn, John
Everlasting No, and Yea, The
Every Man in His Humour
Everyman
Excursion, The
Exeter Book
Faber, Frederick
Fables, Dryden's
Faery Queen
Fall of Princes
Faust (foust), Faustus (fas'tus)
Ferrex and Porrex
Fielding,
novels,
characteristics
Fight at Finnsburgh
Fingal (fing'gal)
First-folio Shakespeare
Fletcher, Giles
Fletcher, John
Ford, John
Formalism
Four Georges, The
Foxe, John
Fragments of Ancient Poetry
French influence in Restoration literature
French language in England
French Revolution, influence of
French Revolution, Carlyle's
Fuller, Thomas
Gammer Gurton's Needle
Gaskell, Mrs. Elizabeth
Gawain and the Green Knight (gä'-w[=a]n)
Gawain cycle of romances, 57
Gebir (g[=a]-b[=e]r')
Geoffrey of Monmouth (jef'r[)i])
George Eliot;
life;
works;
characteristics;
as a moralist
Gest (or jest) books
Geste of Robin Hood
Gibbon,
his history
Gifts of God, The
Girondists (j[)i]-ron'dists)
Gleemen, or minstrels
Goldsmith;
life;
works
Good Counsel
Gorboduc (gôr'b[=o]-duk)
Gorgeous Gallery
Gower
Grace Abounding
Gray, Thomas;
life;
works
Greatest English Poets
Greene, Robert
Gregory, Pope
Grendel; story of;
mother of
Grubb Street
Gulliver's Travels
Gull's Hornbook
Hakluyt, Richard (h[)a]k'loot)
Hallam,
his criticism of Bacon
Hardy, Thomas
Hastings, battle of
Hathaway, Anne
Hazlitt, William
Hengist (h[)e]ng'gist)
Henry Esmond
Herbert, George;
life;
poetry of
Hero and Leander
Heroes and Hero Worship
Heroic couplet
Heroic Stanzas
Herrick, Robert
Hesperides and Noble Numbers (h[)e]s-p[)e]r'[)i]-d[=e]z)
Heywood, John
Heywood, Thomas
Hilda, abbess
Hildgund (hild'gund)
Historical novel
History, of England, Macaulay's;
of Frederick the Great, Carlyle's;
of Henry VIII, Bacon's;
of the Reformation in Scotland, Knox's;
of the Wortd, Raleigh's
Hnæf (n[e=]f)
Hobbes, Thomas
Holofernes (hol-[=o]-fer'n[=e]z) in Judith
Holy and Profane State
Holy Living
Holy War
Homer, Chapman's;
Dryden's;
Pope's;
Cowper's
Hooker, Richard
Hooker, Thomas
Hours in a Library
Hours of Idleness
House of Fame
House of Life
Hrothgar (r[)o]th'gar)
Hudibras (h[=u]'d[)i]-bras)
Humanism
Humphrey Clinker
Hunt, Leigh
Husband's Message
Huxley,
Hygelac (h[=i]-j[=e]'lak)
Hymn book, first English
Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
Hymns, Addison's;
Cowper's
Hypatia (h[=i]-p[=a]'shia)
Hyperion (h[=i]-p[=e]'r[)i]-on)
Idealism of Victorian Age
Ideals
Idols, of Bacon
Idylls of the King
Il Penseroso (il pen-s[)e]-r[=o]'s[=o])
Iliad, Pope's translation;
Chapman's;
Dryden's
Imaginary Conversations
Impeachment of Warren Hastings
In Memoriam
Instauratio Magna (in-sta-r[=a]'shi-o)
Interludes
Intimations of Immortality
Jacobean poets
Jane Eyre (âr)
Jeffrey, Francis
Jest (or gest) books
Jew of Malta
John Gilpin
Johnson, Samuel; life;
works; his conversations;
Boswell's Life of Johnson
Jonathan Wild
Jonson, Ben; life; works
Joseph Andrews
Journal of the Plague Year
Journal to Stella
Judith
Juliana
Keats; life; works;
place in literature
Kilmarnock Burns, the
Kings' Treasuries
Kingsley, Charles
Knight's Tale, The
Knox, John
Kubla Khan (kob'lä kän)
Kyd, Thomas
L'Allegro (läl-[=a]'gr[=o])
Lady of the Lake
Lake poets, the
Lamb, Charles; life; works;
style
Lamb, Mary
Lamia (l[=a]'mi-ä)
Land of Cockaygne (k[)o]-kän')
Land of Dreams
Landor, Walter Savage; life;
works
Langland, William
Language, our first speech; dual
character of; Teutonic origin
Last Days of Pompeii (pom-p[=a]'y[=e])
Law, Hooker's idea of
Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity,
Lay Sermons
Layamon
Lays of Ancient Rome
Lead, Kindly Light
Lectures on Shakespeare
Legends of Goode Wimmen
Leviathan
Lewes, George Henry
Liberty of Prophesying
Life, compared to a sea voyage
Life of Johnson
Life of Savage
Lindsay, David
Literary Club, the
Literary criticism. See also
Critical writing.
Literary Reminiscences
Literature, definition; qualities;
tests; object in studying; importance;
Goethe's definition;
spirit of modern
Literature and Dogma
Lives, Plutarch's; Walton's
Lives of the Poets
Locke, John
Lockhart, John
Lorna Doone
Lost Leader, The
Lovelace, Richard
Lycidas (lis'[)i]-das)
Lydgate, John
Lyly, John (lil'[)i])
Lyra Apostolica
Lyrical Ballads
Lytton, Edward Bulwer
Macaulay; life; works;
characteristics
Macpherson, James (mak-fer'son)
Magazines, the modern
Maldon, The Battle of
Malory
Mandeville's Travels
Manfred
Marlowe; life; works;
and Milton; and Shakespeare
Marmion
Marvell, Andrew
Massinger, Philip
Matter of France, Rome, and Britain
Melodrama
Memoirs of a Cavalier
Meredith, George
Merlin and the Gleam
Metaphysical poets
Metrical romances
Middleton, Thomas
Miles Gloriosus (m[=e]'les gl[=o]-r[)i]-[=o]'s[u:]s)
Mill on the Floss
Milton; life; early or Horton
poems; prose works;
later poetry; and Shakespeare;
Wordsworth's sonnet on
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
Miracle plays
Mirror for Magistrates
Mr. Badman, Life and Death of
Modern literature, spirit of
Modern Painters
Modest Proposal, A
Moral Epistles
Moral period of the drama
Moral purpose in Victorian literature
Morality plays
More, Hannah
More, Thomas
Morris, William
Morte d'Arthur (mort där'ther)
Mother Hubbard's Tale
Mulèykeh (m[=u]-l[=a]'k[)a])
My Last Duchess
Mysteries of Udolpho, The ([=u]-dol'f[=o])
Mystery plays
New Atalantis
Newcomes, The
Newman, Cardinal; life;
prose works; poems;
style
Newspapers, the first
Nibelungenlied (n[=e]'b[)e]-lung-en-l[=e]d)
Noah, Play of
Norman Conquest
Norman pageantry
Norman period. See Anglo-Norman
Normans;
union with Saxons;
literature of
North, Christopher (John Wilson)
North, Thomas
Northanger Abbey (north'[=a]n-jer)
Northern Antiquities
Northumbrian literature; decline
of; how saved
Novel, meaning and history;
precursors of; discovery of
modern
Novelists, the first English.
See Scott, Dickens, etc.
Novum Organum (or'g[)a]-num)
Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity
Ode to Dejection
Ode to the West Wind
Odes, Pindaric
Odyssey, Pope's; Chapman's;
Dryden's
Old Fortunatus (for-t[=u]-n[=a]'tus)
Oliver Cromwell, Carlyle's
Oliver Twist
Origin of Species
Orlando Furioso (or-lan'd[=o] foo-r[=e]-[=o]'s[=o])
Orm, or Orme; his Ormulum
Orosius ([=o]-r[=o]'si-us), his history
Ossian (osh'ian) and Ossianic poems
Owl and Nightingale, The
Oxford movement
P's, The Four
Palamon and Arcite (pal'a-mon, är'-s[=i]te)
Pamela (pam'e-lä)
Pantisocracy (pan-t[=i]-sok'r[=a]-se), of Coleridge,
Southey, etc.
Paradise Lost
Paradise Regained
Paradyse of Daynty Devises
Paraphrase, of Cædmon
Parish Register, The
Pauline
Pearl, The
Pelham
Pendennis
Pepys, Samuel (pep'is, peeps, pips)
Percy, Thomas
Peregrine Pickle (per'e-grin)
Pericles and Aspasia (per'i-kl[=e]z, as-p[=a]'shi-ä)
Philistines, the
Phoenix (f[=e]'nix)
Pickwick Papers
Piers Plowman (peers)
Pilgrim's Progress
Pindaric odes (pin-där'ic)
Pippa Passes
Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven
Plutarch's Lives
Poems by Two Brothers
Poetaster, The
Polyolbion (pol-[)i]-ol'b[)i]-on)
Pope, Alexander; life;
works
Porter, Jane
Practice of Piety
Praeterita (pr[=e]-ter'[)i]-tä)
Praise of Folly
Prelude, The
Pre-Raphaelites (rä'f[=a]-el-ites)
Pride and Prejudice
Princess, The
Prometheus Unbound (pr[=o]-m[=e]'th[=u]s)
Prose development in eighteenth century
Pseudo-classicism (s[=u]'d[=o])
Purchas, Samuel; Purchas His
Pilgrimes
Puritan Age: history; literary
characteristics; poets;
prose writers; compared with
Elizabethan; summary;
selections for reading; bibliography,
questions;
chronology
Puritan movement
Puritans, wrong ideas of
Queen Mab, in Romeo and Juliet
Queen's Gardens
Rabbi Ben Ezra
Radcliffe, Mrs. Anne
Raleigh, Walter
Ralph Royster Doyster
Rambler essays
Rape of the Lock
Reade, Charles
Realism
Recluse, The
Reflections on the French Revolution
Religio Laici
Religio Medici
Religious period of the drama
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
Reminiscences, Carlyle's
Remorse
Renaissance, the (re-n[=a]'säns, r[=e]'n[=a]s-sans, etc.)
Restoration Period: history; literary
characteristics; writers;
summary; selections for
reading; bibliography;
questions; chronology
Revival of Learning Period: history;
literature; summary;
selections for reading; bibliography;
questions; chronology
Revolt of Islam
Revolution, French; of
1688; age of
Richardson, Samuel; novels of
Rights of Man
Rime of the Ancient Alariner
Rime Royal
Ring and the Book, The
Robin Hood
Robinson Crusoe
Roderick
Roderick Random
Romance; Greek Romances
Romance languages
Romance of the Rose
Romantic comedy and tragedy
Romantic enthusiasm
Romantic poetry
Romanticism, Age of; history;
literary characteristics;
poets; prose writers; summary;
selections for reading;
bibliography; questions;
chronology
Romanticism, meaning
Romola
Rosalynde
Rossetti, Christina (ros-set't[=e])
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
Rowley Papers
Royal Society
Runes
Ruskin; life; works;
characteristics; message
Sackville, Thomas
St. Catherine, Play of
St. George's Guild
Saints' Everlasting Rest
Samson Agonistes (ag-o-nis't[=e]z)
Sartor Resartus (sar'tor re-sar'tus)
Satire; of Swift; of Thackeray
Saxon. See Anglo-Saxon
School of Shooting
Science, in Victorian Age
Scop, or poet (skop)
Scott, Walter; life; poetry;
novels; criticism of Jane
Austen
Scottish Chiefs
Scyld (skild), story of
Sea, names of, in Anglo-Saxon, 25
Seafarer, The
Seasons, The
Selections for reading:
Anglo-Saxon period;
Norman;
Chaucer;
Revival of Learning;
Elizabethan;
Puritan;
Restoration;
Eighteenth Century;
Romanticism;
Victorian
Sentimental Journey
Sesame and Lilies (ses'a-m[=e])
Shakespeare;
life;
works;
four periods;
sources of plays;
classification of plays;
doubtful plays;
poems;
place and influence
She Stoops to Conquer
Shelley;
life;
works;
compared with Wordsworth
Shepherds' Book
Shepherd's Calendar
Shirley, James
Shoemaker's Holiday, The
Short View of the English Stage
Sidney, Philip
Sigurd the Volsung
Silas Marner
Silent Woman, The
Sir Charles Grandison
Skelton, John
Sketches by Boz
Smollett, Tobias
Social development in eighteenth century
Sohrab and Rustum (soo'rhab, or s[=o]'hrab)
Songs of Innocence, and Songs of Experience
Sonnet, introduction of
Sonnets,
of Shakespeare;
of Milton
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Southey;
works
Spanish Gypsy
Spanish Tragedy
Specimens of English Dramatic Poets
Spectator, The
Spenser;
life;
works;
characteristics;
compared with Chaucer
Spenserian poets
Spenserian stanza
Stage, in early plays;
Elizabethan
Steele, Richard
Stephen, Leslie
Sterne, Lawrence
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Style, a test of literature
Suckling, John
Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of
Swan, The
Swift;
life;
works;
satire;
characteristics
Swinburne
Sylva
Symonds, John Addington
Tabard Inn
Tale of a Tub
Tale of Two Cities
Tales from Shakespeare
Tales in Verse
Tales of the Hall
Tam o' Shanter
Tamburlaine (tam'bur-lane)
Task, The
Tatler, The
Taylor, Jeremy
Temora (te-m[=o]'rä)
Tempest, The
Temple, The
Tennyson;
life;
works;
characteristics;
message
Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
Terra
Tests of literature
Teufelsdroeckh (toy'felz-droek)
Thackeray;
life;
works;
characteristics;
style;
and Dickens
Thaddeus of Warsaw
Thalaba (täl-ä'bä)
Theater, the first
Thomson, James
Thyrsis (ther'sis)
Timber
Tintern Abbey
Tirocinium (t[=i]-r[=o]-sin'[)i]-um), or A Review of Schools
Tom Jones
Tories and Whigs
Tottel's Miscellany
Townley plays
Toxophilus (tok-sof'[)i]-lus)
Tractarian movement
Tracts for the Times
Tragedy, definition,
of blood
Transition poets
Traveler, The
Treasure Island
Treatises on Government
Tristram Shandy
Troilus and Cressida (tr[=o]'[)i]-lus, kres'-[)i]-dä)
Trollope, Anthony
Troyes, Treaty of
Truth, or Good Counsel
Tyndale, William (tin'dal)
Udall, Nicholas ([=u]'dal)
Udolpho ([=u]-dol'f[=o])
Unfortunate Traveller, The
Universality, a test of literature
University wits
Unto This Last
Utopia
Vanity Fair
Vanity of Human Wishes
Vaughan, Henry
Vercelli Book
Vicar of Wakefield
Vice, the, in old plays
Victorian Age,
history,
literary characteristics,
poets,
novelists,
essayists, etc.,
spirit of,
summary,
selections for reading,
bibliography,
questions,
chronology
View of the State of Ireland
Village, The
Vision of the Rood
Volpone (vol-p[=o]'ne)
Voyages, Hakluyt's
Wakefield plays
Waldere (väl-d[=a]'re, or väl'dare)
Waller, Edmund
Walton, Izaak
Waverley
Wealth of Nations
Weather, The, play of
Webster, John
Wedmore, Treaty of
Westward Ho
Whigs and Tories
Whitby (hwit'b[)i])
Widsith (vid'sith)
Wiglaf (vig'läf)
Wilson, John (Christopher North),
Wither, George
Women, in literature
Wordsworth,
life,
poetry,
poems of nature,
poems of life,
last works
Wordsworth, Dorothy
Worthies of England
Wuthering Heights (wuth'er-ing)
Wyatt (w[=i]'at), Thomas
Wyclif (wik'lif)
Wyrd (vird), or fate
York plays
1. From The Bard of the Dimbovitza, First Series, p. 73.
2. There is a mystery about this old hero which stirs our imagination, but which is never explained. It refers, probably, to some legend of the Anglo-Saxons which we have supplied from other sources, aided by some vague suggestions and glimpses of the past in the poem itself.
3. This is not the Beowulf who is hero of the poem.
4. Beowulf, ll. 26-50, a free rendering to suggest the alliteration of the original.