l3' ""■i imma COEfRIGHT DEPOSIT. GEOFFKEY CUAUCEE A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND'S AND AMERICA'S LITERATURE EVA MARCH TAPPAN, Ph. D. Author of ^'A/i Elementary History of Our Country" ''American Hero Stories," ''Our European Ancestors" " England'' s Story " ^^Old World Hero Stories" "llie Story of the Greek People" " The Story of the Koma^t People" etc. BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND CHICAGO HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY {jtfte mitecisilie "^xtii Cambrilioe Revised Edition COPYRIGHT, 192 1, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Copyright, 1905 and 1906, by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Copyright, 1920, by Houghton Mifflin Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED I TWENTIETH IMPRESSION, JUNE 1921 /X^ SFP12 7 ICIA622743 PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION This book is based upon these convictions : — First : That the prime object of studying literature is to arouse the impulse to read the greatest English mas- terpieces. Second : That it is more important to understand the times during which an author wrote, and the reasons for his writing as he did, than to be familiar with a mere catalogue of names, titles, and dates. Third : That it is better to be well acquainted with a few authors and their works than to know many super- ficially. A Short History of England' s Literature, accordingly, constantly whets the appetite through quotation of fa- miliar and unforgettable lines from the English immor- tals ; it is written as a connected story with due regard to historical background and perspective ; it presents il- luminating biographical data and literary criticism; and while it surveys the entire field of English literature — from the times before Chaucer down through the end of the World War — it places its emphasis upon those authors who are the greatest of all. January, 192 1 CONTENTS ENGLAND'S LITERATURE CHAPTER I Centuries V-XI THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD PAGB Our English ancestors — The scop — Growth of the epic — Beo- wulf; effect of Christianity on the poem — Form of early English poetry — Widsith — Dear's Lament — Exeter Book — Vercelli Book — Caedmon — Cynewulf ; runes ; Dream of the Rood — Early English poetry as a whole — Bede ; Ecclesiastical His- tory; his English writings — Alcuin — Danish invasions — Alfred the Great ; his translations; his language ; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — The kingdom at Alfred's death — Literature during the tenth and eleventh centuries — Cause of degeneracy — Ho- milies of ^Ifric — Re-writing of old poems — Other writings — Influence of the Celts — Difference between Celts and Teutons — Needs of English Hterature I CHAPTER II Centuries XII and XIII THE NORMAN-ENGLISH PERIOD Advantages of the Conquest — The Normans — Struggle between the two languages — The new English — New influences; Nor- man intellectual tastes ; opening of the universities ; crusades — Chronicles — Ormulum — Ancren Riwle — Four cycles of ro- mance — History of the Arthur cycle — The Chronicle ends — French romances ; King Horn — Lyrics — Robin Hood ballads ■.— Value of the Norman-English writings ..,,... 25 Vi CONTENTS CHAPTER III Century XIV CHAUCER'S CENTURY Beginning of English thought — Feudal system — Changed condi tion of the peasants — Discontent with the church — Peasants' Revolt — " Sir John Mandeville " — Langland ; Piers Plow- man — Wyclif ; his translation of the Bible ; persecution — Chaucer; plan of Boccaccio and of Chaucer ; pilgrimages; Gz«- terbury Tales; Chaucer's style; his characters; his love of na- ture; his death; his influence on the language 35 CHAPTER IV Century XV THE people's century The imitators of Chaucer ; James I ; The King's Quair — Sir Thomas Malory; Morte d' Arthur — Lack of good literature — Gain of the " common folk " — Ballads ; marks of a ballad ; com- position of the ballads — Mystery plays ; cycles ; seeming irrev- erence; comical scenes; tenderness; Moralities; Everyman — Introduction of printing; effect on price of books; effect on England — Foreign discoveries — Progress of the people 52 CHAPTER V Century XVI Shakespeare's century Literary position of Italy — The Renaissance — Increased know- ledge of the Western Continent — Teachings of Copernicus — Henry VIII and the Renaissance — John Skelton ; PhyllyP sparrow ; influence of Skelton — Sir Thomas More; Utopia — religious questioning — Tyndale ; translation of the New Tes- tament — Separation of Church of England from Church of Rome — Death of More — Sir Thomas Wyatt — The Earl of Surrey ; the sonnet ; blank verse ; The ^neid — TotteFs Mis' CONTENTS vii ( ellany — Masques — Interludes ; 77^1? Foure P's ; John Hey- wood — The first English comedy — The first English tragedy ; difference between them in form — Increasing strength of Eng- land — Literary boldness — Early Elizabethan drama — Need of form — John Lyly ; Ejiphues ; advantages of euphuism — Pas- torals — Edmund Spenser ; Shepherd'' s Calendar ; Spenser goes to Ireland — The pastoral fashion — Sir Philip Sidney ; Arcadia — The miscellanies — Later Elizabethan drama; songs in the dramas ; need of a standard verse — Christopher Marlowe ; Tam- burlaine; triumph of blank verse — Events from 1580 to 1590 — The Faerie Queene — Decade of the sonnet ; Astrophel and Stella — Richard Hooker ; Ecclesiastical Polity — William Shake- speare ; in Stratford; in London; his plays and poems before 1600 68 CHAPTER VI Century XVII PURITANS AND ROYALISTS Shakespeare's later plays ; sonnets ; his genius ; Shakespeare as a man — Sir Walter Raleigh ; his History of the World — Francis Bacon; Essays; public life; philosophy — King James version of the Bible — Ben Jonson ; Every Man in His Humour; the unities; Shakespeare and Ben Jonson ; Jonson's excellence ; his masques ; Oberon ; The Sad Shepherd ; the Tribe of Ben — Beaumont and Fletcher — The First Folio — Closing of the thea- tres — Decadence of the drama; causes thereof — Literature of the conflict — John Donne; conceits — John Milton; shorter poems ; pamphlets ; marriage ; Milton as Latin secretary ; De- fence of the English People ; sonnets ^George Herbert; The Temple — Richard Crashaw; Steps to the Altar — Henry Vaughan; Silex Scintillafis ; \ovt of nature — Thomas Fuller; Holy and Profane State ; The Worthies of England — Jeremy Taylor; Holy Living TinA Holy Dying — Richard Baxter; The Saints^ Everlasting Rest — " Cavalier Poets " — Thomas Carew — Sir John Suckling — Richard Lovelace — Robert Herrick ; Hesperides ; Noble Numbers — Izaak Walton; The Compleat Angler — The Restoration — Samuel Butler; Hudibras — Mil- ton's later work; Paradise Lost ; Paradise Regained ; Samson viii CONTENTS Agonistes — John Bunyan ; persecution; The Pilgrim^ s Progress — John Dryden ; the drama of the Restoration ; Dryden's plays ; his satire ; theological writings ; translations ; odes — Prose literature of the seventeenth century 103 CHAPTER VII Century XVIH THE CENTURY OF PROSE CofTee drinking — Alexander Pope ; Essay on Criticism; The Rape of the Lock; translations; life; The Dunciad ; Essay on Man — Joseph Addison and Richard Steele; The Taller; The Spec- tator; Sir Roger de Cover ley; Cato; Addison's hymns — Jona- than Swift ; The Tale of a Tub; The Battle of the Books; A Mod- est Proposal; Gulliver'' s Travels; Swift's character — Daniel De- foe ; The Shortest IVay with Dissenters; result ; Essay on Pro- jects; Robinson Crtisoe; foiirnal of the Plague Year — The Age of Queen Anne — The novel — Samuel Richardson; Patnela — Henry Fielding; Joseph Andrews — Clarissa Harlowe — Tom Jones — Tobias Smollett ; Roderick Random — Laurence Sterne; Tristram Shandy; The Sentimental Journey — Samuel John- son ; the Dictionary ; patronage ; The Rambler; Rasselas; John- son's pension; James Boswell ; Johnson's conversation; bis Shakespeare; Journey to the Hebrides; Lives of the Poets — Oliver Goldsmith ; earlier works; The Vicar of Wakefield; The Traveller; The Good-Natured Man; The Deserted Village; She Stoops to Conquer — Edmund Burke ; On the Sublime and Beau- tiful; On Conciliatiojt with America; On the French Revolution — William Robertson; his work — David Hume; History of England — Edward Gibbon; Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — New qualities in literature — Thomas Gray; "Gray's Elegy " — Percy's Reliques — William Cowper ; his hymns ; John Gilpin; The Task — Robert Burns; early work and models; first volume ; visit to Edinburgh; disappointment ; songs; Tam O'Shanter, The Cotter's Saturday Night 153 CONTENTS IX CHAPTER VIII Century XIX THE CENTURY OF THE NOVEL The " Lake Poets " — William Wordsworth — S. T. Coleridge ; Lyrical Ballads; Rune of the Ancient Mariner — Robert Southey; his works — Coleridge's poetry; its incompleteness — Wordsworth's life; slow appreciation of his poems — Walter Scott ; boyhood ; early literary work ; Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border I Abbotsford; failure of publishers; the historical novel — Lord Byron ; Hours of Idleness; Etiglish Bards and Scotch Reviewers; Childe Harold; Byron's later life and poems ; two subjects that interested him ; attempts to aid the Greeks — Percy Bysshe Shelley; best poems; poetic qualities; death — John Keats ; Endyvnon and its reviews ; later poems ; Ode to a Grecian Urn — Charles Lamb; his friends; poems; play; Tales from Shakespeare ; Speci??iens of Dratnatic Poets, etc.; Essays of Elia ; freedom — Thomas De Quincey ; first literary work ; Confessions of an English Opium-Eater ; dependence; two of his best known essays ; his style ; Edinburgh Review — Quarterly Review — Blackwood'' s Magazine — Jane Austen; her novels; their excellence — 1832 a natural boundary — Charles Dickens ; early struggles; The Pickwick Papers; later work; qualities of his characters; method of caricature; hard work — W. M. Thackeray; slowness of general appreciation; Vanity Fair* Thackeray and Fielding; lectures; burlesques; best novels — Charlotte Bronte ; the psychological novel ; fane Eyre — Eliza- beth Cleghorn Gaskell ; Cranford — "George Eliot;" character of her first work ; first liction ; The Mill on the Floss; Silas Mar- ner ; character of her later books; her work contrasted v/ith Scott's ; her seriousness of purpose — G«eorge Meredith ; style difficult to grasp; Ordeal of Richard Feverel ; wrote to please himself — Thomas Hardy; architect by profession; early liter- ary work; Return of the Native; desire to prove a thesis; his last novel ; poetry — Robert Louis Stevenson ; story for the story's sake ; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ; essays ; verse — Rud- yard Kipling; newspaper work in India; early books; Kim; versatility; short stories ; poetry — T. B. Macaulay ; precocity; CONTENTS memory; first great essay ; in politics: Lays of Ancie7it Rovie ; History of En inland — Thomdi?, Carlyle; his indecision; failures; marriage; Sarior Resartiis ; History of the French Revolution; Heroes and Hero- Worship ; Frederick the Great ; fi n al honors — John Ruskin; Modern Painters; interest in workingmen; indus- trial ideas; poetical titles; style — Matthew Arnold-. The For- saken Merman; Greek restraint; prose criticism — Robert Browning; Miss Barrett and her poems; Browning's marriage; his dramas; Pippa Passes; Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh and Sonnets from the Portuguese ; Browning's later volumes; growth of his fame; how to enjoy Browning — Alfred Tennyson; early poems and their reception; recognition of his genius; The Prin- cess; In Metnoriam; as Laureate; The Idylls of the King; Enoch Arden ; dramas — The Age of the Pen — Progress of literature — novels — Irish themes — " new verse " — " vers libre" — war literature 197 AMERICA'S LITERATURE CHAPTER I The Colonial Period English Literature in the 17th Century — Early American histories — William Bradford — John Winthrop— r^anklin; his versatility; his literary aims: Poor Rich- ard's Almanac; A utobiography — The Revolutionary Orators: CONTENTS XI James Otis; Richard Henry Lee; Patrick Henry — Political Writers: Thomas Paine; Thomas Jefferson; the Declaration of Independence ; George Washington — The Federalist: Alex- ander Hamilton; John Jay; James Madison — "The Hartford Wits:" Timothy Dwight; Columbia; Tlie Conquest of Canaan ; John Trumbull; M'Fingal; Joel Barlow; The Colmnbiadj Hasty Pudding — Philip Freneau; Poems of iy86 — Charles Brockden Brown; Wieland; Arthur Meriiyn 285 CHAPTER III The National Period — Earlier Years THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL National progress — The Knickerbocker School — Washington Irving; Salmagundi; Knickerbocker's History of New York; The Sketch Book ; Bracebridge Hall ; Tales of a Traveller; Life of Columbus ; The Conquest of Granada; The Companions of Columbus ; The Alhambra; Life of Goldsmith; Life of Wash- ington — James Fenimore Cooper; Precaution ; The Spy; The Pilot; History of the United States Navy ; Cooper and the courts; Cooper's carelessness in writing; Mark Twain's criticism — William Cullen Bryant; The Embargo; Thanatopsis; To a Waterfowl; The Ages — Fitz-Greene Halleck — Joseph Rod- man Drake; The Croaker Papers; The Culprit Fay; The American Flag; Marco Bozzaris — Nathaniel Parker Willis; Pencillings by the Way ; Sacred I^ems 298 CHAPTER IV The National Period — Earlier Years 1815-186S THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS Transcendentalism; its influence upon literature — Ralph Waldo Emerson; enters the ministry; friendship with Carlyle; The American Scholar; literary style; how to enjoy Emerson; Em- 11 CONTENTS erson's Poems — Henry David Thoreau; home at Walden Pond; A Week on the Concord and Merrunack Rivers ; Walden — Nathaniel Hawthorne; BroolcFarm; Hawthorne's early life; Tivice-Told Tales; Mosses frojn an Old Manse ; The Scarlet Let- ter; The House of the Seven Gables; The Wonder Book ; Blithe- dale Romance ; Life of Franklin Fierce; Tanglewood Tales ; The Marble Faun; Haw.thorne compared with other writers of fiction; Hawthorne's power 314 CHAPTER V The National Period — Earlier Years 18.5-1865 THE ANTI-SLAVERY WRITERS The anti-slavery movement — John Greenleaf Whittier;. his first printed poem ; editorial work; Snow- Bound ; his ballads; love of children — Harriet Beecher Stowe ; Uncle Font's Cabin; cause of its large sale; The Minister's Wooing; The Fearl of Orfs Island; Oldtown Folks — Orators : William Lloyd Garrison; Ed- ward Everett ; Wendell Phillips ; Charles Sumner ; Rufus Choate ; Daniel Webster 329 CHAPTER VI The National Period — Earlier Years 1815-1865 THE CAMBRIDGE POETS Similarity in the lives of the Cambridge Poets — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Hyperion; Voices of the Night; The Skeleton in Artnor; translations; literary style; Longfellow's sympathy — James Russell Lowell; The Vision of Sir Lautfal ; A Fable for Critics; The Bigloiv Papers; scope of his work — Oliver Wendell Holmes; Old Ironsides; Poems ; first contributor to the Atlantic; The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table ; Elsie Ven- «fr/ occasional verse; Holmes's charm 339 CONTENTS Xlll CHAPTER VII The National Period — Earlier Years 1815-1865 THE HISTORIANS Historical Writing — Jared Sparks — George Bancroft; History of the United States J founding of the Naval Academy — William Hickling Prescott; The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella; The Conquest of Mexico; The Conquest of Peru; The History of the Reign of Philip the Second — John Lothrop Mot- ley; The Rise of the Dutch Republic j The United Netherlands; The Life and Death of fohn Barneveld — Francis Parkman ; The Oregon Trail; literary style; his plan completed — Hig- ginson's summary of these historians — Minor writers: John Gorham Palfrey; Jeremy Belknap; Richard Hildreth; Edwin Percy Whipple; Richard Henry Dana; Donald Grant Mitchell; George William Curtis — Webster's Dictionary and Spelling Book — conscientious tone of New England literature 352 CHAPTER VIII The National Period — Earlier Years 1S15-1865 THE SOUTHERN WRITERS Why there was little writing in the South — Henry Clay — Patrick Henry — Robert Young Hayne — John Caldwell Calhoun — William Wirt — William Gilmore Simms; The Yemassee — Paul Hamilton Hayne — Henry Timrod — Edgar Allan Poe; his critical powers; the Tales; The Fall of the Hotise of Usher; Poe's poetry — Sidney Lanier; prose; poetry 363 CHAPTER IX The National Period — Later Years 1865- Present literary activity — Fiction: William Dean Howells; Henry James; Marion Crawford ; Edward Everett Hale; Frank Stock- XIV CONTENTS ton; George VV. Cable; Richard Johnston; John Esten Cooke; Thomas Nelson Page; Joel Chandler Harris; Mary N. Murfree; James Lane Allen ; Edward Eggleston; J. T. Trowbridge; Mary Wilkins Freeman; Sarah Orne Jewett ; Alice Brown; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward; Rose Terry Cooke; Kate Douglas Wiggin Riggs; Helen Hunt Jackson; Mary Hallock Foote; Frances Hodgson Burnett — The Short Story — Poetry : Bayard Taylor; Vu'ws Afoot ; Poems of the Orient; Bedouin Song ; Home Pas- torals; Faust— Kxchdixd Henry Stoddard— Edmund Clarence Stedman — Thomas Bailey Aldrich ; Baby Bell ; Marjorie Daw — Francis Bret Harte ; Condensed Novels j The Luck of Roaring Camp — Walt Whitman ; O Captain .' My Captain ! j Leaves of Grass — Minor poets : Celia Thaxter ; Lucy Larcom ; John Hay ; Jones Very; Edward Rowland Sill; Richard Watson Gilder — Humorous writings: Charles Dudley Warner; Charles Farrar Browne; Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber; David Ross Locke; Henry Wheeler Shaw ; Samuel Langhorne Clemens ; Innocents Abroad ; The Personal Memoirs of foan of Arc; The Prince and the Pauper — History and Biography: John Fiske ; Henry Adams; James Schouler; Thomas Wentworth Higginson ; Jus- tin Winsor ; John Bach McMaster ; Hubert H. Bancroft ; James Parton; Horace E. Scudder — John Burroughs — The magazine article: Agnes Repplier; Samuel M. Crothers — American scholars: Charles Eliot Norton; Francis James Child; Francis Andrew March; Felix Emanuel Schelling; Cornelius Felton ; Howard Horace Furness — Juvenile literature: Jacob Abbott; Louisa M. Alcott ; Frances Hodgson Burnett — Young people's magazines — Literary progress of America in 300 years . 376 REFERENCES England's Literature 403 America's Literature 41 1 INDEX 415 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGP GEOFFHi^y Chaucer. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown Frontispiece Portion of the First Page of Beowulf. Folio i29r of MS. Cott. Vitellius A. XV in the British Museum .... 5 The Ruins of Whitby Abbey. From a photograph . . 9 Monk at Work on the Book of Kildare. From a MS. in the British Museum 13 MEDiiEVAL Author at Work. From a MS. in the library at Soissons in Cutts's Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages IS King Alfred. From an engraving by Vertue in Amiales rerum gestarum A if red! Magni by A?,s&rmsMQnQWQns,\s . 17 Dedication of a Saxon Church. From a MS. in the li- brary at R 3uen used i n Knight's Popular History of England 20 Sir Launcelot and a Hermit. From an illuminated MS. of 1316 copied in Cutts's Middle Ages 29 A Band of Minstrels. From a fourteenth century MS. in Cutts's Middle Ages 33 Sir John Mandeville on his Voyage to Palestine. From a MS. in the British Museum copied in Cutts's Mid- dle Ages 38 John Wyclif. From the South Kensington National Por- traits 41 The Prioress. From the Ellesmere MS 45 The Wife of Bath. From the Harleian MS 46 The Squire. From the Ellesmere MS 47 The Parson. " " " " 48 Chaucer. " " " " 49 A Mystery Play at Coventry. From an old print . . 58 A Scene from "Everyman." From a photograph of the reproduction given by the Ben Greet Company 61 Caxton presented to Edward IV. From Strutt's Ec- clesiastical and Regal Aniiquities 63 XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Earliest known Representation of a Printing-Press. From Blade's William Caxtott 65 Sir Thomas More. From Holbein's Court of Henry VIII 72 A Masquer. From John Nichol's Progress of James I . . "jS Edmund Spenser. From South Kensington National Por- traits 85 Sir Philip Sidney 87 The Red Cross Knight. From tlie third edition of the Faerie Queene, 1598 93 Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford. From a pho- tograph 97 William Shakespeare. From the Cha'ndos Portrait . . 99 Ben Jonson. From a painting by Gerard Honthorst . . .111 John Milton. From a crayon drawing at Bayfordbury . .119 Printing Office of 161 9. From the title-page of a book printed by William Jones in 161 9 123 George Herbert 125 John Bunyan. After a drawing from life in the British Museum 143 John Dryden 147 Alexander Pope. From a portrait by Richardson . . .154 Joseph Addison 159 Jonathan Swift 165 Daniel Defoe 169 Samuel Richardson 172 Samuel Johnson. After Sir Joshua Reynolds 175 Oliver Goldsmith 181 Robert Burns. From the painting by Alexander Nasmyth in the National Portrait Gallery 191 William Wordsworth. From an engraving by F. T. Stuart 197 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 201 Sir Walter Scott in 1820. From the Chantry Bust . . 204 John Keats 212 Charles Lamb . • 215 Thomas De Quincey 219 Charles Dickens. After a crayon drawing by Sol Eytinge, Jr 224 William Makepeace Thackeray 227 Robert Louis Stevenson 235 Rudyard Kipling 238 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii Lord Macaulay . 240 Robert Browning 250 Lord Tennyson 553 Cardinal Newman at 44 259 Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. From a photograph 263 The Chief American Poets 269 The Title-Page of Anne Bradstreet's Book of Poems 275 The Alphabet in the New England Primer .... 277 Jonathan Edwards 281 Benjamin Franklin . , 286 Patrick Henry making his Tarquin and C^sar Speech 289 The Authors of the Federalist . . .291 Washington Irving 299 sunnyside .■ 303 James Fenimore Cooper 304 Three Transcendentalists 315 Henry David Thoreau 319 Thoreau's House at Walden 322 Nathaniel Hawthorne 323 The Kitchen of Snowbound 332 A Group of American Orators 335 Cambridge in 1824 339 Craigie House 342 Elmwood 344 The Autocrat leaving his Boston Home for a Morn- ing Walk 348 John Lothrop Motley 356 Francis Parkman 358 William Wirt 363 William Gilmore Simms 365 A Group of American Women Writers 379 The Portrait of Helen Hunt Jackson is reproduced by the courtesy of Little, Brawn and Compajty. John Burroughs 397 MAP Places mentioned in English Literary History (indexed double-page colored map) Facing i SIGNIFICANT DATES IN ENGLISH LITER- ATURE 680. Death of Caedmon, 735. Death of Bede. 901. Death of Alfred. 1066. Norman Conquest. 1 1 54. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tnd^?,; death of Geoffrey of Monmouth. 1205-25. Layamon's Brut, the Ormulum, the Ancren Riwle. 1346. Battle of Crdcy. 1362. Piers Plowman. English becomes the official lan- guage of the courts. 1380. Wyclif's translation of the Bible. 1400. Death of Chaucer. 1453. Capture of Constantinople by the Turks. 1470. Malory's Morte d\4rthnr. T476. Printing introduced into i:!ngland, 1525. Tyndale's translation of the New Testament. Before 1547. Blank verse introduced by Surrey, the Sonnet and Italian attention to form introduced by Surrey and Wyatt. 1552 or 53 (?). Ralph Roister Doister, the first English comedy. 1564. Birth of Shakespeare. 1579. Eiiphues ; The Shepherd^ s Calendar. 1587-93. Marlowe shows the power of blank verse. 1590. Arcadia; Books l-iii of the Faerie Queene. 1590-1600. Decade of the Sonnet. 1594. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity., Books i-iv. 161 1. " King James version " of the Bible. 1616. Death of Shakespeare. 1623. First Folio. 1632-38. Milton's V Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, and Ly- cidas. 1642. Closing of the theatres. 1660. The Restoration. 1662. Hudibras. SIGNIFICANT DATES XIX 1667. Paradise Lost. 1678. The Pilgrim'' s Progress. 1700. Death of Dryden. 1709-n. The Tatler. 1 7 1 1 -1 3. The Spectator. 1740. Pamela, the first English novel. 1751. Gray's Elegy. 1765. Percy's Reliques. 1798. Lyrical Ballads, by Wordsworth and Coleridge. 1802-17. Reviews established. 181 1. ]a.nQ. A-ViSt&n's Sense and Sensibility. 1812. First part of Byron's Childe Har-old. 1814. Scott's Waverley. 1819-21. Best work of Keats and Shelley. 1830. Tennyson's Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. 1836-37. Dickens's Pickzvick Papers. 1843. First volume of Ruskin's Modern Painters. 1848. First volume of Macaulay's History of England. 1857. " George Eliot's" first fiction. 1868-69. Browning's The Ring and the Book. SIGNIFICANT DATES IN AMERICAN LITER- ATURE 1640. The Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in America. 1650. Anne Bradstreet's poems, the best American verse of the seventeenth century. 1704. 77/^ j5(?i-/£'«A^^wi'Z^//d?r, the first American newspaper. 1754. Edwards's Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will, the first great American metaphysical book. 1786. Freneau's poems, the best American poetry of the eighteenth century. 1798. Brown's Wieland, the first American romance. 181 7. Bryant's Thanatopsis, the first great American poem. 1819. Irving's Sketch Book, the first American book to win European fame. 1821. Cooper's Spy, the first important American novel. 1837. Emerson's American Scholar, "our intellectual Dec- laration of Independence." A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND'S LITERATURE CHAPTER I CENTURIES V-XI EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD I. Poetry i. Our English ancestors. About fifteen hundred years ago, our English ancestors were living in Jutland and the northern part of what is now Germany. They were known as Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, all different tribes of Teutons. They were bold and daring, and de- lighted in dashing through the waves wherever the tem- pest might carry them, burning and plundering on what- ever coast they landed. If a man died fighting bravely in battle, they believed that the Valkyries bore him to the Valhalla of Odin and Thor, where the joys of fight- ing and feasting would never end. Yet these savage warriors loved music ; they were devoted to their homes and their families ; and, independent as they were, they would yield to any one whom they believed to be their rightful ruler. They were honest in their religion, and they thought seriously about the puzzling questions of life and death. They were sturdy in body and mind, the best of material to found a nation. About the mid- dle of the fifth century, they began to go in large num- bers to Britain, and there they remained, either slaying 2 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [4th-5th Cent. or driving to the west and north the Celts who had pre- viously occupied the country. The Angles were one of the strongest Teutonic tribes, and gradually the island became known as the land of the Angles, then Angle- land, then England. However rough the Teutons might be, there was one person whom they never forgot to treat with special honor, and that was the "scop," the maker, escop. ^^ former. It was his noble office to chant the achievements of heroes at the feasts of which the Teutons were so fond. Imagine a rude hall with a raised platform at one end. A line of stone hearths with blazing fires runs down the room from door to door. Between the hearths and the side walls are places for the sleeping-benches of the warriors. In the fires great joints of meat are roasting, and on either side of the hearths are long, rude tables. On the walls are shields and breastplates and helmets, and coats of mail made of rings curiously fastened together. Here and there are clusters of spears standing against the wall. The burnished mail flashes back the blazing of the fires, and trembles with the heavy tread of the thegns, with their merriment and their laughter, for the battle or the voyage is over, and the time of feasting has come. On the platform is the table of the chief, and with him sit the women of his family, and any warriors to whom he wishes to show special honor. After the feasting and the drinking of mighty cups of "mead," gifts are pre- sented to those who have been bravest, sometimes by the chief, and sometimes — an even greater honor — by the wife of the chief herself. These gifts are horses, jewelled chains for the neck or golden bracelets for the arms, brightly polished swords, and coats of mail and helmets. The scop sits on the platform by the side 5th-6th Cent] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 3 of the chief. When the feasting is ended, he strikes a heavy chord on his harp and begins his song with " Hwaet ! " that is, " Lo ! " or " Listen ! " 2. Growth of the epic. — Beowulf. These songs chanted by the scops were composed many years before they were written, and probably no two singers ever sang them exactly alike. One scop would sing some exploit of a hero ; another would sing it differently, and perhaps add a second exploit greater than the first, Little by little the poem grew longer. Little by little it became more united. The heroic deeds grew more and more marvellous, they became achievements that affected the welfare of a whole people ; the poem had a hero, a beginning, and an end. The simple tale of a single ad- venture had become an epic. After a while it was writ- ten ; and the manuscript of one of these epics has come down to us, though after passing through the perils of fire, and is now in the British Museum. It BoownU. is called Beowulf because it is the story of the exploits of a hero by that name. The scene is appar- ently laid in Denmark and southern Sweden, and it is probable that bits of the poem were chanted at feasts long before the Teutons set sail for the shores of Eng- land. The story of the poem is as follows : — Hrothgar, king of the Danes, built a more beautiful hail than men had ever heard of before. There he and his thegns enjoyed music and feasting, and divided the treasures that they had won in many a hard-fought battle. They were very happy together ; but down in the marshes by the ocean was a monster named Grendel, who envied them and hated them. One night, when the thegns were sleeping, he came up stealthily through the mists and the darkness and dragged away thirty of the men and devoured them. Night after night the slaughter went on, for Hrothgar was 4 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [5th-6th Cent. feeble with age and none of his thegns were strong enough to take vengeance. At length the voung hero, Beowulf, heard of the monster, and offered to attack it. When night came, Grendel stalked up through the darkness, seized a warrior, and devoured him. He grasped another, but that other was Beowulf ; and then came a struggle, for the monster felt such a clutch as he had never known. No sword could harm Grendel. Whoever overcame him must win by the strength of his own right arm. Benches were torn from their places, and the very hall trembled with the contest. At last Grendel tore himself away and fled to the marshes, but he left his arm in the unyielding grasp of the hero. Then was there great rejoicing with Hrothgar and his thegns. A lordly feast was given to the champion ; horses and jewels and armor and weapons were presented to him, while scops sang of his glory. The joy was soon turned into sorrow, however, for on the following night, another monster, as horrible as the first, came into the hall. It was the mother of Grendel come to avenge her son, and she carried away one of Hrothgar's favorite liegemen. When Beowulf was told of this, he set out to punish the murderer. He followed the footprints of the fiend through the wood-paths, over the swamps, the cliffs, and the fens , and at last he came to a Drecipice overhanging water that was swarming with dragons and sea serpents. Deep down among ^hem was the den of Grendel and his mother. Beowulf put jn his best armor and dived down among the horrible crea- tures, while his men kept an almost hopeless watch on the cliff above him. All day long he sank, down, down, until he came to the bottom of the sea. There was Grendel's mother, and she dragged him into her den. Then there was another terrible struggle, and as the blood ' burst up through the water, the companions of Beowulf were sad indeed, for they felt sure that they should never again see the face of their beloved leader. While they were gazing sorrowfully at the water, the hero appeared, bearing through the waves the 5th-6th Cent] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 5 head of Grendel. He had killed the mother and cut off the head from Grendel's body, which lay in the cavern, Beowulf's third exploit took place many years later, after he had ruled his people for fifty years. He heard of a vast treasure of gold and jewels hidden away in the earth, and although it was guarded by a fire-breathing dragon, he deter- mined to win it for his followers. There was a fearful encounter, and his thegns, all save one, proved to be cowards and deserted him. He won the victory, but the dragon had wounded him, and the poison of the wound soon ended his life. Then the thegns built up a pyre, hung with helmets and coats of mail ; and on it they burned the body of their dead leader. After this, they raised a mighty mound in his honor, and placed in it a store of rings and of jewels. Slowly the greatest among them rode around it, mourning for their leader and speaking words of love and praise, — Said he was mightiest of all the great world-kings, Mildest of rulers, most gentle in manner, Most kind to his liegemen, most eager for honor. This is the story of Beowulf as it has come down to us in a single ragged and smoke-stained manuscript. This TS p/ET n lARc: A PORTION OF THE FIRST PAGE OF THE BEOWULF MANUSCRIPT manuscript was probably written in the eighth or ninth century, and the poem must differ greatly from the original version, especially in its religious allusions. In earUer times, the Celts had learned the Christian faith 6 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [5th-6th Cent. from the Irish ; but it was not preached to the Teutons Eflectoi in southern England until 597, when mission- ity'ont^' ^^i^s from Rome made their way to Kent. At poem. first they were allowed to preach on the little island of Thanet only and in the open air ; for the wary Teutons had no idea of hearing strange teachings under roofs where magic might easily overpower them. Soon, however, large numbers became earnest converts. Bits of the teachings of the missionaries were dropped into Beowulf. Instead of "Fate," the poets said "God;" Grendel is declared to be a descendant of Cain; and the scop interrupts his story of Grendel's envious hatred by singing of the days when God made the heavens and the earth ; the ceremonies at the burning of Beowulf are heathen, but the poem says that it was God, the true King of Victory, who led him to the fire-dragon's treasures. 3. Form of early English poetry. Many words in Old English are like words in present use, but Old Eng- lish poetry was different in several respects from the poetry of to-day. The following lines from Beowulf are a good illustration : — Tha com of more under mist-hleothum Then came from the moor under the misty-hillside Grendel gongan, Codes yrre baer ; Grendel going, God's wrath he bore; mynte se man-scatha manna cynnes intended the deadly foe of men to the race sumne besyrwan in sele tham hean. some one to ensnare in hall that lofty. To-day we like to hear rhyme at the end of our lines ; our ancestors enjoyed not rhyme, but alliteration. In every line there were four accented syllables. The third, 5th-6th Cent.] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD f the "rime-giver," gave the keynote, for with whatever letter that began, one of the preceding accented syllables must begin and both might begin. The fourth never alliterated with the other three. In the first line quoted, the accented syllables are com, mor, mist, and hie. Mist is the rime-giver. In the second line, God is the rime- giver, while Gren, gon, and beer are the other accented syllables. The Teutons were very fond of compound words. Some of these words are simple and childlike, such as ban-hus (bone-house), body ; ban-loca (bone- locker), flesh. Some, especially those pertaining to the ocean, are poetical, such as mere-straet (sea-street), way over the sea ; yth-lida (wave-sailer) and famig-heals (foamy-necked), vessel. 4. Other Old English poems. A number of shorter poems have come down to us from the Old English. Among them are two that are of special in- terest. One of these is Widsith (the far- wanderer), and this is probably our earliest English poem. It pictures the life of the scop, who roams about from one great chief to another, everywhere made wel- come, everywhere rewarded for his song by kindness and presents. The poem, ends : — Wandering thus, there roam over many a country The gleemen of heroes, mindful of songs for the chanting, Telling their needs, their heartfelt thankfulness speaking. Southward or northward, wherever they go, there is some one Who values their song and is liberal to them in his presents, One who before his retainers would gladly exalt His achievements, would show forth his honors. Till all this is vanished, Till life and light disappear, who of praise is deserving Has ever throughout tht wide earth a glory unchanging. The second of these songs is Deor s Lament. Deor is 8 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [5th-6th Cent. in sorrow, for another scop has become his lord's favor- Deor's ^^^- ^^^ neglected singer comforts himself Lament. by recalling the troubles that others have met. Each stanza ends with the refrain, — That he endured ; this, too, can L Widsith and Deors Lament were found in a manu- script volume of poems collected and copied more than The Exeter eight hundred years ago. It is known as the Book. Exeter Book because it belongs to the cathe- dral at Exeter. Another volume, containing both poe- Thever- ^^J ^"^ prose, was discovered at the Monastery ceiuBook. of Vercelli in Italy. These two volumes and the manuscript of Beowulf cox\l2an almost all that is left to us of Anglo-Saxon poetry. 5. Csedmon [d. 680]. The happy scop and the un- happy scop are both forgotten. No one knows who wrote either the rejoicing or the lament. The first English poet that we know by name is the monk Caed- mon, who died in 68o. The introduction of Christianity made great changes in the country, for though the sturdy tot Englishmen could not lay aside in one century. Christian- or two, or three, all their confidence in charms *^' and magic verses, and in runic letters cut into the posts of their doors and engraved on their swords and their battle-axes, yet they were honest believers in the God of whom they had learned. Churches and con- vents rose throughout the land, and one of these convents was the home of Caedmon. It was founded by Irish mis- sionaries, and was built at what is now called Whitby, on a lofty cliff overlooking the German Ocean. There men and women prayed and worked and sought to live lives of holiness. At one of their feasts the harp passed from one to another, that each might sing in turn. Caedmon 7th Cent] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 9 had not been educated as a monk, and therefore he had never learned to make songs. As the harp came near him, he was glad to slip out of the room with the excuse that he must care for the cattle. In the stable csdmon's he fell asleep ; and as he slept a vision appeared vision, to him and said, " Caedmon, sing some song to me." " I cannot sing," he replied, " and that is why I left the feasting." "But you shall sing," declared the vision. RUINS OF WHITBY ABBEY "Sing the beginning of created beings." Then Caed- mon sang. He sang of the power of the Creator, of his glory, and of how He made the heavens and the earth. In the morning he told the steward of the mysterious gift that had come to him while he slept, and the stew- ard led him joyfully to Hilda, the royal maiden who was their abbess. Many learned men came together, and Caedmon told them his dream and repeated his verses. Another subject was given him, and he made verses on that also. "It is the grace of God," said the council rev- lO ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [8th Cent. erently. The habit of a monk was put upon him, he was carefully taught the word of God, and as he learned, he composed poem after poem, following the Bible story from the creation to the coming of Christ, his resurrec- tion and his ascension. 6. Cynewulf, born about 760. The name of one more poet, Cynewulf, is that of the greatest of the au- thors whose words have come down to us from the early days of England. He, too, was probably of Northum- bria, and he must have written about a century after the time of Csedmon. Hardly anything is known of him except his name ; but he interwove that in some of his poems in such a way that it could never be forgotten. For this purpose he made use of runes, the ^"'"" earliest of the northern alphabets. Each rune represented not only a letter, but also the word of which it was the initial ; for instance : — C = Cene, the courageful warrior. Y =Yfel, wretched. N = Nyd, necessity. W=Wyn, joy. U = Ur, our. L = Lagu, water. F = Feoh, wealth. With these runes Cynewulf spelled out his name : — Then the Courage-hearted cowers when the King he hears Speak the words of wrath — Him the wielder of the heavens Speak to those who once on earth but obeyed him weakly, While as yet their Fearning pain, and their A^eed, most easily Comfort might discover. Gone is then the J^insomeness Of the earth's adornments ! What to l/s as men belonged Of the joys of life was locked, long ago in Zake-floods, All the Fee on earth.' 1 Stopford Brooke's translation, in English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest. 8th Cent.] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD II Cynevvulf has many beautiful descriptions of nature, sometimes of nature calm and quiet and peaceful ; for instance: — When the winds are lulled and the weather is fair, When the sun shines bright, holy jewel of heaven, When the clouds are scattered, the waters subdued. When no stormwind is heard, and the candle of nature Shines warm from the south, giving light to the many. Cynevvulf loved tranquil days and peaceful scenes ; but if he wrote the riddles which are often thought to be his, he had not lost sympathy with the wild life of his ancestors on the stormy ocean. The English liked rid- dles, and this one must have been repeated over and over again at convent feasts and in halls at times of rejoicing : — Sometimes I come down from above and stir up the storm-waves ; The surges, gray as the flint-stone, I hurl on the sea-banks, The foaming waters I dash on the rock-wall. Gloomily Moves from the deep a mountain billow ; darkening. Onward it sweeps o'er the turbulent wild of the ocean. Another comes forth and, commingling, they meet at the mainland In high, towering ridges. Loud is the call from the vessel, Loud is the sailors' appeal ; but the rock-masses lofty Stand unmoved by the seafarers' cries or the waters. The answer to this is "The hurricane." An especially beautiful poem of Cynewulf's is called the Dream of the Rood. The cross appeared to the poet in a dream, — " the choicest dream," he calls it. The Dream It was "circled with light," it was glittering «>*«"»Rood. with gems and with gold, and around it stood the angels of God. From it there flowed forth a stream of blood ; and while the dreamer ga2ed in wonder, the cross spoke to him. It told him of the tree being cut from the edge of the forest and made into the cross. Then followed the story of the crucifixion, of the three crosses that 12 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [yth-Sth Cent. Stood long on Calvary sorrowing, of the burial of the cross of Christ deep down in the earth, of its being found by servants of God, who adorned it with silver and with gold that it might bring healing to all who should pay it their reverence. 7. Early English poetry as a -whole. Such was the Early English poetry, beginning with wild exploits of half-fabulous heroes and gradually changing under the touch of Christianity into paraphrases of the Bible story, into legends of saints, and accounts of heavenly vi- sions. It contains bold descriptions of sea and tempest, intermingling, as the years passed, with pictures of more quiet and peaceful scenes. The names of but two poets, Caedmon and Cynewulf, are known to us ; but throughout all these early poems there is an earnest- ness, an appealing sincerity, and an honest, childlike love of nature, that bring the writers very near to us, and make them no unworthy predecessors of the poets that have followed them. 2. Prose 8. Bede, 673-735. About the time of the death of Caedmon, a boy was born in Northumbria who was to write one of the most famous pieces of Early English prose. His name was Bede, or Baeda, and he is often called the Venerable Bede, venerable being the title next below that of saint. When he was a little child, he was taken to the convent of Jarrow, and there he remained all his life. A busy life it was. The many His educa- ^ours of prayer must be observed ; the land tton. must be cultivated ; guests must be enter- tained, no small interruption as the fame of the convent and of Bede himself increased. Moreover, this convent was a great school, to which some six hundred pupils, He found real plea- 8th Cent] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 13 not only from England but from various parts of Europe, came for instruction. Bede enjoyed it all. He was happy in his religious duties. He "always took delight," as he says, "in learning, teaching, and writing. sure in the outdoor work ; and, little as he tells us of his own life, he does not forget to say that he especially liked winnowing and threshing the grain and giving milk to the young lambs and calves. He was keenly alive to the affairs of the world, and though li- braries were his special de- light, he was as ready to talk with his stranger guests of distant kingdoms as of books. In the different monasteries of England there were collec- tions of valuable manuscripts, and Jarrow had one of the most famous of these collections. The abbot loved books, and from each one of his numerous journeys to Rome he returned with a rich store of volumes. Much of Bede's time must have been given to teach- ing, and yet, in the midst of all his varied occupations, this first English scholar found leisure to gg^g-g write an enormous amount. Forty-five different "writings, works he produced, and they were really a summary of the knowledge of his day. He wrote of grammar, rhet- oric, music, medicine ; he wrote lives of saints and com- mentaries on the Bible, — indeed, there is hardly a subject that he did not touch. He even wrote a vol- ume of poems, including a dainty little pastoral, resem« MONK AT WORK ON BOOK OF KILDARB 14 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [8th Cent. bling the Latin pastorals, a contest of song between summer and winter, which closes with a pretty picture of the coming of springtime and the cuckoo. "When the cuckoo comes," he says, "the hills are covered with happy blossoms, the flocks find pasture, the meadows are full of repose, the spreading branches of the trees give shade to the weary, and the many-colored birds sing their joyful greeting to the sunshine." One day the king of Northumbria asked Bede to write a history of England, and the busy monk began the work as simply as if he were about to prepare a lesson for his pupils. He sent to Rome for copies of letters and reports written in the early days when the Romans ruled the land ; he borrowed from various convents their treasures of old manuscripts pertaining to the early times ; and he talked with men who had preserved the Bede'sEc- ^^icient traditions and legends. So it was that ciesiasticai Bede's Ecclesiastical History, the first history History. ^^ England, was written. When it was done, he sent it to the king, together with a sincere and dig- nified little preface, in which he asked for the prayers of whoever should read the book, — a much larger num- ber than the quiet monk expected. With the difficulty of collecting information, no one could expect Bede's work to be free from mistakes, al- though he was careful from whom his information came, and he often gives the name of his authority. Bede knew well how to tell a story, and the Ecclesiastical History, sober and grave as its title sounds, is full of tales of visions of angels, lights from heaven, myste- rious voices, and tempests that were stilled and fires that were quenched at the prayers of holy men. Here is the legend of Casdmon and his gift of song. Here, too, is the famous statement that there are no snakes in Ire- 8th Cent.] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 15 land. " Even if they are carried thither from Britain," says Bede, "as soon as the ship comes near the shore and the scent of the air reaches them, they die." All these books were written in Latin. That was the tongue of the church and of all scholars of the day. It was a universal language, and an educated man might be set down in any monastery in England or on the Continent, and feel perfectly at home in its book-room or in conversation with the monks. Bede was so thor- oughly English, however, in his love of nature, his frankness and earnestness, and his devotion to the peo- ple of his own land that, although he wrote in Latin, most of his works have a purely English atmosphere. He did not scorn his native tongue, and even in ^^^^, his writing he may have used it more than once, English though we know the name of one work only. '^^ °^^" This was a translation of the Gospel of St. John, and it was his last work. He knew that his life was near its close, but he felt that he must complete this trans- lation for his pupils. Some one of them was always with him to write as the teacher might feel able to dictate. The last day of his life came, and in the morning the pupil said, " Master, there is still one chapter wanting. Will it trouble you to be asked any more questions .? " "It is no trouble," answered Bede. "Take your pen and v«n-ite quickly." When evening had rome, the boy A MEDIEVAL AUTHOR AT WORK f6 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [Sth-pth Cent. said gently, " Dear Master, there is yet one sentence not written." "Write quickly," said Bede again. "The sentence is written," said the boy a few minutes later, " It is well," murmured Bede, and with new strength he joyfully chanted the Gloria; and so, in 735, he passed away, the first English scholar, scientist, and historian. 9. Alcuin, 7357-804. In the very year of Bede'c death, if we may trust to tradition, Alcuin was born, the man who was to carry on English scholarship, though not on English soil. He was a monk of the convent of York, and was famous for his knowledge. Perhaps some of the English churchmen thought that he was too famous, when they knew that King Charlemagne had heard of his learning, and had persuaded him to leave his own country and come to France to teach the royal children and take charge of education in the Prankish kingdom. For fourteen years, from 782 to 796, he spent nearly all his time at the court of Charlemagne. Moreover, he persuaded many other men of York training to leave England and assist him in teaching the French. He little knew how grateful the English would be in later years that this had been done. 10. Alfred the Great, 848-901. During those years of Alcuin's absence in France, there was dire trouble in Danish Northumbria. King after king was slain by Invasions, rebels ; and finally the Danes, coming from the shores of the Baltic, made their first attacks on the coasts of Northumbria. This was the beginning. Year after year the savage pirates fell upon the land. For more than three quarters of a century the Northum- brians were either fighting or dreading the coming of their heathen foes. At the end of that time, when peace was made with the terrible invaders. Northumbria 9th Cent.] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 17 was a desert so far as literature was concerned. The Danes had struck especially at the monasteries because of the gold and silver vessels and ornaments that were collected in them ; and not one monastery remained standing in all the land from the Tyne to the Humber. Li- braries famous over Europe had been burned ; smoked and bloodstained ruins were alone left to show where men had been taught who had be- come the teachers of Europe. South of the Humber mat- ters were little bet- ter ; for there, too, the heathen Danes had swept through and through the country. Priests pronounced the words in their Latin mass books, but very few could under- stand the language and put a Latin letter into English. The only hope of England lay in her king. It was happy for her that her king was Alfred the Great, and that this sovereign who could fight battles of swords and spears was of equal courage and wisdom in _4ifred's the warfare against ignorance. In his child- character, hood he had visited Rome, perhaps spent several years in that city. He had paid a long visit at the Prankish court of Charlemagne's son. He had seen what know- ledge could do, and he meant that his own people should KING ALFRED l8 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [9th Cent. have a chance to learn. Then it was that France repaid England for the loan of Alcuin, for priests taught in the schools which he had founded were induced to cross the Channel and become the teachers of the Eng- lish. There were few English books, however, and there was no one to make them but this busy king; and just Aiired's ^^ simply as Bede had taken up his pen to write transia- a history of the land, so Alfred set to work to translate books for his kingdom. Among the books that he translated were two that must have been of special interest to the English, Bede's Ecclesiastical History and a combined history and geography of the world, written five hundred years before Alfred's day by a Spanish monk called Orosius. The latter had long been a favorite school-book in the convents ; but, natu- rally, a geography that was five hundred years old was in need of revision, and Alfred became not only a trans- lator but a reviser. He never forgot that he was writing for his people, and whenever he came to an expression that would not be clear to them, he either explained it, or omitted it altogether. Whenever he could correct a mistake of Orosius's, he did so. 11. The language of Alfred's time. In one way Al- fred had not only his translations to make, but his very language to invent. Latin is a finished, exact, accurate language ; the English of the ninth century was rude, childish, and awkward, and it was no easy task to in- terpret the clean-cut wording of the Latin into the loose, clumsy English phrases. Nevertheless, Alfred had no thought of imitating the Latin construction. The fol- lowing is a literal translation of part of the preface to one of his books that he sent to Waerferth, bishop of Worcester : — 9th Cent.] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD I9 Alfred the King bids to greet Waerferth the bishop with loving words and in friendly wise ; and I bid this be known to thee that it very often comes into my mind what wise men there were for- merly, both clergy and laymen ; and what blessed times there were then throughout England ; and how kings who had power over the nation in those days obeyed God and his ministers, and they both preserved peace, order, and authority at home and also increased their territory abroad ; and how they throve both in war and in wisdom ; and also the holy orders how zealous they were both in teaching and in learning, and in all the services that they ought to give to God ; and how people from abroad sought wisdom and teaching in this land ; and how we must now get them from with- out if we are to have them. Confused as this is, the king's earnestness shows in every word. He knows just what he means to say, and, language or no language, he contrives to say it, Bede's translation of the Gospel of Saint John disappeared centuries ago, and this preface of King Alfred's is the first bit of English prose that we possess. Literature had vanished from the north and was making its home in the south. 12. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Another piece of literary and historical work we owe to Alfred, and that is the Anglo-Saxo7i Chronicle. In almost every con- vent the monks were accustomed to set down what seemed to them the most important events, such as the death of a king, an attack by the Danes, an unusually high tide, or an eclipse of the sun. One of these lists of events was kept in the convent at Winchester, Alfred's capital city, and the idea occurred to him of revising this table, adding to it from Bede's Ecclesiastical His- tory and other sources, and making it the beginning of a progressive history of his kingdom. It is possible that Alfred himself did this revising, and it can hardly be doubted that he wrote at least the accounts of some of his own battles with the Danes. 20 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE rioth Cent. 13. Death of Alfred. In 901, it was written in the Chronicle, " This year died Alfred, the son of Ethel- wulf." King Alfred left England apparently on the way to literary progress, if not greatness. The kingdom was at peace ; the Danes of the north and the English of the south were under one king, and were, nominally at least, ruled by the same laws ; churches had arisen over the kingdom ; convents had been built and endowed ; schools vere ir creasing in number and in excellence ; books of practical worth had been trans- lated, probably more than have come down to us ; the people had been encouraged to learn the lan- guage of scholars, yet their own na- tive tongue had not been scorned, but rather raised to the rank of a literary language. There seemed every reason to expect national progress in all directions, and especially in matters intellectual. 14. Literature during the 10th and 11th centuries. The contrary was the fact. For this there were two rea- sons : I. Alfred's rule was a one-man power. His sub- jects studied because the king required study. Learned men came to England because the king invited them and rewarded them. At Alfred's death a natural reaction set in. The strong will and the generous hand were gone, the watchful eye of the king was closed. 2. The DEDICATION OF A SAXON CHURCH From an old manuscript xoth-iith Cent.] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 21 Danes renewed their attacks. It almost ceased to be a question of any moment whether England should ad- vance ; far more pressing was the question whether England should exist. The church was in a low state. The monks did not obey the rules of their orders, and many of the secular clergy were not only ignorant but openly wicked. About the middle of the tenth century, the monk Dunstan became abbot of Glastonbury, and he preached reforms so earnestly that both priests and people began to mend their ways. Moreover, the year looo was approaching, and there was a general feeling that in that year the world would come to an end. A nat- ural result of this feeling was that the church became more active, and that great numbers of lives of saints appeared, and sermons, or homilies, as they were called. These homilies were not so uninteresting as their name sounds. To hold the attention of the people, the preachers were forced to be picturesque, and they gave in minute detail most vivid descrip- tions of places, saints, and demons about which they knew absolutely nothing. The saints were pictured as of fair complexion, with light hair and blue eyes. Satan was described as having dark, shaggy hair ^jju^jg hanging down to his ankles. Sparks flew from 955?-io2o. his eyes and sulphurous flames from his mouth. The most famous writer of these homilies was ^Ifric, abbot of Ensham. In the first two centuries after Alfred, the old poems composed in the north were rewritten in the form in which they have come down to us, that is, in Re^^iting the language of the south, of the West Saxons; of old but little was produced that could be called ^"""'^" poetry. The Chronicle was continued, and one or two bold battle-songs were inserted. A few rude ballads were 22 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [nth Cent. composed, with little of the old alliteration, and with only a beginning of appreciation of rhyme. One of these was the work of a king, Canute the Dane, who became ruler of England in loi 7 : — Merie sungen the munaches binnan Ely Canute's Tha Cnut ching reuther by : poem. u Rotheth cnites noer the land And here ye thes Munaches sasng." Joyously sang the monks in, Ely When Canute the king rowed by. •' Row, knights, nearer the land, And hear ye the song of the monks." Glancing back over the literature of England, we can see that it had been much affected by the influence of Influence oi ^^^ Celts. From the sixth century to the ninth the Celts. the Christian schools of Ireland were famous throughout Europe, and the Irish missionaries taught the religion of Christ to the Northumbrians. The Teutons and the Celts were not at all alike. The Teu- tons thought somewhat slowly. They were given to pondering on difficult subjects and trying to explain puzzling questions. The Celts thought and felt swiftly ; a word would make them smile, and a word would arouse their sympathy. The Teutons liked stories of brave chiefs who led their thegns in battle and shared with them the treasures that were won, of thegns who were faithful to their lord, and who at his death heaped up a great mound of earth to keep his name in lasting re- membrance. The Celts, too, were fond of stories, but stories that were full of bright and beautiful descriptions, of birds of brilliant coloring, of marvellous secrets, and of mysterious voices. They liked battle scenes wherein strange mists floated about the warriors and weird phan- toms were dimly seen in the gathering darkness. nth Cent.] EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 23 To say just when and where the Celtic influence touched English literature is not easy ; but, comparing the grave, stern resolution of Beowulf, with the imagi- native beauty, the graceful fancy, and the tender senti- ment of the Dream of the Rood, and the picturesque and witty descriptions of the homilies, one can but fee! that there is something in the literature of the English Teutons which did not come from themselves, and which can be accounted for in no other way than by their con- tact with the Celts. 15. William the Norman conquers England. The be- ginnings of a noble literature had been made in England, but the inspiration had become scanty. The English writer needed not only to read something better than he had yet produced, but even more he needed to know a race to whom that " something better " was familiar. In 1066, an event occurred that brought him both men and models : William the Norman conquered England and became its king. Centuries V-XI THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD X. Poetry 2. Prose Beowulf. Bede. Widsith. Alfred. Deor'^s Lament. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. C^dmon. Lives of saints and homilies. Cynewulf. SUMMARY I. Poetry Our English ancestors lived in Jutland and the northern part of what is now Germany. They were savage warriors, but loved song and poetry. After their feasts the scop, or 24 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [5th-iith Cent. poet, sang of the adventures of some hero. Little by little these songs were welded together and became an epic. One epic, Beowulf, has been preserved, though much changed by the teachings of the missionaries who came to England in 597. Anglo-Saxon verse was marked by alliteration instead of rhyme. Besides Beowulf, little remains of the Anglo-Saxon poetry except what is contained in the Exeter Book and the Vercelli Book. The first poet whom we know by name was the monk Cffidmon (seventh century), whose chief work was a paraphrase of the Scriptures. The greatest of the early poets was Cynewulf (eighth century). 2. Prose One of the most famous pieces of English prose, a translation of the Gospel according to St. John, was written by the monk Bede (seventh and eighth centuries). He wrote on many sub- jects, but his most valuable work is his Ecclesiastical History. Alcuin (eighth century) carried on English scholarship in France. England was harassed by the Danes, but after King Alfred (ninth century) had brought about peace, Alcuin's pupils became teachers of the English. King Alfred made several valuable translations. The pre- face of one of them is the earliest piece of English prose that we still possess. The Anglo-Saxo?i Chronicle was formally begun in his reign. The death of Alfred and the renewed attacks of the Danes retarded the literary progress of England. The preaching of Dunstan and the near approach of the year 1000 called out lives of saints, and homilies written by yEIfric and others. Old poems were rewritten, and rude ballads were composed. The influence of the Celts for beauty, fancy, and wit may be seen in both poetry and prose. English literature had made a good beginning, but needed better models. CHAPTER II CENTURIES XII AND XHI THE NORMAN-ENGLISH PERIOD 16. Advantages of the conquest. Nothing better could have happened to England than this Norman con- quest. The Englishmen of the eleventh century were courageous and persistent, but the spark of inspiration that gives a people the mastery of itself and the leader- ship of other nations was wanting. England was like a great vessel rolling in the trough of the sea, turning broadside to every wave. The country must fall into the hands of either the barbaric north or the civilized south. Happily for England, the victor was of the south. The Normans were Teutons, who had fallen upon France as their kinsmen had fallen upon England ; but the invaders of France had been thrown among ^jjg a race superior to them in manners, language, Normans, and literature. These northern pirates gave a look about them, and straightway they began to follow the customs of the people whom they had conquered. They embraced the Christian religion and built churches and monasteries as if they had been to the manner born. They forgot their own language and adopted that of France. They intermarried with the French ; and in a century and a half a new race had arisen with the brav- ery and energy of the Northmen and an aptitude for even more courtly manners and even wider literary cul- ture than the French themselves. 20 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [i2th-i4th Cent. 17. The struggle between the French and English languages. Such were the Norman conquerors of Eng- land. How would their coming affect the language and the literature of the subject country ? It was three hun- dred years before the question was fully answered. At first the Norman spoke French, the Englishman spoke English, and both nations used Latin in the church ser- vice. Little by little, the Norman found it convenient to know something of the language spoken by the masses of the people around him. Little by little, the Englishman acquired some knowledge of the language of his rulers. Words that were nearly alike in both tongues were con- fused in pronunciation, and as for spelling, — a man's mode of spelling was his private property, and he did with his own as he would. It is hard to trace the history of the two languages in England until we reach the fourteenth century, and then there are some few land- marks. In 1300, Oxford allowed people who had suits at law to plead in "any language generally understood." Fifty years later, English was taught to some extent in the schools. In 1362, it became the official language of the courts. In 1385, John of Trevisa wrote, " In all the grammar schools of England children give up French and construe and learn in English, and have thereby advantage on one side and disadvantage on another. Their advantage is that they learn their grammar in less time than children were wont to do ; the disadvantage is that now grammar-school children know no more French than their left heel knows." In 1400, the Earl of March offered his aid to the king and wrote his let- ter in English, making no further apology for using his native tongue than the somewhat independent one, " It is more clear to my understanding than Latin or French." I2th-i3th Cent.] THE NORMAN-ENGLISH PERIOD 27 In this contest, three centuries long, English had come off victor, but it was a different English from that of earlier times. Hundreds of new nouns, verbs, me new and adjectives had entered it, but they had ^^^sUsii. been forced to wear the English garb. To speak broadly, verbs had adopted English endings ; adjectives had adopted English comparisons ; nouns had given up their case-endings and also their gender in great degree, for the simplest remedy for the frequent conflict between the English and French gender was to drop all distinc- tions of gender so far as inanimate objects were con- cerned. How did the coming of the Norman affect the litera- ture of England ? As soon as the shock of conquest was somewhat past, the English unconsciously began, in the old Teutonic fashion, to look about them and see what ways worthier than their own they could adopt. They had refused to become a French-speaking people, but was there anything in Norman literature and literary methods worthy of their imitation, or rather assimilation ? 18. Opening of the universities and the crusades. The Normans had a taste for history, they were a reli- gious people, and they thoroughly enjoyed story-telling. Two other influences were brought to bear upon the English : the opening of the universities and the cru- sades. The first made it possible for a man to obtain an education even if he had no desire to become a priest. The second threw open the treasures of the world. Thousands set out on these expeditions to rescue the tomb of Christ from the power of the unbelievers. Those who returned brought with them a wealth of new ideas. They had seen new countries and new manners. They had learned to think new thoughts. The opening of the universities made it possible for 28 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [13th Cent. chronicles to be written, not only by monks in the mon- asteries, but by men who lived in the midst of the events that they described. Chronicles were Chronicles. , i 1 i r n r no longer mere annals ; they became tull or detail, vivid, interesting. 19. Devotional books. The religious energy of the Normans and the untiring zeal of the preachers strength- ened the English interest in religious matters. The sacred motive of the crusades intensified it, and books of devotion appeared, not in Latin, like the chronicles, but in simple, every-day English. One of the best known The of these was the Ornmhim, a book which gives Ormuium, ^ metrical paraphrase of the Gospels as used 1215-1220. in the church service, each portion followed by a metrical sermon. Its author kept a sturdy hold upon his future fame in his couplet, — Thiss hoc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum Forrthi thatt Orm itt worhhte. He was equally determined that his lines should be pro- nounced properly, and so after every short vowel he doubled the consonant. He even gave advance orders to whoever should copy his work : — And whoso shall will to write this book again another time, I bid him that he write it correctly, so as this book teacheth him, en- tirely as it is upon this first pattern, with all such rhymes as here are set with just as many words, and that he look well' that he write a letter twice where it upon this book is written in that wise.' Another of these books of devotion was the Ancren Rizule, a little prose work whose author is un- TheAncTen , . . i , Riwie, known. Its object was to guide three sisters aTiouti22B. ^^^ wished to withdraw from the world, though without taking the vows of the convent. It is almost » Translated in Morley's English Writers, iii. r2th Cent.] THE NORMAN-ENGLISH PERIOD 29 sternly strict, but so pure and natural and earnest that it was deeply loved and appreciated. 20. Romances. The Norman delight in stories and the new ideas given by the crusades aroused in the Eng- lish a keen love of romance. The conquest itself was romantic. The chivalry introduced by the Normans was SIR LAUNCELOT AND A HERMT From an illuminated MS. of 13 16 picturesque. It adorned the stern Saxon idea of duty with richness and grace. Simple old legends took form and beauty. Four great cycles of romance were produced ; that is, four groups of stories cycles of told in metre, each centred about some one "™^°®- hero. One was about Charlemagne, one about Alexan- der the Great, one told the tale of the fall of Troy, and one pictured King Arthur and his knights. This last cycle had a curious history. Before the middle „ „ ■' ■' Qeoffreyof of the twelfth century, one Geoffrey of Mon- Monmoutii, mouth, a Welsh bishop, wrote in Latin an ex- mo-H54. ceedingly fanciful History of the Kings of Britain. It 30 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [13th Cent. was translated into French by a clerk named Wace ; was carried to France ; wandered over the Continent, where it was smoothed and beautified, and gained the stories of Launcelot and the Holy Grail ; then returned to England, and was put into English verse by the English priest Layamon. He called it the Brut, about Brut, or story of Brutus, a fabled descendant ^^°^" of vEneas, who was claimed to have landed on the shores of England in prehistoric times. This cycle was the special favorite of the English. The marvellous adventures of King Arthur's knights interested those who had been thrilled by the stories of returning cru- saders ; and the quest of the knights for but one glance of that Holy Thing, the Grail, was in full accord with the spirit of the crusades, an earthly journey with a spiritual gain as its object and reward. The Chronicle came to an end in 1 1 54. The Onnuhcm, the Ancroi Rhvle, and the Brut all belong to the early part of the thirteenth century. They are English in French their feeling ; but as the years passed, French romances, romances were sung throughout the land, — in French where French was understood, in English trans- lation elsewhere. One of the best liked of these was King Horn. Its story is : — The kingdom of Horn's father is invaded by the King Horn Saracens, who kill the father and put Horn proDabiy and his companions to sea. King Aylmar re- ceives them, and orders them to be taught various duties. Of Horn he says : — And tech him to harpe With his nayles fcharpe, Bivore me to kerve And of the cupe ferve, — the usual accomplishments of the page. The king's I3th Cent.] THE NORMAN-ENGLISH PERIOD 3I daughter, Rymenhild, falls in love with Horn ; and no wonder, if the description of him is correct. He was bright fo the glas, He was whit fo the flur, Rofe red was his colur, In none kinge-riche Nas non his iliche. He goes in quest of adventures, to prove himself worthy of Rymenhild. The course of their love does not run smooth. King Aylmar presents a most eligible king as his daughter's suitor ; Horn's false friend tries to win her ; she is shut up in an island castle ; but Horn, in the disguise of a gleeman, makes his way into the castle and wins his Rymenhild. He kills his false friend ; he finds that his mother still lives ; he regains his father's kingdom ; and so the tale ends. This story is thoroughly PVench in its treatment of woman. In Beozvidf, the wife of the lord is respected and honored, she is her lord's friend and helpmeet ; but there is no romance about the matter. To picture the smile of woman as the reward of valor, and her hand as the prize of victory, was left to the verses of those poets who were familiar with the glamour of knighthood. 21. The Norman-English love of nature. This new race, the Norman-English, enjoyed romance, they liked the new and the unwonted, but there was ever a warm corner in their hearts for nature. The dash of the waves, the keen breath of the northern wind, the coming of spring, the song of the cuckoo, the gleam of the daisy, — they loved them all; and in the midst of the romances of knights and Saracens and foreign Nature countries, they felt a tenderness toward what '^'^^^• was their very own, the world of nature. Simple, tender, graceful little lyric poems slipped in shyly among the 32 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [13th Cent. more pretentious histories, religious handbooks, and paraphrases. Here are bits from them : — Sumer is icumen in, Llude sing cuccu! Groweth sed, and bloweth med, And springth the wude nu, Sing, cuccu! or this : — Dayes-eyes in the dales. Notes sweete of nightingales, Each fowl song singeth, or this, which has a touch of the French love ro- mance : — Blow, northern wind. Send thou me my suetyng. Blow, northern wind, Blow, blow, blow ! 22. The Robin Hood ballads. Not only love of na- ture but love of freedom and love of justice inspired the ballads of Robin Hood, many of which must have origi- nated during this period, though probably they did not take their present form till much later. They are crude, simple stories in rhyme of the exploits of Robin Hood and his men, and they come straight from the heart of the Englishman, that bold, defiant heart which always beat more fiercely at the thought of injustice. Robin and his friends are exiles because they have dared to shoot the king's deer, and they have taken up their abode in " merry Sherwood." There they waylay the sheriff and the " proud bishop," and force them to open their well-filled purses and count out the gold pieces that are to make life easier for many a poor man. These ballads were not for palaces or for monasteries, they were for the English people ; and the ballad-singers 13th Cent] THE NORMAN-ENGLISH PERIOD 3i went about from village to village, singing to one group after another, adding a rhyme, or a stanza, or an adventure at every repetition. Gradually the tales of the "cour> teous outlaw " were forming themselves into a cycle of romance, but the days of the printing-press came too soon for its completion. Whether Robin was ever a "real, live hero" is not of the least con- sequence. The point of interest is that the ballads which picture his adventures are the free, bold expres- sion of the sincere feelings of the Englishman in the early years of his forced submission to Norman rule. 23. Value of the Norman-English writings. The writings of the first two centuries after the Norman con- quest are, as a whole, of small worth. With the increas- ing number of translations, such a world of literature was thrown open to the English that they were dazzled with excess of light. Daringly, but half timidly, they ventured to step forward, to try one thing after another. No one could expect finish and completeness; the most that could be looked for was some beginning of poetry that should show imagination, of prose that should show power. So ended the thirteenth century, in a kind of morning twilight of literature. The fourteenth was the time of the dawning, the century of Chaucer. A BAND OF MINSTRELS From a fourteenth-century MS. 34 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [i2th-i3th Cent Centuries XII and XIII THE NORMAN-ENGLISH PERIOD Ormulutn. King Arthur. Ancren Riwle. Layamon's Brut. Cycles of romance. French romances. Charlemagne. King Horn. Alexander. Nature lyrics. Fall of Troy. Robin Hood ballads. SUMMARY The Norman Conquest affected both language and litera ture. English, French, and Latin were used in England ; bul English gradually prevailed, until in 1362 it became the official language of the courts. Many new words had been added and its grammar simplified. The literary influence of the Normans was for history, re- ligious writings, and story-telling. Two other influences helped to arouse the English to mental activity, — the opening of the universities and the crusades. The chief immediate literary results of this intellectual stimulus were the chronicles, now written by men who were not monks, and books of devotion. Among the latter was the Ormuhitn and the Ancren Riwle. Love of story-telling manifested itself in four cycles of ro- mance, centring about Charlemagne, Alexander the Great, the fall of Troy, and King Arthur. This last cycle went through the hands of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, Layamon, and others. French romances were popular, especially King Horn. Love of nature inspired simple, sincere lyrics ; love of free- dom and justice inspired the Robin Hood ballads. The writings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are oi little intrinsic value, but foreshadow better work to come. CHAPTER III CBNTUET XIV CHAUCER'S CENTURY 24. England in the fourteenth century. The four, teenth century was not only the dawning of modern English literature, but it was the dawning of me begin- English thought. Before this time kings had ^^,.°i thought how to keep their thrones ; barons had thought, thought how to prevent kings from becoming too power- ful ; priests and monks had thought, sometimes how to teach the people, sometimes how to get the most possible from them ; but the masses of the English people never seemed to think of anything that was of interest to them ill until about the middle of the fourteenth century. One special reason for this beginning of English thought was that many thousands of Englishmen had become more free than ever before. England had long been controlled by what is known as the feu- xhe feudal dal system ; that is, a tenure of land on condi- system, tion of service. The cultivated portions of England were divided into great manors, or farms, and each was held by some rich man on condition of giving his service to the king. On these manors lived the masses of the people, the villeins, or peasants. They were obliged as part of their duty to work for their lord a cer- tain number of days every year, and they were forbid- den to leave the manor. During the crusades, the lords who went to the Holy Land needed a great deal of money, and they often allowed their tenants to give 36 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [14th Cent, them money instead of service. Sometimes they sold them land. These crusades came to an end in the thir- teenth century, and even during the early years of the fourteenth the peasants were beginning to feel some- what independent. In 1338, the Hundred Years' War broke out between England and France. In 1346, an important battle Changed was won at Crecy, not by English knights condition ^^ horseback with swords and lances, but bv 01 the ' •' peasants. English peasants on foot with no weapons ex- cept bows and arrows. Then the peasants began to say to one another, " We can protect ourselves. Why should we remain on manors and depend upon knights in armor to fight for us ? " Following close upon this bat- tle was a terrible disease, called the Black Death, which swept over England. When it had gone, half of the people of the land were dead. Many of those peasants who survived ran away from the manors, for now that there were so few workmen, they could earn high wages anywhere. Moreover, weaving had been introduced, and if they did not wish to do farm-work, they could sup- port themselves in any city. The king and his counsel- lors made severe laws against this running away ; but they could not well be enforced, and they only made the peasants angry with all who were richer or more power- ful than themselves. They began to question, " How are these lords any greater folk than we ? How do they deserve wealth any more than we .'' They came from Adam and Eve just as we did." The masses of the people, then, were angry with the Discontent riobles and the other wealthy men. They were with the also discontented with the church. After the Black Death there was hardly a person in Eng- land who was not mourning the loss of dear friends. Es i4th Cent] CHAUCER'S CENTURY 37 pecially the poor longed for the comfort that the church should have given them ; but the church paid little atten- tion to their needs. Many of the clergy who received the income from English benefices lived in Italy, and had no further interest in England than to get as much from the land as possible. While the peasants were in such poverty, vast sums of money were being sent to these Italian priests, for fully half the land was in the hands of the church. The church did less and less for men, while the vision of what it might do was growing clearer. Thousands of these unhappy, discontented pea- sants marched up to London to demand of the The king their freedom and other rights and privi- Revolt! leges. This was the Peasants* Revolt of 1381. "si. Their demands were not granted, and the revolters were severely punished. In this century of unrest and change there were four authors whose writings are characteristic of „^^ the manner in which four classes of people re- prominent garded the state of matters. They were: ^^^^°^^' r. " Sir John Mandeville," who simply accepted things as they were ; 2. William Langland, or Langley, who criti- cised and wished to reform ; 3. Wyclif, who criticised and wished to overthrow • and 4. Chaucer, the good-humored aristocrat, who saw the faults of his times, but gently ridiculed them rather than preached against them. 25. The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mande- ville, Kt. This account of distant countries and strange peoples purports to have been written by Sir John him- self. He claims to be an English knight who has often journeyed to Jerusalem, and who puts forth this volume to serve as a guide-book to those wishing to make the pilgrimage. The introduction seems so " real " that it is a pity to be obliged to admit that the work is prob' 38 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [14th Cent ably a combination of a few travellers' stories and a vast amount of imagination, and that, worse than all, there never was any " Sir John." It was first written in French, and then translated into English either in SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE ON HIS VOYAGE TO PALESTINE From an old MS. in tlie British Museum the fourteenth century or the early part of the fifteen^.h. The traveller has most marvellous experiences. He finds that in the Dead Sea iron will float, while a feather will drop to the bottom. "And these be things against kind [nature]," says Sir John. He sees in Africa people who have but one foot. "They go so fast that it is marvel," he declares, "and the foot is so large that it shadow- eth all the body against the sun when they will lie and rest themselves." Sometimes he brings in a bit of science. From his observations of the North Star he T4thCent.] CHAUCER'S CENTURY 39 reasons that" Men may go all round the world and return to their country; and always they would find men, lands, and isles, as well as in our part of the world." When he touches on religious customs, he becomes especially in- teresting, for in the midst of the unrest and discontent of his age he has no fault to find with the laws or the church ; and with all his devotion to the church, he has no blame for those whose belief differs from his own. *' They fail in some articles of our faith," is his only criticism of the Moslems. 26. William Langland, 1332-1400. William Lang- land wrote the Visioji of Piers Plozvman. Very little is known of Langland save that he was proba- The vision bly a clerk of the church. He knew the lives pif^man of the poor so well that it is possible he was iirst the son of a peasant living on a manor, and be- 1362-°" came free on declaring his intention to enter 1363. the service of the church. His Vision comes to him one May morning when, as he says — in the alliterative verse of Beozvulf, but in words much more like modern English : — I was wery forwandred ' and went me to reste Under a brode banke bi a bornes ^ side, And as I lay and lened and loked in the wateres, I slombred in a slepyng; it sweyned ^ so merye. In his dream he sees " a faire felde full of folke." There are plowmen, hermits, men who buy and sell, minstrels, jugglers, beggars, pilgrims, lords and ladies, a king, a jester, and many others. They are all absorbed in their own affairs, but Repentance preaches to them so ear- nestly about their sins that finally they all vow to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Truth. No one can tell them where to find the shrine. At last they ask Piers ' weary with wandering. * brook's. » sounded. 40 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [i4tb Cent the Plowman to go with them and show them the way. " If I had plowed and sowed my half-acre, I would go with you," he repHed. The pilgrims agree to help him, and he sets them all to work. While they are working, God sends a pardon for them ; but a priest who sees it declares that it is no pardon, for it says only that if men do well, they shall be saved. This ends the vision, but Piers dreams again; " Do well, do better, do best," is the keynote of this dream. "Doweu ^'^^ does well who is moral and upright; he do better, does better who is filled with love and kind- ness ; he does best who follows most closely the life of the Christ. Finally, Piers is seen in a halo of light, for this leader who works and loves and strives to save others represents the Christ himself. This work is the last important poem written in the old alliterative metre of Bcoxvulf. It is an allegory, and there are in it such characters as Lady Meed (bribery), Holy Church, Conscience, Sir Work-well-with-thine- hand, Sir Goodfaith Gowell, Guile, and Reason. Rea- son's two horses are Advise-thee-before and Suffer-till- I-see-my-time. The liking for allegories came from the French, but the puzzling over hard questions of life and destiny was one of the characteristics of the early Teu- tons. Langland saw the trouble and wrong around him ; he saw the hard lives of the poor and the laws that oppressed them ; he saw just where the church failed to teach and to comfort them ; yet this fourteenth-century Puritan never thought of revolt. Some few changes in the laws, more earnestness and sincerity in the church, and above all, an effort on the part of each to "do best," — and the eager reformer believed that happiness would smile upon the world of England. In 1361, only one year before this poem was written, the Black Death 1324-1384] CHAUCER'S CENTURY 4I had for the second time swept over the land. For the second time a great wave of hopeless sorrow and help- lessness had overwhelmed the hearts of the people. Langland had put into words what was in every one's thoughts. It is no wonder that his poem was read by thousoinds ; that men saw more clearly than ever the JOHN WYCLIF evils of the times; that they began to look about them for strength to bear their lives, for help to make them better. 27. John Wyclif, 1324-1384. The strength and help were already on the way, for while Lang- wycUfs 11 1 • IT..- 4. w translation land was planning some additions to his poem, ottheBiwa, a learned clergyman named John Wyclif was i380- translating the Bible into the language of the people 42 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1364-1384 Wyclif was a very interesting man. Until he was about forty, he was a quiet student and preacher. Suddenly he appeared in public as the opponent of the pope him- self. The pope claimed that England had not paid him his proper tax for many years. " We need the money," declared Wyclif, "and surely a people has a right to self-preservation." The king and the clergy supported the bold patriot, and they were not at all annoyed while he preached against the sins of the monks ; but when he was not satisfied with calling for the purification of the church, and for better lives on the part of the clergy and the monks, but began to preach and write against tran- substantiation and other doctrines, they were indignant. The authorities in England tried to arrest him, and the pope commanded that he be brought to Rome : but still he sent his tracts over the length and breadth of the country. He wrote no more in Latin, but in simple, straightforward English that the plain people could understand. Such is the English of his translation of the Scriptures. The following is a specimen of its lan- guage : — Blessid be pore men in spirit: for the kyngdom of hevenes is herum. Blessid ben mylde men : for thei scliulen weelde the erthe. Blessid ben thei that mournen : for thei schal be coumfortid. Blessid be thei that hungren and thirsten after rigtwisnesse : for thei schal be fulfillid. Blessid ben merciful men : for thei scha' gete mercy. Blessid ben thei that ben of clene herte : for thei schulen se god : Blessid ben pesible men : for thei schulen be clepid goddis children. Blessid ben thei that suffren persecucioun for rightwisnesse : for the kyngdom of heavens is hern. Many churchmen honestly believed that it was wrong to give the Bible to those who were not scholars, lest they should not understand it aright ; and even more were either shocked or angry at Wyclif's daring to crit- 1340-1400J CHAUCER'S CENTURY 43 icise the teachings of the church and the lives of the clergy. Persecution arose against the preacher persecution and his followers. He was protected by power- o*"Wyci«- ful friends ; but, forty years after his death, his grave was opened, his bones burned, and the ashes tossed scornfully into the river Swift. It was easier, however, for his opponents to fling away his ashes than to destroy his influence upon the people and upon the language. His Bible was in manuscript, of course, because printing had not yet been invented ; but it was read and reread by thousands, and the plain, strong words used by him- self and his assistants became a part of the every-day language. Moreover, this translation showed that an English sentence need not be loose and rambling, but might be as clear and definite as a Latin sentence; that English as well as Latin could express close reasoning and keen argument. 28. Geoflrey Chaucer, 13409-1400. While Wyclif was preaching at Oxford and Langland had not yet begun to work on his Vision, a young page was grow- ing up in the house of the Duke of Clarence who was destined to become the prince of story-tellers in verse. This young Geoffrey Chaucer was the son of a wine merchant of London. He lived like other courtiers ; he went to France to help fight his king's battles, was taken prisoner, was ransomed and set free. He wrote some love verses in the French fashion and translated some French poems, but he would have been somewhat amazed if any one had told him that he would be known five hun- dred years later as the " Father of English Poetry." By 1372, the young courtier had become a man "of some respect," and the king sent him on diplomatic mis- sions to various countries, twice at least to Italy. The literature of Italy was far in advance of that of England, 44 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1372-1400 and now the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio were open to the poet diplomat. Finally, Chaucer' was again in England ; and when he wrote, he wrote like an Englishman, but like an Englishman who was familiar with the best that France and Italy had to give. 29. The Canterbury Tales. A collection of stories written by Boccaccio was probably what suggested to Chaucer the writing of a similar collection. Boccaccio , '^ and Boccaccio s stones are told by a company of Chaucer. fnends who have fled from the plague-stricken city of Florence to a villa in the country. Chaucer made a plan that allowed even more variety, for his stories are told by a company who were going on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. Boc- caccio's people were of nearly the same rank ; but on a pilgrimage all sorts of folk were sure to meet, and therefore Chaucer was perfectly free to introduce any kind of person that he chose. Making a pilgrimage was a common thing in those Pilgrim- days, and people went for various reasons : some ages. ^Q pj-^y ^^^ make offerings to the saint that they believed had helped them in sickness or trouble, some to petition for a favor, some for the pleasure of making a journey, and some simply because others were going. Travelling alone was not agreeable and not always safe, therefore these pilgrims often set out in com- panies, and a merry time they made of it. Some even took minstrels and bagpipes to amuse them on the road. The Ca7iterbiiry Tales is Chaucer's best work. It be- gins on a bright spring morning, when he had gone to the Tabard Inn in Southwark for the first stage in his pilgrimage to Canterbury. Just at night a party of twenty-nine rode up to the door of the inn, and the solitary traveller was delighted to find that they, too. I372-I400] CHAUCER'S CENTURY 45 had set out on the same errand. There was nothing shy or unsocial about this pilgrim, and before bedtime came, he had made friends with them all, and had agreed to join their party. A very cheerful party it was, and these good-natured travellers were pleased with the rooms, the stables, the supper, the wine, and especially with the landlord, Harry Bailey, whom the poet calls "a merry man." After supper the host tells them that he never before saw so cheerful a company together at his inn. Then he talks about their journey. He says he knows well that they are not planning to make a gloomy time of it. For trewely confort ne myrthe is noon To ride by the weye doumb as a stoon, he declares ; and he proposes that each one of them shall tell two stories going and two more returning, and that when they have come back, a supper shall be given to the one who has told the best story. This pleases the pilgrims, and they are even more pleased when the cheery landlord offers to go with them, to be their guide and to judge the merit of the tales. Then come the stories themselves. There are only twenty-five of them, and three of those are incom- plete, for Chaucer never carried out his full plan. They are of all kinds. There are stories of knights and monks; of giants, fairies, miracles; of the crafty fox who THE PRIORESS From the Ellesmere MS., which is the best as well as one of the oldest of the Chau- cer MSS. 46 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1372-1400 ran away with Chanticleer in his bag, but was persuaded by the no less crafty rooster to drop the bag and make a speech of defiance to his pursuers. There are sto- ries of magic swords that would cut through any kind of armor, and there is a tale of " faire Eme- lye," the beloved of two young knights, one of whom was in prison and could gaze upon her only from afar, while the other was forbidden on pain of death to enter the city wherein she dwelt. After the fashion of his day, Chaucer took the plots of his tales from wherever he might find them, but it is his way of tell- Chaucer's ing the stories that is so fascinating. We can- style. j^Qj. j^gip fancying that he is talking directly to us, for he drops in so many little confidential "asides." "I have told you about the company of pilgrims," he says, "and now it is time to tell you what we did that night, and after that I will talk about our journey." At the end of a subject he is fond of saying, "That is all. There is no more to say." He is equally con- fidential when he describes his various characters, as he does in the Prologue before he begins his story- telling. It was no easy task to describe each one of a large company so accurately that we can almost see them, and so interestingly that we are in no haste to come to the stories ; but Chaucer was successful. He describes the knight, who had just returned from a jour- THE WIFE OF BATH From the Harleian MS. I 372- 1400] CHAUCER'S CENTURY 47 ney, and was so eager to make his grateful pilgrimage that he had set out with his short cassock Chaucer's still stained from his coat of mail ; the dainty characters, young prioress, who had such perfect table-manners that she never dipped her fingers deep in the gravy — an important matter to table-mates before forks were in use — or let a drop fall on her breast ; the sailor, whose beard had been shaken by many a tempest ; the phy- sician, who had not his equal in the whole world ; the woman of Bathe, with her "scarlet red" stockings, her soft new shoes, and her hat as broad as a buckler ; and the gay young squire, whose gown ' with sieves longe and wyde" was so richly em- broidered that it looked like a meadow " al ful of fresshe floures whyte and reede." Chaucer gives us a picture of the merry company, but more than that, he shows us what kind of people they were. He tells us their faults in satire as keen as it is good-natured. The monk likes hunting better than obeying strict convent rules, and Chaucer says of him slyly that when he rode, men could hear the little bells on his bridle jingle quite as loud as the bell of the chapel. The learned physician was somewhat of a miser, and Chaucer whispers cannily, — For gold in phisik is a cordial, Therefore he lovede gold in special. THE SQUIRE From the EUesmere MS 48 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1372-1400 THE PARSON From the Ellesmere MS. The two characters for whom the poet has most sym- pathy are the thin and threadbare Oxford student, who would rather have books than gorgeous robes or musical instruments ; and the earnest, faithful par- ish priest, who " Christes Gospel trewely wolde preche," and who never hired some one to take charge of his parish while he slipped away to live an easy life in a brotherhood. This keen - eyed poet, with his warm sympathy, could hardly have helped nature, and he can picture a bright, dewy May morning so clearly that we can almost see "the silver dropes hangyng on the leves." He liked May and sunshine and birds and lilies and roses. He liked the daisy, and when he caught sight of the first one, he wrote : — And down on knees anon right I me set, And as I could this freshe flower I grette, Kneeling always till it inclosed was Upon the small and soft and sweete grass. 30. Death of Chaucer, 1400. Chaucer's life was not all sunshine, but he was always sunny and bright. He writes as if he knew so many pleasant things that he could not help taking up his pen to tell us of them. His death occurred in 1400, and that date is counted as the end of the old literature and the beginning of the new. Chaucer well deserves the titiC, "Father of English Poetry;" but when we read his poems, we forget his loving Chaucer's love of nature. I372-I400] CHAUCER'S CENTURY 49 titles and his learning, and think of him only as the best of story-tellers. We owe gratitude to Chaucer not only because he left us some delightful poems, but because he broke away from the old Anglo-Saxon metre and because he wrote in English. The Canterbury Tales begins: — Whan that Aprille with hise shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Chaucer'» Of which vertu engendred is the fiour; language- Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, And smale foweles maken melodye That slepen al the nyght with open eye, — So priketh hem Nature in hir corages, — Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages. This is written in the 5- beat line, which gives more freedom than the 4-beat line of Beowulf. Alliteration is not em- ployed to mark the ac- cented syllables, but only to ornament the verse. Chaucer used many French words and often retained the French end- ings ; but he used them so easily and so appropri- ately that they "seemed to Oecome a part of the lan- guage. Another service ° ° CHAUCER and an even greater one From the Eiiesmere ms. 50 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [14th Cent. he rendered to the English tongue. People in different parts of England spoke in English, to be sure, but in widely differing dialects. Chaucer wrote in what was known as the Midland dialect, and his work was so good and so well liked that it had a powerful influence to fix the language ; that is, to make his writings and his vocabulary models for the authors who succeeded him. Century XIV CHAUCER'S CENTURY -" Sir John Mandeville." John Wyclif. William Langland. Geoffrey Chaucer. SUMMARY The weakening of the feudal system brought about the dawning of English thought. The causes of this weakening were : — 1. The lords, wishing to become crusaders, often accepted money instead of work. 2. In the Hundred Years' War the peasants discovered their power, 3. The Black Death lessened the number of workers, and enabled men to find farm-work where they chose and to de- mand what wages they liked. 4. The introduction of weaving made it possible for pea- sants to support themselves without working on the land. Harsh laws aroused discontent with the government ; the negligence of the clergy aroused discontent with the church. This discontent showed itself finally in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Four writers are typical of the four chief classes of people : — . I. "Sir John Mandeville," who accepted things as they were. 2. William Langland, who in Piers Plowman showed his wish to bring about reforms. I4th Cent.] CHAUCER'S CENTURY 51 3. John Wyclif, who wished to overthrow rather than to reform. He and his assistants translated the Bible into English. Its clear, strong phrasing became a part of the every-day speech, and did much to fix the language by show- ing its powers. 4. Geoffrey Chaucer, who good-naturedly ridiculed the faults of his times, Chaucer's great work is the Canterbury Tales^ which was probably suggested by Boccaccio's Decameron. Chaucer abandoned the early Anglo-Saxon metre and wrote in rhymed heroic verse. His work was so excellent that it fixed the Midland dialect as the literary language of England. CHAPTER TV CENTURY XV THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY 31. The imitators of Chaucer. Chaucer's poetry was so much better than any that had preceded it that the poets who lived in the early part of the fifteenth cen- tury made many attempts at imitation. They were not very successful. Chaucer wrote, for instance: — The bisy larke, messager of day, Salueth in hir song the morwe gray; And fiery Phcebus riseth up so brighte That al the orient laugheth of the Hghte, And with his stremes dryeth in the graves The silver droppes hangyng on the leves. One of Chaucer's imitators wrote : — Ther he lay to the larke song With notes newe, hegh up in the ayr. The glade morowe, rody and right fayr, Phebus also casting up his bemes, The heghe hylles gilt with his stremes, The syluer dewe upon the herbes rounde, Ther Tydeus lay upon the grounde. The best of these imitators was a king, James I James I of Scotland, who was captured by the Eng- 1395°-^^*'^ ' lish when he was a boy of eleven, and was 1437. kept a prisoner in England for nineteen years. During his captivity he fell in love with the king's niece, and to her he wrote the tender verses of 1400-1425] THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY S3 The Kings Quair^ He describes his loneliness as fol- lows : — Bewailing in my chamber thus allone, Despeired of all joye and remedye, For-tiret of my thought and wo-begone, And to the wyndow gan I walk in hye, To see the warld and folk that went forbye, As for the tyme though I of mirthis fude Mycht have no more, to luke it did me gude. He catches sight of the princess walking in the garden, The fairest or the freschest younge floure That ever I sawe, methought, before that houre. He gazes at her; then, And in my hede I drew rycht hastily, And eft.sones I lent it out ageyne, And saw hir walk that verray womanly, With no wight mo, bot only women tueyne, Than gan I studye in myself and seyne, Ah ! suete, are ye a warldly creature, Or hevinly thing in likeness of nature ? So it is that the captive king wrote his love, with a frank, admiring imitation of Chaucer, but so simply and so naturally that he is more than a name on a printed page; and it is really a pleasure to know that the course of his love ran smooth, and that he was finally allowed to return to his kingdom with the wife whom he had chosen. This seven-line stanza was not original with him by any means, but because a king had used it, it became known as "rhyme royal." 32. Sir Thomas Malory. This century began and ended with royalty, for in its early years King James wrote its best poetry, and toward its end Sir Thomas Malory — of whom little is known — wrote its best prose, • Book. 54 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1470-1485 the Morte d' Arthur, the old stories of King Arthur Morte grown more full, more simple, and more beauti- d' Arthur, ful than ever. "Thys noble and Joyous book," Caxton called it when he put it into print. At the close of Arthur's life he bids, according to Malory, " Syr Bedwere " to throw the sword Excalibur into the lake. Syr Bedwere obeys. Then says the author : — He threwe the swerde as farre in to the water as he myght, & there cam an arme and an hande aboue the water and matte it, & caught it and so shake it thryse and braundysshed, and then vanysshed awaye the hande wyth the swerde in the water. . . . Than syr Bedwere toke the Kyng vpon his backe and so wente wyth hym to that water syde, & whan they were at the water syde euen fast by the banke houed a lytyl barge wyth many fayr ladyes in hit, & emange hem al was a quene, and al they had blacke hoodes and al they wepte and shryked whan they sawe Kyng Arthur. " Now put me in to the barge," sayd the kyng, and so he dyd softelye. 33. The age of arrest. The fifteenth century is sometimes called the "age of arrest" because it is not No great marked by any great literary work like that of literature Chaucer. There are good reasons why no such work should have been produced. Plrst, the greater part of the century was full of warfare. The Hundred Years' War did not close until 1453, and there was hardly time to sharpen the battle-axes and put new strings to the bows before another war far more fierce than the first broke out, and did not come to an end until 1485. This was the War of the Roses, which was fought between the supporters of rival claimants to the English throne. Sometimes one side had the advan- tage and sometimes the other ; and whichever party was in power put to death the prominent men of the oppos- ing party. Second, there was not only no rest or quiet in the kingdom for great literary productions, but at i5th Cent.] THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY 55 least half of the nobles, the people of leisure, were killed in the terrible slaughter. Third, the church, which paid no taxes, owijed so much of the land that the whole burden of taxation had to be borne by only a part of the people. Poor in literature as this century of fighting was, there were two reasons why it was good for the " com- mon folk." In the first place, knighthood was Qainofthe becoming of less and less value, partly because common of the increasing use of gunpowder, but even ^°°^^^- more because the English had at last learned that a man encased in armor so heavy that he could hardly mount his horse without help was not so valuable a sol- dier as a man on foot with a bow or a battle-axe. In the second place, war could not be carried on without money, and money must come by vote of the House of Commons, which represented, however poorly and un- fairly, the masses of the people. If the king and his counsellors wished to obtain money, they were obliged to pay more attention than ever before tc the desires of the people. 34. Ballads. It was from the common folk that the most interesting literature of the century came, the ballads. An age of turmoil and unrest was, as has been said, no time for elaborate literary work, but the flashes of excitement, the news of a battle lost or a battle won, the story of some brave fighter returning from the war, — all these inspired short, strong ballads. Of course there had been many ballads before then, especially those of Robin Hood, but the fifteenth was the special century of the ballad, the time when the strong undercurrent of this poetry of the people came most conspicuously to the surface. No one knows who composed these ballads, but the wording shows that many of them came from 56 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [isth Cent. Scotland, and were inspired by the wild forays that were continually taking place between the Scotch and Chevy the English who dwelt near the border line of Chase. |-|-,g ^-^^q countries. The most famous of all the border ballads is that of Chevy Chase y which be- gins : — The Persd out of Northomberlonde, and a vowe to God mayd he That he wold hunte in the mountayns off Chyviat within days thre In the magger of doughty Dogles, and all that ever with him be. The marks -^ ballad is not merely a story told in rhyme \ of a ballad, jt ^^s several distinctive marks : — 1. It plunges into the tale without a moment's delay. There is not a shade of Chaucer's leisurely description. Chevy Chase does not even stop to explain who the two heroes, Percy and Douglas, may be. 2. It does something and says something. Every word counts in the story. We know from their deeds and words what the ballad people think, but " He longed strange countries for to see," or he "fell in love with Barbara Allen," is about as near a description of their thoughts as the ballad ever gives. 3. It is very definite. If people are bad, they are very bad ; and if they are good, they are very good. " Alison Gross " is " the ugliest witch in the north countrie." The bonny maiden is the fairest flower of all England. Colors are bright and strong : — O bonnie, bonnie was her mouth And cherry were her cheeks ; And clear, clear was her yellow hair, Whereon the red blude dreeps. Comparisons are of the simplest ; the maiden has a milk- I5th Cent.] THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY $7 white hand, her cheeks are red as a rose, and her eyes are blue as the sky. 4. The metre is almost always 4, 3, 4, 3 ; that is, the first and third lines contain four accented syllables, the second and fourth contain three. The second and fourth lines rhyme, sometimes the first and third also. The final syllable often receives an accent even when there would be none in prose. 5. Most of the ballads show the touch of the Celt. There are weird stories of the return of ghostly lovers ; there are fascinating little gleams of fairyland, of beauty and of happiness, but often with a shade of sadness or loneliness, the unmistakable mark of the Celtic nature, that could turn from smiles to tears in the flashing of a moment. O sweetly sang the blackbird That sat upon the tree ; But sairer grat Lamkin When he was condemned to die. We do not know who composed the older ballads. Indeed, each one seems to have grown up almost like a little epic. The gleeman wandered from vil- ^ lage to village, singing to groups of listeners, of the whose rapt eagerness was his inspiration. He * ^" sang his song again and again, each time adding to it or taking from it, according to whether his invention or his memory was the better. Moreover, there was no pri- vate ownership in ballad land. Any ballad was welcome to a line or a stanza from any other. Little by little the song grew, until finally its form was fixed by the coming of the printing-press. 35. Mystery plays. The fifteenth century was the time when the mystery or miracle play was at its best. This kind of play originated in the attempts of the clergy 58 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [15th Cent to teach the people, and was common on the Continent long before the coming of the Normans to England. There were few books and few who could read. There- fore the clergy conceived the idea of acting in the church short plays presenting scenes from the Bible. To give room for more people to hear, the play was soon per- formed on a scaffold in the churchyard. Gradually the acting was given up by the priests and fell into the hands of the parish clerks ; then into those of the guilds, A MYSTERY PLAY AT COVENTRY From an old print or companies of tradesmen, for long before the fifteenth century the men of each craft had formed themselves into a guild. Slowly the plays became cycles, each cycle following the Bible story from Gen- esis to the end of the Gospels, sometimes to the resur* I5th Cent.] THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY 59 rection. Each guild had in charge the presentation of one story or more. The acting was no longer in the churchyards, but at different convenient stations in the town. The stage was a great two-story or three-story wagon called a pageant. An important part of the scenery was "hell mouth," represented by a pair of widely gaping jaws full of smoke and flames, into which unrepentant sinners were summarily hurled and from which Satan issued to take his part in the drama. The plays were always acted in the biblical order. When one play was ended, the pageant moved on, leaving the place free for the next play, so that a person remaining at any one station could see the whole cycle. To modern ideas there are some things in these plays that seem irreverent ; for instance, the repre- seemingir- sentation of God the Father on the stage. In "▼"«!"!»• one of the plays of the creation he is made to say famil iarly : — Adam and Eve, this is tlie place That I have graunte you of my grace To have your wonnyng * in ; Erbes, spyce, frute on tree, Beastes, fewles,^ all that ye see, Shall bo we to you, more and myn.^ This place hight paradyce, Here shall your joys begynne, And yf that ye be wyse, From thys tharr* ye never twynne.^ Again, when the angels appear to the shepherds to sing of peace on earth, one of the shepherds says, " I can sing it as well as he, if you will help;" and he tries to imitate the heavenly song. * dwelling. « fowls. * great and small. * need. * depart 6o ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [15th Cent The makers of the mystery plays knew as well as the writers of hom.ilies that if the attention of the people Comical was to be retained, there must be amusement scenes. ^g ^g|| ^g instruction, and therefore they did not hesitate to introduce comical scenes. The antics of Satan were made to provide a vast amount of amusement ; and even more respectable scriptural characters were impressed into the service of making fun to gratify the demands of the spectators. After Noah has built his ark, he requests his wife to come into it, but she objects. Noah ought not to have worked on that ark one hundred years before telling her what he was doing, she says ; at any rate, she must go home to pack her belongings ; she does not believe it will rain long, and if it does, she will not be saved without her cousins and her friends. She is finally persuaded to enter the ark. At last the door is closed, and Noah might well offer up a prayer of grati- tude or sing a hymn of praise for the safety of himself and his family ; but, instead, he proceeds to give most prosaic directions to his sons to take good care of the cattle, and to his daughters-in-law to be sure to feed the fowls. With all their crudeness, these plays are often gentle and sympathetic. Joseph watches over Mary most lov- Tenderness higly. " My daughter," he tenderly calls her. of the plays, js^^ ^-^q crucifixion John's words of comfort to the sorrowing mother are very touching. " My heart is gladder than gladness itself," says Mary Mag- dalene at the resurrection. Such were the plays that pleased the people ; for they were simple, childlike, warm- hearted, ready to be amused, satisfied with the rudest jesting, and accustomed to treat sacred things with famil- iarity, but with no conscious irreverence. Going to a mystery play, like going on a pilgrimage, was a religious iSth Cent. A SCEN1I FROM EVERYMAN This is a photograph of the reproduction of the play given by the Ben Greet Company iu 1903. It represents Everyman on his pilgrimage, followed by Beauty, Strength, Dis- cretion, and Five Wits. Good Deeds and Knowledge are in the background duty ; but the medieeval mind saw no reason why duty and amusement should not be agreeably united. 36. Miracle plays and moralities. In England these plays were more frequently called miracle plays, though this name was applied elsewhere only to dramas based not upon biblical scenes, but upon legends of saints or martyrs. Often one kind of play blended with another; for instance, Mary Magdalene introduces scenes from the life of Christ, like a mystery ; it follows out the le- gends of the heroine, like a miracle ; it also leads to a third variety of play, the morality, in that it introduces abstract characters, such as Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, and Envy, for in the morality the characters were the virtues and vices. What amusement was in them was made by the Devil and a new character, the Vice, who played 62 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [15th Cent. tricks on Satan in much the fashion of the clown or fool of later days. At first sight, the morality seems dreary reading, especially when compared with the liveliness and rapid action of the mystery. There is no dreari- ness, however, to one who reads between the Hnes and is mindful of how intensely real the story was to those who listened to it in the earlier ages. One of veryman. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ moralities is Everyman, which was taken from the Dutch. In this play, Death, God's messenger, is sent to bid the merry young Everyman to make the long journey. Everyman pleads for a respite, he offers a bribe, he begs that some one may go with him. " Ye, yf ony be so hardy," Death replies. Then Everyman in sore distress appeals to Fellowship to keep him company. For no man that is lyvynge to daye I will not go that lothe journaye, replies Fellowship. Kindred refuse the petition. Good Deeds would go with him, but Everyman's sins have so weighed her down that she is too weak to stand. At last Knowledge leads him to confession. He does pen- ance and starts on his lonely pilgrimage. One by one, Beauty, Strength, Honor, Discretion, and his Five Wits forsake him. Good Deeds alone stands as his friend, and says sturdily with renewed strength, " Fere not, I wyll speke for the." Everyman descends fearfully but trust- fully into the grave. Knowledge cries, " Nowe hath he suffred that we all shall endure;" and the play ends with a solemn prayer, — And he that hath his accounte hole and sounde, Hye in heven he shall be crounde, Unto whiche place God brynge us all thyder That we may lyve body and soule togyder. 1476] THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY 63 This is not entertaining, but it is far from being dull. With the simple stage setting of four centuries ago, the realistic grave, and the ghastly, ashen gray figure of Death, it must have thrilled and solemnized the hushed listeners as neither play nor sermon could do in later generations. 37. Introduction of printing into England, 1476. In the last quarter of the century there were two not- able events that were destined to do more for the masses of the people than anything that had preceded. CAXTON PRESENTED TO EDWARD IV Earl Rivers giving the book to the king, while Caxton kneels beside him The first of these events was the introduction of print ing into England. Through these centuries of the beginning of literature, plays, homilies, poems, and 64 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE ^^476 lengthy books of prose had all been copied by the pen on parchment or vellum. Cheap picture books were printed on a coarse, heavy paper from wooden blocks, and some of these "block books" contained text also; but to print with movable types was a German invention of the middle of the century. Fortunately for English William book lovers, an Englishman named William 1422°?- Caxton, who was then living in Germany, was 1491. interested in the wonderful new art, and paid well for lessons in typesetting and all the other details of the trade. He was not only a keen business man, who thought money could be made by printing, but he was also a man of literary taste and ability, and the first The first English book that he printed was a translation printed of his own, called The Reciiyell of tJic Historyes ijook, prob- of Troy e. He wrote triumphantly to a friend ably 1474. j-j^^^ j^jg book was "not written with pen and ink as other books be." This was in 1474. Two years later, he and his press came to England, and there he printed volume after volume. The CanterbiLvy Tales, Malory's Morte d' Arthur, yEsop's Fables, and nearly one hundred other volumes came from his press. In the simple, primitive fashion of the fifteenth cen^ tury, which ascribed to Satanic agency whatever was new or mysterious, there were many people in England who looked upon Caxton's magical output of books as Decrease unquestionably the work of the devil ; but the price^of press was still kept busy, and the price of books. books became rapidly less. Before Caxton began to print, they were enormously expensive. A Hbrary of twenty or thirty volumes was looked upon as a rare collection ; and it was no wonder, for the usual rate for copying was a sum equal to-day to nearly fifty cents a page. Caxton's most expensive book could be iSth Cent.] THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY 65 purchased for about 1^30. How amazed he would have been if he could have looked forward to 1885 and seen one of his earlier and less perfect volumes sold for nearly ^10,000! 38. Signs of progress. England was not so wildly enthusiastic over literature that every tradesman or even every noble who could command a few pounds hastened to purchase a book; but the mere fact that there were „„ ^ , Effect of books for sale printing on at a price ^''^^^''• lower than had been dreamed of before was a hope and an inspira- tion. It was easier to see books, to borrow them, to know about them ; and little by little the knowledge filtered down through earliest known representation of a ° PRINTING-PRESS the various classes of people, until that one printing-press at Westminster had given new thoughts and new hopes to thousands. New thoughts were coming from yet another source. Columbus had discovered what was supposed to be a shorter way to India ; Vasco da Gama had poreign rounded Africa ; hundreds had gazed with wide- discoveries open eyes upon the ship of the Cabots as it sailed from the English wharfs, and had followed the " Grand Ad- miral" as he walked about the streets on his return, with all the glory of his discoveries about him. No one 66 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [15th Cent. yet suspected that he had landed on the shores of a con- tinent, but it was enough to hear the sailors' stories of strange plants and animals and people. Who could say what other marvels might be discov^ered ? Then came the end of the century. The homes of the masses of the people had made small addition of comfort ; the noble treated the peasants who and the Still lived on his land with perhaps small in- century. crease of respect ; but for all that, the fifteenth century was marked by the increasing importance of the common people. They had shown their prowess in fighting ; they held more firmly the money-bags of the kingdom ; the ballads were theirs ; the mystery plays were theirs ; the new art of printing would benefit them rather than the wealthy nobles ; the discovery of Amer- ica would be to their gain, and it was already a stimulus to their intellect and their imagination. The sixteenth century was at hand, and men had a right to expect from it such a display of universal intellectual ability as Eng- land had never known. Century XV THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY James L of Scotland. Mystery plays. Sir Thomas Malory. Moralities. Ballads. SUMMARY The poets of the early part of the century tried to imitate ohaucer. Of these imitators, King James I of Scotland was the best. Toward the end of the century, Sir Thomas Malory wrote the best prose, the Morte iP Arthur. Only a small amount of good literature was produced be cause : — I. The Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses filled the age with fighting. iSth Cent] THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY 67 2. A large number of the nobles were slain. 3. The people were heavily taxed. The common people gained in power because, first, the use of gunpowder made knighthood of decreasing value ; and, sec- ondly, the money needed for this warfare could be obtained only by vote of the House of Commons. From the common folk came the most interesting literature of the time, the ballads. They have no introduction ; they are definite ; their metre is usually 4, 3, 4, 3 ; they generally show a Celtic touch. A ballad is often the work of many hands. The miracle plays were at their best. They were acted first by the clergy ; then by members of guilds. They were followed by the moralities, of which Everyman is the best example. Toward the end of the century, there were two notable events which aroused and stimulated the people. They were : — 1. The introduction of printing into England by William Caxton, followed by a decrease in the price of books and a much more general circulation of them. 2. Foreign discoveries by Columbus, Da Gama, the Cabots, and others. The distinguishing mark of the age was the increasing im portance of the common peoole. CHAPTER V CENTURY XVI | SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 39. Revival of learning in Europe. For three hun- dred years after the Norman Conquest, English writers were inclined to follow French models. Then came Chaucer, who, thoroughly English as he was, retold Italian stories, and was for some years greatly influenced The liter- ^^ Italian literature. Italy was looked upon as ary position the land of knowledge and light, and it was ^' the custom for Englishmen who wished for better educational advantages than Oxford or Cam- bridge could afford, to go to that country to study in some one of the great universities. Italian scholars were deeply interested in the writings of the Greeks and Romans. For many years they had The Re- been collecting ancient manuscripts, and in naissance. 1453 an event occurred which brought more of them to Italy than ever before. This event was the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, Constantino- ple had been the home of many Greek scholars, who now fled to Italy and brought the priceless manuscripts with them. Then there was study of the classics in- deed. More and more students went from other coun- tries to Italy. More and more copies of those manu- scripts were carried to different parts of Europe. Among the ancient writings was clear, concise prose, so care- fully finished that every word seemed to be in its owr> i6th Cent.] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 69 proper niche ; there were beautiful epics and much other poetry ; there were essays, histories, biographies, and orations. Printing had come at just the right time to spread this new ancient knowledge over the Conti- nent and England. All western Europe was aroused. People felt a new sense of boldness and freedom. They felt as if in the years gone by they had been slow and stupid. Now they became daring and fearless in their thought. They were eager to learn, to do, to under- stand. This movement was so marked that a name was given to it, the Renaissance, or new birth, for people felt as if a new life had come to them. The Renais- sance did not affect all countries alike. In Italy, the minds of men turned toward sculpture and painting ; in Germany, to a bold investigation of religious teachings ; in England, toward religion and literature. A second influence that helped to arouse and inspire was the increased knowledge of the western increased world. Columbus died in 1506, but now that knowledge 1 111 -1 1 of the the way had been pomted out, one explorer western after another crossed the western seas. South continent. America was rounded and found to be a vast continent. North America was a group of islands, people thought ; and men set out boldly to find a channel through them, to discover a "Northwest Passage." Finally, Magellan's ship went around the world ; and, behold, the world was much larger than had been supposed. Before the wonder of this had faded from the minds of men, there came another amazing discovery, for Coperni- . cus declared, " The earth is not the centre of ings of the universe ; it is only a satellite of the sun." °p®'^^'="'- This was not accepted at once as truth, but the mere suggestion of it broadened men's thoughts. There was good reason why the world should begin to awake. 70 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1509-1529 40. Henry VIII and the men about him. The in- fluence of the Renaissance was not strongly felt in England before the time of Henry VIII, who came to the throne in 1509. Around him centred the literature of the early part of the century. Indeed, he himself attempted verse more than once. Pastime zvith Good Company is ascribed to him. Pastime with good company I love, and shall until I die, Gruche so will,* but none deny, So God be pleased, so live will I. For my pastance,^ Hunt, sing, and dance, My heart is sett ; All goodly sport To my comfort, Who shall me let ? ^ Henry VIII was no great poet, but he liked litera- John skei- ^^^^> and he liked to appear as its patron. His ton, about early tutor was one of the most prominent 1460-1529. ,. ^ . , , , T , r-i , literary men of the day, the poet John Skelton. Skelton says : — The honor of Englond I lernyd to spelle In dygnite roialle that doth excelle. Skelton was a fine classical scholar, and was perfectly able to write smooth, easily flowing verses, but he de- liberately chose a rough, tumbling, headlong metre. He hated Cardinal Wolsey, and of him he wrote : — So he dothe vndermynde, And suche sleyghtes dothe fynde. That the Kynges mynde By hym is subuerted, And so streatly coarted *■ grudge whoso will. * pastime. * hinder 1480-1535] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY /I In credensynge his tales, That all is but nutshales That any other sayth : He hath in him suche fayth. Little wonder is it that Wolsey cordially returned the poet's dislike. This harsh, scrambling metre Skelton knew how to adapt to more poetical thoughts. His best known poem is on " Phyllyp Sparowe," the pet bird of a young school- girl. It is of the mistress that he writes : — Soft and make no din, For now I will begin To have in remembrance Her goodly dalliance And her goodly pastaunce So sad and so demure, Behaving her so sure, With words of pleasure She would make to the lure And any man convert To give her his whole heart. Skelton was a witty man, and many of the "good stories " of his day were ascribed to him. It influence is easy to see how Henry VIII would be in- °*Skeiton. fluenced even as a child by the careless boldness, poeti- cal ability, and rollicking good nature of this man who was as brilliant as he was learned. No one knows how much of Henry's interest in poetry was due to the guidance of hts tutor. Elizabeth closely resembled her father, and must have been influenced by his love of lit- erature. It may be that we owe some generous part of the literary glory of the Elizabethan age to the half-for- gotten John Skelton with his "jagged" rhymes. 41. Sir Thomas More, 1480-1535. Another friend of Henry VIII was Sir Thomas More, Sir Thomas 72 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1480--153S was so learned that when he was hardly more than a boy he could step upon the stage in the midst of a Latin play and make up a part for himself ; and he was so witty that his improvised jests would set the audience into peals of laughter. The year that Henry came to the throne More wrote the lives of Edward V and of Rich- ard III, and this was the first English historical work that was well arranged and written in a dignified style. The little book by which he is best known was writ- utopia. ^^" ^^ Latin and had a Greek title, Utopia, oi 1516. "nowhere." This describes a country as More thought a country ought to be. In that marvellous land everything was valued according to its real worth. Gold was less useful than iron ; therefore the chains of criminals were made of gold. Kings ruled, not for their own glory, but for the sake of their people. No one was idle, and no one was overworked. War was undertaken only for self - defence, or to aid other nations against invasion. This book is interest- ing not only because it pictures what so brilliant a man as Sir Thomas More thought a country should be, but because it proves that people were thinking with a boldness and freedom that SIR THOMAS MORE, I480-1535 From Holbein's Court of Henry VIII IS25] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 73 would not be suppressed. In many respects More proved to be a true prophet, for some of the laws that he sug- gested became long ago a part of the British constitu- tion. 42. Religious questioning. In Utopia every man was allowed to follow whatever religion he thought right. This question of religion, whether to obey the church implicitly or to decide matters of faith for one's self, was dividing Germany into two parties, and was arousing a vast amount of thought and discussion in England. Many held firmly to the old faith ; but many others were inclined to investigate the teachings of the church, and to wish to compare them with the words of the Bible. English had changed greatly since Wyclif's day, and an English scholar named William wiiuam Tyndale was determined that the Bible should i^^%l' be given to the people in the language of their 1536. own time. " If God spare my life," he said to a cler- gyman who opposed him, "ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost." There was "no room" in England to make his translation, as he said, and there- fore Tyndale went to Germany, and in 1525 Tyndaie's printed with the utmost secrecy an English translation version of the New Testament. Some English Testament, merchants paid for the printing, and the books ^^^s. found their way over the country in spite of the king's opposition. The Old Testament was afterward trans- lated under his direction and partly by himself. Not more than two years after Tyndale's New Testa- ment was printed, Henry became bent upon securing a divorce from his wife, but the pope refused. Then Henry declared that he himself was the heaa of the church in England. Parliament was submissive, the 74 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1534 English clergy were submissive, and in 1534 the Church of England separated from the Church of Rome. Who- separation ever believed that the authority of the pope of England ^^^ superior to that of the king was declared ^oni a traitor. Prominent men were not suffered of Rome. to hold their own opinions in quiet; and among 1534. those who were dragged forward and com- pelled to say under oath whether they accepted Henry as the head of their church was Sir Thomas More. He was too honorable and truthful to assent to what he th ^^^ ^'^^ believe ; and King Henry, who had Sir Thomas claimed to feel great admiration and affection "'°"" for him, straightway gave the order that he should be executed. Tyndale, too, Henry had pursued even after his withdrawal to the Continent. Such was the treatment that this patron of literature bestowed upon two of the three or four best writers of English prose that lived during his reign. 43. Sir Thomas Wyatt, 1503-1542, and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, about 1517-1547. At King Henry's court there were two men in whom every one who met them was interested. The elder was Sir Thomas Wyatt. He was a learned man, he spoke sev- eral languages, he was a skilful diplomatist and states- man. He was also a man of most charming manners, and was exceedingly handsome. The younger was the Earl of Surrey. These two men were warm friends, and they were both interested in poetry. Both knew well the Greek and Latin and Italian literatures ; and they appreciated not only the freedom of thought and fancy brought in by the Renaissance, but also the carefulness with which the Italian poetry as well as the classical was written. Why should not that same carefulness, that same love for not only saying a good thing but •553-1557] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 75 saying it in the best way, be followed in English, they questioned. They were especially pleased with the Italian sonnet, a form of verse that needs the great- 1 r . • • , The sonnet, est care and accuracy ot arrangement m its rhymes, the number of lines and of accents, the ending of the octave, the first eight lines, its connection with the sestet, the last six, and the summing up of the thought at the end.' They brought to England, not the glow and brilliancy of the Renaissance, but the realiza- tion that literary composition had definite requirements, that the thought was not enough, but that the form in which the thought was presented was also of importance. Surrey introduced another form of verse to the Eng- lish, blank verse, or, as the Italians called it, surrey's " free verse." It was in this style that he trans- ^wigied lated two books of the ^neid, smoothly and 1553. easily, and with a sincere appreciation not only of the classical beauty of form, but of the beauty of thought and description. These two men could not be long among Henry's courtiers without feeling both his favor and his disfavor. Wyatt was imprisoned on some trivial charge more than once, and Surrey was beheaded on a groundless accusa- tion of treason. For years their writings were passed from one to another in manuscript, for it would have been thought great lack of taste and delicacy to allow one's poems to be printed ; and not until ten years after Surrey's death did they come out in print. The book in which they appeared is known as TotteVs Mis- j^^gi-g cellany, a collection of short poems which was Miscellany, published in 1557. This book is interesting, ""' but it is rarely pleasant reading. It has not a touch of ^ For a sonnet of Sir Philip Sidney's, see page 94. For one of Milton's, see page 142. 76 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [i6th Cent humor. The poets wrote of the wretchedness and mu- tability of the world. The love-poems were especially- doleful. The lover complains — "complains" is the favorite word — of his lady's absence ; he laments " how unpossible it is to find quiet " in his love. Yet even on so lugubrious a subject as " The lover complains of the unkindness of his love," Wyatt is beautiful and grace- ful. He writes : — My lute, awake ! perform the last Labour that thou and I shall waste ; And end that I have now begun : And when this song is sung and past, My lute, be still, for I have done. 44. Masques and Interludes. While Skelton was preparing the way for satire, while Tyndale and Sir Thomas More were writing excellent prose, while Wyatt and Surrey were teaching English poets not only how to write sonnets and blank verse, but also that the form of a poem should be d as carefully watched as the ^ .\^^' f^f outline and coloring of a pic- ^'^ / ^ ture, the drama was not for- Vjf. gotten. Mysteries and moral- ities still flourished, but these were not sufficiently entertain- ing for Henry VHI and his merry court. Two kinds of Masaues P^^^ys came into great a masquer favor, the masques and the interludes. Masques were at first only dumb shows, or pantomimes In one of them a mock castle was seen. T6th Cent] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 77 from whose windows six ladies in gorgeous raiment looked forth. The king and five knights in even more brilliant attire appeared and besieged the castle. When the ladies could no longer resist, they came down, flung open the gates, and joined their besiegers in a merry- dance. At the close of the dance, each maiden led her knight into the castle, which was then drawn swiftly out of sight. There is little to tell about a masque ; but with the opportunity to display gracefulness and beauty and magnificence and skill in the use of arms, there must have been enough to see to amuse even the merry young king. The second kind of entertainment that was enjoyed by king and nobles was the interludes which were acted between the courses of feasts or at festivals. ™, ,■,,., , , , , Interludes. They are a little like real plays because they are in dialogue, and they are a little like moralities because they sometimes introduce the Vice and other abstract characters. Here the resemblance to the mo- rality ends, for they are often full of wild merriment and jest. The one best known is TJie Foiire P's : a very Mery Enterlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Potecary, and a Pedlar. Each one tells such big stories of what he has seen and done that finally the pedlar declares that they are all liars, and that he will give the palm to the one who can tell the biggest lie. Probably the audience listened with roars of laughter as one attempt followed another. The dialogue was rough and sometimes coarse, but it was easy and natural, and it was preparing the way for the graceful wit and the flowing speech of the Elizabethan stage. John Heywood was the . j^ „ author of The Foiire P's. Sir Thomas More wood, died had introduced him to the king, and he re- ^^^^' tnained in the royal favor long after More had been put 78 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1547 to death, rising from some humble position in which he served his sovereign for eight pence a day to that of special provider of amusements for the court. 45. The first English comedy, Ralph Roister Dois- ter, probably 1552 or 1553. Henry VIII died in 1547, and during the six years that the boy Edward VI was on the throne, the first English comedy made its appearance. English scholars were still deeply inter- ested in the classics, and the comedies of Plautus had been played at court many years before. This first Eng lish comedy was written by an English schoolmaster and clergvman named Nicholas Udall. He was Nicholas °-' Udall, died the author of some dignified translations from ^^^^' the Latin, and his play, Ralph Roister Doister, is modelled on the plays of Plautus. The hero, Ralph himself, is a conceited simpleton, upon whom Merrygreek, a hanger-on, plays tricks without number. Ralph is bent upon marrying "a widow worth a thousand pound," and here Merrygreek plays his worst prank. A scriv ener has written a love-letter for Ralph, part of which reads : — Yf ye will be my wife, Ye shall be assured for the time of my life, I wyll keep you right well : from good raiment and fare Ye shall not be kept: but in sorrowe and care Ye shall in no wyse Hue : at your owne libertie, Doe and say what ye lust : ye shall neuer please me But when ye are merrie : I will bee all sadde When ye are sorie : I wyll be very gladde When ye seek your heartes ease: I will be vnkinde At no time. In me shall ye muche gentlenesse finde. Merrygreek reads this letter to the widow, and changes the punctuation so as to give it exactly the opposite meaning and arouse the wrath of Dame Custance. It hardly seems possible that instead of such labored jest' 1562] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 79 ing as this we shall have in less than fifty years the light, witty merriment of Shakespeare's Portia ; but the days of Queen Elizabeth were at hand, and in that mar- vellous time all things came to pass. 46. The first English tragedy, Gorboduc, 1662. In 1558, Queen Elizabeth came to the throne. There was much rejoicing on the part of the nation, and yet not all was happiness and harmony in England. The coun- try was poor ; it had few if any friends ; Catholics and Protestants quarrelled bitterly ; supporters of Elizabeth and supporters of Mary Stuart were sometimes almost at swords' points. It was fitting that the first signifi- cant literary work of Elizabeth's reign should owe its origin to a realization of the condition of af- Thomas fairs. This work was a drama, the first Eng- ^gg^'^^®' lish tragedy. Its authors were Thomas Sack- I6O8. ville and Thomas Norton, two young men of the Inner Temple. In 1561, the members of the Inner Temple were to have a grand Christmas celebration Thomas twelve days long, and these two young men de- ^°^^^' termined to write a play to show what disasters i584. might befall a disunited nation. This play was called at first Gorboduc, later Ferrex and Porrex. It was modelled upon the work of the Latin author, Seneca, who was much read in England, but the plot was based upon an old British legend of a kingdom's discord. King Gorboduc divides his kingdom between his two sons, Porrex and Ferrex. Porrex slays his brother. Their mother kills Porrex. The people rise and kill both Gorboduc and the queen, and the story ends with a long speech on the dangers of such a situation. So many horrors are piled upon horrors that the play seems like a burlesque ; but it was no burlesque in the days of Its first appearance. Learned councillors and other great 8o ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1562 folk of the kingdom listened with the utmost serious- ness, and the queen sent a command that it should be repeated at court. Gorboduc is in several ways quite different from Ralph Roister Doister. In the first place, it is connected with DHferencd ^'^^ masques in that it has pantomime, for between there is a "dumb show" before each act, fore- andRa^ph shadowing what is to come ; for instance; be- Roister fQj-g ^^g division of the kingdom between the two sons, the fable is shown of the bundle of sticks which could not be broken until they were sep- arated. Before the murder of Ferrex, a band of mourn- ers clad in black walk solemnly across the stage three times. At the end of each act a " Chorus," that is, a single actor in a long black robe, appears and moralizes on the events of the act. Again, Ralph Roister Doister was written in rhyming couplets, while the new tragedy was written in the blank verse which Surrey had intro- duced from Italy. It was not very agreeable blank verse, however, as it came from the pens of the two young Templars, for there is a pause at the end of al- most every line, and the monotony is somewhat tire- some ; for instance : — Within one land one single rule is best ; Divided reigns do make divided hearts : But peace preserves the country and the prince. 47. Increasing strength of England. One reason for the popularity of Gorboduc was that Englishmen were beginning to realize more strongly than ever be- fore that the country was theirs. The queen loved her land and her subjects, and the people of England were quick to feel the new sense of harmony between the ruler and the ruled. England became rapidly stronger. reth Cent.] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 8l Her sea-captains sailed fearlessly into the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. More than this, they sailed straight into Spanish harbors and burned the merchant vessels lying at anchor ; and they lay in wait for Spanish ships coming from the New World, captured them, and bore their vast treasure of gold and silver back to England. There was no enemy to guard against except Spain, and even toward Spain England grew more and more fear- less. All this audacious freedom was reflected in the liter- ature of the time, especially in the boldness with which English writers attempted anything and every- uterary thing. This boldness was something entirely '"'idness. new in religious writings. Every middle-aged man in England could remember three religious revolutions, three times within the space of less than a quarter of a century when men who had not changed their faith to agree with that of their sovereign had been in danger of death at the stake. Religious poems had been careful and timid, but now they became frank and cheerful. Great numbers of ballads were written, but few of them were as good as the old ones ; for their chief object now was to tell of some recent event, that is, to be news- papers rather than poems. Of translations there seemed no end, translations not only from the Greek and Latin, but also from the Italian, for Italy was still the land of culture and light. The Celtic love for stories could now be satisfied, for there were tales and romances from Italy, from the wonder-book of early English history, and even from the legends of Spain. The stories told by returning sea-captains were not to be scorned, throb- bing with life as they were, glowing with pictures of the strange new world, and thrilling with wild encounters on the sea 82 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1579 48. The early Elizabethan drama. It was not enough to hear stories told. In that age of action, peo- ple must see things done ; and the drama flourished more and more. Theatres were built, the first in 1576. The queen was very fond of the drama, and this in itself was a great encouragement, for Elizabeth was England, and England was Elizabeth. All kinds of dramas flour- ished. The mystery plays were not yet given up ; mo- ralities, comedies, tragedies, and all sorts of mongrel dramas appeared. The metre employed was in quite as uncertain a state ; for these bold writers of plays were ready to try everything. Sometimes they imitated the blank verse of Gorbodiic ; sometimes they followed such metreless metre as these lines from Ralph Roister Doister : — Ye may not speake with a faint heart to Custance, But with a lusty breast and countenance. Sometimes lines of seven accents were tried, sometimes lines of five, sometimes of ten, and sometimes there was no attempt at metre, but the play was written in prose. The years rolled on rapidly. The sixties were past, the seventies were nearly gone. In 1579, the special The need need of English literature was form. Both oiiorm. prose and poetry needed the finish and care- fulness of which Wyatt and Surrey had been the apos- tles. In 1579 and 1580, three new writers arose, who laid before the lovers of poetry fresh and winning exam- ples of what might be accomplished by poetic thought united with careful form. These three writers were John Lyly, Edmund Spenser, and Sir Philip Sidney. 49. John Lyly, 1564 7-1606. Hardly anything is known of John Lyly before 1579 save that he was a uni- versity man and attached to the court. His first book, :S79] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 83 Euphucs, that is, " the well endowed by nature," was long looked upon as a model for polite conversation, and affected the style of writing of all literary Eng- Buphuos, land for many years. It has a slender thread of i^^a. story whereon are hung various moral and educational ideas. So far there is nothing unusual in it. Its pecul- iarity lay in its style. Lyly uses the balanced sentence to excess, stiffens it with alliteration, and loads it down with similes, a large proportion of them drawn from a half-fabulous natural history. One of his sentences is: — If Trauailers in this our age were . . . as willing to reap profit by their paines as they are to endure perill for their pleasure, they would either prefer their own soyle before a strange Land or good counsell before their owne conceyte. Another sentence declares : — As the Egle at euery flight looseth afether, which maketh hir bald in hir age : so the trauailer in euery country looseth some fleece, which maketh him a beggar in his youth. This affected manner of talking and writing fell in with the whim of the age, and was soon the height of the fashion. Foolish and unnatural as it seems, it ^dyantages brought to English prose precisely what that of euphu- prose needed, that is, a plan for each sentence. ^^' Far too many a writer, not only in King Alfred's time but long afterward, had plunged into his sentences with the utmost audacity, trusting to luck to bring him out ; but whoever wrote in euphuistic fashion was obliged to plan his sentences and choose his words. Euphuism was only one of the little affectations of style that influenced the literature of Elizabethan times. Throughout the rest of the century and far into the next one poetic disguise after another was welcomed. 50. Edmund Spenser, 1552-1599. One of the most popular of these disguises was the pastoral, wherein the 84 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1579 characters are spoken of as shepherds and shepherdesses. They have the sheep and the crook, but in their thought they are anything but simple shepherds. The first of these pastorals was written by Edmund Spenser, and is called The Shepherd' s Calendar. TheShep- Spenser was a London boy, who began to write herd's cai- poetry in his school-days, but almost nothing dar. 1579. ^j^^ j^ known of him until he wrote this poem. Before it was quite completed, he met one of the most interesting young men of the age, Sir Philip Sidney, and was invited to his home at Penshurst, From the first the two young men were very congenial. Tradi- tion says they spent day after day under the beech- trees, reading the works of the old Greek philosophers' and talking of poetry. When TJie Shepherd V Calendar was published, it was dedicated to Sidney, — To him that is the president Of noblesse and of chevalree. The Calendar is a collection of poems, one for each month of the year. They are not at all alike. One, of course, was in praise of the queen ; but there were fables, satires, and allegory, besides the five poems that pertain strictly to country life. For February there is a story of a "bragging brere," or briar rose, who takes it upon him to scold a grand old oak for being in his way, and appeals to the husbandmen to cut it down, for he says it is Hindering with his shade my lovely light, And robbing me of the swete sonnes sight. The oak is hewn down ; but when winter is come, the brere, too, meets his death, for now he has not the shelter and support of the oak that he scorned. For August there is a merry little roundelay about the meet 1579] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 85 ing of shepherd " Willie " with shepherdess " Perigot." So it is that Spenser describes his heroine: — Well decked in a frocke of gray, Hey ho gray is greete, And in a kirtle of greene say, The greene is for maidens meete. A chapelet on her head she wore, Hey ho chapelet, Of sweete violets therein was store, She sweeter than the violet. My sheep did leave theyr wonted foode, Hey ho seely sheepe, And gazed on her, as they were wood,' Woode as he, that did them keepe. These poems of Spenser's were so much better than any others written since Chaucer's day that The "new all the lovers of poetry were interested, and ''"*■" Spenser was often spoken of as the "new poet." Ha was without means, and by in- fluence of his friends a govern- ment position was obtained for him in Ireland. A few months before he went on board the vessel that was to bear him across the Irish Sea, he wrote to an old school friend to return a little pack- age of manuscript which had been lent him to read, and " whyche I pray you heartily send me with al expedition," he said. The little package was to return to England some ten years later, but much was to happen in the literary world before that came to pass. ' mad. EDMUND SPENSER 1552-1599 86 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1580 In the first place, pastorals became so much the fash- ion that there was even a rewriting of old poems, so The pastoral that "youths and maidens " might appear as lashion. "swains and nymphs" or as "shepherds and shepherdesses." EjtpJiues was not a pastoral, but its smoothness and careful attention to sound were in full accord with this mode of writing. Soon after Spenser had gone to Ireland, his friend, Sir Philip Sidney, wrote a book that was almost equally smooth. It was written merely for amusement and to please the Countess of Pembroke, his favorite sister, but for more than three hundred years it has pleased almost every one who has read it. 51. Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586. Sir Philip be- longed to a noble family ; he received every advantage of education and travel ; he was of so singularly sweet a nature and so brilliant an intellect that he was loved and admired by every one who knew him. Yet he was not at all spoiled, he felt only the more eager to prove himself worthy of this love and admiration. When only twenty-three, he was sent to Prague as the ambassador of his country. He was even thought to be a fit candi- date for the throne of Poland, but here Queen Elizabeth said no. " I will not brook the loss of the jewel of my dominions," declared this autocratic sovereign. Sir Philip's book was named Arcadia, or as it was usually called. The Countess of Pembroke s Arcadia. It Arcadia, is a kind of pastoral romance, wherein young written yxiQ,n and maidens wander about in a beautiful 1580-81, published forest. They fall in love with one another ; 1590. they kill lions ; they carry on war with the Helots of Greece ; they are taken by pirates and have encounters with bears ; and all this occurs in a fabulous country, a wilderness of faerie. The very story is a iS8o] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY ^7 wilderness. There is no especial plot, and the charac- ters are not drawn like real men and women. But why should they be so drawn } They are half-enchanted wanderers roaming on happily through a magical forest Page after page Sid- ney wrote, never stopping for revi- sion, rambling on wherever his fancy led ; with the loved sister beside him slipping away each leaf, as his pen traced the bottom line, to see what had come next in the fascinating tale of faerie. Even the sound of the words is charming. The sentences are often long, but clear and graceful and musi- cal. There is more than mere pleasant- ness of sound in the Arcadia, however, for it is full of charming bits of description, and of true and noble thoughts. Here is the merry little shepherd boy, "pip- ing as though he should never grow old." Here is "a place made happy by her treading." Here, too, "They laid them down by the murmuring music of certain waters." It is but a picture of himself when Sidney writes, " They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts," and " Keep yourself in heart with joyful- SIR PHILIP SIDNEY I554-1586 88 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1590 ness." One of his friends said long after the author's death that Sidney had intended to rewrite his book and make it into an English romance with King Arthur for its hero; but it is so graceful and charming in its present form that no one could wish to have it made over. The Arcadia was handed about in manuscript from one friend to another. Wherever it was read, it was Themis- praised and imitated, but it was not printed ceiianies. till 1 590. Printing was for common folk, not for nobles and courtiers ; and the lovers of poetry were in the habit of making manuscript books of their favor- ite poems. Before the end of the century, however, some of these books did come to the printing-press. As if to console them for their humiliation, most high- sounding titles were given them, and we have The Para- dise of Dainty Devices, Brittoiis Bower of Delights, The Phetiixs Nest, England's Helicon, etc. 52. Later Elizabethan drama. It was the time of the pastoral, but hundreds of sonnets were being written and passed about in manuscript. Besides this, the drama was almost ready to burst forth with a magnificence of which no one could have dreamed who had seen only the crude attempts of less than half a century earlier. Scores of plays had been written. They were good plays, too, wonderfully far in advance of the previous attempts. Many of them were well worth acting, and are well worth reading to-day ; even though the writers had not yet adopted a standard verse, and had not mas- tered the art of making their characters live, that is, of making a character show just such changes at the end of the play as a human being would show if he had been through such experiences as those delineated. This was the greatest lack in these dramas. Their greatest beauty lay in the little songs scattered through the c579-i6o3] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 89 scenes. In the Elizabethan days everybody loved music and everybody sang. Servants were chosen songs in with an ear to their voices, that they might be ^^^ dramas able to join in a glee or a catch. The words of the songs must be musical ; but the Elizabethans demanded even more than this. Poetry was plentiful, and the songs must be real poetry. Therefore it was that such dainty little things appeared as Apelles' Song: — Cupid and my Campaspe played At cards for kisses, — Cupid paid ; He stakes liis quiver, bow and arrows, g^ His motlier's doves and team of sparrows : Loses them too ; then down he throws The coral of his lip, the rose Growing on 's cheek (but none knows how); With these the crystal of his brow, And then the dimple of his chin : All these did my Campaspe win. At last he set her both his eyes ; She won, and Cupid blind did rise. O Love, has she done this to thee ? What shall, alas ! become of me ? This song is in Lyly's play of Alexander and Cam- paspe, for the famous euphuist wrote a handful of plays which were presented before the queen. He j,eedofa wrote in prose, but some makers of plays standard employed rhyme, some blank verse, and some a mingling of all three. There was great need of a stand- ard verse suited to the requirements of the drama, a line not so short as to suggest doggerel, and not so long as to be cumbersome and unwieldy. Blank verse was perhaps slowly gaining ground, but before it could be generally accepted as the most fitting mode of dramatic expression, some writer must use it so skilfully as to show its power, its music, and its adaptability. 90 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1587-1592 53. Christoplier Marlowe, 1564-1593. Such a writer was Christopher, or "Kit," Marlowe, one of the "uni- versity wits," as one group of playwrights was called, because nearly all of them had been connected with one or the other of the great universities. He is thought to have lived in somewhat Bohemian fashion, but little is certainly known of his life save that he took his degree at Cambridge. His Tamburlaine was acted in 1587 or 1588. Plve years later, Marlowe died; but in those five years he wrote at least three plays, the Jew of Malta, the Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, and Edward II, which showed what magnificent use could be made of blank verse. In his prologue to Tamburlaine he promises to lead his audience " from jigging veins of rhyming mother Tambur- wits," and he keeps his promise nobly. The 1687 or Scythian hero, Tamburlaine, is a shepherd who 1588. becomes the conqueror of sovereigns. One scene was the laughing-stock of the time, that in which Tamburlaine enters, drawn in his chariot by two captive kings with bits in their mouths. Marlowe had no sense of humor to keep him from such an absurdity ; his mis- Triumph oi ^^'^^ ^^^ ^° S^'^^ ^^^ poets some idea of what blank might be done with blank verse ; and those who laughed loudest listened with admiration to such lines as these : — Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend The wondrous architecture of the world, And measure every wandering planet's course, Still climbing after knowledge infinite, And always moving as the restless spheres, Will us to wear ourselves, and never rest, Until we reach the ripest fruit of all, That perfect bliss and sole felicity, The sweet fruition of an earthly crown. 1580-1590] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 91 Remembering that the speaker is Tamburlaine, the hea- then shepherd, to whom a throne is the loftiest glory that imagination can reach, there is no bathos in the closing line. The only fault is in the use of the word "earthly." Marlowe knew well how to use proper names in his verse ; and Queen Elizabeth, with her love of music and her equal love of the magnificence of the royal estate, must have enjoyed : — And ride in triumph through PersepoHs ? Is it not brave to be a king, Techelles? Usumcasene and Theridamas, Is it not passing brave to be a king, And ride in triumph through PersepoHs ? Marlowe could write lightly and gracefully, as in his ** Come live with me and be my love." Then he is charming, but it is his power rather than his grace that lingers in the mind. More than once there are such lines as, — Weep not for Mortimer, That scorns the world, and, as a traveller. Goes to discover countries yet unknown, — lines that might well have come from the pen of Shake- speare. These are from the closing scene of Edivard II, Marlowe's last and finest play. 54. Events from 1580 to 1590. So the years passed in England from 1580 to 1590, but one poet, Spenser, was shut away from the literary life of his countrymen, which was becoming every day more glorious. A castle and a vast tract of land in Ireland had been given him, and there he dwelt and wrote ; but all the time he felt like a prisoner, and he called his Irish home "that waste where I was quite forgot." When he came from Ireland in 1589 or 1590 to pay a visit to England, he found sev- eral changes. Mary Queen of Scots had been beheaded, 92 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [irqo and the most timid Protestant no longer feared revolu- tion and a Roman Catholic sovereign. The Spanish A.rmada had been conquered by the bravery of English captains and the tempests of the heavens ; England was mistress of the seas, and her bold mariners were free to go where they would. The thoughts of many were turn- ing toward the New World, and Sir Walter Raleigh had even attempted to found a colony across the seas. One note of sadness mingled with the joy of the nation. Sir Death oi Philip Sidney was dead, and was mourned by a sirPhiup whole kingdom. The bravery with which he ^"'^" met the enemy in the fatal battle of Zutpheji, the self-forgetful courtesy with which he refused, until another should have drunk, the water that would have eased his suffering, the gentle patience with which he bore the long weeks of agony before the coming of the end, — all this touched the English heart as it had never before been touched. So enduring was the love which he inspired that Fulke Greville, one of his boyhood com- panions, who outlived him by twenty-two years, asked that on his own tomb might be written, " Servant to Queen Elizabeth, Councillor to King James, and Friend to Sir Philip Sidney." Sidney requested that his Arcadia should be destroyed, but his sister could not bear to fulfil such a wish, and in 1590, while Spenser was in England, it was printed. 55. The Faerie Queene. Spenser brought with him Books I- from Ireland the little package that he had car- m, 1590. ^j^ J away, now grown much larger. Sir Wal- iiv- VI, 1596. ter Raleigh had visited him, and as they sat under the alders by the river, Spenser had read aloud the first three books of the Faerie Qtieene, for these were in the precious little package. The poem was published in 1 590, It begins : — 590.1 SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 93 A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine, Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine, The cruell markes of many a bloody fielde ; Yet armes till that time did he never wield : His angry steede did chide his foming bitt, As much disdayning to the curbe to yield : Full iolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt, As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt. This " gentle knight " represented Holiness, who was riding forth into the world to contest with Heresy. Spenser planned to write twelve books, each of which was to celebrate the victory of some vir- tue over its contrary vice. At the end of the twelfth book the knights were to return to the land of Faerie. King Arthur was then to re- present the embodiment of all these virtues, and he was to wed the Queen of Faerie, who was the Glory of God. Together with this was a very ma- terial allegory, if it may be so called, in which Elizabeth is the Queen of Faerie, Mary of Scot- land is Error, etc. So far even the double allegory is reasonably clear; but as the poem goes on, it wanders away and away, and is so mingled with other allegories and changes of char- THE RED CROSS KNIGHT From the Faerie Queene 94 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1590-1600 acters that it is impossible to trace a connected story through even the six books that were written of the twelve that Spenser planned. Tracing the story is a small matter, however. One need not read an imaginative poem with a biographical dictionary and a gazetteer. The allegory of the strug- gle of evil with good is beautiful ; but one need not trouble himself about the allegory. Read the poem simply for its exquisite pictures, its wonderfully rich and varied imagery, and the ever-changing music of its verse, and you will share in some degree the pleasure which for three hundred years Spenser has given to all true lovers of poetry. 56. The decade of the sonnet, 1590-1600. From 1590 to 1600 the sonnet was the prevailing form of the lyric. Sonnets were written in sequences, as they were called, that is, in groups, each group generally telling the story of the author's love for some lady fair who was either real or imaginary. Spenser wrote beautiful, Astrophei musical sonnets, but Sidney's Astrophel and JSJifshed' Stella, a sequence which was not published till 1591. 1 591, gives one such a feeling that it must be sincere that to read it seems almost like stealing glances at his paper as he wrote. One of his best sonnets is : — With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies ! How silently, and with how wan a face ! What, may it be that even in heavenly place That busy archer his sharp arrows tries ! Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case, I read it in thy looks ; the languisht grace, To me, that feel the hke, thy state descries : Then, even of fellowship, O Moon, tell me, Is constant love deem'd there but want of witr 1594] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 95 Are beauties there as proud as here they be ? Do they above love to be lov'd, and yet Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess? Do they call virtue there ungratefulness ? 57. Richard Hooker, 1654 9-1600. During this decade an important piece of prose was written by a clergyman named Richard Hooker. He was a man of much learning, but so shy that when he was lecturing at Oxford he could hardly look his students in the face. Even his shyness could not hide his merits, and he was appointed to a prominent position in London. It was not long, however, before he wrote an earnest appeal to the archbishop to give him instead some hum- ble village parish. London was full of controversies, sometimes very bitter ones, between the Church of England and the Puritans. Hooker was far too gentle to meet disagreement and discord, but in his later and more quiet home he produced a clear, strong book called the Ecclesiastical Polity, which defended the Ecciesiasti- position of the church, giving the reasons why bmIcsi-iv he believed it to have the right to claim men's i594. obedience. Prose in plenty had been written for some special purpose, but this was something more than a mere putting of words together to express a thought; jt was not only an argument, it was literature, and even those who were not interested in its subject read it for the grave harmony of its style and the dignity of its phrasing. 58. William Shakespeare, 1564-1616. It was in this same decade that the full glory of the drama was to burst forth. In 1564, the year of Marlowe's birth, a child was born in the village of Stratford on the river Avon who was to become the greatest of poets. His father, John Shakespeare, was a well-to-do man, anJ 96 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1564-1583 held various offices in the village. This boy, William, grew up much as did other boys of the place. He went to school, studied Latin and possibly a little Greek. Coventry was near, and there mystery plays were per- formed. Kenilworth Castle was only fifteen miles away ; and when Shakespeare was eleven years old. Queen Elizabeth was its guest. No bright boy would let such chances go by to see a mystery play or to have a glimpse of his country's queen and the entertainments given in her honor. In 1568, a company of London actors came to Stratford. John Shakespeare as bailiff gave them a formal welcome to the village ; and it is probable that among the earliest memories of his son were the sound of their drums and trumpets, the beating of hoofs, and the sight of banners and riders, of gorgeous costumes flashing in the sun and gayly caparisoned horses pran- cing down the street to the market-place. More than a score of times the prancing steeds and their riders visited Stratford ; and the country boy, living quietly beside the Avon, must have had many thoughts of the great world of London that was the home of those fascinating cavalcades. He would not have been a real boy if he had not determined to see that marvellous city before many years should pass. Not long after the festivities of Kenilworth, John Shakespeare began to be less successful in his business affairs. Thirteen or fourteen was not an early age for a boy to be taken from school who did not intend to go to the university ; and it is probable that the boy Wil- liam left school at that age and began to earn his own living. For some years from that time the only thing known of him is that he often crossed the fields by a narrow lane that led to Shottery and the cottage of Anne Hathaway, and that before he was nineteen she became 1586-1588] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 97 his wife. In 1586, the young man of twenty-two, with no trade, with himself and wife and three children to sup- port, with only dreams and courage and genius for capi- SHAKESPEARE'S birthplace at STRATFORD tal, made his way to London, possibly on horseback, but more probably on foot. 1586 was the year of Sidney's death. There could hardly be a greater inspiration toward honor and uprightness for a young man on his first visit to London than to see the whole city grieving for the death of one but ten years older than himself simply because he whom they had lost was pure and true and noble. Just what Shakespeare did during those first two years in London is not known, but he must have been con- nected in some way with the theatre and have gj^^j^^. won the confidence of those in control, for as speare in early as 1588 he was trusted to "retouch" at least one play. This retouching was regarded as per 98 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1590-1594 fectly allowable. There was no copyright law, and as soon as a play had been printed, any theatre had a right to use it, and any author had a right to alter it as he chose. Two years later, the unknown young man from the country had made a place for himself, and in 1590, _ the year in which Spenser brought the first bour'sLost, part of the Faerie Queene to London, Shake- speare's merry little comedy. Love s Labour 's Lost, was acted. This play does not reach the heights of tragedy, of course, or even of his later comedies, but it is freely and lightly drawn ; it is full of fun and frolic, and fairly sparkles with witty repartee. Shakespeare had caught the fashion of euphuism, and he made fun of it so merrily that its greatest devotees must have been amused. Play followed play : comedy, tragedy, history. It was no idle life that he led, for the writing of five or six plays is generally ascribed to the years 1590-1592 ; and it must be remembered, too, that he was actor as well as author. It was in 1592 that the dramatist Chettle wrote of his excellent acting, and said, moreover, that he had heard of his uprightness of dealing and his grace in writing. Shakespeare was no longer an unknown actor. Venus and He was recognized as a successful playwright, Adonis. and also as a poet, for his Vemis and Adojiis Lucreoe. and Liicrcce had won a vast amount of admira- 1593-94. ^.Jqj-, a -pj-jg mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare," one of the critics called him, and spoke with praise of his "sugerd sonnets" that were passed about among his friends. 69. Historical Plays. After some merry, sparkling comedies, such as A Midsummer NigJif s Dream and The Comedy of Errors^ there came a time when the poet seemed fascinated by the history of his own land. In 1596] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY 99 writing historical drama Shakespeare was never a stu- dent-author ; EHzabethan life moved too rapidly for much searching of old manuscripts and records. Shakespeare's special power as a dramatist of history lay in his sympa- thetic imagination by which he understood the men of bygone days. He read their motives, he pictured them as he could imagine himself to have been in their cir- cumstances and with their qualities; and more than WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 1564-1616 The Chandos Portrait once his interpretation of some historical character, opposed as it was to the common belief of his time, has been proved by later investigation to be correct. Then came the Merchant of Venice and a group of comedies, some of which have touches of boisterous lOO ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1596-1600 rant, while some are happy, romantic, and charmingly TheMer- graceful. In the Merchant of Venice perhaps v^^ce°* quite as much as in any other play, Shake- 1596? speare shows his power to make us hold a char- acter in the balance. Shylock is cruel and miserly, but we cannot help seeing with a touch of sympathy that he is oppressed and lonely ; Bassanio is a careless young spendthrift, but so boyish and so frank that we forget to be severe ; Portia is perfectly conscious of the value of her wealth and her beauty, but at love's command she is ready to drop both lightly into the hands of Bassanio. Shakespeare's writing extended over a space of about twenty years, half of which time belonged to the six- teenth century and half to the seventeenth. If he had died in 1600, we should think of him as a dramatist of great skill in writing comedy, whether refined and merry or rough and somewhat boisterous, and in writing historical plays presenting the history of his own coun- try; but, save for some hint that Romeo and ynliet might give, we should have no idea of his unrivalled power in writing tragedies. Those as well as his deeper come- dies belonged to the following century. Century XVI SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY John Skelton. Thomas Norton. Sir Thomas More. John Lyly. WilHam Tyndale. Edmund Spenser. Sir Thomas Wyatt. Sir Philip Sidney. Earl of Surrey. The Elizabethan Miscellanie Totters Miscellany. Christopher Marlowe. John Heywood. Richard Hooker. Nicholas Udall. William Shakespeare Thomas Sackville. i6th Cent] SHAKESPEARE'S CENTURY lOI SUMMARY The minds of the English people and also their literature were strongly affected, first, by the Renaissance; second, by increased knowledge of the western world ; and, third, by the discovery that the earth is not the centre of the universe. During the reign of Henry VIII, English literature centred around him, John Skelton was his tutor ; Sir Thomas More one of his courtiers. Religious questions were much discussed. William Tyn- dale translated the New Testament. Henry's disagreement with the pope led to the separation of the Church of England from the Church of Rome. About the middle of the century, the courtiers Wyatt and Surrey introduced the Italian sonnet and the carefulness of Italian poetry. Surrey introduced blank verse. Their poems were published in TotteVs Miscellajiy. The drama progressed step by step. Mysteries and moral- ities still flourished. Masques and interludes came into favor. John Heywood wrote the most successful interludes. The first English comedy was Ralph Roister Doister, written by Nicholas Udall. The first English tragedy was Gorboduc, written by Sackville and Norton. In the reign of Elizabeth the power of England increased ; literature manifested greater boldness. Religious writings, translations, and stories appeared in great numbers, but the glory of the latter half of her reign was the drama. All species of drama flourished ; all kinds of metre and also prose were employed. The pressing needs were, first, carefulness of form ; and, second, an appropriate and generally accepted metre. A strong influence in favor of carefulness of form was exerted by the Eicphues of Lyly, by The Shepherd's Calendar of Spenser, and succeeding pastorals, and by Sidney's Ar- cadia and also his sonnets circulated in manuscript. The drama now increased rapidly in excellence, but still had no standard metre and did not attain to the highest suc- cess in the delineation of character. It contained, however. 102 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE fi6th Cent. beautiful little songs. Finally, Marlowe showed the capabili- ties of blank verse, and this became the accepted metre. In 1590, the first three books of the Faerie Qiieene were pub- lished. During the following decade the sonnet flourished. Hooker wrote his Ecclesiastical Polity, and the glory of the drama burst forth in the works of William Shakespeare, who solved the great dramatic problem, how to make the charac- ters seem like real people. CHAPTER VI CENTURY XVn PURITANS AND ROYALISTS 60. Shakespeare in the seventeenth century. In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died and James of Scotland be- came the sovereign of England. The inspiration of the age of Elizabeth lingered for some years after her death, and the work of Shakespeare, its greatest glory, ex- tended far into the reign of James. His genius broad- ened and deepened, and he gave to the new century his deeper comedies and a superb group of tragedies, Hamlet, King Lear, and others. His plays grow more intense, more powerful. Sometimes he uses bitter irony. Stern retribution is visited upon both weak and wicked. There is a touch of gloom. Magnificent as these dramas are, it is good to come away from them to the ripple of the sea, to the breeze of the meadow land, to his last group of plays, the joyous and beautiful romantic dramas, such as the Winters Tale, Cymbeline, and, last of all, it may be. The Tempest, that marvellous production in which a child may find a fairy tale, a philosopher suggest tion and mystery and that " solemn vision " of life thai comes in the midst of the wonders of the magic island. When Shakespeare's sonnets were written and to whom they were written is not known. If the ^^^ whole aim of their author had been to puzzle soiuiets. his readers, he could not have succeeded better. Some seem to have been written to a man, others to a woman. I04 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [17th Cent Some are exquisitely beautiful, some are fairly rollicking in boyish mischievousness. Some express sincere love, some are apparently trying to see how far a roguish mock devotion can be concealed by charm of phrase and rhythm. Here are such perfect lines as Bare, ruin'd choirs, wliere late the sweet birds sang. Here is his honest My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, Coral is far more red than her lips' red, — wherein he makes fun of the poetic rhapsodies of Eliza- bethan lovers. Here, too, is his mischievous sonnet, which pictures — though in most musical language — a woman chasing a hen, while her deserted lover begs her to come back and be a mother to him ! These sonnets were published without their author's permission, and he took no step to explain them. Every student of the poet's work has his own interpretation. Which is cor- rect, Shakespeare alone could tell us. Shakespeare is the world's greatest poet. His genius consists, first, in reading men and women better than Shake- ^'^Y ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ them, in knowing speare's what a person of certain traits would do under genus. certain circumstances, and how the scenes through which that person passed would affect his char- acter ; second, in his ability to express that knowledge with such perfection of form and such brilliancy of im agination as has never been equalled ; third, in the fact that his power both to read and to express was sus- tained. The dramatists who preceded him and those who worked by his side often had flashes and gleams of insight and momentary powers of expression that were worthy of him ; but the power to see clearly throughout the five acts of a play and to express with equal excel i597-i6ii] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS 105 lence and consistency the character of the clown and of the king was not theirs. Wilham Shakespeare was no supernatural being; he was a very human man. Certainly he never thought of himself as sitting on a pinnacle manufacturing English classics. He threw himself into his speareas poetry, but he never forgot that he was writing ^™^''' plays for people to act and for people to see. No really good work of literature flows from the pen without thought. Shakespeare worked very rapidly, but the thinking was done at some time, either when he took up his pen or beforehand. He was a straightforward busi- ness man, who paid his debts and intended that what was due to him should be paid. He loved his early home and planned, perhaps from the time that he left it, to return to Stratford. Money came to him rapidly, especially after 1599, when the Globe Theatre was built, in which he seems to have owned a generous share. Two years earlier he had been able to buy New Place in Stratford, and about 161 1 he returned to his native town. A vast change it must have been to the man whose dramas had won the admiration of the people and of their queen, to come to a quiet village now grown so puritanical that its council had solemnly decreed that the acting of plays within its limits should be regarded as an unlawful deed. He was away from his London friends and their brilliant meetings at the Mermaid Inn of which one of them, Francis Beaumont, wrote : — What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid ! heard words that have been So nimble and so full of subtle flame, As if that everyone from whence they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolved to live a fool the rest Of his dull life. I06 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1552-1618 No word of complaint or of loneliness has come down to us. In Stratford were his wife, his two daughters, and the little granddaughter, Elizabeth. There are tra- ditions of visits from his old friends. He had wealth, fame, the home of his choice. In the village of his birth the poet died in 1616, and was buried in the church that still stands beside the river Avon. 61. Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552-1618. Wonderful peo- ple were those Elizabethans ; for every one seemed to be able to do everything. Perhaps the best example of the man of universal ability is Sir Walter Raleigh, an explorer, a colonizer, the manager of a vast Irish estate, a vice-admiral, a captain of the guard, and a courtier whose flattery could delight even so well flattered a woman as Queen Elizabeth. Moreover, when King James imprisoned him under a false charge of treason, this soldier and sailor and colonizer became an author Raleigh's and produced among other writings a History thewlrid ^f^^^^ World. He tells the story clearly and 1614. pleasantly. Sometimes he is eloquent, some- times poetical ; e. g. he speaks of the Roman Empire as a tree standing in the middle of a field. " But after some continuance," he says, " it shall begin to lose the beauty it had ; the storms of ambition shall beat her great boughs and branches one against another ; her leaves shall fall off, her limbs wither, and a rabble of barbarous nations enter the field and cut her down," Several of the literary giants who began their work in the days of Queen Elizabeth are counted as of the times of James. The greatest of these were the philosopher Francis Bacon and the dramatist Ben Jonson. 62. Francis Bacon, 1561-1626. Francis Bacon seems to have been "grown up" from his earliest childhood. He was the son of Elizabeth's Lord Keeper, and it is said iS6i-i597] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS lO/ that as a boy his dignity and intelligence delighted hef Majesty so much that she often questioned him on all sorts of subjects to see what he would answer. One day when she asked how old he was, he replied with all the readiness of an experienced courtier, " I am two years younger than your Majesty's happy reign." When he was little more than a youth, he declared gravely that he had " taken all knowledge " for his province. In most young men this would have been an absurd speech, but in view of what Bacon actually accomplished it seems hardly more than the truth. He was only thirteen when he en- tered the university, but during his three years of resi- dence, this boy put his finger on the weak spot in the teaching and study of the day. The whole aim seemed to be, he declared, not to discover new truths, but to go over and over the old ones. Nothing would have pleased him better than to have means enough to live comfortably while he thought and wrote, but he had no fortune. " I must think how to live," he said, " instead of living only to think." The young man of eighteen looked about him, and concluded to study law and try to win the patronage of the queen. In his legal studies he was so successful that his reason- ing and eloquence were equally pleasing ; but the queen's patronage was beyond his reach, for she would give him only just enough favor to keep him ever hoping for more. In the midst of his disappointments he wrote ten essays, which were published in 1597. They were on such subjects as Study, Expense, Followers Essays, and Friends, Reputation, etc., and they seemed ib97. in many respects more like the reflections of a man of sixty-three than one of thirty-six. They are so full of wisdom, and the wisdom is expressed so clearly and I08 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1603-1621 definitely, that some parts of them seem almost like a sequence of proverbs. Among the sentences most quoted are these : — Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested ; that is, some books are to be read only in parts ; others to be read, but not curiously ; and some few to be read wholly and with diligence and attention. . . . Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. After James came to the throne, Bacon was raised from one position to another, until at last he became Bacon Lord High Chancellor. He lived with the ut- LordHigh "lost magnificence; he had fame, wealth, rank, Chanceiier. and the favor of his sovereign. He had also enemies, and before three years had passed, a charge of accepting bribes was brought against him. He was declared guilty ; but his real guilt was far less than that of such a deed if done two centuries later ; for the ac- ceptance of bribes, or gifts, by men in high legal posi- tions was a custom of long standing. No attempt was made to show that these gifts had made him decide even one cause unjustly. Bacon's public life was ended, but it is quite possible that the few years which remained to him were his happi- est, for, living quietly with his family, he had at last the leisure for thought for which he had longed. Sometime before this he had published more essays, and he had instanratio already begun the great work of his life, the In- Kagna. stauratio Magna, that is, the "great institution " of true philosophy. This undertaking was the outgrowth of his boyish criticism of Oxford. He planned that the work should give a summary of human knowledge in all branches and should point out a system by which advance- ment might be made. The philosophers of the day were i6li-i62o] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS IO9 satisfied with words rather than things ; in seeking for knowledge of nature, for instance, it seemed to them the proper scholastic method, not to study nature herself but to reason out what seemed to be a fitting law. j^^^^j^ In Bacon's Novum Orgamim, or " new instru- Organum. ment," he taught that in the study of nature, or in the study of the action of the human mind, men ought, first, to notice how nature and the mind worked, and from this knowledge to derive general laws. The former way of reasoning was called deductive, i. e., first make the rule and then explain the facts by it. Bacon's philosophy was inductive, i. e., first collect examples and from them form a rule. Inductive reasoning was not original with Bacon by any means. His glory lies in his eliminating all inac- curate, worthless notions, and in his firm belief that all reasoning should lead to advancement of knowledge and £0 practical good. He said, " I have held up a light . . . which will be seen centuries after I am dead ; " and he was right, for it is according to his system that all pro- gress in laws, in commerce, and in science has been made. 63. The " King James version " of the Bible, 1611. Bacon wrote in Latin because he believed that, while English might pass away, Latin would live forever ; but in 161 1, while he was coming to this decision, the Bible was again translated, and the translation was so excellent and later events made its reading so universal, that this one book alone would almost have saved the English lan- guage, if there had been any possibility of its being for- gotten. This version was the one which is now in gen- eral use, the "authorized version," or the " King James version," as it is called. Simply as a piece of literature, it is of priceless value. The sonorous rhythm of the Psalms, the dignified simplicity of the Gospels, the no ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [i573-i597 splendid imagery of the Revelation, — all these are ex- pressed in clear, concise, and often beautiful phrase, whose influence on the last three hundred years of English literature cannot be too highly esteemed. 64. Ben Jonson, 1573 9-1637. When Shakespeare returned to Stratford he left London full of playwrights. Many of them had great talent in some one line. Ford and Webster had special power in picturing sorrow and suffering ; Beaumont and Fletcher, who worked to- gether, constructed their plots with unusual skill and wrote most exquisite little songs ; Chapman has many graceful, beautiful passages ; Dekker, as Charles Lamb said, had " poetry enough for anything : " but there was no second Shakespeare. He stood alone, better than all others in all respects. The playwright who stood nearest to him in greatness was Ben Jonson. He was nine years younger than Shakespeare. He was a Lon- don boy, and knew little of the simple country life with which Shakespeare was so familiar. His stepfather taught him his own trade of bricklaying, much to the boy's disgust, for he was eager to go on in school. This privilege came to him through the kindness of strangers, and, as one of his friends said later, he "barrelled up a great deal of knowledge." For a while he served as a soldier in the Netherlands. All this was before he was twenty, for at that age he had found his way to the thea- tre and was trying to act. As an actor, he was not a great success, but he soon showed that he could suc- ceed in that " retouching " of old plays which served young writers as a school for the drama. The next Every Man thing known of him is that in 1597, when he Himour. ^^^ twenty-four years of age, he wrote a play 1B97. called Every Man in His Humour, which was. presented at the theatre with which Shakespeare was T597-1637] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS III connected. There is a tradition that Shakespeare was much interested in the young writer, that he persuaded the managers that the play would be a success, and that he himself took part in it. This maker of plays who had " bar- relled up a great deal of knowledge " was most profoundly interested in the clas- sic drama. The an- cient dramatists be- lieved that in every play three laws should be carefully observed. The first was that every part of a drama should help to develop one main story ; this was the unity of plot, and was obeyed by Shakespeare as well as Jonson. The The uni- second was that the time required by the inci- **®^- dents of a drama should never be longer than a single day ; this was the unity of time. The third was that the whole action should occur in one place ; this was the unity of place. In the romantic drama, like Shakespeare's plays, the characters develop, and the reader sees at gj^^j^^ the end of a play that they have been changed speareand by the experiences that they have met with. In °°^™" Jonson's plays, the characters have only one day's life, and they are the same at the end as at the beginning. Shakespeare's characters seem alive, and we discuss 112 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1597-1637 them, their deeds, and their motives, as if they were men and women of history. We may talk of Jonson's plots, but no one thinks of his characters as ever having lived. The law of unity of place prevented the writer from moving his scene easily and naturally as in real life, and this adds to their unrealness. Another respect in which the two writers were quite unlike was that Shakespeare seems to mingle with his characters and to syn)pathize with every one of them, no matter how unlike they are, while Jonson stands a little one side and manufactures them ; for instance, both wrote plays whose scenes were laid in Rome. Shakespeare shows us the thoughts and feelings of his Romans, but he is careless in regard to manners and customs ; Jonson is exceedingly accurate in all such details, but he forgets to put real people into his Roman dress. The result is that, while Shake- speare's Romans are men and women like ourselves, Jonson's are hardly more than lay figures. Shakespeare treats a Roman " like a vera brither ; " Jonson treats even his English characters as persons whose faults he is free to satirize as much as he chooses. In his first comedy he takes the ground that every one has some one special " humour," or whim, which is the governing power of his life. He names his characters according to this theory, and his Kno'well, Cash, Clement, Down- right, Wellbred, etc., recall the times of the morality plays. Why is it, then, that with this unrealness, this lack of human interest, such excellence should have been Jonson's found in the plays of Jonson } It is because he excellence, observed SO closely, because he was so learned and strong and manly, and especially because his fancy was so dainty and beautiful that no one could help being charmed by it He wrote a number of plays. Every i6io] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS II3 one of them is worth reading; but really to enjoy Jon- son, one must read what he wrote when he forgot that the faults of his time ought to be reformed, that is, hia masques, which he composed to please the king ; foi somehow James discovered that this pedant could for- get his pedantry, that this wilful, satirical, overbear- ing, social, genial, warm-hearted author of rather chilly plays could write most exquisite masques. In jonson's masques Jonson saw no need of observing the masiiues. unities ; it was all in the land of fancy, and here his fancy had free rein. Of course he praised King James with the utmost servility ; but to give such praise in a masque to be acted before the king was not only good policy but it was a custom, and almost as much a literary fashion as writing sonnets or pastorals. In the masque most elaborate scenery was employed, and every device of light and dancing and music. Masque of In the Masque of Oberon, for instance, the sat- JgJ""- yrs "fell suddenly into an antick dance full I611. of gesture and swift motion." The crowing of the cock was heard, and, as the old stage directions say, " The whole palace opened, and the nation of Faies were dis- covered, some with instruments, some bearing lights, others singing," — and Jonson knew well how to write graceful song that was perfectly adapted to jhesad these fascinating scenes. He is rarely ten- Shepherd. der, but in his Sad Shepherd, an unfinished play, there are the exquisite lines : — Here she was wont to go, and here, and here ! Just where those daisies, pinks, and violets grow ; The world may find the spring by following her ; For other print her airy steps ne'er left : Her treading would not bend a blade of grass, Or shake the downy blow-ball from his stalk. 114 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1606-1616 Scattered through Jonson's plays are such beautiful bits of poetry as this ; and when we read them, we for- give him his Downright and Wellbred and his affection for the unities. 65. The Tribe of Ben. Jonson became Poet Lau- reate, the first poet regularly appointed to hold that position ; but his courtly honors can hardly have given him as much real pleasure as the devotion of the younger literary men, the "Tribe of Ben," as they were called, who gathered around him with frank admiration and liking. The romantic plays that most resembled the drama of Shakespeare were written in partnership by two men, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Hardly Beaumont, anything is known of their lives except that john"^^^^ ' ^^^y were warm friends and kept bachelor's hall Fletcher, together. Beaumont was twenty and Fletcher 1579-1625. ,, , ,, . 4.T,-i twenty-seven when their partnership began ; and it lasted for ten years, or until the death of Beau- mont, after which Fletcher continued alone. Working together was a common practice among the dramatists, and sometimes we can trace almost with certainty the lines of a play written by one man and those written by his fellow-worker ; but in the case of Beaumont and Fletcher, the closest study has resulted in little more than elaborate guesswork. These two come nearest to Shakespeare on his own lines, that is, they can read men well, and they can put their thoughts into beautiful verse ; but in the third point of Shakespeare's greatness they are lacking ; Shakespeare could sustain himself, Beaumont and Fletcher often fail. Their characters are not always what their natural traits and circum- stances should have made them. Beaumont died in 1616, the year of Shakespeare's 1623-1642] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS nr death. Seven years later, thirty-six of Shakespeare's plays were collected and published in a book me First which is known as the First Folio. Ben Jonson roiio,i623. wrote the dedication, " To the memory of my beloved Master William Shakespeare, and what he hath left us." His poem is fairly flowing with love and appreciation and admiration for the man who would not observe the unities. It is full of such enthusiastic lines as — Soul of the age ! The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage ! He was not of an age, but for all time. While I confess thy writings to be such As neither Man nor Muse can praise too much. Ben Jonson was not given to singing indiscriminate praises, and these words speak volumes for the sturdy friendship between the two men who differed so hon- estly about what pertained to their art. Stories were told many years afterwards of the " wit-combats " which had taken place between the two ; of Jonson's solid, learned arguments and Shakespeare's inventive, quick- witted retorts. It would be worth a whole library full of ordinary books to have a verbatim report of only one of those merry meetings. 66. Closing of the theatres, 1642. Ben Jonson died in 1635, and only seven years later the drama came to an abrupt end by the breaking out of the Civil War and the passage of a law closing the theatres. Perhaps the coming of the end should not be called abrupt, for the glory of the Elizabethan drama Decadence had been gradually fading away. Looking back of the upon it from the vantage ground of nearly ""*' three centuries, it is easy to see that the beginning of the downfall was in the work of rugged, honest, obsti- Il6 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1642 nate, and altogether delightful Ben Jon son ; for with him the drama first put an attempt to reform society before an attempt to picture society, an exaggeration of a single trait of a man before a delineation of the whole character of the man. Little by little the first inspira- tion vanished, and did not leave behind it the ability to distinguish good from evil. Beautiful lyrics and worth- less doggerel stood side by side. There was a demand for "something new." Plots were no longer probable or fascinatingly impossible, they were simply improb- able. Characters gradually ceased to be interesting. Worse than this, they were often unpleasant. The court of his Majesty James I. was not marked by an exquisite decorum in either speech or manner. Vul- garity and coarseness filtered down from the throne to the theatres ; it was time that they were closed. 67. Increasing power of the Puritans. A second reason for the decadence of the drama is so intertwined with the first that they can hardly be separated, namely, the ever-increasing power of the Puritans. Even be- fore 161 1, their influence had become so strong that in numerous places besides Stratford it was forbidden to act plays. Many years earlier, even before Shakespeare first went to London, some of the Puritans wrote most earnestly against play-acting. One spoke of " Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Jesters, and such-like caterpillars of a Commonwealth ; " but he had the grace to except some few plays which he thought of better character than the rest. One strong reason why the Puritans opposed plays at that time was because they were performed on Sundays as well as week-days, and people were inclined to obey the trumpet of the theatre rather than the bell of the church. Sunday acting was given up, and as the years passed, not only the Puritans, but those among 1642-1660] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS I17 their opponents who looked upon Hfe thoughtfully, be. gan to feel that the theatre, with the immorality and in- decency of many of the plays then in vogue, Theatrical was no place for them. It was abandoned to audiences, the thoughtless, to those who cared little for the char- acter of a play so long as it amused them, and to those who had no dislike for looseness of manners and laxness of principles. Such was the audience to whom play- wrights had begun to cater. In 1642 came war between the king and the people. In 1649 King Charles was be- headed, and until 1660 the Puritan party was in power. 68. Literature of the conflict. Aside from the work of the dramatists, whose business it was to gratify the taste of their audiences, what kind of writing would naturally be produced in such a time of conflict, when so many were becoming more and more thoughtful of matters of religious living and when the line between the Puritans and the followers of the court was being drawn more closely every year ? We should look first for a meditative, critical spirit in literature ; then for earnestly religious writings, both prose and poetry, from both Puritan and Churchman ; and along with these a lighter, merrier strain from the courtier writers, not necessarily irreligious, but distinctly non-religious. 69. John Donne, 1573-1631. This is precisely what came to pass ; but in this variety of literary pro- ductions there was hardly an author who was not influ- enced by the writings of a much admired preacher and poet named John Donne, the Dean of St. Paul's. His life covered the reign of James and two thirds of that of Ehzabeth, but just when his poems were written is not known. They are noted for two qualities. One of these was so purely his own that no one could imitate it, the power to illuminate his subject with a sudden and Ij3 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1573-1631 flashing thought. That is why stray lines of Donne's Hnger in the memory, such as — I long to talk with some old lover's ghost, Who died before the god of love was born. Unfortunately, it was the second quality which was so generally imitated. This was, not the flashing out of a thought, but the wrapping it up and concealing it so that it requires a distinct intellectual effort to find out what is meant ; for instance, in the very poem just quoted are the lines : — But when an even flame two hearts did touch, His [Love's] office was indulgently to fit Actives to passives ; correspondency Only his subject was ; it cannot be Love, if I love who loves not me. Of course one finally reasons it out that Donne means to say love should inspire love, that " I love " and " I am loved" should "fit;" but by that time the reader is inclined to agree with honest Ben Jonson, who de- clared that Donne "for not being understood would per- ish," Sometimes, again, Donne conceals his thought in so complicated, far-fetched a simile that one has to stop and reason out its significance. He writes of two souls, his own and that of his beloved : — If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two ; Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show To move, but doth if th' other do. And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other far dotli roam, It leans and hearkens after it. And grows erect as that comes home. i6o8-i66o] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS 19 These " conceits," as they were called, greatly influ- enced the poets of the age. There were also two other influences, that of Ben Jonson for carefulness "Conceits." of form and expression, and that of Spenser, still remembered, for beauty and sweetness and richness of imagery ; but of these three influences, that of Donne was by far the strongest. 70. John Milton, 1608-1674. Of the poets who wrote between 1625 and 1660, John Milton stands for the poetry of medita- tion. He was born in 1608, the son of a wealthy Londoner. The father was anxious that his son should devote himself to literature ; and when he saw how perfectly the boy's wishes harmonized with his own, he left him ab- solutely free to follow his own will. Less free- dom in some respects might have been bet- ter ; for this boy of twelve with weak eyes and frequent headaches went to school daily, had also tutors at home, and made it his regular practice to study until midnight. He entered Cambridge at sixteen, not the ideal book- worm by any means, for he was so beautiful that he was nicknamed the " Lady of Christ's College." While Milton was still a student, he wrote his Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity ,' 2^ most exquisite Christmas poem. The stanzas are perfect wherein his learning serves only for adornment and his mind is full JOHN MILTON 1608-1674 I20 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1629-1638 of the thought of the Christ Child ; but some of those Hymn on toward the end of the poem, which are a Httle the Morning weighed down by his learning, have less charm. Nativity. This poem, one of Milton's earliest as it was, 1629. j^g^g ^ kind of unearthly sweetness of melody and clearness of vision. It seems to have come from another world ; to have been written in a finer, rarer atmosphere. The feeling deepens on reading L Allegro, II Penseroso, the masque Comiis, and Lycidas, all com- posed within six years after Milton left the university and while he was devoting himself to music and study at his father's country home. He was only twenty-nine when the last of these poems was written. The first two, whose titles may be translated " The Cheerful Man " and "The Thoughtful Man," are descriptions, not of nature, but of the way nature affects the poet when he is in dif- ferent moods. It is interesting to compare Milton's work with that of earlier times. In V Allegro he writes : — Mountains on whose barren breast The labouring clouds do often rest: Meadows trim with daisies pied ; Shallow brooks and rivers wide : Towers and battlements it sees Bosomed high in tufted trees. Surrey loved nature, but this is the way he describes a similar scene : — The mountains high and how they stand ! The valleys and the great main land ! The trees, the herbs, the towers strong, The castles and the rivers long ! Poems Poetry made noble progress in the century written that lay between the two writers. iesTand L Allegro and II Penseroso reveal Milton 1638. himself. L Allegro 's.^o.'^^ of jest and laughter 1632-1639] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS 121 and dancing and mirth ; but Milton is not made mirthful, he is only an onlooker, he is never one of those who have — Come forth to play On a sunshine holyday. Shakespeare we admire and love ; Milton we admire. Of the other poems, Comus is a masque which was presented at Ludlow Castle. Lycidas is an elegy in memory of a college friend. It follows the pastoral fashion, and the best way to enjoy it is to read it over and over until the "flock" and "shepherd" and "swain" no longer seem artificial and annoying ; and then come appreciation and pleasure. Milton had ever the courage of his convic- tions. Even in Comus and Lycidas, a masque and an elegy, there are stern lines rebuking the evils of the times and the scandals of the church. It was easy to see on which side Milton would stand when the struggle broke out between the king and the Puritans. 71. Milton as a pamphleteer. When it was plain that war must come, Milton was travelling on the Continent, honored and admired wherever he went by the men of greatest distinction. He had planned a much longer stay ; but " I thought it base to be travelling for amuse- ment abroad while my fellow-citizens were striking a blow for freedom," he said, and forthwith he set off for England. War had not yet broken out, but this earnest Puritan began to write pamphlets against the Church of England and against the king. In his pamphlets of controversy he seizes any weapon that comes to hand ; dignified rebuke, a whirlwind of denunciation, bitter sarcasm, or sheer insolence and railing, but never humor. In his prose he has small regard for form or even for the convenience of his readers ; in his Areopagitica, a plea for freedom of the press, his sentences are over* 122 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1639-1651 powering in their length ; three hundred words is by no means an unusual number : and yet, whether his sen- tences are long or short, simple or involved, there is seldom wanting that same magnificent flow of har- mony that is the glory of his poetry. Milton is always Milton. Among his pamphlets are some that he wrote on di- vorce. In the midst of the war, he, the stern Puritan, Milton's rnarried young Mary Powell, the daughter of marriage. ^^ ardent Royalist. After one gloomy month she returned to her own more cheerful home, and in the two years that passed before she would come back to him, he comforted himself by arguing in favor of divorce. Charles was executed in 1649, and when Cromwell became Lord Protector, Milton was made his Latin sec- retary. Milton seems cold and unapproachable, Latin but in One weighty act during the years of his secre ary. secretaryship he comes nearer to us than at any other time. The son of the dead King Charles was in France, and in his behalf a Latin pamphlet had been written by one of the most profound scholars of the time, upholding the course of Charles and declaring those who brought him to his death to be murderers. The Royal- ists were jubilant, for they thought no adequate reply could be given. The Puritans who knew John Milton best were confident, for they believed that he could con- fute the reasoning. It was a work requiring study and Defence oi research as well as skill in argument. Milton Peo^ie^"^* began, but very soon the question came to him, 1651. whether to complete the paper or to save him- self from blindness, for he found that his sight was rapidly failing. He made his choice and wrote his De- fence of the English People. Three years later, sitting in total darkness, he wrote. — 1637-1660] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS I23 What supports me, dost thou ask? The conscience, Friend, t'have lost them overplied In liberty's defence, my noble task. 72. Milton's sonnets. From 1637 to 1660 Milton wrote nothing but these stern, earnest pamphlets and a few sonnets, one in honor of Cromwell, and on the Late one, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont, that MassacreiH ' Piedmont. sounds like the fiercest denunciations of a i655. Hebrew prophet. One sonnet is on his own blindness; and here every one must bow in reverence, for, shut up in hopeless darkness, he grieves only lest his " one PRINTING-OFFICE OF 1619 talent " is lodged with him useless, and the last line fairly glows with a transfigured courage, — They also serve who only stand and wait. Milton had need of courage, for in 1660 the power of ^24 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1593-1633 the Puritans was gone. The country was tired of their „„. ^ strict laws, and Charles II, son of the be- Mllton ana thoResto- headed Charles, was brought back in triumph "^°°' to the throne of his fathers. Milton might well have been pardoned for feeling that his sacrifices were wasted. He was not without consolation, how- ever, for in his mind there was an ever brightening vision of a glorious work that he hoped to accomplish even in his darkness. 73. The religious poets, Herbert, Crasha-w, Vaughan. Leaving for a while Milton, the poet of meditation, we return to the other writers of the time of contest be- tween the king's claim and the people's right ; first, to the religious authors, poets, and prose writers. The best known work of most of them was done between 1640 and 1650, save for that of George Herbert, who died in 1633. 74. George Herbert, 1593-1633. Herbert was born of a noble family, and was expected to do honor to it by entering court life. At first all things went smoothly. He had hardly taken his degree before honors were shown him which seemed the first steps to political ad- vancement. In a very short time, however, the friends died upon whom he had depended for influence with King James ; and he suddenly concluded to enter the church; His fashion of deciding momentous questions with a startling promptness he carried into other mat- ters ; for, three days after meeting the young woman who won his heart, their marriage took place. Again, when a more important position was offered him than the one which he held, he refused to accept it ; but having yielded to the archbishop's arguments, he ordered the proper canonical garments to be made ready on the following morning, put them on at once, and was inducted before night 1633] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS 125 This man of rapid decisions had a sweet face and a gentle, courteous manner that won him friends wherever he went. He was the most modest of men, and in his last sickness he directed that his po- ems should be burned, unless the friend to whom he entrusted them thought they would be of advantage to "any poor, dejected soul." The writings were printed, and became very popular. The name of the volume was The Tcviple. It contained more than one hundred and fifty short religious poems. They have not the richness of the lyrics of the dramatists, they have not the TheTem- learning or the imagination of Milton; but p^^. 1633. they are so sincere, so earnest, and so practical that they were loved from the first. Herbert's is an every-day religion ; he is not afraid to speak of simple needs and simple duties. In his Elixir, which begins with the childlike petition, — GEORGE HERBERT 1593-1633 Teach me, my God and King, In all things Thee to see. And what I do in anything, To do it as for Thee, — he inserts the homely, helpful stanza, 126 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1646 A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine : Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, Makes that and th' action fine. Herbert is full of conceits. After writing a beautiful little poem about the blessing of rest being withheld from man that for want of it he may be drawn to God, he named his poem The Pulley ! He wrote verses in the shape of an altar and in the shape of wings ; he wrote verses like these : ■— I bless Thee, Lord, because I GROW Among the trees, which in a ROW To Thee both fruit and order OW. But one willingly pardons such whims to the man who could write the christianized common sense of The Church Porch and the tender, sunlit verses of — Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright. 75. Richard Crashaw, 1615-1650. The names of two other religious poets of the time are familiar, Richard Crashaw and Henry Vaughan. Crashaw, as well as Herbert and Vaughan, was of the Church of England, but he afterwards became a Roman Catholic and spent ste s to the ^^^ ^^^^ years in Italy. In 1646 he published Altar. Steps to the Altar and also Delights of the ^®*^' Muses; the first a book of religious verse, the second of secular. Crashaw is best remembered by a single line of reli- gious verse, the translation of his Latin line in reference to Christ's changing of water into wine, — The conscious water saw its Lord and blushed, — Vidit et erubuit nympha pudice Deum ; and also by his lightly written but half-earnest verses, Wishes to His {Sjipposed) Mistress: — i6so] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS 127 Whoe'er she be, That not impossible she, That shall command my heart and me. He goes on endowing her with every beauty and every virtue. Rewrites: — Her that dares be What these lines wish to see: I seek no further ; it is she. He ought to end here, but he continues for several stanzas more. He is somewhat like the writers of seven or eight centuries earlier in his way of beginning a poem and writing on and on without any very definite plan. If some kind critic had only looked over the shoulder of this man who was capable of composing such charming bits of verse, we might have had from him some rarely beautiful poems. 76. Henry Vaughan, 1621-1695. Crashaw died in 1650, the year in which Henry Vaughan, the c-1 -^ Air 1 u . J- C--7 o • .•/ SllexScln- bilurist, or vVelshman, wrote his Siiex Scintil- mians. lajis, or "sparks from the flintstone." He ex- ^^^^' plains the title in one of his poems : — Lord ! thou didst put a soul here. If I must Be broken again, for flints will give no fire Without a steel, O let thy power cleer The gift once more, and grind this flint to dust ! The allusion to his being "broken" is explained by the fact that a long illness had turned his mind upon heaven rather than upon earth. Eternity was his one thought. His poem, The World, begins superbly: — I saw eternity the other night. Like a great ring of pure and endless light All calm as it was bright. This is a conceit, to be sure, but it is a glorious one. 128 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1650 Vaughan loves nature, and his Bird is as tender as it is strong. One might fancy that it was Robert Burns himself who speaks : — Hither thou com'st. The busie wind all night Blew through thy lodging, where thy own warm wing Thy pillow was. Many a sullen storm, For which coarse man seems much the fitter born, Rain'd on thy bed And harmless head. And now, as fresh and cheerful as the light, Thy little heart in early hymns doth sing Unto that Providence whose unseen arm Curb'd them, and cloath'd thee well and warm. Vaughan sees what is beautiful in the world and loves it ; but all the while he looks fhrough it and beyond it. Herbert, whose life and poems were his model, wrote: — A man that looks on glass, On it may stay his eye ; Or if he pleaseth, through it pass, And then the heavens espy. So it is that Vaughan looks upon nature. Even in his lines to a little bird, he says that though the birds of light make a land glad, yet there are night birds with mournful note, and ends, — Brightness and mirth, and love and faith, all flye, Till the day-spring breaks forth again from on high. All that he writes comes from his own experience. There is not a hint of glancing at his audience ; every poem sounds as if it had been written for his own eyes and for those of no one else. There is somewhat of the charm of "Jerusalem the golden " in his — My soul, there is a countrie, Afar beyond the stars ; 1640-1661] PURITANS AND ROYALISTS 1 29 but the poem which has been the most general favor- ite is : — They all are gone into the world of light, And I alone sit ling'ring here ! Their very memory is fair and bright, And my sad thoughts doth clear. 77. Writers of religious prose. These three men, Herbert, Crashaw, and Vaughan, the Church of Eng- land clergyman, the Roman Catholic priest, and the Welsh physician, produced the best religious poetry of England during the Commonwealth and the troublous times preceding the same period. There were also three prominent writers of religious prose, Thomas Ful- ler, Jeremy Taylor, and Richard Baxter. 78. Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661. Fuller was a clergy- man of the Church of England. He was so eloquent that his sermons were said to have been preached to two audiences, those within the room and those who filled the windows and the doors. " Not only full but Fuller," the jesters used to say. Fuller published in TheHoiy 1640 his Holy and Profane State, which was JJ^tf'^' sparkling with bits of wisdom. "She com- i640. mandeth her husband by constantly obeying him," is one of his epigrams. His sermons were always inter- esting, for he was not only earnest and able, but he was quaintness itself. His subjects are a study. One series of sermons was on "Joseph's Party-colored Coat." One was on "An ill match wel broken off;" and had for its text, " Love not the world." Fuller's best known book is not religious but his- torical, and i?i the outgrowth of his experience as an army chaplain ; for while he was with the king's soldiers, he spent his spare time collecting bits of local informa- tion about prominent persons. He wandered about I30 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1650-1662 among the people, listening for hours at a time to the garrulous village gossips for the sake of obtaining some one good story, some bit of reminiscence, or an ancient doggerel rhyme, as the case might be ; and he put them The all into his book, The Worthies of England, or Worthies oi p^n^y' s J FoQt of his time. The best known of these poems are his thrilling little song, — Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me, and Locksley Hall. The latter has been read and re- cited and quoted and parodied, but it is not even yet worn out. Here are the two stanzas that were Tenny- son's special favorites: — Love took up the glass of Time, and turn'd it in his glowing hands; Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands. Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might ; Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in music out of sight. In these volumes, too, were Mortc d' Arthur and snatches of poems on Galahad and Launcelot, — enough to show that Tennyson had found old Malory, and that the stories of King Arthur and the Round Table were haunting his mind. When The Princess came out, there was some criticism of the impossible story in a probable The Pnn- . • , • r ^ i 1 cess, a Med- setting, of the mingling of the earnest and the ey. 1847. l3^J.lggq^g^ which the poet had not entirely fore- stalled by calling the poem a Medley. It is a very beau- tiful medley, however, and the songs which were inter- 1S47-1895] THE CENTURY OF THE NOVEL 255 spersed in the later edition are most exquisite. Here are "Sweet and Low," "The splendor falls on castle walls," and others. The year 1850 was a marked season for Tennyson. It was the year of his marriage to the lady from whom financial reasons had separated him for twelve in Memo- years; it was the year of publication of In ria^. isso. Memoriam and of his appointment as Laureate. In Memoriam was called forth by the death of Arthur Henry Hallam, Tennyson's best-loved college friend, which took place seventeen years earlier. It is a collection of short poems, gleams of his thoughts of his friend, changing as time passed from "large grief," from questioning, "How fares it with the happy dead?" from tender memories of Hallam's words and ways — from all these to the hour when he who grieved could rest — And hear at times a sentinel Who moves about from place to place, And whispers to the worids of space. In the deep night, that all is well. The duties of the Laureate have vanished, but there is a mild expectation that he will manifest some interest in the greater events of the kingdom by an occa- , ° ° / Laureate, sional poem. Tennyson fulfilled this expecta- tion generously, and his Laureate poems have a clear ring of sincerity. They range all the way from his welcome to Queen Alexandra, consort of Edward VII, — Sea-kings' daughter from over the sea, to his superb Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington: Bury the Great Duke With an empire's lamentation, Let us bury the Great Duke To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation. 256 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1859-1S64 The Idylls ^°^ ^^^^ Sincerity, but tender respect and of the King, sympathy, unite in his dedication of the Idvlls 1859-1885. i- .7 r • . .1 r T-. • All .' . oj the King to the memory of Prince Albert: — These to His Memory — since he held them dear, Perchance as finding there unconsciously Some image of himself To the queen in her sadness he says : — Break not, O woman's heart, but still endure; Break not, for thou art Royal, but endure. In the Idylls Tennyson had come to his kingdom; for the "dim, rich" legends were after his own heart. Here was a thread of story which he could alter as he would; here were love, valor, innocence, faithlessness, treachery, religious ecstasy, an earthly journey with a heavenly recompense. Here were opportunities for the brilliant and varied ornament in which he delighted, for all the beauties of description, and for a character drawing as strong as it was delicate. In the Idylls Tennyson shows his power to present the complex in character; but in Enoch Arden he draws Enoch ^'^th. no less skill a simple fisherman who Arden. through no fault of his own meets lifelong sor- row and loneliness. Enoch is wrecked on a desert island, and his wife, believing him dead, finally yields and marries his friend. After many years Enoch finds his way home, but his home is his no more, and he prays: — Uphold me. Father, in my loneliness A little longer! aid me, give me strength Not to tell her, never to let her know. Help me not to break in upon her peace. So simply, so naturally is the story told that the whole force of the silent tragedy, of the greatness of the fish- 1864-1S92] THE CENTURY OF THE NOVEL 257 erman hero, is not realized till the triumph of the closing words, — So past the strong, heroic soul away. Yielding to the fascination which the drama has for men of literary genius, Tennyson wrote several Tennyson's historical plays, but this was not his field. The ^r^"**- characters are not lifelike, and, though the plays read well, they do not act well. Among his last work was Crossing the Bar. Every true poet has a message. His was of faith and trust, and nothing could be more fitting as his envoy than the closing stanza of this lyric : — For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The Hood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar. 148. The age of the pen. The nineteenth century has been called the age of steam and electricity; but perhaps a better name would be the age of the pen, for almost every one writes. In this mass of literary work there is much excellence; but, leaving out the greatest authors, only a prophet could select "the few, the im- mortal names that were not born to die." The historical value of these many writers is unknown, their intrinsic value is undecided; criticism is variable, and is prejudiced by their nearness. Nevertheless, it is hard to pass over the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood," such a group of poets as William Morris with his Earthly Paradise, Dante Gabriel Rossetti with the weird charm of his Blessed Damozel; and Algernon Charles Swinburne, whose verses, ever strong and intense, reveal the touch of a master of all music. Aside from the historians already named, the greater 258 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1S37-1863 number of writers of history have taken England for their theme. John Richard Green, in his Short History of the English People, gave new Hfe to the men of the olden times; Edward Augustus Freeman, ever accurate and painstaking, wrote of the Norman Conquest; James Anthony Froude was, like Macaulay, a partisan, and therefore not always to be trusted in his estimates of men, but, like Macaulay, he possessed the "historical imagination," which is, after all, little more than the ability to remember that men of the past were as human as men of the present. Among scientific writings Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, and the works of Tyndall and Huxley have been most widely read. The names of essayists and critics are many. Walter Pater with his harmonious sentences, John Henry Newman with his exquisitely polished diction, are well known and are well worthy of honor. Espe- cially hopeless is the effort to make a satisfactory choice among the novelists. Not every one would dream of attempting a scientific treatise or a volume of even sec- ond-rate poetry; but who is there, from Disraeli, the British premier, to the young girl whose graduation gown is still fresh, that does not feel the longing to pro- duce a novel? Edward Bulwer Lytton, Lord Lytton, won fame in the thirties by his Last Days of Pompeii. Charles Kingsley's first novel, Alton Locke, gave vivid descriptions of life in London workshops. Westward Ho! whose scene was laid in the days of Queen Eliza- beth, is called his best prose work. His poems are of the sort that linger in the memory. "Three fishers went sailing away to the west" will long be a favorite. Among his best loved work is Water Babies, that fas- cinating mingling of a delightful story for children with 1S65-18S2] thl: cknturv of the novel 259 the keenest of satire. Another child's book that can hardly help being a favorite as long as there are children to enjoy it is the Alice in Wonderland of "Lewis Carroll." The story is told that Queen Victoria once asked him if he would not send her another of his delightful books, CARDINAL NEWMAN and that he responded by presenting her with a mathe- matical treatise; for "Lewis Carroll" when out of print was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a learned professor of mathematics. Anthony Trollope was the author of many novels, of which Barchester Towers has been the favorite. Probably no one ever sat up all night to see how any one of his stories was going to end, but they are faithful pictures of the life of his time. Charles Reade 26o ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [1870-1921 wrote far more thrilling stories, Put Yourself in His Place and others, which aimed vigorous blows at some social injustice. William Wilkie Collins wrote The Woman in White, The Moonstone, and other novels. These were a new departure in fiction, for he made no special effort to draw character, but tried, rather, to make plots which would puzzle and mystify his readers. Richard Doddridge Blackmore wrote nearly a score of novels, but the reading world has fixed upon his seven- teenth century romance, Lorna Doone, as the one upon which his reputation is to rest. The names of many novelists of the day are famiUar. There are Barrie, Galsworthy, and Shaw, who -are also dramatists; there are Conrad, Wells, Bennett, and many others. Probably each one of these has been told time and again that he is the greatest novelist of the twentieth century. Pos- sibly that worthy is among them, but who can say whether the excellence that we see, or believe that we see, in the work of numerous writers is really enduring excellence or only some quality so especially congenial to our own times that it seems preeminently excellent to us. In recent poetry, Alfred Noyes and Henry Newbolt are in the front ranks as writers of ballads, patriotic, and Recent heroic verse. Much interest has been aroused Poetry. jn the early literature of Ireland. There is a feeling that the subjects and phrases pecuhar to poetry are worn out, that poets must go back to a certain prim- itive simplicity, to legends and early romance. Yeats, Synge, and others have turned to Irish themes. The verse of the Irish poets is especially fresh and winning. Its lyrics are sweet and strong, its satire merry rather than bitter, and through it runs a quiet dignity utterly without self-consciousness. Akin to this movement is that in favor of what has 1914-1021] THE CENTURY OF THE NOVEL 261 received the name of "new verse." In this, the writer avoids the subjects, phrases, and meters that have been looked upon as suited to poetry, and aims at selecting everyday subjects and writing of them in colloquial lan- guage in "vers libre," ox free verse, that is, verse with- out rhyme or regular meter. This is somewhat like Wordsworth's earlier theories; but perhaps even the ar- dent admirers of new verse would admit that Words- worth's best work was done when he forgot his theories. Nevertheless, however distasteful a new fashion may be to those who love the older fashions, it is worth remem- bering that a new theory, of verse or anything else, often seizes upon some weakness of the old and prevents it from going to extremes. The amount of literary composition inspired by the Great War is enormous. There has been room for every- thing, and everything has been eagerly read, ^heLitera- whether it was a thrilling account of some mil- tureoftho itary or naval action, an earnest novel of pur- pose, a tender home-letter — reproduced in a magazine — or any one of the mass of poems. Of the novels, Mr. Britling Sees it Through, by H. G. Wells, pictures vividly quiet, peaceful England slowly opening her eyes to the fact that a life struggle was upon her. As to the quality of the war verse, little of it is of special excellence. It is not during a war, but after a war, that the really great war poems have been produced. Gibson, Mase- field, and Hardy have aW written war poems that are poems; but they would probably write better ones to-day, and still better if the war was twenty years old. Love of mother country has never been more passion- ately expressed than in the sonnets of Rupert Brooke. The friends of many whose bodies lie, like his, in foreign soil have been comforted by his lines. 262 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [Sth-igth Cent. If I should die, think only this of me, That there 's some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. So it is that the stream of England's literature has moved onward. We can judge fairly of the earlier com- positions, but whether the more recent fashions and methods are strong and lasting currents or whether they are only eddies and ripples, it is too early to decide. For twelve hundred years or longer this stream has flowed, now narrowed, now broadened, but ever moving „ , , onward. The epic has swept on from the sim- Concluslon. ^ . ^. pie thought and primeval virtues of Beowulf to the harmonious organ tones of Paradise Lost. The drama, beginning with the mystery play, has come to its height under the magic touch of Shakespeare, and presents not only action but that intangible thing, thought, and de- velopment of character. The early lyric is known to us in a single poem, Widsith. To-day lyric poetry means the glorious outburst of song of the Elizabethan times; it means such poems as Browning's Prospice, wherein the physical courage of the viking has become the religious courage of the Christian; and it means such delicate, thoughtful, sympathetic love of nature and such exquis- iteness of expression as are shown in the works of Burns and Wordsworth and Tennyson. Prose, at first as heavy and rough and clumsy as a weapon of some savage tribe, has become through centuries of hammering and filing and tempering as keen as a Damascus blade. History, which was at first the bare statement of certain occur- rences, has become a vivid panorama of events, combined with profound study of their causes and their results. Biography is no longer the throwing of a preternatural halo around its subject; the ideal biography of to-day is that which, uncolored by the prejudice of the writer, pre- i9tli-2oth Cent.] THE CENTURY OF THE NOVEL 263 sents the man himself as interpreted by his deeds and words. The novel is the form of literary expression be- longing especially to the present age; and because of its very nearness to us in time and in interest, the judgment of its merits is difficult. Of two points, however, we may be sure; first, that to centre in one character of a book THE poets' corner, WESTMINSTER ABBEY all interest and all careful workmanship is a mark of de- generacy; second, that to picture Hfe faithfully, but with the faithfulness of the artist and not of the camera, is a mark of excellence. It is this requirement of faithful- ness to truth which is after all the most worthy literary "note" of our age. The history must be accurate; the biography must be unprejudiced; the reasoning of the essay must be without fallacy; the poem must flash out a genuine thought; and the novel that would endure must be true to life. Whatever the future of England's 264 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [i9th-2oth Cent. literature may be, it has at least the foundation of honest effort and an inexorable demand for sincerity and truth. Century XIX CENTURY OF THE N( Before 1S12 The "Lake Poets:" William Wordsworth. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Robert Southey. The romantic poets : Walter Scott (historical nov- elist). Lord Byron. The realist : Jane Austen. Lovers of beauty: Percy Bysshe Shelley. John Keats. Essayists : Charles Lamb. Thomas De Quincey. After 1S32 Novelists: Charles Dickens. William Makepeace Thackeray. Charlotte Bronte. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. "George Eliot." Essayists : Thomas Babington Macaulay (historian). Thomas Carlyle. John Ruskin. Matthew Arnold. George Meredith. Thomas Hardy. Robert Louis Stevenson. Rudyard Kipling. Poets : Robert Browning and Browning. Alfred Tennyson. Mrs. SUMMARY During the first thirty years of the century the principal authors were : — I. The "Lake Poets," — Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. Wordsworth believed that poetry should treat of simple subjects in every-day language. Coleridge believed i9tIi-2oth Cent.] THE CENTURY OF THE NOVEL 265 in treating lofty subjects in a realistic manner. These theo- ries were illustrated by We Are Seven and 77ie Ancient Mar- iner. Southey wrote weird epics whose scenes were laid in distant lands, and also many histories and biographies. Coleridge had universal talent, but left everything incom- plete. Wordsworth quietly wrote on, and slowly his power to describe and interpret nature was recognized. 2. The romantic writers, Scott and Byron. Scott's first work was ballad writing and ballad collecting. Then came the Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, etc. Byron's poetry won the attention of the crowd, and Scott then devoted him- self to the Waverley novels. He undertook also histories, biographies, and translations ; and the inventor of the his- torical novel died of overwork. Byron's first poetry was savagely reviewed, and he replied fiercely. Childe LLarold made him famous. He wrote many cynical, romantic narrative poems and many beautiful de- scriptions of nature. He died while trying to help the Greeks win freedom from the Turks. 3. The lovers of beauty, Shelley and Keats. Shelley's life was a continual revolt against established law. His poems are marked not only by beauty but by a certain light and airy quality which makes them unlike other poems. Keats 's first poem, Endymion, was criticised as savagely as Byron's early work. He made no reply and continued to write. Although he died at the age of twenty-four, he is ranked among the first of those who have created beauty. 4. The essayists. Lamb and De Quincey. Lamb could give to literature only fragments of his time. He attempted poems, stories, and plays ; but had no special success till the publication of Tales from Shakespeare. His best work was his Essays of Ella, wherein he shows himself the most grace- ful and charming of humorists. De Quincey's first work, Confessions of an Efiglish Opium- Eater, won much attention and was the first of his one hundred and fifty magazine articles ; wherein he is dreamy. 266 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [i9th-2oth Cent. whimsical, or merely the teller of a plain story, as the mood seizes him ; but is always interesting. 5. The magazine critics. The Edinburgh Revieiv^ edited by Jeffrey; the Quarterly Reviimi ; and B/ac/rwood's, edited by John Wilson, were all founded during the first twenty years of the century. 6. The realist, Jane Austen, who wrote quiet novels of home life with exceedingly good delineation of character. In 1832, nearly all these authors were dead or had ceased to write. There were changes in government ; education be- came more general ; reading matter was cheaper ; scientific discoveries aroused thought. During the half-century follow- ing 1832, there was a remarkable development of: — 1. The novel, in the hands of Dickens, Thackeray, and "George Eliot." The. Pickwick Papers made Dickens famous. During twenty years he published novel after novel, merry, pathetic, but always charming; even though the characters often seem unreal and are usually labelled by some one quality. Thackeray was less amusing and won fame more slowly. He was a satirist, but a kindly one. He wrote not only novels but lectures, literary and historical, and historical novels. " George Eliot " did not attempt fiction till she was thirty- seven,' but her first work was so successful that after its pub- lication she devoted herself to novel writing. Even aside from their literary merit, the justice and charity of her nov- els can hardly fail to make them lasting. During the lives of these three, younger novelists were pressing forward for recognition. Chief among them were George Meredith, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, and, somewhat later, Rudyard Kipling. 2. The essay, in the hands of Macaulay, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Arnold. Macaulay wrote at twenty-five his essay on Milton, the brilliant style of which brought him recognition. He wrote many essays, some poetry, and then his History of i9th-2oth Cent.] THE CENTURY OF THE NOVEL 267 England. This was not impartial by any means, but was intensely interesting and sold in enormous numbers. Carlyle had reached middle age before his talent was rec- ognized, chiefly because he often wrote in a harsh and dis- agreeable style. His Life of Frederick If, published when he was between sixty and seventy, brought him wide fame and honors of all kinds. Ruskin at the age of twenty-four was recognized as the greatest art critic of his time. His love of beauty and his wish that workingmen should enjoy it led him to a fearless discussion of the relations between rich and poor, and there- by he aroused severe criticism. His style, however, was ad- mired by all. Arnold, like Lamb, could give to literature only spare minutes. His poems are marked by a Greek restraint. His prose was in great degree made up of criticism of books and life ; in both of which he insisted upon a high standard. 3. In poetry, Browning and Tennyson are counted as of the first rank. Browning's wife was famous as a poet in her early years, but appreciation came to him slowly. For thirty- five years he found only scattered admirers. Then he pub- lished The Ring and the Book, and at last his audience was ready. His writings are often involved in thought and in phrase ; but they are of a high order of poetry and are marked by courage and faith. Tennyson was the representative poet of the Victorian Age. His first work seems like experiments in sound. Ex- cellent as it is, it met severe criticism. Twelve years after the publication of his first volume he was recognized as the first poet of his time. His most popular works are /// Memo- riam, Tlie Idylls of the King, an4 Enoch Arden, three poems of utterly different character. His Laureate poems have an unusual ring of sincerity. His attempts at drama were not successful. His message, like Browning's, was one of faith and trust. Besides those mentioned, the century has been rich in 268 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE [i9th-20th Cent. poets- novelists, historians, scientists, and essayists, many of whom in almost any other age would have been looked upon as men of the highest genius. Tracing the course of English literature for twelve hundred years, we see the development of both poetry and prose from the simplest beg-innings to a high degree of excellence. The novel is the special form of literary expression characteristic of this age. In it, as in all other literary work of the timCj the figst demand -is for faithfulness to truth. A WORD ABOUT AMERICA'S LITERATURE We are so near to even the beginning of our American literature that to write its history is an especially difficult undertaking. Too little time has passed to trace influ- ences and tendencies, perhaps even to estimate justly the value of the work whose strongest appeal is not to the present. During the last century, our world has moved so swiftly that the light has flashed now upon one writer, now upon another. Who can foretell upon which the noontide of to-morrow will shine most brilliantly .-' Who can say whether our realism will not seem unworthy triviality, whether the closely connected sentences of our best prose may not present the repellent formality of conscious art.-* In every decade many writers have come forward whose names it seems ungracious to omit. Wherever the lines are drawn, they will appear to some one an arbitrary and unreasonable barrier. A single slender volume can make no pretensions to complete- ness ; but if this one only leads its readers to feel a friendship for the authors mentioned on its pages, and a wish to know more of them and their writings, its ob' ject will ha\'e been accomplislied. A SHORT HISTORY OF AMERICA'S LITERATURE CHAPTER I THE COLONIAL PERIOD 1 607-1 765 1. Literary work in England. In the early part of the seventeenth century England was all aglow with literary inspiration. Shakespeare was writing his noblest tragedies. Ben Jonson was writing plays, adoring his friend Shakespeare, and growling at him because he would not observe the rules of the classical drama. Francis Bacon was rising swiftly to the height of his glory as Chancellor of England and incidentally com- posing essays so keen and strong and brilliant that he seems to have said the last word on whatever subject he touches. There were many lesser lights, several of whom would have been counted great in any other age. 2. Early American histories. In all the blaze of this literary glory colonists began to sail away from the shores of England for the New World. They had to meet famine, cold, pestilence, hard work, and danger from the Indians. Nevertheless, our old friend, John Smith, wrote a book on Virginia, and George Sandys completed on Virginian soil his translation of Ovid's Metamor- phoses. These men, however, were only visitors to America ; and, important as their writings may be his- torically or poetically, they have small connection with American literature. It was on the rockbound coast of 2/^ AMERICA'S LITERATURE [i596-»6s7 Massachusetts that our Hterature made its real begin- ning. The earnest, serious Pilgrims and Puritans dis- approved of the plays and masques that were flourishing in England ; pastoral verse was tO them a silly affecta- tion ; the delicate acciwacy of the sonnet showed a sin- ful waste of time- and thought. They were striving to make an abode for righteousness, and whatever did not manifestly conduce to that^singJe aim, they counted as of evil. Writing their own history, however, was reckoned •a most godly work. " We are the Lord's chosen people," they said to themselves with humble pride. " His hand is ever guiding us. Whatever happens to us then must be of importance, and for the glory of God it should be recorded," With this thought in mind, Governor William William Bradford of Plymouth, the " Father of Bradford, American' H istory," wrote his History of Plym- 1B90-1657. ,, r>/ . .• .<• 1 • ^-i >> i outk Flantahon, "ni a plaine stile, as he says, and "with singuler regard unto y^ simple trueth in all things." He tells about the struggles and suffer- ings of his people in the Old World, about that famous scene in Holland when "their Reve*? pastor falling downe on his knees, (and they all with him,) with watri cheeks comended them with most fervent praiers to the Lord and his bfessing. And then with mutuall imbrases and many tears, they tooke their leaves one of an other ; which proved to be y^ last leaV^e to many of them." Governor Bradford cotild picture well such a scene as this, and he could also write spicily of the lordly salt- maker who came among them, ""^e could not doe anything bUt borl salt r'n pans," says the Governor, "and yet would make them y* were joynd with him beleeve there was so great misterie in it as was not easie to be attained, and made them doe many unnecessary things to blind their eys, till they discerned his sutltie." 1588-1649] THE COLONIAL PERIOD 273 A second history, that of New England, was also writ- ten by a governor, John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Among his accounts of weightier j^j^^i^. matters he does not forget to tell of the little tiirop, everyday occurrences, — of the chimriey that ^^*^" ®**" took fire, of the calf that wandered away and was lost, of the two young men on shipbtDard who were punished for fighting by having their hands tied behind them and being ordered to walk up and down the deck all day, of the strange visions and lights that were seen and th'e strange voices that were heard. It is such details as these that carry us back to the lives of our ancestors, th^QJr fears and their troubles. 3. The Bay Psalm Book, 1640. While these two histories were being written, three learned men in Mas- sachusetts set to work to prepare a version of the Psalms to use in church. A mon>entOus question arose : Would it be right to use a trivial and imnecessary ornament like rhyme.-' "There is sometimes rhyme in the original Hebrew," said one, "and therefore it must be right to use it." Thus established, they took their pens in hand, and in 1640 the famous Bay Psalm Book was published in America, the first book printed ©n American soil. This was the version of Psalm xxxv, 5 : — As chaffe before the winde, let them be, & Gods Angell them driving. Let their way dark and slippery bee, and the Lords Angell them chasing. The "Admonition to the Reader" at the end of the book declares that many of these psalms may be sung to "neere fourty common tunes," and indeed there s.eems no reason why a hymn Hke this should jiot be sung to one ^ tune as well as another. Now these struggling poets were scholars ; two of them were university grad- 2/4 AMERICA'S LITERATURE .[1631-1715 nates. They had Hved in England during the noblest age of English poetry. Why, then, did they make the Psalms into such doggerel ? The reason was that they were in agonies of conscience lest they should allow the charm of some poetical expression to lure them away from the seriousness of truth ; and they declared with artless complacency and somewhat unnecessary frank- ness that they had " attended Conscience rather than Elegance, fidelity rather than poetry." A generous amount of verse was written in the colo- nies even in the early days. Many of the settlers were educated men, fully accustomed to putting their thoughts on paper, and they seemed to feel that it dignified a thought to make it into verse. Religion was the all- absorbing subject, and therefore they have left us many thousand lines of religious hopes and fears. Unfortu- nately, it takes more than study to make a man a poet, and hardly a line of all the accumulation can be called poetry. 4. Michael Wigglesworth, 1631-1705. The most lengthy piece of this early colonial rhyme was produced The Day of ^Y ^^ Reverend Michael Wigglesworth of Doom, 1662. Maiden. It was called The Day of Doom, or, A Poetical Description of the Great and Last yndgment. It painted with considerable imaginative power the Last Judgment as the Reverend Michael thought it ought to be. After the condemnation of the other sinners, the "reprobate infants," the children who had died in baby- hood, appear at the bar of God and plead that they are not to blame for what Adam did. They say : — Not we, but he ate of the Tree whose fruit was interdicted : Yet on us all of his sad Fall, the punishment 's inflicted. 1612-1672] THE COLONIAL PERIOD 275 The answer is : — A Crime it is, therefore in bliss you may not-hope to dwell ; But unto you I shall allow the easiest room in Hell. The early colonists bought this book in such numbers that it may be looked upon as America's first and great- est literary success. The first year 1800 copies were sold ; and it is esti- mated that with our increased popula- tion this would be equivalent to a sale of 2,000,000 copies to-day. 5. Anne Brad- street, 1612 or 1613-1672. The praise of Michael Wigglesworth was as naught when compared with the glory of one Mis- tress Anne Brad- street, who abode with her husband and eight children in the wilderness of Andover and therein did write much poetry. Peo- ple were in ecsta- sies over her compositions, and they did not accuse her publisher of exaggeration when he wrote on the title- t THE I I TENTH MUSE | I Lately fprurig up in Amer iCA. t 1 OR I I Severall Poems, Compiled | I with great variety of VVit I 1 andLcarning/uUofdcliglit. g J Wherein clpccially is conraincd a com- g •g pleat difcourfe and dcfcription of g, 2 ("Elements, i" The Four)^""/^'""'""'» ^Agei of Man., .Sctifotis ef tht TeiT. ^Together with an Exaft Epiromic of I •| the Four MonarchieSj vik. % I The <^''fi'"> I •a ^ Koman. ? v Alfo a Dialognc between Old England and % ^ Njw,concerning the late troubles. g ■0 __^yjl|;_^'^^^^jj>^p]^^_T[;inr j>nd fcrio u s Poems. ^ 4 ^Y aGentlewomanTn iliDfc^art?. §| 9 Pi\nic>ii,U'ilon'(or'Sl.p\-n Bwrrf/'aFthc flg^ otTht % ^ R'Hcii Popes He?d- Alley. If JO. A THE TITLE-PAGE OF ANNE BRADSTREET'S BOOK OF POEMS 276 AMERICA'S 'LITERATURE [1678-1690 page of her book, " Severall Poems, compiled with great variety of Wit and Learning, full of delight." She was called " The Tenth Muse, lately sprung up in Poems, &c. America." Learned Cotton Mather declared •'■^^®" that her work " would outlast the stateliest marble." However that may be, it was certainly the nearest approach to poetry that the colonies produced during their first century, and now and then we find a phrase with some little poetic merit. In her poem Con- templations, for instance, are the lines : — I heard the merry grasshopper then sing, The black-clad cricket bear a second part; They kept one tune and played on the same string, Seetniiig to glory in tlieir little art. 6. The children's book. One cannot help wonder- ing a little what the children found to read in colonial days, for the youngest baby Pilgrim was an old man before it occurred to any one to write a child's book. Even then, it was a book that most of the boys and girls of to-day would think rather dull, for it was a serious little schoolbook called the Neiv Eiis^land Now Eng- * land Prmier. No one knows who wrote it, but it between ^^^ published by one Benjamin Harris at his 1687 and coffcc-house and bookstore in Boston, "by the Town-Pump near the Change," some time be- tween 1687 and 1690. It contained such knowledge as was thought absolutely necessary for children. After the alphabet came a long list of two-letter combinations, " ab, eb, ib, ob, ub ; ac, ec, ic, oc, uc," etc. ; then a list of words of one syllable ; and at last the child had worked his way triumphantly to " a-bom-i-na-tion " and "qual-i- fi-ca-tion." There were several short and simple prayers, and there was a picture of the martyr, John Rogers, standing composedly in the flames while his family wept 16S7-I690] around him, and the There was a sec- ond alphabet with a rhyme and a pic- i ture for every let- ter. It began : — In Adam's Fall We sinned all. In the course of countless reprints, many changes were made. It is said I that in one edition or another the coup- let for every letter I in the alphabet was changed except that for A; but the ] Puritan never gave up his firm grasp upon the belief in original sin. For a century these two lines were a part of every orthodox child's moral equip- ment, and they were the keynote of the greater part of the prose and rhyme produced in Amer- ica during the colo- nial period. THE COLONIAL PERIOD 277 executioner grinned maliciously. G H la A D A K ' s Fall We finned all. Heaven to find, The Bible Mind. Chrift crucify'd For iinners dy'd. The Deluge drown'd The EariharoDnd. E LITAHhld By Eavens fed. The judgment made F E X 1 X afraid. As runs the Glass, Our Life doth pass. My Boole and Heart Must never part. Jon feels the Rod,— Yet bleffes GOD. _ Proud Korah's troop Was fvvallowed up. THE ALPHABET IN THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER 2/8 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1663-1728 7. Cotton Mather, 1663-1728. Even if almost all the colonial books were written for the grown folk, the children and their future were not forgotten. How to make -sure of educated ministers for them and for their children's children was the question. It was set- tled by the founding of Harvard College in 1636, only sixteen years after the little band of Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. One of its most famous graduates during the colonial days was the Reverend Cotton Mather. He took his degree at fifteen, and three years later he was already so famous for his learning that he received an urgent call to become a pastor in far-away New Haven. He refused, became his father's assistant at the North Church in Boston ; and at the North Church he re- mained for more than forty years. Preaching, however, was but a small part of his work. He had the largest library in the colonies, and he knew it thoroughly. He could write in seven languages ; he was deeply interested in science ; he kept fasts and vigils innumerable. He was grave and somewhat stern in manner, and people were seldom quite at ease with him ; but he had a tender spot in his heart for boys and girls, and whenever he passed through a village, he used to beg a holiday for the children of the place. He was horrified at the sever- ity shown in the schools of the day ; and among his own flock of fifteen there was rarely any punishment more severe than to be forbidden to enter his presence. One of his sons wrote that their father never rose from the table without first telling them some entertaining story, and that when a child had done some little deed that he knew would please the stately minister, he would run to him, and say, " Now, father, tell me some curious thing." With all his other occupations, he did an immense amount of writing. Nearly four hundred books and pam- I702] THE COLONIAL PERIOD 279 phlets have been published, and there are still thou- sands of pages in manuscript. His best-known book is his Magnalia Christi Americana, or The Eccle- Magnaiia siastical History of Nezv England. Like Bede's christi, Ecclesiastical History, it is much more enter- taining than one would think from its ponderous title. Cotton Mather's aim was to record the dealings of God with his chosen people, and the character of those peo- ple. He followed the fashion of dropping in bits of Latin and Greek, and making intricate contrasts and comparisons that sometimes remind the reader of John Donne — without Donne's genius. He begins the book with an imitation of the /Eneid, which he and his early- readers probably thought extremely effective. But there is much besides a Virgilian preface in liis work. There are enthusiastic descriptions of the men whom he ad- mired, written with many a touch of beauty and sincere tenderness. Then, too, the book is a perfect storehouse of all sorts of wonder-tales : the story of the " ship in the air" which Longfellow made into a rhyme, using often the very words of the old chronicler ; that of the two- headed snake of Newbury, of which Whittier wrote ; and many others. Among the pages that bristle with august phrases from the dead languages, we find here and there some simple story like the following, which is told of Winthrop, and which makes us feel that Mather in his wig and bands and Winthrop in his exasperatingly un- tumbled ruff are not so unlike men of to-day, and would be exceedingly interesting people to know : — In a hard and long Winter, when Wood was very scarce at Bos- ton, a Man gave him a private Information, that a needy Person in his Neighbourhood stole Wood sometimes from his Pile ; where- upon the Governour in a seeming Anger did reply, Does he so ? I '11 take a Course with him ; go, call that Man t-o me, I '11 warrant 28o AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1652-1758 you I 'II cure him of stealing ! When the Man came, the Govern- our considering that if he had Stoln, it was more out of Necessity than Disposition, said unto him. Friend, It is a severe Winter, and I doubt you are but meanly provided for Wood ; wherefore I would have you supply yourself at my Wood-Pile till this cold Season be over. And he then Merrily asked his Friends, Whether he had not effectually cured this Man of Stealing his Wood ? 8. Samuel Sewall, 1652-1730. During the greater part of Cotton Mather's Hfe an interesting diary was be- ing written by Judge Samuel Sewall. He tells of being comfortable in the stoveless meeting-house, though his ink froze by a good fire at home ; of whipping his little Joseph "pretty smartly" for "playing at Prayer-time and eating when Returne Thanks ; " of the lady who cruelly refused to bestow her hand upon the eager wid- ower, even though wooed with prodigal munificence by the gift of " one-half pound of sugar almonds, cost three shillings per pound." Though the writings of the hon- est old Judge cannot strictly be called literature, their frank revelation of everyday life presents too excellent a background for the writings of others to be entirely for- gotten. 9. Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758. In 1730 Judge Sewall died. In that year a young man of twenty-seven was preaching in Northampton who was to become fa- mous for his original, clear, and logical thought and his power to move an audience. He had been a wonder all the days of his life. When he ought to have been play- ing marbles, he was reading Greek and Latin and He- brew, He was deeply interested in natural philosophy, and even more deeply in theology. When he was four- teen, he read Locke's Essay on the Human Understand- mg-, and declared that it inexpressibly entertained and pleased him. 1 703-1 758] THE COLONIAL PERIOD 281 Such was Jonathan Edwards. He was the greatest clergyman of the first half of the eighteenth century, and some have not feared to call him the "most original and acute thinker yet pro- duced in America." He was quite different from the earlier colonial pastors like Cotton Mather, men who were gazed upon by their flocks with wonder and humble reverence as recognized leaders in reli- gion, learning, and poli- tics. His time was de- voted to theology. After twenty-four years in Northampton he went to the little village of Stock- bridge and became a mis- sionary to the Indians. Then there was such poverty in the Edwards family that fresh, whole sheets of paper were a rare luxury, and the thoughts of the keenest mind in the land were jotted down on the backs of letters or the margins of pam- phlets. By and by these thoughts were pub- ^jj^ j j. lished in book form. This book was TJie In- ^y into the quiry into the Freedom of the Will. Then the the wiu,° modest missionary to the Indians became fa- ^^^*- mous among metaphysicians the world over, for in acute, powerful reasoning he had no superior. It is small wonder that Princeton hastened to send a messenger to the little village in the wilderness to offer him the presidency of the college. He accepted the offer, but died after only one month's service. JONATHAN EDWARDS 1703-1758 282 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1703-1758 Unfortunately, the passage of Edwards's writings that is oftenest quoted is from his sermon on "Sinners in the hands of an angry God," wherein even his clearsighted- ness confuses God's pitying love for the sinner with his hatred of sin. More in harmony with Edwards's natural disposition is his simple, frank description of his boy- hood happiness when after many struggles he first began to realize the love of God. He wrote : — The appearance of everything was altered ; there seemed to be, as it were, a calm, sweet cast or appearance of divine glory in almost everything. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything: in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water and all nature ; which used greatly to fix my mind. I often used to sit and view the moon for a long time ; and in the day spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things : in the mean time, singing forth, with a low voice, my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce anything, among all the works of nature, was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning; formerly nothing had been so terrible to me. Before, I used to be uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I saw a thunder-storm rising ; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God, if I may so speak, at the first appearance of a thunder-storm; and used to take the opportunity, at such times, to fix myself in order to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder. 10. Minor writers. Such was the literature of our colonial days. Few names can be mentioned, but there were scores of minor writers. There was Roger Wil- liams, that lover of peace and arouser of contention ; John Eliot, one of the three manufacturers of the Bay Psalm Book, whose Indian Bible is a part of literature, if not of American literature. There was the witty grum- bler, Nathaniel Ward, the " Simple Cobler of Agawam;" William Byrd, who described so graphically the dangers 1765] THE COLONIAL PERIOD 283 and difficulties of running a surveyor's line across the Dismal Swamp. There was John Woolman, the Quaker, so tender of conscience that he believed it wasteful and therefore wrong to injure the wearing qualities of cloth by coloring it ; and of such charming frankness that he confesses how uneasy he felt lest his fellow Friends should think he was "affecting singularity " in wearing a hat of the natural color of the fur. Some of the para- graphs of his journal might almost have come from the pen of Whittier, so full are they of the poet's sensitive- ness and shyness and his boldness in doing right. There were newspapers, the Boston Nezvs Letter the first of all. There were almanacs, the first appearing at Cambridge almost as soon as Harvard College was founded. The colonial days passed swiftly, and the time soon came when the country was aroused and thrilled by an event that changed the aim and purpose of all colonial writings. In 1765 the Stamp Act was passed ; and after that date, when men took their pens in hand, their com- positions did not belong to the Colonial Period ; for, consciously or unconsciously, they had entered into the second period of American literature, the literature of the Revolution. The Colonial Period 1607-1765 William Bradford The New Englaiid Primer John Winthrop Cotton Mather The Bay Psalm Book Samuel Sewall Michael Wigglesworth Jonathan Edwards Anne Bradstreet SUMMARY In the early part of the seventeenth century England was aglow with literary inspiration. American literature began in 284 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1607-1765 Massachusetts, in the histories written by Bradford and Win- throp. The Bay Psalm Book was the first book pubhshed in America. Much verse of good motive but small merit was written, the longest piece being Wigglesworth's Day of Doom. Anne Bradstreet wrote the best of the colonial verse. The only book for children was the New England Prhner. Cotton Mather was the last of the typical colonial ministers, Sewall's diary pictures colonial days. Edwards was the greatest preacher of the first half of the eighteenth century. He won world-wide fame as a metaphysician. Among the minor writers were Williams, Eliot, Ward, Byrd, and Woolman. The passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 marked the beginning of the second period of American literature, the literature of the Revolution. CHAPTER II THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 1765-1815 11. Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790. The Stamp Act was an electric shock to the colonists. They expected to be ruled for the benefit of the mother country, for that was the custom of the age ; but this Act they be- lieved to be illegal, and it aroused all their Anglo-Saxon wrath at injustice. There was small inclination now to write religious poems or histories of early days. Every one was talking about the present crisis. As time passed, orations and political writings flourished ; and satires and wzr songs had their place, followed by lengthy poems on the assured greatness and glory of America. At the first threat of a Stamp Act, Pennsylvania had sent one of her colonists to' England to prevent its pas- sage if possible. This emissary was Benjamin Franklin, a Boston boy who had run away to Philadelphia. There he had become printer and publisher, and was widely known as a shrewd, successful business man, full of pub- lic spirit. He spent in all nearjy eighteen years in Eng- land as agent of Pennsylvania and other colonies. On one of his visits home he signed the Declaration of Independ- ence. Almost immediately he was sent to France to secure French aid in our Revolutionary struggles. Then he returned to America, and spent the five years of life that remained to him in serving his country and the people about him in every way in his power. 286 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [i 706-1 790 Such a record as this is almost enough for one man's life, but it was only a part of Franklin s work. He spe- His versa- cialized in everything. His studies of electri- tiuty. city gained him honors from France and Eng- land. Harvard, Yale, Edinburgh, and Oxford gave him [790 honorary degrees. He invented, among other things, the lightning-rod and the Franklin stove. He founded the Philadelphia Library, the University of Pennsylvania, and the American Philosophical Society. He it was I732-I757] THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 287 who first suggested a union of colonies, and he was our first postmaster-general. Kis motto seems to have been, " I will do everything I can, and as well as I can." When he was a boy in Boston, he wrote a ballad about a recent shipwreck, which sold in large numbers. "Verse- makers are usually beggars," declared his father ; and the young poet wrote no more ballads, for he intended to " get on " in life. A little later, he came across an odd volume of TJie Spectator, and was delighted with its clear, agreeable style. " I will imitate that," he said to himself ; so he took notes of some of the papers, his literary rewrote the essays from these, and then com- ^™s- pared his work with his model. After much of this prac- tice, he concluded that he " might in time come to be a tolerable English writer." The hardworking young printer had but a modest lit- erary ambition, but it met with generous fulfilment ; for if he had done nothing else, he would have won fame by his writings. These consist in great part of essays on historical, political, commercial, scientific, religious, and moral subjects. He had studied The Spectator to good purpose, for he rarely wrote a sentence that was not strong and vigorous, and, above all, clear. Whoever reads a paragraph of Franklin's writing knows exactly what the author meant to say. His first liter- Poor Rich- ary glory came from neither poem nor essay, nac^i?^^- but from Poor Richai'd's Almanac, a pamphlet 1757. which he published every autumn for twenty-five years. It was full of shrewd, practical advice on becoming well-to- do and resjDected and getting as much as possible out of life. The special charm of the book was that this advice was put in the form of proverbs or pithy rhymes, every one with a snap as well as a moral. "Be slow in choos- ing a friend, slower in changing." " Honesty is the best 288 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1725-1799 policy." " Great talkers are little doers." " Better slip with foot than tongue." " Doors and walls are fools' . , ^. paper." Such was the tone of the famous lit- Autobio- ' i graphy, De- tie Alviauac. Another of his writings, and one gun 1771. ^1^^^ jg ^£ interest to-day, is his Autobiography, which he wrote when he was sixty-iive years of age. In it nothing is kept back; He tells us of his first arrival in Philadelphia, when he walked up Market Street, eat- ing a great roll and carrying another under each arm ; of his scheme for attaining moral perfection by cultivating one additional virtue each week, and of his surprise at find- ing himself more faulty than he had supposed ! The self- revelation of the author is so honest and frank that the book could hardly help being charming, even if it had been written about an uninteresting person; but written, as it was, about a man so learned, so practical, so shrewd, so full of kindly humor as Benjamin Franklin, it is one of the most fascinating books of the century. 12. Revolutionary oratory. Franklin's Autobiogra- phy was never finished, perhaps because the Revolution was at hand and there was little time for reminiscences. The minds of men were full of the struggles of the pre- sent and the hopes of the future. Most of the oratory James Otis, of the time is lost. We can only imagine it 1725-1783. from the chance words of appreciation of those who Hstened to it. There was Otis, whom John Adams called " a flame of fire." There was Richard Henry „, ^ ^ Lee, the quiet thinker who blazed into the elo- Rlcnara ^ Henry Lee, quencc of earnestness and sincerity, the man 1732-1794. ^^^^ dared to move in Congress, "that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free Patrick '^^^ independent states." There was Patrick Henry, Henry, that other Virginian, who began to speak 1736-1799. ^^ shyly and stumblingly that a listener fancied 1736-1799] THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 289 him to be some country minister a little taken aback at addressing such an assembly. But soon that assembly PATRICK HENRY MAKING HIS TARQUIN AND C^SAR SPEECH was thrilled with his ringing " I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death ! " 13. Political writings. Those writers who favored peace and submission to England are no longer remem- 290 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1732-1826 bered ; those who urged resistance even unto war will, in the success of that war, never be forgotten. Prominent Thomas among them was Thomas Paine, an English- Paine, man whom the wise Benjamin Franklin met in 1.737-1809 England and induced to go to America in 1774. Two years later he published the most famous of his writings. Common Sense. This pamphlet told why its author believed in a separation from the mother country. Its clear and logical arguments were a power in bringing on the war. And when the war had come, his Crisis gave renewed courage to many a disheartened Jefferson, patriot. Thomas Jefferson was the author not ^ ^'^^ ' only of the Declaration of Independence, but of many strong pamphlets that aroused men's souls to the inevitable bloodshed. It was he who, only a few days after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, suggested the motto for the seal of the United States^ E pliiribus iinmn; and it is hard to see how a better one could have been found. George Washington would have George smiled gravely to see himself written down as ton^ma- °"^ °^ ^^^ lights of literature ; but his Farewell 1799. Address, his letters, and his journals are not without literary value in their clearness and strength and dignity, in their noble expression of ennobling thoughts. At the close of the Revolution, the question of the hour was how the Republic should be organized and gov- -^ „ , erned. A number of political pamphlets had TheFeder- ^ r i aiist, been written during the war; and now such 1788-1789. .^vj-itings became the main weapons of those into whose hands the formation of the Constitution had Alexander fallen. The bcst-know^n of these papers were Hamilton, written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. They were collected and pub- 1745-1836] THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 291 lished as The Federalist in 1 788-1 789, the time when the country was hesitating to adopt the Constitu- johnjay, tion. Here is an example of the straightfor- 1745-1829. ward, dignified, self-respecting manner in which Madison, they laid before the young nation the advan- I75i-i838. tages of the proposed method of electing a President: — The process of the election affords a moral certainty that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. MADISON JAY HAMILTON 1751-1S36 i745->S29 1757-1804 THE AUTHORS OF THE FEDERALIST Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State ; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to estab- lish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it, as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States. It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre- eminent for ability and virtue. 14. The " Hartford Wits." The poets of Revolution- ary times chose the same subject as the prose writers. The poem might be a ballad on some recent event of the war, 292 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1752-1817 a satire, or a golden vision of the greatness which, in the imagination of the poet, his country had already attained ; but in one form or another the theme was ever "Our Country." A piece of literary work that falls in with the spirit of the times wins a contemporary fame whose reflection often remains much longer than the quality of the work would warrant. Among the writers of such poetry were the "Hartford Wits," as they were called, a group of Connecticut authors whose principal members were Timothy Dwight, John Trumbull, and Joel Barlow. Timothy Dwight was a grandson — and a worthy one — of Jonathan Edwards. In 1777 he was studying law, Timoth ^"^ ^^^ patriotism, and perhaps his inherited Dwight, tastes, turned him into a minister ; for the ''^ " ' * army needed chaplains. He was licensed to preach, and joined the Connecticut troops. Then it was Columbia ^^^^ ^^ wrote his Columbia, a patriotic song 1777. which predicted in bold, swinging metre a mag- nificent future for the United States. He says : — As the day-spring unbounded, thy splendor shall flow, And earth's little kingdoms before thee shall bow : While the ensigns of union, in triumph unfurled, Hush the tumult of war and give peace to the world. He wrote an epic, called The Conquest of Canaa^i, The Con- which is long, dull, and forgotten. He left quest 0! many volumes and much manuscript ; but the 1785. ' one piece of his work that has any real share in the life of to-day is his hymns, particularly his version of Psalm cxxxvii, beginning : — I love thy kingdom, Lord, The house of thine abode. John Trumbull's merry, good-natured face does not seem at all the proper physiognomy for a man who be- 1750-1S31] THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 293 gan life as an infant prodigy and ended it as a judge of the superior court. When he was five years old, j^^^ he listened to his father's lessons to a young Trumbuu, man who was preparing for college, and then said to his mother, " I 'm going to study Latin, too." The result was that when he was seven, he passed his entrance examinations for Yale, sitting upon a man's knee, so the tradition says, because he was too little to reach the table. He was taken home, however, MTingoi, and did not enter college until he was thirteen. 1775. He wrote the best satire of the Revolutionary days, M'Fingal. His hero is a Tory. From Boston in his best array- Great Squire M'Fingal took his way. The poem is a frank imitation of Hudibras, and, either luckily or unluckily for Trumbull's fame, some of his couplets are so good that they are often attributed to Butler. Among them are : — No man e'er felt the halter draw With good opinion of the law. But optics sharp it needs, I ween, To see what is not to be seen. The third of this group was Joel Barlow. In 1778 he graduated from Yale. His part in the joei Bar- Commencement programme was a poem, TJic o^i'teb^ Prospect of Peace. He was well qualified to I812. write on such a subject, for he had had a fashion of slipping away to the army when his vacations came around, and doing a little fighting. Two years later, he followed the example of his friend Dwight, and became an army chaplain. After the war was over, he produced 294 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1787-1832 a poem, The Vision of Cobunbiis, afterwards expanded The vision ^^^^ ^^ ^pic, The Columbiad. People were oicoium- so carried away with its patriotism and its The coium- sonorous phrases that they forgot to be critical, biad, 1807. ^nd the poem made its author famous. He is remembered now, however, by a merry little rhyme which he wrote on being served with hasty pudding in t Savoy. He takes for the motto of his poem the Pudding, dignified Latin sentiment, " Omne tulit punc- ^^*^" tum qui miscuit utile dulci," and translates it delightfully, "He makes a good breakfast who mixes pud- ding with molasses." He thus apostrophizes the deli- cacy : — Dear Hasty Pudding, what unpromised joy Expands my heart, to meet thee in Savoy ! Doom'd o'er the world through devious paths to roam, Each clime my country and each house my home, My soul is soothed, my cares have found an end, I greet my long-lost, unforgotten friend. Poor Barlow ! aspiring to a national epic and remem. bered by nothing but a rhyme on hasty pudding ! 15. Philip Freneau, 1752-1832. In the midst of these writers of unwieldy and long-forgotten epics was one man in whom there abode a real poetic talent, Philip Freneau, born in New York. His early poems were satires and songs, often of small literary merit, indeed, but with a ring and a swing that made them almost sing themselves. The boys in the streets, as well as the sol- diers in the camps, must have enjoyed shouting : — When a certain great king, whose initial is G, Forces Stamps upon paper, and folks to drink Tea; When these folks burn his tea and stampt paper, like stubble — - You may guess that this king is then coming to trouble. When the war was over, verse that was neither epic. 1786] THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 295 war song, nor satire had a chance to win appreciation. Freneau then published, in 1786, a volume of poems, poems. In some of them there is a sincere 1786. poetic tenderness and delicacy of touch ; for instance, in his memorial to the soldiers who fell at Eutaw Springs, he says : — Stranger, their humble graves adorn ; You too may fall, and ask a tear ; 'T is not the beauty of the morn That proves the evening shall be clear. The lyric music rings even more melodiously in his IVtVd Honeysuckle, which ends : — From morning suns and evening dews At first thy little being came ; If nothing once, you nothing lose. For when you die you are the same ; The space between is but an hour, The frail duration of a flower. This year 1786 was the one in which Burns published his first volume, and the year in which he wrote of his "Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower." Freneau was as free as Burns from the influence of Pope and his heroic couplet which had so dominated the poets of England for the greater part of the eighteenth century. He was no imitator ; and he had another of the distinc- tive marks of a true poet, — he could find the poetic where others found nothing but the prosaic. Before his time, the American Indian, for instance, had hardly ap- peared in literature ; Freneau was the first to see that there was something poetic in the pathos of a vanishing race. In all the rhyming of the two centuries immedi- ately preceding 1800, there is nothing that gave such hope for the future of American poetry as some of the poems of Philip Freneau. 296 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1771-1810 16. Charles Brockden Brown, 1771-1810. There was hope, too, for American prose, and in a new line, that of fiction ; for the Philadelphia writer, Charles Brockden wieiand, Brown, published in 1798 a novel entitled IVte- ^^^*' /an(/. It is full of mysterious voices, murders, and threatened murders, whose cause and explanation prove to be the power of a ventriloquist. The book was called " thrilling and exciting in the highest degree ; " but the twentieth-century reader cannot help wonder- ing why the afflicted family did not investigate matters and why the tormented heroine did not get a watch-dog. Then, too, comes the thought of what the genius of Poe could have done with such material. Nevertheless, there is undeniable talent in the book, and unmistakable pro- mise for the future. Some of the scenes, especially the last meeting between the heroine and her half-maniac brother, are powerfully drawn. Brown published several Arthur Other novels, one of which, Arthur Mci^vyn^ Mervyn, is valued for its vivid descriptions of a visita- tion of the yellow fever to Philadelphia. Like Freneau, Brown saw in the Indian good material for literature ; but to him the red man was neither pathetic nor romantic, — he was simply a terrible danger of the western wilderness. During the fifty years of the Revolutionary period, the literary spirit had first manifested itself in the prac- tical, utilitarian prose of Franklin and the writers of The Federalist and other political pamphlets ; then in the patriotic satires and epics of the Hartford Wits. Finally, in the work of both Freneau and Brown there was manifest a looking forward to literature for litera- ture's sake, to a poetry that dreamed of the beautiful, to a prose that reached out toward the imaginative and the creative. 1765-1815] THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 297 The Revolutionary Period 1765-1815 Benjamin Franklin Timothy Dwight Thomas Paine John Trumbull Thomas Jefferson Joel Barlow George Washington Phihp Freneau The Federalist Charles Brockden Brown SUMMARY The passage of the Stamp Act turned the literary activity of the colonists from history and religious poetry toward or- atory, political writings, satire, war songs, and patriotic poems. Franklin was the most versatile man of his times. His work in politics, science, and literature deserved the honor which it received. His most popular publication was Poor Richard' s Almanac. His work of most interest to-day is his Autobio- graphy. The leading orators were Otis, Lee, and Henry. Some of the political writers were Paine, Jefferson, and Wash- ington. The Federalist coxii^S.^?, many political essays by Ham- ilton, Jay, and Madison. Among the " Hartford Wits " were Dwight, the author of The Conquest of Canaan, but best known by his hymns; Trumbull, whose Af'Tinga/ was the best satire of the Revolution ; and Barlow, who wrote an epic. The Co- lumbiad, but is best known by his rhyme, The Hasty Pud- ding. Freneau wrote poems that rank him above all other poets of the period. Brown's Wiela?id was the forerunner of the nineteenth-century novel. CHAPTER III THE NATIONAL PERIOD, 1816 — I. EARLIER YEARS, 1815-1865 A. THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 17. National progress. The last fifteen years of the Revolutionary period, from 1800 to 181 5, were marked by great events in America. New States were admitted to the Union ; the Louisiana Purchase made the United States twice as large as before ; the expedition of Lewis and Clark revealed the wonders and possibilities of the West ; Fulton's invention of the steamboat brought the different parts of the country nearer together ; the successes of the War of 18 12, particularly the naval victories, increased the republic's self-respect and sense of independence. This feeling was no whit lessened by the conquest of the Barbary pirates, to whom for three hundred years other Christian nations had been forced to pay tribute. Just as the great events of the sixteenth century aroused and inspired the Elizabethans, so the growth of the country, the victories, discoveries, and inventions of the first years of the nineteenth century aroused and inspired the Americans. There was rapid progress in all directions, and no slender part in this progress fell to the share of literature. 18. The Knickerbocker School. During the Revo- lutionary period the literary centre had gradually moved from Massachusetts to Philadelphia. When the nine- teenth century began, a boy of seventeen was just leaving school whose talents were to do much to make New York, his birthplace and home, a literary centre. More- 1783-1859] THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 299 over, the name of one of his characters, Diedrich Knick- erbocker, has become a Hterary term ; for just as three English authors have been classed together as the Lake Poets because they chanced to live in the Lake Country, WASHINGTON IRVING 1783-1859 SO the term Knickerbocker School has been found con- venient to apply to Irving, Cooper, Bryant, and the lesser writers who were at that time more or less connected with New York. 19. Washington Irving, 1783-1859. This boy of sev- enteen was Washington Irving. He first distinguished himself by roaming about in the city and neighboring villages, while the town crier rang his bell and cried in- 300 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1807-1809 dustriously, " Child lost ! Child lost ! " After leaving school, he studied law; but he must have rejoiced when his family decided that the best way to improve his somewhat feeble health was to send him to Europe, far more of a journey in 1800 than a trip around the world in 1900. He wandered through France, Italy, and Eng- land, and enjoyed himself everywhere. When he re- turned to New York, nearly two years later, he was ad- mitted to the bar ; but he spent all his leisure hours on literature. TJie Spectator had the same attraction for him that it had had for Franklin. When he was nine- teen, he had written a few essays in a somewhat similar Saima- Style ; and now he set to work with his brother gundi, William and a friend, James K. Paulding, to publish a Spectator of their own. They named it Salmagundi, and in the first number they calmly announced : — Our purpose is simply to instruct the young, reform the old, correct the town, and castigate the age ; this is an arduous task, and therefore we undertake it with confidence. The twenty numbers of this paper that appeared were bright, merry, and good-natured. Their wit had no sting, and they became popular in New York. The law practice must have suffered some neglect, for Ir- ving had another plan in his mind. One day a notice appeared in the Evening Post under the head of " Dis- tressing." It spoke of the disappearance of one Die- drich Knickerbocker. Other notices followed. One said, " A very curious kind of a written book has been found Knickw- ^ri his room in his own handwriting." The way booker's was thus prepared, and soon Knickerbocker s History ol ^,. ^,rTrr 1 , t New York, History of New York was on the market. It was ^®°^ the most fascinating mingling of fun and sober history that can be conceived of, and was mischievously 1S19-1820] THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 301 dedicated to the New York Historical Society. Every- body read it, and everybody laughed. Even the some- what aggrieved descendants of the Dutch colonists managed to smile politely. Knickerbocker s History brought its author three thou- sand dollars. His talent was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic, but for ten years he wrote nothing more. Finally he went to England in behalf of the business in which he and his brother had engaged. The business was a failure, but still he lingered in London. A government position in Washington was offered him, but he refused it. Then his friends lost all patience. He had but slender means, he was thirty-five years old, and if he was ever to do any literary work, it was time that he made a beginning. Irving felt " cast down, blighted, and broken-spirited," as he said ; but he roused himself to work, and soon he began to send manuscript to a New York publisher, to be brought out in numbers under the signature " Geoffrey Crayon." His friends no longer wished that he had taken the government position, for this work, the Sketch Book, was a glowing sue- ,pjjg gj^etcii cess. Everybody liked it, and with good reason. Book, c lu Ji4-uiir 1819-1820. for among the essays and sketches, all of rare merit, were Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Praises were showered upon the author until he felt, as he wrote to a friend, " almost appalled by such success." Walter Scott, " that golden-hearted man," as Irving called him, brought about the publication of the book in England by Murray's famous publishing house. Its success there was as marked as in America, for at last a book had come from the New World that no one could refuse to accept as literature. The Amer- icans had not forgotten the sneer of the English critic, *' Who reads an American book } " and they gloried in 302 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1822-1859 their countryman's glory. The sale was so great that the publisher honorably presented the author with more than a thousand dollars beyond the amount that had been agreed upon. An enthusiastic welcome awaited Irving whenever he chose to cross the Atlantic, but he still lin- Brace- ' bridgeHaii, gered in Europe. In the next few years he Tafesofa published Bracebridge Hall and Tales of a Traveller, Traveller. The latter was not very warmly received, for the public were clamoring for something new. Just as serenely as Scott had turned Life of Co- to fiction when people were tired of his poetry, iMsl^^he ^° Irving turned to history and biography. He Conquest of spent three years in Spain, and the result of 1829. The those years was his Life of Colnvibus, The Con- Compan- qiicst of Granada, The Coinpaiiioiis of Colnin- lons ol ^ -^ -' ^ Columbus, bus, and, last and most charming of all, The A I ham bra. 1831. The Alhamhra, 1832. Irving had now not only fame but an assured income. He returned to America, and there he found himself the man whom his country most delighted to honor. Once more he left her shores, to become min- ister to Spain for four years ; but, save for that absence, he spent the last twenty-seven years of his life in his charming cottage, Sunnyside, on the Hudson near Tar- rytown. He was not idle by any means. Among his Life of later works are his Life of Goldsmith and Life Goldsmith, 0f Washino-ton. In these biographies he had 1849. -^ ^ . Life Of two aims : to write truly and to write interest- to"i8M- ^^^S^y- -^'s style is always clear, marked by 1859. exquisite gleams of humor, and so polished that a word can rarely be changed without spoiling the sen- tence. To this charm of style he adds in the case of his Life of Goldsmith such an atmosphere of friendliness, of 1789-1851] THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 303 comradeship, of perfect sympathy, that one has to recall dates in order to realize that the two men were not com- panions. No man's last years were ever more full of honors than Irving's. The whole country loved him. As Thackeray said, his gate was " forever swinging be- fore visitors who came to him." Every one was wel- comed, and every one carried away kindly thoughts of the magician of the Hudson. 20. James Fenimore Cooper, 1789-1851. About the time that the New York town crier was finding Irving's wanderings a source of income, a year-old baby, named James Fenimore Cooper, was taking a much longer journey. He travelled from his birthplace in Burlington, New Jersey, to what is now Cooperstown, New York, where his father owned several thousand acres of land and proposed to establish a village. The village was established, a handsome residence was built, and there, in the very heart of the wilderness, the boy 304 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1789-1851 spent his early years. He was used to the free life of the forest ; and it is small wonder that after he entered Yale, he found it rather difficult to obey orders and was sent home in disgrace. His next step was to spend four years at sea. Then he married, left the navy, and became a country gentle- man, with no more thought of writing novels than many JAMES FENIMORE COOPER 1789-1851 Other country gentlemen. One day, after reading a story of English life, he exclaimed, " I believe I could write a better book myself." " Try it, then," retorted his wife playfully ; and he tried it. The result was Precaution. 1820-1839] THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 305 Unless the English novel was very poor, this book can hardly have been much of an improvement, for procauUon, it is decidedly dull. Another fault is its lack ^^^o. of truth to life, for Cooper laid his scene in England in the midst of society that he knew nothing about. The book was anonymous. It was reprinted in England and was thought by some critics to be the work of an English writer. Americans of that day were so used to looking across the ocean for their literature that this mistake gave Cooper courage. Moreover, his friends stood by him generously. " Write another," they said, "and lay the scene in America." Cooper took up his pen again. The Spy vj3.s the result. Irving's The spy, Sketch Book had come out only a year or two ■'•®2^- earlier, and now American critics were indeed jubilant. A novel whose scene was laid in America and during the American Revolution had been written by an ^jj^pj^. American and was a success in England. The neers, The bolder spirits began to whisper that American ^"°*' "^3. J/iterature had really begun. Two years later, Cooper J»ublished The Pioneers, whose scene is laid in the for- est, and also The Pilot, a sea tale. There was little waiting for recognition. On both sides of the ocean his fame increased. He kept on writ- ing, and his eager audience kept on reading and begged for more. His books were translated into French, Ger- man, Norwegian, even into Arabic and Persian. Among them was his History of the United States Navy, History oi which is still an authority. Some of his books sute""** were very go«od, others were exceedingly poor. Kavy.isas. The Leathcrstocking Tales are his best work. The best character is Natty Bumppo, or Leathcrstocking, the hunter and scout, whose achievements are traced through the five volumes of the series. 306 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1789-1851 Cooper spent several years abroad. When he re- turned, he found that the good folk of Cooperstown had Cooper and '^^S been using a piece of his land as a pleasure the courts ground. Cooper called them trespassers, and the courts agreed with him. The matter would have ended there had it not been a bad habit of Cooper's to criticise things and people as boldly as if he were the one person whose actions were above criticism. Of course he had not spared the newspapers, and now they did not spare him. He sued them for libel again and again. In one suit of this kind, the court had to hear his two-volume novel. Home as Found, read aloud in order to decide whether the criticisms in question were libellous or not. He often won his suits, but he lost far more than he gained ; for, while Irving was loved by the whole country, Cooper made new enemies every day. Before his death he pledged his family to give no sight of his papers and no details of his home life to any future biographer who might ask for them. This is unfortunate, for Cooper was a man who always turned his rough side to the world ; but at least we can fall back upon the knowledge that the people who knew him best loved him most. Cooper's success was so immediate that he hardly realized the need of any thought or special preparation for a book ; therefore he wrote carelessly, often Cooper's ' . . ■> carelessness with most shiftless inattention to styfe or plot In writing. ^^ consistency. Mark Twain is scarcely more than just when he declares that the rules governing lit- erary art require that " when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the i794-i8o8] THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 307 Deerslayer\.2\.Q,!' On the other hand, something must be pardoned to rapid composition, to the wish for an effect rather than accuracy of detail ; and it is at best a most ungrateful task to pour out harsh criticism upon the man who has given us so many hours of downright pleasure, who has added to our literature two or three original characters, and who has brought into our libra- ries the salt breeze of the ocean and the rustling of the leaves of the forest. 21. William Cullen Bryant, 1794-1878. America had now produced a writer of exquisite prose and a nov- elist of recognized ability, but had she a poet .'' The answer to this question lay in the portfolio of a young man of hardly eighteen years, who was named William Cullen Bryant. He was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, the son of a country doctor. He was brought up almost as strictly as if he had been born in Plymouth a century and a half earlier. Still, there was much to enjoy in the quiet village life. There were occasional huskings, barn-raisings, and maple-sugar parties ; there were the woods and the fields and the brooks and the flowers. There were books, and there was a father who loved them. There was little money to spare in the simple country home, but good books had a habit of finding their way thither, and the boy was encouraged to read poetry and to write it. Some of this encourage- Embargo, ment was perhaps hardly wise ; for when he pro- °^' duced a satirical poem, TJic Embargo, the father straight- way had it put into print. When Bryant was sixteen, he entered Williams Col- lege as a sophomore. His reputation went before him, and it was whispered among the boys, " He has written poetry and some of it has been printed." His college 308 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1811-1818 course was short, for the money gave out. The boy was much disappointed, but he went home quietly and began to study law. He did not forget poetry, however, and Thanatop- ^^^" ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ Thanatopsis, the poem in the sis written, portfolio, was written. Six years later, Dr. 1811 ; pub- iished, Bryant came upon it by accident and recognized '^^^'^- its greatness at a glance. Without a word to his son, the proud father set out for Boston and left the manuscript at the rooms of the North American Revieiv, which had recently been established. Tradi- tion says that the editor who read it dropped the work in hand and hurried away to Cambridge to show his colleagues what a "find" he had made; and that one of them, Richard Henry Dana, declared there was some fraud in the matter, for no one in America could write such verse. The least appreciative reader of the poem could hardly help feeling the solemn majesty, the organ- tone rhythm, the wide sweep of noble thought. Thana- topsis is a masterpiece. It went the country over ; and wherever it went, even in its earlier and less perfect form, it was welcomed as America's first great poem. Meanwhile, its author was practising as a lawyer in a little Massachusetts village. He was working conscien- tiously at his profession ; but fortunately he was not so fully employed as to have no spare hours for poetry, and it was about this time that he wrote his beautiful lines, To a Water- To a Watevfozvl. This poem came straight lowi, 1818 fj-Q^-, |-,jg Q^j-j i-ieart, for he was troubled about his future, and, as he said, felt "very forlorn and deso- late." The last stanza, — He who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone. Will lead my steps aright,— 1821-1878] THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 309 gave to him the comfort that it has given to many others, and he went on bravely, Dana soon brought it about that Bryant should be in- vited to read the annual poem before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard. The poem which he pre- The Ages, sented was The Ages. This, together with "21. Thaiiatopsis, To a Waterfowl, and four other poems, was published in a slender little volume, in 1821. Bryant was recognized as the first poet in the land, but even poets must buy bread and butter. Thus far, his poems had brought him a vast amount of praise and about two dollars apiece, and his law business had never given him a sufficient income. In 1825 he decided to accept a literary position that was offered him in New York. He soon became editor of The Evening Post, and this position he held for nearly fifty years. As an editor, he was absolutely independent, but always dignified and calm ; and he held his paper to a high literary standard. It was during those years that he wrote The Fringed Gentimi, The Antiquity of Fi'eedom, The Flood of Years , and other poems that our literature could ill afford to lose. He said that he had little choice among his poems. Irving liked The Rivtdet ; Halleck, The Apple Tree ; Dana, The Past. Bryant also translated the Iliad and the Odyssey. His life extended long after the lives of Irving and of Cooper had closed. Other poets had arisen in the land. They wrote on many themes ; he wrote on few save death and nature. Their verses were often more warm-hearted, more passionate than Bryant's, and often they were easier reading ; but Bryant never lost the place of honor and dignity that he had so fairly earned. He is the Father of American Poetry ; and it is well for American poetry that it can look back to the calmness and strength and poise of such a founder. Lowell says : — 310 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1790-1820 He is almost the one of your poets that knows How much grace, strength, and dignity lie in Repose. 22. The minor Knickerbocker poets. Among the crowd of minor poets of the Knickerbocker School were Fitz-Greene Halleck, Drake, and WilHs. Fitz-Greene Hal- Haiieok, leck was a Connecticut boy who went to New York when he was twenty-one years old. He found work in the counting-room of John Jacob Astor. He also found a poet friend in a young man named josephRod- Joseph Rodman Drake. Together they wrote f^,^\^aon The Croakers, satirical poems on the New York The Croak- of the day. These are rather bright and witty, ers, 1819. i^^^j. j^ jg \y2ccdi to realize that they won intense admiration. The story has been handed down that when the editor of the paper in which they appeared first met his unknown contributors, he exclaimed with enthusiasm, " I had no idea that we had such talent in America." It was from the friendship between Halleck and Drake that Drake's best known poem arose, TJie The Culprit Ciclprit Fay. If we may trust the tradition, Fay, 1816. the two pocts, together with Cooper, were one day talking of America. Halleck and Cooper declared that it was impossible to find the poetry in American rivers that had been found in Scottish streams, but Drake took the contrary side. " I will prove it," he said to himself ; and within the next three days he produced his Culprit Fay, as dainty a bit of slight, graceful, imagi- native verse as can be found. The scene is laid in Fairy- land, and Fairyland is somewhere among the Highlands of the Hudson. The fairy hero loves a beautiful mortal, and, as a punishment, is doomed to penances The Ameri- ^ can Flag, that give room for many poetic fancies and deli- "^®^®" cate pictures. Drake died only four years later. He left behind him at least one other poem, first published 1806-1867] THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 311 in The Croakers, that will hardly be forgotten, The Amer- ican Flag, with its noble beginning: — When Freedom from her mountain height Unfurled her standard to the air. Halleck sorrowed deeply for the death of his friend. He himself lived for nearly half a century longer and wrote many poems, but nothing else as good as his lov- ing tribute to Drake, which begins : — Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days ! None knew thee but to love thee, Nor named thee but to praise ! One other poem of Halleck's, Marco Bozzaris, has always been a favorite because of its vigor and spirit. Marco boz- Bryant said, " The reading of Marco Bozzaris ^^"^' ^^25. , . . stirs up my blood like the sound of martial music or the blast of a trumpet." Parts of it bring to mind the demand of King Olaf for a poem " with a sword in every line." Worn as these verses are by much de- claiming, there is still a good old martial ring in such lines as : — Strike — till the last armed foe expires ; Strike — for your altars and your fires ; Strike — for the green graves of your sires; God and your native land. At the end of this rousing war-cry are two lines that are as familiar as anything in the language : — One of the few, the immortal names That were not born to die. Another member of the Knickerbocker School was Nathaniel Parker Willis, a Maine boy who found Nathaniel his way to New York. He had hardly un- ^Jj*/ packed his trunk before it was decided that I8O6-1867. if he would go to Europe and send home a weekly 312 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1835-1867 letter for publication, it would be greatly to the ad- vantage of the journal with which he was connected. Europe was still so distant as to make letters Pencllllngs r ■, • ■ ^^ by the Way, of travel interesting. These sketches, after- 1835°"' wards published as Pencillings by the Way, America, were light and graceful, and they were copied by scores of papers. When Willis came home, five years later, he edited the Home yo7irnal, wrote pretty, imaginative sketches and many poems. There was nothing deep or thoughtful in them, rarely anything strong ; but they were easily and gracefully written and people liked to read them. A few of the poems, such as TJie Belfry Pigeon, Unseen Spirits, Saturday After- noon, and ParrJiasins, are still favorites. While in college, Willis wrote a number of sacred poems. Lowell wickedly said of them, " Nobody likes Sacred inspiration and water." But Lowell was wrong, poems. for they found a large audience, and their author tasted all the sweets of popularity. He was not spoiled, however, and he was, as Halleck said, " one of the kindest of men." His own path to literary success had been smooth, but he was always ready to sympathize with the struggles of others and to aid them by every means in his power. He died in 1867 ; but many years before his death it was evident that the literary leader- ship had again fallen into the hands of New England. A. The Knickerbocker School Washington Irving Fitz-Greene Halleck James Fenimore Cooper Joseph Rodman Drake William Cullen Bryant Nathaniel Parker Willis SUMMARY The progress of the country during the early years of the century inspired progress in literature. The literary centre 1815-1865] THE KNICKERBOCKER SCHOOL 313 had moved from Massachusetts to Philadelphia, but now New York began to hold the place of honor. The authors be- longing to the Knickerbocker School are Irving, Cooper, and Bryant, with the minor poets, Halleck, Drake, and Willis. Knickerbocker' s History of New York made Irving somewhat known on both sides of the ocean, but his Sketch Book was the first American book to win a European reputation. He afterwards wrote much history and biography. Cooper at- tempted first an English novel, then wrote The Spy\ which made him famous in both England and America. He wrote many other tales of the forest and the ocean. He was pop- ular as a novelist, but unpopular as a man. The third great writer of the Knickerbocker School was Bryant. He wrote his masterpiece, Thatiatopsis, before he was eighteen. His early poems were highly praised, but brought him little money. He was editor of The Evening Post for nearly fifty years, wrote many poems, and translated the I/iad and the Odyssey. He was the Father of American Poetry. Among the minor Knickerbocker Poets were Halleck, Drake, and Willis. Long before the death of Willis, it was evident that the literary centre was again to be found in New England. - CHAPTER IV THE NATIONAL PERIOD, 1815 — I. EARLIER YEARS, 1815-1865 B. THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS 23. The Transcendentalists. Before the year 1840 had arrived, a remarkable group of writers of New Eng- land ancestry and birth had begun their work. They were fortunate in more than one way. They had the in- spiration of knowing that good literature had already been written in America ; and they had the stimulus arising from a movement, or manner of thought, known as transcendentalism. This movement began in Gen many, was felt first in England and then in America, in- troduced by the works of Caiiyle and Coleridge. Three of its " notes " were: (i) There are ideas in the human mind that were "born there" and were not acquired by experience ; (2) Thought is the only reality ; (3) Every one must do his own thinking. The Transcen- dental Club was formed, and the new movement had its literary organ, TJie Dial, whose first editor was the bril- liant Margaret Fuller. It had also its representatives in the pulpit, for the persuasive charm of William El- lery Channing and the impassioned eloquence of Theo- dore Parker were employed to proclaim the new gospel. Another advocate was Amos Bronson Alcott, gentle, visionary, and immovable, who is so well pictured in the opening chapters of his daughter's Little Women. The first thrill of all new movements leads to extremes, and transcendentalism was no exception. Freedom ! Re- I799-I90I] THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS 315 form ! was the war-cry ; and to those who were inclined to act first and think afterwards, the new im- influence pulse was merely an incitement to tear down the scenden- fences. There were wild projects and fantastic taiism. schemes innumerable. A sense of humor would have guided and controlled much of this unbalanced enthusi- asm ; but it is only great men like Lincoln who can see any fellowship between humor and earnestness. The very people who were to profit by this movement were CHANNING PARKER I7S0-1842 1S1O-1S60 THREE TRANSCENDENTALISTS the loudest laughers at these dreamers who gazed in rapture upon the planets and sometimes stubbed their toes against the pebbles. Nevertheless, the ripened fruits of transcendentalism were in their degree like those of the Renaissance ; it widened the horizon and it inspired men with courage to think for themselves and to live their own lives. This atmosphere of freedom had a noble effect upon literature. Two of the authors of the New England group, the poet-philosopher Emerson and the poet-naturalist Thoreau, were so imbued with its spirit that in literary classifications they are usually ranked as 3l6 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1803-1882 the transcendentalists ; and Hawthorne is often classed with them, partly by virtue of a few months' connection with a transcendental scheme, and even more because in his romances the thought and the spirit are so much more real than the deeds by which they are manifested and symbolized. 24. Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882. The poet- philosopher was one of five boys who lived with their widowed mother in Boston. They were poor, for clergy- men do not amass fortunes, and their father had been no exception to the rule. The famous First Church, however, of which he had been in charge, did not forget the family of their beloved minister. Now and then other kind friends gave a bit of help. Once a cow was lent them, and every morning the boys drove her down Beacon Hill to pasture. In spite of their poverty it never entered the mind of any member of the family that the children could grow up without an education. Four of the boys graduated at Harvard. The oldest son, who was then a sedate gentleman of twenty, opened a school for young ladies ; and his brother Ralph, two years younger, became his assistant. The evenings were free, and the young man of eighteen was even then jot- ting down the thoughts that he was to use many years later in his essay, Cotnpensation. He was a descendant Enters the of eight generations of ministers, and there ministry. seems to have been in his mind hardly a thought of entering any other profession than the min- istry. A minister he became ; but a few years later he told his congregation frankly that his belief differed on one or two points from theirs and it seemed to him best to resign. They urged him to remain with them, but he did not think it wise to do so. A year later he went to Europe for his health. He l837] THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS 317 wanted to see three or four men rather than places, he said. He met Coleridge and Wordsworth ; and Friendship then he sought out tlie lonely little farm of "with Craigenputtock, the home of Carlyle. His coming was " like the visit of an angel," said the Scotch philosopher to Longfellow. The two men became friends, and the friendship lasted as long as their lives. When Emerson came back to America, he made his home in Concord, Massachusetts, but for a long while he was almost as much at home on railroad trains and in stages. Those were the times when people were eager to hear from the lecture platform what the best thinkers of the day could tell them. In 1837 Emerson delivered at Harvard his Phi Beta Kappa address entitled TheAmeri- Tlie American Scholar ; and then for the first gg^oiar time the American people were told seriously i837. and with dignity that they must no longer listen to "the courtly muses of Europe." "We will walk on our own feet ; we will work with our own hands ; we will speak our own minds," said Emerson. These last words were the keynote of his message to the world. Whoever listens may hear the voice of God, he declared ; and for that reason each person's individuality was sacred to him. Therefore it was that he met every man with a gently expectant deference that was far above the ordi- nary courtesy of society. A humble working woman once said that she did not understand his lectures, but she liked to go to them and see him look as if he thought everybody else just as good as he. On the lecture platform Emerson's manner was that of one who was trying to interpret what had been told to him, of one who was striving to put his thoughts into a language which had no words to express them fully. Some parts of Emerson's writings are simple enough 3l8 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1817-1862 for a little child to understand ; other parts perhaps no Literary °"^ ^"^ their author has full)' comprehended, style. It is not easy to make an outline of his essays. Every sentence, instead of opening the gate for the next, as in Macaulay's prose, seems to stand alone. Emerson said with truth, " I build my house of boulders." The connection is not in the words, but in a subtle under- current of thought. The best way to enjoy his writings is to turn the pages of some one of his simpler essays, How to Compensation, for instance, that he planned enioy when a young man of eighteen, and read what- Bmerson. ^^^^ strikes the eye. When one has read : " ' What will you have .-' ' quoth God ; ' pay for it and take it,'" — "The borrower runs in his own debt," — "The thief steals from himself," — "A great man is always willing to be little ; " — when one has read a few such sentences, he cannot help wishing to begin at the beginning to see how they come in. Then let him take from each essay that he reads the part that belongs to him, and leave the rest until its day and moment have fully come. Among Emerson's poems, EacJi and All, The Rho- dora, The Humble- Bee, The Snow- St ami. Forbearance, Emerson's Woodnotes, Fable (" The mountain and the squir- poems. rel "), Concord Hymn, and Boston Hymn are all easy and all well worth knowing by heart. He who has learned this handful of poems has met their author face to face, and can hardly fail to have gained a friendliness for him that will serve as his best interpreter. 25. Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862. In that same village of Concord was a young man named Thoreau who was a great puzzle to his neighbors. He had graduated at Harvard, but he did not become clergy- man, lawyer, or physician. He taught for a while, he 1817-1862] THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS 3^9 wrote and sometimes he lectured ; he read many books ; and he spent a great deal of time out of doors. His father was a maker of lead pencils, and the son also learned the trade. Before long he made them bet- ter than the father ; then he made them equal to the best that were im- ported. " There is a for- tune for you in those pen- cils," declared his friends ; but the young man made no more. "Why should I. -•" he queried. " I would not do again what I have done once." Thoreau loved his fam- ily, little children, and a few good friends ; but not a straw did he care about people in the mass. Em- erson said of him that his soul was made for the noblest society; but when he was about twenty-eight, he built himself a tiny cottage on the shore of Walden Pond, and there he lived for the greater part of waiden two years and a half. He kept a journal, and ^°^^' in this he noted when the first bluebird appeared, how the little twigs changed in color at the coming of the spring, and many other "common sights." He knew every nook and cranny of the rocks, every bend of the stream, every curve of the shore. The little wild crea- tures had no fear of him ; the red squirrels played a,;out his feet as he wrote ; the flowers seemed to hasten their blooming to meet the dates of his last year's diary. He HENRY DAVID THOREAU 1S17-1862 320 AMERICA'S LITERATURE ^1839 told Emerson that if he waked up from a trance in his favorite swamp, he could tell by the plants what time of year it was within two days. He could find his way through the woods at night by the feeling of the ground to his feet. He saw everything around him. " Where can arrowheads be found ? " he was asked. " Here," was his reply, as he stooped and picked one up. It is no wonder that he felt small patience with the blindness of other folk. " I have never yet met a man who was quite awake," he declared. He loved trees, and once, when the woodchoppers had done their worst, he exclaimed devoutly, " Thank God, they cannot cut down the clouds." He found so much to enjoy that he could not bear to give his time to any profession. To be free, to read, and to live with nature, — that was happiness. " A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone," declared this philosopher of the wilderness. The few things that he could not "let alone," he supplied easily by the work of his hands. Emerson said that he himself could split a shingle four ways with one nail ; but Thoreau could make a bookcase or a chest or a table or almost anything else. He knew more about gardening than any of the farmers around him. Six weeks of work as carpenter or surveyor sup- plied his needs for the rest of the year ; then he was free. In 1839 he made a boat, and in it he and his brother took a voyage on the Concord and Merrimac rivers. He was keeping a journal as usual, and he wrote in it an account of the trip. This, as published, is more tha.i a guide-book, for on one page is a disquisition on the habits of the pickerel ; on another a discourse on frierd'ihip or Chaucer or the ruins of Egypt, as it may l849] THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS 321 chance. Occasionally there is a poem, sometimes with such a fine bit of description as this, written of the effect of the clear light of sunset : — Mountains and trees Stand as they were on air graven. Of a churlish man whom he met in the mountains he wrote serenely, " I suffered him to pass for what he was, — for why should I quarrel with nature? — and was even pleased at the discovery of such a singular natural phenomenon." Thoreau is always interesting. What he says has ever the charm of the straightforward thought of a wise, honest, widely read, and keenly observant man ; but he is most delightful when his knowledge of nature and his tender, sympathetic humor are combined ; as, for instance, in his little talk about the shad, that, "armed only with innocence and a just cause," are ever finding a " corporation with its dam " blocking the way to their old haunts. " Keep a stiff fin," he says cheerily, " and stem all the tides thou mayst meet." These quotations are from A Week on the Coticotd and Merrimack Rivers, his journal of the little voyage with many later additions. He prepared it for the press, and offered it to publisher after pub- the concord lisher ; but no one was willing to run the finan- rima^k^" cial risk of putting it into print. At last he Rivers, pubhshed one thousand copies at his own ex- pense. Four years later, 706 unsold volumes were re- turned to him. He wrote in his journal, " I have now a library of nearly 900 volumes, over 700 of which I wrote myself." Then he calmly went to work at surveying to finish paying the printer's bills. Only one other volume of Thoreau's writings, Waiden^ 322 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1804-1864 was published during his life; but critics discovered, one waiden, ^Y °"^' ^^^^ ^^^ ^^"^^ reading, his minute know- 1854. ledge of nature, his warm sympathy with every Hving creature, and his ability to put his knowledge and his thoughts on paper, were a rare combination of gifts. THOREAU'S HOUSE AT WALDEN His thirty-nine volumes of manuscript journals were care- fully read, and they were finally published ; but not until Thoreau had been dead for many years. 26. Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864. The con- nection of Hawthorne with the transcendentalists came Brook Farm, ^bout through his joining what was known as the 1841. Brook Farm project. A company of "dream- ers " united in buying this farm in the expectation that it could be carried on with profit if they all worked a few 1825] THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS hours each day. The rest of the time they were to have for social enjoyment and intellectual pursuits. Haw- thorne was engaged to a brilliant, charming woman, and he hoped to be able to make a home for them at Brook Farm. The project failed, but he married and went to live at the Old Manse in Concord, to find perfect hap- piness in his home, and to work his way toward literary fame. He had led a singular life. When he was four years old, his father, a sea-captain, died in South America. His mother shut herself away from the outside g^^. world and almost from her own family. The thome's 6&rlv Ufo little boy was sent to school ; but soon a foot- ball injury confined him to the silent house for two years. There was little to do but read ; and he read from morning till night. Frois- sart. Pilgrim s Progress, and Spenser carried him away to the realms of the imagination, and made the long days a delight. At last he was well again ; and then came one gloria ous year by Sebago Lake, where he wandered at his will in the grand old for- ests of Maine. H e gradu- ated at Bowdoin College in the famous class of 1825. There were names among those college boys that their bearers were afterwards to make famous : Henry W. Longfellow, J. S. C. Abbott, George B. Cheever, and NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 1804-1864 324 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1837-1846 Horatio Bridge ; and in the preceding class was Frank- lin Pierce. The last two became Hawthorne's warmest friends. Graduation separated him from his college compan- ions ; indeed, for twelve years he was isolated from almost every one. He had returned to his home in Salem. His older sister had become nearly as much of a recluse as her mother. Interruptions were almost un- known, and the young man wrote and read by day and by night. He published a novel which he was after- wards glad did not sell. He wrote many short stories. Most of them he burned ; some he sent to various pub- lishers. At the end of the twelve years, Bridge urged him to publish his stories in a volume, and offered to Twice- ^^ responsible for the expense. This book was Told Tales, the Tzvicc-Told Tales. Soon after his mar- Tales", riage he published the second series of Tales, second and a few years later, Mosses from an Old 1842.' Manse. Most people who read these stories Mosses were pleased with them, but few recognized in from an '^ • ° Old Manse, their author the promise of a great romancer, 1846. Meanwhile, the romancer needed an income, and he was glad to retain the Custom House position in Boston that George Bancroft had secured for him. After a while he was transferred to the Salem Custom House. Then came a change in political power, and one day he had to tell his wife that he had been thrown out of his position. "I am glad," she said, "for now you can write your book." She produced a sum of money which she had been quietly saving for some such emergency, and her husband took up his pen with all good cheer. Not many months later, "a big man with brown beard and shining eyes, who bubbled over with enthusiasm and fun," knocked at the door. He was i8so-i86o] THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS 325 James T. Fields, the publisher. He had read the manu- script, and he had come to tell its author what a mag- nificent piece of work it was. " It is the greatest book of the age," he declared. Even Fields, however, did not knovv what appreciation it would meet, and he did not stereotype it. The result was that, two weeks after its publication, the type had to be reset, for the whole edi- tion had been sold. This book was The Scarlet The Letter, that marvellous picture of the stern old ^''"^®* Puritan days, softened and illumined by the 1850. touch of a genius. One need not fear to say that it is still the greatest American book. Hawthorne had now come to the atmosphere of appre- ciation that inspired him to do his best work, ^he House Within three short years he wrote The House of of the seven . Gahles the Seven Gables, a book of weird, pathetic humor 1351, ' and flashes of everyday sunshine. Then came The won- , der-Book, The Wonder-Book, the little volume that is so issi. dear to the hearts of children. The Blithedalc suthedaie Romance, Romance followed, whose suggestion arose from 1852. the months at Brook Farm. The life of his p}*®"* dear friend, Franklin Pierce, and Tangleiuood 1852. Tales came next,- — a glorious record for less woodTaies, than three years. i^hz. Franklin Pierce had become President, and he ap- pointed his old friend consul at Liverpool. Four years of the consulship and three years of travel resulted ^^^ Marble in the Note-Books and The Marble Faun, the Faun, fourth of his great romances. Four years after its publication, Hawthorne died. It is as difficult to compare Hawthorne's romances with the novels of other writers of fiction as to compare a strain of music with a painting, for their aims are entirely different. Novelists strive to make their characters life- 326 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1804-1864 like, to surround them with difficulties, and to keep the Difference reader in suspense as to the outcome of the between struggle. Hawthorne's characters are clearly Hawthorne 7 , . , , ^ i-rr and other outlmed, but they seem to belong to a dirrer- noveiists. gj-jj- ^orld. We could talk freely with Rip Van Winkle, but we should hardly know what to say to Clifford or Hepzibah, or even to Phebe. Nor are the endings of Hawthorne's books of supreme interest. The fact that four people in T/ie House of the Seven Gables finally come to their own is not the most impressive fact of the story. Hawthorne's power lies primarily in his knowledge of the human heart and in his ability to trace step by step jj ^ the effect upon it of a single action. His charm theme's comes from a humor so delicate that sometimes '°"^"' we hardly realize its presence ; from a style so artistic that it is almost without flaw ; from a manner of treating the supernatural that is purely his own. He has no clumsy ventriloquistic trickery like Brown ; he gives the suggestive hint that sets our own fancy to work, then with a half smile he quietly offers us the choice of a matter-of-fact explanation, — which, of course, we refuse to accept. But the magic that removes Haw- thorne's stories farthest from everyday life is the differ- ent atmosphere in which they seem to exist. The char- acters are real people, but they are seen through the thought of the romancer. In The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne ponders on how "the wrong-doing of one generation, lives into the successive ones ; " and everything is seen through the medium of that thought. No other American author has shown such profound knowledge of the human heart or has put that knowledge into words with so accurate and delicate a touch. No one else has treated the supernatural in so fascinating a 1815-1865] THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS ^2/ manner or has mingled so gracefully the prosaic and the ideal. No one else has manifested such perfection of literary style. Longfellow has well said: — Ah ! who shall lift that wand of magic power, And the lost clew regain? The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower Unfinished must remain ! B. The Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Nathaniel Hawthorne SUMMARY Transcendentalism had a strong effect upon New England literature. Its literary organ was The Dial. Among its special advocates were Channing, Parker, and Alcott. It aroused at first much unbalanced enthusiasm ; but later it led toward freedom of thought and of life. Emerson and Thoreau are counted as the transcendentalists of American literature, Hawthorne is often classed with them. Emerson became a minister, but resigned because of disa- greement with the belief of his church. He delivered many lectures. His Phi Beta Kappa oration in 1837 was an " in- tellectual Declaration of Independence," Respect for one's own individuality was the keynote of his teaching. Thoreau cared little for people in the mass, but loved his friends and nature. His Week on tJie Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Waldeti were published during his lifetime. The value of his work as author and naturalist was not fully appreciated until long after his death. Hawthorne was connected with the transcendentalists through the Brook Farm project and the spirit of his writings. His early life was singularly lonely, though he made warm friends in college. For twelve years after graduation, he was a literary recluse. Losing his position in the Salem Custom House, he produced The Scarlet Letter, which made him 328 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1815-1865 famous. Other works followed. Seven years abroad as con- sul resulted in the Note-Books and The Marble Faun. In American literature he is unequalled for knowledge of the human heart, for fascinating treatment of the supernatural, for graceful mingling of the prosaic and the ideal, and for perfection of literary style. CHAPTER V THE NATIONAL PERIOD, 1815— I. EARLIER YEARS, 1815-1865 C. THE ANTI-SLAVERY WRITERS 27. The Anti-slavery movement. Side by side with the transcendental movement was a second which strongly affected literature, the anti-slavery movement. The second was the logical companion of the first. " Let every man be free to live his own life," proclaimed the transcendentalists. " How can a man be free to live his own life if he is held in bondage ? " retorted the anti- slavery advocates. After the struggle concerning the extension of slavery which resulted in the Missouri Com- promise of 1820, the subject had been gradually dropped. To be sure, the Quakers were still unmoved in their op- position, but the masses of the people in the free States had come to feel that to attempt to break up slavery was to threaten the very existence of the Union. The revival of the question was due to William Lloyd Gar- rison, who took this ground. Slavery is wrong ; therefore every slave should be freed at once, and God will take care of the consequences. This was a direct challenge to the conscience of every man in the nation. It was complicated by questions of social safety and of business and financial interests as well as by sympathetic and sectional feelings. There was no dearth of material for thought, discussion, and literature. Among the many New England writers whose names will ever be associated with the emancipation of the 330 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1807-1892 slave are the poet Whittier and the noveHst Harriet Beecher Stowe. 28. John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892. In a quiet Quaker farmhouse in the town of Haverhill, there lived a boy who longed for books and school, but had to stay at home and work on the farm. The family library consisted of about thirty volumes, chiefly the lives of prominent Quakers. The boy read these over and over and even made a catalogue of them in rhyme. One day the schoolmaster came to the house with a copy of Burns's poems in his pocket. He read aloud poem after poem, and the bright-eyed boy listened as if his mind had been starved. " Shall I lend it to you ? " the master asked, and the boy took the book gratefully. After a while he paid a visit to Boston and came home happy but a little conscience-smitten, for he had bought a copy of Shakespeare, and he knew that Quakers did not approve of plays. One day when the boy and his father were mending a stone wall, a man rode by distributing Garrison's Free Press to its subscribers. He tossed a paper to the boy, who glanced from page to page, looking especially, as First printed was his wont, at the corner where the poetry poem. .y^as usually printed. He read there " The Exile's Departure." " Thee had better put up the paper and go to work," said his father ; but still the boy gazed, for the poem was signed " W.," and it was his own! His older sister Mary had quietly sent it to the editor without saying anything to her brother. The next scene was like a fairy story. Not long afterwards a carriage stopped at the door. A young man, well dressed and with the easy manner of one used to society, inquired for his new contributor. " I can't go in," declared the shy poet. "Thee must," said the sister Mary. Mr. Garrison l866] THE ANTI-SLAVERY WRITERS ^^i told the family that the son had "true poetic genius," and that he ought to have an education. " Don't thee put such notions into the boy's head," said the father, for he saw no way to afford even a single term at school. A way was arranged, however, by which the young man could pay his board ; and he had one year at an acad- emy. This was almost his only schooling, but he was an eager student all the days of his life. Through Garrison's influence an opportunity to do editorial work was offered him. He became deeply inter- ested in public matters. The very air was tin- Editorial gling with the question : Slavery or no slavery .'' ^ork. He threw the whole force of his thought and his pen against slavery. From the peace-loving Quaker came lyrics that were like the clashing of swords. The years passed swiftly, and Whittier gained reputa- tion as a poet slowly. He published several early vol- umes of poems, but it was not until 1866 that he really touched the heart of the country, for then he published Snozv-Boimd. There are poems by scgres that snow- portray passing moods or tell interesting stories Bound, or describe beautiful scenes ; but, save for The Cotter s Saturday Nig/it, there is hardly another that gives so vivid a picture of home life. We almost feel the chill in the air before the coming storm ; we fancy that we are with the group who sit " the clean-winged hearth about : " we listen to the "tales of witchcraft old," the stories of Indian attacks, of life in the logging camps ; we see the schoolmaster, the Dartmouth boy who is teasing "the mitten-blinded cat" and telling of college pranks. The mother turns her wheel, and the days pass till the storm is over and the roads are open. The poem is true, simple, and vivid, and it is full of such phrases as "the sun, a snow-blown traveller ; " " the great throat of the chimney 332 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1866 laughed;" "between the andirons' straddling feet," — phrases that outline a picture with the sure and certain touch of a master. The poem is "real," but with the reality given by the brush of an artist. Snow-Boimd is Whittier' s masterpiece ; but The Eternal Goodness and THE KITCHEN OF "SNOW-BOUND' some of his ballads, The Barefoot Boy, In School-Days, Among the Hills, Telling the Bees, and a few other poems, come so close to the heart that they can never be for- gotten. Whittier was always fond of children. The story is told that he came from the pine woods one day with his pet, Phebe, and said merrily, " Phebe is seventy, I am seven, and we both act like sixty." He lived to see his eighty-fifth birthday in the midst of love and honors. One who was near him when the end came tells us that among his last whispered words were " Love to the world." 29. Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896. When the future novelist was a child in school in Litchfield, Con- I8il-i8s2] THE ANTI-SLAVERY WRITERS ^j^^ necticut, her father, Dr. Beecher, one day went to visit the academy. Classes were called up to recite ; then com- positions were read. One of these was on this subject : " Can the Immortality of the Soul be proved from the Light of Nature ? " It was remarkably well written, and Dr. Beecher asked quickly, "Who wrote that.^ " " Your daughter, sir," was the reply of the teacher. This daughter was then a girl of only twelve ; and it is hardly surprising that when she was fourteen she was teaching a class in Butler's Ajialogy'm her sister's school in Hart- ford, She taught and studied until she was twenty-four. She compiled a small geography, but the idea of writing a novel seems not to have entered her mind. At twenty-four Harriet Beecher became Harriet Beecher Stowe by her marriage to Prof. C. E. Stowe. In their Cincinnati home they heard many stories from runaway slaves who had crossed the Ohio River to escape to a free State. After some years her husband was called to Bowdoin College, but the stories lingered in her mind ; and in 1852 her Ujicle Tout s Cabin uncie was published in book form. It had received ^^^ no special attention in coming out as a serial, 1852. but its sale as a book was astounding, — half a million copies in the United States alone within five years. The sale in other countries was enormous, and the work has been translated into more than twenty languages. There were several reasons for this remarkable sale. To be sure, the book was carelessly written and is of unequal excellence ; its plot is of small interest cause oi its and is loosely connected. On the other hand, i^sesaie. its humor is irresistible ; its pathos is really pathetic ; and some .of its characters are so vividly painted that the names of two or three have become a part of every- day speech. Moreover, it came straight from the au- 334 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1859-1869 thor"s heart, for she beheved every word that she wrote. Another reason, and the strongest reason, for its large immediate sales, was the condition of affairs in the United States at the time when it was issued. It was only nine years before the opening of the Civil War. The South protested, " This book is an utterly false representation of the life of the Southern States." The North retorted, " We believe that it is true." And meanwhile, every one wanted to read it. The feeling on both sides grew more and more intense. When President Lincoln met Mrs. Stowe, he said, " Is this the little woman who made this great war.-*" Mrs. Stowe wrote a number of other books. Her best literary success was in her New England stories, The Minister s Wooing, The Pearl of Orrs Island, Ser-^woo- and Oldtown Folks. She wrote in the midst ing, 1859. of difficulties. One of her friends has given us The Pearl ^ , . . . of Orrs an amusmg account of her dictatmg a story m Island, ^y^Q kitchen, with the inkstand on the teakettle, 1862. Old- townFoiks. the latest baby in the clothes basket, the table "^^' loaded with all the paraphernalia of cooking, and an unskilled servant making constant appeals for direction in her work. More than one of Mrs. Stowe's books were written in surroundings much like these. It is no wonder that she left punctuation to the printer. 30. Oratory. It was in great degree the question of slavery that made the New England of this period so rich in orators. Feeling became more and more intense. The printed page could not express it ; the man must come face to face with the people whom he was burning to convince. The power to move an audience is elo- quence, and eloquence there was in the land_ in liberal measure. There was William Lloyd Garrison, with his scathing earnestness of conviction ; there was Edward prnffTTl^^ wrr^fiiril^^ i r t r ^^|l ilwillllllil CHARLES SUMNER EDWARD EVERETT DANIEL WEBSTER WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON WENDELL PHILLIPS 336 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1782-1852 Everett, who used words as a painter uses his colors ; there was Wendell Phillips, whose magnetism almost won over those who were scorched by his invective ; there was Charles Sumner, brilliant, polished, logical, sometimes reaching the sublime ; there was Rufiis Choate, with his richness of vocabulary, his enchanting splendor of description, his thrilling appeals to the im- agination ; and there was Daniel Webster, greatest of them all in the impression that he gave of exhaustless power ever lying behind his sonorous phrases. Such was the oratory of New England. Eloquence, however, makes its appeal not only by words, but by voice, ges- ture, manner, — by personality. Its rewards are those of the moment. An hour after the delivery of the most brilliant oration, its glory is but a memory ; in a few years it is but a tradition. Literature recognizes no tools but printed words. It often lacks immediate recog- nition, but whatever there is in it of merit cannot fail to win appreciation sooner or later. Oratory is not neces- sarily literature ; but the orations of Webster lose little of their power when transferred to the printed page ; they not only Jiear zvell but read zuell. • Webster was a New Hampshire boy whose later home was Massachusetts. He won early fame Webster, as a lawyer and speaker, but his first great ^^ ' ■ oratorical success was his oration delivered at Plymouth in 1820. He spoke at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument, and again at its completion. As a man in public life, as a member of Congress, and as Secretary of State, many of his ora- tions were of a political nature, the greatest of these being his reply to Hayne. His law practice was con- tinued, and even some of his legal speeches have become classics. Perhaps the most noted among them is the i82o-i8s2] THE ANTI-SLAVERY WRITERS T^T^y one on the murder of Captain Joseph White, with its thriUing account of the deed of the assassin, of the hor- ror of the possession of the "fatal secret," on to the famous climax, " It must be confessed ; it will be con- fessed ; there is no refuge from confession but in sui- cide, — and suicide is confession ! " Webster's words, spoken with his sonorous, melodious voice, and strengthened by the impression of power and immeasurable reserved force, might easily sway an audi- ence ; but what is it that has made them literature ? How is it that while most speeches pale and fade in the reading, and lose the life and glow bestowed by the per- sonality of the orator, Webster's are as mighty in the domain of literature as in that of oratory ? It is because his thought is so clear, his argument so irresistible and so logical in arrangement, his style so dignified and vig- orous and finished, and above all so perfectly adapted to the subject. When we read his words, we forget speaker, audience, and style, we forget to notice how he has spoken and think only on what he has spoken, — and such writings are literature. C. The Anti-Slavery Writers John Greenleaf Whittier. Harriet Beecher Stowe. ORATORS William Lloyd Garrison Charles Sumner Edward Everett Rufus Choate Wendell Phillips Daniel Webster. SUMMARY The anti-slavery movement strongly affected literature. It was aroused by Garrison. Among the many names asso- ciated with its literature are those of Whittier and Mrs. 338 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1815-1865 Stowe. Whittier's first published poem was in Garrison's Free Press. By Garrison's influence he was sent to school and later entered upon editorial work. He wrote many ring- ing anti-slavery poems. In 1866 his Snow- Bo U7i d X.o\ic\\^A the heart of the country. Many of his ballads are of rare excel- lence. Mrs. Stowe founded Uncle loins Cabin upon the stories of escaped slaves. Its enormous sale was due to its humor, pathos, and earnestness, and to the time of its publication. Her best literary success was in her New England stories. During this period New England was also rich in orators. Among them were Garrison, Everett, Phillips, Sumner, Choate, and Webster. Not all oratory is literature, but many of Webster's orations are also literature. He was equally eloquent in occasional addresses and in legal and political speeches. CHAPTER VI THE NATIONAL PERIOD, 1815— I. EARLIER YEARS, 1815-1S65 D. THE CAMBRIDGE POETS 31. The Cambridge Poets. To this period belongs the greater part of the work of the three New England poets, Longfellow, Lowell, and Holmes. In the early lives of "f "{_ -^ ■ CAMBRIDGE IN 1S24 these three there was a somewhat remarkable similarity. They were all descendants of New England families of culture and standing. They grew up in homes of plenty, but not of undignified display. They were surrounded by people of education and intellectual ability. They 340 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1807-1839 came to feel, as Holmes puts it, as much at ease among books as a stable boy feels among horses. Each held a professorship at Harvard. Here the resemblance ends, for never were three poets more unlike in work and dis- position than the three who are known as the Cambridge Poets. 32. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882. The birthplace of Longfellow was Portland, Maine, which he calls " the beautiful town that is seated by the sea." He had all the advantages of books, college, and home culture ; and he made such good use of them that while he was journeying homeward from Bowdoin Col- lege with his diploma in his trunk, the trustees were meditating upon offering the young man of nineteen the professorship of modern languages in his Alma Mater. He accepted gladly, spent three years in Europe pre- paring for the position, and returned to Bowdoin, where he remained for six years. Then came a call to become professor at Harvard ; and a welcome professor he was, for his fame had gone before him. The boys were proud to be in the classes of a teacher who, with the exception of George Ticknor, a much older man, was the best American scholar of the languages and litera- ture of modern Europe. He was a poet, too ; his Sum- mer Shozvcr had been in their reading-books. Some of them had read his Outre Mer, a graceful and poetical mingling of bits of travel, stories, and translations. Moreover, he was a somewhat new kind of professor to the Harvard students of 1836, for he persisted in treating them as if they were gentlemen ; and, whatever they might be with others, they always were gentlemen with him. Up to 1839, the mass of Longfellow's work was in prose ; but in that year he published first Hyperion and 1839-1S40] THE CAMBRIDGE POETS 34^ then Voices of the Night. In the latter volume were translations from six or seven languages. There Hyperion, were also A Psalm of Life and The Reaper ajid ^^^^^^ the Flowers. These have had nearly seventy i839. years of hard wear ; but read them as if no one had ever read them before, and think what courage and inspiration there is in — Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate ; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. The lovers of poetry were watching the young professor at Harvard. What would be his next work } When his next volume came out, it contained, among The Skeie- other poems, TJie Skeleton in Armor. Thus Amor far, his writings had been thoughtful and beauti- i840. ful, but in this there was something more ; there was a stronger flight of the imagination, there was life, action, a story to tell, and generous promise for the future. So Longfellow's work went on. He lived in the charm- ing old Craigie House in Cambridge, where, as he wrote. Once, ah, once, within these walls. One whom memory oft recalls. The Father of his Country, dwelt. His longest narrative poems are Evangeline, The Court- ship of Miles Standish, and The Song of Hiawatha, which have been favorites from the first. He translated Dante's Divine Comedy and wrote several Transia- dramas. His translations are much more ^'°°^' literal than those of most writers ; but they are never bald and prosy, for he gives to every phrase the master touch that makes it glow with poetry. Few, if any, poems are more American and more patriotic than his Bnilding of tJic Ship, with its impassioned apostrophe : — 342 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1807-1882 Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State ! Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! Nevertheless, Longfellow loved the Old World and the literatures of many peoples. In his translations he brought to his own country the culture of the lands across the sea. In so doing he not only enabled others CRAIGIE HOUSE to share in his enjoyment, but did much to prove to the youthful literature of the New World that there were still heights for it to ascend. Longfellow knew how to beautify his verse with ex- Literary quisite imagery, but this imagery was never ^^^^°- used merely for ornament ; it invariably flashed a light upon the thought, as in — Feeling is deep and still ; and the word that floats on the surface Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays where the anchor is hidden. 1S07-1882] THE CAMBRIDGE POETS 343 He had the abihty to produce beauty from the simplest materials. Once, for instance, he chose a time-worn subject, he made a time-worn comparison, he used in his fifteen lines of verse but fifty-six different words, all everyday words and five sixths of them monosyllables ; and with such materials he composed his Rainy Day ! His writings are so smooth and graceful that one some- times overlooks their strength. Evangeline, for instance, is "A Tale of Love in Acadie," but it is also a picture of indomitable purpose and unfaltering resolution. Miles Standish is more than a charming Puritan idyl, cen- tring in an archly demure, " Why don't you speak for yourself, John.'' " It is a maiden's fearless obedience to the voice of her heart, and a strongman's noble conquest of himself. The keynote of much of Longfellow's lyric verse is his sympathy. When sorrow came to him, his pity did not centre in himself, but went out into the world to all who suffered. In the midst of his own grief, he wrote : — There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, But has one vacant chair. " Read me that poem," said a bereaved mother, " for Longfellow understood." That is why Longfellow is great. In his Hiawatha he introduced a Finnish metre ; in Evangeline he first succeeded in using the classic hexameter in English. Thus he gave new tools to the Wrights of English verse ; but it was a far greater glory to be able to speak directly to the hearts of the people. This gift, together with his pure and blameless life, won for him an affection so peculiarly reverent that, even while he lived, thousands of his readers spoke his name with the tenderness of accent oftenest given to those who are no longer among us. Happy is the man who wins both fame and love ! 344 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1819-1S91 33. James Russell Lowell, 1819-1891. A big, roomy house, fields, woods, pastures, libraries, a college at hand, older brothers and sisters, a father and mother of education and refinement, — such were the surround- ings of Lowell's early life. The Vision of Sir Launfal ELMWOOD shows how well he learned the out-of-door world ; his essays prove on every page how familiar he became with the world of books. When the time for college had come, there were diffi- culties. The boy was ready to read every volume not required by the curriculum, and to keep every rule ex- cept those invented by the faculty. When graduation time drew near, his parents were in Rome. Some one hastened to tell them that their son had been rusticated to Concord for six weeks and had also been chosen class poet. " Oh, dear ! " exclaimed the despairing father, 1848] THE CAMBRIDGE POETS 345 "James promised me that he would quit writing poetry and go to work." Fortunately for the lovers of good poetry, "James" did not keep his word. He struggled manfully to be- come a lawyer, but he could not help being a poet. Just ten years after graduating, he brought out in one short twelvemonth three significant poems. The first was The Vision of Sir Laiinfal, with its loving outburst of sympathy with nature. He knew well how the clod — Groping blindly above it for light, • Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers. Sir Launfal, too, climbs to a soul, for the poem is the story of a life. The second poem was A Fable for Critics. The fable proper is as dull as the The vision oi preposterous rhymes and unthinkable puns of ^'pa^^J^joj' Lowell will permit ; but its pithy criticisms critics, of various authors have well endured the papersf ^^ wear and tear of half a century. The third i848. was The Biglow Papers. Here was an entirely new vein. Here the Yankee dialect — which is so often only a survival of the English of Shakespeare's day — became a literary language. Lowell could have easily put his thoughts into the polished sentences of the scholar ; but the homely wording which he chose to employ gives them a certain everyday strength and vigor that a smoother phrasing would have weakened. When he writes, — Ez far war, I call it murder; There you hev it plain an' flat; I don't want to go no furder Than my Testyment fer that, — he strikes a blow that has something of the keenness of the sword and the weight of the cudgel. These three poems indicate the three directions in 346 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1809-1894 which Lowell did his best work ; for he was poet, critic, and reformer, — sometimes all three in one. In such poems as The Present Crisis, that stern and solemn arraignment of his countrymen, there is as much of earnest protest as of poetry. So in The Dandelion, his " dear, common flower " reveals to him not only its own beauty, but the thought that every human heart is sacred. Lowell's lyrics are only a small part of his work ; for «he took the place of Longfellow at Harvard, he edited Scope of the Atlantic and the NortJi American Review ; his work, j^g wrote many magazine articles on literary and political subjects ; he delivered addresses and poems, the noble Commemoration Ode ranking highest of all ; and he was minister, first to Spain, and then to England. In his prose writings one is almost over- whelmed with the wideness of his knowledge, yet there is never a touch of pedantry. He always writes as if his readers were as much at home in the world of books as himself. The serious thought is ever brightened by gleams of humor, flashes of wit. When we take up one of his writings, it will " perchance turn out a song, per- chance turn out a sermon." It may be full of strong and manly thought, and it may be all a-whirl with rollicking merriment ; but whatever else it is, it will be sincere and honest and interesting. It is easier to label and classify the man who writes in but one manner, and it may be that he wins a surer fame ; but we should be sorry in- deed to miss either scholar, critic, wit, or reformer from the work of the poet Lowell. 34. Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894. On the page for August in a copy of the old MassacJmsctts Register iox i8og, the twenty-ninth day is marked, and at the bottoni of the page is a foot-note, " Son b." In 1830-1836] THE CAMBRIDGE POETS 347 this laconic fashion was noted the advent of the physi- cian-noveUst-poet. He had also a chance of becoming a clergyman and a lawyer ; for his father favored the one profession, and he himself gave a year's study to the other. It was while he was poring over Blackstone that the order was given to break up the old bat<^leship Con- stiUition. Then it was that he wrote Old Iron- ^,, , Old Iron- sides. The poem was printed on handbills, sides, They were showered about the streets of Washington, and the Secretary of the Navy revoked his order. Holmes was twenty-one. The question of a profession was still unsettled. Finally he decided to be a physician ; but, as he said, " The man or woman who has tasted type is sure to return to his old indulgence sooner or later." In Holmes's case, it was sooner, for he had hardly taken his degree before the poems, publishers were advertising a volume of his ^^^^ poems. Here were My Awit, The September Gale, and best of all. The Last Leaf, the verses that one reads with a smile on the lips and tears in the eyes. The young physician's practice did not occupy much of his time, chiefly because he wrote poetry and made witty remarks. These were a delight to the well folk, but the sick people were a little afraid of a doctor whose interest and knowledge were not limited to pills and powders. Moreover, the man who lay ill of a fever could not forget that the brilliant young M. D. had said jauntily of his slender practice, " Even the smallest fevers thankfully received." Soon an invitation came to teach anatomy at Dartmouth ; and, a few years later, to teach the same subject at Harvard. Holmes was suc- cessful in both places ; for with all his love of literature, he had a genuine devotion to his profession. He wrote much on medical subjects, and three times his essays 348 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [185? gained the famous Boylston prize, offered annually by Harvard College for the best dissertations on questions in medical science. In 1857, the publishers, Phillips, Sampson and Co., decided to establish a new magazine. " Will you be its editor.''" they asked Lowell; and he finally replied, THE AUTOCRAT LEAVING HIS BOSTON HOME FOR A MORNING WALK " I only wish a hut of stone (A very plain brown stone will do).' " Yes, if Dr. Holmes can be the first contributor to be TheAtian- engaged." Dr. Holmes became not only the tic, 1857. flj-st contributor, but he named the magazine The Atla7itic. Some twenty-five years earlier he had 1857-1861] THE CAMBRIDGE POETS 349 written two papers called The Autocrat of the Breakfast Tdble. He now continued them, beginning, " I The Auto- was just going to say when I was interrupted." cratof the The scene is laid at the table of a boarding- Table, house. The Autocrat carries on a brilliant '^^^'^• monologue, broken from time to time by a word from the lady who asks for original poetry for her album, from the theological student, the old gentleman, or the young man John ; or by an anxious look on the face of the landlady, to whom some paradoxical speech of the Autocrat's suggests insanity and the loss of a boarder. Howells calls The Autocrat a "dramatized essay;" but, whatever it is called, it will bear many readings and seem brighter and fresher at each one. Among the paragraphs of The Autocrat and The Professor, which followed, a number of poems are interspersed. Three of them are The Onc-Hoss Shay, with its irrefutable logic -, Contentment, with its modest — I only wish a hut of stone (A very plain brown stone will do), — and the exquisite lines of The Chambered Nantihts, with its superb appeal, — Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul ! Holmes was also a novelist ; for he produced Elsie Venner a.nd two other works of fiction, all showing power of characterization, and all finding their chief ^.^^^ interest in some study of the mysterious con- venner, nection between mind and body. " Medicated novels," a friend mischievously called them, somewhat to the wrath of their author. Nearly half of Holmes's poems were written for some special occasion, — some anniversary, or class occasional reunion, or reception of a famous guest. At '""• 350 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1815-1865 such times he was at his best ; for the demand for occa- sional verse, which freezes most wielders of the pen, was to him a breath of inspiration. Holmes's wit is ever fascinating, his pathos is ever sincere ; but the charm that will perhaps be even more Holmes's powerful to hold his readers is his delightful charm. personality, which is revealed in every sen- tence. A book of his never stands alone, for the be- loved Autocrat is ever peeping through it. His tender heart first feels the pathos that he reveals to us; his kindly spirit is behind every flash of wit, every sword- thrust of satire. D. The Cambridge Poets Henry Wadsvvortli Longfellow James Russell Lowell Oliver Wendell Holmes SUMMARY The Cambridge Poets were all descendants of cultivated New England families and grew up among intellectual sur- roundings. All held professorships at Harvard. Longfellow graduated at Bowdoin, and became professor of modern languages, first at Bowdoin and then at Harvard. Until 1839, when he published Voices of the Night, he wrote chiefly prose. The Skeleton in Armor established his reputa- tion as a poet. His longest narrative poems are Evangeline, The Courtship of Miles Standish, and The Song 0/ Hiawatha. His translations are both literal and poetic, and were of great value to the young American literature. He can beautify his work with figures, or he can make a poem with the simplest materials. His sympathy was the keynote of much of his lyric verse. He introduced a Finnish metre, and was the first to succeed in English hexameter. Lowell's serious work began in 1848, when he brought out The Vision of Sir Launfal, A Fable for Critics, and The Big- 181S-1865] THE CAMBRIDGE POETS ,^>5 1 low Papers. He succeeded Longfellow at Harvard, edited The Athnitic, wrote many magazine articles and addresses, was foreign minister to Spain and England. Mis writings show broad scholarship, love of nature, and much humor. He was scholar, wit, critic, reformer, and poet. Holmes's Olii Ironsu/cs -w^s his first prominent poem. He studied medicine, became professor of anatomy, first at Dart- mouth, then at Harvard. In 1857 he named The Afhinfic, and wrote The Autocrat for it. He wrote three novels, and was especially successful as an occasional poet. CHAPTER VII THE NATIONAL PERIOD, 1815 — I. EARLIER YEARS, 18x5-1865 E. THE HISTORIANS 35. Historical writing. In the midst of this com position of poetry and novels and philosophy, the early New England tendency toward the historical had by no means disappeared. Here, two opposing influences were at work. On the one hand, the Spanish studies of Irving, the History of Spanish Literature of Ticknor, and the translations of Longfellow, had turned men's minds toward European countries. On the other hand, the War of 181 2 and the rapid development of the United States had stimulated patriotism. Moreover, with the passing of the heroes of the Revolution, Amer- icans began to realize that the childhood of the United States had vanished, that the youthful country, had already a history to be recorded. The proper method of historical composition was pointed out to his country- men by Jared Sparks, first a professor and then president of Harvard College. Before the days of Sparks, few writers had felt the responsibility of historical writing. It was enough if a history was made interesting and romantic ; Sparks, there was little attempt to make it accurate. 1789-1866. j7^gj^ jf original sources were at hand and the author took pains to examine them, he paid little attention to any study of causes or results, he made 1800-1891] THE HISTORIANS 353 no careful comparison of conflicting accounts. One manuscript was as good as another, and any so-called fact was welcome if it filled a vacant niche in the story. Sparks followed a different method. To gather his in- formation, he consulted not only the records stored in the dignified archives of the great libraries of Europe and America, but also the family papers stuffed away into the corners of ancient garrets. He examined old newspapers and pamphlets and diaries. He traced le- gends and traditions back to their origins. It was in this way that his Life and WritiJigs of George Washington, his partially completed History of the American Revolu- tion, and his other works were produced. Unfortunately, Sparks lacked the good fairy gift of the power to make his work interesting ; that was left for other writers ; but in thoroughness in collecting materials he was the pioneer. During this period, there were at least four historians whose fame is far greater than his ; but to Sparks they owe the gratitude that is ever due to him who has pointed out the way. These four are Bancroft and Parkman, who wrote on American themes ; and Pres- cott and Motley, who chose for their subjects different phases of European history. 36. George Bancroft, 1800-1891. On a hill in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, stands a tower of mas- sive stone. It was erected in honor of George Bancroft, who as a boy roamed over the hills and valleys of what is now a part of the city. He graduated at Harvard, and then went to Germany, where he studied with vari- ous scholars branches of learning which ranged from French literature to Scriptural interpretation. History oi At twenty he had chosen his lifework, — to guteT*** become a historian. Fourteen years later the I834-I882. first volume of his History of the United States came 354 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1796-1837 out, a scholarly record of the progress of our country from the discovery of America to the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. Bancroft's historical work extended over nearly fifty years ; but during that time he did much other writing, he was minister to England and to Berlin, and he was Secre- tary of the Navy, While holding this last office he de- cided that the United States ought to have a naval school. Congress did not agree, but Mr. Bancroft went quietly to work. He found that he had a right to choose a place where midshipmen should remain while waiting for orders, also that he could direct that the lessons given them at sea should be continued on land. He obtained Foundin of ^^^ ^^^ °^ some military buildings at Annapo- the Naval lis, put the boys into them, and set them to Academy, ^^qj-]^ Then he said to Congress, " We have a naval school in operation ; will you not adopt it ? " Congress adopted it, and thus the United States Naval Academy was founded. 37. William Hickling Prescott, 1796-1859. A crust of bread thrown in a students' frolic at Harvard made Prescott nearly blind, and prevented him from becoming a lawyer as he had planned. With what little eyesight remained to him, and with an inexhaustible fund of cour- age and cheerfulness, he set to work to become a histo- rian. He made a generous preparation. For ten years he read by the eyes of others scores of volumes on ancient and modern literature. He had chosen for the title of his first book The History of the Reign of Ferdi. ThoHistory nand and Isabella. He must learn Spanish, of oiFerdi- course ; and he describes with a gentle humor nand and ^-j^g wceks spent under the trees of his country Isal)ella, ... 1837. residence, listening to the reading of a man who understood not a word of the language. As the differ- 1843-1877] THE HISTORIANS 355 ent authorities were read aloud, many of them conflict- ing, Prescott dictated notes. When he had completed his reading for one chapter, he had these notes read to him. Then he thought over all that he meant to say in the chapter, — thought so exactly, and so many times, that when he took up his noctograph, he could write as rapidly as the contrivance would permit. It was under such discouragements that Prescott wrote ; but he said bravely that these difficulties were no excuse for " not doing well what it was not neces- sary to do at all." His work needs small ex- TheCon- cuse. He had chosen the Spanish field ; he ^g^xilo! wrote The Conquest of Mexico, then The Con- I843. qticst of Peru. Three volumes he completed quest oi of The History of the Reisrn of Philip the Peru, 1847. -^ -^ c> J ^ The History Second; then came death. oj the Reign Prescott was most painstaking in collecting °j^f gggo^^ facts and comparing statements, but the popu- i855-i858. larityof his books is due in part to their subject and in even greater part to their style. He wrote of the days of romance and wild adventure, it is true ; but yet the most thrilling subject will not make a thrilling writer out of a dull one. Prescott has written in a style that is strong, absolutely clear, and often poetic. He describes a battle or a procession or a banquet or even a wedding costume as if he loved to do it. Few writers have com- bined as successfully as he the accuracy of the historian and the marvellous picturing of the poet and novelist. 38. John Lothrop Motley, 1814-1877. When Ban- croft was a young man, he taught for a year at Northamp- ton. One of his pupils was a handsome, bright-eyed boy named Motley. This boy's especial delight was read- ing poetry and novels, and a few years after he gradu- ated from Harvard he wrote a novel which was fairly 356 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1814-1877 good. Rewrote another, which was better; but by this time he had become so deeply interested in the Dutch Republic that he determined to write its history. Ten The Rise of years later he sent a manuscript to the English Re*puwic, publisher, Murray. It was promptly declined, 1856. and the author published it at his own expense. Then Murray was a sorry man, for TJie Rise of the Dutch Republic was a decided success. The lavish amount of work that had been bestowed upon it ought to have brought suc- cess. Motley could not obtain the needed documents in America, there- fore he and his family crossed the ocean. When he had exhausted the library in one place, they went to an- other. He had a hard-working sec- retary, and in two or three countries he had men en- gaged to copy rare papers for his use. When his material was well in hand, he had the critical ability to select and arrange his facts, the literary instinct to present them in telling fashion, and the artistic talent to make vivid pictures of famous persons and dramatic scene3. JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY 1S14-1S77 1860-1874] THE HISTORIANS 357 One of the pleasantest facts about our greater authors is the ahuost invariable absence of envy among them. This book could hardly fail to trench upon the field of Prescott ; yet the blind historian was ready with the warmest commendations, as were Irving and Bancroft, Prescott, indeed, in the first volume of his Philip tJie Second, published a year earlier, had inserted a cordial note in regard to the forthcoming DiitcJi Republic. Motley's next book was The United Netherlands. One more work would have completed the his- The united tory of the whole struggle of the Dutch for J^J^g^" liberty. He postponed preparing this until he iseo-iaes. should have written The Life and Death of ^^^ Death John of Barneveld. Then came the long ill- of John of ness which ended his life, and the story of the 1374. epoch was never completed. 39. Francis Parkman, 1823-1893. Some years be- fore Longfellow wrote, " The thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts," I-^rancis Parkman was proving the truth of the line ; for he, a young man of eighteen, had already planned his lifework. He would be an historian, and he would write on the subject that appealed to him most strongly, — the contest between France and England for the possession of a continent. The preparation for such a work required more than the reading of papers — though an enormous quantity of these demanded careful attention. The Indians must be known. Their way of living and thinking must be as familiar to the historian as his own. The only way to gain this know- ^j^^ Oregon ledge was to share their life; and this Parkman Trail, did for several months. His health failed, his eyesight was impaired, but he did not give up the work that he had planned. Before beginning it, however, he tried his hand by writing The Oregon Trail, an account 358 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1823-1893 of his western journeyings and his Hfe among the red men. His health was so completely broken down that for some time he could not listen to his secretary's reading for more than half an hour a day ; but he had no thought of yielding. He visited the places that he in- tended to describe ; he wrote when he could ; when writing was impos- sible, he cultivated roses and lilies; but whatever he did, and even when he could do nothing, he was always cheerful and cour- ageous. So it was that Park- man's work was dont- ; but he writes so easily, so gracefully, and with such apparent pleasure that the mere style of his com- position would make it of value. He seldom stops to consider motives and determine FRANCIS PARKMAN 1S23-1S93 Literary remote causes, but he gives us a clear narrative, stylo. with dramatic and picturesque descriptions of such verisimilitude that we should hardly be surprised to see a foot-note saying, " I was present. F. P." He lived to carry out his plan, comprising twelve volumes which cover the ground from Pioneers of France in tJie Nezv World to The Conspiracy of Pontine. Higginson's sum- mary of the characteristics of the four historians is as fol- lows : " George Bancroft, with a style in that day thought eloquent, but now felt to be overstrained and inflated ; I796--I886] - THP: HISTORIANS 359 William H. Prescott, with attractive but colorless style and rather superficial interpretation. . . . John Lothrop Motley, laborious, but delightful ; and Francis Parknian, more original in his work and probably more permanent in his fame than any of these." 40. Minor authors. These last four chapters have been devoted to the authors of highest rank during the early part of New England's second period of 1- 1 1 1 • ,1 , JohnG. literary leadership ; but there are many others paifrey, whose names it is not easy to omit from even i796-i88i. •^ Jeremy so brief a sketch. In history, there are not only Belknap, John Gorham Palfrey, whose History of Nezv ^^i^^T^' England, and Jeremy Belknap, whose History Hiwreth, 1807-1865 of New Hampshire are still standards ; but there is Richard Hildreth, whose History of the United States, written from a political point of view opposed to Bancroft's, lacks only an interesting style to win the popularity which its research and scholarship deserve. In criticism, there is Edwin Percy Whipple, who re- viewed literary work with sympathetic good sense and expressed his opinions in so vigorous and interesting a style that his own writings became literature. He and Richard Henry Dana ought to have worked hand in hand : Whipple, to criticise completed writings ; udwin Dana, to cultivate the public taste to demand ^^"y 11 T-^ -,-,,, Whipple, the best. Dana wrote poetry also, but it lacked 1819-1886. the warmth of feeling that makes a poem live. ^'"^""^ The Little Beach-Bird is now his best-known Dana, poem. Whipple calls it "delicious, but slightly ^''^^"i®''^- morbid ; " and it certainly has neither the tenderness of Henry Vaughan's The Bird nor the joyous comradeship of Mrs. Thaxter's The Sandpiper. Among essayists, there are two whose names first became well known during this period, Donald Grant Mitchell and George 36o AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1822-1892 William Curtis. The story is tolcl of Mitchell that to make sure of a winding, picturesque pathway from the road to his house, he had a heavy load of stone brought to the gate and bade the driver make his way up the hill by the easiest grades. It is " by the easiest grades " that his Dream Life and Reveries of a Bache- lor, his earliest books, roam on gently and smoothly. They are full of sentiment ; but it is a good, clean senti- flonaid ment that should be not without honor, even Mitchell ^^ ^ book. His latest work, English Lands, Let- 1822-1908. ters, and Kings, has not quite the winsome charm of his earlier writings, but it is vigorous and picturesque. Here is his description of William the Conqueror : "It was as if a new, sharp, eager man of business had on a sudden come to the handling of some old sleepily con- ducted counting-room : he cuts off the useless heads ; he squares the books : he stops waste ; pity or tender- ness have no hearing in his shop." He says of Eliza- beth : " She would have been great if she had been a shoemaker's daughter. , . . she would have bound more shoes, and bound them better, and looked sharper after the affairs of her household than any cobbler's wife of the land." George William Curtis spent some of his schooldays at Brook Farm among the transcendentalists. Graceful sketches of travel were in vogue, and he wrote Nile Notes of a Howadji ; dreamy sentiment was in fashion, and he wrote his ever-charming Priie and /. Then he George became an editor, a lecturer, a political speaker. Curtis™ Meanwhile he had entered upon a long and 1824-1892. honored career in the Easy Chair department of Harper s Magazine. For nearly forty years the read- ers of Harper s cut open the Easy Chair pages expect- antly, for there they were sure to find some pleasant 1824-1892] THE HISTORIANS 361 chat on topics of the day, — on The American Girl, or The Game of Newport, or Honor, or The New England Sabbath, or on some man who was in the public eye. Grave or satirical, they were always marked by a liquid, graceful style, a gentle, kindly humor, and sound thought. Then there were two books, a big one and a ^^^^^ little one, written by Noah Webster. They Webster, 1758-1843 were not literature, and they did not have any special "inspiring influence" toward the making of literature ; but they were exceedingly useful tools. The big book was Webster's Dictionary, and the little one was the thin, blue-covered Webster's Spelling-book. Long ago it went far beyond copyrights and publishers' re- ports ; but it is estimated that sufficient copies have been printed to put one into the hand of every child in the nation. Taking this literature of New England, or almost of Massachusetts, as a whole, we cannot fail to note its atmosphere of conscientious work. It is not enough for the poet that an inspiring thought has flashed into his mind ; he feels a responsibility to interpret it to the best of his power. In Longfellow's work, for instance, there is no poem that we would strike out as unworthy of his pen. Hawthorne's slightest sketch is as carefully finished as. his Scarlet Letter. Nothing is done heed- lessly. The Puritan conscience had been enriched with two centuries of culture ; but it was as much of a power in the literature of New England as in the lonely little settlements that clung to her inhospitable coast. E. The Historians Jared Sparks John Lothrop Motley- George Bancroft Francis Parkman William Hickling Prescott 362 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1815-1865 SUMMARY The Spanish studies of Irving and Ticknor and the trans- lations of Longfellow drew men's minds toward the Old World; the War of 1812 and the rapid development of the United States stimulated patriotism. Sparks first pointed out the thorough and accurate method of historical writing. The four leading historians of the period were : (i) Bancroft, who wrote the History of the United States ; (2) Prescott, who wrote clearly and attractively on Spanish themes, and whose last book, the History of the Reign of Philip the Seeo?id, was left incomplete ; (3) Motley, who wrote " laboriously but picturesquely " of the Dutch Republic, but died without completing its history ; (4) Parjcman, who chose for his sub- ject the contest between France and England for the posses- sion of North America, and lived to carry out his plan so excellently as to win permanent fame. Among the many minor authors of this period were the historians, Palfrey, Belknap, and Hildreth ; the critic, Whip- ple ; the critic and poet, Dana ; the essayists, Mitchell, and Curtis of the Easy Chair ; while Noah Webster of the Dic- tionary and Spelling-book must not be forgotten. CHAPTER VIII THE NATIONAL PERIOD, 1815- 1. EARLIER YEARS, 1815-1865 F. THE SOUTHERN WRITERS 41. Why there was little writing in the South. Thus it was that literature centred about the great cities of the North. There were several reasons why it could hardly be expected to flourish in the South. In the first place, there were no large towns where publishing houses had been es- tablished and where men of talent might gain inspiration from one another. Again, there was small home market for the wares of the author. There were libraries in many of the stately homes of the South, but their shelves were filled with the English classics of the eighteenth century. There was no lack of intellectual power ; but plantation life called for executive ability and led naturally to" statesmanship and oratory rather than to the printed page. There were orators, such WILLIAM WIRT 1772-1834 364 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1772-1835 men as Henry Clay, "the great leader;" the ardent, brilliant Patrick Henry of earlier times ; Robert Young Hayne, equally eloquent in address and in debate ; and John Caldwell Calhoun, whom Webster called " a senator of Rome." There was almost from the beginning a poem written in one place and a history or a biography William i" another. The most famous of these scat- win, tered writings were produced by William Wirt, a Maryland lawyer. Early in the century he wrote his Letters of a British Spy, which contains his touching description of The Blind Preacher. In 18 17 his eminence as a lawyer was proved by his being chosen Attorney-General of the United States, and his ability as an author by the publication of his Life of Patrick Henry. This book is rather doubtful as to some of its facts, and rather flowery as to its rhetoric, but so vivid that the picture which it draws of the great orator has held its own for nearly a century. Charleston was the nearest approach to a literary centre, for it was the home of Simms, Hayne, and Timrod. 42. William Gilmore Simms, 1806-1870. In 1827, when the Knickerbocker writers had already brought forth some of their most valuable productions, Simms published a little volume of poems. He pub- lished a second, a third, and many others ; but his best work was in prose. He wrote novel after novel, as hastily and carelessly as Cooper, but with a certain dash TheYemas- and vigor. The Yemassee is ranked as his see, 1835. ^^^^^ work. It has no adequate plot, but con- tains many thrilling adventures and narrow escapes. Simms is often called the " Cooper of the South ; " and in one important detail he is Cooper's superior, namely, his women are real women. They are not introduced merely as pretty dummies whose rescue will exhibit the 1830-1886] THE SOUTHERN WRITERS 565 prowess of the hero : they are thoughtful and intelligent, and, in time of need, they can take a hand in their own rescue. In The Ycmas- see, for instance, " Gray- son's wife " has a terrible struggle with an Indian at her window. She faints, but — like a real woman — not until she has won the victory. In one re- spect Simms did work that is of increasing value ; he laid his scenes in the country about his own home, he studied the best historical records, he learned the traditions of the South. The result is that in his novels there is a wealth of information about Southern colonial life that can hardly be found elsewhere. 43. Paul Hamilton Hayne, 1830-1886. Simms was of value to the world of literature in another way than by wielding his own pen. He was a kind and help- ful friend to the younger authors who gathered around him. The chief of these was Hayne, who is often called " the poet-laureate of the South." Hayne had a com- fortable fortune and a troop of friends, and there was only one reason why his life should not have flowed on easily and pleasantly. That reason was the Civil War. He enlisted in the Confederate Army, and, even after he was sent home too ill for service, his pen was ever busied with ringing lyrics of warfare. When peace came, WILLIAM GILMORE CIMMS 1S06-1870 366 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1830-1886 he found himself ahnost penniless. Many a man has taken up such a struggle with life bravely ; Hayne did more, for he took it up cheerfully. He built himself a tiny cottage and " persisted in being happy." Before the war, he had published three volumes of verse, and now from that little home came forth many graceful, beauti- ful lyrics. This is part of his description of the song of the mocking-bird at night: — It rose in dazzling spirals overhead, Whence to wild sweetness wed, Poured marvellous melodies, silvery trill on trill : The very leaves grew still On the charmed trees to hearken; while for me, Heart-trilled to ecstasy, I followed — followed the bright shape that flew, Still circling up the blue, Till as a fountain that has reached its height. Falls back in sprays of light Slowly dissolved, so that enrapturing lay Divinely melts away Through tremulous spaces to a music-mist, Soon by the fitful breeze How gently kissed Into remote and tender silences. He wrote narrative verse, but was especially successful in the sonnet, with its harassing restrictions and limita- tions. Hayne's writings have one charm that those of greater poets often lack ; his personality gleams through them. He trusts us with his sorrows and his joys. He writes of the father whom he never saw, of the dear son " Will," of whom he says : — We roam the hills together, In the golden summer weather, Wm and I. He writes of his wife's "bonny brown hand," — The hand that holds an honest heart, and rules a happy hearth 1829-1867] THE SOUTHERN WRITERS 367 He writes of the majestic pine against which his poet friend laid his weary head. In whatever he writes, he shows himself not only a poet, but also a sincere and lovable man. 44. Henry Timrod, 1829-1867. The friend who leaned against the pine was Henry Timrod. Their friendship began in the days when " Harry " passed under his desk a slate full of his own verses. Life was hard for the young poet. Lack of funds broke off his college course, and for many years he acted as tutor in various families. In i860 a little volume of his poems was brought out in Boston by Ticknor and Fields. It was spoken of kindly — and that was all. Then came the war, and such poverty that he wrote of his verse, " I would consign every line of it to eternal oblivion, for — one hundred dollars in hand ! " Timrod writes in many tones. He is sometimes strong, as in The Cotton Boll; sometimes light and graceful, as in Baby s Aj^r, wherein the age is counted by flowers, a different flower for each week. This ends : — But soon — so grave, and deep, and wise The meaning grows in Baby's eyes, So very deep for Baby's age — We think to date a week with sage. Sometimes he rises to noble heights, as in his descrip- tion of the poet, at least one stanza of which is not unworthy of Tennyson : — And he must be as arm^d warrior strong, And he must be as gentle as a girl. And he must front, and sometimes suffer wrong. With brow unbent, and lip untaught to curl; For wrath, and scorn, and pride, however just, Fill the clear spirit's eyes with earthly dust. 368 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1809-1849 In whatever tone he writes, there is sincerity, true love of nature, and a frequent flash of poetic expression, that make us dream pleasant dreams of what a little money and a little leisure might have brought from his pen. 45. Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. Another Southern writer, in some respects the greatest of all, was Edgar Allan Poe. He was left an orphan, and was taken into the family of a wealthy merchant of Baltimore named Allan. He was somewhat wild in college, and was brought home and put to work in Mr. Allan's office. He ran away, joined the army under an assumed name, was received at West Point through Mr. Allan's influ- ence, but later discharged for neglect of his duties. Mr. Allan refused any further assistance, and Poe set to work to support himself by his pen. In the midst of poverty he married a beautiful young cousin whom he loved devotedly. He wrote a few poems and much prose. He held various editorial positions ; he filled them most acceptably, but usually lost them through either his ex- treme sensitiveness or his use of stimulants. His child- wife died, and two years later Poe himself died. These are the facts in the life of Poe ; but his various biographers have put widely varying interpretations upon them. One pictures him, for instance, as a worthless drunkard ; another, probably more truly, as of a sensitive, poetic organization that was thrown into confusion by a single glass of liquor. As a literary man, Poe was first known by his prose, and especially by his reviews. He had a keen sense Poe's criu- of literary excellence, and recognized it at a cism. glance. He was utterly fearless — and fear- lessness was a new and badly needed quality in American criticism. On the other hand, he had not the foundation of wide reading and study necessary for criticism that is 1809-1849] THE SOUTHERN WRITERS 369 to abide ; and, worse than that, he was not great enough to be fair to the man whom he disHked or of whom he was jealous. His most valuable prose is his poe's tales, for here he is a master. They are well ^^®^' constructed and the plot is well developed ; every sen- tence, every word, counts toward the climax. That is the more mechanical part of the work ; but Poe's power goes much further. He has a marvellous ability to make a story "real." He brings this about sometimes in De- foe's fashion, by throwing himself into the place of the character in hand and thinking what he would do in such a position ; sometimes by noting and emphasizing some significant detail, as, for instance, in The Cask of Amontillado. Here he mentions three times the web- work of nitre on the walls that proves their fearful depth below the river bed, and the victim's consequent hope- lessness of rescue. Sometimes the opening sentence puts us into the mood of the story, so that, before it is fairly begun, an atmosphere has been provided that lends its own coloring to every detail. For instance, the first sentence of The Fall of the House of Usher is : — "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppres- sively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher." Here is the keynote of the story, and we are pre- pared for sadness and gloom. The unusual expressions, "soundless day" and "singularly dreary," hint at some mystery. The second sentence increases these feelings ; and with each additional phrase the gloom and sadness become more dense. No one knows better than Poe how to work up to a 370 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1809-1849 climax of horror, and then to intensify its awfulness by dropping in some contrasting detail. In The Cask of Amontillado, for instance, the false friend, in his carnival dress of motley with cap and bells, is chained and then walled up in the masonry that is to become his living tomb. A single aperture remains. Through this the avenger thrusts his torch and lets it fall. Poe says, "There came forth in return only a jingling of bells." The awful death that lies before the false friend grows doubly horrible at this suggestion of the merriment of the carnival. Poe's poetry is on the fascinating borderland where poetry and music meet. His poems are not fifty in num- Poe's ber, and many of them are but a few lines in Poetry. length. The two that are best known are The Bells, a wonderfully beautiful expression of feeling through the mere sound of words, and The Raven. Poe has left a cold-blooded account of the " manufacture " of this latter poem. He declares that he chose beauty for the atmosphere, and that beauty excites the sensitive to tears ; therefore he decided to write of melancholy. The most beautiful thing is a beautiful woman, the most melancholy is death ; therefore he writes of the death of a beautiful woman. So with the refrain. O is the most sonorous vowel, and when joined with r is capa- ble of "protracted emphasis;" therefore he fixes upon "Nevermore." He may be believed or disbelieved; but in The Raven, as in whatever else he writes, there is a weird and marvellous music. To him, everything poetical could be interpreted by sound ; he said he " could distinctly hear the sound of the darkness as it stole over the horizon." He has a way of repeating a phrase with some slight change, as if he could not bear to leave it. Thus in Annabel Lee he writes : — 1842-1881] THE SOUTHERN WRITERS 3/1 But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we — Of many far wiser than we — And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. This repetition is even more marked in Ulaliime : — ■ The leaves they were crisped and sere — The leaves they were withering and sere. These phrases cling to the memory of the reader as if they were strains of music. We find ourselves saying them over and over. It is not easy to analyze the fas- cination of such verse, but it has fascination. Many years ago, when Poe was a young man, Higginson heard him read his mystic Al Aaraaf. He says, " In walking back to Cambridge my comrades and I felt that we had been under the spell of some wizard." When we look in the poems of Poe for the "high seriousness" that Matthew Arnold names as one of the marks of the best poetry, it cannot be found ; but in the power to express a mood, a feeling, by the mere sound of words, Poe has no rival. 46. Sidney Lanier, 1842-1881. A few years after the death of Poe, a Southern college boy was earnestly demanding of himself, " What am I fit for .-* " He had musical genius, not merely the facility that can tinkle out tunes on various instruments, but deep, strong love of music and rare ability to produce music. His father, a lawyer of Macon, Georgia, felt that to be a musician was rather small business ; and his son had yielded to this belief so far as the genius within him would per- mit. Another talent had this rarely gifted boy, — for l)oetry. 372 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1842-1881 The Civil War was a harsh master for such a spirit, but in its first days he enlisted in the Confederate army, and saw some terrible fighting. More than three years later he was taken prisoner — he and his flute. After five months they were released. For sixteen years he taught, he read, he wrote, he lectured at Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere, and for several winters he played first flute in the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Balti- more. All those years he was in a constant struggle with consumption and poverty. Sometimes for many months he could do nothing but suffer. Between the attacks of illness he did a large amount of literary work. It was not always the kind of writing that he was longing to do, — some of it would in other hands have been nothing but Lanier's hack work ; but with a spirit like Lanier's there Prose. could be no such thing as hack work, for he threw such talent into it, such pleasure in using the pen, that at his touch it became literature. He edited Froissart and other chronicles of long ago, and he wrote a novel. He wrote also on the development of the novel, on the science of English verse, on the relations of poetry and music, and on Shakespeare and his forerunners. He was always a student, and always original. Lanier had the lofty conscientiousness of a great poet. Some truth underlies each of his poems, whether it is the simple — and profound — Ballad of the Trees and the Master, — Into the woods my Master went. Clean forspent, forspent. Into the woods my Master came, Forspent with love and shame. But the olives they were not blind to Him; The little gray leaves were kind to Him : The thorn tree had a mind to Him When into the woods He came. 1842-1881] THE SOUTHERN WRITERS Z7'^ Out of the woods my Master went, And He was well content. Out of the woods my Master came, Content with death and shame. When Death and Shame would woo Him last, From under the trees they drew Him last : ' T was on a tree they slew Him — last When out of the woods He came, — the nobly rhythmical Marshes of Glyrm, or The Song of the Chattahoochee, — All down the hills of Habersham, All through the valleys of Hall, The rushes cried Abide, abide, The willful water weeds held me thrall, The laving laurel turned my tide, The ferns and the fondling grass said Stay, The dewberry dipped for to work delay, And the little weeds sighed Abide, abide, Here in the hills of Habershatn, Here in the valleys of Hall. Poe had a melody of unearthly sweetness, but little basis of thought ; Lanier had a richer, if less bewitching melody, and thought. He had the balance, the self- Lanier's control, in which Poe was lacking. It is almost Poetry. ^ s>wxQ. test of any kind of greatness if its achievements carry with them an overtone that murmurs, "The man is greater than his deed. He could do more than he has ever done." We do not feel this in Poe ; we do feel it in Lanier. In his rare combination of Southern richness with Northern restraint, he will ever be an inspiration to the poetry that must arise from the luxuriant land of the South. He is not only the greatest Southern poet ; he is one of the greatest poets that our country has produced. " How I long to sing a thou- sand various songs that oppress me unsung ! " he wrote; 374 AMERICA'S LITERATURE [1815-1865 and no lover of poetry can turn the last leaf of his single volume of verse without an earnest wish that a longer life had permitted his desire to be gratified. F. The Southern Writers William Wirt Henry Timrod William Gilmore Simms Edgar Allan Poe Paul Hamilton Hayne Sidney Lanier SUMMARY There was little writing in the South, because of the lack of large cities, the small home market for modern books, and the tendencies of plantation life toward statesmanship and oratory rather than literary composition. The best of this scattered writing was done by Wirt. Later, Simms, the " Cooper of the South," published many volumes of poems and many novels. The Yemassee is regarded as his best novel. He is Cooper's superior in the delineation of women. His novels give much information about colonial life in the South. Hayne, the " poet-laureate of the South," lost his property by the war. He wrote many beautiful poems, and was especially successful in the sonnet. His personality gleams through his writings. Henry Timrod had a hard struggle with poverty. He writes in many tones with sincerity, love of nature, and frequent flashes of poetic expression. The facts in Poe's life have been variously interpreted. He first became known through his reviews. His tales are his most valuable prose. They are well constructed and remark- ably realistic. His poetry is on the borderland of poetry and music. He wrote fewer than fifty poems. He has left a doubtfully true account of his manufacture of The Raven. There is a fascinating music in whatever he writes. He has not the " high seriousness " of the great poet, but in the power to express feeling by the mere sound of the words he has no rival. Lanier had musical and poetical genius. 181S-1865] THE SOUTHERN WRITERS 375 He enlisted in the Confederate army. At the close of the war, he taught, lectured, read, wrote, played first flute in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He struggled with ill health and narrow means. He did much editing, wrote on the development of the novel, on the science of English verse, on the relations of poetry and music, and on Shakespeare and his forerunners. His poems are rarely without a rich melody, and never without underlying truth. It proves his genius that he ever seemed greater than his writings. He is one of our greatest poets CHAPTER IX THE NATIONAL PERIOD, 1815— II. LATER YEARS, 1865— 47. Present literary activity. Since the war an enormous amount of printed matter has been produced. We can hardly be said to have a Hterary centre, for no sooner has one place begun to manifest its right to the title than, behold, some remarkably good work appears in quite another quarter. The whole country seems to have taken its pen in hand. Statesman, financier, farmer, general, lawyer, minister, actor, city girl, country girl, college boy, — everybody is writing. The result of this literary activity is entirely too near us for a final decision as to its merits, and any criticism pro- nounced upon it ought to have the foot-note, " At least, so it seems at present." 48. Fiction. The lion's share of this printed matter, in bulk, at any rate, falls under the heading of fiction. Its distinguishing trait is realism, and the apostles of real- ism are William Dean Howells (1837-1920) and Henry James (i 843-1916). What they write is not thrilling, but the way they write it has charmed thousands of read- American ers. Wit, humor, and grace of style are the realism. qualities of their productions that are seldom lacking. They write of commonplace people ; but there is a certain restful charm in reading of the behavior of ordinary mortals under ordinary circumstances. How- ells lays the scenes of most of his novels on this side of the ocean ; James generally lays his scenes abroad- LATER YEARS 377 Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) sometimes brings his characters into America, but the scenes of his best novels are laid elsewhere. Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) is such a master of realism that his Man zvithout a Coiintfy persuaded thousands that it was the chronicle of an actual and unjustifiable proceeding. And there is Frank Richard Stockton (i 834-1902), whose realism-with-a-screw-loose has given us most inimitable absurdities. General Lew Wallace (1827- 1905), "after serving in two wars, practicing law, and in- cidentally acting as governor of New Mexico and United States minister to Turkey, became an author, and his Ben Hur met with almost unprecedented success, both as novel and as drama." Our country is so large and manners of life vary so widely in its different regions that an American novel may have all the advantages of realism and yet be as truly romantic to three fourths of its readers as the wild- est dreams of the romanticists. George Washington Cable (1844- ) has painted in The Grandissimes 2ind other works a fascinating picture of Creole life in New Orleans. Richard Malcolm Johnston (1822- 1898) tells us of the "Crackers" of Georgia; John Esten Cooke (i 830-1866), most of whose work belongs to a somewhat earlier period, has written of the days when chivalry was in flower in the Old Dominion ; Thomas Nelson Page (1853- ) brings before us the negro slave of Virginia, with his picturesque dialect, his devotion to "the fam- bly," and his notions of things visible and invisible; Joel Chandler Harris (1848- 1908) has the honor Locaigoi„ of contributing a new character. Uncle Retnus, inAmeri- to the world of literature ; Mary Noailles Mur- °" "''"°"- free (1850- ), whose very publishers long believed her to be "Mr. Charles Egbert Craddock," has almost the 378 AMERICA'S LITERATURE literary monoply of the mountainous regions of Tennes- see. In this the regions are fortunate, for no gleam of beauty, no trait of character, escapes her keen eye. James Lane Allen (1850- ) has taken as his field his own state of Kentucky. He is as realistic as Henry James, but his realism is softened and beautified by a delicate and poetic grace. Edward Eggleston's (1837- 1902) Hoosier Schoolmaster revealed the literary possi- bilities of southern Indiana in pioneer days. Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell (i 829-1914), like Holmes, won honors in both medicine and literature. YWs Hugh IVy 71 n c \)\c\.uxcs Philadelphia in the days of the Revolution. Several writers have pictured life in New England. Among them is John Townsend Trowbridge (1827-1916) with his Neighbor Jackivood 2iX\Ci other stories. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1862- ) writes interesting stories, but al- most invariably of the exceptional characters. Sarah Orne Jewett (i 849-1909), with rare grace and humor and finer delicacy of touch, has gone far beyond surface Women peculiarities, and has found in the most every- story- day people some gleam of poetry, some shadow miters. ^^ pathos. Alice Brown (1857- ) writes frequently and charmingly of the unusual ; but with her the unusual is the natural manifestation of some typical quality. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1844-1911) in 1866 ventured to treat our notions of heaven in some- what realistic fashion in Gates Ajar. She has proved in many volumes her knowledge of the New England woman. Some of her best later work has been in the line of the short story, as, for instance, her Jonathan and David. Rose Terry Cooke (i 827-1 892) has found the humor which is thinly veiled by the New P^ngiand aus- terity. The stories of Kate Douglas Wiggin Riggs (i^^57~ ) 'ire marked by a keen sense of humor and LOUISA M. ALCOTT SARAH ORNE JEWETT ALICE BROWN HELEN HUNT JACKSON MARY NOAILLES MURFREH HARRIET BEECHKR STOWE ELIZABETH STUART I'HHLl'S WARD KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN RIGGS AGNES REl'I'LIER 380 AMERICA'S LITERATURE sparkle with vivid bits of description. The early days of California have been pictured by Helen Hunt Jackson (1831-1885) in Ramona, a novel of Indian life, and in her earlier, but charming poetic work. Mary Hallock Foote (1847- ) has sympathetically interpreted with both brush and pen the life of the mining camp of what used to be the "far West." Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849- ) won her first popularity by That Lass d Lowries, which pictures life in the Lancashire districts of England. During the last few years of the nine- teenth century and the first two decades of the twen- tieth, many new novelists have come forward. Ruth McEnery Stuart (i 856-191 7) has written delightfully of Southern life and people. Her " Sonny" is an entirely new character in literature. Booth Tarkington (1869- ), The Gentleman from Indiana, to borrow the name of his first book, shows the political life of a small town. He has a sense of humor, he knows that whereof he writes, and he can make a novel thoughtful and charming at the same time — no small gift. The Gentleman from Indi- ana came out in 1899, the year in which Winston Church- ill published Richard Carvel, a historical romance. His later books are vivid delineations of American life, and his subjects are those on which people are thinking at the moment of their publication. Mary Johnston's (1870- ) To Have and to Hold is a brilliant presen- tation of an episode in the colonial history of Virginia. Her later work has often shown a broader outlook, but suffers no loss of picturesque effect. Jack London (1876-1916), sailor, tramp, seal hunter, journalist, lec- turer, and war correspondent, wrote many stories full of fresh air and energy, but it can hardly be doubted that he will live longest in his Call of the Wild, one of the best dog stories ever written. In 1904, Mrs. Margaret LATER YEARS 381 Wade Deland (1857- ) published three books, two dehghtful volumes of tales of "Old Chester," and JoJin Ward, Preacher, a story recording the meeting of the irresistible force and the immovable body. Her Iron Woman is a sympathetic mingling of the strong and the pathetic. Mrs. Edith Wharton (1862- ) first won general attention by her Honse of Mirth, a novel of in- tensity and with a big lesson, if the right people would only take it to heart. Her EtJian Fronie, a story of ex- piation, has been called a "gray masterpiece." Henry Sydnor Harrison (1880- ) tried his pen on an anony- mous novel, Captivating Mary Carstairs, and then wrote Queeei, a powerful and original story which develops naturally and inevitably. His V. V.'s Eyes is equally powerful and at the same time winning and often re- freshingly humorous. During the last few years the his- torical novel and the one-character tale were at first the favorites; but there is an increasing demand for novels with a purpose — which is all very well provided the pur- pose does not overburden the story. During the last few years the popular favor has swung between the his- torical novel and the one-character tale; but the fiction, whether of the one class or the other, that has had the largest sale has laid its scenes in America and has been written by American authors. American fiction has become especially strong in the short story; not merely the story which is short, but the story which differs from the tale in some- The short what the same way as the farce differs from the ^'^'"^^ play, namely, that its interest centres in the situation rather than in a series of incidents which usually develop a plot. Cranford, for instance, is a tale. It pictures the life of a whole village, and is full of incidents. Stockton's The Lady or the Tiger is a short story; 382 AMERICA'S LITERATURE it gives no incidents, and no more detail than is neces- sary to explain the peculiar situation of the princess. It is a single series of links picked out of a broad net- work. A tale is a field ; a short story is a narrow path running through the field. The short story, with its single aim, its determination to make every word count toward that aim, its rigid economy of materials, its sure and rapid progress, has proved most acceptable to our time-saving and swiftly-moving nation. Most of our short stories appear first in magazines, and have a much wider range of subject than the novel. The possibility of their coming out with little delay tends to their being written on topics of the moment ; therefore since the breaking out of the European war large numbers of war stories have been produced. Interest in the drama is increasing rapidly. Popular novels, fairy tales, children's history lessons are all put into dramatic form. The "little theatres," as they are called, are encouraging the makers of plays to dramatize the life about their own homes, and in this way build up a national drama. 49. Poetry. The writers of the last fifty years have had an immense advantage in the existence of the four monthlies. The Atlantic, Harper s, Scribners, and The Century, for these magazines have provided what was so needed in earlier days, — a generous opportunity to find one's audience. They have been of special value to the poets, and the last half-century has given us much poetry. Not all of it is of the kind that makes its author's name immortal; but it would not be difficult to count at least a score of Americans who in these latter days have written poems that arc of real merit. 50. Bayard Taylor, 1825-1878. Eight years after Bryant published Thanatopsis, two of these later poets. LATER YEARS 383 Taylor and Stoddard, were l^orn. Bayard Taylor began life as a country boy who wanted to travel. He wan- dered over Europe, paying his way sometimes by a letter to some New York paper, sometimes by a morning in the hayfield. His account of these wanderings, ^^^^^ Vteztfs Afoot, was so boyish, so honest, enthu- Afoot siastic, and appreciative, that it was a delight ^^*®" to look at the world through his eyes ; and the young man of twenty-one found that he had secured his audience. He continued to wander and to write about his wanderings. He wrote novels also; but, save for the money that this work brought him, he put little value upon it. Poetic fame was his ambition, and he poems of won it in generous measure. Wis Poems of the the orient, Orient is wonderfully fervid and intense. Some of these poems contain lines that are as haunting as Poe's. Such is the refrain to his Bedouin Song: — From the desert I come to thee On a stallion shod with fire ; And the winds are left behind In the speed of my desire. Under thy window I stand, And the midnight hears my cry ! I love thee, I love but thee, With a love that shall not die Till the sun grows cold, And the stars are old, And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold ! Another favorite is his Song of the Camp, with its famous lines, — Each heart recalled a different name, But all sang "Annie Laurie." He wrote Home Pastorals (1875), ballads of home life in Pennsylvania; several dramatic poems; and a most valu- 384 AMERICA'S LITERATURE able translation of Faust (i 870-1 871). Bayard Taylor seems likely to attain his clearest wish, — to be remem- bered by his poetry rather than his prose. 51. Richard Henry Stoddard, 1825-1903. One of Taylor's oldest and best beloved friends was Richard Henry Stoddard, a young ironworker. He had hard labor and long hours ; but he managed to do a vast amount of reading and thinking, and he had much to contribute to this friendship. He held no college de- gree, but he knew the best English poetry and was an excellent critic. He, too, was a poet. In a few years he published a volume of poems; but poetry brought little gold, and by Hawthorne's aid he secured a position in the Custom House. He did much reviewing and edit- ing ; but poetry was nearest to his heart. There is a certain simplicity and finish about his poems that is most winning. The following is a special favorite : — The sky is a drinking cup, That was overturned of old ; And it pours in the eyes of men Its wine of airy gold. We drink that wine all day, Till the last drop is drained up. And are lighted off to bed By the jewels in the cup ! 52. Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1833-1908. Another poet and critic is Edmund Clarence Stedman. He reversed the usual order, and, instead of going from business to poetry, he went from poetry to business, and became a broker. When he had won success in Wall Street, he returned to poetry with an easy mind. He has a wide knowledge of literature, and is a keen and appreciative critic. Moreover, he can criticise his own work as well as that of other people. He has written many New LATER YEARS 385 England idylls, man}^ war lyrics, and many occasional poems. Everything is well proportioned and exquisitely finished, but sometimes we miss warmth and fire. It is like being struck by a cool wind to come from Taylor's Bedouin Song to Stedman's Song from a Drama: — Thou art mine, thou hast given thy word; Close, close in my arms thou art clinging; Alone for my ear thou art singing A song which no stranger has heard : But afar from me yet, like a bird, Thy soul, in some region unstirred, On its mystical circuit is winging. One of his poems that no one who has read it can for- get is The Discoverer ; graceful, tender, with somewhat of Matthew Arnold's Greek restraint, and so carefully polished that it seems simple and natural. This be- gins : — I have a little kinsman Whose earthly summers are but three, And yet a voyager is he Greater than Drake or Frobisher, Than all their peers together! He is a brave discoverer, And, far beyond the tether Of them who seek the frozen Pole, Has sailed where the noiseless surges roll. Ay, he has travelled whither A winged pilot steered his bark Through the portals of the dark, Past hoary Mimir's well and tree, Across the unknown sea. 53. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 1836-1907. Thonias Bailey Aldrich is counted with the New York group of poets by virtue of his fifteen years' residence in the metropolis. His tender little poem on the death of a child, Baby Bell, beginning — 386 AMERICA'S LITERATURE Have you not heard the poets tell How came the dainty Baby Bell Into this world of ours? touched the sympathetic American heart and won him the name of poet. If he had been a sculptor, he would have engraved cameos, so exquisitely finished is every- thing that he touches. The thought that some writers would expand into a volume of philosophy or a romance of mysticism, he was satisfied to condense into a lyric, as in his Identity: — Somewhere — in desolate wind-swept space — In Twilight-land — in No-man's-land — Two hurrying Shapes met face to face, And bade each other stand. " And who are you ? " cried one a-gape, Shuddering in the gloaming light. ■• I know not," said the second Shape, " I only died last night ! " In 1870 Aid rich returned to Boston. He then edited Every Saturday and later The Atlantic MontJdy. He published several volumes of poems and some charm- Mariorie i^g stories. The most original of the latter Daw. 1873. is the dclicious Marjorie Daw, which won such popularity as to verify the favorite dictum of Bar- num, "People like to be humbugged." This story is marked by the same artistic workmanship and nicety of finish that beautifies whatever Aldrich touched. One cannot imagine him allowing a line to go into print that was in any degree less perfect than he could make it. 54. Francis Bret Harte, 1839-1902. In 1868 a new voice came from the Pacific coast. The Overland Monthly had been founded, and Francis Bret Harte had become its editor. He had gone from Albany condensed to California, had tried preaching and mining. Novels, had written a few poems, and also Condensed LATER YEARS 387 Novels, an irreverent and wisely critical parody on the works of various authors whom he had been taught to admire. In his second month of office he pub- The Luck lished The Luck of Roaring; Camp. This was "'^^"p"^"^ followed by other stories and poems, and in a isea. twinkling he was a famous man. The flush of novelty has passed, and he is no longer hailed as the Ameri- can laureate ; but no one can help seeing that within his own limits he is a master. When he takes his pen, the life of the mining camp stands before us in bold outline. He is a very missionary of light to those who think there is no goodness beyond their own little circle. In How Santa Clans Came to Simpson's Bar, for instance, the dirty little boy with " fevier. And childblains. And roomatiz," gets out of bed to show to the rough men who are his visitors a hospitality which is genuine if somewhat soiled ; and the roughest of them all gallops away on a dare-devil ride over ragged moun- tains and through swollen rivers to find a city and a toy- shop, because he has overheard the sick child asking his father what " Chrismiss" is, and the question has touched some childhood memories of his own. Harte's one text in both prose and poetry is that in every child there is some bit of simple faith, and that in the wildest, rough- est, most desperate of men there is some good. Several of his poems are exceedingly beautiful lyrics ; those that are called "characteristic," because written in the line wherein he made his first fame, are vivid pictures of the mining camp, — coarse, but hardly vulgar, and with a never-failing touch of human sympathy and warm con- fidence in human nature. 55. Walt Whitman, 1819-1892. A few years ago, an old man with long white hair and beard, gray vest, gray coat, and a broad white collar well opened in front, 388 AMERICA'S LITERATURE walked slowly and with some difficulty to an armchair that stood on a lecture platform in Camden, New Jersey. He spoke of Lincoln, and at the end of the address he said half shyly : " My hour is nearly gone, but I fre- quently close such remarks by reading a little piece I have written — a little piece, it takes only two or three minutes — it is a little poem, • O Captain ! My Cap- tain ! ' " This is what he read : — O Captain ! my Captain ! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart ! heart ! heart ; But O the bleeding drops of red. Where on the deck my Captain lies. Fallen cold and dead. O Captain ! my Captain ! rise up and hear the bells ; Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths — for you the shores acrowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain ! dear father ! This arm beneath your head ! It is some dream that on the deck You 've fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will. The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells ! But I, with mournful tread. Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. LATER YEARS 3^9 This speaker was Walt Whitman. In 1855 he brought out his first volume of poems, Leaves of Grass. Seven years later he became the good angel of the leaves of army hospitals, writing a letter for one sirf- Grass, ferer, cheering another by a hearty greeting, ® ' leaving an orange or a piece of bright new scrip or a package of candy at bed after bed. Northerner or Southerner, it was the same to him as he went around, carrying out the little wishes that are so great in a sick man's eyes. A few years later he suffered from a par- tial paralysis. His last days were spent in a simple home near the Delaware, in Camden. The place of Walt Whitman as a poet is in dispute. Some look upon him as a "literary freak"; others as the mightiest poetical genius of America. He is capa- ble of writing such a gem as O Captain ! my Captain ! and also of foisting upon us such stuff as the following and calling it poetry : — The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors, old and new, My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues. Whitman believed that a poet might write on all sub- jects, and that poetic form and rhythm should be avoided. Unfortunately for his theories, when he has most of real poetic passion, he is most inclined to use poetic rhythm. He writes some lists of details that are no more poetic than the catalogue of an auctioneer ; but he is capable of painting a vivid picture with the same despised tools, as in his Cavalry Crossing a Ford : — A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands. They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun, — hark to the musical clank, Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop to drink. 390 AMERICA'S LITERATURE Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person, a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles, Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the ford — while Scarlet and blue and snowy white. The guidon fJags flutter gayly in the wind. This is hardly more than an enumeration of details; but he has chosen and arranged them so well that he brings the moving picture before us better than even paint and canvas could do. When he persists in telling us unin- teresting facts that we do not care to be told, he is a writer of prose printed somewhat like poetry ; but when he allows a poetic thought to sweep him onward to a glory of poetic expression, he is a poet, and a poet of lofty rank. 56. Minor Poets. It is especially difficult to select a few names from the long list of our minor poets, for the work of almost every one of them is marked by some appealing excellence of subject or of treatment. Celia Thaxter (i 835-1 894) is ever associated with the Isles of .Shoals, and, as Stedman says, " Her spraycy stanzas give us the dip of the sea-bird's wing, the foam and tangle of ocean." Lucy Larcom (i 826-1 893), too, was one of those who love the sea. The one of her poems that has perhaps touched the greatest number of hearts is Hannah Bind- ing Shoes, that glimpse into the life of the lonely woman of Marblehead with her pathetic question : — Is there from the fishers any news? John Hay (i 838-1905) forsook literature for the triumphs of a noble diplomacy, but not until he had shown his ability as biographer and as poet. The first readers of his/^//7' County Ballads were not quite certain that he was not a bit irreverent.; but they soon recognized the manli- ness of his sentiment, however audacious its expression might appear. Jones Very (1813-1880) is still winning LATER YEARS 39I an increasing number of friends by his graceful, delicate thought and crystalhne clearness of expression, h^vvard Rowland Sill (1841-1S87), though with few years of life and scanty leisure, made himself such an one as the king's son of his own Opportunity, who with the broken sword Saved a great cause tliat heroic day. His poems are marked by the insight which sees the difficulties of life and also the simple faith which bestows the courage to meet them and to look beyond them. James VVhitcomb Riley (1853-1916) has written many poems of pathos and beauty both in plain English and also in the " Hoosier dialect." Eugene Field (1850- 1895) is a genial humorist, but he is best known through his verses for children, and will long be remembered for his Little Boy Blue and others of almost equal charm. Edith Matilda Thomas (1854- ) has written many attractive lyrics of forest and meadow, sweet with. the breath of the country and of exquisite finish. The po- etical ability of Mrs. Josephine Preston Peabody Marks was recognized in 1909 by the bestowal of the Stratford- on-Avon prize upon her drama The Piper. Richard Watson Gilder (1844- 1909), greatest of the New York group, ever charms us by the delicate music of his verse. His finish is so artistic, so flawless, that some- times the first reading of one of his poems does not re- veal to us the strength of feeling half hidden by the be- witching gleams of its beauty. Although we can boast of no poet of the first rank among these later writers, yet poetic ability is so widely distributed among Ameri- can authors and so much of its product is of excellence that we certainly have reason to expect a rapid progress to some worthy manifestation before many years of the twentieth century shall have passed. 392 AMERICA'S LITERATURE We hear much about vers libre and about the "new verse." Vers libre, or free verse, is a form of writing wherein the rhythm, created by arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables, is "free" for the author to vary in whatever manner he thinks will best express his thought. The "new poetry," as it is called, stands for a movement to break away from everything that has come to be looked upon as the peculiar property of poetry, whether it be subject, vocabulary, or metre. It aims at coming close to life, and regards no subject as in itself uniit for a poem. In diction it refuses to be limited to the old poetic phrases and seeks to express itself in the language of every day. An especially strong note of this poetry is its individuality. It must portray just what the writer sees and feels, and nothing more, and it must be in his own words. He must not, like the Pre-Raphaelites, sea/ch for "stunning words for poetry," but he must use those that come naturally to his mind. " Life is growth and growth is change," wrote Lucy Larcom. "It is easier to differ from the great poets than to resemble them," said Walt Whitman. Whichever of these two quotations may be the more applicable, it is just as well to remember that composition printed in lines of unequal length may be poetry, or it may be what Howells so aptly calls "shredded prose." 57. Humorous writings. There is no lack of hu- mor in the writings of Americans. Indeed, we are a Charles little inclined to look askance at an author ^^i^y who manifests no sense of the humorous, and Warner, 1829-1900. to feel that something is lacking in his men- tal make-up. The works of Irving, Holmes, Lowell, the charming essays of Warner, Mitchell, and Cur- tis, and the stories of Frank Stockton and others, are lighted up by humor on every page, sometimes k^en and LATER YEARS 393 swift, sometimes graceful and poetic. These are humor- ists that make us smile. There are lesser humorists who make us laugh. Such was Charles Farrar Browne (1834-1867), " Artemus Ward," who wrote over his show, " You cannot expect to go in without paying your money, but you can pay your money without going in." Such was Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber (1814-1890), "Mrs. Partington," who "could desecrate a turkey better" if she " understood its anathema," and who thought " Men ought not to go to war, but admit their disputes to agita- tion." His fun depended almost entirely upon Lesser the misuse of words, Sheridan's old device in Humorists. " Mrs. Malaprop " of TJie Rivals. Such was David Ross Locke (1833-1888), "Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby," who was a political power in the years immediately following the Civil War. Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-1885), "Josh Billings," gave plenty of good, substantial advice. " Blessed is he who kan pocket abuse, and feel that it iz no disgrace tew be bit bi a dog." — "Most everyone seems tew be willing to be a phool himself, but he can't bear to have enny boddy else one." — "It is better to kno less, than to kno so mutch that aint so." These are bits of the philosopher's wisdom. Finley Peter Dunne (1867- ), "Mr. Dooley, " discourses to his friend "Mr. Hinnissy" on all sorts of subjects political and social, and smilingly gives many a shrewd and friendly hit at the special humors of the day. Of athletics he says, " In my younger days 'twas not considhered rayspict- able f'r to be an athlete. An athlete was always a man that was not sthrong enough f'r wurruk. Fractions dhruv him fr'm school an' th' vagrancy laws dhruv him to base- ball. Ye can't have ye'er strenth an' use it too, Hinnissy. I gredge th' power I waste in walkin' upstairs or puttin' on me specs." Dunne, as well as Browne and Locke 394 7\MERICA'S LITERATURE and Shaw, depended in part upon absurdities of spelling to attract attention, a questionable resort save where, as in the Biglozv Papers, it helps to bring a character before us. American humor is accused, and sometimes with justice, of depending upon exaggeration and irreverence. This humor has, nevertheless, a solid basis of shrewdness and good sense ; and, however crooked its spelling may be, it always goes straight to the point. Another character- istic quality is that in the "good stories " that are copied from one end of the land to the other, the hero does not get the better of the "other man" because the other man is a fool, but because he himself is bright. Our most famous humorist is Samuel Langhorne Samuel Clemens, or "Mark Twain." He was born in ciemeiir° Missouri, and became printer, pilot, miner, re- 1835-1910. porter, editor, lecturer, and author. His Inno- cents Abroad, the record of his first European trip, set the whole country laughing. The " Innocents " wander through Europe. They distress guides and cicerones by refusing to make the ecstatic responses to which these tyrants are accustomed. When they are led to the bust of Columbus, they inquire with mock eagerness, " Is this the first time this gentleman was ever on a bust .-' " The one place where they deign to show " tumultuous emo- tion " is at the tomb of Adam, whom they call tearfully a "blood relation," "a distant one, but still a relation." The book is a witty satire on sham enthusiasm ; Innoconts -' Abroad, but it is morc than a satire, for Mark Twain ^*^®" is not only a wit but a literary man. He can describe a scene like a poet if he chooses; he can paint a picture and he can make a character live. Among his many books are two that show close historical study, The Personal Memoirs of Joan of Arc and his ever de- lightful Tlie Prince and the Pauper. The latter is a tale LATER YEARS 395 for children, wherein the prince exchanges clothes with the pauper, is put out of the palace grounds, and has many troubles before he comes to his own again, Mark Twain abominates shams of all sorts and looks upon them as proper targets for his artillery. His reputation as a humorist does not depend upon vagaries in spelling, or amusing deportment on the lecture platform. He "is a clear-sighted, original, honest man, and his fun has a solid foundation of good sense. 58. History and biography. Our later historians have found their field in American chronicles. John Fiske (1842-1901) has made scholarly interpretations of our colonial records. Henry Adams (1838-1918), James Schouler (1839-1920), Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-191 1), Justin Winsor (1831-1897), Edward Eggle- ston ( 1 837-1902), James Ford Rhodes (1848- ), and others have written of various periods in the history of our country. Hubert Howe Bancroft's (1832-1918) His- tory of the Pacific Coast is a monumental work. John Bach Mc Master's (1852- ) History of the People of the United States is so full of vivid details that any stray paragraph is interesting reading. The general trend of the historical writing of to-day is toward people and their customs rather than bare annals of events. Besides his- tories, we have many volumes of reminiscences, and biographies without number. There is scarcely a mid- dle-aged or elderly man of any prominence who has not written his " Reminiscences," and hardly a dead man of any note whose " Life and Letters " has not been put on the market. Surely, the future student of American life and manners will not be without plentiful material. Among the biographers, James Parton (i 822-1 891) and Horace Elisha Scudder (i 838-1902) are of specially high rank. Scudder and Higginson deserve lasting gratitude, 396 AMERICA'S LITERATURE not only for the quality of their own work, but for their resolute opposition to all that is not of the best. The biography of the beasts and birds has not been forgotten. Many writers on nature are following in the footsteps of John Muir (1838-1914), who taught us to know the beauties and wonders of the West, and of John Burroughs (1837- ), a worthy disciple of Thoreau, who sees nature like a camera and describes her like a poet. Among these writers are Bradford Torrey (1843- ), Winthrop Packard (1862- ), Dallas Lore Sharp (1870- ), Enos A. Mills (1870- ), Clarence Hawkes, (1869- ), who sees only through the eyes of others, and Olive Thorne Miller (1831-1918), whose tender friendliness for animals is shown even in the titles of her books, Little Brothers of the Air and Little Folks in Feathers and Fur. The JonatJian Papers, by Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris (1870- ), are on the border line between story and natural history, but are always de- lightfully full of humor as well as the out of doors. 59. The magazine article. In American prose there has been of late a somewhat remarkable development of the magazine article, which is in many respects the suc- cessor of the lecture platform of some years ago. Its aim is to present information. The subject may be an invention, a discovery, literary criticism, reminiscence, biography, a study of nature, an account of a war, — what you will; but it must be information. It must be brief and readable. Technicalities must be translated into common terms, and necessarily it must be the work of an expert. Written with care and signed with the name of the author, these articles become a progressive encyclopaedia of the advancement and thought of the age. Another type of magazine article is that written by Agnes Repplier, Samuel McChord Crothers, and others, LATER YEARS 397 which does not apparently aim at giving information but seems rather to be the familiar, half-confidential talk of a widely read per- son with a gift for delightful mono- logue. The scope of our magazine arti- cles suggests the breadth and diver- sity of pure scholar- ship in America. Among our best- known scholars are Charles Eliot Nor- ton (1827-1908), biographer and translator of Dante as well as critic of art ; Francis James Child (1825-1896), editor of English and Scottish Bal- lads ; Francis An- drew March (1825- 191 1), our great- est Anglo-Saxon scholar ; *Felix Emanuel Schelling (1858- ), our best authority on the literature of the Elizabethan Age; Horace Howard Furness (i 833-191 2), the Shakespeare scholar; and Coirnelius Felton (1807- JOHN BURROUGHS A Bird in Sight 398 AMERICA'S LITERATURE 1862), president of Harvard College, with his profound knowledge of Greek and the Greeks. 60. Juvenile literature. Books for children have been published in enormous numbers. Even in the thirties they came out by scores in half a dozen cities of New England, in Cooperstown, Baltimore, New York, and elsewhere. In 1833 there was a "Juvenile Book- Store " in New York city. Many authors, Hawthorne, Mrs. Ward, Mark Twain, Trowbridge, and others have written books for children, but few have written for children alone. Among these latter, the principal ones , ^ .^ are Jacob Abbott and Louisa May Alcott. Jacob Alj- -^ ^ bott, 1803- More than two hundred books came from Ab- ^®'^®" bott's pen,— the Rollo Books, the Lucy Books, and scores of simple histories and biographies. He is always interesting, for he always makes us want to know what is coming next. When, for instance, Rollo and Jennie and the kitten in the cage are left by mistake to cross the ocean by themselves, even a grown-up will turn the page with considerable interest to see how they man- age matters. Abbott never "writes down" to children. Even when he is giving them substantial moral advice, he writes as if he were talking with equals; and few child- ish readers of his books ever skip the little lectures. Louisa May Alcott was a Philadelphia girl who grew up in Concord. She wrote for twenty years without any special success. Then she published Little Louisa May -^ Alcott, Women, and this proved to be exactly what the Lmfe'^^^^ young folks wanted. It is a clean, fresh, "homey" Women, book about young people who are not too good ^^^®" or too bright to be possible. They are not so angelic as Mrs. Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy ; but they are lovable and thoroughly human. A number of other books followed 'Little Womc72, all about sensible, LATER YEARS 399 healthy-minddd boys and girls. Within the last fifty years or more many papers and magazines have been published for young people; such as Merry s Museum, Our Young Folks, Wide Awake, and St. Nicholas. The patriarch of them all is The Youth's Companion, whose rather priggish name suggests its antiquity. It was founded in 1827 by the father of N. P. Willis. In its fourscore years of life it has kept so perfectly in touch with the spirit of the age that to read its files is an in- teresting literary study. It seems a long way back from its realistic stories of to-day to the times when, for in- stance, a beggar — in a book — petitioned some children, " Please to bestow your charity on a poor blind man, who has no other means of subsistence but from your beneficence." The Youth's Companion has followed lit- erary fashions ; but throughout its long career its aim to be clean, wholesome, and interesting has never varied. 61. Literary Progress. Counting from the very be- ginning, our literature is not yet three hundred years old. The American colonists landed on the shores of a new country. They had famine and sickness to endure, the savages and the wilderness to subdue. It is little wonder that for many decades the pen was rarely taken in hand save for what was regarded as necessity. What literary progress has been made may be seen by compar- ing Anne Bradstreet with Longfellow and Lanier, Cot- ton Mather with Parkman arid Fiske, the Nezv England Primer with the best of the scores of books for children that flood the market every autumn. We have little drama, but in fiction, poetry, humorous writings, essays, biography, history, and juvenile books, we produce an immense amount of composition. The pessimist wails that the motto of this composition is the old cry, "Bread and the games ! "-^that we demand only what will give 400 AMERICA'S LITERATURE us a working knowledge of a subject, or something that will amuse us. The optimist points to the high average of this writing, and to the fact that everybody reads. Many influences are at work ; who shall say what their resultant will be? One thing, however, is certain, — he who reads second-rate books is helping to lower the literary standard of his country, while he who lays down a poor book to read a good one is not only doing a thing that is for his own advantage, but is increasing the de- mand for good literature that almost invariably results in its production. The National Period [I. Later Years Writers of Fiction William Dean Howells Henry James Francis Marion Crawford Edward Everett Hale Frank Richard Stockton George Washington Cable Richard Malcolm Johnston John Esten Cooke Thomas Nelson Page Joel Chandler Harris Mary Noailles Murfree Edward Eggleston Silas Weir Mitchell John Townsend Trowbridge Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Sarah Orne Jewett Alice Brown Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward Rose Terry Cooke Kate Douglas Wiggin Riggs Helen Hunt Jackson Frances Hodgson Burnett Mary Hallock Foote James Lane Allen Ruth McEnery Stuart Booth Tarkington Winston Churchill Mary Johnston Jack London Margaret Deland Edith Wharton Henry Sydnor Harrison Bayard Taylor Richard Henry Stoddard Edmund Clarence Stedman Thomas Bailey Aldrich Francis Bret Harte Walt Whitman Celia Thaxter Lucy Larcom John Hay Jones Very LATER YEARS 401 Edward Rowland Siil Eugene Field Richard Watson Cilder Edith Matilda Thomas James Whitcomb Riley Josephine Preston Peabod)* Marks Humorists Oliver Wendell Holmes' Frank Richard Stockton James Russell Lowell Charles Farrar Browne Charles Dudley Warner Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber Donald Grant Mitchell David Ross Locke George William Curtis Henry Wheeler Shaw Samuel Langhorne Clemens Historians and Biographers John Fiske Hubert Howe Bancroft Henry Adams James Parton James Schouler Horace Elisha Scudder Thomas Wentworth Higginson Justin Winsor John Bach McMaster Edward Eggleston James Ford Rhodes Writers on Nature John Muir Dallas Lore Sharp Bradford Torrey Enos A. Mills Winthrop Packard Clarence Hawkes Naturalists Writers for Children , John Burroughs Jacob Abbott Olive Thorne Miller Louisa May Alcott SUMMARY Much literature has been produced since the war. The greater part of it is fiction. This is marked by realism, whose apostles are Howells and James. Many authors have revealed the literary possibilities of different parts of the country. The short story has been successfully developed. Historical novels and also the one-character novel are in favor. To the poets especially, the monthly magazines have been of much advantage. New York stands at present as our poetic cen- tre. Taylor, Stoddard, Stedman, and Aldrich are counted as part of the New York group. In 1868 Bret Harte was made 402 AMERICA'S LITERATURE famous by his stories and poems of the mining camp. Walt Wliitman is a poet of no humble rank. He believed in writ- ing on all subjects and in avoiding poetic form and rhythm, but is at his best when he forgets his theories. There is much humor in American writings. Of the lesser humorists, Browne, Locke, and Shaw depended in part upon incorrect spelling, and Shillaber upon a comical misuse of words. Our best humorist is Clemens. He is not only a wit, but also a man of much literary talent. His fun is always founded upon common sense. Most of our historians have chosen American history as their theme. Many volumes of biographies and reminis- cences have been published. The magazine article has taken the place of the lecture platform and the magazines form a progressive encyclopaedia of the advancement of the world. Great numbers of children's books have appeared. Among those authors that have written for children alone are Abbott and Miss Alcott. Many juvenile magazines and papers have been founded. The YoutJi's Companion is the oldest of all. Many literary influences are at work. What the resultant will be is still unknown. REFERENCES ENGLAND'S LITERATURE The following lists of books are of course not expected to be in any degree exhaustive. Their main object is, first, to suggest some few of the great number of criticisms and his- tories of literature that may be helpful to the student ; second, to tell where good editions of complete works or selections ^rom some of the less accessible authors may be found. For general consultation throughout the course the follow- ing authorities are recommended : — For history, manners, and customs; Green's Short History of the English People, Gardiner's Student's History of England, Traill's Social England. For history of literature, Jusserand's Literary History of the English People fro7tt the Origins to the Renaissance. For history of the language, Lounsbury's History of the English Language. For biography, the Dictionary of National Biography is the standard work. See also the Eng- lish Men of Letters Series. Three works, Craik's English Prose Selections (5 vols.). Ward's English Poets (4 vols.), and Morley's English Writers (i i vols.), contain well-chosen selec- tions from the works of nearly all the authors named, and are almost a necessity to students who are not able to consult a large library. For separate texts the volumes of the Rive>'- side Literature Series are of special value because of their careful editing, good binding, and reasonable price. Cassell's NatioJial Library is also inexpensive and convenient. Centuries V-XIII Freeman's Old E?tglish History. Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons. Brooke's English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest. Brother Azarias's Development of English Literature. 404 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE Beowulf has been translated by C. G. Child {Riverside Literature Series), Garnett, Hall. Morris and Wyatt, and others. Much of the poem is given in Brooke's History of Early English Litera- ture and Morley's English Writers. Morley, vol. i, contains Widsith, passages from Caedmon and Cynewulf, and also speci- mens of the old Celtic literature. The Exeter Book has been translated by Gollancz (Early English Text Society) ; also by Benjamin Thorpe. Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are contained in one volume of Bohn's Antiquarian Library. Alfred's Orosius and Pauli's Life of Alfred are in one volume of Bohn's Antiquarian Library. Asser's Life of Alfred has been edited by A. S. Cook (Ginn). Extracts from the Or7n7ilum, the Ancren Riwle, the History of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Layamon's Brut, and King Horn (with glossary) are contained in Morris and Skeat's Specimens of Early English, vol. i. Robin Hood Ballads are contained in Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Geoffrey of Monmouth's History is contained in Giles's Six Old English Chronicles (Bohn's A ntiquarian Library.) Century XIV Jusserand's Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century. Wright's History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in Eng- land during the Middle Ages. E. L. Cutts's Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages. Tudor Jenks's In the Days of Chaucer. Mandeville's Voyages and Travels, Cassell's National Library. Morris and Skeat's Specimens of Early English, vol. ii, con- tains selections from Mandeville, Langland, Wyclif, and Chaucer. Chaucer's Prologue, Knighfs Tale, and Nun's Priest's Tale (with glossary) are published in one volume of the Riverside Litera- ture Series. Lowell's Literary Essays, vol. iii, contains a delight- ful appreciation of Chaucer. Century XV Green's Town Life in the Fifteenth Century. Denton's England in the Fifteenth Century. Jusserand's Romance of a King's Life (James I). REFERENCES 405 The King's Quair, edited by Skeat. Malory's Morte d'' Arthur, edited by Sommer and also by Gollancz. Morris and Skeat's Specimetis of Early English, vol. iii, contains selections from the King's Quair, the Morte d' Arthur, z.nd Cax- ton's Recuyell of the History es of Troye. Ballads. Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads is th:; great authority. Percy's Reliques. Gummere's Old English Bal- lads contains a well-chosen grqup and also a valuable introduc- tion. Mystery plays and Moralities. The York Plays, edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith ; The English Religious Drama, by K. L. Bates. English Miracle Plays, Moralities, and Interludes, by A. W. Pollard, contains Everyman. Morley's Specimens of the Pre- Shakespearian Drama contains The Foure P's, Ralph Roister Doister, Gorboduc, Campaspe, etc. Century XVI Ward's History of English Dramatic Literature {2, vols.). Lowell's Old English Dramatists. Lamb's Specimens of English Dramatic Poets (Bohn's Antiqua- rian Library). Saintsbury's History of Elizabethan Literatiire. E. P. Whipple's Literature of the Age of Elizabeth. Lowell's Literary Essays, vol. iv, contains his essay on Spenser ; in vol. iii is his essay on Shakespeare. Schelling's The English Chronicle Play. Schelling's The Queen s Progress. Jusserand's The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare. Goadby's The England of Shakespeare. Ordish's Shakespeare's London. Warner's The People for whom Shakespeare wrote. Tudor Jenks's In the Days of Shakespeare. Sidney Lee's A Life of William Shakespeare and Shakespeare's Life and Work. Rolfe's Shakespeare the Boy. Dowden's Shakespeare Primer. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar. Lamb's Specimens of English Dramatic Poets who lived about the Time of Shakespeare contains Gorboduc, Tamburlaine, Edward II, The Rich Jew of Malta, Dr. Faustus, etc. The 4o6 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE Mermaid Series contains the best plays of Beaumont ana Fletcher, Marlowe, and others. Morris and Skeat's Specimens of Early English, vol. iii, contains selections from Skelton, Tyndale, Surrey, Wyatt, also Ralph Roister Bolster, Eiiphiies, and The Shepherd's Calendar. The Mermaid Series contains a most valuable selection of the play? of this age. Utopia. Cassell's National Library, Morley's Universal Library. Cajnelot Series, Teinple Classics, etc. Wyatt and Surrey. TotteVs Miscellany in Arber's English Re prints. The Foure P's. Full extracts in Morley's English Plays. Ralph Roister Bolster, and Corboduc. Morley's English Plays and Manly's Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearian Brama. Lyly. Enphiies in Arber's Reprints. Endymion, edited by G. P. Baker (Holt). Campaspe is in Manly's Specimens of the Pre- Shakespearian Brama. Spenser. The Riverside edition (3 vols.), edited by F. J. Child, is authoritative. The Globe edition is in one volume. Minor poems in the Temple Classics (Macmillan) ; The Shepherd'' s Calendar in Cassell's National Library. The Faerie Qiteene, Bk. I, in Riverside Literature Series. Sidney. Arcadia, edited by H. Friswell. Prose selections, edited by G. Macdonald in the Elizabethan Library. Befence of Poesie, in Cassell's National Library. Astrophel and Stella, edited by A. Pollard (Scott). Lyrics. A Book of Elizabethan Lyrics, edited by F. E. Schelling. Lyrics from the Bramatists of the Elizabethan Age, edited by A. H. Bullen. Marlowe. Chief plays in the Mermaid Series. Br. Faustus in the Ternple Bramatists, in Morley's English Plays, and in Morley's Universal Library. Hooker. Ecclesiastical Polity, Books I-IV, in Morley's Universal Library. Shakespeare. Good editions are numerous. Furness's Variorum is best for advanced work. For the beginner, Julius Ccesar, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, The Tempest, and selec- tions from the sonnets are recommended. The Winter's Tale is published in one volume of Cassell's National Library together with Greene's Pandosto. REFERENCES 4^7 Century XVII Saintsbury's Elizabethan LiteraUi7-e (to 1660). Lowell's Literary Essays, vol. iv, contains his essay on Milton; . vol. iii that on Dryden. Gosse's Jacobean Poets. Gosse's Seve?iteenth Century Studies. Lowell's Old Efiglish Dramatists. Macaulay's Essays on Milton and Bunyan. Schelling's Seventeenth Century Lyrics. Lamb's On the Artificial Comedy of the Last Century. The chief plays of this age are found in the Mer7naid Series. Bacon. Essays are published in Morley's Universal Library^ also in Macmillan's Etiglish Classics and in Cassell's A^ational Li- brary. Learning, Book I, has been edited by A. S. Cook (Ginn). Jonson. Several of his masques are in H. A. Evans's English Masques. Timber, edited by F. E. Schelling (Ginn); three of his best plays and The Sad Shepherd are in Morley's Universal Library. Beaumont and Fletcher. Best plays are in the Mertnaid Series. Donne's poems are in the Muses'' Libraty, edited by E. K. Cham- bers. Milton. Masson's Poetical Works of Johti Aliltott (3 vols.) is th'^ standard edition. Paradise Lost, Books I-III, and earlier poems with notes and biographical sketch in Riverside Litera- ture Series ; also in Cassell's National Library (2 vols.). Mil- ton's Minor Poems (Allyn and Bacon). Herbert. 77/1? Temple is in Morley's Universal Library, also in Cassell's National Library. Crashaw. Poems, edited by Turnbull, are in Library of Old Au- thors j edited by Grosart, in Euller''s Worthies'' Library. Vaughan. Poems, edited by E. K. Chambers, in Muses' Library. Taylor. Holy Living and Holy Dying, in Bohn's Standard Li- brary. Selections, edited by E. E. Wentworth (Ginn). Carew, Lovelace, Suckling. Selections are in Cavalier and Co7i7'- tier Lyrists, Canterbury Poets Series (Scott). Herrick. Hesperides and Noble Nui7ibe7-s, edited by A. Pollard. Selections in Athenceufn P7'ess Series (Ginn). Lyrics, selected from Hesperides and Noble Numbers, by T. B. Aldrich (Century Co.). 408 ENGLAND'S LITERATURE Walton. Compleat Angler,'\nC?iSSt\Vs Naironal Library. Lives of Donne and Herbert in Morley's Universal Library. Butler. Selections from Hudibras in Morley's Universal Library. Bunyan. The Pilgritn's Progress in Riverside Literature Series. Dryden. Religio Laid, etc. in Cassell's National Library ; also selections from his poems. Poetical Works, edited by W. P. Christie ; select poems edited by Christie (Clarendon Press). Palamon and Arcite, edited by Arthur Gilman, Riverside Lit' erature Series. Century XVIII Gosse's History of English Literature in the Eighteenth Cen- tury. Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne. Susan Hale's Men and Manners of the Eighteenth Century. Thackeray's English Humorists. Johnson's Lives of the Poets (see Johnson's works). Leslie Stephen's Hours in a Library. Macaulay's Essay on Addison, edited by W. P. Trent, Riverside Literature Series. De Quincey's Essay on Pope. Lowell's Ajiiong ?ny Books. Eighteenth Cetitury Letters, edited by R. B. Johnson. Lanier's The English Novel. Carlyle's Essay on Burns, edited by George R. Noyes, Riverside Literature Series. Carlyle on Burns and Scott, Cassell's National Library. Pope. Essay on Man, edited by Mark Pattison (Clarendon Press); Essay on Man, Rape of the Lock, etc. edited by Henry W. Boyn- ton, Riverside IMerature Series. Addison and Steele. The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, edited by Eustace Budgell, Riverside Literature Series; also edited by Samuel Thurber, Allyn and Bacon. Selections, Athenceum Press, Golden Treasury Series, etc. Selections from the Specta- tor, edited by J. Habberton (Putnam): from the 72.n\\x^\ G. Goodrich). Freneau's Poems (3 vols.), edited by Pattee (Princeton University Library). Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution, edited by Frank Moore (Appleton). The National Period For biography, consult the American Men of Letters Series (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). This contains lives of Irving, Tho- reau. Cooper, Emerson, Poe, Willis, Franklin, Bryant, Simms, Taylor, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, Prescott, Parkman, Bret Harte, Holmes, Motley, Whitman, Curtis, Margaret Fuller, and Webster. Irving's Life and Letters (4 vols.), edited by P. M. Irving (Putnam). J. G. Wilson's Bryant and his Friends (Fords). Halleck's Life and Letters, edited by J. G. Wilson (Appleton). The Poetical Writings of Halleck, edited by J. G. Wilson (Apple- ton). REFERENCES 413 J^ife and Letters of Longfellow, by Samuel Longfellow (3 vols.) (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). Higginson's Conte?nporaries (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). S. T. Pickard's Life and Letters of fohn Greenleaf Whittier {2 vols.) (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). E. E. Hale's fames Russell Lowell and his Friends (Houghton, Mifflin and- Co.). H. E. Scudder's /flw^j Russell Lowell: A Biography (2 vols.) (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). J. T. Morse's Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes (2 vols.) (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). J. E. Cabot's Ralph Waldo Etnerson, A Memoir (2 vols.) (Hough- ton, Mifflin and Co.). The Correspondence of Emerson atid Carlyle (2 vols.) (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). Houghton, Mifflin and Co. are the only authoritative publishers of the works of the following writers : Longfellow in 1 1 vols. Whittier in 7 ; Lowell inn; Holmes in 14 ; Emerson in 1 2 ; Thoreau in II ; Hawthorne in 13 ; Mrs. Stowe in 16. The same pubhshers have also brought out one-volume editions of the above New Eng- land poets. Many selections are published in the various numbers of the Riverside Literature Series and in American Poems and Ainerican Prose, edited by H. E. Scudder. The Riverside Litera- ture Series contains a large number of selections from their writings. Nathaniel Hawthorne and his ^//"^, by Julian Hawthorne (Hough- ton, Mifflin and Co.). Henry James's Life of Hawthortte (Harper). Mrs. James T. Fields's Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). Bancroft's History of the United States (6 vols.) (Little, Brown and Co.). Prescott's Works (12 vols.) (Lippincott). Motley's Works (17 vols.) (Harper). Parkman's Works (12 vols.) (Little, Brown and Co.). Ticknor's Life of Prescott (Ticknor and Fields). Motley's Letters, edited by G. W. Curtis (2 vols.) (Harper). Holmes's A Memoir of Motley (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). C. H. Farnham's Life of Francis Parkman (Little, Brown and Co.). Manly's Southern Literature (Johnson). 414 AMERICA'S LITERATURE Baskervill's Southern Writers (Barbee). S. A. Link's Pwtteers of Southern Literature, including Hayne, Timrod, Simms, Cooke, Poe, and others (Barbee and Smith). Simms's A'ovels (lo vols.) (Armstrong). Simms's Poems (2 vols.) (Redfield). Hayne's Poems (Lothrop). Timrod's Poems (Houghton, Mifflin, and Co.). Poe's Works (11 vols.) (Stone and Kimball). (17 vols.) (Cl-o well). The works of the later authors are so generally accessible as to make special reference unnecessary. For biographical data, con- sult Who's Who in America, and for both criticism and biography consult the magazine articles which may be found through Poole's Index, and the Cumulative Index. An exceedingly valuable list of references to poems and maga- zine articles as well as books relating to Bryant, Poe, Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, Whitman, and Lanier mav be found in The Chief Americaft Poets, by Curtis Hidden Page (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.). INDEX References to summaries and lists of names are printed in heavy type. The location on the colored map of the places mentioned in the text is indicated. Abbotsford, map i, Ca; 205: 306; 207. A Becket, Thomas, 44. Absalom and Achitophel, 148. Abyssinia, 177. Adam, 36, 141, 142. Adam Bede, 229, 230, 231. Addison, Joseph, portrait, 159; love for Swift, 166; Johnson compared with, 175, 177; 241- Address to Ihe Deil, 192, Adonais, 211. /Elfric, homilies of, 21, 24. /Eneas, 30. Mneid, Surrey's, 75; Dryden's, 149. /Esop's Fables, 64. Africa, 38, 65. "Age of Arrest," 54. Age of the Pen, 257-260. Albert, Prince, 256. Alcuin, account of, 16; 24. Aleppo, 180. Alexander's Feast, 149. Alexander the Great, in romance, 29, 34- Alexandra, Queen, Tennyson s welcome to, 255. Alfred the Great, account of, 16-20; portrait, 17; 23; 24; 83. Alice in Wonderland, 259. Allegory. See Pilgrim's Progress, Faerie Queene. AUiteration, in Old English poetry, 6; disappearing, 22; 24; in Piers Plow- man, the last alliterative poem, 39, 40; Chaucer's use of, 49. Allon Locke, 258. Amelia, in Vanity Fair, 227. America, literature affected by discov- eries in, 69; by Revolution in, 186. Ancient Mariner, The Rime of the, 198, 26s. Ancren Riwle, The, 28, 30, 34. Angles, I, 2. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, begun, 19; 20; 21; 23; 24; ends, 30. Anglo-Saxon metre, 6, 7; used by Lang- land, 39, 40; abandoned by Chaucer. 49- 51- Anglo-Saxon poetry, remains of, 8; 24. Apelles' Song, 89. Apollyon. in Pilgrim's Progress, 144. Arcadia, 86-88; printed, 92; lOi. Arctic Circle, 184. Arctic Ocean, 81. Areopagilica, 121-122. Armada, Spanish, 92. Armour, Jean, 191. .Arnold, Dr., of Rugby, 248. .\rnold, Matthew, 232, 240; account of, 248-249; 264; 266; 267. .\rthur, in cycle of romance, 29; 30; 34; 54; 66; Milton's proposed epic of, 140; 254. Asia, 180, 220. Ask Me no More, 132, 133. Astrophel and Stella, 94. Aurora Leigh, 251. Austen, Jane, 303; account of, 221-222; 228; 264; 266. Austen, Lady, 188 Author, a mediaeval, at work, illustra- tion, 15. "Authorized version." See Bible. Avon River, map i, CDb; 95; 96; to6. Aylmar, in King Horn, 30. Baa. Baa, Black Sheep, 239. Bacon, Francis, account of, 106-109; 150; 151; 161. Ballads, early, 21-22, 24; of Robin Hood, 32-33, 34 ; of the fifteenth cen- tury, 55-56; marks of, 56-57; Celtic influence on, 57, 67; in sixteenth cen- tury, 81; in Percy's Rcliques, 187; of Coleridge and Wordsworth, 198; of the Scottish Border, 204-205. Banks o' Boon, 191. Bannockburn, 191. Banhcstvr Tovers, 259. Barrett, Elizabeth, 249-250. See Eliz- abeth Barrett Browning. Barrie, Sir James, 260. Bastile, 174. Battle of the Books, 164. Baxter, Richard, account of, 131-132; 151. 4l6 INDEX Beaumont, Francis, 105. See Beau- mont and Fletcher. Beaumont and Fletcher, their skill in plots, no; account of, 114; 150; 151. Becky Sharp, in Vanity Fair, 227. Bede, account of, 12-16; 18; 19; 23-24. Bennett, Arnold, 260. Bentley, Richard, criticises Pope's Iliad, 157- Beowulf, story of, 3-5; facsimile of MS., 5; changed by Christianity, 5-6; lines from, 6; 8; oompared with The Dream of the Rood, 23; 24; treat- ment of woman in, 31 ; 40; 262. Bible, paraphrased by Caedmon, 10; translated by Wyclif, 41-43; trans- lated by Tyndale, 73, loi; "King James version," 109-110; 151; basis of Paradise Lost, 141; Bunyan's knowledge of, 145; 193; Ruskin uses vocabulary of, 247. Bird, The, 128. Black Death, 36, 40, 50. Blackmore, Richard Doddridge, 260. Blackwood's Magazine, 213, 218, 221, 229, 266. Blank verse, 75; gaining ground in the drama, 89; its power shown by Mar- lowe, 90; becomes accepted metre of the drama, 102. Blessed Damozel, The, 257. Blue-Coat School, 214, 217. Boccaccio, 44, 51. Boldness in thought, 72; in literature, 81, lOI. Bombay, birthplace of Kipling, 237. Bonaparte, 206. Book of Snobs, 226. Boswell, James, account of, 1 77-1 78; 1 95. Bride of Abydos, The, 209. Britten's Bower of Delights, 88. Brobdingnag, in Gulliver's Travels, 165, 166. Bronte, Charlotte, 228-229; 264. Brooke, Rupert, 261. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 249-251; 264. Browning, Robert, account of, 249- 252; portrait, 250; 262: 264; 267. Brushwood Boy, The, 240. Brut, 30, 34. Bunyan, John, account of, 143-146; portrait, 143; 151; 152. Burke, Edmund, 178; 181; account of, 183-184; 194; 195- Burns, Robert, 128; account of, 189- 194; 196; 197; 262. Butler, Samuel, account of, 139-140; 151; 152. Byron, Lord, 202, 203, 205; account d, 207-210; 211; 2i3;2i4;2i8;222;223; 264; 265. Cabots, the, 65, 67. Cffidmon, account of, 8-10; in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, 14; 23; 24. Cain, 6. Calais, 202. Calvinists, 164. Cambridge, map 1, Eb; 68; 90; 119; 135; 186. Canterbury, map i, Ec. Canterbury Tales, account of, 44-49; 51 ; printed by Ca.xton, 64. Canute, poem of, 22. Captains Courageous, 239. Carew, Thomas, account of, 132-133; 151- Caricature, employed by Dickens, 225. Carlyle, Mrs., 230. Carlyle, Thomas, 230; 240; account of, 242-245; 264; 266; 267. Ca.sh, in Ben Jonson's works, 112. Cato, 162-163. "Cavaher Poets," 132; 134; 150; 151. Caxton, William, 54; presented to Ed- ward IV, illustration, 63; introduces printing, 64; 67. Celestial City, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144, 145- Celts, driven west and north by the Teutons, 1-2; learn Christianity, 5: literature influenced by, 22-23, 24 57, 67; 81. Century of Prose, 153-196. Century of the Novel, 197-268. Channel, 138. Chapman, George, no. Charlemagne, 16, 17, 32; romance of, 29, 34- Charles I. 117, 122, 124, 132, 138. Charles II, returns to England, 124; 130; 140; feeling towards dissenters, 144; welcomed by Dryden, 146. Chaucer, Geoflfrey, 33; account of, 43- 50; portrait, 49; 51 ; imitators of, 5a- 53; 54; 56; 66; 68; 85; 135. Chaucer's Century, 35-51. Chesterfield, Lord, 176-177. Chettle, Henry, writes of Shakespeare, 98. Chev^y Chase, 56. Childe Harold, 205, 207, 208, 265. Child's Garden of Verse, The, 237. Chrislabel, 200. Christian, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144, 145- Christmas Eve and Easter Day, 251. INDEX "Christopher North," 2i8. See Wil- son, John. Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 30. Chronicles, become interesting, 28; 34. Church, after Alfred's death, 21; after the Blaclc Death, 36, 37, 51; owns much land, 55. Church, dedication of a Saxon, illustra- tion, 20. Church of England, separates from Church of Rome, 74, loi ; in contro- versy with the Puritans, 95; rebuked by Milton, 121 ; defended by Dryden, 149; 163- Church Porch, The, 126. City of Destruction, in Pilgrim's Prog- ress, 144. Civil War, 137, 171. Clarissa Harlowe, 173. Clement, in Ben Jonson's works, 112. Cloud, The, 210. Coffee drinking, 153, 194. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 198, 199, 200-201 ; portrait, 201; 208; 214; 223; 264-265. Collins, William Wilkie, 260. Colonel Newcome, in The Newcomes, 228. Columbus, 65, 67, 69. Comedy of Errors, The, 98. Commons, House of, 55. See Parlia- ment. Commonwealth, religious writings dur- ing the, 129, 151. Com pleat Angler, The, 137-138; 152. Compound words liked by the Teu- tons, 7. Comus, 120, 121. "Conceits," of Herbert, 126; of Vaughan, 127; of Donne, 119, 151. Confessions of an English Opium-Ealer, 218, 265. Conrad, Joseph, 260. Constantinople, captured by the Turks, 68. Continent of Europe, 134, 180, 208. Copernicus, 69. Corinna's Going a-Maying, 135-136. Correctness. See Form. Corsair, The, 209. Colter's Saturday Night, The, 193-194, 196. Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. See Arcadia. Coventry, map i, Db. Cowper, WiUiam, account of, 187-189; 194; 196. Craigenputtock, map i, Ca; home of Carlyle, 243; left by him, 244. Cranford, 229. Crashaw, Richard, 124; account of, 126-127; 150; 151. Crecy, 36. Criticism, in Queen Anne's time, 171, 195- Cromwell, Oliver, 122; Milton writes in his honor, 123; eulogized by Dry- den, 146. Cross, Mary Ann Evans, 229. See "George Eliot." Crossing the Bar, 257. Crusades, 27, 29, 34, 35, 36. Cry of the Children, The, 249. "Currer Bell," 228. See Charlotte Bronte. Curse of Kehama, The, 200. Cycles, of mystery plays, 58, 59. Cymbeline, 103. Cynewulf, account of, 10-12; 23; 24. Da Gama, Vasco, 65, 67. Damascus, 250. Danes, in Beowulf, 3; invade North- umbria, 16, 17; 19; 20; 21; 24. Dante, 44. Darwin, Charles, 258. David Copperfield, 225. Davidson, Betty, 189. Davis's Straits, 184. Dead Sea, 38. Decadence of Elizabethan drama, 115- 116, 151. Decay of Beggars in the Metropolis, 217. Defence of the English People, 122, 140. Defoe, Daniel, 163; account of, 167- 171; portrait, 169; 194; 195; 222. Dekker, Thomas, no. Delectable Mountains, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144. Delights of the Muses, 126. Denmark, 3. Dear's Lament, 7, 8, 23. Departmental Ditties, 237. De Quincey, Thomas, 203, 214; ac- count of, 217-221; portrait, 219; 223; 264; 265. Deserted Village, The, 182, 187. Destruction, the City of, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144. Deucalion, 246. Devotional books, in thirteenth cen- tury, 28. Diana of the Crossways, 231. Dickens, Charles, account of, 223-226; portrait, 224; Thackeray compared with, 226-227; 229; 230; 231; 264; 260. 4i8 INDEX Dictionary, Johnson's, 175. 176-177, 183, 195- Disdain Returned, 133. Disraeli, Benjamin, Lord Beaconsfield, 258. Dissertation on Roast Pig, A, 217. Diverting History of John Gilpin, The, 188. Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge, 259. Don Juan, 209. Donne, John, account of, 117-119; Wal- ton's Life of, 137; 150; 151; 211. Dorsetshire, 233. Doubting Castle, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144. Douglas, in the ballads, 204. Downright, in Ben Jonson's works, 112, Drama, early Elizabethan, 82; later Elizabethan, 88, loi ; need of a standard verse, 89; loi ; the classic, III; decadence of the Elizabethan, 1 1 5-1 16; 151 ; of Greeks imitated by Milton 142; of the Restoration, 146- 147; 152; 260. Dream Children, 217. Dream of Fair Women, A, 254 Dream of the Rood, The, 11, 12, 23. Dryden,John, account of, 146-150; 151; 152; 153; 171- Dublin, 163. Dumfries, map i, Ca; 192. Dunciad, The, 157-158- Dunstan, 21, 24. Dutch, Dryden writes on war with, 147. Early English Period, 1-24. Early English Poetry, 1-12; form of, 6; as a whole, 12; 23 ; 24. Earthly Paradise, The, 257. East India House, 214, 216. Ecclesiastical History, 14, 18, 19, 24. Ecclesiastical Polity, 95, 102. Eden. 141. Ecfinburgh, map i, Ca; 180; 190; 191; 203: 204; 220. Edinburgh Review, 208, 221, 261, 266. Edinburgh, University of, Carlyle en- ters, 243; Carlyle chosen Lord Rec- tor of, 245. Edward II, Marlowe's, 90, 91. Edward V, More's Life of, 72. Edward VL 78. Edward VIE 255. "Egdon Heath," 233. Elegy in a Country Churchyard, 186. 196. Elixir, 125. Elizabeth, Queen, 71, 79, 82, 86, 91, 92, 258; at Kenil worth, 96: England dur- ing reign of, 80; loi, death of, 103; 106; 117. Elizabeth, granddaughter of Shake- speare, 106. Elizabethan Age, literary debt to Skel- ton, 71; England during, 80; literary boldness, 81; early drama of, 82; in- spiration lingers, 103; vanishes, 150; romances of, 171. Ely, map i, Eb; 22. Emma, 222. Emmanuel's Land, in Pilgrim's Prog- ress, 144. Endymion, 213, 265. England, named from the Angles, 2; Bede's history of, 14; Goldsmith's, 180; Hume's, 185; Macaulay's, 232, 266; at the death of Alfred, 20; con- quered by William, 23, 25; visited by the Black Death, 36, 40; feudal sys- tem in, 35; increases in strength, 80, 81,101; awakening to the World War, 261. England's Helicon, 88. English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, 208. English Humourists, 228.- English language. Old English com- pared with modern English, 6; used by Bede. 15; of the ninth century, 18; as used by Alfred, 18, 19; as used by Chaucer, 50; struggle be- tween French and English. 26; after the Conquest, 27; fears of its disap- pearance, 109. Enoch Arden. 256, 267. Ensham, 21. Epic, growth of, 3; Milton's proposed British, 140; ancient epics, 69. Essay of Dramatic Poesy, 149. Essay on Criticism, 155. Essay on Man. 158. Essay on Milton 241, 242; Macaulay's, 266. Essay on Projects. 168. Essays, Bacon's, 107-108. Essays of Elia, 216, 265. Ethelwulf, 20. Euphues, 82, 86, loi. Euphuism, 83; used by Shakespeare, 98. Europe, ancient MSS. carried through- out, 68; aroused by Renaissance and discoveries, 69. Eve, 36, 141. E.ve of St. Agnes, 213. Eve of St. John, 204. Every Man in His Humour, no. Everyman, 62, 63; scene from, illustra- tion, 61; 67. INDEX 419 Excalibur. in Malory, 54. Exeter, map i, Cc. 8. Exeter Book, 8, 24. Faerie Queene, read to Raleigh, 92; symbolism of, 93; beauties of, 94; 98; 102. Faithful, in Pilgrim's Progress, 145. Familiar Studies of Men and Books, 236. Far from the Madding Crowd, 233 . "Father of Enghsh Poetry," 43, 48. Faustus, the Tragical History of Dr., go. Fergusson, Robert, 190. Ferrex and Porrc.x, 79. See Gorboduc. Feudal system, 35. Fielding, Henry, 173, 194, 195, 221, 227. First English comedy, 78, loi. First English tragedy, 79, loi. First Folio, 115. First poet laureate, 114. First printed English book, 64. First real novel, 172, 195. Fletcher, John. See Beaumont and Fletcher. Flight of a Tartar Tribe, The, 220. Florence, 44. Ford, John, no. Form, attention to, needed by English literature, 82, loi ; introduced by Wyatt and Surrey, 74, 75; shown by Lyly, Spenser, and Sidney, 82, loi; influence of French care for, 146-147, 152; Pope's care for, 158. Forsaken Merman, The, 248. Foure P's, The, 77. Four Georges, The, 228. France, borrows Alcuin, 16; sends teachers to England, 18; invaded "by Normans, 25; 30; 43; Reign of Ter- ror in. 184; Revolution in, afTects liter- ature, 186; 197-198. Fraser's Magazine, 226, 243. Frederick II, Carlyle's History of the Life and Times of, 245. Freeman, Edward Augustus, 258. "Free verse," 75. 251. See Blank verse. French, learned by the English, 26; History of the Kings of Britain trans- lated into, 30; Mandeville's Travels written in, 38; used by Chaucer, 43, 49; models followed by the English, 68, 146-147, 152; 155- French Revolution, Burke's Reflections on the, 184. French Revolution, Carlyle's History of the, 244. Froude, James Anthony, 258. Fuller, Thomas, 129-130, 131, 205. Fuller's Worthies, 130. Galsworthy, John, 260. Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 229, 264. Gazetteer, position of, 160. Genesis, 141. Geoffrey of Monmouth, 29, 34. George I, 163. George IV, 206. "George Eliot," account of, 229-230; 231; 233; 264; 266. Germany, early home of the Teutons, i; 23; printing in, 64; effect of the Renaissance upon, 69, 73; refuge of Tyndale, 73; 184; 199. Giant Despair, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144- Gibbon, Edward, 184; account of, 185; 194; 195- Gibson, Wilfrid Wilson, 261. Girondists, 197. Glasgow, map i, Ba; University of, 235. Glastonbury, map i, Cc; 21. Globe Theatre, 105. Goldsmith, Oliver, account of, 179- 183; portrait, 181; 187; Cowper com- pared with, 188; 194; 195; 196. Good-Naturcd Man, The, 182. Goody Two Shoes, 180. Gorboduc, 79; compared with Ralph Roister Doister, 80; 82; loi. Gospel of St. John, Bede's translation of, 15, 19, 24. Gospels, in the "authorized version," 109. Grail. See Holv Grail. Gray's Elegy, 186, 187, 196. Gray, Thomas, account of, 186-187; 194; 196. Great Fire of London, 147. Great Hoggarty Diamond, The, 226. Greek, dances loved by Herrick, 135; drama and Samson Agonisles, 142; language studied by Shakespeare, 96; literature known to Surrey and Wyalt, 74; mythology, 212; restraint of Arnold, 248; 267. Greeks, flee to Italy, 68; ancient writ- ings of, 68; modern, helped by By- ron, 210, 265. Green, John Richard, 258. Grendel, in Beowulf, 3, 4, 5. Greville, Fulke, 92. Guardian, The, 162, 195. Gulliver's Travels, 165-166; 195. Hallam, Arthur Henry, 255. Hamlet, 103. 420 INDEX Handsome Nell, 189. Hardy, Thomas, 231; account of, 232- 23s; 261, 264, 266. Hastings, Warren, 183-184, Macaulay's Essay on, 242. Hathaway, Anne, 96. Hebrides, 179. Henry VII, 70-76, 78, loi, passim. Henry Esmond, 228. Herbert, George, account of, 124-126; portrait of, 125; model of Vaughan, 128; Walton's Z-j/eo/, 137; 138; 150; 151. Heroes and Hero-Worship, 244. Herrick, Robert, 132 ; account of, 134- 137; 151; 152. Hesperides, The, 135-136- Hester, 216. Hey wood, John, 77, 78, 100, loi. Hilda, 9- Hind and the Panther, The, 149. Hindustan, 237. History of America, Robertson's, 184. History of England, Goldsmith's, 180. Hisiory of England. Hume's, 185. History of England, Macaulay's, 242, 266. History of Scotland during the Reigns of Queen Mary and James the Sixth, Robertson's, 184. Hisiory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon's, 185. History of the French Revolution, Car- lyle's, 244. History of the Kings of Britain. 29. History of the Life and Times of Frederick II, Carlyle's, 245, 267. History of the World, 106; progress of, 262. Holy and Profane State, The, 129. Holy Grail, 30. Holy Land, 35. Holy Living and Holy Dying, 130. Homer, Pope compared with, 156. Homilies, 21, 24. Hooker, Richard, account of, 95; 100; 102. Hottentot, 176. Hours of Idleness, 208. House of the Interpreter, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144. Hrothgar, in Beowulf, 3, 4. Hudibras, 139-140; 152. Hudson's Bay, 184. Humber River, map I, DEb; 17. Hume, David, 184, 194, 195. Hundred Years' War, 36, 50, 54, 66. Hunt, Leigh, 214. Huxley, Thomas, 258. Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativ- ity, 1 1 9-1 20. Hymns, Addison's, 163; Cowper's, 188. Idylls of the King, 256, 267. Ignorance, in Pilgrim's Progress, 145. Iliad, translated by Pope, 156. // Fenseroso, 120. India, 180, 184, 226; Kiphng in, 237, 238; Macaulay in, 241. Indian law, Macaulay writes on, 242. Inland Voyage, An, 236. In Memoriam, 255, 267. Inquisition, Spanish, 134. Instauratio Magna, 108-109. Interludes, 76, 77, loi. Interpreter, the, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144. Ireland, 14; famous schools in, 22; Spenser in, 91; 92; Addison in, 160; return to themes of, 260. Italy, resort of the English clergy, 37; visited by Chaucer, 43; literature of, compared with that of England, 43, 44, 68; sought by Greek scholars, 68; effect of the Renaissance upon, 69; literature of, known to Surrey and Wyatt, 74; home of blank verse, 80; tales and romances of, brought to England, 81; 213; home of the Brown- ings, 250. Ivanhoe, 228, 230. Jack, in The Tale of a Tub, 163. James I, of England, 92, 103; impris- ons Raleigh, 106; 108; praised in masques, 113; his court, 116; 117; 124. James I, of Scotland, 52, 53, 66. Jane Eyre, 228. Jarrow, map i. Da; 12, 13. Jeffrey, Francis, 208, 221, 266. Jeu> of Malta, The, go. John Gilpin, 188. John of Trevisa, 26. Johnson, Samuel, account of, 175-179; portrait, 175; 180; 181; 183; 194; 195; Macaulay's Essay on, 242. Jonson, Ben, 106; account of, 110-116; portrait, in; criticises Donne, 118; influence of, 119; 150; 151; 153. Joseph Andrews, 227. Journal of the Plague Year, 170. Journey to the Hebrides, 179. Juan Fernandez, 169. Judc the Obscure, 235. Jungle Books, The, 239. Jutes, I. Jutland, I, 23, INDEX 421 Keats, John, 202, 203, 210, 211; ac- count of, 212-214; porPrait, 212; 218; 223; 264; 265. Kenilworth, map i, Db; 96; 207. Kildare, 13. Kim, 238. Ki^g Horn, 30-31. " King James Version." See Bible. King Lear, 103. "King Monmouth," 167. Kings of Brilaiil, 29. King's Quair, The, 53. "King's Treasuries," 246. Kingsley, Charles, 258. "Kinsey," 218. Kipling, Rudyard, 231 ; account of, 237- 240; portrait, 238; 264, 266. Knighthood, decreases in value, 55, 67. Kubla Khan, 200. Lady Clara Vere de Vere, 253. Lady Jane Grey, 130. "Lady of Christ's College," 119. Lady to Her Inconstant Servant, The, 132. Lake Country, 197, I9Q. 202, 214, 218. "Lake Poets," 197. 203, 264. "Lake School," 197. U Allegro, 120. Lamb, Charles, no; 203; account of, '214-217; portrait, 215; 218; 223; 264; 265; 267. Lamb, Mary, 214, 216. Lamia, 213. Langland, William, account of, 39-41 ; 43; 50. Language. See English Language. Lasswade, 220. Last Days of Pompeii, 258. Latin, language of scholars and the church, 15; priests' ignorance of, 17; compared with English, 18; used by GoeSrey of Monmouth, 29; aban- doned by Wyclif, 42; literature known to Surrey and Wyatt, 74; Shakespeare's knowledge of, 96; ex- pected permanence of, 109. Launcelot, 29, 30, 254; and a hermit, illustration, 29. Laureate, Jonson, 114; Southey, 200; Wordsworth, 203; Tennyson, 255, 256; Tennyson's laureate poems, 255, 267. Lay oj the Last Minstrel, The, 205, 208, 265. Layamon, 30, 34. Lays of Ancient Rome, 242. L'Envoi, 239. Letters from a Citizen of the World, 180. "Lewis Carroll," 259. See Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Life of Frederick II, Carlyle's, 267. Light that Failed, The, 238. Lilliput, in Gulliver's Travels, 165, 166. Litany, Herrick's, 136. Litchfield, map i, Db; 175. Literature of the Great War, 261. Literary Club, 178-182, passim. "Literary Dictator of England" (John- son), 178. Little Neil, in Dickens's works, 224-225. Lives of saints, 21, 23, 24. Lives of the Poets, 175, 179, 195. Lives, Walton's, 137. Locksley Hall, 254. London, map 1, Ec; 95, 96, 97, 98, 105, no; Great Fire of, 147; 159, 161; 173; 176; 179; 180; 218; 226; 229; 244. London Magazine, 218. Lorna Doone, 260. Lost Leader, The, 252. Lotus-Eaters, The, 254. Lovelace, Richard, 132, 133; account of, 134; 151- Love's Labour 'i Lost, 98. Lucrece, 98. Ludlow Castle, map i, Cb; 121. Lutherans, 163. Lycidas, 120, 121. Lyell, Sir Charles, 258. Lyly. John, account of, 82-83; 89; 100; lOI. Lyrical Ballads, 198-199. Lyrics, after the Conquest, 31-32, 34; of the dramatists, 90, loi, 102; of Burns, 92; progress of lyric poetry, 262. See Hymns. Lytton, Edward Bulwer, 258. Macaulay, Thomas Babington, account, 240-242; portrait, 240; 258; 264; 266. Magellan, 69. Maggie, in The Mill on the Floss, 230. Malory, Sir Thomas, 53, 54, 64, 66, 254. Mandalay, 239. Mandeville, Sir John, account of, 37- 39; on his voyage, illustration, 38; 50. Man Who Was, The, 239." Man Who Would Be King, The, 239. March, Earl of, 26. Marlborough, Duke of, 159. Marlowe, Christopher, account of, 90- 91; 95; 100; 102. Marmion. 205, 208, 265. Mary Queen of Scots, 79, 91. 422 INDEX Mary. See William and Mary. Masefield, John, 261. Masque of Oberon, 113. Masques, account of, 76-77; loi; of Jonson, 113. May Queen, The, 253. Medley, 254. Men and Women, 251. Merchant of Venice, The, 99, 100. Mermaid Inn, 105. Metre, Old English, 5, 7: of ballads, 57, 67; of early Elizabethan drama, 82; need of a standard, 89, loi ; blank verse triumphs, 90, 102; 5- beat line, 171; influence of Pope's, 171. 195- "Michael Angelo Titmarsh" (Thack- eray), 226. Middle Ages, 212. Middlemarch, 230. Midland dialect, employed by Chaucer, 50. 51- Midsiiiiiinir MkIiI's Dream, A, 98. Mill on llir /-/.'sv, The, 230. Milton, John, account of (before 1660), 1 19-123; after 1660, 123-124; por- trait, 119; Herbert compared with, 125; later years of, 140-143; sonnet on his blindness, 142; Bunyan com- pared with, 143, 146; Dryden com- pared with, 149-150; 152. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. The, 205. Miracle plays, 61, 66, 67. See Mys- teries. Miscellanies, the Elizabethan, 88, loi. See Tottel's Miscellany - Missalonghi, 210. Missionaries, from Rome, 6; from Ire- land, 8; Beowulf changed by the teachings of, 6, 24. Modern Painters, 245-246. Modest Proposal, A, 165. Monks, disobedience of the, 21. Monthly Magaziw', 224. Moonstone, The, 260. Moral Essays, Pope's, 158. Moralities, account of, 61-63; 66; 67; 76; 82; loi; 112. More, Sir Thomas, account of, 71-74; portrait, 72; 77; 100; loi. Morris, William, 257. Morte d'Arthur, 54; printed by Caxton, 64; 66; as treated by Tennyson, 254. Moses, in The Vicar of Wakefield, 224. Moslems, 39. Mr. Britling Sees it Through, 261 . Mr. Micawber, in Dickens's works. 225. Mr. Minns and his Cousin, 224. Munera Pulveris, 246. Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts, 220. Music, in the Elizabethan days, 89. Mystery plays, account of, 57-61; 76; illustration, 58; 61; 66; 76; 82; loi. See Miracle plays. Nature, loved by the Norman-English, 31; by Milton, 120; by Surrey, 120; by Vaughan, 128; by Taylor, 131; in the eighteenth century, 186; inter- preted by Wordsworth, 202-203. Nelson, Southey's Life of, 200. Newbolt, Henry, 260. Newcomes, The, 228. Newman, John Henry, 258; portrait, 259-. New Place, 105. "New poet" (Spenser), 85. New Testament, Tyndale's translation of, 73. loi. "New verse," 260-261. New World, 81, 92. Night Piece, 136. Noble Numbers, 135, 136, 137. "Noll" (Goldsmith), 180. Norman Conquest, a gain to England, 25; effect on language, 26, 27, 34; effect on literature, 27, 34, 58, 68, 258. Norman-English Period, 25-34. Normans, character of, 25, 27, 28, 29. Northumbria, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17; Chris- tianity taught in, 22. Northwest Passage, 69. Norton, Thomas, 79, 1 00, 1 01. Novel, Century of the, 197-268; re- quirements of the, 171-172; first real novel, 172, 195. Novum Organum. 109. Noyes, Alfred, 260. Ode on the Death of the Duke of Welling- ton, 255. Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, 203. Ode to a Grecian Urn, 213. Ode to the Pillory, 168. Ode to the West Witid, 211. Odin, I. Odyssey, translated by Pope, 156. Old English compared with modern English, 6. Old Familiar Faces, The, 216. Old Testament, translated by Tyndale, 73- Oliver Twist, 224. Olney, map 1, Db; 188. INDEX 423 On the Late Massacre in Piedmont, 123. On the Study of Poetry, 249. On the Sublime and Beautiful, 183. Ordeal of Richard Feverel, The, 231. Origin of Species, 258. Orm, 28. Ormulum, 28, 30, 34. Orosius, .18. Oxford, map 1, Db; University o'', 26, 68, 95, 108, 210, 218, 245. Pacific, visited by English sailors, 81. Padua, 180. Pamela, 172-173. iQS. 227. Pamphlets, of Milton, 121-122, 151 ; of Swift, 164. Paracelsus. 250. Paradise Lost, 141-143, 150, 152, 241, 262. Paradise of Dainty Devices, The, 88. Paradise Regained, 142. Paris, 180. Parliament, submits to Henry VIII, 73; takes Defoe seriously, 168; 223; 241. Parson, the, in Chaucer, illustration, 48. Pastime with Good Company, 70. Pastorals, 83, 84, 86, 88, loi, 113. Pater, Walter, 258. Patronage, literary, ended by Johnson, 176-177, 195. Peasants' Revolt, 37, 50. Pembroke, Countess of, 86. Pen, Age of the, 257-260. People's Century, 52-67. Percy, Bishop Thomas, 187; 204. Percy's Reliques. 187, 196, 204. Periodicals, the beginning of, 171, 195. Peter, in The Tale of a Tub. 163. Peter Bell, 203. Petrarch, 44. Phenixs Nest, The, 88. Phyllyp Spar owe, 71. Picaresque stories of Defoe, i;i. Pickwick Papers, The, 224, 266. Pied Piper of Hamelin, The, 252. Piers Plowman, Vision of, 39-41, 50. Pilgrimages in Chaucer's time, 44. Pilgrim's Progress. The, 143, 144-146, 150, 152, 171, 241. Pippa Passes. 250-251. Plague Year, Defoe's Journal of the, 171. Plain Tales from the Hills, 237, 238. Plautus, comedies of, 78. Pliable, in Pilgrim's Progress, 143. Poems. Chiefly Lyrical. 253. Poets' Corner, illustration, 263. Poland, 86. Pope, Alexander, account of, 153-158; portrait, 154; love for Swift, 166; 171; influence upon literature, 171; Goldsmith compared with, 182; Pope's ideas of nature, 187, 189; 194- 195; 196. Portia, in The Merchant of Venice, 100. Powell, Mary, 122. Pra:tcrita, 246. Prague, 86. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 257. "Prewdence," Herrick's maid, 135. Pride and Prejudice, 222. Princess. The, 254. Principles of Geology, 258. Printing introduced into England, 63- 65; early printing press, illustration, 65; 67; spreads knowledge of the classics, 69; office of 1619, illustra- tion, 123. Prioress, The, in Canterbury Tales, il- lustration, 45. Prisoner of Chillon, The, 209. Prologue, Chaucer's, 46, 47. Prometheus Unbound, 210. Proper names, Marlowe's use of, 91. Prose, Old English, 12-21 ; 24; in Lyly's dramas, 89; becomes literature in Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 95; Century of, 153-196; of early period- icals, 171; progress of, 262. Prospice. 252, 262. Psalms, in the "authorized version," 109. Pulley, The. 126. Punch, 226. Puritan, 131. Puritans, in controversy with the Church of England, 95; power of, increases, 116-117; against the king, 121; confidence of, in Milton, 122; lose power, 123-124; 134; oppose amusements, 139, 151; caricatured in Hubidras, 139, 152; and Royal- ists, Century of the, 103-152. Pitt Yourself in His Place, 260. Quarterly Review, criticises Keats, 213; established, 221; 266. Queen Anne, times of, 155, 158, 163; 171, 195. "Queens' Gardens, ' 246. Rabbi Ben Ezra, 252. Raleigh, Sir Walter, as a colonizer, 92 ; visits Spenser, 92; account of, 106; 151- Ralph Roister Dotster, 78; compared with Gorboduc, 80; loi. Rambler, The, 177. Ramsay, Allan, 190. 424 INDEX Rape of the Lock, The, 155-156, 157- Rasselas, 177. Reade, Charles, 259-260. Rebecca, in Ivanhoe, 230. Rebecca and Rowena, 228. Recessional, 239. Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, 64. Red Cross Knight, in the Faerie Queene, illustration, 93. Reflections on the French Revolution, 1 84. Reform Bill, 223. Reign of Terror, 184. Religio Laid, 148, 149. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 186, 196, 204. Renaissance, 68, 69, 70, 74, 75, loi- Restoration, The, 138-139; drama of, 146-147, 152. "Retouching" of plays, 97, 98, no. Return of the Native, The, 233. Revelation, in the " authorized version," no, 141. Revolution, French, 198. Rewriting of old poems, in Alfred's time, 21, 24; to make pastorals, 86. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 178, 181. Rhoda Fleming, 231. Rhone, described by Ruskin, 247. Rhyme, contrasted with alliteration, 6; used by Chaucer, 51 ; used by the dramatists, 89. Rhyme of the Duchess May, 249. "Rhyme royal," 53. Richard III, More's Life of, 72. Richardson, Samuel, account of, 172- 173; portrait, 172; Goldsmith reads proof for, 180; 194; 195; 221. Riddles, of Cynewulf, 11. "Rime-giver," 7. Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 198-199, 265. Ring and the Book, The, 251, 267. River of Death, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144- Robertson, William, account of, 184; 185; 194; 195. Robin Hood ballads, 32-33, 34. 204- Robinson Crusoe, 167; account of, 169- 170; 171; 195- Roderick Random, 174, 195. Roman Catholic Church. See Church of Rome. Roman Empire, Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the, 185. Romances, 29-31, 34. Romans, 14: writings of, 68; in plays of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, 112. Romantic revival, 185-186, 196. Rome, missionaries from, 6; visited by abbot of Jarrow, 13 ; Bede sends to, 14; visited by Alfred, 17, 42; plays of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson laid in, 112; 211; 212. Romeo and Juliet, 100. Romola, 230. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 257. Round Table, 254. Rowena, in Ivanhoe, 230. Royalists, 122, 134; Century of Puri- tans and, 103-152. Rugby, map i, Db; 248. Rugby Chapel, 248. Runes, 10. Ruskin, John, 240 ; account of, 245-247 ; Arnold compared with, 248; 264; 266; 267. Rymenhild, in King Horn, 31. Sackville, Thomas, 79, 100, loi. Sad Shepherd, The, 113 ■ Saint Cecilia's Day, 149. St. Patrick's Cathedral, 164. St. Paul's, 117. Saints' Everlasting Rest, The, 131. Samoa, home of Stevenson, 237. Samson A gonistes, 142. Saracens, in King Horn, 30, 31. Sartor Resartus, 243, 245. Satan, in the homilies, 21; in the mys- tery plays. 59, 60; in the moralities, 62, 64; in Paradise Lost, 141. Satire, of Dryden, 148; of Pope, 157- 158; of Swift, 163-164, 165; of Defoe, 167. Saxon, church, dedication of, illustra- tion, 20; words used by Ruskin, 237. Sa.xons, i. Scenes from Clerical Life, 229. School, Bede's, 12; schools in Ireland, 22. Scop, 2-3. Scotch, Johnson's prejudice against, 176. Scotland, 52; home of the ballads, 57; oats in, 176; visited by Johnson, 179: Robertson's History of, 184: love of nature in poets of, 186; 189; 190; 195. Scott, Sir Walter, 202; portrait, 204; account of, 203-207; 208; 214; 222; 223 ; " George Eliot " compared with, 230; 264; 265. Selkirk, Alexander, 169. Seneca, read in England, 79. Sentimental Journey, The, 174-175. Sequence of sonnets, 94. Sesame and Lilies, 246. Shakespeare, John, 95-96. Shakespeare, William, 79; Marlowe INDEX 425 compared with, 92; account of, 95- 100; portrait, 99; 102; in the seven teenth centurj', 103-106, no; aids Ben Jonson, in; contrasted with Ben Jonson, in, 112; contrasted with Beaumont and Fletcher, 114; piays collected and printed, 115; "wit-combats" of, 115; Dryden com- pared with, 148; 150; 151; Pope compared with, 155; works edited by ; Johnson, 179; Thackeray compared with, 227; 228; 262, 265. "Shakespeare's Country," 229. Shaw, George Bernard, 260. Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 202, 203; ac- count of, 210-212; 214; 218; 223; 264; 265. Shepherd's Calendar, The. 84, 85, loi. She Sloops to Conquer, 182-183. Short History of the English People, Green's, 258. Shortest Way with Dissenters, The, 167. Shottery, 96. Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice, 100. Sidney, Sir Philip, 82, 84; account of, 86-88; portrait, 87; mourning for, 92, 97; sonnets, 94; 100; loi. Silas Marner, 230. Silex Scintillans, 127. Sir Charles Grandison, 173. Sir Patrick Spens, 204. Sir Roger de Coverley, in the Spectator, 162 195. Skelton, John, account of, 70-71; 76, 100; lOI. Sketches by Boz, 224. Slough of Despond, in Pilgrim's Prog- ress, 144. Smollett, Tobias George, account of, 173-174; 194; 195:221. Soldiers Three, 238. Songs of the dramatists, 88-89, 102; of Burns, 192, 193, 196. See Lyrics. Sonnet, introduced by Wyatt and Surrey, 75; decade of, 94, 102; Sid- ney's, 94; loi; Shakespeare's, 103- 104; 151; Milton's, 123. Sonnets from the Portuguese, 251. South America, 69. Southey, Robert, 197; account of, 199- 200; 203; 214; 223; 264. Southward, 44. Spain, 81, 134. Specimens of Dramatic Poets Contem- porary with Shakespeare, 216. Spectator, The, 162, 171, 195. Speech on Conciliation with America, 183, 184. Spenser, Edmund, account of, 82-86; in Ireland, 91 ; 92; plan of the Faerie Queene, 93-94; sonnets, 94; 98; 100; loi; 212; Ruskin compared with, 247- Spezzia, Bay of, 211. Squire, the, in Canterbury Tales, illus- tration, 47. Steele, Sir Richard, Defoe compared with, 167; Johnson compared with, 177. See Addison and Steele. "Stella," 166-167. Steps lo the Altar, 126. Sterne, Laurence, account of, 174-175; , 194; 195- Stevenson, Robert Louis, 231; account of, 235-237; portrait, 235; 264; 266. Stones of Venice, 246. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The, 236. Stratford, map i, Db; 95; 96; 105; Shakespeare returns to, 106; no; acting forbidden in, 116. Suckling, Sir John, 132; account of, 133-134; 151. Superannuated Man, The, 217. Surrey, Earl of, account of, 74-76; 82; 100; loi ; treatment of nature com- pared with Milton's, 120. See Wyatt. Susquehanna, 198, 200. Sweden, 3, 134. Swift, Jonathan, 160; account of, 163- 167; portrait, 165; Defoe compared with, 167; 194; 195. Swinburne, .-Mgernon Charles, 257. Synge, John M., 260. Tabard Inn, 44. Tale of a Tub, The, 163-164. Tales from Shakespeare, 216, 265. Tamburlaine, 90-91 . Tam O'Shanter, 191, 193, 196. Task, The, 188. Taller, The, 160-161, 162, 171, 195. Taylor, Jeremy, account of, 130-13 1; Tempest, The, 103. Temple, Sir John, 163, 164, 166. Temple, The, 125-126. Tennyson, Alfred, 249; account of, 252- 257; portrait, 253; 262; 264; 267. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 234. Teutons, 1-3, 6, 7; compared with Celts, 22, 23; 25, 40. Thackeray, William Makepeace, 223; account of, 226-228; portrait, 227; 264; 266. Thalaba, 200. Thames, map i, DEc; 157. Thanet, Christianity preached on, 6. 426 INDEX Thank.sKmnfi,A. 135- Tlu-atrc, first, 82; Globe, 105. Tkculrcs, closed, 115-116, 151; flung open, 146, 152; abandoned to care- less and immoral, 117, 151. Thor, I. Tintcrn Abbey, 199. To Althea, 134. To a Skylark, 211. Tom Broivn at Rugby, 248. Tom Jones, 173. Tories, 160, 163. Totters Miscellany, 75, 100, loi, 132. Tracy, Herrick's dog, 135. Translations, Bede's Gospel of Si. John, 15, 24; Alfred's, 18, 19, 24; Wace's History of the Kings of Britain, 29- 30; French Romances into English, 30; 33; Mandcvillc's Travels. 38; Wy- clif's Bible, 73; Surrey's .Eneid, 75; inspired by the Renaissance, 81; Dryden's ALneld, 149, 171; Pope's Iliad and Odyssey, 156; "George Eliot's," 229; Carlvle's, 243. Traveller, The, 180-181. Travels with a Donkey, 236. Treasure Island, 235. Tribe of Ben, 114. Tristram Shandy, 174, 195. Trollope, Anthony, 259. Turks capture Constantinople, 68; the Greeks rise against, 210, 265. Turner, William, 245. Twickenham, map i, Dc; 157. Tyndale, William, 73-74, 100, loi. Tyndall, John, 258. Tyne, River, map i, CDa; 17. Udall, Nicholas, 78, 100, loi. Unities, classic, iii, 114. Universities, their weakness discovered by Bacon, 107. See Cambridge and Oxford. "University wits," 90. Unto this Last, 246. Uriah Heep, in Dickens's works, 225. Utopia, 72-73- Vailima, home of Stevenson, 237. Valhalla, i. Valkyries, i. Valley of Humiliation, in Pilgrim's Progress, 144. Valley of the Shadow of Death, in Pil- grim's Progress, 144. Vanity Fair, 144, 227. Vassar, Matthew, 168. Vaughan, Henry, 124, 126; account of, 127-129; 150; 151. Venus and Adonis, 98. Venus de Medici, 202. Vercelli Book, 8, 24. "Vers fibre," 261. Vicar of Wakefield, The, iSo, 181, 224. Vice, the, 61, 77. Victorian Age, the, 223, 226, 252; 267. Virginibus Puerisque, 236. Vision of Piers Plowman, 39-41, 43; 50. Wace. 29-30, 34. Waerferth, 18, 19. Walsh. William, advises Pope, 154-155. Walton, Izaak, account of, 137-138, isi; 152. War of the Roses, 54, 66. Warwickshire, 229. Water Babies, 258. Waverley, 206, 222, 265. We are Seven, 199; 265. Webster. John. no. Wee Willie Winkie. 239. Weir of Ilcrmiston. The, 237. Wells, Herbert George. 260; 261. Welsh, Jane. See Mrs. Carlyle. Westminster, 65. Westminster Abbey, 183. Westminster Review, 229. Weston, 188. Westward Ho, 258. Whigs, pension Addison, 158; 159; 160; 163. Whitby, map i, Da; 8. " Wicked wasp of Twickenham' ' (Pope), 157. 166. Widsith, 7, 23, 262. Wife of Bath, in Canterbury Tales, il- lustration, 46. William and Mary, 167. William the Conqueror, 23. "Will's" ooffee house, 153. Wilson, John, 218, 266. Winchester, map i, Dc; 19. Winter's Tale, The, 103. Wishes to His (Supposed) Mistress, 126. Witches and Other Night Fears, 217. "Wit-combats" between Shakespeare and Jonson, 115. Wolsey, Cardinal, 70. Woman in White, The, 260. Worcester, map 1, Cb; 18. Wordsworth, Dorothy, 198. Wordsworth, William, account of, 197- 199, 202-203; portrait, 197; 207; 208; 214; 218; 223; 261; 262; 264; 265. INDEX 427 H'orld, R&le\gh'& History of the, 106. World, The, 127. World War, literature inspired bv the, 261. Worthies of England, The, 130. Wyatt, Sir Thomas, account of, 74-76; and Surrey introduce Italian regard for form, 74, 82, 100; loi. Wyclif, John, account of, 41-43; por- trait, 41, 51. ^■cats, William Butler, 260. AMERICA'S LITERATURE Abbott, Jacob, account of, 398. Abbott, John S. C, 323. Adam, 274, 394. Adams, Henry, 395. Adams, John, 288. .Eneid, imitated by Mather, 279. Ages, The, 309. .4/ Aaraaf, 371. Albany, 386. Alcott, Amos Bronson, 314; portrait, 315; 327. Alcott, Louisa May, account of, 398. Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, account of, 385-386. Alhambra, The, 302. Allan, John, 368. Allen, James Lane, 378. America, 271, 290; as a subject for lit- erary composition, 285; 291-292: progress in, 298; 301 ; 302; 307; 308; 310; 314; 353: 354; 356; 377- American Flag, The, 310-311. American literature, beginning of, 272; 283-284. American Philosophical Society, 2S6. American Revolution, Sparks's History of, 353- American Scholar, The, 317. Among the Hills, 332. Analogy of Religion, 333. Annabel Lee, 370. Annapolis, 354. Antiquity of Freedom, The, 309. Anti slavery movement, 329-330; 337; 338. Anti-slavery writers, 329-338. Apple Tree, The, 309. .Arnold, Matthew, 371 ; 3S3. "Artemus Ward," 393. Arthur Mervyn, 296. Astor, John Jacob, 310. Atlantic Monthly, The, 346; founded, 348: 351; 382; 386. Atlantic Ocean, 301 ; 302. Autobiography, Franklin's, 288; 297. ".Autocrat," portrait, 348; 349; 350. A utocral of the Breakfast Table, 349; 351 . Baby Bell, 385. Baby's Age, 367. Bacon, Francis, 271. Ballad of the Trees and the Master, A, 372. Baltimore, 372; 384. Bancroft, George, 324; account of, 353- 354: 355: 357; 358; 359; 361; 362. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 395. Barbary, 298. Barefoot Boy, The, 332. Barlow, Joel, account of, 293-294; 297. Bay Psalm Book, The, account of, 273- 274; 282; 283; 284. Beacon Hill, 316. Bede, 279. Bedouin Song. 383. Beecher, Dr. Lyman, 333. Belfry Pigeon, The, 312. Belknap, Jeremy, 359; 362. Bells, The, 370. Berlin, 354. Biglow Papers, The, 345; 350-35i; 394- Bird, The, 359. Bird, William, 282-283; 284. Blackstone, Sir WUliam, 347. Blind Preacher, The, 364. Blithcdalc Romance, The, 325. Boston, 276; 278; 285; 287; 308; 316; 324; 330; 367- Boston Hymn, 318. Boston News Letter, The, 283. Bowdoin College, 323; 333; 340; 350. Boylston Prize, 348. Brace bridge Hall, 302. Bradford, William, 272; 283; 284. Bradstreet, xAnne, account of, 275-276; 283; 284. Bridge, Horatio, 324. Brook Farm, account of, 322-323:325; 327:360. Brown, Alice, 378. Brown, Charles Brockden, account of, 296; 297; compared with Hawthorne, 326. Brown, Charles Farrar, 393. 428 INDEX Bryant, Dr. Peter, 308. Bryant, William Cullen, account of, 307-309; 312; 313. BuildiiiK of (lie Ship, The, 341. Bunker Hill, 33,(3. Burlington, 303. Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 380. Burns, Robert, Freneau compared with, 295; 330. Burroughs, John, 396; portrait, 397. Butler, Bishop Joseph, 333. Butler, Samuel, Trumbull compared with, 293. Cable, George Washington, 377. Calhoun, John Caldwell, 364. California, 378; 385. Call of the Wild, The, 380. Cambridge, 308; illustration, 339; 341; 371- Cambridge Poets, The, 339-341- Carlyle, Thomas, 314. Cask of Amontillado. The. 369; 370. Cavalry Crossing a Ford, 389. Century, The, 382. Chambered Nautilus, The, 341 . Channing, William Ellery, 314; por- trait, 315: 327- "Charles Egbert Craddock, ' 377. Charleston. 364. Chaucer, Geoffrey, 320. Cheever, Geoi:ge B., 323. Child, Francis James, 397. Children, literature for, in colonial times, 276-277; in recent years, 394- 395- Choate, Rufus, 336, 337; 338. Churchill, Winston, 380. Civil War, 334; 36s; 372. Clark, William, 298. Clay, Henry, 364. Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 394. Clifford, in The House of the Seven Ga- bles, 326. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. 314; 317. Colonial Period, 271-284. Columbia, 292. Columhiad, The, 294; 297. Columbus. Life of, Irving's, 302. Commemoralion Ode, 346. Common Seiise, 290. Companions of Columbus, The, 302. Compensation. 316; 318. Concord, 317; 318; 323; 344; 394- Concord Hymn, 318. Concord River, 320. Condensed Novels, 386. Confederate Army, 365; 372; 374. Connecticut, 292; 310; 332. Conquest of Canaan, The, 292 ; 297. Conquest df Granada, The, 302. Conquest of Mexico, The, 355. Conquest of Peru, The, 355. Conspiracy of Ponliac, The, 358. Constitution (frigate), 347. Constitution, of the United States, 354- Contemplation, 276. Contentment, 349. Cooke, John Esten, 377. Cooke, Rose Terry, 378. Cooper, James Fenimore, account of, 303-307; portrait, 304; 309; 310, 312; 313; compared with Simms, 364-365 ; 374- "Cooper of the South," 364; 374. Cooperstown, 303, 306; 394. Cotter's Saturday Night, The, 331. Cotton Boll, The, 367. Courtship of Miles Standish, The, 341; 350. "Crackers," 377. Craigenputtock, 317. Craigie House, 341; illustration, 342. Cranford, 380. Crawford, Francis Marion, 377. Croakers, The. 310; 311. Crothers, Samuel JNIcChord, 396. Culprit Toy. The. 3\o. Cummington, 307. Curtis, Cleorge Wilhani. 359; 360-361; 362:392. Dana, Richard Henry, 308; 309; 359; 362. Dandelion. The. 346. Dante, 341; 397- Dartmouth College, 331; 347; 348. Day of Doom. The. 274; 275; 284. Declaration of Independence, 285; 290. Deerslayer, the. 307. Defoe, Daniel, compared with Poe, 3^9. D eland, Mrs. Margaret, 381. Dial, The. 314; 327. Dictionary. Webster's, 361 ; 362. Diedrich Knickerbocker, 299, 300. Discoverer. The. 385. Dismal Swamp, 283. Divine Comedy. The, translated by Longfellow, 341; by Norton, 397. Donne, John, compared with Mather, 279. Drake, Joseph Rodman, account of, 310-311; 312; 313- Dunne, Finlcv Peter, 393- Dutch Republic, The Rise of the. Mot- ley's, 356. Dwight, Timothy, 292; 293; 297. INDEX 429 Each and All, 318. Easy Chair, 360; 362. Ecclesiastical History, Bede's, 279. Edinburgh, 286. Edwards, Jonathan, account of, 280- 282; portrait, 281; 283; 284; 292; 297. Eggleston, Edward, 378; 395. Egypt, 320. Eliot, 282: 284. Elizabeth, Queen, 360. Elmwood, illustration, 344. Elsie Venner, 349. Embargo, The. 307. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 315; account of, 316-318; 319; 320; 327. England, 271; 272; 274; 283; 285; 286; 295; 300; 301; 305; 314; 346; 351; 354:357; 362. EnKlish ami Scottish Ballads, 398. English Lands, Letters, and Kings, 360. Essav on the Human Understanding, 280. Eternal Goodness, The, 332. Europe, 302; 311; 312; 316; 317; 340; 353- Eutaw Springs, 295. Evangeline, 341; 350. Evening Post, The, 300; 309; 313. Everett, Edward, 334-33^; 337; 338. Every Saturday, 386. Exile's Departure, The, 330. Fable for Critics, A, 345; 350. Fall of the House of Usher, The, 369. Farewell Address, Washington's, 290. "Father of American History," 272. "Father of American Poetry," 309; 313. Faust, translated by Taylor, 384. Federalist, The, 291; 297. Felton, Cornelius, 397. Ferdinand and Isabella, Prescott's His- tory of the Reign of, 354-355- Fiction, recent, 376-382. Field, Eugene, 391. Fields, James T., 325. Fiske, John, 395; 396. Flood of Years, The. 309. Foote, Mary Hallock, 380. Forbearance, 318. France, 285; 286; 300; 357; 362. Franklin, Benjamin, account of, 285- 288; portrait, 286; 290; 297; 300. Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins, 378. Free Press. The, 330; 338. Freneau, Philip, account of, 294-295; compared with Brown, 296; 297. Friends, 283. See Quakers. Fringed Gentian, The, 309. Froissart, Jean, 323; 372. Fuller, Margaret, 314. Fulton, Robert, 298. Furness, Horace Howard, 397. Garrison, William Lloyd, 329; 330; 331 ; 334; 337; 338. Gates Ajar, The, 378. Gentleman from Indiana. The, 380. "Geoffrey Crayon," 301. Georgia, 3/1 ; 377- Gilder, Richard Watson, 391. Goldsmith, Irving's Life of, 302-303. Grandissimes, The, ^tj. Hale, Edward Everett, 377. Halleck, Fitz-Greenc, account of, 310- 311; 312; 313- Hamilton, Alexander, 290; portrait, 291; 297. Hannah Binding Shoe';, 390. Harper's Masa'J:ic. 360, 382. Hariis, Eerjamin, 276. Harris, Joel Chardi , 377. Harrison, Henry Sydnor, 381. Harte, Francis Bict, account of, 386- 387. "Hartford Wits," account of, 291-294; 297. Harvard, 278; 283; 286; 309; 316; 317; 318; 340; 341; 346; 347; 348; 350; 351; 353; 354; 355- Hasty Pudding, The, 294; 297. Hawkes, Clarence, 396. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 316; account of. 322-327; portrait, 323; 327-328; 361 ; 384- Hay, John, 390. Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 364; account of, 365-367; 374- Hayne, Robert Young, 336; 364. Henry, Patrick, 288-289; illustration, 289; 297; Wirt's Life of, 364. Hepzibah, in The House of the Seven Gables, 326. Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 358; 371; 395- Hildreth, Richard, 359; 362. Historians of 1815-1865, 352-362. Historical novel, the, 380. Histories, early American, 271-273; 284. History of Neiv England, Palfrey's, 359; Winthrop's, 273. History of New Hampshire, Belknap's, 359- History of Plymouth Plantation, Brad- ford's, 272. 430 INDEX History of Spanish Literalure, Ticknor's, 352. History oj the American Revolution, Sparks's, 353. History of the Pacific Coast, H. H. Ban- croft's, 395. History of the People of the United States, 395- History of the Reigfi of Ferdinand and Isabella, Prescott's, 354-355. History of the Reign of Philip the Second, Prescott's, 355: 362. History of the United Slates, Bancroft's, 353-354; 362; llildrelh's, 350. History of the United Slates Navy, Coop- er's, 305. Holland, 272. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 339: 34o; ac- count of, 346-350; 351 ; 392. Home as Found, 306. Home Journal, 312. Home Pastorals, 383. Hoosier Schoolmaster, The, 378. House of Mirth, The, 381. House of the Seven Gables, The, 325 ; 326. Howells, William Dean, 376. How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar, 387. Hudibras, M'Fingal, compared with, 293- Hudson, river, 302; 303; 310. Humble Bee, The, 318. Humorous writings, 389-391. Hyperion, 340. Identity, 386. Iliad, translated by Bryant, 309. Indiana, 378. Indian Bible, 282. Indians, studied by Parkman, 357; treated by Freneau, 295; by Brown, 296; by Cooper, 305; by Simms, 365; by Helen Hunt Jackson, 378. Innocents Abroad, 394. Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will, 281 . In School-Days, 332. Irving, Washington, account of, 299- 303; portrait, 299; 305; 309; 312; 313; 352; 357; 362:392. Italy, 300. Jackson, Helen Hunt, 380. James, Henry, 376-377. Jay, John, 290; portrait, 288; 297. Jefferson, Thomas, 290; 297. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 378. John of Barneveld, Life and Death of. Motley's, 357. John Ward, Preacher, 381. Johnston, Mary, 380. Johnston, Richard Malcolm, 377. Jonathan and David, 378. Jonathan Papers, The, 396. "Josh Billings," 393. Kentucky, 377. King Olaf, 311. Knickerbocker School, 298-313; 364. Knickerbocker s History of New York. 300-301; 313. Lady or the Tiger, The, 381 . I^ake Country, 299. Lake Poets, 299. Lancashire, 380. Lanier, Sidney, account of, 371-374, 375- Larcom, Lucy, 388. Last Leaf, The, 347. Leatherstocking, in several of Cooper's novels, 305. Leatherstocking Tales, 305. Leaves of Grass, 389. Lee, Richard Henry, 288; 297. Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The, 301. Letters of a British Spy, The, 364. Lewis, Meriwether, 298. Life and Death of John Barneveld, Mot- ley's, 357. Lije and H rilings of George Washing- ton, Sparks's, 353. Life of George Washington, Irving's, 302. Lincoln, Abraham, 334; Whitman's poem on, 388. Literary activity of the present, 376. Little Beach Bird, The, 359. Little Boy Blue, 391. Little Brothers of the Air, 396. Little Folks in Feathers and Fur, 396. Little Women, 314; 398. Liverpool, 325. Locke, David Ross, 393. Locke, John, 280. London, Jack, 380. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 279; 317; 323; 327; 339; account of, 340- 344; influence of his translations, 342 ; 346; 350; 351; 352; 361; 362. Louisiana Purchase, 298. Lowell, James Russell, criticism of Bryant, 309; of Willis, 312; 339; ac- count of, 344-346; 350; 351; 392. Luck of Roaring Camp, The, 387. Lucy Books, 398. Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Emer- son compared with, 318. M'Fingal, 293; 297. NDEX 431 McMaster, John Bach, 395. Macon, 371. Madison, James, 290; portrait, 291 ; 297. Magazine article, 396. Magnalia Chrisli Americana, 279. Maine, 323; 340. Man Without a Country, The, 2,11- Marble Faun, The, 325; 328. March, Francis Andrew, 397. Marco Bozzaris, 311. Marjorie Daw, 386. "Mark Twain," criticises Cooper, 306- 307; 394. See Clemens, S. L. Marks, Josephine Preston Peabody, 391. Marshes of Glynn, The, 373. Maryland, 364. Massachusetts, 272; 273; 284; 298; 307 ; 308; 31 7; 336 1353; 3<>i- Massachusetts Bay Colony, 273. Massachusetts Register, 346. Mather, Cotton, criticises Anne Brad- street, 276; account of, 278-280; compared with Edwards, 281; 283; 284. Merry's Museum, 399- Metamorphoses, 271. Metres, introduced by Longfellow, 343; 350. Miller, Olive Thome, 396. Mills, Enos A., 396. Minister's Wooing, The, 334. Minor authors of 1815-1865, 3S9-361; 362. Minor Knickerbocker Poets, 310-312. Minor Poets since 1865, 390-392. Missouri Compromise, 329. Mitchell, Donald Grant, 359-360; 362 ; 392. Morris, Elisabeth Woodbridge, 396. Mosses from an Old Manse. 324. Motley, John Lothrop, 353; account of, 355-357; portrait, 35<-'; 359: 361; 362. Mountain and the Squirrel, The, 318. Muir, John, 396. Murfree, Mary Noailles, 377. Murray, John, 301; 356. My Aunt, 347. National Period, 298-399; later years of, 376-400. Natty Bumppo, 305. See Leather- stocking. Newbury, 279. New England, 273; the literary leader- ship returns to, 312; 313; 314; 315; 327; 329; 334; 336: 338; 339; 350; 352; 361; stories of life in, 378; Sted- man's idyls of, 383. New England, History of. Palfrey's, 359; Winthrop's, 273. New England Primer, The, account of, 276-277; illustration, 277; 283; 284; 399- New Hampshire, 336; History of, Bel- knap's, 359. New Haven, 278. New Jersey, 303. New Orleans, 377. Newspapers, colonial, 283. New World, 271 ; 301 ; 342. New York, 294; becomes a literary cen- tre, 298-299; 300; 303; 309; 310; 311 ; 313; State, 303. New York Historical Society, 301. Nile Notes of a Howadji, 357. Nineteenth century, progress in early years of, 298. North America, 362. North American Review, 308; 346. Northampton, 280; 281. North Church, 278. Norton, Charles Eliot, 397. Note-Books, 325; 328. Captain, My Captain! 388. Odxssey, translated bv Bryant, 309. Oli'id Kivrr, \\^. Old I)..niini..n,377. Old Ironsides. 347; 348. Old Manse, 323. Oldlown Folks, 334. Old World, 272: 342: 362. Oni-Hoss Shay. The. 349. Opportunity. 391. Oratory "t the Revolutionary Period, 288-289; 297; of New England, 334- 337; 338; of the South, 363-364; 374. Oregon Trail, The. 357. Otis, James, 288; 297. Our Young Folks, 399. Outre Mer, 340. Overland Monthly, The, 386. Ovid, 271. Oxford, 286. Pacific Coast, H. H. Bancroft's History of the, 392. Packard, Winthrop, 396. Page, Thomas Nelson, 377. Paine, Thomas, 290; 297. Palfrey, John Gorham, 359; 362. Parker, Theodore, 314; portrait, 315; 327- Parkman, Francis, 353 ; account of, 357- 359; portrait, 358; 359; 361; 362. Parrhasius, 312. Parton, James, 395. 432 INDEX Past, The, 309. Paulding, James K., 300. Peabody Symphony Orchestra, 372; 375- Pearl oj Orr's Island, The, 335. Pencilliiigs by the Way, 312. Pennsylvania, 285; 382. Pennsylvania, University of, 286. Personal Memoirs of Joan of Arc, 394. "Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby," 390. Phebe, child-friend of Whittier, 332. Phebe, in The House of i lie Seven Gables 326. Phi Beta Kappa oration, Emerson's, 317: 327- Phi Beta Kappa Society, 309. Philadelphia, 285; 288; 296; becomes a literary centre, 298; 313. Philadelphia Library, 286. Philip the Second, Hislory of the Reign of, Prescott's, 355; 357; 362. Phillips, Wendell, 336; 337; 338. Pierce, Franklin, 324; 325. Pike County Ballads, 390. Pilgrims, leave Holland, 272; 278. Pilgrim's Progress, The, 323. Pilot, The, 305. Pioneers, The, 305. Pioneers of France in the New World, 358. Piper, The, 391. Plymouth, 272; 278; 307; 336. Plymouth Plantation, Bradford's His- tory of, 272. Poe, Edgar Allan, compared with Brown, 296; with Taylor, 381; with Lanier, 373 ; account of, 368-371 ; 374. Poems of the Orient, 382. "Poet-Laureate of the South," 365; 374- Poetry since 1865, 380-389. Political pamphlets and essays of the Revolutionary Period, 290; 297. Poor Richard's Almanac, 287-288; 297. Pope, Alexander, 295. Portland, 340. Precaution, 304. Prescott, William Hickling, 353; ac- count of, 354-355; 357; 359; 361; 362. Present Crisis, The, 346. Prince and the Pauper, The, 394. Princeton, 281. Professor, The, 349. Prospect of Peace, The, 293. Prue and I, 360. Psalm of Life, ^ , 341 . Psalms, 273; 274. Puritans, 272. Quakers, 329, 330; 331. Queed, 381. Rainy Day. The, 343. Ramona, 380. Raven, The, 370, 374. Realism in Fiction, 376; 377; 378. Reaper and the Flowers, The, 341. Renaissance, the, compared with tran- scendentalism, 315. Repplier, Agnes, 396. Reveries of a Bachelor, 360. Revolutionary Period, 285-297; 298. Rhodes, James Ford, 395. Rlwdora, The, 318. Richard Carvel, 380. Riggs, Kate Douglas Wiggin, 378. Riley, James Whitcomb, 391. Rip Van Winkle. 301; 326. Rise of the Dutch Republic, The, Mot- ley's. 356; 357. Rivulet, The. 309. Rogers, John, 276. Rollo Books, 398. .S7. Nicholas, 399. Salrm, 324; 327. Salmagundi, 300. Sandpiper. The, 359. Sandys, George, 271. Saturday Afternoon, 312. Savoy, 294. Scarlet Letter, The, 325; 327-328; 361. Schelling, Felix Emanuel, 397. Schouler, James, 395. Scott, Walter, 301; Irving compared with, 302. Scribner's Magazine, 382. Scudder, Horace Elisha, 395. Sebago Lake, 323. September Gale. The, 347. " Sever all Poems," account of, 275-276; illustration, 275. Sewall, Samuel, 280; 283; 284. Shakespeare, William, 271; 330; 345; 372- Sharp, Dallas Lore, 396. Shaw, Henry Wheeler, 393; 397. Shillaber, Benjamin Penhallow, 393. Short Story, The, 381. Sill, Edward Rowland, 391. Simms, William Gilmore, account of, 364-365; portrait, 365; 374. " Simple Cobbler of Agawam, The, "282. Single Poems, writers remembered by, 398-399- Skeleton in Armor, The, 341; 350. Sketch Book, The. 301-302; 305; 313. Smith, John, 271. INDEX 433 Snow- Bound, 331-332; illustration, 332; 338. Snow-Storm. The. 318. Song from a Drama. 385. Song of Hiawatha, The. 331; 350. Song of the Camp, 383. Song of the Challahooehee, 373. South America, 323. Southern writers of 1815-1865,363-375. Spain, 302:346; 351. Spanish Literature, History of, Tick- nor's,352. Sparks, Jared, 352; 353; 361; 362. Spectator, The. 287; 300. Spelling-book, Webster's, 361 ; 362. Spenser, Edmund, :i2S. Spy, The, 305; 313. Stamp Act. 283; 284; 285; 297. Stedman, Edmund Clarence, account of, 384-385; criticism of Celia Thax- ter, 390. Stockbridge, 281. Stockton, Frank Richard, 377; 381 ; 392. Stoddard, Richard Henry, 384. Stowe, Calvin E., 333. Stowe, Harriet Beecher, account of, 332-334; 337; 338. Stuart, Ruth McEnery, 380. Summer Shower, A , 340. Sumner, Charles, 336; 337; 338. Sunnyside, 302; illustration, 303. Tales of a Traveller. 302. Tanglewood Tales. 325. Tarkington, Booth, 380. Taylor, Bavard, account of, 382-384. Telling the Bees, 332. Tennessee, 377. Tennyson, Alfred, 367. "Tenth Muse, The," 275; 276. Thackeray, William Makepeace, criti- cism of Irving, 303. Thanatopsis, 308; 309; 313; 382. That Lass o' Lowries, 380. Thaxter, Cclia, 3S';; ?<;o. Thomas, Kdiih M . ,v>i. Thoreau, Hiiirv l)a\iii, account of, 318-322; purlrait, 319; illustration, 322; 327- Ticknor, George, 340; 352; 362. Timrod, Henry, 364; account of, 367- 368; 374- To a Waterfowl, 308; 309. To Have and To Hold. 380. Torrey, Bradford, 396. Transcendentalism, "notes of," 314; influence of, 315; 327. Transcendentalists, account of, 314- 328; 329; 360. Translations, Bryant's Uiad and Odys- sey, 309; Longfellow's, 341-342; 352; 362; Norton's Divine Comedy, 397; Taylor's Faust, 384. Trowbridge, John Town.send, 378; 394. Trumbull, John, 292-293; 297. Twice-Told Talcs, 324. Ulalume, 371. Uncle Remus. 377. Uncle Tom's Cabin, 3i3-3iA\ 338. Union, 298; 329. United Netherlands, 357. United States, 292; 298; 333; 334; 352; 354; 364; 378; History of the, Ban- croft's, 353-354; 362; Hildreth's, 359- United States Naval Academy, 354. United States Navy, 305- History of the. Cooper's, 305. Unseen Spirits, 312. Vaughan, Henry, 359. Verse, early colonial, 274; 284. Vers libre, 392. Very, Jones, 390. Views Afoot, 382. Vision of Co'umbus, The, 294. Vision of Sir Launfal, The. 344; 345; 350. Voices of the Nigh!, 341 ; 350. Walden, 321; 327. Walden Pond, 319. Wall Street, 383. Ward, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, 378. Ward, Nathaniel, 282; 284. Warner, Charles Dudley, 392. War of 1812, its effect upon the Repub- Hc, 298:352; 362. Washington, the city, 301; 347. Washington, George, 290; 297; Life and Writings of. The, Sparks's, 353; Life of, Irving's, 302. Webster, Daniel, account of, 336-337; 338; criticism of Calhoun, 364. Webster, Noah, 361; 362. Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. A. 321; 327. Wharton, Mrs. Edith, 381 Whipple, Edwin Percy, 359; 382. White, Captain Joseph, 337. Whitman, Walt, account of, 387-390. Whittier, John Greenleaf, 279; com- pared with Woolman, 283; account of, 330-332; 337:338. Whittier, Mary, 330. Wide Awake, 399. Wieland, 296; 297. 434 INDEX Wigglesworth, Michael, account of, 274-275; 283; 284. Wild Iloneyswkic, 295. William the Coiiqueror, 360. Williams C'.,lk-f;c, 307. Williams, Roger, 282; 284. Willis, Nathaniel Parker, account of, 311-312; 313- Winsor, Justin, 395. Winthrop, John, 273; Mather's story of, 279-280; 283; 284. Wirt, William, 364; portrait, 36J 374- Wonder-Book. The, 325. Wood notes. 51 8. Woolman, j