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 STUDIES IN LITERATURE
 
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 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK ■ BOSTON - CHICAGO 
 DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO
 
 STUDIES IN LlTEiUTUllE 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK M. TISDEL, Ph.D. 
 
 ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1913 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 COPTEIGHT, 1913, 
 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1913. Reprinted 
 June, 1913.
 
 m 
 
 oc/^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This book is intended as a textbook for secondary schools ; 
 it is a guide to the study of the classics read in these schools 
 and required for admission to college in English. Its purpose 
 is not to take the place of the introductions and notes of the 
 annotated editions, but to supplement them. The objects of 
 the study of any classic in the secondary schools are four: 
 (1) to undei'stand the language of the classic; (2) to appre- 
 ciate its literary qualities, especially those qualities that make 
 the classic a masterpiece of the type of literature to which it 
 belongs; (3) to realize the connection of the classic with life, 
 and (4) to fix the place of the classic in literary history. For 
 the first of these objects, the annotated editions give ample 
 help. In this textbook, therefore, purely philological notes 
 have been, for the most part, avoided. In Part I, the primary 
 aim has been to define briefly the various literary types and 
 to impress their most salient characteristics by an inductive 
 study of representative classics. An effort has also been 
 made to bring the thought of the classics into relation 
 with ordinary experience. There are some who believe 
 such a " literary study " impracticable. The author thinks 
 otherwise. His experience in teaching in the secondary 
 schools has led him to believe that something more can be 
 done to systematize "literary study." He realizes the diffi- 
 culty of keeping a consistent course between the obvious and 
 trivial on the one hand, and the vague and impressional on the 
 other, and can hardly expect to be free from error in one or 
 the other direction. If, however, some contribution is made 
 toward systematic literary study in the secondary schools, and
 
 Vlll 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PART II 
 
 CIIAPTBE 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Old English Period 177 
 
 (a) The Early Literature of the Anglo-Saxons . 
 
 177 
 
 (b) The Traditional Literature of the Celts 
 
 
 181 
 
 (c) Christian Literature .... 
 
 
 182 
 
 The Middle English Period 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 190 
 
 (a) The Romance and the Ballac 
 
 
 
 
 
 190 
 
 (b) The Age of Chaucer 
 
 
 
 
 
 201 
 
 (c) The Rise of the Drama . 
 
 
 
 
 
 209 
 
 The Renaissance . 
 
 
 
 
 
 217 
 
 (a) Non-dramatic Literature 
 
 
 
 
 
 219 
 
 (b) Dramatic Literature 
 
 
 
 
 
 223 
 
 The Puritan Age . 
 
 
 
 
 
 238 
 
 Classicism .... 
 
 
 
 
 
 249 
 
 (a) The Drama . 
 
 
 
 
 
 251 
 
 (b) Non-dramatic Poetry 
 
 
 
 
 
 253 
 
 (c) The Essay and the Pamphlet 
 
 
 
 
 
 257 
 
 (d) The Novel 
 
 
 
 
 
 263 
 
 (e) Criticism 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 266 
 
 Romanticism . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 269 
 
 (a) Poetry 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 269 
 
 (b) Prose 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 285 
 
 The Victorian Era 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 291 
 
 (a) Realism . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 295 
 
 (6) Idealism 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 301
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Esthwaite Water Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 The Capture of Troj-. From a va.te in the Museum of Naples . 11 
 
 The Vigil. After the painting by John Petlie .... 18 
 The Assassination of Julius Csesar. After the painting by Georges 
 
 Rochegrosse .......... 50 
 
 The Hall of the Middle Temple, London 67 
 
 Interior View of Westminster Abbey 83 
 
 The Birthplace of Burns 100 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. From the statue by A ugustus Saint-Gaudens . 131 
 
 Sir Galahad. After the painting by George Frederic Watts . . 145 
 The First Page of "Piers Plowman." Facsimile from the Ms. in 
 
 the Bodleian Library ......... 177 
 
 The Canterbury Pilgrims. After the fresco painting by William 
 
 Blake 206 
 
 Portia. After the painting by John Everett Millais . . . 233 
 Milton dictating " Paradise Lost." After the painting by Michael 
 
 Munkacsy ........... 245 
 
 A Literary Party at Sir Joshua Reynolds'. After the painting by 
 
 James Doyle 260 
 
 Isabella and the Pot of Basil. After the painting by Holman 
 
 Hunt 284 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. xifter the portrait by James McNeil Whistler . 293 
 
 IX
 
 PART I 
 TYPES OF LITERATURE
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE EPIC 
 
 Literature is an interpretation of life. Great books are 
 not written apart from the world by authors who are ig- 
 norant of men and events. Shakespeare and Milton and 
 Tennyson, for example, were all in close touch with life. 
 Each lived when men were thinking hard and acting strenu- 
 ously ; each gave expression to the best that was thought and 
 done in his time. The plays of Shakespeare reflect the vigor 
 and enterprise of the Elizabethan time; the .poems of 
 Milton express the stern heroism of Puritan England ; Ten- 
 nyson's poetry exemplifies the great struggle between science 
 and faith in the nineteenth century. A masterpiece of liter- 
 ature is not the result of genius alone. It is the result of 
 both a great individual mind and a vigorous national life. 
 Sometimes, it is true, the personality of the author is empha- 
 sized ; the important thing seems to be, not so much what he 
 sees of Hfe as what he thinks about it. He reflects, he phil- 
 osophizes, he moralizes. Yet, in the last analysis, his concern 
 is with the " application of ideas to life." But the author is 
 not always prominent. In dramatic literature, for example, 
 the reflections and comments of the dramatist are rare. We 
 have a representation of men and events. Life seems actu- 
 ally to be going on before us. And this is not true of dra- 
 matic literature alone. It is true of the old popular ballads 
 and epics, composed before the days of printed books when 
 literature was recited or sung, and transmitted from genera- 
 
 B 1
 
 2 STUDIES IX LITERATURE 
 
 tion to generation by word of mouth. Novels and poems, 
 even essays and orations, represent life. Whenever we wish 
 a vital interpretation of the life of a time, we go, if we are 
 wise, to its literature. 
 
 One of the earliest literary forms was the epic, which 
 celebrated in verse the deeds of great national heroes. It 
 arose before the days of literary artists and printed books. 
 The author counted for little. In the earliest popular form 
 such poems may be said to have had no author. The}' were 
 heroic stories which sang themselves out of the life of the 
 people. Everybody knew them. No one claimed them as 
 his. They passed from mouth to mouth and from genera- 
 tion to generation, any one changing them who wished. 
 Each minstrel who recited them told them in his own way and 
 added to them at will. They grew from year to year and 
 from age to age until they became, in the end, great popular 
 epics — a direct reflection of the national life. 
 
 THE ILIAD 
 
 The story of the siege of Troy is such an epic, a picture 
 of life among the prehistoric Greeks. The Trojan war, 
 upon which the story is based, took place about twelve hun- 
 dred years before Christ, near the close of a long and bril- 
 liant period of old Greek civilization. At Mycenae, on the 
 mainland of Greece, and on the islands, notably Ithaca 
 and Crete, the archeologists have uncovered strongly built 
 fortresses and cities with beautiful palaces finely appointed 
 and showing a high degree of civilization as old as that of 
 Egypt. In Crete, three distinct cities, one above another, 
 have been found. On the site of Troy in Asia Minor, Schlie- 
 mann and Dorpfeld have uncovered nine distinct layers of 
 ruins, called by them the nine cities of Ilium ; and one of 
 these, the sixth from the bottom, has been identified as the
 
 THE EPIC 3 
 
 Troy of The Iliad, for the civilization there revealed \)y the 
 archeologists is the civihzation that The Iliad portrays. 
 But this great era is altogether prehistoric. The life pic- 
 tured in The Iliad belongs three hundred years at least before 
 the beginning of authentic history and is separated from it 
 by three centuries of barbarism called the Dark Ages. Be- 
 sides what archeology teaches, we know nothing about this 
 early period except from the Homeric poems and from vague 
 tradition. It seems clear, however, that about eleven hun- 
 dred years before Christ, tribes of men called the Dorians 
 came down from the north and overthrew the older civili- 
 zation; and that the original inhabitants were scattered, 
 some of them migrating to the coast of Asia Minor and the 
 neighboring islands, and carrying with them their traditions. 
 
 Among the traditions that thus passed from the mainland 
 of Greece to Asia IVIinor were stories about the siege of Troy, 
 which we have in their later form in The Iliad. Just how 
 these stories came into their final form, just who Homer was 
 and when he lived, just the extent to which the stories had 
 already come together in the formation of a long epic before 
 Homer began to work upon them, just how much Homer 
 changed the form of the stories — all these questions are 
 matters of controversy that need not be discussed here. 
 Suffice it to say that the epic reached substantially the form 
 in which we know it as early as eight hundred and fifty years 
 before Christ. 
 
 The Iliad consists of episodes, more or less independent, 
 about various heroes, as Diomedes and Achilles. The largest 
 and most important episode is " the wrath of Achilles." 
 This is a simple, straightforward story of the quarrel between 
 Achilles and Agamemnon, the prayer of Thetis to Zeus for 
 glory for her son, the defeat of the Greeks, the request to 
 Achilles to send Patroclus, the arming of Patroclus, his death
 
 4, STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 at the hands of Hector, the rescue of his body, the bringing 
 of the news to Achilles, the reconciliation of the latter to his 
 chief, his exploits on the battle field, and the vengeance he 
 takes upon Hector. The exact relation of this story to the 
 other episodes does not concern us here. The only significant 
 point is that The Iliad was not composed as a modern novel, 
 for instance, is composed, or as Paradise Lost was composed, 
 but that it was the outcome of a long line of national tradition 
 and therefore represents not so much the reflective thought of 
 a single author as the life of an entire people. 
 
 The Iliad, therefore, is very close to life ; a simple, direct 
 story of the achievements of heroes, with little or no comment, 
 reflection, and moralizing on the part of an author. It is 
 story rather than history, yet we see there an old and won- 
 derful civilization reflected. The equipment of armies, the 
 methods of warfare in the attack and defense of cities, the 
 relations of kings and chieftains and warriors, the ideals of 
 family hfe, the conception of what parts the gods play in 
 human affairs, the character of the gods themselves and the 
 methods of sacrifice to them — all these and much besides 
 are presented in a magnificent moving picture. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Book I. The Iliad is not a complete account of the Tro- 
 jan war, but merely an account of certain episodes in it ; 
 notably the " wrath of Achilles." How long has the war been 
 going on when the story opens? (See Book II. Make a 
 list of the gods who favor the Greeks and those who favor 
 the Trojans. Why is the epithet "far-darter" appropriate to 
 Apollo? Why should Apollo send pestilence rather than 
 some other form of punishment? What are the differences 
 
 ' In making references to texts of the classics, the volumes of The Macmil- 
 lan Pocket Series have been primarily in mind.
 
 THE EPIC 5 
 
 in character between Achilles and Agamemnon? What 
 does Book I tell about the customs of warfare among the 
 Greeks? Pallas Athene is the goddess of intellect. The 
 better judgment of Achilles is thus personified. He is sup- 
 ported throughout by Intelligence. Was Athene anything 
 more to the Greeks than intelligence personified by means of 
 a capital letter? Make a collection of wise and pithy say- 
 ings like "Whosoever obeyeth the gods, to him they gladly 
 harken." Make a list of the adjectives applied to the sea. 
 Explain in your oa\ti words how the Greeks offered sacrifice. 
 What adjectives are applied to Zeus, the son of Cronus? 
 Is Zeus just ? Are the gods really " the happy gods" ? Are 
 they highly moral ? 
 
 Book II. Does Zeus act in a godlike manner? Explain 
 the exact relation between the king and his warriors. Cite 
 passages to show whether or not the king was an absolute 
 ruler? How important was the individual warrior? To 
 what extent did he have freedom of speech ? 
 
 Characterize Odysseus, citing passages in illustration. 
 Distinguish the characters of Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus, 
 Nestor, Thersites. The Greeks thought largely in pictures. 
 Point out the most picturesque passages. What is a simile ? 
 Point out the most striking similes. 
 
 Books III and IV. Books III and IV treat of individ- 
 ual combats betAveen the various warriors. They may be 
 hastily read or even omitted. 
 
 Book V. Explain the attitude of the gods toward one 
 another. Explain the attitude of Diomedes toward the gods. 
 Notice that the gods, though immortal, are not invulnerable. 
 What is meant by "bestriding a friend in battle" ? 
 
 Book VI. What was the Trojan idea of the character of 
 Athene? Indicate llic chief difference between ancient and 
 modern warfare. (Cf. Macaulay's Essay on Addison, par-
 
 6 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 agraphs 54-55.) Notice the importance of hospitality and 
 guest-friendship. What influence did it have upon warriors 
 in battle ? What was the cost of a good suit of armor ex- 
 pressed in terms of other commodities ? 
 
 Do the conditions of life seem crude or refined ? Explain. 
 Gather notes for a short account of the Greek civilization. 
 What impression do you get of Helen from her talk and ac- 
 tions ? 
 
 What difference in tone do you notice between this book 
 and the preceding books? Is the sentiment, for instance, 
 more refined ? Contrast Andromache and Helen. (Notice 
 how each is employed.) Point out the finest passages of 
 pathos and explain why they are admirable. Contrast 
 Hector and Paris. 
 
 Book VU. By what means is Hector's greatness brought 
 out? Would the description of the combat between Aias 
 and Hector be so interesting if it were less specific, less con- 
 densed, or less rapid? Describe the combat in your own 
 words. Did the Greeks always burn their dead ? 
 
 Book MIL The eighth book may be read rapidly or 
 omitted. 
 
 Book IX. Does the style of Book IX seem more simple 
 or more elaborate than the style of Book I ? Which has the 
 greater number of extended similes? What does the use 
 of the adjective "crooked-counselling" to characterize 
 Cronus imply in regard to the Greek religion ? Do Diomedes 
 and Nestcr speak fearlessly and plainly to the king ? Is the 
 king a weak king ? Does he have any more power than that 
 of a chief among warriors ? In what ways do these primitive 
 men act like children? Does Odj'^sseus, in his speech with 
 Achilles, maintain his reputation as a clever, tactful man? 
 Does this book show more delicacy and refinement than the 
 others ? How do Diomedes and Odysseus differ in character ?
 
 THE EPIC 
 
 Books X to XV. Books X to XV may be omitted. 
 
 Book XVI. What are the most stirring and graphic 
 passages? Relate in your own words the fight between 
 Patroclus and Sarpedon. What makes the Homeric ac- 
 count so interesting and hfeHke ? Why should the Trojans 
 be so eager to recover the body of Sarpedon ? 
 
 Point out the most striking similes. Do they help to 
 make the action clear ? Are any of them too elaborate and 
 detailed ? What part do the gods take in the action ? Dis- 
 cuss whether the battles are more interesting because the 
 gods interfere. What facts point forward to something that 
 is to happen later? Interest in how the story is going to 
 turn out is called plot interest. 
 
 Book XVII. This book may be read rapidly or omitted 
 altogether. It is not essential to the main story. 
 
 Book XVIII. Is the grief of Achilles unmanly ? Discuss. 
 Make a summary in your o\vn words of the fortunes of 
 Achilles up to the slaying of Patroclus, and then compare it 
 with the summary put into the mouth of Thetis near the end 
 of Book XVIII. How came Hephaestus to be lame? De- 
 scribe the armor of a Greek warrior. Explain the ornamen- 
 tation of Achilles's shield. Could all the details have been 
 placed upon a shield? Can description present any facts 
 that sculpture or painting cannot ? What advantage has a 
 picture over a description ? 
 
 Book XIX. Indicate passages in this book and else- 
 where that show the Greek idea of Fate. To what extent 
 did the Greeks feel that the gods were ever at hand to con- 
 trol the actions and fortunes of men ? Was this believed to 
 be a sufficient excuse for blunders and follies ? What details 
 show a knowledge of the awful realities of war ? What are 
 the striking pictures in this book, showing that "the poet 
 is a worker in images" ?
 
 8 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Book XX. Do you see why Matthew Arnold should 
 speak of The Iliad as an example of "poetry in the grand 
 style"? What is the difference between gods and men as 
 the Homeric Greek conceived them ? Discuss whether the 
 influence of the gods makes the heroism of the warriors less 
 heroic. Do you sympathize with Hector or with Achilles? 
 Explain wh,y. 
 
 Book XXI. This book is not essential to the story, and 
 may therefore be omitted. 
 
 Book XXH. Discuss whether Hector seems cowardly? 
 Describe the fight in your o^vn words. Indicate details 
 which show the fighting to be barbarous, savage warfare. Is 
 the vengeance of Achilles greater than can be justified? 
 What was the opinion of the gods ? 
 
 Book XXIII. What did the Greeks consider appropriate 
 rites for the dead ? What difference did it make to the 
 dead whether the rites were performed or not ? Why was it 
 so terrible for the body to be devoured by dogs? Select 
 a number of adjectives that seem to you peculiarly Homeric. 
 Are they picturesque epithets? Do they express salient 
 qualities of the objects described ? 
 
 What makes the chariot race spirited ? Review all the 
 facts contained in The Iliad about (3dysseus. 
 
 Book XXIV. Are we made to sympathize keenly ^ith 
 the sorrows of Priam ? What facts show Priam's inherent 
 nobility ? Discuss whether sympathy for Priam detracts 
 from admiration for Achilles ? 
 
 Comment on the attitude of the Greeks toward death. 
 Note especially the conversation between Achilles and Priam. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. The Difference between Gods and Men in The Iliad. 
 
 2. The Combat between Glaucus and Diomedes.
 
 THE EPIC 9 
 
 3. Funeral Games. 
 
 4. The Character of Odysseus. 
 
 5. Some Characteristics of the Greek CiviUzation as shown in 
 The Ilia<l. 
 
 6. Achilles and Hector compared. 
 
 7. Andromache and Helen compared. 
 
 8. The Parting of Hector and Andromache. 
 
 9. How the Greeks sacrificed to the Gods. 
 
 10. The Armor of Homeric Heroes. 
 
 1 1 . The Walls and Fortresses of Homeric Cities. 
 
 12. The Excavations of Troy. 
 
 13. The Excavations of Mycenae. 
 
 THE MNEID 
 
 The Mneid is not a popular epic like The Iliad. It did 
 not develop gradually through a long period of time. It is 
 not the work of many authors. On the contrary, it is dis- 
 tinctly a literary epic, produced in a comparatively short 
 period by a single author, Virgil, who wrote with the def- 
 inite purpose of glorifying the Roman people by giving to 
 them an heroic genealogy, and by relating a thrilling story 
 of the founding of the Roman state. The purpose is 
 more apparent ; the plan of the work is more definite ; 
 the details are worked out with a more conscious literary 
 skill. 
 
 Virgil, it is true, imitated the manner of the Greek epics. 
 The first part is like The Odyssey; the second, like The Iliad. 
 The wanderings of ^neas resemble^ very closely the wander- 
 ings of Odysseus ; many of the places visited are the same ; 
 reference is often made to the same legends and myths. 
 The fighting in Italy is much like the fighting around Troy ; 
 iEneas and Turnus correspond in general to Achilles and 
 Hector; there are resemblances between Pallas and Patro- 
 clus. Yet the imitation is not slavish. ^Eneas has experi-
 
 10 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 ences all his own, and is not the counter-part of either Odys- 
 seus or Achilles ; the incidents are developed with greater 
 wealth of detail ; the pictures are more elaborate and bril- 
 liant. The Iliad is like a photograph ; The Mneid, like a 
 rich and highly colored painting. 
 
 Some passages in The Mneid are incomplete, and the end- 
 ing is unsatisfactory, because Virgil was unable to finish 
 and revise his work. Yet the poem, as a whole, is one of the 
 most refined and polished of all epics. The scenes are de- 
 scribed with a vividness rarely equaled ; and the movement 
 of the events, though dignified, is swift and stirring. The 
 variety of interest, also, is remarkable. 
 
 Above all, the poem reflects the genius of the Roman people 
 at its best; the pride in a glorious national tradition, the 
 strength of fully developed national ideals, the vigor of a 
 mature civilization. When Virgil wrote, Rome was at the 
 height of her power. The stern virtues of the republic had 
 not yet given way to the luxurious vices of the later empire. 
 Danger from the north had not yet disturbed the national 
 self-confidence. The Roman spirit was both mature and 
 triumphant. The jEneid, therefore, though it tells the 
 story of the childhood of the nation, is the product of 
 the nation's full maturity and strength, an interpretation 
 of the developed national life. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Book I. Why does Virgil not start with the beginning of 
 the wanderings of ^Eneas ? What are the advantages and 
 the disadvantages of beginning as Virgil does ? Is the style 
 as simple and direct as the style of The Iliad? Point out 
 the most picturesque passages. Indicate a number of well- 
 chosen adjectives. Explain how the scene in the presence 
 of Dido is arranged to secure climax of interest. Is it easy
 
 o. 
 
 03 
 
 3 
 
 (^
 
 THE EPIC 11 
 
 to picture the entire scene as you read ? Does the scene 
 have an artistic close ? Explain. Show how the author's 
 purpose of developing an heroic lineage for the Roman people 
 is introduced. Keep in mind the attitude of each god to- 
 wards the Trojans. What reason has Juno to be angry 
 with ^neas? Read Tennyson's (Enone for an account of 
 the judgment of Paris. 
 
 Book II. The story now reverts to the fall of Troy. 
 Ordinarily we would rather read of the future experiences 
 of iEneas. But does the interest lag? Whenever a god or 
 hero is mentioned, recall his part in The Iliad. There is a 
 famous statue of Laocoon in the Vatican. Wherein is the 
 subject better for a poetic description than for a statue or 
 a picture ? Point out the most striking and effective similes. 
 Discuss whether the movement of the story is in harmony 
 with the subject matter. 
 
 Does the interest grow as the story progresses ? Explain 
 the clear unity of the book? Point out some distinctly 
 human touches which make the story seem real. What are 
 the principal traits of Ji^neas's character? Where is the 
 pathos of his recital most impressive ? 
 
 Book III. How many separate episodes are there in this 
 book? Is there any causal connection between them? Is 
 the book less interesting for that reason? What has the 
 interest of the gods in the finding of a home to do with the 
 main purpose of the poem ? What are the best descriptive 
 passages ? (Give reasons.) Explain how Scylla and Charyb- 
 dis are personifications of natural phenomena. Cite other 
 examples of the same kind of personification. Why is the 
 interest all centered on the Ausonian land ? Read and com- 
 pare the adventures of Odysseus with the Cyclops in Book 
 IX of The Odyssey. Trace the wanderings of iEneas on a 
 good classical map. Begin to make a collection of moral
 
 12 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 reflections and wise sayings like, "Cursed lust of gold, to 
 what dost thou not force the heart of man?" 
 
 Book IV. Note how graphic the account is. Is the 
 picture of Fame (Rumor) an appropriate image ? What are 
 the most appropriate adjectives to apply to Dido? Point 
 out the most striking and extended similes. What is the 
 story of Hercules and the Hesperides (see Classical Diction- 
 ary) ? Explain from history how Dido's curses and proph- 
 ecies came true. Does this add to the realistic impression of 
 the poem ? What do you find to admire in Dido ? Com- 
 pare the structure of Books III and IV. Which has the 
 more perfect unity ? Do they work up to a climax equally 
 well ? 
 
 Book V. What are the merits of the account of the boat 
 race ? What makes the foot race and the boxing match seem 
 so vivid and real ? Is the movement of the narrative swift 
 or slow ? Is the vocabulary specific or general ? Is it ab- 
 stract or concrete ? Describe one of the contests in your own 
 words, trying to make it as vivid and interesting as possible. 
 Explain in detail the difficulty of iEneas's situation. Explain 
 the picturesque method of describing the death of Palinurus. 
 Arrange the entire book in your mind as a series of pictures. 
 
 Book VI. Keep in mind the prophecy of the Sibyl ; this 
 is Virgil's way of arousing interest in what is to come, a de- 
 vice of plot. Read the account of the descent of Odysseus 
 into Hades in Book XI of The Odyssey, and compare it with 
 Virgil's account. Which is the more simple conception ? 
 These two accounts give the ideas of Hades that prevailed 
 among the Greeks and among the Romans. The northern 
 races had a very different conception. Read JVIatthew 
 Arnold's Balder Dead, and then write a short report on the 
 differences between the northern and southern conceptions. 
 
 Where, in this book, is the transmigration of souls treated ?
 
 THE EPIC 13 
 
 For what purpose is the doctrine used by the poet? What 
 has it to do with the main idea of The Mneid ? 
 
 Book \'II. The wanderings of ^Eneas are now over. The 
 war for the estabUshmcnt of the nation in Italy begins. 
 There is a change from the style of The Odyssey to the style 
 of The Iliad. Note the contrast in tone between Books VI 
 and VH. The des(;ription of the breaking out of war is 
 strikingly vivid. Notice how the hurry and confusion, and 
 the pomp and pageantry of war are portrayed. Describe 
 in your own words the outbreak of the war, trying to express 
 this hurry and confusion, and pageantry and pomp. What 
 are the two main divisions of the book ? When is the main 
 theme of The Mneid emphasized ? By what means is the 
 glory of the Roman nation kept before the mind? Look 
 up Furies in a classical dictionary. 
 
 Book VIII. Compare the shield of Achilles in Book 
 XVIII of The Iliad. Which description do you prefer, and 
 why? What other books have a number of more or less 
 independent episodes? What books have just one incident 
 or situation elaborately developed ? Which are the most 
 interesting? Are there any touches of tenderness in this 
 book? 
 
 Books IX and X. Find parallels in The Iliad for the in- 
 cidents of these two books. To what extent was Virgil a 
 borrower? Explain some differences between ancient and 
 modern warfare. Do the actions of Euryalus and Nisus, 
 as they slay the enemy and start off with the booty, seem 
 natural, considering the mission they are on ? Are there 
 passages that seem too horrible ? Explain the references 
 in the speeches of Venus and Juno in Book X. 
 
 Book XI. Is the description of the bringing home of 
 Pallas simple and clear, or complicated and confused ? Does 
 Evander act nobly? Do the expressions of sorrow seem
 
 14 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 exaggerated ? Does so much weeping and lamentation indi- 
 cate weakness of character in the heroes ? Does Turnus 
 make a stronger speech than Drances? (Give reasons.) 
 Is the account of the preparation for battle rapid ? Is it 
 clear? Does it also bring out hurry and confusion? Give 
 the account in your own words, trying to illustrate all these 
 characteristics. Compare Turnus with Hector. 
 
 Book XII. Is there any similarity between the combat of 
 ^neas and Turnus and the combat of Achilles and Hector 
 in The Iliad? Cite passages to show which is the simpler 
 and stronger ? Which is the clearer in outline ? Do you 
 feel the author more consciously at work in one than in the 
 other ? (Cite passages.) If one is more interesting, try to 
 explain why. Explain why the ending of the book is not 
 a satisfactory ending to The Mneid as a whole. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. A Summary of The Mneid by Books. 
 
 2. The Attitude of ^Eneas toward his Father. 
 
 3. Similarities between The ^iieid and The Iliad. 
 
 4. The Character of ^Eneas. 
 
 5. Acliilles and iEiieas compared. 
 
 6. Hector and Turnus compared. 
 
 7. The Most Interesting Episode in The Mneid. 
 
 8. The Story of Carthage. 
 
 9. Anachronisms in The Mneid. 
 
 10. Athletic Games in The Mneid compared ^\ath Athletic 
 Games in The Iliad. 
 
 11. Methods of Warfare in The Iliad and The Mneid compared. 
 
 12. The Character of Dido. 
 
 13. Comparison of Fate in The Iliad and in The Mneid. 
 
 14. The Element of Love in The Iliad and in The Mneid. 
 
 15. The Roman Religion.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 
 
 The two principal elements of story-telling are character 
 and action. Somebody must do something. There must 
 be both persons and events. In some stories, emphasis is 
 put upon the action. The interest lies principally in what 
 takes place. The mind dwells more on what the characters 
 do than on what they are or why they act as they do. The 
 characters are not necessarily unimportant ; some of them 
 are even historical ; yet the chief interest is in the adventures, 
 in the series of thrilling situations. We ask ourselves not, 
 what kind of people are these ? but rather, what will happen 
 next ? how will the story turn out ? Furthermore, the 
 events do not always depend on the nature of the characters 
 nor conform to ordinary experience. The scenes are often 
 far removed from the conditions of everyday life. The whole 
 story is often surrounded with an atmosphere of superstition 
 and mystery. A story of this kind, rapid in movement and 
 full of surprising situations, is technically called a romance. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott is our representative writer of romance. 
 He was peculiarly fitted both by birth and by training for 
 this kind of writing. His ancestors for generations had lived 
 the wild life of the Border Country of Scotland, and their 
 names appear in many a story of adventure in chase and in 
 battle ; so that the spirit of romance was in his blood. The 
 first eight years of his life were spent on a sheep 
 farm, the home of his grandfather, where he listened 
 
 15
 
 16 STUDIES /iV LITERATURE 
 
 to the stories that had passed from father to son 
 among the peasantry — border tales and ballads, which 
 he soon learned by heart. As he grew older, he de- 
 lighted in making excursions through the Border Country 
 and into the Highlands, visiting old battle fields and wild 
 places over which romance had cast a spell. At the univer- 
 sity, he neglected his regular work to study the life and lit- 
 erature of the Middle Ages, with their charm of mystery and 
 superstition. He knew all the old stories of knights who 
 fought in tournaments or wandered over the world in search 
 of adventures with dragons and other fabulous monsters. 
 He thought more of Robin Hood and his merry outlaws 
 than he did of the study of law, and he finally gave up the 
 practice of his profession for the purpose of writing about 
 the romantic life that was to him so fascinating. 
 
 A story, however, need not be a romance of adventure. 
 Sometimes emphasis is placed not so much upon the action 
 as upon the analysis and development of character. The 
 author tries to make the actors in his story as much like 
 ordinary men and women as possible, to enter into their 
 inner life, to realize their motives for action. They are 
 allowed to do only what real men and women with similar 
 characteristics and motives would inevitably do under the 
 given circumstances. Their action must illustrate funda- 
 mental laws of human life. The author fears nothing quite 
 so much as being untrue to ordinary experience. The story 
 pictures common life, explains its meaning, discusses its prob- 
 lems. Such a story is generally called a novel. 
 
 George Eliot is a typical novelist. In the seventeenth 
 chapter of Adam Becle she speaks of her ideals and methods : 
 
 "I do not hold it the highest vocation of the novelist to repre- 
 sent things as they never have been and never will be. I might re- 
 fasliiou life and character entirely after ray own liking, and put my
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 17 
 
 own admirablo opinions into their niouths on all occasions. But 
 it haj)pons, on the contrary, that my strongest effort is to avoid 
 any such arbitrary picture, and to give a faithful account of men 
 and things as they have mirrored themselves in my mind. The 
 mirror is doubtless defective; the* outlines will sometimes be dis- 
 turbed, the reflection faint or confused ; but I feel as much bound 
 to tell you as precisely as I can what that reflection is, as if I were 
 in the witness box narrating my exj^erience on oath. 
 
 " So I am content to tell my simple story without trjingto make 
 things seem better than they are ; dreading nothing, indeed, but 
 falsity, wiiich, in spite of one's best efforts, there is reason to dread. 
 Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. The pencil is conscious of 
 a delightful facihty in drawing a griffin — the longer the claws and 
 the larger the wings the better, but that marvelous faciUty which we 
 mistook for genius is apt to forsake us when we want to draw a real 
 unexaggc rated hon. Examine your words well, and you will find 
 that even where you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard 
 thing to saj^ the exact truth, even about your ow'n immediate feel- 
 ings — much harder than to say something fine about them which 
 is not the exact truth." 
 
 Occasionally we find a story Avhich is, strictly speaking, 
 neither a romance of adventure nor a novel of everyday life. 
 The primary interest lies not in the rapidity of the action 
 nor in the reality of the characters. It lies rather in the 
 atmosphere of the marvelous by which the story is sur- 
 rounded. Character and action alike are steeped in mystery 
 and superstition. Unseen spiritual forces mold character 
 and determine events. The literary charm lies largely in the 
 delicacy with which the imagination plays about the mj^s- 
 teries of life. A story with these characteristics might well 
 be called a romance of the spirit. 
 
 Hawthorne defends this kind of romance as follows : 
 
 "When a writer calls his work a romance, it need hardly be ob- 
 served that he wishes to claim a certain latitude, both as to its 
 c
 
 18 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 fashion and material, which he would not have felt himself entitled 
 to assume had he professed to be writing a novel. The latter form 
 of composition is presumed to aim at a very minute fidelitj^ not 
 merely to the possible, but to the probable and ordinary course of 
 man's experience. The former — while, as a work of art, it must 
 rigidly subject itself to laws, and while it sins unpardonably so far 
 as it may swerve aside from the truth of the human heart — has 
 fairly a right to present that truth under circumstances, to a great 
 extent, of the writer's own choosing or creation. If he thinks fit, 
 he may so manage his atmospheric medium as to bring out or 
 mellow the hghts, and deepen and enrich the shadows of the picture." 
 
 Ivanhoe is a typical romance of adventure ; Silas Marner, 
 
 a typical novel ; The House of Seven Gables, a romance of 
 
 the spirit. 
 
 IVANHOE 
 
 Among all of Scott's prose romances, twenty-nine in num- 
 ber, Ivanhoe is perhaps the favorite. It is a story of medieval 
 England in the time of Richard the Lion-Hearted. The date 
 of the story is 1194 a.d., a century and a quarter after the 
 conquest of England by William of Normandy (1066). For 
 many years after the conquest, two hostile races lived in 
 England side by side. The Normans were the ruling class. 
 They occupied the positions of influence in both church and 
 state, and, as feudal vassals of the king, held most of the large 
 landed estates. The Saxons, on the other hand, were, for 
 the most part, serfs or small freeholders, despised and op- 
 pressed by their proud Norman conquerors. There was 
 much bitter feeling between the two races. They did not 
 often intermarry. They did not even speak the same lan- 
 guage. Norman-French was the language of high society; 
 Saxon, the language of common life. Ivanhoe deals with — 
 in fact, may be said to center around — the hostile relations 
 of these two races.
 
 Pi 
 
 o 
 
 1-5 
 
 a 
 
 cs 
 
 a.
 
 THE ROMAXCE AND THE NOVEL 19 
 
 Ivanhoe, however, is not a careful historical study of the 
 time of Richard I. The details of Richard's return to Eng- 
 land do not represent the facts. It is doubtful whether 
 Robin Hood was a contemporary of Richard. The chivalry 
 which Scott pictures belongs to the fourteenth century, not 
 to the twelfth. The very central situation, the opposition 
 between the Normans and the Saxons, had largely changed by 
 Richard's time. As a matter of fact, Scott has telescoped 
 the life of three or four centuries. He himself wrote in the 
 Dedicatory Epistle : 
 
 " I am conscious that I shall be found still more faulty in the 
 tone of keeping and costume, by those who may be disposed rigidly 
 to examine my tale with reference to the manner of the exact 
 period in which my actors flourished. It may be that I have 
 introduced little that can positively be termed modern; but, on 
 the other hand, it is extremely probable that I have confused the 
 manners of two or three centuries, and introduced, during the 
 reign of Richard the First, circumstances appropriated to a period 
 either considerably earlier or a good deal later than that era." 
 
 Ivanhoe, therefore, is not a history but a story, a romance 
 of a distant time when life was unsettled and adventurous ; 
 not a photograph of life at any exact moment, but a composite 
 picture of the entire Middle Ages. Or, rather, it is a view 
 from a distance, where the general impression is more sig- 
 nificant than the exact details. Scott is concerned with 
 medieval life as a whole. He would represent to our imag- 
 ination the pageantry and pomp of chivalry and illustrate 
 its spirit of adventure. This he does in a very graphic and 
 spirited way. Ivanhoe is a typical romance. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Chapter I. Scott begins by explaining the setting of his 
 story. Sometimes authors begin at some interesting point
 
 20 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 that rightfully belongs in the middle of the story. Compare 
 The Odyssey and The jEneid. 
 
 Wamba is one of the professional fools so common in the 
 Middle Ages. These fools were not usually weak-minded 
 people ; but, on the contrary, were often very witty, and were 
 retained by kings and nobles to make fun for the family. 
 They were allowed to speak frankly, and often made very 
 pointed remarks, which would have given offense if made 
 by any one else. Point out resemblances between the medi- 
 eval fool and the modern circus clown. Try to make a 
 mental picture of the characters when they are introduced. 
 Consult a map as you read. (For a special map relating to 
 Ivanhoe, see A Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe, pub- 
 lished in Everyman's Library.) 
 
 Chapter II. What is a palmer ? Why so called? Watch 
 for any hints that this man is not really a palmer. What 
 information is brought out by the conversation between the 
 Prior and the Templar? Notice how the bitter feeling be- 
 tween the Normans and the Saxons is dwelt upon. 
 
 Chapter III. Cedric is very carefully introduced. He 
 must, therefore, be an important character. Get a clear 
 picture of him in your mind. What rank did a franklin 
 hold in the society of the time ? What is suggested about 
 the feeling of Cedric and Rowena toward Cedric 's son ? 
 
 Chapter V. This cliapter closes the first stage of the 
 action. All the details of the first five chapters work toward 
 this climax. Study particularly Chapters III, IV, and V, 
 which develop the scene in the hall of Cedric. The sequence 
 is important : (1) the description of the Saxon hall; (2) the 
 introduction of Cedric ; (3) a conversation iirejiaring for the 
 entrance of the Abbot and the Templar ; (4) the reference 
 to Cedric's son, made emphatic by its position at the end of 
 the chapter ; (5) the entrance of the Abbot, the Templar,
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 21 
 
 and their retinues ; (6) the entrance of Lady Rowena ; (7) the 
 entrance of the Jew ; (8) the final situation in which the 
 Palmer and the Templar are brought into violent opposition. 
 This is plot in a simple form, an incident or situation gradu- 
 ally unfolding itself, arousing expectation and increasing 
 the interest as it develops. Is the order the natural order 
 of climax ? 
 
 Not only is this final situation the culmination of the 
 first five chapters ; it also starts a new thread of story and 
 looks forward to a second climax. Such is the usual plot 
 method of romance — a series of situations each leading 
 up to the next. 
 
 Chapter VI. What hints in this chapter suggest the 
 identity of the Palmer ? 
 
 Chapter VII. What do you learn here of the character 
 (1) of Prince John? (2) of Athelstane? (3) of Cedric? 
 How do the actions of each illustrate his character ? Begin 
 to gather material about the treatment of Jews, and add to 
 your information from subsequent chapters. 
 
 Chapter VIII. This chapter contains the second climax. 
 How was the first climax a preparation for this ? Read aloud 
 the account of the tournament. Describe the encomiter in 
 your own words. What effect is produced by the delay in 
 the tournament ? For a modified form of the tournament 
 still surviving in the South, see the account in John Fox, Jr.'s 
 A Knight of the Cumberland. Fox's account is based on 
 facts. Are the words Scott uses specific or general ? What 
 effect is thus produced ? 
 
 Chapter X. How do you account for the actions of 
 Rebecca ? 
 
 Chapter XI. What is the purpose of this chapter in the 
 development of the story? Look up, in any good history 
 of English literature, the s^tory of Robin Hood and his
 
 22 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 famous band of outlaws ; and, as you go on with the reading 
 of Ivanhoe, note any points of resemblance between Scott's 
 outlaws and Robin Hood's band. 
 
 Chapter XII. Let no fact about the Black Sluggard 
 escape notice. When did you first feel certain that the 
 Palmer, the Disinherited Knight, and Ivanhoe are one and 
 the same person ? Go back and trace all the hints that led 
 to the discovery. To conceal the identity of a character 
 and thus arouse curiosity about him is one of the ways of 
 increasing the plot interest. 
 
 Chapter XIII. Why is the yeoman, Locksley, so often 
 brought into prominence ? 
 
 Chapter XIV. What has this chapter to do with the 
 development of the story ? How does the chapter illustrate 
 climax ? 
 
 Chapter XV. The author is preparing his third situation. 
 What were the first two ? What events previously related 
 have a bearing on this new situation ? 
 
 Chapters XVI and XVII. These chapters contain 
 Scott's version of an old story called The Kyng and the Her- 
 mite. Why does he introduce it here ? Look up all refer- 
 ences to the Bible. 
 
 Chapter XIX. Who is the sick man in the litter ? Why 
 is his identity not revealed ? Why do Cedric and Rowena 
 show no curiosity ? 
 
 Chapter XX. How are the persons who take part in the 
 siege of the castle brought together ? Point out how they 
 have all been made to sympathize with the persons confined 
 in the castle. How soon can you discover the identity of 
 the Black Knight? Trace all the hints which lead to the 
 discovery. 
 
 Chapter XXI. What contrast in character between 
 Cedric and Athelstane is brought out by their conversation ?
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 23 
 
 Chapter XXII. Do you admire the Jew because he is 
 noble, or merely pity him because the Norman is inhumanly 
 cruel ? Explain how the Jew's feelings are graduallj- wrought 
 up to a passionate climax. 
 
 Chapter XXIII. Does the last page and a half seem out 
 of place in the text ? If you were the author, where would 
 you put this material ? 
 
 Chapter XXIV. Whom do you admire the more, 
 Rebecca or Rowena ? Explain why. What is the purpose 
 of referring to the bugle-call at the climax of each of the 
 scenes in the last four chapters ? 
 
 Chapter XXV. What is the effect of a half-comic chal- 
 lenge in a story so serious ? 
 
 Chapter XXVII. Good plotting often requires that the 
 events be prepared for. For what is the scene between 
 Cedric and Ulrica a preparation ? 
 
 Chapters XXIX, XXX, XXXI. Study carefully the 
 culmination of the third stage in the development of the 
 story. It is more complicated than either of the earlier 
 climax situations, but all the elements of the plot are skill- 
 fully adjusted. Is there any artistic advantage in describing 
 the assault in Chapter XXIX from a single point of view ? 
 What is the effect of so much specific detail ? Is the move- 
 ment brisk or slow? Find places where the effect of the 
 scene upon Rebecca is made to intensify the reader's interest. 
 Explain the dramatic climax of Chapter XXX. Of what 
 action earlier in the book does the Black Knight's whispering 
 to De Bracy remind you ? 
 
 Chapter XXXII. A master of plot makes events come 
 about in a natural way. Is the rescue of the Jew so man- 
 aged? 
 
 Chapter XXXIV. A new situation is being prepared. 
 Notice how it grows out of the preceding situation. Stories
 
 24 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 often contain more than one element of plot. Sometimes 
 two or three enter, cross and recross one another, or are 
 woven together into a plot pattern, just as the threads of a 
 tapestry are worked into figures. Pick out the story threads 
 and explain how they are woven together. 
 
 Chapter XXX\'. What is the purpose of the talk about 
 Beaumanoir ? 
 
 Chapter XXX\^II. Explain the reasons why Bois- 
 Guilbert takes up arms against Rebecca's cause. 
 
 Chapter XL. How does the author prepare for Ivanhoe's 
 recovery in time to fight for Rebecca? Why does Scott 
 make Wamba the one to blow the bugle ? 
 
 Chapter XLII. Is Athelstane's reappearance sufficiently 
 prepared for, or does it seem improbable and unreasonable ? 
 
 Chapter XLIII. Why is Ivanhoe made to win by chance 
 rather than by prowess ? 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. The Treatment of the Jews in the Middle Ages as depicted in 
 Ivanhoe. 
 
 2. Robin Hood. 
 
 3. Rebecca and Rowena. 
 
 4. The Trial of Rebecca. 
 
 5. Richard the Lion-Hearted. 
 
 6. The Iviiights Templars. 
 
 7. Thackeray's Continuation of Ivanhoe in his Rebecca and 
 Rowena. 
 
 8. Brian de Bois-Guilbert. 
 
 9. A Description of the Storming of the Castle of Torquilstone. 
 
 SILAS MARKER 
 
 Silas Marner is one of the best of George Eliot's novels, 
 and thoroughly illustrates her theories of the novelist's art. 
 The author has not chosen unusual characters, and put them
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 25 
 
 in a remote place and time. The story is a story of modern 
 life in the midland country of England, where George Eliot 
 lived for many years, and where she had an intimate personal 
 acquaintance with people very like those presented in the 
 book. Moreover, emphasis is placed upon chai^acter rather 
 than upon plot. To appreciate Silas Marner, one must 
 study the nature of the characters, understand the circum- 
 stances in which they are placed, and realize how the events 
 happen just as they do, because characters of that kind 
 under the given circumstances could not well act otherwise. 
 This nov(>l is not a mere pfiotograph of life ; it is an inter- 
 pretation. The point of view of the author is not objective 
 and impersonal. We are not allowed to look upon the events 
 as upon a pageant which is intended to explain itself. Tlie 
 author must needs interpret. She insists upon explaining 
 the motives which control conduct, and upon making clear 
 that the events happen, not because the author so wills it, 
 but because they must so happen in the very nature of things. 
 Silas Marner, as the author carefully explains, illustrates the 
 law of life that " whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
 reap." It shows how a person, quite shut out from life by 
 bitter neglect, is, through the agency of a little child, brought 
 again into natural and sympathetic relations with other 
 human beings. (Jeorge Eliot is especially interested in what 
 goes on in the minds and hearts of her characters; and 
 unless the reader also can become interested in these things, 
 he will find much of the book slow and stu])itl. lie who cares 
 only for the events, and expects the story to move as briskly 
 as a romance, will be disappointed. Let him rather question 
 the truth of the action. Do the characters think and act 
 naturally ? Are they right or wrong ? What makes them 
 think and act as they do? Are they made to suffer the 
 natural consequences of their blunders and their sins?
 
 26 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Chapter I. The methods of George EHot should be com- 
 pared at every stage with those of Scott. The difference 
 appears at once. Scott is eager to make a picture, to show 
 externals. George Eliot seeks the very heart of her charac- 
 ters for the motives of action. She tries to bring her readers 
 into sympathy with innermost feelings and thoughts. Her 
 ability to put herself in the place of another is also manifest. 
 She can be the peasant with all his limitations and supersti- 
 tions, and can see Silas Marner from the peasant's point 
 of view. Her method in bringing out character should be 
 carefully noted — the peasant's view of Silas, followed by her 
 own careful explanation of the real nature of the man and 
 of the circumstances of his life which had helped to fashion 
 his character. The method is both descriptive and analyti- 
 cal. What has the false accusation and condemnation of 
 Silas to do with the plot ? Notice the author's tendency to 
 philosophize ; the facts of her story lead her constantly to 
 make general reflections on life and character. 
 
 Chapter II. George Eliot is able to put herself in a 
 miser's place, and think as he does about money. This 
 power of putting one's self in the place of another, of thinking 
 his thoughts and living his life, is one of the secrets of creative 
 writing ; it is also one of the secrets of intelligent reading, 
 by which we are able to enlarge our experience through books, 
 and also to find the secret of successful dealing with men in 
 real life. Chapters I and II are introductory ; they estab- 
 lish a definite situation and certain moral conditions which 
 are the starting point of the story. Silas Marner is a man 
 seemingly shut off from all real contact and sympathy with 
 his fellows. The rest of the book will show how such a 
 person can be redeemed and his character developed. Why
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 27 
 
 does the author introduce the incident in regard to the 
 pitcher? George EUot's philosophical tendencies lead her 
 to use many unfamiliar words. Look them up in a diction- 
 ary, and so enlarge your vocabulary. 
 
 Chapter III. This chapter brings in a new plot element. 
 There are two stories, the Marner story and the Cass story. 
 Note how these stories go on side by side, and watch 
 for points of contact. Make a note of the chapters which 
 treat the Marner story only ; the Cass story only ; and 
 both together. Ask yourself if one is subordinate to the 
 other. 
 
 In this chapter, character is brought out, not so much by 
 description and analysis as by letting the person talk, i.e., 
 by dialogue. Effective dialogue should reveal the character 
 of the speakers and at the same time advance the story. 
 Does this dialogue do so ? Notice how skillfully the author 
 is able to get inside of Godfrey's mind and analyze it. What 
 is the great weakness of Godfrey's character ? 
 
 Chapter IV. In this chapter, character is brought out 
 not so much by description or by dialogue as by action. 
 Find further examples of this method of portraying character. 
 Why did George Eliot not have Dunstan give up Wildfire 
 when the bargain was struck ? Do Dunstan's actions grow 
 out of his character ? Is he, for instance, a person who might 
 be expected to steal, and does the author show carefully 
 the mental process by which Dunstan brought himself to 
 commit the act ? Where is the stealing of Marner's money 
 first hinted at ? 
 
 Chapter V. Explain how passion is here portrayed 
 through action. Get the situation clearly in mind and ivy 
 to enter into it as sympathetically as George Eliot does. 
 
 Chapters VI and VII. The scene at the Rainbow is a 
 good example of George Eliot's tendency to deal with actual
 
 28 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 life. This conversation is justly famous. The people are 
 real country people ; their characters are well distinguished ; 
 and they talk their proper provincial dialect — a dialect of 
 which George Eliot was master. Distinguish each char- 
 acter by an appropriate adjective. What has this chapter 
 to do with the plot? What do you understand by "dra- 
 matic " ? Do you see how this is a very dramatic way of an- 
 nouncing the robbery of Marner ? Be on the watch for other 
 dramatic scenes. Mark the beginning of the process by 
 which Marner gets back into sympathetic relations with his 
 fellow-men. Note any humorous touches. Are the details 
 arranged to lead up to a climax ? 
 
 Chapter VIII. What information is here given regard- 
 ing the character of Godfrey Cass ? W^hat method is used ? 
 The first part of the chapter is an admirable example of how 
 the minds of ordinary villagers work. Can you find flaws 
 in their reasoning ? 
 
 Chapter IX. What does this chapter tell us of the char- 
 acter of the Squire ? What methods are used ? Does the 
 chapter serve any other purpose ? 
 
 Chapter X. Explain Mr. Macey's characteristic lack 
 of tact. What is tact ? Why is Mrs. Winthrop introduced ? 
 
 Chapter XI. Notice that the New Year's party is 
 worked out in very careful detail not particularly for story 
 purposes — for the story movement here is very slow — but 
 for the purpose of showing nice discrimination in the study 
 of character and for the purpose of interpreting life. There 
 is much conversation here. Compare it with Chapter VI to 
 see if there is a difference in language corresponding to the 
 difference in social condition of the two companies. Deter- 
 mine some of the requirements of good conversation ? Ex- 
 plain, in clear language, your opinion of Nancy, citing pas- 
 sages to support your idea.
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 29 
 
 Chapter XII. Notice the striking contrast between 
 Chapters XI and XII. How has Chapter XII been prepared 
 for ? What use is made of the fact that Silas is subject to 
 catalepsy? Why is his eyesight made defective? Do the 
 events of this chapter seem as inevitable as the other events 
 of the book ? 
 
 Chapter XIII. In a good novel, the action should arise 
 inevitably out of the (character of the persons concerned. 
 This is saitl to be one of George Eliot's great merits. From 
 what you have learned of Godfrey's character, could you 
 have predicted his action here? (Give reasons.) Is he a 
 moral coward? (Discuss.) Notice how the human sym- 
 pathies of Silas have been aroused. Why was the child 
 made to have golden hair ? 
 
 Chapter XIV. This chapter is important because it 
 treats very directly with the central theme of the book, the 
 bringing back of Silas into sympathy with the human world. 
 George Eliot's text seems to be, "A little child shall lead 
 them." Notice how she brings out the point at the end 
 of the chapter. Do the events here seem to you real and 
 natural ? (Explain.) 
 
 Chapter XV. What is your opinion of Godfrey's con- 
 duct? Is he trifling with his conscience? (Give reasons.) 
 If the story is true to human experience, must sorrow be 
 brought upon him for his moral wc^akness? What, in your 
 opinion, would have been the right thing for Godfrey to do ? 
 From your knowledge of the characters, can you predict 
 what would have happened if Godfrey had acknowledged 
 the child as his, and had taken it home with him? What 
 attitude would Nancy have taken ? How would that action 
 on his part have interfered with the theme of the book ? 
 
 Chapter XVI. Why is it necessary to have a consider- 
 able time elapse ? Tell what has taken place in Silas Marner's
 
 30 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 condition during the time. How did you find it out? 
 Where is there a hint that his money will be found ? Point 
 out from the book other cases of foreshadowing. The care- 
 ful detail with which this and similar chapters are written 
 can be understood only when you keep in mind that the 
 theme of the book is the development of Marner's character. 
 
 Chapter XVII. Have you the same opinion of Nancy 
 that Godfrey expresses? If not, what is your opinion? 
 How would she have acted had Godfrey told her the truth 
 about Eppie ? Godfrey is now beginning to feel the inevi- 
 table results of his misconduct and moral weakness. Go 
 back and trace in the fortunes of Godfrey the way in which 
 the author works out the text, "Whatsoever a man soweth, 
 that shall he also reap." How does this chapter prepare for 
 the next ? 
 
 Chapter XVIII. This chapter is intensely dramatic, 
 yet there is almost no action. The tragedy lies in the play 
 of character upon character, passion upon passion, all ruled 
 by an inevitable fate. The situation is not physical, but 
 mental, moral, spiritual. In this, George Eliot shows a 
 power very different from the power of story-telling merely. 
 She shows that she can appreciate and interpret the deepest 
 experiences of the mind and heart. Could you have pre- 
 dicted Nancy's attitude ? Study the l)ook in comparison 
 with Ivanhoe until you see clearly the difference between a 
 story of adventure and an interpretation of life. 
 
 Chapter XIX. What makes Godfrey such a blunderer ? 
 Is it not partly at least because he is unable to look at things 
 from any other point of view than his own ? How many 
 people of your acquaintance have this power of putting them- 
 selves in the place of others and looking at things from their 
 point of view ? Notice how careful the author is to impress 
 her idea that men cannot get away from the results of their
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 31 
 
 l)lunders and their sins. Wherein is the scene "beautiful 
 und simple and pathetic " ? 
 
 Chapter XX. Make clear by details and examples the 
 following comparison between Ivanhoe and Silas Marner. 
 
 1 . Ivanhoe puts the emphasis on plot ; Silas Marner, on 
 character. 
 
 2. In Ivanhoe the characters exist for the sake of the plot ; 
 in Silas Marner the events grow out of the characters. 
 
 3. Ivanhoe gives us a picture of the outward shows of life ; 
 it deals with pageantry. Silas Marner analyzes the motives 
 and issues of conduct. 
 
 4. The movement of Ivanhoe is more rapid than that of 
 Silas Marner. 
 
 Classify, according to these distinctions, some of the 
 stories whicli you have read ; e.g., Treasure Island, Gulliver's 
 Travels, Adam Bede, Vanity Fair. If George Eliot had been 
 writing a romance instead of a novel, how would she have 
 made Silas Marner end ? 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. The Two Threads of Plot in Silas Marner. 
 
 2. Dramatic Passages in Silas Marner. 
 
 3. George Eliot as a Writer of Dialogue. 
 
 4. How Silas tried to discipline Eppie. 
 
 5. Methods of portrajing Character in Silas Marner. 
 
 6. How George Eliot's Early Life fitted her to write about the 
 Middle Class. 
 
 7. Godfrey's Great Mistake. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES 
 
 The House of Seven Gables is a romance, but not a ro- 
 mance of adventure pure and simple. Characteristics of 
 the novel appear. The story has a moral purpose ; the plot 
 movement is slow ; emphasis is often put on the analysis
 
 32 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 of character. Yet the final effect of the story is romantic. 
 The characters are unusual and are seen through a romantic 
 mist. A " legend from an epoch now gray in the distance 
 is prolonged into our own broad daylight," in order " to 
 mellow the lights and deepen and enrich the shadows of the 
 picture." A " slight, delicate, and evanescent flavor of the 
 marvelous " is given to the events ; so that these events, 
 though not rapid and adventurous, develop a clear romance 
 of the spirit quite distinct from the story of common life. 
 Hawthorne's imaginative point of view belongs distinctly to 
 romance, and this is what gives character and color to the 
 story. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Chapter I. In the preface, Hawthorne says the purpose 
 of his story is to show "the truth that the wrong-doing of 
 one generation lives into the successive ones, and, divesting 
 itself of every temporary advantage, becomes a pure and un- 
 controllable mischief." Where in Chapter I is this theme 
 first stated? Indicate the various passages by which the 
 theme is emphasized and kept before the mind. 
 
 Explain, by reference to specific passages, how the myste- 
 rious and supernatural atmosphere is produced. When 
 Hawthorne wrote, witchcraft was no longer believed in, but 
 the effect of former belief was still in the blood. Notice how 
 Hawthorne, without expressing the belief, gets the emotional 
 and imaginative effect of the belief. How is the old house 
 made mysterious and uncanny? Cite passages. Does 
 Hawthorne by his statement leave any doubt that the im- 
 prisoned Pyncheon was the murderer of his uncle ? Why is 
 the son of Maule, the wizard, made to help l)uild the house ? 
 What are the characteristics of the Maule family ? 
 
 Chapter II. Explain Hawthorne's method of introduc-
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 33 
 
 ing characters. Show hoAv he emphasizes the thoughts and 
 emotions. Is the character work more subtle and deHcate 
 than the Avork of Walter Scott ? Notice Hawthorne's tend- 
 ency to make general reflections upon life ; e.g., 
 
 "In thit^ republican country, amid the fluctuating waves of our 
 social life, somebody is always at the drowning-poiut." 
 
 Indicate other passages of this sort. Notice carefully the 
 characteristics of the miniature which Hepzibah prizes. 
 Watch for the original of it in the story. Why is the main 
 room of the house so carefully described? 
 
 Chapter III. Find further illustrations of Hawthorne's 
 tendency to make general reflections about life. Cite humor- 
 ous passages ? Can you always decide easily whether a pas- 
 sage is humorous or pathetic ? Is the main interest in the 
 story or in the characters ? Why is the incident of the copper 
 coin the central and most significant incident in the chapter ? 
 
 Chapter IV. Hawthorne has a way of inserting short 
 passages which look forward to some character or event 
 to be introduced later. In Chapter II, when mention is 
 made of Hepzibah 's determination to open the penny-shop, 
 we are told : "She might have held back a little longer; but 
 another circumstance, not yet hinted at, had somewhat 
 hastened her decision." In the present chapter, Uncle 
 Venner says, "When do you expect him home?" and at the 
 end of the chapter, after Phoebe has arrived, Hepzibah says, 
 "If Clifford were to find her here, it might disturb him !" 
 Does anything else in the story thus far have to do with 
 Clifford? This chapter is remarkable for the contrasts. 
 Explain. Give your estimate of Judge Pyncheon, citing 
 passages in illustration. What is the effect of bringing the 
 Judge and the old family portrait and Hepzibah's miniature 
 into such striking contrast ?
 
 34 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Chapter V. Would you be surprised to find a chapter 
 in George Eliot opening like this one ? Why ? In what 
 respect does this chapter advance the plot? Why is 
 much space given to Alice Pyncheon? What is the sig- 
 nificance in placing the facts about Mr. Holgrave at the 
 end of the chapter? Review your impression of the char- 
 acters. Make a short list of adjectives which best charac- 
 terize each. 
 
 Chapter VI. As you read, gather material for short 
 essays on the following subjects : 
 
 1. The Plot of The House of Seven Gables. 
 
 2. Hawthorne's Methods of depicting Character. 
 
 3. Hawthorne as a Descriptive Artist. 
 
 Is there any particular significance in passages like the follow- 
 ing in regard to Mr. Holgrave ? 
 
 "There was an odd kind of authority, too, in what he now pro- 
 ceeded to say, rather as if the garden were his own than a place to 
 which he was admitted merely by Hepzibah's courtesy." 
 
 "While the tone of his conversation had generajly been plaj^ul, 
 the impression left on her [Phoebe's] mind was that of gra\dty, and 
 except as his youth modified it, almost sternness. She rebelled, as 
 it were, against a certain magnetic element in the artist's nature, 
 which he exercised toward her, possibly without being conscious of 
 it." 
 
 What more do we learn of Judge Pyncheon ? 
 
 Chapter VII. Make a list of all the passages in the 
 preceding chapters which look forward to the introduction 
 of Clifford, showing how elaborate has been the preparation. 
 What do these passages tell us of his character ? What 
 characteristics are emphasized in the present chapter ? This 
 chapter should be studied carefully for its literary methods — 
 the preparatory description delicate and sympathetic, the 
 careful introduction of Clifford, and the subtle portrayal
 
 THE ROMANCE AND THE NOVEL 35 
 
 of his characteristics in a manner both (h-amatic and aiialytic. 
 How are tlie following traits brought out : his feeble and in- 
 termittent glimmers of mind and spirit, his innate refine- 
 ment, his love of the beautiful, his less delicate sensuousness, 
 his essential selfishness, his irritability, his childish terror? 
 Discuss whether such a man could have committed the crime 
 of which he was convicted and for which he was imprisoned 
 so long? 
 
 Chapter VIII. The contrast between the superficial 
 and fundamental characteristics of the Judge seems most 
 important in this chapter, but the chapter should also be 
 studied from the point of view of plot. How is the main 
 theme of the story woven into the chapter? What in the 
 chapter looks forward to events still to happen? Why 
 should Clifford be so afraid of the Judge, and Hepzibah so 
 hard towards him ? 
 
 Chapter IX. Indicate passages where humor and pathos 
 are inextricably woven together. Notice the books Hepzibah 
 tries to read to Clifford. What light does the passage give 
 on Hawthorne's romantic interests? What are the most 
 striking figurative passages in this chapter? Can you ex- 
 press the effect of them in your own words ? By comparing 
 Ivanhoe and The House of Seven Gables can you explain the 
 difference between a romance of outward action and a ro- 
 mance of the spirit? This chapter illustrates Hawthorne's 
 great love of contrasts. Explain in detail. Why do artists 
 so commonly use contrast ? 
 
 Chapter X. Why does the author dwell so much upon 
 the innocent childishness of Clifford's nature, his delicacy, 
 his sesthetic sensitiveness ? How does this chapter advance 
 the plot ? The plot unquestionably moves slowly. Is the 
 reading tedious ? If so, you are missing the charm of Haw- 
 thorne's delicate and sympathetic imagination. What
 
 36 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 passages best show the exquisite sensitiveness of Clifford's 
 nature ? What makes the situation pathetic ? 
 
 Chapter XI. What, in tliis chapter, foreshadows events 
 yet to take place ? Does it develop any new phase of Clif- 
 ford's experience ? 
 
 Chapter XII. Explain how this chapter reverts to the 
 main theme. Why is Holgrave so deeply interested in 
 the Pyncheon traditions ? What is the significance of the 
 following words applied to Clifford : 
 
 "Possibly he was in a state of second growth and recovery, and 
 was constantly assimilating nutriment for the spirit and intellect 
 from sights, sounds, and events, wliich passed as a perfect void to 
 persons more practiced with the world." 
 
 Chapter XIII. Why is this episode introduced ? What 
 has it to do with the plot ? 
 
 Chapter XIV. In what significant way is this chapter 
 connected with the preceding? Indicate the passages in 
 which the beginning of love between Phoebe and Holgrave 
 is delicately suggested. What passages foreshadow the fu- 
 ture? In reply to Phoebe's remark, "You hold something 
 back!" Holgrave remarked, "Nothing, — no secrets but 
 my own!" What did he mean? Why does Hawthorne 
 insert the parenthesis, "hark, how Maule's well is murmur- 
 ing!" 
 
 ^t5 
 
 Chapter XV. Indicate passages where explanations of 
 the plot, hitherto vaguely hinted at, are now more clearly 
 emphasized. Notice the imagery by which the Judge's in- 
 ner life is elal)orately illustrated. What passages anticipate 
 the Judge's retribution ? 
 
 Chapter XVI. How is the element of suspense sustained 
 and the premonition of something terrible developed ? What 
 is the effect of leaving unexplained the situation in the
 
 THE ROMANCE AXD THE NOVEL 37 
 
 parlor? How would you characterize the new develop- 
 ment in Clifford ? 
 
 Chapter X\'II. Are the action and talk of Clifford 
 plausible ? What is Hawthorne's explanation of it ? Has 
 it been anticipated? Notice how the plot interest is being 
 worked up to a climax. 
 
 Chapter XVHI. Hawthorne's imagination loves to 
 play around a situation, vie^^^ng it from many angles and 
 in various lights and shadows. Explain. 
 
 Chapter XIX. What effect has the bringing together 
 of these common, trivial, and realistic incidents ? What bit 
 of philosophizing about life does Hawthorne make it suggest ? 
 
 Chapter XX. Another study in contrasts. Gather 
 other illustrations. What points in connection with the plot 
 are here cleared up ? 
 
 Chapter XXI. Enumerate the passages throughout the 
 book which vaguely indicate that Holgrave is a descendant 
 of ^Maule. X'otice the method by which Hawthorne gradu- 
 ally' makes it clearer. Examine in the same way the treat- 
 ment of Clifford's supposed guilt. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1 . Hawthorne a Lover of Contrasts. 
 
 2. Hatti:horne's Use of the Supernatural. 
 
 3. The Plot of The House of Seven Gables. 
 
 4. Hawthorne's Methods of Description. 
 
 5. Hawthorne's Methods of depicting Character. 
 
 6. Witchcraft in New England. 
 
 7. Some Characteristics of Hawthorne as a Man.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DRAMA 
 
 The English drama can never be understood without an 
 intimate knowledge of Shakespeare. He did more than any 
 one else to develop the art of playwriting and to fix dramatic 
 standards. All the crude ideas of drama in the time before 
 Shakespeare find in him their complete development ; and 
 the best writers since his time have looked back to him for 
 their standards of excellence. He is the central figure in the 
 history of the English drama. 
 
 To understand Shakespeare adequately, we must know 
 something of the drama in the years before he began 
 to write for the stage. The English drama developed 
 from very small beginnings. To be sure, the Greeks 
 and the Romans had long before developed an elabo- 
 rate dramatic art ; but the modern drama did not begin 
 by building upon classical models. During the Middle 
 Ages, the classical drama was practically swept away. 
 No classical plays were publicly acted ; they were not gen- 
 erally read. The manuscripts which had been preserved 
 in the old monasteries were only occasionally read by some 
 studious monk, and perhaps acted on rare occasions in the 
 seclusion of the cloisters. As drama, they were not an active 
 force. The only acted drama of the Middle Ages consisted 
 of (1) the entertainments of the traveling showmen or jon- 
 gleurs similar to the acts in our variety shows ; (2) the pan- 
 tomimic or dumb-show exhibitions of the mimes ; (3) the 
 popular dramatic customs such as the May-day games and 
 
 38
 
 THE DRAMA 39 
 
 the Robin Hood plays and Sword plays ; and (4) the Biblical 
 plays performed in the church. Out of such crude perform- 
 ances grew the Interludes, the Miracle Plays, the Chronicle 
 History Plays, and the Drama of Blood — the principal types 
 of pre-Shakespearean drama. At the time of the Revival of 
 Learning in England, classical plays began to influence the 
 final forms of dramatic art ; but the real origin of the modern 
 drama is quite apart from classical traditions. The Shake- 
 spearean drama is, therefore, essentiall}^ English. (For a 
 more detailed account, see Part II, pp. 209 ff., 223 ff.) 
 
 (a) THE CHRONICLE HISTORY PLAY 
 
 The Chronicle History play is perhaps the most strikingly 
 English of all the Shakespearean dramatic types. It was 
 modeled on the old Miracle plays. These were originally 
 short Biblical scenes in dialogue introduced into the church 
 service to make it more impressive. Gradually they grew 
 into independent services, and at length came to take their 
 chances as popular entertainments. Popular entertain- 
 ments, to be sure, were for the most part comic — dramatic 
 song and dance and game, and the farcical scenes of the travel- 
 ing showmen — and the Bible story was prevailingly serious, 
 incapable indeed of comic treatment ; but, since the me- 
 dieval mind was not sensitive to incongruities, scenes of 
 popular comedy were introduced into the Biblical plays even 
 though they had nothing whatever to do with the Biblical 
 story. In one of the Christmas plays, for instance, a famous 
 sheep-stealing farce is introduced into the shepherd scene just 
 before the Angel of the Lord appears to announce the birth 
 of Christ. Such was a Miracle play, — a strange incongru- 
 ous combination of the serious and the comic ; important, 
 however, as an influence in the development of the English 
 drama.
 
 40 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 These plays furnished the model for the Chronicle History 
 play. In the early years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
 when the whole nation was united and triumphant, when 
 patriotism was strong and the people were eager to know more 
 of their heroic past, the theater, which was at that time the 
 center of the national life, met the popular demand by put- 
 ting English history upon the stage. The playwrights, how- 
 ever, invented no new dramatic form. They constructed 
 their plays after the old models, simply substituting 
 English history for Biblical history. The result was a 
 series of historical scenes interspersed with comic situa- 
 tions often totally unrelated to the historical narrative. 
 Playwrights had not yet learned the dramatic art. 
 They knew nothing of how to weave together seri- 
 ous and comic parts into a unity of interest. They had no 
 clear idea of plot. Indeed, there was at first no successful 
 effort to develop the story to a dramatic climax, or even to 
 cut out the less dramatic material so that the story might 
 move rapidly. Real dramatic dialogue was rare. There 
 were long explanations and extended narratives, to which 
 most of the characters listened without action. There was, 
 therefore, very little acting drama in the Chronicle History 
 play before the time of Shakespeare. 
 
 The same general characteristics appear in Shakespeare's 
 Chronicle History plays, of which the most important are 
 Henry IV, Parts I and II, and Henry V. In these plays, 
 the serious main plot and the comic underplot are not closely 
 related. One treats the national wars of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury ; the other, the tavern life of London in the late six- 
 teenth century. To be sure, the two plots are united in a 
 general way by " link personages," like Prince Hal and 
 Falstaff, who appear both in the serious and in the comic 
 stories, and in Henry V the comic characters are soldiers in
 
 THE DRAMA 41 
 
 Henry V's army ; yet the connection between the two stories 
 is not essentially intimate. Moreover, long narrative and 
 reflective passages appear in the serious parts instead of rapid 
 acting dialogue. 
 
 ' These plays, however, have admirable qualities which 
 greatly outweigh the defects of the type. The comedy is 
 lifelike, the situations highly amusing, the dialogue exceed- 
 ingly witty. Falstaff is recognized as one of the greatest 
 comic characters in all literature. The serious story is 
 written in a high heroic tone. Henry V is Shakespeare's 
 ideally heroic king, nobly conceived and carefully developed 
 through the three consecutive plays. Even the long speeches 
 often contain very spirited declamation. There is a fine ring, 
 for instance, to the passage beginning : 
 
 "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ; 
 Or close the wall up with our English dead." 
 
 (Act HI, Scene 1.) 
 
 The lines on St. Crispian's day (Act IV, Scene 3) must have 
 stirred the patriotic feelings of a people whose strong sense 
 of nationality had recently been aroused. There is a rich 
 reflective quality in the King's great soliloquy beginning : 
 
 "Upon the king ! let us our lives, our souls, 
 Our debts, our careful wives. 
 Our children, and our sins lay on the King." 
 
 (Act IV, Scene 1, line 22.) 
 
 For the study of plot, these plays are not particularly sig- 
 nificant ; they do not illustrate the highest artistic form in 
 either tragedy or comedy; yet for comic situation, for 
 graphic, heroic narrative in dialogue they are highly impor- 
 tant.
 
 42 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 HENRY V 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Act I 
 
 Prologue. The Choruses in Henry V have, in general, ' 
 two functions : (1) they appeal to the imagination, and 
 (2) they bridge over intervals of time in the action. The 
 appliances for representing action on the stage were very 
 limited. Reproductions of battle scenes were especially 
 inadequate. The prologue makes due apologies for these 
 limitations and asks the audience to use the imagination 
 to fill out the scenes. It also introduces the theme of the 
 entire drama in the words, " Oh, that it were possible worthily 
 to represent the heroic soldier king." 
 
 Scene 1. This scene (1) gives a general idea of conditions 
 leading up to the war and (2) explains certain traits of 
 Henry's character. Why was Canterbury's explanation of 
 the change in Henry's character necessary for the Elizabethan 
 audience ? Why does the church wish for war ? Why 
 does Henry wish it ? 
 
 Scene 2. Explain Henry's attitude toward religion. 
 Was he in the habit of reflecting much upon religious prob- 
 lems ? What are the archbishop's arguments to support 
 Henry's claim to the throne of France ? Look up the ances- 
 try of Henry and explain exactly what the claim was. What 
 do we learn of Henry's character from his treatment of the 
 French ambassador? 
 
 Act II 
 
 Prologue. What do we learn in this prologue about 
 (1) preparations for war? (2) the conspiracy? (3) changes 
 of scene? How does the poetic account at the beginning 
 differ from a commonplace statement that preparations for 
 war are being made ?
 
 THE DRAMA 43 
 
 Scene 1. The comic underplot introduced in this scene 
 has no very intimate connection with the serious main plot. 
 It does, however, by representing the "seamy side" of war, 
 set off by contrast the nobility of Henry. Nym's talk is full 
 of the slang phrases of the time. The word "nym" means 
 take, steal. In Pistol's talk, Shakespeare makes fun of the 
 phraseology of the old plays. This is why Pistol speaks in 
 verse. Why do characters of the inferior class usually talk 
 in prose ? Indicate the most humorous passages. Is either 
 Pistol or Nym eager to fight ? 
 
 Scene 2. The episode about freeing the prisoner is not 
 in the chronicle history from which the material for the play 
 was taken. Why does Shakespeare introduce it ? Show how 
 this scene illustrates irony. Iron}' arises when the audience 
 has information of which at least some of the actors on the 
 stage are ignorant. What do we learn from this scene about 
 Henry's character and ability as a man of action ? 
 
 Scene 3. This accomit of the death of Falstaff is justly 
 famous, because it is so human and unconventional. Why 
 should it be in the play at all? Is the Boy an ordinary 
 boy? Why does Nym refuse to kiss the Hostess at part- 
 ing? 
 
 Scene 4. Select three or four adjectives which best 
 
 characterize the Dauphin. His first speech (lines 15-22) is 
 
 sensible. Is this generally true of the Dauphin's talk? 
 
 Which character among the French is the most admirable ? 
 
 Does Exeter speak like a worthy messenger of King Henry ? 
 
 (Give reasons.) 
 
 Act III 
 
 Prologue. What is the main purpose of this prologue ? 
 Show how it illustrates Macaulay's saying that "the poet 
 is a worker in images." Are the adjectives skillfully 
 selected ?
 
 44 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Scene 1. Read this fine declamation aloud. It may well 
 be learned by heart and recited. 
 
 Scene 2. Explain how Fluellen, Macmorris, and Jamy 
 contrast in character with Bardolph, Pijstol, and Nym, Is 
 there any political significance in bringing together in Henry's 
 army a Welshman, an Irishman, and a Scotchman ? (See 
 Verity's King Henry V, Intro, p. xxii.) 
 
 Scene 5. Why does Shakespeare emphasize the vaunting, 
 self-confident, and scornful spirit of the French ? 
 
 Scene 6. Indicate passages which show Fluellen's simple- 
 mindedness ; his pedantry ; his honest soldiership. Con- 
 trast the boastful tone of the message from the French king 
 with the brave seriousness of Henry's speech. Notice how 
 Henry checks his slight tendency toward boastfulness. 
 
 Scene 7. What was the dramatic effect of emphasizing 
 the overconfidence and arrogance of the French ? 
 
 Act IV 
 
 Prologue. "A striking night-piece." Describe in your 
 o^vn words the contrast pictures of the two armies. Examine 
 the effect of the skillful use of adjectives. Boaz speaks of 
 this prologue as the ''most epic of the five." 
 
 Scene 1. Explain how this scene brings us nearer to the 
 inner life of Henry than any other scene in the play. Com- 
 pare lines 142-177 and lines 220-273 to determine why 
 Henry should speak prose in one passage and poetry in the 
 other. Notice that Shakespeare emphasizes the duties 
 rather than the privileges of kingship. Choose two or three 
 adjectives which best characterize Williams. 
 
 Scene 2. Show how the scenes of this act are arranged 
 for the effect of contrast. 
 
 Scene 3. What trait of Henry is here emphasized? 
 Henry is Shakespeare's ideal man of action, an epic rather
 
 THE DRAMA 45 
 
 than a tragic hero. The pla}^ treats of success in practical 
 affairs, not of the rise and fall of character. Must a tragic 
 hero have defects of character ? 
 
 Scenes 4-5. What is the dramatic purpose of Scenes 
 iv and v ? 
 
 Scenes 7-8. Explain what is comic about Fluollen. 
 
 Would this act seem less real if the quarrel with Williams 
 
 were left out ? Why ? The act ends properly by sounding 
 
 the heroic note. 
 
 Act V 
 
 Prologue. This prologue bridges a gap of five years in 
 the action. 
 
 Scene 1. This scene tells what became of Pistol. What 
 became of Bardolph and Nym ? 
 
 Scene 2, Is the picture of Henry as a lover in keeping 
 with his character in the rest of the pla}^? Give reasons. 
 Would you expect a man who has shown himself a master 
 of words and of thoughts to be the bluff, plain soldier in his 
 wooing ? 
 
 Epilogue. The epilogue is a sonnet in form. Explain 
 
 the form. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. Qualities Necessary for a Successful Man of Action. 
 
 2. Hotspur and Henry V, a Character Contrast. 
 
 3. What Makes Fluellen a Comic Character ? 
 
 4. Dramatic Irony in Henry V. 
 
 5. The Death of Falstaff. 
 
 (b) TRAGEDY 
 
 Real tragedy developed side by side with the Chronicle 
 History play. When Shakespeare began his career in Lon- 
 don, the theater was the center of English life ; it served as 
 newspaper, magazine, and text-book of history. We have
 
 46 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 seen how the people flocked to the theater to hear about 
 England's heroic past. In the same way, they came to hear 
 the latest murder or scandal, the newest Italian or Spanish 
 story. For a number of years, the playwrights had been 
 accustomed to put on the stage whatever public opinion 
 craved. At first, the work was crude, like the yellow 
 journalism of to-day, a veritable tragedy of blood. But 
 gradually the playwrights improved in taste. Men like 
 Christopher Marlowe, who knew something of the classical 
 drama then having a revival in the schools, began to write 
 for the stage with more definite ideas of the dramatic art. 
 These men began to develop a sense for tragic situations ; 
 they learned to select dramatic material ; they felt the need 
 of a definite dramatic theme ; they prepared the way for 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Shakespeare developed the idea that tragedy is not a 
 bloody narrative in dialogue, but human passion in action. 
 He recognized the two forces at work in man's experience : 
 a force within him, his individuality, often strong and pas- 
 sionate ; a force outside of him, blocking the way to self- 
 realization, the force of environment, destiny, fate, God. 
 He knew that the clash of these two forces makes tragedy, 
 human will in conflict with the laws of life, passion clashing 
 with environment or fate. A strong, passionate soul strug- 
 gles to express itself in action, but finds itself in conflict with 
 forces it cannot control. The clash brings tragic conse- 
 quences. Tragedy, therefore, is threefold: (1) passion, (2) 
 the struggle to express that passion in action, (3) the inevit- 
 able consequences of the deed. Macbeth, for instance, is 
 ruled by the passion of ambition ; he must sit upon the 
 throne of Scotland. He struggles to achieve his ambition, 
 kills Duncan, and becomes king. His actions, however, set 
 in motion great forces of life which bring back upon him the
 
 THE DRAMA 47 
 
 inevitable consequences of his sins. In the very nature of a 
 tragedy, there is a definite beginning, middle, and end — 
 introduction, climax, and catastrophe. An individual pas- 
 sion is aroused. It reaches its climax in a clash with outside 
 forces. The clash brings tragic consequences. 
 
 Herein is the explanation of the acts of a drama. A de- 
 veloped tragedy seems to demand three acts at least : an 
 introductory act, a climax act, and a catastrophe act. There 
 may, however, be more ; in Shakespeare's tragedies there are 
 five. Passion once aroused needs time to develop toward a 
 climax. Shakespeare devoted an entire act to this develop- 
 ment, technically called the rising action. Also after the 
 climax, the forces of reaction need time to become operative 
 and develop toward the catastrophe. Shakespeare devoted 
 an entire act to this movement, called technically the falling 
 or returning action. The conventional tragic form thus 
 became : 
 
 Act I. The Introduction. 
 
 Act II. The Rising Action. 
 
 Act III. The Climax. 
 
 Act IV. The Falling or Returning Action. 
 
 Act V. The Catastrophe. 
 
 JULIUS C^SAR 
 
 In the events which clustered around the assassination of 
 Julius Csesar, Shakespeare found typical material for a tragic 
 drama. A small band of conspirators, moved by ambition 
 and misguided patriotism, sought the death of Caesar, 
 accomplished their end, and then, in the events which 
 followed, suffered the inevitable consequences of their deed. 
 Here is a great dramatic centerpiece with an almost perfect 
 balance of material on either side ; for, on one side, all the 
 events lead directly to the climax ; on the other side, all the
 
 48 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 events are direct consequences of it. In the first act of Shake- 
 speare's drama, the characters are introduced and the social 
 conditions out of which the drama arises explained. In the 
 second act, the conspiracy is developed. The third act pre- 
 sents the triumph of the conspirators in the death of CaBsar. 
 In the fourth act, the forces of reaction represented by 
 Antony, Ootavius, and the Ghost of Caesar are brought into 
 play. The fifth act recounts the downfall and death of the 
 conspirators in a final catastrophe. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Act I 
 
 Scene 1. This little scene makes an admirable beginning. 
 The fickle mob furnishes background for the action, and shows 
 the uncertain political conditions of the time, thus striking 
 the key-note of the play. It also shows Rome's attitude 
 toward Caesar. Compare the first scene in Macbeth. 
 
 Explain the puns and plays upon words in lines 11, 14, 
 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 28. Why is there a change from prose 
 to verse at line 36 ? Indicate the passages which look foi'- 
 ward to the main action of the play. 
 
 Scene 2. This scene is technicall}' the introduction or 
 exposition scene. It brings in all the principal characters 
 connected with the rising action, shows how they differ in 
 character, and explains the relations which they bear one 
 to another. It gives in detail the exact situation in Rome, 
 and, at the end, broaches the subject of the conspiracy. 
 What lines mark the beginning of the rising action ? 
 
 Indicate the particular passages which explain the charac- 
 ter of Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. Remember that in 
 spite of all Cassius and Casca say of Caesar he is still a 
 great power in the state, and that his power, now kept in
 
 THE DRAMA 49 
 
 the background, is destined to play an important part in the 
 action. Contrast the motives of Brutus and of Cassius. 
 What in the character of Brutus makes him the victim of 
 adroit flattery? What are the five parts into which this 
 scene may be divided ? Explain the special purpose of each 
 part. Notice how the mob is made a constant backgromid 
 for the action. 
 
 Scene 3. To what extent does this scene develop the con- 
 spiracy ? Shakespeare is very skillful in making supernatural 
 elements deepen the tragic significance of his theme. Notice 
 in detail how they help to work up an emotional tension. 
 Cite examples of the use of the supernatural in other plays. 
 The supernatural made a deeper impression on an Elizabethan 
 audience than it does on a modern audience, for the people 
 were then closer to the superstitions of the Middle Ages. 
 The superstitions were perhaps no longer definitely believed, 
 but they were still in the blood, and the people were imagin- 
 atively very susceptible to them. 
 
 Act II 
 
 Scene 1. What is the main purpose of this scene? Indi- 
 cate the particular passages which show the gradual change 
 in the mind of Brutus as he is little by little won over to the 
 conspiracy. Explain his attitude in lines 10-34. Is he 
 deceiving himself? Is his reasoning sound? is the talk 
 about the sunrise natural ? Why is it introduced ? Why 
 is the conversation between Brutus and Cassius not intro- 
 duced into the text and developed? Notice the respect 
 shown toward Brutus. Compare the talk of Brutus and 
 Cassius. Which has the keener intellect ? Which has the 
 more noble spirit ? (Give reasons.) Select three or four ad- 
 jectives which describe Portia's character as it appears in 
 this scene. 
 
 E
 
 50 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Scene 2. Why is Caesar's weakness dwelt upon ? Is he 
 the hero of the play ? If not, why is the play called Julius 
 Coesar? 
 
 Scene 4. Does Portia know of the conspiracy ? Give 
 reasons. Make a brief summary of the rising action thus far. 
 
 Act III 
 
 Scene 1. This is technically the climax scene of the play. 
 Explain why. What lines indicate the highest point of 
 triumph of the conspirators? At the moment of triumph, 
 what force is introduced which is finally to undo the conspira- 
 tors ? Explain how the nobility of Brutus, which has all 
 along been the strength of the conspiracy, now becomes its 
 weakness. Is Brutus intellectually weak ? Is he a practi- 
 cal man ? Would the conspiracy have succeeded if the 
 advice of Cassius had been followed ? Explain how the con- 
 trol of the action passes over into the hands of Antony. 
 Compare the attitude of Cassius toward Antony with the 
 attitude of Brutus toward him. Learn by heart lines 254- 
 275, and try to express the passion climax contained in them. 
 Divide the scene into its component parts. There are two 
 principal situations and two transition parts. Compare 
 Brutus as a man of action with Henry V. 
 
 Scene 2. Compare the speeches of Brutus and Antony 
 carefully. Why is one in prose and the other in verse ? 
 Which is the more intellectual ? Which is the more emo- 
 tional ? (Cite passages in explanation.) Indicate particular 
 places in Antony's speech which show his ability to appreciate 
 the temper of his audience and to adapt himself to any change 
 in their feelings. Is there any reason why he should pause 
 at line 108, except that Shakespeare docs not wish to make 
 the speech so long that the audience will feel that we have 
 passed from drama to oratory ?
 
 THE DRAMA 51 
 
 The returning notion is now well under way. 
 
 Scene 8. Review all the scenes in which the mob appeara, 
 and ask yourself how significant the mob is in the general 
 development of the action. 
 
 Act IV 
 
 Scenes 1 and 2. After the passionate third act these 
 scenes may seem tame and uninteresting. The returning 
 action of a typical tragedy like Julius Ccesar is not easy for a 
 dramatist to manage. The climax has passed and a new set 
 of forces must be brought into action. This takes time, and 
 consequently the interest is likely to flag. Show the relation 
 of each of these scenes to the development of the returning 
 action. 
 
 Scene 3. To compensate for the falling off in tension, 
 Shakespeare usually takes pains to present one scene of the 
 returning action with elaborate brilliancy. Scene 3 is such 
 a scene. Does the quarrel in any way foreshadow the catas- 
 trophe? Note passages which show the impetuosity of 
 Cassius in contrast with the coolness of Brutus. Indicate 
 lines which bring out particular aspects of the character of 
 Brutus. Why is the ghost introduced? Does it help to 
 explain the title of the play ? 
 
 Act V 
 
 Scene 1. This scene is introductory to the catastrophe. 
 Indicate particular passages which look forward to the catas- 
 trophe. In the parley, notice how each speech is in keeping 
 with the character of the speaker. 
 
 Scene 2. Why is this little seen 3 introduced? How is 
 it that such a scene was possible in Shakespeare's theater, but 
 impossible on the modern stage ? 
 
 Scenes 3-5. Is it true that the play has a double
 
 52 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 catastrophe, the death of Cassius and the death of Brutus ? 
 Or is the real catastrophe the death of Brutus, the death of 
 Cassius being only incidental and preparatory ? Who is the 
 tragic hero of the play ? Is the catastrophe an}^'where at- 
 tributed to the force represented by Caesar ? 
 
 Topics for Written Reports 
 
 1. The Name of the Play. 
 
 2. The Regular Structure of a Tragedy. 
 
 3. The Character of Brutus. (300 words) 
 
 4. The Blunders of Brutus. (200 words) 
 
 5. The Part of the jVIob in the Play. 
 
 6. Reasons for behev-ingthat Portia knew about the Conspiracy. 
 
 7. The Speeches of Brutus and Antony (Act III, Scene 2) 
 compared. 
 
 8. An Account of the Quarrel and Reconcihation of Brutus and 
 Cassius. 
 
 9. An Analysis of Antony's Speech, showing his Skill in uifluen- 
 cing the Mob. 
 
 10. How Julius CcBsar differs from a Chronicle History Play. 
 
 MACBETH 
 
 Macbeth, like Julius Ccesar, is a typical tragedy both in 
 subject matter and in structure. Macbeth, a member of 
 the royal family but not the heir to the throne, is ambitious 
 to be king, and is urged to realize his ambition by Lady 
 ]\Iacbeth, who is in full sympathy with her husband. To- 
 gether they plan and effect the murder of Duncan, the 
 King, and have themselves crowned. One crime demands 
 another, however, and they continue in their career of mur- 
 der, until the inevitable reaction destroys them both. Shake- 
 speare has used these external facts to represent a great internal 
 tragedy. He works out the influence of evil upon character,
 
 THE DRAMA 53 
 
 and emphasizes the inevitable consequences of wrong-doing in 
 moral degeneration and life-consuming remorse. The trag- 
 edy is therefore both external and internal. Act I contains 
 the introduction. In it the setting of the action is explained, 
 the principal characters introduced, and Macbeth's ambition 
 stimulated to action. Act II, the rising action, contains the 
 development of Macbeth's plans to secure the throne, and 
 so has for its chief scene the murder of Duncan. The internal 
 tragedy, i.e., the beginning of Macbeth's moral degeneration, 
 is emphasized. The third or climax act finds Macbeth 
 seated upon the throne, and has as a dramatic centerpiece 
 the banquet scene, in which the coronation is celebrated. 
 This triumph, however, is not quite complete. Macbeth's 
 plans for making his position secure are not altogether suc- 
 cessful, and apparitions come to throw him into confusion 
 and foreshadow his ruin. The dramatic interest lies largely 
 in the inner tragedy of a nature neither mentally clear nor 
 morally sure, when it finds itself for the first time face to 
 face with the power of moral retribution. In Act IV, the 
 forces of reaction become centered around Malcolm and 
 Macduff. Macbeth's moral degradation becomes complete. 
 Act V, the catastrophe act, presents the inevitable ruin of both 
 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in moral confusion and remorse. 
 The following titles have been given to the acts : I. The 
 Temptation, II. The Deed, III. Fate Challenged, IV. Fate 
 Deceives, V. Fate Conquers. 
 
 The greatness of the play as a piece of art may easily be 
 seen by comparing it with the material upon which it is 
 based. Holinshed's Chronicles furnished the groundwork for 
 the plot. That material Shakespeare has adapted, enlarged, 
 and enriched by his own knowledge of life, especially as 
 regards the character of the human heart and the motives of 
 conduct. Under his transforming power, a mere sequence
 
 54 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 of events becomes an artistic study of life. Events far sep- 
 arated in time and originally connected with quite distinct 
 and widely separated persons are brought together, related 
 to one individual, and made to interpret dramatically one 
 of the greatest moral problems — the problem of the growth 
 of evil in the human heart and its inevitable consequences. 
 The student should compare the play, scene by scene, with 
 the account in Holinshed's Chronicles. 
 
 Notes and Suggestions 
 
 Act I 
 
 Scene 1. Why does Shakespeare begin with the meeting 
 of the witches instead of with the historical material furnished 
 by Holinshed? Coleridge says that this scene "strikes the 
 key-note of the whole drama." Exactly what does he mean ? 
 Compare the opening scene of Julius Ccesar. 
 
 Scene 2. Shakespeare's skill in adapting his material 
 to the purposes of his dramatic theme is well illustrated in 
 this scene. His purpose is to explain conditions in the state, 
 place Macbeth in the midst of these conditions, and center 
 interest upon him. Much of the material found in Holin- 
 shed is eliminated and the rest focused upon Macbeth, al- 
 though he is not yet brought upon the stage in person. Two 
 distinct campaigns related at length by Holinshed are brought 
 together within the limits of a single day, and just those few 
 facts presented which bring out Macbeth's character and 
 arouse interest in his fortunes. The Sergeant informs us 
 that Macbeth has won the victory in a fierce battle with 
 Macdonwald, and immediately follows his account with the 
 news of a new and still more desperate struggle with Sweno, 
 the Norwegian lord, who has taken this occasion for an at- 
 tack upon Macbeth. While our interest is aroused over
 
 THE DRAMA 55 
 
 the outcome of this conflict, Ross enters to announce the 
 second victory and to rchitt" the treachery of Cawdor. 
 Everything is used for the purpose of bringing out Mac- 
 beth 's bravery and nobihty. Moreover, invasion and rebel- 
 lion suggest weak rule l)y Duncan, whereas Macbeth is able 
 to meet the situation. Duncan's weakness becomes a temp- 
 tation to Macbeth. Does Macbeth appear more noble in 
 this scene than in Holinshed's account ? Why is the Thane 
 of Cawdor introduced at this point ? 
 
 Scene 3. Study the character of the weird sisters. 
 Are they ordinary witches ? Compare them with the three 
 fates of classical mythology. In this scene, the passion 
 struggle begins with the temptation of Macbeth. Do the 
 weird sisters present an entirely new idea to Macbeth, or 
 do they simply voice what has already been taking form in 
 his mind ? Notice the different effect which the ■SNitches have 
 upon Banquo and Macbeth. What difference does this in- 
 dicate in the characters of the two men ? Does Macbeth's 
 sudden start indicate surprise or guilt ? Compare the three 
 passages relating to Cawdor (I, ii, 52 f. ; I, iii, 72 f. and 112 ff.). 
 Are they inconsistent ? Principal French, commenting on 
 I. iii, 72, says: "Notice the insincerity. ^Macbeth has met 
 Cawdor in battle and knew him to be a traitor." (See 
 Scene ii, line 53.) Do the words of the text necessarily 
 imply that Cawdor was in the battle ? (Cf. Scene iii, lines 
 112 ff.) Does Holinshed say so? Does Banquo know of 
 the treason ? 
 
 Scene 4. Explain the difference in character between 
 Macbeth and Duncan as they appear in this scene? Is 
 there any dramatic reason for making Duncan more noble 
 than Holinshed makes him ? Is there any significance in 
 making ^Macbeth enter immediately after Duncan has said 
 of Cawdor,
 
 56 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 "There is no art 
 To find the mind's construction in the face : 
 He was a gentleman on whom I built 
 An absolute trust." 
 
 What is the effect upon Macbeth of the King's announce- 
 ment that he bequeaths the crown to his eldest son, and of 
 his further announcement that he \\dll visit Macbeth at 
 Inverness ? Has Macbeth at this time any idea of murdering 
 Duncan ? 
 
 Scene 5. The character of Lady Macbeth is almost en- 
 tirely the creation of Shakespeare. All Holinshed says of 
 her is, "But speciallie his wife lay sore upon him to attempt 
 the king, as she was verie ambitious, burning in unquench- 
 able desire to beare the name of a queene." A hint or two 
 further came from John Bellenden's translation of Boece's 
 Chronicles of Scotland (see note to Act I, Scene vii below), but 
 the hints of both Holinshed and Bellenden when compared 
 with Shakespeare's lines serve only to emphasize Shake- 
 speare's original creative powers. Does Shakespeare make 
 Lady Macbeth ambitious for herself, as Holinshed did, or 
 ambitious for her husband ? Has this anything to do with 
 the firm unity of the play ? Is the letter the first intimation 
 Lady Macbeth has of her husband's ambition or have they 
 discussed plans for the throne before ? Consider this in con- 
 nection with Macbeth's attitude when the weird sisters first 
 address him and with Lady Macbeth's words in Act I, Scene 
 vii, lines 47 ff. Does this scene present Lady Macbeth as a 
 cold-blooded plotter of murder or is she by an effort of the 
 will forcing herself to an act which her conscience strongly 
 condemns ? Notice her characterization of Macbeth. What 
 does she mean by "milk of human kindness" ? Is Macbeth 
 slower of mind than Lady Macbeth ? Has he any clearer 
 insight into right and wrong? Give reasons.
 
 THE DRAMA 57 
 
 Scene 6. The serene beauty of this scene is in marked 
 contrast with tlie dark horror of the scenes which immediately 
 precede and follow. Does it make the action of Macbeth 
 and his wife seem more atrocious? Explain the dramatic 
 irony of the scene. How docs Duncan in this scene differ 
 from the Duncan of Holinshed ? Why the change ? 
 
 Scene 7. Analyze Macbeth's soliloquy. Indicate clearly 
 the divisions into which it falls, and state the theme of 
 each. Is the solilo(iuy a unit ? Does it end with the sub- 
 ject with which it began ? Are ordinary people more likely 
 to risk punishment after death than punishment here on 
 earth ? Sum up the points of difference between Macbeth 
 and Lady Macbeth which you have gained from the play 
 thus far. Bellenden's translation of Boece says of Lady 
 Macbeth, ''Attour his wife, impacient of lang tary, as all 
 wemen ar, specially quliare thay ar desirus of ony purpos, 
 gaif him gret artation to persew the thrid weird, that scho 
 micht be ane queue ; calland him, oft timis, febil cowart, 
 and nocht desirus of honouris ; sen he durst not assailye the 
 thing with manheid and curage, quhik is oft'erit to him be 
 benivolence of fortoun ; how belt sindry otheris hes assailyeit 
 sic thingis afore, with maist terribil jeopardyis, quhen they 
 had not sic sickernes to succeid in the end of their laubouris 
 as he had." Compare this with Shakespeare's lines. The 
 underlying thought is the same, but the total effect is very 
 different. Notice how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth react 
 upon each other. His faltering makes her more determined. 
 Her spiritual energy antl practical ability then react ui^on 
 his ambition, so that he rushes headlong into deeds of blood. 
 Did Macbeth waver from deeply conscientious scruples? 
 Which has the greater influence upon him, Lady Macbeth's 
 emotion or her argument ?
 
 58 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Act II 
 
 Scene 1. Holinshed makes Banquo an accomplice of 
 Macbeth. He says, "At length, therefore, communicating 
 his [Macbeth's] purposed intent with his trustie friends, 
 amongst whome Banquo was the chiefest, upon confidence of 
 their promised aid, he [Macbeth] slew the King at Enbe.us." 
 Does Shakespeare make Banquo a party to the murder? If 
 not, is Banquo essentially noble or merely politic ? Is it 
 possible to interpret in more than one way the inner work- 
 ings of the two men's minds ? 
 
 Macbeth's soliloquy at the end of the scene shows how a 
 morally unsure and, therefore, superstitious mind becomes 
 overwrought in the presence of a great and pressing moral 
 issue. Should the dagger be represented on the stage ? 
 
 It was customary in Shakespeare's time to end a speech 
 with a rhymed flourish to give one actor an effective exit and 
 the next actor his cue. This scene ends with a double rime- 
 tag. One is strikingly effective ; the other is so poor that 
 we can hardly conceive of Shakespeare's having written it. 
 Explain the difference. 
 
 Scene 2. Holinshed does not give details of the murder 
 of Duncan. Shakespeare took the details from the account 
 of the murder of King Duff. Notice how the baldest state- 
 ments often suggest to the poet splendid imaginative pas- 
 sages. Compare the lines on sleep with the following words 
 of the Chronicles: "The king with this voice being stricken 
 with great dread and terror, passed that night without anie 
 sleep comming in his eies." 
 
 The murder is not presented on the stage. Is the device 
 of showing its effect upon Macbeth and his wife more im- 
 pressive ? Is the effect more important to the drama than 
 the murder itself? Is Macbeth or Lady Macbeth the
 
 THE DRAMA 59 
 
 stronger and clearer thinker? (Give reasons for yowT 
 answers.) 
 
 Scene 3. On the effect of the knocking and on the dra- 
 matic necessity of the Porter scene, Tom Taylor, the drama- 
 tist, has said : " With reference to the exigencies of the action, 
 the knocking is of great importance. It heightens the horror 
 of the scene in a very extraordinary degree, and also gives 
 relief to the intensity of the situation. Looking at the scene 
 as a practical dramatist, I see that it is absolutely necessary 
 to get Macbeth off the stage. A motive must be contrived 
 for this. That motive is at once supplied by the sudden 
 knocking. It creates alarm, gets rid of Macbeth and his 
 ^^'ife, raises the castle, and gives them time to dress and 
 nerve themselves to meet the crowd which will shortly 
 assemble, and to face the discovery of the murder which 
 caimot be longer deferred. Thus the knocking at the gate 
 serves, as almost everything does in Shakespeare, a double 
 purpose. It intensifies the horror, and gets rid of ^Macbeth 
 just when his absence is wanted. A practical dramatist 
 always has to think of this. Then a speech is necessary here, 
 that Macbeth may change his dress before he returns. Here 
 again comes in the practical dramatist." (Trans. New Shak. 
 Soc. 1874, p. 270 ff.) 
 
 Coleridge said : "This low soliloquy of the Porter and his 
 few speeches afterw'ards I believe to have been WTitten for 
 the mob by some other hand, perhaps with Shakespeare's 
 consent, and that finding it take, he Avith the remaining ink 
 of a pen otherwise employed just interpolated the words -^ 
 'I'll devil porter it no further; I had thought to have let 
 in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the 
 everlasting bonfire.' Of the rest, not one syllable has the 
 ever present being of Shakespeare." 
 
 Does the scene seem to vou dramaticallv effective? See
 
 60 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 De Quincey's remarks On the Knocking at the Gate in 
 Macbeth. 
 
 Macduff is the leader of the external forces against Mac- 
 beth. Trace his growing influence on the action from his 
 challenge in the words, "Wherefore did you so?" (line 90) 
 to the end of the play. 
 
 Scene 4. "This scene gives relief and perspective to the 
 action, by presenting it from an outside point of view, that 
 of the Scottish subject." (E. K. Chambers.) How does 
 this scene advance the plot ? 
 
 Act III 
 
 Scene 1. Crime leads tofrime. Banquo knows too much, 
 and Macbeth's suspicions will not rest Avhile Banquo lives. 
 Moreover, Macbeth cannot forget the prophecy that Ban- 
 quo's issue shall supplant him. He must try to avert that 
 fate. Is there anything in Macbeth's conversation with the 
 murderers to indicate that they are not common hirelings, 
 but have been persons of consequence in the state ? 
 
 Scene 2. Macbeth no longer needs the urging of his 
 wife. He now goes on in his career of crime without taking 
 her into his confidence. Notice how finely the poet portrays 
 the misery of the pair in their success. Memorize Macbeth's 
 speech beginning, "We have scotch'd the snake, not killed it." 
 
 Scene 3. Does the third murderer know more about 
 Banquo's plans and habits than do the other murderers? 
 Does he seem to take the lead in this enterprise ? Is there 
 anything to suggest his identity ? Fleance does not appear 
 again in the play. Why does Shakespeare have him escape ? 
 Is the important thing in this act the murder of Banquo or 
 the determination of Macbeth to defy fate ? Does Shake- 
 speare "virtually make Macbeth's soul the real stage of the 
 action"?
 
 THE DRAMA 61 
 
 Scene 4. This scene is the clraniatic ceulerpiece of the 
 drama. It is entirely the creation of Shakespeare, for the 
 only detail found in Holinshed is the mention that a supper 
 was to take place. Notice that Macbeth 's mind is becoming 
 less acute and more subject to superstitious influences. He 
 knew the "airy dagger" was not a real dagger, and was able 
 to shake off the weakness. He firmly l)elieves the appari- 
 tion real, and cannot overcome his terror. Why is Lady 
 Macbeth not subject to superstitious influences? At just 
 what point does Macbeth see the ghost? Imagine yourself 
 acting the part. Do the other actors see the ghost? If 
 not, should the ghost be visibly represented on the stage, or 
 should the gesture and actions of Macbeth convey to the 
 audience what he sees ? Some critics believe that the stage 
 directions are wrong, and that one of the apparitions is the 
 ghost of Duncan. Is there anything in the lines to suggest 
 this ? At the end of the scene, we find MacdufT at enmity 
 ^A^th Macbeth. Is this a surprise or have we been prepared 
 for it ? (See Act II, Scene iv.) 
 
 Scene 6. What is irony? Point out the irony of the 
 
 speech of Lennox. Trace the gro\\i:h of opinion adverse 
 
 to Macbeth. 
 
 Act IV 
 
 Scene 1. Macbeth is fast falling into the power of his 
 evil fate, which takes delight in tantalizing and misleading 
 him, assuring him of his personal safety and at the same time 
 warning him against Macduff. How are Macbeth's actions 
 influenced by the apparitions ? Does he determine to kill 
 Macduff's wife and children in order to overcome anj^ opposi- 
 tion, or is he simply made reckless by the double-dealing of 
 fate? 
 
 Scene 2. Macbeth's moral degradation is now complete. 
 What makes this murder scene more revolting than the
 
 62 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 murder of Duncan or of Banquo ? How does the pathetic 
 domestic scene at the begimiing contribute to this effect ? 
 
 Scene 3. This scene, of course, is necessary to the plot 
 because it brings into action the forces of retribution ; yet 
 compared with the rest of the play it is long and slow. The 
 other scenes are swift and telling. Does this scene contrib- 
 ute enough to pay for the time it occupies? Is there any 
 dramatic reason why the movement should be slow at this 
 
 point ? 
 
 Act V 
 
 Scene 1. Study carefully the retribution which comes 
 upon Lady Macbeth and compare it with that of Macbeth 
 further on. Is the difference in keeping with the two char- 
 acters? Consider whether it is true that Macbeth's con- 
 science has become blunted, whereas Lady Macbeth's has 
 become more keen. Did Lady Macbeth commit suicide? 
 Explain every reference to earlier events in Lady Macbeth's 
 words. Do her words, "Hell is murky," voice her own fear, 
 or does she imagine herself arguing with Macbeth's fears ? 
 
 Scenes 2 and 3. Scenes ii and iii prepare for the 
 catastrophe by explaining the situation and the attitude 
 of the opposing parties. Write do^\^l a plain statement of 
 the contrast. Macbeth's state of mind is especially worthy 
 of study. Is your pity for Macbeth aroused ? If so, why ? 
 Is his faith in the oracle firm, or does he have secret mis- 
 givings ? 
 
 Scenes 4-8. In order to represent war on the stage, 
 the action must be broken up into many small scenes. In 
 Shakespeare's time, when there was no shifting of scenery 
 or lowering of the curtain, these scenes practically made one 
 continuous action. Scene v shows the depth of Macbeth's 
 retribution. His moral nature is in ruins. The prize which 
 he coveted has turned to dust in his hand. Life is quite
 
 THE DRAMA 63 
 
 empty. Nothing matters. So full has he supped of horrors 
 that he is in a measure indifferent to his wife's death. Lines 
 9 ff. should be learned as an expression of his attitude. What 
 is the effect on the reader of the return of Macbeth's courage 
 in fight ? 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, a Character Contrast. 
 
 2. The Relation of Macbeth to Holinshed's Chronicles. 
 
 3. The Third Murderer. 
 
 4. The Relation of the Weird Sisters to the Plot. 
 
 5. The Gradual Degradation of Macbeth's Character. 
 
 (c) COMEDY 
 
 Comedy has to do, not with the passions, but with the 
 intellect. It is a thing of the mind rather than of the heart. 
 The entrance of the emotions seems to destroy the comic 
 effect. The small boy would not delight in a dog fight if 
 he had any sympathy with the suffering of the animals. He 
 is interested only in their contortions. As his sympathetic 
 nature develops, he ceases to find the dog fight so wonderfully 
 amusing. And this development of sympathy is what has 
 changed the standard of the comic from age to age. Fight- 
 ing and cudgeling, which so universally delighted the medi- 
 eval playgoer, is now confined to cheap vaudeville. Mad- 
 house scenes, which were comic in the Elizabethan drama, 
 arouse only terror to-day. Shylock was a comic character 
 at first, when Jews were despised and persecuted. Modern 
 sympathy has made Shylock almost tragic. A situation is 
 comic when it contains the unexpected and incongruous 
 without inspiring pity or terror. 
 
 Ordinarily, in a comedy, we expect (1) clever dialogue, 
 (2) odd characters, (8) unexpected and incongruous situa- 
 tions, and (4) unusual plot complications. These are the
 
 64 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 sources of comic effect. Puns, double meanings, and plays 
 upon words were unfailing sources of amusement in Shake- 
 speare's time. There is hardly anything that the Elizabethan 
 mind delighted in more than tricks of language. These are 
 sometimes so subtle and far-fetched that unless the reader 
 is constantly on the alert he misses much of the fun. In 
 Twelfth Night, for instance, when Sir Andrew is disappointed 
 with himself as a lover, since he can make no impression on 
 Sir Toby's niece, whom he has come to woo, the dialogue 
 runs : 
 
 " Sir Andrew. I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues 
 that I have in fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting. 0, had I but 
 followed the arts ! 
 
 " »S'tV Toby. Then hadst tliou had an excellent head of hair. 
 
 "Sir Andrew. Why, would that have mended my hair? 
 
 "Sir Toby. Past question, for thou seest it will not curl by na- 
 ture." 
 
 The point is in the somewhat strained pun between 
 " tongues " (languages) and " tongs " (a curling iron). 
 Shakespeare's audience enjoyed this heartily. The careless 
 modern reader often passes the joke by unnoticed. 
 
 The comic effect of unusual characters is also strong in 
 Twelfth Night. Sir Andrew is a good example. Sir Toby 
 says of him : " He's as tall (courageous) a man as any's in 
 Illyria. He \)lays o' the viol-de-gamboj's and speaks three 
 or four languages word for word without book and hath all 
 the good gifts of nature." But Sir Toby is lying : he believes 
 no such thing. Maria is nearer right when she calls Sir An- 
 drew a natural-born fool. He is, indeed, a most simple and 
 thin-headed knight and as rank a coward as ever ran from 
 danger. He is the butt of all ridicule and never finds it out. 
 He never has a complete thought of his own. His mentality 
 is well illustrated wlu'u he exclaims against Malvolio, '* Fie
 
 THE DRAMA 65 
 
 on him, Jezebel." Poor Sir Andrew! He has picked up 
 somewhere the half idea that Jezebel is a term of reproach, 
 and that it has som(>thing to do with pride ; but he has no 
 idea that Jezebel is the name of a woman. And Malvolio, 
 too, the vain, the pompous, the gullible, how he struts and 
 poses and makes himself ridiculous upon the slightest provo- 
 cation, a butt of merriment for the fine wit of Sir Toby and 
 Maria ! And not less in interest is Sir Toby himself, a toper 
 and a wit, a true kinsman of Falstaff . 
 
 And what shall we say of the comic situations where there 
 is " discrepancy between expectation and fulfillment " ? 
 Such is the famous garden scene in Act II, where Sir Toby 
 and his companions in hiding in the box-tree for the purpose 
 of having sport with Malvolio, hear, like most eavesdroppers, 
 unexpected and unpleasant things about themselves. 
 
 Another comic situation is the duel scene (Act III, Scene 
 iv) where Sir Andrew and Viola are forced to cross swords. 
 Sir Andrew believes her to be '' a very devil in private brawl, 
 souls and bodies hath he divorced three." And Viola, poor 
 lady youth, thinks Sir Andrew " the most skillful, bloody, 
 and fatal opposite that could possibly be found in any part 
 of Illyria." They approach each other gingerly, looking pale 
 and glancing about for some means of escape, shuddering 
 as the rapiers come near enough to clash. The incongruity 
 of it all produces the comedy. 
 
 Last of all, the plot of the play is comic. A typical comedy 
 has a structure of its own different from the tragic structure. 
 It is not a passion struggle rising to a climax and reverting 
 to a catastrophe, but an entanglement of various threads of 
 story, a complication of experiences developing a tangle of 
 mistakes and misunderstandings, until the confusion is set 
 right at the end. Twelfth Night represents, not regular or 
 pure comedy, but the type known as " romantic comedy,"
 
 66 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 in which the main plot is a love story and the subplot a comic 
 intrigue. The first act of Twelfth Night presents two inde- 
 pendent situations : the love affairs of Viola and the Duke 
 and the comic intrigues of Sir Toby and Maria. In the 
 former, a triangular love situation is set u]^ : the Duke is in 
 love with Olivia, Olivia with Viola, Viola with the Duke. 
 In the latter, the witty, rollicking Sir Toby, the simple empty- 
 headed Sir Andrew, and the clever Maria — an incongruous 
 group in the house of mourning — begin to plan their prac- 
 tical jokes. In Act II these elements of plot are developed 
 side by side. In the main plot the love of Viola for the Duke 
 and the love of Olivia for Viola are emphasized and contrasted. 
 In the subplot the intrigue against Malvolio takes the promi- 
 nent place. A third episode is promised by the introduction 
 of Antonio and Sebastian. In the third act the first three 
 scenes are devoted to these three lines of plot in turn : (1) 
 Olivia betrays her love for Viola, (2) Malvolio makes a fool 
 of himself before his lady, and Sir Toby persuades Sir 
 Andrew to challenge Viola, (3) Sebastian and Antonio ar- 
 rive in the town. The fourth scene presents the entangle- 
 ment ; the challenge is made. Sir Andrew and Viola are 
 brought together as " most fearful and bloody opposites," 
 complicating the two important stories, and presently 
 Antonio's arrival and interference bring in the third plot 
 element to increase the general confusion. In the short 
 fourth act the highest point of complication is reached in the 
 meeting and marriage of Olivia and Sebastian. This act also 
 contains the climax of the practical joke upon Malvolio, 
 when the poor steward, in durance for madness, is baited by 
 Sir Toby and the clown. The fifth act contains the read- 
 justment in a single scene, elaborately developed. All the 
 threads of plot are presented in complete entanglement ; 
 then the final readjustment is made.
 
 THE DRAMA 67 
 
 The general comic scheme may be outlined as follows : 
 
 Act I. Introduction of Plot Elements. 
 
 Act II. Indei)endent Development of these Elements. 
 
 Act III. Entanglement. 
 
 Act IV. Highest Complication. 
 
 Act V. Disentanglement and Readjustment. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Act I 
 
 Notice the relation of the scenes as developing an artistic 
 introductory act. The first scene is devoted to the Duke, 
 the second to Viola, the third to Olivia's household; the 
 fourth brings the Duke and Viola together • the fifth shows 
 the relations of all the characters and explains the triangular 
 love complication. 
 
 Scene 1. This scene has two, possibly three, dramatic 
 purposes. What are they? Is the Duke's love affected or 
 real ? What particular passages support your conclusion ? 
 Explain the play upon words in lines 17 ff. Does the Duke 
 shift his metaphor ? 
 
 Scene 2. Explain the plays upon words. Are Scenes i 
 and ii comic ? If not, what kind of scenes are they ? What 
 particular lines indicate Viola's character ? 
 
 Scene 3. Explain the tricks of language. Point out 
 incongruous traits in the characters of Sir Toby and Sir 
 Andrew. Explain the comic effects of character contrasts. 
 
 Scene 4. Even this small scene is carefully planned 
 with an introduction, a situation, and a conclusion. 
 
 Scene 5. The main exposition scene. What points of 
 plot does it develop? Analyze the comic elements. Ex-
 
 68 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 plain all the word play of the clown. Wherein is Sir Toby 
 comic ? Wherein is the dialogue between Viola and Olivia 
 "unexpected and incongruous"? Why does the author 
 change from prose to verse ? Where is the climax of the 
 scene ? What is the purpose of the last ten lines of the 
 scene ? 
 
 Act II 
 
 The different elements of the plot are treated in separate 
 scenes. There are, as yet, no marked entanglements. We 
 have a poetical romantic love story running side by side with 
 a comic intrigue. This is typical Romantic comedy. 
 
 Scene 1. Critics say, "This scene is clearly misplaced." 
 Find out why. It has to do with the time sequence of the 
 play. Explain the plot signifieance of this scene, especially 
 lines 44-48. 
 
 Scene 2. We knew before that Olivia loved Viola and 
 that she sent the ring. In what way, then, does this scene 
 advance the story ? What is the effect upon Viola ? 
 
 Scene 3. Analyze for comic effects the dialogue, the 
 character contrasts, the situation. How does the scene 
 affect the plot ? 
 
 Scene 4. This scene has been called the finest in the 
 play. Why ? What are the most poetic passages ? Where 
 is the pathos most touching? Do we learn anything new 
 about the character of Viola or of the Duke ? 
 
 Scene 5. Analyze the comic effects, explaining especially 
 wherein the situation itself is comic. Explain what makes 
 Malvolio a comic character. 
 
 Act III 
 
 Scene 1. Why are Sir Toby and Sir Andrew brought into 
 this scene ? Trace the development of the scene toward an 
 emotional climax. What is the effect of beginning with a
 
 THE DRAMA 69 
 
 conversation between Viola antl the clown ? Where, in this 
 scene, is a good description of th(> clown or fool of Shake- 
 speare's time ? 
 
 Scene 2. Explain how this scene prepares for an en- 
 tanglement between the main plot and the minor plots. 
 
 Scene 3. How does this scene advance the p)ot ? 
 
 Scene 4. This is one of the principal complication 
 scenes. Explain in detail how the various threads of plot 
 are here brought together and entangled. What is the 
 purpose of the first three lines ? What makes the conversa- 
 tion between Malvolio and Olivia amusing ? Be sure not to 
 miss any of the double meanings and unexpected quirks of 
 language (e.g., line 175). Try to visualize the scene. No one 
 reads drama well until he can imagine the action. Deter- 
 mine how you would act the part of Sir Andrew or of Viola 
 throughout the scene. 
 
 Act IV 
 
 Explain how, in this act, both the main plot and the 
 minor plot are still further developed and entangled. Has 
 Scene ii been prepared for earlier in the play ? 
 
 Act V 
 
 Scene 1. The systematic structure of this readjustment 
 scene should be carefully analyzed. Its purpose is to dis- 
 entangle the various threads of plot. After an introductory 
 conversation between Duke antl Clown, the Antonio plot 
 episode is introduced and its complication emphasized. At 
 the climax of this little scene, Olivia enters to emphasize the 
 misunderstandings of the main plot. When this has reached 
 its height, Sir Andrew rushes in with a bloody coxcomb, 
 followed by Sir Toby, thus bringing into the scene the comic 
 underplot. When everything is thus ready for the adjust- 
 ment, Sebastian enters. The bringing of Sebastian and
 
 70 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Viola together upon the stage at once clears up all the 
 difficulties. To round off the scene and the play, Malvolio 
 is released and comes upon the stage for a moment. All 
 the incidents are thus brought to a conclusion, and all the 
 characters disposed of. Are there any inconsistencies ? If 
 so, do they interfere with the dramatic effect ? 
 
 Twelfth Night has more songs and fragments of songs than 
 any other of Shakespeare's plays. Was this to be expected? 
 Compare the title and the season. 
 
 Subjects for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, a Character Contrast. 
 
 2. The Character of Malvolio illustrated from the Play. 
 
 3. A Visit to an Elizabethan Theater. 
 
 4. The Festival of Twelfth Night. 
 
 5. Tragedy and Comedy compared. 
 
 6. The Most Comic Situation in Twelfth Night. 
 
 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 
 
 A Midsummer Night^s Dream is not a regular romantic 
 comedy like Twelfth Night. Scholars are very well agreed 
 that it was written originally not for presentation on the 
 public stage, but for private performance at a wedding or 
 similar festive occasion ; and the occasion gives a clew to 
 the interpretation of the play. Naturally the poet adapted 
 his material to the time and place, and produced not a 
 conventional stage play, but a court performance with many 
 of the characteristics of the court mask. It is, indeed, a 
 mask play. 
 
 The mask had long been a popular court entertainment. 
 It originated in the early masquerade dance which was " one 
 of the ordinary diversions of all European courts, the Eng- 
 lish among the rest." An early form is described as follows : 
 
 I
 
 THE DRAMA 71 
 
 "The 'disguisers' were to be introduced into the hall by torch- 
 bearers, and on their entrance the minstrels were to begin to play : 
 if there were women disgiiisers, they were to dance first, and then 
 stand aside; then the men were to dance 'suche daunces as they 
 be appointed,' and stand upon the other side. After this, 'the 
 Morris to come in incontinent as is apointed, yf any be ordeynid. 
 And when the saide Morris arrives in the midist of the hall, then the 
 said minstrallis to play the daunces that is appointid for theim.' 
 This done, 'than the gentillmen to com unto the women to taike oon 
 by thand, and daunce suche base (slow and stately) daunces as is 
 apointed the5'^m ; and that done, than to daunce such rounds as 
 shall be appointed them to daunce togeder by the maister of the 
 revills." 
 
 The disguisers were the ladies and gentlemen of the court. 
 They danced the slow and stately dances which later became 
 the dignified mask proper. The Morris dancers were pro- 
 fessionals. They danced the lively galliards and corantos 
 which developed later into the comic antimask. Definite 
 stage settings were introduced by wheeling into the hall a 
 pageant wagon converted into a castle, mountain, or ship, 
 as the scene required. The disguisers came to represent 
 definite characters, who furnished a story, usually mytholog- 
 ical, for the scene. The result was a dignified mask proper 
 of pageantry, dancing, singing, and poetic recital, presented 
 by the ladies and gentlemen of the court, and a comic anti- 
 mask often farcical, serving to set off by contrast the dignity 
 and beauty of the mask proper. 
 
 A Midsummer Night's Dream has the general effect of 
 a mask. The center of interest lies not so much in the 
 story of the lovers as in the contrast between the dancing, 
 singing, pageantry, and poetry of the fairies and the low 
 comedy of Bottom and his fellow-tradesmen. The fairies 
 produce the efi'ect of a beautiful mask proper ; Bottom and
 
 72 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 his company, the effect of a comic antimask. The whole 
 is a picture of the imaginative and the commonplace in 
 contrast. The fairies embody the fancy which soars and 
 sings. The farce comedy represents the commonplace, 
 unimaginative mind, which cannot rise above the things 
 of sense. 
 
 Perhaps this is the reason for shadowy treatment of the 
 lovers. These characters are only sketched. We do not 
 enter into sympathy with their fortunes and misfortunes ; 
 they are amusing rather than pathetic. Had these characters 
 been more carefully drawn and their loves sincerely and sym- 
 pathetically treated, they would have been the center of 
 interest, and the play would have lost its dreamlike mask 
 effect. By excluding the emotions and treating the love 
 episode in a purely comic manner, the unity of tone is pre- 
 served. Moreover, the half-real treatment of the lovers 
 coming in between the pure fancy of the fairies and the 
 downright commonplaces of the tradesmen helps to blend 
 the various elements of the story and to give artistic cohe- 
 rence to an otherwise incoherent dream. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Act I 
 
 Scene 1. The wedding of Theseus and Hippol3i:a fur- 
 nishes a setting for the play — • a kind of frame for the picture. 
 The note of poetry is sounded at once, and we are told that 
 the purpose of the play is to 
 
 " Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth." 
 
 Why do we not sympathize with the lovers ? Do their loves 
 seem real ? Do they speak naturally and sincerely (see lines 
 168-178) ? Are the characters of the lovers distinctly drawn 
 or are they shadowy ? Explain.
 
 THE DRAMA 73 
 
 Scene 2. Why should Bottom and his company be 
 made more real than the lovers ? Cite particular passages to 
 show that the tradesmen are totally lacking in imagination. 
 Cite passages where humor arises out of the language. Name 
 Bottom's characteristics and indicate passages to illustrate 
 them. 
 
 Act II 
 
 Scene 1. Contrast the poetry and pageantry of this scene 
 with the downright realism of the preceding. The fairies 
 enter, tlancing. Explain how the meter of their song is 
 suited to dance movement. Which seem to you to be the 
 finest poetic passages ? Memorize them. What is the plot 
 purpose of the scene ? 
 
 Scene 2. Explain how this scene develops the complica- 
 tion between the fairy story and the story of the four lovers. 
 Why is love represented as only a passing fancy, subject ta 
 mere whim ? 
 
 Act III 
 
 Scene 1. What is the plot purpose of this scene? Ana- 
 lyze the comic effects as to (1) language, (2) character, and 
 (3) situation. 
 
 Scene 2. Here the complication reaches its height. The 
 tone of the scene is almost purely comic. Emphasis is laid 
 upon the misunderstandings and incongruities, the intellec- 
 tual interest, not upon the distress of the lovers, the emotional 
 interest. Compare the conventional and superficial love 
 of Helena and Hermia with the simple sincere love of Viola 
 in Twelfth Night. What makes the quarreling comi(! rather 
 than tragic or pathetic ? Does the management of the scene 
 toward the end seem mechanical ? Is it on that account 
 anv the less comical ?
 
 74 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Act IV 
 
 Scene 1. This readjustment scene brings to a close the 
 stories of the lovers and the fairies. In what respect is this 
 at variance with the regular scheme of comedy ? (Cf . Twelfth 
 Night.) There is no complication between the love comedy 
 and the farce comedy. They are connected by the fairies 
 only, who appear in both. The fairies thus become the 
 center of the plot. The Theseus-Hippolyta story is only 
 a setting or frame. 
 
 Scene 2. A transition scene. Explain how it connects 
 with what precedes and how it prepares for what follows. 
 
 Act V 
 
 Scene 1. Indicate passages which emphasize the lack 
 of imagination in the tradesmen actors. Memorize lines 
 7-17. What makes the speech of Pyramus (lines 169 ff.) 
 comic ? When Pyramus attempts an emotional or imagina- 
 tive flight, notice how hard and flat is his fall (see lines 187- 
 190). Analyze the ludicrous effects of the dying words of 
 Pyramus and Thisbe. Is this comedy or broad farce ? 
 Show the difference by comparison with other comic scenes 
 in Shakespeare. Does Act V help or harm the artistic unity 
 of the play ? Give reasons. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Report 
 
 1. Dancing and Singing in A Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 2. The Character of Bottom. 
 
 3. Robin Goodfellow. 
 
 4. The Plan of an Elizabethan Theater. 
 
 5. Characteristics of the Fairies.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ESSAY 
 
 (a) THE INFORMAL ESSAY 
 
 Dr. Johnson spoke of the essay as " a loose sally of the 
 mind ; an irregular indigested piece ; not a regular and 
 orderly composition." In so far as this implies that the essay 
 has no purpose and no plan, it is an unsatisfactory definition ; 
 for the best of even the informal essays have definite themes 
 carefully developed. It emphasizes, however, an essential 
 characteristic of the informal essay, its easy spontaneous 
 manner. Such essays consist of humorous and pathetic, 
 sometimes whimsical, comments upon men and things, upon 
 morals and manners ; informal criticisms of life by men who 
 have a keen, clear vision and a personal charm of thought 
 and style. Mr. Lobban defines this type of essay as " a 
 short discursive article on any literarj^ philosophical, or 
 social subject, viewed from a personal or a historical stand- 
 point." It is not an exhaustive treatise, scientific, philo- 
 sophical, or literary. The purpose is not so much to inform 
 as to entertain and stimulate, to present ideas from a new 
 personal point of view, to develop a more refined and dis- 
 criminating way of looking at life. The principal charm lies 
 usuall}' in the personality of the writer. He takes the reader 
 into his confidence and, in a simple informal way, gives him 
 discriminating comments on whatever seems to the \\Titcr 
 most interesting in nature and life and books. He is, as Mr. 
 Lobban says, " at once a rambler, a spectator, a tattler, and 
 
 75
 
 76 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 a connoisseur " ; but he rambles with a purpose ; he is a keen 
 spectator, a discriminating tattler, a genuine connoisseur. 
 
 The informal essay first became popular in England in the 
 early years of the eighteenth century through the influence 
 of Addison and Steele, whose essays in The Tatler and The 
 Spectator reflect the brilliant but superficial life cf that time. 
 It was a pleasure-seeking age, for the reaction against the 
 restraints of Puritanism was still strong. Society was com- 
 posed largely of " vivacious, restless, superficial triflers." 
 Gentlemen of quality frequented the fashionable promenades 
 in the morning, dined with friends at the tavern, lounged 
 and gossiped in the coffee-houses, and ended the day at the 
 theater or gambling table. Fine ladies lay abed until noon, 
 spent the afternoon dressing and driving, and played cards 
 till midnight. Countless beaus, dressed in bright colors 
 and furnished with cane and snuff-box, paraded the Mall and 
 frequented the drawing-rooms, where they were petted and 
 adored by the ladies. Groups of politicians and literary 
 men, with hardly less leisure, gathered in the coffee-houses 
 and clubs to discuss the gossip of the town, the newest 
 drama, the latest book, the most startling gains and losses 
 at the gambling table, the latest news of the drawing-rooms, 
 the probable fortunes of political parties. (For further 
 information, see John Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of 
 Queen Anne.) 
 
 With this life, Addison and Steele had intimate relations. 
 What the Spectator (Addison) says in the account of himself 
 is largely true of both. There was hardly a place of general 
 resort where one or the other did not make an appearance. 
 They met with the literary men, who, since Dryden's time, 
 had gathered at Will's. They smoked their pipes at Child's 
 with physicians, philosophers, and clergymen. They were 
 familiar with the Whigs at St. James's Coffee-house and with
 
 THE ESSAY 77 
 
 the Tories at The ('ocoa-Tree. Th(\y mingled with the law- 
 yers and scholars at The Grecian and listened to the mer- 
 chants and stockjobbers at Jonathan's. Wherever they saw 
 a cluster of people they mingled with them, looked upon 
 their vices and virtues with keen eyes, antl judged them with 
 sane and sympathetic minds. Addison was perhaps the 
 keener; Steele, the more sympathetic. The point of view of 
 both was wholesome, and their fine tactful humor irresistible. 
 Their wholesome wit furnishes perhaps the best possible ap- 
 proach for the student who wishes a sympathetic picture of 
 English life in the early eighteenth century. 
 
 To insight and sympathy is added the charm of a simple 
 and easy literary style. Addison in particular was a great 
 literary artist. His mastery of the English language has 
 made his writings famous as models of style. Dr. Johnson 
 said, " Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar 
 but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give 
 his days and nights to the study of Addison." 
 
 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS 
 
 Special interest attaches to the Sir Roger de Coverley 
 Papers. They are not only interpretations of life and 
 models of style ; they form a connected series which grad- 
 ually develops character and follows the fortunes of a group 
 of persons like a story. Each essay has its own indepen- 
 dent laugh at folly and vice, but it also unites with the rest 
 to develop the common interest of character and incident. 
 Indeed the series has been called, not without reason, the 
 forerunner of the novel of real life. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 I. The Spectator's Account of Himself. This sketch 
 of Addison by his own hand should be compared with parts
 
 78 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 of Macaulay's account in his essay on Addison, especially 
 paragraphs 7-9, 63-64. Locate the various coffee-houses 
 on a map of London (see Baedeker's London). Of these 
 coffee-houses, Ashton says in Social Life in the Reign of Queen 
 Anne: "The coffee-houses of the eighteenth century formed 
 a neutral meeting ground for men of all conditions; no 
 decently attired person was refused admittance, provided 
 he laid down his penny at the bar. The excellent rules in 
 force prevented any ill effects from this admixture of classes. 
 If a man swore, he was fined Is., and if he began to quarrel, 
 he was fined 'dishes' round. Discussion on religion was 
 prohibited, no card-playing or dicing was allowed, and no 
 wager might be made exceeding 5s. These were the simple 
 rules generally used, and if they were only complied with, 
 all must have felt the benefit of such a mild despotism." 
 
 IL Description of Club Members. What classes of 
 society are typified in the club members? No particular 
 individuals are meant. Addison says {Spectator, No. 262), 
 " I write after such a manner that nothing may be interpreted 
 as aimed at private persons." Again (No. 34), "I must, 
 however, entreat every particular person who does me the 
 honor to be a reader of this paper never to think himself, 
 or any of his friends or enemies, aimed at in what is said; 
 for I promise him never to draw a faulty character which 
 does not fit at least a thousand people." In the description 
 of Sir Roger, what facts show (1) his strength of character, 
 (2) his humanity, (3) his amusing weakness? Why do we 
 not despise him for his weakness ? 
 
 Write a short account of one of your own friends and com- 
 pare it ^vith these sketches. Point out th(^ use of balance 
 in the description of the lawyer. This paper was written 
 by Steele. Is the style as smooth and easy as the style of 
 Addison ?
 
 THE ESSAY 79 
 
 III. Sir Roger's Opinion of True Wisdom. Cite 
 passages in the essay which show the age to have been super- 
 ficial, conventional, and innnoral, more concerned with "wit 
 and sense" tiian with "honesty and virtue." Is it true that 
 "the most polite ages are the least virtuous " ? Give reasons. 
 
 IV. Sir Roger at the Club. Wliat trait of human 
 nature is here satirized ? Explain how Addison turns the 
 laugh upon each character in turn. Begin to make a list 
 of Sir Roger's characteristics with references to passages 
 which illustrate them. Compare Addison's point of view as 
 a humorist with that of Swift in Gulliver's Travels. Swift's 
 satire is bitter. He hated and scorned mankind. (See 
 Macaulay's Essay on Addison, paragraphs 83-87.) How did 
 Addison's London differ from a modern American city ? 
 
 V. Sir Roger in his Country House. The satire on 
 the country clergyman shows Addison's characteristic 
 method ; he does not say directly that the parson is narrow- 
 minded and not intelligent enough to compose a sermon 
 worth listening to, but Sir Roger's recommendation takes it 
 for granted. Watch for other illustrations of this sly method 
 of satire. How does the country life here described differ 
 from country life in America to-day ? 
 
 Examine the paragraph structure. Every paragraph 
 should have its definite topic, and every statement in that 
 paragraph should help to make the topic clear. The test 
 of unity in a paragraph is to sum up the entire thought in 
 a single statement. For instance, the topic of paragraph 2 is. 
 "Sir Roger's family consists of sober and staid persons." 
 Every sentence in the paragraph helps to develop this idea. 
 Criticize the second sentence in the essay. 
 
 VI. The Coverlet Household. W^here is the moral 
 purpose of this essay stated ? What does the essay contrib- 
 ute to our knowledge of Sir Roger's character? (See
 
 80 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 especially the last ten lines.) Is he lacking in dignity and 
 authority? Is he modest? Why should the Spectator be 
 a "little dissatisfied" with the picture? 
 
 VII. Sir Roger and Will Wimble. Is Will Wimble 
 appropriately named? (See Dictionary.) Select three or 
 four adjectives which best describe him. When does Addi- 
 son cease to be satirical and become earnest ? 
 
 VIII. A Sunday at Sir Roger's. What is the purpose 
 of this essay ? Explain its plan. Find examples of contrast. 
 Add to your notes on Sir Roger's character something about 
 his eccentricities. 
 
 IX. Sir Roger and the Widow. What is the effect of 
 repeating so many times that the widow "has the finest hand 
 of any woman in the world"? What hints are here given 
 of the ideal of womanhood in that age ? What is the effect 
 of the broken sentence structure in the paragraph next to 
 the last? Why did Sir Roger fail in his wooing? Are 
 the comic effects similar to those in the comedies of Shake- 
 speare ? 
 
 X. Bodily Exercise. Notice the plan : first there is an 
 explanation of the two kinds of Ijodily exertion, work and 
 play ; then the relation of these to bodily health and mental 
 vigor; then specific instances from the life of Sir Roger; 
 and, finally, the conclusion that one should take daily exer- 
 cise. Make an outline under headings and subheadings. 
 What is the relation of this essay to the series? Is the 
 argument weak at any point ? 
 
 XI. The Coverley Hunt. Are the characteristics here 
 given of Sir Roger inconsistent with what we learn of him in 
 other essays? (See paragraph 2.) What is the advantage 
 in having the Spectator "withdraw to a rising ground"? 
 Com]:)are the structure of this essay with Essays VIII and X. 
 Budgell wrote this essay. Compare the style with the work
 
 THE ESSAY ' 81 
 
 of Addison. Detormino, for example, why paragraph 3 
 seems awkward in comparison with Addison's work. 
 
 XII. The Coverley Witch. Mr. H. V. Abbott, in liis 
 edition of The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, cites the fact that 
 just before The Spectator began to be published, two women 
 were executed in Northampton for having dealings with evil 
 spirits, and that in 1716 a Mrs. Hicks and her daughter 
 were hanged at Huntingdon for soiling their souls to the 
 devil, making their neighbors vomit pins, and raising a 
 storm so that a certain ship was almost lost. Is Addison 
 in earnest at the ])eginning? What do we learn from the 
 essay about the supposed power of witches ? 
 
 XIII. Sir Roger's Discourse on Love. Written by 
 Steele. Have you a clear idea of the widow's character? 
 Can you distinguish any difference in style between No. XIII, 
 paragraph 1 (Steele's), No.. XI, paragraph 3 (Budgell's), and 
 No. XII, paragraph 2 (Addison's) ? How are you impressed 
 by the words of Mr. William as he looks into the fountain ? 
 
 XV. Sir Roger at the Assizes. What is the purpose 
 of this essay? Note the humorous passages and determine 
 what makes them humorous. Is the last paragraph neces- 
 sary for a good ending ? 
 
 XVI. Sir Roger and Party Spirit. Party spirit was 
 very strong in Addison's time. The Tories still believed 
 in the divine right of kings and were ardent supporters of the 
 Stuart line, plotting even then to bring the Stuarts back to 
 the throne. They were distinctly the aristocratic party. 
 They believed the government should be run by those who 
 owned the large landed estates and who had received their 
 wealth and social standing through a long line of inheritance. 
 The Whigs, on the other hand, were the party of popular 
 liberty. They had brought about the Revolution of 1688, 
 and had established William on the throne as a constitutional 
 
 o
 
 82 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 sovereign. Their support came largely from the commercial 
 classes and the dissenting religious sects. Queen Anne, 
 although she owed her crown to the Whigs, was really a Tory 
 at heart, and exerted her influence wherever possible in favor 
 of Tory measures. The feeling between the two parties was 
 very bitter. Addison was, from beginning to end, a consis- 
 tent Whig. He was never bitter, however. He practiced 
 the preaching of this essay except in regard to non-partisan- 
 ship. 
 
 Write a short argument advocating partisanship in poli- 
 tics to-day. Compare the treatment of party spirit in 
 Washington's Farewell Address (paragraphs 20-25). 
 
 XVn. Sir Roger and the Gypsies. Does Sir Roger 
 believe at all in the Gypsies? Indicate the humorous pas- 
 sages. Write in your own words the story of the boy stolen 
 by the gypsies, and compare your account with Addison's: 
 Notice the beauty and ease of Addison's sentences. If your 
 own version seems awkward in comparison, examine care- 
 fully the sentence structure. 
 
 XVIII. Why the Spectator leaves Coverley Hall. 
 How does this essay fit into the series? Is paragraph 1 a 
 suitable introduction? Why? Will Honeycomb's idea of 
 the country was the prevailing idea in Addison's time, 
 Addison himself seems to have been too thoroughly city 
 bred to enjoy country life. 
 
 XIX. The Spectator's Experience in a Stage Coach. 
 The Latin motto originally published at the head of this 
 essay means, "He who does not see what the occasion de- 
 mands, or who has no regard for his companions, is called 
 impertinent." Addison is preaching etiquette through 
 Ephraim. 
 
 XX. Street Cries of London. Test the paragraph 
 unity by framing for each paragraph a single statement
 
 THE ESSAY 83 
 
 expressing the complete thought of the paragraph. Do 
 you note any sly thrusts of satire ? 
 
 XXI. SiK Roger in Town. The motto of this essay is, 
 "In our age a most rare thing is simplicity." Compare with 
 this essay the Christmas stories in Irving's Sketch-Book. 
 
 XXII. Sir Roger in Westminster Abbey. A visit 
 to Westminster Abbey is a test of a man's character and at- 
 tainments: he sees just what he is qualified to see by experi- 
 ence and reading. Compare Addison's account in Spectator, 
 No. 26, and Irving's "Westminster Abbey" in The Skeich- 
 Book. Note by comparison what Sir Roger sees and what 
 he does not see ; his limitations will thus become clear. 
 
 XXIII. Sir Roger at the Theater. The charmingly 
 ignorant and naive way in which Sir Roger is made to expose 
 himself shows Addison's humor at its best. Point out partic- 
 ularly noteworthy passages. 
 
 XXIV. Will Honeycomb's Love-making. Explain 
 how the essential sincerity of Sir Roger's character is brought 
 out by contrasting his love affair with the love affair of Will 
 Honeycomb. Is Will's boasted knowledge of the "female 
 world" consistent with his actual success in love-making? 
 
 XXVI. The Death of Sir Roger de Coverley. 
 Sympathetic humor like Addison's is not far removed from 
 pathos ; indeed the two often blend. What in this essay is 
 both humorous and pathetic ? 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1 The Character of Sir Roger de Coverley illustrated from the 
 Essays. 
 
 2. London Life in the Time of Addison. 
 
 3. The London Coffee-houses. 
 
 4. The De Coverley Papers as "A Forerunner of the Novel of 
 Real Life."
 
 84 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 5. Peculiarities of Addison's Humor. 
 
 6. A Typical Character of Modern Life. 
 
 7. Sir Roger's Love Affairs. 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK 
 
 living's kinship to Addison is plain. At the very outset, 
 the likeness between The Author^s Account of Himself and 
 The Spectator's Account of Himself shows Addison to have 
 been Irving's model. The titles are alike ; the method 
 identical ; the style similar. And this is not a unique illus- 
 tration ; examples abound. The Christmas series inevitably 
 recalls the De Coverley set. The Squire, for instance, is only 
 a variation of Sir Roger ; Master Simon, of Will Wimble. 
 Essays like The Wife repeat Addison's characteristic method 
 of placing a simple story in a framework of moral reflections. 
 Throughout the essay there is the same humorous moralizing 
 point of view. 
 
 Yet Irving was not a slavish borrower. He wrote, to be 
 sure, the same kind of discursive essay, he used the same 
 rhetorical methods, he cultivated the same humorous, moral- 
 izing tone ; but he had his own marked individuaHty, he 
 looked upon life with his own personal likes and dislikes, and 
 he developed a literary charm quite his own. In the first 
 place, his interests were different. Addison was brought 
 up in the artificial society of London, and his interests were 
 largely confined to city life. Irving was tjrought up in a new 
 civilization, largely free from city conventions and near to 
 wild nature. He was fond of the country and wrote with 
 sympathy on rural subjects. Then, too, the century which 
 had elapsed since Addison's time had greatly changed gen- 
 eral intellectual interests. The love of romance had revived. 
 A new delight in medieval manners and customs had de- 
 veloped. Mystery and superstition had returned to charm
 
 THE ESSAY 85 
 
 the imagination. Irving's temperament was romantic ; it 
 permeated his work with a quaintness and mystery and 
 superstitious charm, which Addison stu(Hously avoided. 
 Addison was a keener observer, perhaps a more judicious 
 critic than Irving ; but he avoided what Irving particularly 
 cultivated, sympathy and sentiment. 
 
 Notes and Suggestions 
 
 I. The Author's Account of Himself. Compare in 
 detail the sketch of AcUlison at the Ix'ginning of The Sir 
 Roger de Coverleij Papers. How do the two papers show 
 the different interests of the two men? Cite passages to 
 indicate Irving's dreamy, romantic attitude. What pas- 
 sages are humorous? How so? Write two or three 
 paragraphs about New York City in Irving's time. What 
 is the double function of the first sentence of paragraph 2 ? 
 Some writers are so careful of paragraph structure that a 
 clear idea of the thought may be had by reading the first 
 and last sentence of each paragraph. Is that true of this 
 essay ? 
 
 II. The Voyage. Cite passages which show Irving's 
 active imagination. In description, does he make a picture 
 merely or explain the effect the scene has upon him ? Cite 
 passages. Compare the captain's simple graphic story 
 with the similar episode more elaborately developed in 
 The English Mail Coach by De Quincey. What do you 
 consider the peculiar excellence of each? Where does 
 Irving show emotional sympathy? Where is contrast 
 effectively used ? 
 
 III. Roscoe. Select a few adjectives which you think 
 best describe Mr. Roscoe. Do you agree with Irving when 
 he says: "I could not pity him as I heard some rich men do. 
 I consider him above the reach of pity." Find an allusion
 
 86 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 to the Bible. Are there any passages where the use of figures 
 of speech makes the idea particularly vivid ? 
 
 IV. The Wife. Wherein is this theme treated in the 
 manner of Addison ? How does it differ from a story in a 
 modern magazine ? 
 
 V. Rip Van Winkle. Divide t.he story into three main 
 divisions. Are the facts in one division chosen with refer- 
 ence to the other divisions ? Does the introductory division 
 seem too long? What does it tell us of Rip's character as 
 displayed in his relations to his home, to his farm, and to 
 his neighbors ? What are the most important dramatic 
 situations in the story? By what means is the dramatic 
 effect of Rip's return made strong ? Look up in the Century 
 or Oxford Dictionary all the words and phrases not thor- 
 oughly understood ; e.g., "rubicund portrait," "talking list- 
 lessly," "termagant wife," "impending cliffs," "uttering 
 clouds of tobacco smoke instead of idle speeches." 
 
 Begin a collection of terse, wise sayings resembling prov- 
 erbs : e.g., 
 
 "A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the 
 only edged tool that grows keener with constant use." 
 
 Gather information about Diedrich Knickerbocker from the 
 histories of American literature, and write a character sketch 
 of him, imitating the style of Irving. 
 
 VI. English Writers on America. Make a topic sen- 
 tence for each of the paragraphs. Do these sentences show 
 the essay to have a careful, progressive plan? Does Irving 
 practice his own preaching? Write a short account of the 
 feeling between England and the United States since Irving's 
 time. 
 
 VII. Rural Life in England. Compare the attitude of 
 Irving toward city and country life with that of Addison.
 
 THE ESSAY 87 
 
 Write an article or arrange a debate on the advantages and 
 disadvantages of country and city life. Point out some of 
 the present tendencies in America to dignify and elevate 
 country life. Can it be said of America as of England, 
 "The very laborer, with his thatched cottage and narrow 
 slip of ground, attends to their embellishment"? What 
 English poets of the nineteenth century best exemplify 
 "the rural feeling that runs through British literature"? 
 Bring to class some of the best examples. 
 
 VIII. The Broken Heart. What is the effect of the 
 figurative language ? Identif}^ the quotations (see Bartlett's 
 Familiar Quotations) . What is the rhetorical objection to the 
 following sentence: "When every worldly maxim arrayed 
 itself against him ; when blasted in fortune and disgrace 
 and danger darkened around his name, she loved him the 
 more ardently for his very suffering" ? Mention other 
 poems by Moore. 
 
 IX. The Art of Book-Making. Analyze the humor. 
 To what extent is it in the thought ? To what extent in the 
 expression ? Explain clearly your idea of plagiarism and 
 of originality. Compare the following from Lowell : 
 
 "They [the poetsl import their raw material from any and 
 everywhere, and the question at last comes down to this — whether 
 an author have original force enough to assimilate all he has acquired, 
 or that be so overmastering as to assimilate him. If the poet turn 
 out the stronger, we allow him to help himself from other people with 
 wonderful equanimity." 
 
 Show how this applies especially to Shakespeare as a bor- 
 rower. 
 
 X. The Royal Poet. Does Irving emphasize the strong 
 passion or the delicate sentiment of James ? Try to explain 
 why you like or dislike this essay. 
 
 XL The Country Church. A study in contrast. Are
 
 88 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Irving's remarks on "the unpretending great and the arro- 
 gant little" sensible and true? 
 
 XII. The Widow and Hek Son. Is Irving's pathos 
 delicate and sincere ? Irving never leaves a story or scene 
 to make its own effect ; he always explains the effect upon 
 himself. Is this a fault in his art ? 
 
 XIIT, The Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap. Read 
 in this connection the tavern scenes in Shakespeare's Henry 
 IV. Explain the satire on the Shakespearean scholar. Read 
 the essay with a map of London before you (see Baedeker's 
 London and its Environs). Look up such references as: 
 
 (a) "The Great Fire of London." (See Pepys's Diary.) 
 
 (b) "The Cock Lane Ghost." (See Harper's Magazine, 
 August, 1893, and Hare's Walks in London, Vol. I, pp. 204 ff.) 
 
 (c) "Knights of the Round Table and the Long-sought 
 Sangrael." (See Malory's Morte d' Arthur and Tennyson's 
 Idylls of the King.) 
 
 XIV. The Mutability of Literature. State briefly the 
 theme. Explain the method used to make the subject 
 interesting. 
 
 XV. Rural Funerals. An example of Irving's delicate 
 and sympathetic appreciation. Indicate other examples. 
 
 XVI. The Inn Kitchen. Would this scene be more 
 vivid in a picture ? Is there anything in the description 
 which could not be painted so effectively as it is de- 
 scribed ? 
 
 XVII. The Specter Bridegroom. How is the introduc- 
 tory material on character and setting matle interesting? 
 Is the interest in character as important as the story interest ? 
 To what extent is the story dramatically developed ? 
 
 XVIII. Westminster Abbey. Consult the plan of West- 
 minster Abbey in Baedeker's London and its Environs. Com- 
 pare Addison's "Westminster Abbey" in Spectator, No. 26,
 
 THE ESSAY 89 
 
 and test the character and attainments of the two authors by 
 what they see of interest. Do you notice any difference in 
 atmosphere between the two essays ? 
 
 XIX. Christmas. This essay, being introductory to a 
 group, consists of "general observations." The charm Ues 
 largely in the personality of Irving. His personal feelings 
 are always prominent. Make notes for a character sketch of 
 Irving to be written later. 
 
 XX. The Stage Coach. Make a short sketch of some 
 familiar character or scene : 
 
 1. The American Commercial Traveler. 
 
 2. The American Country Hotel. 
 
 3. When the Overland Train passes through a Frontier 
 Town. 
 
 4. When an Ocean Liner makes Port. 
 
 Compare your work with Irving's. Look up in the 
 Oxford Dictionary or the Century Dictionary words used with 
 unusual meanings {e.g., "mystery," "cattle"). 
 
 XXI. Christmas Eve. A "narrative description." There 
 is no connected story interest, no plot ; only a series of 
 descriptions bound together by a narrative thread which 
 gives unity and effectiveness without destroying the distinctly 
 descriptive interest. Contrast The Specter Bridegroom, 
 Notice how the transition from one description to another is 
 made and the point of view in each indicated. Look up the 
 details of old Christmas celebrations in Strutt's Sports and 
 Pastimes of the People of England. Explain the delicate irony 
 of the description of Julia's attitude while the young officer 
 is singing. 
 
 XXII. Christmas Day. In the scene from the chamber 
 window is there any method in the selection and ordering of 
 the details? (Explain.) Is the essay objectionably discur- 
 sive? Examine the adjectives and verbs in the description
 
 90 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 of the singing of the choir, especially toward the end. Are 
 they chosen for their descriptive power ? 
 
 XXIII. The Christmas Dinner. Contrast with the 
 Coverley Papers. The interest in medieval life and manners, 
 the love of legend and superstition, are characteristic of the 
 early nineteenth century. (See the chapter on The Romantic 
 Movement in Part II.) 
 
 XXIV. London Antiquities and Little Britain. Con- 
 sult Baedeker's London cuid its Environs for a detail map of 
 London and for information about the Inns of the Temple 
 and Charterhouse. The Hall of the Middle Temple is pre- 
 served in practically the same condition as it was when 
 Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was produced there in Shake- 
 speare's lifetime. What famous literary men w^ere educated 
 at Charterhouse ? 
 
 XXV. Stratford-on-Avon. Explain the nature of Irv- 
 ing's interest in Stratford. Does it furnish any argument 
 on the advantages of culture ? 
 
 XXVI. Traits of Indian Character and Philip of 
 PoKANOKET. Is this defense of the Indian prevailingly 
 intellectual or emotional ? What passages are distinctly 
 logical ? What passages emotional ? Does the verdict of 
 history support Irving's judgment? 
 
 XXVII. John Bull. To what extent is this a descrip- 
 tion not so much of an Englishman as of the English nation, 
 its form of government, the relation of the established church 
 to the government, the question of reform, the foreign 
 policy, etc. ? Does Irving practice, here, what he preached in 
 English Writers on America? Is this essay satirical or hum- 
 orous ? Make an outline for a similar essay on " Uncle Sam." 
 
 XXVIII. The Pride of the Village. What is the dif- 
 ference between sentiment and sentimentality? Which is 
 illustrated by this essay ?
 
 THE ESSAY 91 
 
 XXIX. The Angler. Is there any excuse for the ram- 
 bUng method ? 
 
 XXX. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. What makes 
 the short descriptions of Ichabod so effective ? Is there any 
 principle of selection evident in the details of the picture of 
 the Van Tassel farm ? Explain. Write similar descriptions, 
 avoiding Avords which have no descriptive value and keeping 
 in mind "point of view" and "unity of impression." 
 
 How is the plot interest developed ? Cite passages which 
 prepare for future events. Explain Irving's attitude to- 
 ward mystery and superstition. Compare the attitude of 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 XXXI. L' Envoy. What parts of Irving's work are the 
 more interesting, the narrative or the descriptive ; the hum- 
 orous or the pathetic ? Give reasons. 
 
 Topics for Essays 
 
 1. A Character Sketch of Irving. 
 
 2. Irving's Attitude toward Mystery and Superstition. 
 
 3. Diedrich Knickerbocker. 
 
 4. Uncle Sam. 
 
 5. The Art of Fishing. 
 
 6. Old Christmas Sports and Pastimes. 
 
 7. Differences between Addison and Irving. 
 
 8. Sunday in America. 
 
 9. Ichabod Crane, A Portrait. 
 10. Rip Van Winkle's Wife. 
 
 (b) THE FORMAL ESSAY 
 
 By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the popularity 
 and influence of the discursive essay had largely passed over 
 to essays of a more formal kind. Such weekly periodicals as 
 The Tatler and The Spectator had gradually developed into the 
 great reviews, of which the most influential were The Edin-
 
 92 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 burgh, The Quarterly, and Blackwood's. Francis Jeffrey and 
 Christopher North (Professor John Wilson), the most influ- 
 ential contributors, cultivated more ambitious and system- 
 atic discussions in history, biography, and criticism. Ma- 
 caulay's famous essays on Milton, Addison, Clive, and Warren 
 Hastings appeared first in The Edinburgh Review. For this 
 magazine also Macaulay wrote his essay on Croker's edi- 
 tion of Boswell's Life of Johnson (1831), to which Carlyle 
 replied a few months later (1832) in an essay on the same 
 subject written for Frazer's Magazine. Carlyle's Essay on 
 Burns also appeared first in The Edinburgh Review. 
 
 Most of these essays were ostensibly book-reviews ; but 
 in reality they were independent treatises ; not exhaustive 
 perhaps, but systematic and comprehensive. Naturally, 
 they lacked the personal confidential note which was the prin- 
 cipal charm of Addison and Irving. Their aim was different. 
 They were not intended to be read at the breakfast table or 
 to while away an idle moment at night. The purpose was to 
 give reliable information to active-minded readers on impor- 
 tant subjects in history, biography, and literature. The in- 
 terest lies largely in the importance of the ideas and in the 
 clearness and force with which they are expressed. Such 
 essays furnish us serious studies in narration and exposition. 
 
 THE LIFE OF JOHNSON 
 
 Macaulay's Life of Johnson belongs to the same type of 
 essay as his articles for The Edinburgh Review, though it 
 was written, not for a magazine, but as a special article for 
 The Encyclopcedia Britannica. As a piece of biographical 
 writing it has a double interest : first, as a picture of John- 
 son and his time ; second, as an example of Macaulay's 
 literary methods. 
 
 It pictures Dr. Johnson as the most conspicuous literary
 
 THE ESSAY 93 
 
 figure of the middle of the eighteenth century, a period of 
 transition from reason to faith, from satire to romance, 
 from downright fact to the imaginative and mysterious, from 
 tile intellectual to the emotional, from a literature supported 
 by patronage to a literature supported by a wide reading 
 public. Dr. Johnson was the last of the old school, a con- 
 servative who fought the new tendencies with great consis- 
 tency. In religion he was orthodox, in politics he was high 
 Tory. In literature, he defended the doctrines of Pope and 
 the classical school. He came to London at a time the least 
 promising for literary men. Government pensions and sine- 
 cure offices were no longer to be had for the asking. Less 
 reliance, too, was now to be placed upon the patronage of 
 great names. On the other hand, the reading public was 
 not yet large enough for an author to depend for a livelihood 
 upon the sale of his books. Upon Johnson fell all the hard- 
 ships of the transition ; l)ut he fought his way manfully and 
 became, in the end, the literary dictator of his age. He 
 succeeded in checking for a time the rising spirit of romanti- 
 cism, which, after his death (1784), passed rapidly to its 
 climax in Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and their followers. 
 Macaulay's Life of Johnson gives a graphic picture of the 
 man and his relation to the times. It may well be supple- 
 mented, however, by the essays of Macaulay and Carlyle 
 on Boswell's Life of Johnson (Macmillan's Pocket Series) 
 and by selections from Boswell's work itself. 
 
 A separate study may well be made of Macaulay's methods 
 in structure and style. The Life of Johnson illustrates most 
 of them : his power to classify and group his ideas into logi- 
 cal divisions even when the narrative method is employed ; 
 the unity, coherence, and emphasis of the paragraphs ; the 
 clear sentence structure, brilliant in balance and antithesis ; 
 the tendency to exaggerate in order to make an idea more
 
 94 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 impressive ; the wealth of specific detail, of historical and 
 literary allusion, of apt illustration and comparison. It is 
 never necessary to puzzle over what Macaulay means. No 
 student should leave his essay without learning the secret 
 of clearness in composition. 
 
 Notes on the Subject Matter 
 
 Paragraph 1. Compare the books which Johnson read 
 at eighteen with books read nowadays by boys of that age. 
 Would his method of reading be successful with most young 
 men? 
 
 Paragraph 3. In regard to the tradition that Johnson 
 was "a gay and frolicsome fellow," he himself said long 
 afterwards: "Ah, Sir, I was mad and violent. It was 
 bitterness which they mistook for frolic. I was miserably 
 poor, and I thought to fight my way by my literature and 
 my wit; so I disregarded all power and authority." Does 
 poverty and distress usually make people servile ? 
 
 Paragraph 10. This account of literature as a profes- 
 sion in Johnson's time and the more extended account in 
 Macaulay's review of Boswell's Life of Johnson should be 
 compared with Carlyle's account of the same subject. (See 
 Schuyler's edition of Macaulay's Life of Johnson in Mac- 
 millan's Pocket Series, Appendix, pp. 126 ff. and 157 ff.) 
 Which treatment is the more objective and historical ? 
 Which the more analytical, philosophical, and moralizing? 
 As regards style, which writer has clearness and ease ? 
 Which has abruptness and strength? Give reasons for your 
 answers. 
 
 Paragraph 12. Is the description of Johnson's gluttony 
 and rudeness amusing, revolting, or pitiful ? Do you 
 excuse him ? Why, or why not ? 
 
 Paragraph 15. This account of Pope's treatment of
 
 THE ESSAY 95 
 
 Johiison should be compared with what INIacaulay says of 
 Pope in the essay on Addison. There, Macaulay ascribes to 
 Pope hardly any redeeming qualities. 
 
 Paragraph 10. Compare Schuyler's edition of Macau- 
 lay's Life of Johnson, pp. 130-134. More details may be 
 had from Johnson's Life of Savage. Write a short essay on 
 "Grub Street," or "The Bohemian Life of Authors in 
 Johnson's Time." 
 
 Paragraph 22. Compare Goldsmith's sketch of Garrick 
 in Retaliation: 
 
 "Here lies David Garrick, describe him who can, 
 An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man ; 
 As an actor, confess'd without rival to shine, 
 As a wat, if not first, in the very first Une : 
 Yet, with talents like these, and an excellent heart 
 The man had his failings, a dupe to his art. 
 Like an ill- judging beauty, his colors he spread, 
 And beplastered \nth rouge his own natural red. 
 On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting ; 
 'Twas only when he was off he was acting. 
 With no reason on earth to go out of his way, 
 He turned and he varied full ten times a day. 
 ****** 
 
 He cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack. 
 
 For he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back. 
 
 Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came. 
 
 And the puff of a dunce he mistook it for fame ; 
 
 Till, his rehsh grown callous almost to disease. 
 
 Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please." 
 
 Paragraph 26. Do you have more sympathy for John- 
 son's devotion to his "silly affected" wife than Macaulay 
 seems to have ? 
 
 Paragraph 27. The famous passage which moved
 
 96 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Horne Tooke so deeply shows Johnson's style at its best. 
 It is as follows : 
 
 "In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it 
 not be forgotten that much likewise is performed ; and though no 
 book was ever spared out of tenderness to the author, and the world 
 is little sohcitous to know whence proceeded the faults of that which 
 it condemns ; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it that the 
 English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, 
 and without any patronage of the great ; not in the soft obscurities 
 of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst 
 inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow. It may 
 repress the triumph of malignant criticism to observe, that if our 
 language is not here fully displayed, I have only failed in an attempt 
 which no human powers have hitherto completed. If the lexicons 
 of ancient tongues, now immutably fixed, and comprised in a few 
 volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive ages, inadequate and 
 delusive ; if the aggregated knowledge and co-operating dihgence of 
 the Italian academicians did not secure them from the censure of 
 Beni ; if the embodied critics of France, when fifty years had been 
 spent upon their work, were obliged to change its economy, and 
 give their second edition another form, I may surely be contented 
 without the praise of perfection, which, if I obtain, in this gloom 
 of soUtude, what could it avail me ? I have protracted my work 
 till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, 
 and success and miscarriage are empty sounds ; I therefore dismiss 
 it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure 
 or from praise." 
 
 Paragraph 28. Some of the definitions in Johnson's 
 Dictionary are highly facetious, e.g. : 
 
 "Oats : a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but 
 in Scotland supports the people." 
 
 "Pension: pay given to a state hireling to betray his country." 
 
 Johnson himself afterwards accepted a government 
 pension.
 
 THE ESSAY 97 
 
 The statemont that EngUsh as Johnson wrote it was 
 scarcely a Teutonic hmguage is a characteristic exaggeration. 
 In the preface to the Didionary, seventy-two per cent of the 
 words are of Teutonic origin. 
 
 P.A.RAGRAPH 37. Would Johnson have considered it as 
 iinjwrtant for an editor of Shakespeare to know Fletcher, as 
 for an editor of Sophocles to know ^schylus ? 
 
 Paragraph 38. The following is Goldsmith's character- 
 ization of Re>Tiolds and Burke : 
 
 "Here Reynolds is laid, and, to tell you my mind, 
 He has not left a wiser or l^etter behind ; 
 His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand, 
 His manners were gentle, compljang, and bland : 
 Still born to improve us in every part, 
 His pencil our faces, his manners our heart. 
 To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering, 
 ^Vhen they judged without skill, he was still hard of hearing ; 
 When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff 
 He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff. " 
 
 " Here Ues our good Edmund, whose genius was such, 
 We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much ; 
 Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, 
 .\nd to party gave up what was meant for mankind. 
 Though fraught ^^^th all learning, yet straining his throat, 
 To persuade Tommy Townscnd to lend him a vote : 
 Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining, 
 And thought of comdncing, while they thought of dining. 
 Though equal to all things, for all things unfit ; 
 Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a vnX ; 
 For a patriot, too cool ; for a drudge disobedient ; 
 And too fond of the right, to pursue the expedient. 
 In short, 'twas his fate, unemployed or in place, sir, 
 To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor."
 
 98 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Paragraph 42. Is it true "that the place of books in 
 the pubhc estimation is fixed, not by what is written about 
 them but by what is written in them " ? (Compare expensive 
 modern advertising.) 
 
 Paragraph 50. Johnson's prayer is as follows : 
 
 "Almighty God, Father of all mercy, help me by thy grace, that 
 I may, with humble and sincere thankfulness, remember the com- 
 forts and conveniences which I have enjoyed in this place ; and 
 that I may resign them with holy submission, equally trusting in 
 thy protection when thou givest and when thou takest away. Have 
 mercy upon me, O Lord, have mercy upon me. To thy fatherly 
 protection, Lord, I commend this family. Bless, guide, and de- 
 fend them, that they may so pass through the world, as finally to 
 enjoy thy everlasting happiness, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." 
 
 Notes on Structure and Style 
 
 Paragraph L Note Macaulay's method in explaining 
 Johnson's characteristics : first, the classification into phys- 
 ical, intellectual, and moral, followed by three clauses, 
 specific in their nature, referring to the three divisions in 
 turn ; secondly, a detailed and graphic explanation of each 
 of the first two in order. Which has the more space devoted 
 to it? Is that proportion the best? Why? 
 
 Paragraph 3. Analyze the paragraph structure. Its 
 subject is Johnson at Oxford. The topic might be phrased, 
 "Three things are remarkable about Johnson in his Oxford 
 days: his poverty, his reckless and unmanageable spirit, 
 his intellectual ascendency." These three points are devel- 
 oped in turn by specific examples, illustrations, and details. 
 Look up the various methods of paragraph development in 
 Scott and Denney's Paragraph Writing or in some similar 
 text-book. 
 
 Paragraph 5. The first sentence introduces one of the
 
 THE ESSAY 99 
 
 large divisions of the essay, the period of poverty and struggle. 
 The otlier large division, the period of competency and dicta- 
 torship, is introduced in paragraph 34 with the words: "By 
 such exertions as have been described, Johnson supported 
 himself till the year 1762. In that year, a great change in 
 his circumstances took place." Is the idea of poverty and 
 struggle kept in mind throughout the division ? 
 
 In paragraph 5, point out sharp contrasts and antitheses. 
 Where is the thought emphasized by the use of striking 
 specific examples ? 
 
 Paragraph 6. Point out how the first sentence is both 
 transitional and introductory. Find other examples. 
 
 Paragraph 7. Entire sentences are often in contrast; 
 e.g., sentences 3 and 4. 
 
 Paragraph 10. Explain how the thought in the first 
 half of the paragraph is held together by contrasted sen- 
 tences followed by a striking balanced sentence. 
 
 Paragraph 12. Cite further examples of balance and 
 antithesis. 
 
 Paragraph 13. Be on your guard against extravagant 
 statements where truth is sacrificed to rhetoric ; e.g., 
 
 "Laud, a poor creature who never did, said, or wrote anything 
 indicating more than the ordinary capacity of an old woman, was 
 (to Johnson) a prodigy of parts and learning over whose tomb Art 
 and Genius still continued to weep." 
 
 Paragraph 22. What method of paragraph development 
 is here illustrated ? 
 
 Paragraphs 23-25. Analyze this group of paragraphs. 
 The first is introductory ; the second treats the effect of 
 The Rambler on a few prominent men ; the third explains 
 the effect on the public. The order is in harmony with the 
 narrative plan of the essay.
 
 100 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Pakagraphs 31-33. Analyze this group of paragraphs on 
 Rasselas. Make a topic sentence for each paragraph, and 
 explain the methods of development. 
 
 Paragraph 36. Comment on the beginning and the end. 
 How are the parts of the paragraph balanced ? The incident 
 of the Cock Lane Ghost is admirably condensed and sub- 
 ordinated to the purpose of the paragraph. 
 
 Paragraph 39. What characteristics of Macaulay are 
 here illustrated ? 
 
 Paragraph 40. Criticise this paragraph. Is it too long ? 
 Has it unity ? If it were divided, where should the division 
 be made ? 
 
 Paragraph 50. An example of a brilliant narrative 
 passage skillfully subordinated to the purpose of the para- 
 graph. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. Conditions of Authorshi}) in Johnson's Time. 
 
 2. Grub Street. 
 
 3. Johnson's Style as a Writer and as a Conversationalist. 
 
 4. The Origin, Nature, and Membership of the Literary Club. 
 
 5. A Comparison of Macaulay's Estimate of Boswell with 
 Carlyle's Estimate. 
 
 6. Macaulay's E.xaggerations. 
 
 7. The Principal Characteristics of Macaulay's Style. 
 
 8. Jolmson's Peculiarities. 
 
 9. Joluison and Garrick. 
 10. Johnson and his Wife. 
 
 THE ESSAY ON BURNS 
 
 Carlyle had very clear ideas of what a biography ought 
 to be. His idea was not to present objectively the events 
 of a man's life against the background of his age, nor yet to 
 give a " detached catalogue of his several supposed attri- 
 butes, virtues, and vices." A good biography penetrates
 
 ■n 
 
 a 
 <: 
 
 X 
 
 S 
 H
 
 THE ESSAY 101 
 
 to the " inward springs and relations of character," At 
 the same time, it presents not a mere catalogue of virtues 
 and vices, but a living, acting person. The virtues and vices 
 must be so related, and their united significance so explained, 
 as to reveal the real person to whom they belong as a unique 
 individual, Uving the common life, struggling with his sur- 
 roundings, influenced by his circumstances, and, in turn, 
 molding his circumstances to definite ends. The main 
 purpose of reading (Jarlyle's essay, therefore, is to realize 
 Burns. "Never," says Phillips Brooks, "lay down a bi- 
 ography until the man is a living, breathing, acting person. 
 Then you may close and lose and forget the book ; the man 
 is yours forever." 
 
 In the study of The Essay on Burns, however, it is not 
 enough to realize the personality of Burns only. A study 
 should be made of Carlyle also ; of his character and of the 
 literary style which was the result of his character. The 
 essay shows Carlyle's sincerity, his vigor of mind, his hatred 
 of affectation, his sturdy common sense, his manly religion — ■ 
 a religion not of sentiment merely, but also of good works. 
 And these qualities express themselves in a vigorous graphic 
 style ; not grotesque and eccentric as in Carlyle's later work, 
 but often abrupt and startling ; sometimes without the 
 graces of style, but never without dynamic qualities. His 
 style, like his character, is sincere, robust, direct, manly. 
 
 Suggestions for the First Reading 
 
 Paragraphs 1-5. Introduction. Carlyle's idea of what 
 a biography ought to be gives the key to his criticism of 
 earlier biographies of Burns and furnishes a test by which 
 to judge Carlyle's own work. Why does he think it well to 
 have many biographies of great men ? 
 
 Paragraphs 6-9. A general sketch of Burns. The con-
 
 102 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 tention that the educated man has great advantages as a 
 poet over the uneducated man should be compared with 
 Macaulay's statement of the contrary in his Essmj on Milton • 
 (paragraphs 10-18). Determine whether you agree with 
 Macaulay or with Carlyle. 
 
 Carlyle says, "Criticism, it is sometimes thought, should 
 be a cold business; we are not so sure of this." Explain 
 your idea of criticism. Is Carlyle a cold critic ? Cite pas- 
 sages to support your answer. Does Carlyle overexalt the 
 worth of poets ? Is it worthier to be a poet than to be a 
 "captain of industry" ? 
 
 Carlyle is interested in Burns "not chiefly as a poet, but 
 as a man." This is the keynote of the essay. Read To 
 a Mountain Daisy, To a Mouse, and Winter, and observe 
 whether the poems illustrate Carlyle's point. 
 
 Paragraphs 10-38. Estimate of Burns as a poet. 
 Carlyle's method in this division is to give a general estimate 
 of Burns's poetry, and then to enumerate particular charac- 
 teristics. 
 
 (1) Sincerity. Be sure to get Carlyle's full meaning. 
 What other poets with whom you are familiar are remarkable 
 for sincerity ? From this discussion what do we learn of 
 Carlyle's character ? 
 
 (2) Poetic feeling, which exalts even the ccmmonplace. 
 Explain in your own words what Carlyle means. 
 
 (3) Intellectual vigor, expressing itself in keenness of 
 vision and conciseness of language. Study the examples 
 until you see how they explain Carlyle's point. Explain 
 the point of the comparison of Burns with Homer, Defoe, 
 and Richardson. 
 
 (4) Fineness of intellect. How does Carlyle make this 
 point clear ? 
 
 (5) Keenness of feeling. Explain exactly what is meant
 
 THE ESSAY 103 
 
 by this. Is the union of strong intellect and strong emotion 
 a common or an uncommon endowment? Cite examples. 
 
 Whenever a poem is quoted, read the entire poem. Ex- 
 plain how Scots wha hae wi' Wallace hied and Macpherson's 
 Farewell show "inverted love." Is Carlyle's estimate of 
 Ta7n o' Shanier just? Did Burns intend to make it 
 tragic ? Had it been tragic, would it have ceased to be 
 humorous ? 
 
 After ascertaining exactly Carlyle's idea of the excellence 
 of the songs, read the songs aloud to see if they bear out 
 Carlyle's opinion of them. Make a clear statement of the 
 two points in regard to Burns's infiuence. 
 
 Paragraphs 39-62. Burns's life. The discussion of 
 Burns's life, like the discussion of his poetic nature, begins 
 with a general statement and proceeds to details. How far is 
 Carlyle right in thinking contentment and happiness are to 
 be found not so much in one's circumstances as in one's 
 character? Is the attitude toward life which is here attrib- 
 uted to Burns, peculiar to youth ? Explain Carlyle's idea 
 of a " fully unfolded man." Explain the meaning of the lines 
 beginning "Manhood begins when we have in any way made 
 truce with necessity." Do you agree with Carlyle that in 
 the final crisis of Burns's life there w^ere for him only the 
 "three gates of deliverance" here mentioned? 
 
 Paragraphs 63-76. The weakness of Burns. Wherein 
 lay the real cause of Burns's failure ? Did Carlyle's own 
 experience help him in discussing the struggle of a high soul 
 in the endeavor to overcome adverse circumstances, to find 
 the one thing for which it is fitted, and to pursue that with 
 an ardent unity of purpose? (See Gore's edition of The 
 Essay on Burns, Pocket Series, Introduction, pp. xix, xx.) 
 
 What is the comparison of Burns and Byron intended to 
 show? Is it true that Burns had no religion? See The
 
 104 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Cotter^s Saturday Night. Burns wrote to Mrs. Dunlop in 
 
 1788: 
 
 "Some things in your late letters hurt me; not that you say 
 them; but that you mistake me. Religion, my honored madam, 
 has not only been all my life my chief dependence, but my dearest 
 enjoyment, I have, indeed, been the luckless victim of wayward 
 folUes ; but, alas ! I have ever been ' more fool than knave.' A 
 mathematician without religion is a probable character ; an irreli- 
 gious poet is a monster." 
 
 Before this he had written : 
 
 "0 thou great unknown Power! Thou Almighty God! who 
 hast hghted up reason in my breast, and blessed me with immortal- 
 ity ! I have frequently wandered from that order and regularity 
 necessary for the perfection of thy works, yet thou hast never left 
 me nor forsaken me ! " 
 
 This is certainly religious sentiment; but, to Carlyle, 
 religion was not a sentiment, but a life. Unless religious 
 feeling found expression in righteous living, it was not reli- 
 gion to Carlyle. How far was he right ? Why are the Scotch, 
 as a rule, religious ? Why have they produced so many 
 theologians ? Name some. 
 
 Suggestions for the Second Reading 
 
 Paragraphs 1-5. Introduction. Whao are the reasons 
 for calling this a model introduction ? State the topic of 
 each paragraph and test the paragraph unity. Explain how 
 the following analysis applies to paragraph 2 : (1) introduc- 
 tion, (2) the topic stated, (3) the topic repeated, (4) the 
 topic explained by extended comparison, (5) summary. 
 
 Paragraphs 6-9. General estimate of Burns. Paragraph 
 6 states and explains the topic of this group of paragraphs. 
 What is that topic? The theme is approached from a
 
 THE ESSAY 105 
 
 negative .standpoint, then affirmatively stated, and finally 
 explained and limited by the use of metaphor and ex- 
 tended comparison: Burns was no "nine days' wonder" 
 (negative aspect), but a true British poet and one of the 
 most considerable men of the eighteenth century (positive 
 statement), considering where and how he worked (limita- 
 tion). This natural sequence gives coherence to the para- 
 graph. The terse and picturesque sentence at the end gives 
 the paragraph emphasis. Paragraphs 7, 8, and 9 develop 
 the topic in detail, giving reasons for the imperfection and 
 small extent of Burns's poetry, pointing out the tragic cir- 
 cumstances of his life, and explaining in detail his relation 
 to nature and to his fellowmen. The whole group is bound 
 together by the idea that Burns was a great gift of Nature 
 to the world, but that the world knew him not and received 
 him not. 
 
 Show the logical development of paragraph 9: topic, 
 repetition, first aspect with illustrations, second aspect from 
 different points of view, conclusion. 
 
 Paragraphs 10-38. Burns as a poet. This division 
 might be briefly summarized as follows: "Although Burns's 
 poems are l)ut broken glimpses of his genius, the}' reveal 
 rare poetic excellencies, sincerity, fineness of intellect, keen- 
 ness of feeling. His best work is not Tarn o' Shanter, but 
 The Jolhj Beggars and the songs ; especially the songs. His 
 influence has been profound upon the thoughts and feelings 
 of many men. He helped to give individuality to British, 
 and particularly to Scottish literature." Develop this 
 summary into a detailed outline with headings and sub- 
 headings, showing also introduction, discussion, conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 Analyze an occasional paragraph, stating the topic sen- 
 tence, and explaining the methods of development (e.g.,
 
 106 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 paragraphs 11, 12, 15, 17, 28). Study also paragraph co- 
 herence. Do the sentences follow each other in a natural 
 order? Are they joined together by connecting words, or 
 by parallel structure ? Does the sentence begin with the 
 words which are most closely connected in thought \\dth the 
 preceding sentence and end with words which naturally 
 lead to what follows ? All these methods, for instance, are 
 illustrated in paragraph 11. Show how; and point out 
 further illustrations in other paragraphs. 
 
 Paragraph 33. Examine the sentences. Are any of 
 them incomplete ? Do any of them have clauses coordinate 
 in thought but not coordinate in form ? (Compare Macau- 
 lay's sentences.) What effect does this have upon the 
 style ? To what extent is the language figurative ? 
 
 Paragraph 34. Are the sentences prevailingly loose or 
 periodic ? What effect does this have upon the style ? 
 Comment on the use of capitals. 
 
 Paragraph 35. Is sentence 3 simple, complex, or com- 
 pound ? Is it loose or periodic ? Has it unity ? What is the 
 subject of "was not wonderful"? Parse "as" in the last 
 clause. Study various sentences from the point of view of 
 syntax. 
 
 Paragraph 36. Indicate the connecting words which 
 bind the sentences together. 
 
 Paragraph 37. Carlyle says of his own sentences that 
 they do not "stand straight on their legs," but "sprawl over 
 the page." Find examples in this and in other paragraphs. 
 This characteristic is more striking in other works by Carlyle, 
 e.g., Sartor Resartus and The French Revolution. 
 
 Paragraph 38. Is the imagery anywhere startling ? 
 
 Paragraphs 39-62. Burns as a man. Make a brief sum- 
 mary of this division. Analyze some of the paragraphs. 
 
 Paragraph 39. Are the words general or specific ? Ab-
 
 THE ESSAY 107 
 
 stract or concrete? Literal or figurative? What is the 
 effect ? 
 
 Paragraphs 40-52. Distinguish between the style of 
 Carlyle and the style of the quotations, especially in regard 
 to diction. 
 
 Paragraph 53. Point out examples of metaphor, per- 
 sonification, and other figures of speech. 
 
 Paragraph 55. Explain the Biblical allusion. Give 
 further evidence that Carlyle, like every other Scotchman, 
 knew his Bible. (See paragraphs 64, 65.) 
 
 Paragraphs 56-58. From what sources does Carlyle 
 draw his imagery ? Find examples of words coined by Car- 
 lyle. 
 
 Paragraph 61. Is the sentence structure symmetrical? 
 What effect does the frequent use of the exclamatory sen- 
 tence have upon Carlyle's style ? 
 
 Paragraphs 63-76. Final estimate of Burns and plea. 
 Summarize Carlyle's final estimate. Is the thought method- 
 ically developed? How is the topic of paragraph 64 
 developed ? Is there any digression from the theme ? Find 
 allusions to Shakespeare and the Bible. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. Carlyle's Ideas of Biography. 
 
 2. The Character of Carlyle. 
 
 3. The Style of Carlyle compared with the Style of Macaulay. 
 
 4. Carlyle's Estimate of Tarn o' Shanter. 
 
 5. The Life of Carlyle. 
 
 6. How to analyze a Paragraph. 
 
 7. Burns in Edinburgh. 
 
 8. Why Burns's Poems are Popular. 
 
 9. Would a College Education have made Burns a Greater Poet ?
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 
 
 Perhaps no other form of literature is more closely related 
 to life than the public address. Its subjects are drawn 
 from great public questions which press upon a nation for 
 solution, or arise out of occasions which commemorate events 
 of deep popular significance. Philosophical discussions, lit- 
 erary and scientific treatises, become orations only when 
 they appeal to wide interests and are connected with the 
 popular life. The purpose of the oration is not to explain 
 truth to scholars and specialists, not to please the cultured 
 man of leisure ; it is to bring truth home to the mind and 
 heart of the community and to make ideas and ideals pre- 
 vail in active life. Moreover the appeal is direct, personal, 
 intimate. Man speaks directly to man without the inter- 
 vention of the printed page. The tones of the voice, the 
 flash of the eye, the expression of the face, the bearing and 
 the gesture, all combine to make the appeal direct and vital. 
 The whole man speaks to the whole man : reason prevails 
 with reason ; feeling arouses feeling ; will stimulates will. 
 Intense convictions, high moral endowments, clearness, force, 
 earnestness — these are the tests. As Webster himself 
 phrased it : 
 
 "The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, 
 the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, beaming 
 from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man on- 
 ward, right onward to his object — this, this is eloquence." 
 
 108
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 109 
 
 There are two principal forms of public address, the argu- 
 mentative and the expository. When a thesis is to be estab- 
 lished, a proposition to be proved, a specific course of action 
 to be entered upon or avoided, the address is argumentative. 
 When an event is to be commemorated, a life estimated, the 
 meaning of an occasion impressed, the address becomes 
 expository. Burke's speech on conciliation with America is 
 -argumentative ; it seeks to prove a proposition. Webster's 
 address on the battle of Bunker Hill is expository; it ex- 
 pounds a theme. Both persuade to action : but one urges 
 directly the reasons for specific acts ; the other seeks indi- 
 rectly to arouse patriotism and raise the ideals of public 
 
 life. 
 
 (a) THE ARGUMENTATIVE ADDRESS 
 
 In introducing his discussion, the skillful argumentative 
 speaker explains what is necessary of the origin and history 
 of the controversy and, by setting aside from the mass of 
 conflicting opinion whatever is admitted or irrelevant, nar- 
 rows the question to one or more special issues. The dis- 
 cussion proper seeks to prove or disprove the special issues 
 by the twofold process of argumentation, stating the facts 
 and explaining the meaning of the facts, presenting the evi- 
 dence and drawing the logical inferences from the evidence. 
 The conclusion contains the summary of the argument, its 
 application, and the final emotional appeal. This is all 
 admirably illustrated in Burke's speech on conciliation. He 
 points out what both sides admit ; i.e., (1) that conciliation is 
 a possible method of procedure, (2) that the grievances of the 
 colonists are not wholly unfounded, and (3) that the proposals 
 for peace ought to come from England. These need not be 
 argued. He further narrows the issue by insisting that the 
 question is not of principle but of policy. It is not a question 
 of whether the parliament has the right to tax America, but
 
 no STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 of whether it is wise to do so under existing circumstances. 
 Admitting, for the sake of argument, the right to tax, is it, 
 after all, expedient? This, says Burke, is the real question 
 at issue. The argument then proceeds in two main divisions : 
 
 (1) an argument on the general expediency of concession, and 
 
 (2) an argument on particular concessions embodied in spe- 
 cific resolutions. The address closes with an appeal to pa- 
 triotic emotions. 
 
 SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA 
 
 Burke does not dwell upon the origin and history of the 
 question, for that was well-known to all his hearers. The 
 modern reader, however, needs a preface. The following 
 historical summary by John Fiske explains the situation in 
 parliament at the time the speech was delivered : 
 
 "The principle that people must not be taxed except by their rep- 
 resentatives has been to some extent recognized in England for five 
 hundred years, and it was really the fundamental principle of English 
 liberty, but it was only very imperfectly that it had been put into 
 practice. In the eighteenth century the House of Commons was very 
 far from being a body that fairly represented the people of Great 
 Britain. For a long time there had been no change in the distribu- 
 tion of seats, and meanwhile the population had been increasing very 
 differently in different parts of the kingdom. Thus cities which had 
 grown up in recent times, such as Sheffield and Manchester, had no 
 representatives in Parliament, while many little boroughs with a 
 handful of inhabitants had their representatives. Some such 
 boroughs had been granted representation by Henry VIII in order 
 to create a majority for his measures in the House of Commons. 
 Others were simply petty towms that had dwindled away, somewhat 
 as the mountain \allages of New England have dwindled since 
 the introduction of railroads. The famous Old Sarum had members 
 in Parliament long after it had ceased to have any inhabitants. Seats 
 for these rotten boroughs, as they were called, were simply bought
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 111 
 
 and sold. Political life in England was exceedingly corrupt ; some 
 of the best statesmen indulged in wholesale bribery as if it were the 
 most innocent thing in the world. The country was really governed 
 by a few great families, some of whose members sat in the House of 
 Lords and others in the House of Commons. Their measures were 
 often noble and patriotic in the highest degree, but when bribery and 
 corruption seemed necessary for carrying them, such means were em- 
 ployed without scruple. 
 
 " When George III came to the throne in 1760, the great families 
 which had thus governed England for half a century belonged to the 
 party known as Old Whigs. Under their rule the power of the crown 
 had been reduced to insignificance, and the modern system of cabinet 
 government by a responsible ministry had begun to grow up. The 
 Tory families during tliis period had been very unpopular because 
 of their sympathy with the Stuart pretenders, who had twice at- 
 tempted to seize the crown and given the country a brief taste of civil 
 war. By 1760 the Tories saw that the cause of the Stuarts was 
 hopeless, and so they were inclined to transfer their affections to 
 the new king. George III was a young man of narrow intelligence 
 and poor education, but he entertained very strong opinions as to the 
 importance of his kingly office. He meant to make himself a real 
 king, hke the king of France or the king of Spain. He was deter- 
 mined to break down the power of the Old Whigs, and the system of 
 cabinet government, and, as the Old Whigs had been growing un- 
 popular, it seemed quite possible, with the aid of the Tories, to ac- 
 complish this. George was quite decorous in behavior, and, al- 
 though subject to fits of insanity which became more troublesome in 
 his later years, he had a fairly good head for business. Industrious 
 as a beaver and obstinate as a mule, he was an adept in pohtical 
 trickery. In the corrupt use of patronage he showed himself able to 
 beat the Old Whigs at their own game, and with the aid of the Tories 
 he might well believe himself capable of reviving for liis own benefit 
 the lost power of the crown. 
 
 " Besides these two parties a third had been for some time growing 
 up, which was in some essential points opposed to both of them. 
 This third party was that of the New Whigs. They wished to reform
 
 112 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 the representation in Parliament in such wise as to disfranchise the 
 rotten boroughs and give representatives to great towns like Leeds 
 and Manchester. They held that it was contrary to the principles 
 of English liberty that the inhabitants of such great towns should be 
 obliged to pay taxes in ])ursuance of laws which they had no share 
 in making. The leader of the New Whigs was the greatest English- 
 man of the eighteenth century, the elder William Pitt, now about to 
 pass into the House of Lords as Earl of Chatham. Their leader next 
 in importance, William Petty, Earl of Shelburne, was in 1765 a young 
 man of eight-and-twenty, and afterward came to be known as one of 
 the most learned and sagacious statesmen of liis time. These men were 
 the forerunners of the great liberal leaders of the nineteenth century, 
 such men as Russell and Cobden and Gladstone. Their first decisive 
 and overwhelming victory was the passage of Lord John Russell's 
 Reform Bill in 1832, but the agitation for reform was begm\ by 
 WiUiam Pitt in 1745, and his famous son came very near winning the 
 victory on that question in 1782. 
 
 " Now this question of Parliamentary reform was intimately re- 
 lated to the question of taxing the American colonies. From some 
 points of view they might be considered one and the same question. 
 At a meeting of Presbyterian ministers in Philadelphia, it was perti- 
 nently asked, 'Have two men cho.sen to represent a poor English 
 borough that has sold its votes to the highest bidder any pretence to 
 say that they represent Virginia or Pennsylvania ? And have four 
 hundred such fellows a right to take our liberties ? ' In Parliament, 
 on the other hand, as well as at London dinner tables, and in news- 
 papers and jjamphlets, it was repeatedly urged that the Americans 
 need not make so much fuss about being taxed without being repre- 
 sented, for in that respect they were no worse off than the people of 
 Sheffield or Birmingham. To this James Otis replied : ' Don't talk 
 to us any more about those towns, for we are tired of such a flimsy 
 argument. If they are not represented, they ought to be ' ; and by 
 the New Whigs this retort was greeted with applause. 
 
 " The opinions and aims of the three different parties were reflected 
 in the long debate over the repeal of the Stamp Act. The Tories 
 wanted to have the act continued and enforced, and such was the
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 113 
 
 wish of the king. Roth .sections of Whigs were in favor of repeal, 
 Init for very cUfferont reasons. Pitt and the New Wliigs, being advo- 
 cates of Parhamentary reform, came out flatly in support of the prin- 
 ciple that there should be no taxation without representation. Ed- 
 mund Burke and the Old Whigs, being opposed to Parliamentary 
 reform and in favor of keeping things just as they were, could not 
 adopt such an argument ; and ac^cordingly they based their condem- 
 nation of the Stamp Act upon grounds of pure expediency. They 
 argued that it was not worth while, for the sake of a little increase of 
 revenue, to irritate three million people and run the risk of getting 
 drawai into a situation from which there would be no escape except 
 in cither retreating or fighting. There was much practical wisdom 
 in this Old Whig argument, and it was the one which prevailed 
 when Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and expressly stated that 
 it did so only on grounds of expedienc}^ 
 
 " There was one person, howe^'er, who was far from satisfied with 
 this result, and that was George III. He w^as opposed to Parliamen- 
 tary reform for much the same reason that the Old Whigs were op- 
 posed to it, because he felt that it threatened him with political 
 ruin. The Old Whigs needed the rotten boroughs in order to main- 
 tain their owti control over Parliament and the country. The king 
 needed them because he felt himself able to wi'est them from the 
 Old Wliigs by intrigue and corruption, and thus hoped to build up 
 his own power. He believed, ■nith good reason, that the suppression 
 of the rotten boroughs and the granting of fair and equal representa- 
 tion would .soon put a stronger curb upon the crown than ever. Ac- 
 cordingly, there were no men whom he dreaded and wished to put 
 down so much as the New Whigs ; and he felt that in the repeal of 
 the Stamp Act, no matter on what ground, they had come altogether 
 too near winning a victory. He felt that this outrageous doctrine 
 that people must not be taxed except by their representatives needed 
 to be sternly rebuked, and thus he found himself in the right sort 
 of temper for picking a fresh quarrel with the Americans. 
 
 " In England the dignified and manly course of the Americans was 
 generally greeted with applause by Whigs of whatever sort, except 
 those who had come into the somewhat widening circle of ' the king's 
 I
 
 114 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 friends.' The Old Whigs, — Burke, Fox, Conway, Savile, Lord 
 John Cavendish, and the Duke of Richmond — and the New Whigs 
 — Chatham, Shelburne, Camden, Dunning, Barr6, and Beckford — 
 steadily defended the Americans throughout the whole of the Revo- 
 lutionary crisis, and the weight of the best intelligence in the country 
 was certainly on their side. Could they have acted as a united body, 
 could Burke and Fox have joined forces in harmony with Chatham 
 and Shelburne^ they might have thwarted the king and prevented 
 the rupture with America. But George III profited by the hope- 
 less division between these two Whig parties ; and as the quarrel 
 with America grew fiercer, he succeeded in arraying the national 
 pride to some extent upon his side and against the Whigs. This 
 made him feel stronger and stimulated his zeal against the Americans. 
 He felt that if he could fir.st crush Whig principles in America, he 
 could then turn and crush them in England. In this he was correct, 
 except that he miscalculated the strength of the Americans. It 
 was the defeat of his schemes in America that insured their defeat in 
 England. It is quite wrong and misleading, therefore, to remember 
 the Revolutionary War as a struggle between the British people 
 and the American people. It was a struggle between two hostile 
 principles, each of wliich was represented in both countries. In 
 winning the good fight our forefathers won a victory for England as 
 well as for America. What was crushed was George III and the 
 kind of despotism which he wished to fasten upon America in order 
 that he might fasten it upon England. If the memory of George III 
 deserves to be execrated, it is especially because he succeeded in 
 gi\nng to his own selfish struggle for power the appearance of a 
 struggle between the people of England and the people of America ; 
 and in so doing he sowed seeds of enmity and distrust between two 
 glorious nations that, for their own sakes and for the welfare of 
 mankind, ought never for one moment be allowed to forget their 
 brotherhood." ^ 
 
 1 Fiske, The War of Independence, pp. 58-64, 69-70.
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 115 
 
 Notes on the Subject Matter 
 
 Paragraphs 1-14. Why does Burke dwell on his own 
 knowledge of the subject and on his consistency throughout 
 the changing ideas of parliament ? Is his manner tactful 
 or likely to arouse the prejudices of the House? To what 
 extent is the origin of the question treated ? Point out what 
 is set aside as extraneous matter. Where is the special 
 issue stated ? 
 
 Paragraphs 15-30. These paragraphs take up the argu- 
 ment drawn from conditions in America. Show the logical re- 
 lations of the thought by filling out the following outline. 
 Phrase each subheading as a reason for the heading under 
 which it comes. 
 
 England should secure peace by conciliation, for 
 
 I. The conditions in America require this method, for 
 
 A 
 
 B for 
 
 1 
 
 2 for 
 
 a 
 
 6 
 
 c 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 Paragraphs 15 and 16 are devoted to population : one gives 
 the statement of fact ; the other, the logical conclusions to 
 be drawn from the fact. This completes the twofold process 
 of argument. The argument in paragraph 17 is the so-called 
 argument from authority. Under what conditions is an 
 argument from authority effective? Does Burke realize
 
 116 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 this? Why is the second sentence of paragraph 19 intro- 
 duced? What is the use of sentence 1, paragraph 23? 
 Why does Burke devote so much time to the discussion of 
 commerce ? Why so httle to agriculture ? 
 
 Paragraph 32-35. This section illustrates refutation, i.e., 
 stating and answering the argument of the opposition. The 
 argumentative process may be phrased as follows : 
 
 II. The argument that force should be used because America 
 is worth fighting for is untenable, for, 
 
 A. Force is temporary. 
 
 B. It is uncertain. 
 
 C. It impairs the object. 
 
 D. We have no experience in favor of force. 
 
 Paragraphs 36-44. The argument in this section is 
 drawn from the temper and character of the Americans. 
 Outline it under headings and subheadings, showing the 
 logical relations of the material by making each subheading 
 read as a reason for the heading under which it is placed. Is 
 the love of liberty in America as strong now as it was in Burke's 
 time ? What forces are working against libert}^ now ? 
 
 Paragraphs 45-46. Fill out the following outline : 
 
 IV. Coercion has been found unwise, for, 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 Paragraphs 47-64. This section is an illustration of the 
 argumentative method called "logical exclusion." This 
 method consists of enumerating all the possible causes for a 
 result or all the possible methods of procedure in a given case, 
 and then proving them one by one to be impossible or in-
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 117 
 
 expedient, until only the one which the speaker favors is 
 left. Burke mentions the three possible methods of proceed- 
 ing against the colonies, proves two of them impracticable, 
 and, therefore, insists that the third one, which he advocates, 
 should be adopted. Fill out the following outline : 
 
 V. Of the three possible methods of dealing with America, 
 removing the causes of the love of freedom, prosecuting 
 it as criminal, and complying with it as necessary — 
 the last is the only one possible, for, 
 
 A. It is difficult to remove the causes, for, 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 h 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 h 
 
 c 
 
 d 
 
 e 
 
 / 
 
 B. It is impolitic to prosecute the spirit as criminal, 
 
 for 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 In discussing the impossibility of altering the temper and 
 character of the colonists, why does Burke give more time 
 to the question of slavery in the South than to any other of 
 the five considerations? What, in general, is the weakness
 
 118 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 of argument based on "logical exclusion"? Can you think 
 of any other possible method of dealing with America ? 
 
 Paragraphs 65-67. Up to this point in the speech Burke 
 has confined himself to the first of the two leading questions 
 which he set out to consider, i.e., whether England ought to 
 concede. He now turns to the second question, i.e., What 
 should the concession be ? 
 
 Paragraphs 68 76. What is the exact difference between 
 revenue acts and trade laws ? Write out in your own words 
 a statement of the inconsistency which Burke finds in the 
 argument of his opponents on these two things. 
 
 Paragraphs 77-87. This section continues the direct 
 proof by showing that concession is in harmony with the gen- 
 ius of the English constitution, having been tried with success 
 in four distinct cases after coercion had failed. A comparison 
 is then made between these cases and the condition in America. 
 Fix in mind the six points of similarity. 
 
 Paragraphs 88-123. If Burke's analogies were applied 
 completely, they would argue the granting of representation 
 to the colonies, but Burke turns the argument in favor of the 
 other method of procedure, i.e., removing the obnoxious 
 taxes. By both direct proof and refutation he shows that 
 this is feasible and that it will be effective ; and expresses 
 his proposals from time to time in formal resolutions, six 
 stating the situation and three repealing the obnoxious laws. 
 Explain the sequence of these resolutions and show how, 
 taken together, they present a progressive logical argument. 
 
 Paragraphs 124-138. This section is devoted to refu- 
 tation. There are five distinct points. Phrase them in 
 brief clear sentences. 
 
 Paragraphs 139-141. The speech closes with an appeal 
 to patriotic emotions.
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 119 
 
 Notes on Structure and Style 
 
 Paragraphs 1-14. Indicate passages which contain an un- 
 usual number of words derived from foreign languages. What 
 effect do they have upon the style ? Is the style bookish or 
 conversational ? Is it stately and rhythmical, or quick 
 and nervous ? Rewrite paragraph 3, replacing the words of 
 Latin derivation by words of Saxon origin. Study the exact 
 meaning of words which seem to be employed in unusual 
 senses, e.g., "depending," "issue," "embarrassed" in para- 
 graph 1; "comprehend," in paragraph 4; "sensible" in 
 paragraph 14. Make a list of the twenty-five words 
 which are least familiar and look up their derivation 
 and meaning. 
 
 Burke is remarkable for felicitous phrases which stick in 
 the memory: "I am not ambitious of ridicule — ^ not abso- 
 lutely a candidate for disgrace." More striking examples 
 occur in paragraphs 30, 40, and 59. Make a collection of 
 such phrases. 
 
 Paragraphs 15-64. Study the coherence of paragraph 
 15 — the sequence, the use of connectives, the parallel 
 structure, etc. 
 
 Sometimes a paragraph begins with the topic sentence, 
 and the details follow. Sometimes the details come first 
 and work up to the statement of the topic near the end. 
 Compare, from this point of view, paragraphs 15 and 16. 
 What is the purpose of sentence 1, paragraph 17? 
 
 Contrast paragraph 25 with those which immediately 
 precede. This appeals to the emotions ; the others appeal 
 to the intellect. Point out wherein the language is figurative 
 and explain the effect. What is the effect of the personal 
 reference to Lord Bathurst ? 
 
 Paragraph 36 is a paragraph of transition, one sen-
 
 120 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 tence looking backward, the other forward. Find other 
 transitional paragraphs. 
 
 Analyze paragraphs 37-44. Notice how paragraphs 37 
 and 44 bind the group together. Is there any reason for 
 the order in which the paragraphs of the group appear? 
 State the topic sentence of each and point out the methods 
 of development. Which are most remarkable for unity; 
 for coherence ; for emphasis ? 
 
 In paragraphs 52-64, study especially the sentences. 
 Are they varied in length and form? Cite examples of 
 balanced structure and parallel structure. When ideas are 
 to be amplified, the long sentence is often useful (see para- 
 graph 59, sentence 3, and find other examples). When 
 ideas are to be summed up and taken away as permanent 
 possessions the short concise sentence is useful, just as 
 merchandise may best be carried away when done up in 
 small, compact packages (see paragraph 59, sentence 5, 
 and cite other examples). A sentence is said to be "well- 
 massed" when the emphatic words are at the beginning and 
 the end. Find examples of well-massed sentences. Co- 
 herence demands that words which are grammatically con- 
 nected should not be separated by other words and phrases. 
 Criticize from this point of view paragraph 63, sentence 1. 
 Are there other examples? Is sentence 2, paragraph 62 
 a complete grammatical sentence ? The chapter on The 
 Sentence in Barrett Wendell's English Composition or in some 
 similar text may well be read in this connection and the 
 principles applied to the sentence structure of Burke's 
 speech. 
 
 Sum up the qualities which give clearness to Burke's style. 
 
 Paragraphs 65-142. The remainder of the address may 
 be studied in the same manner, or, better yet, another classic 
 read and compared.
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 121 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. Causes of the Amorican Revolution. 
 
 2. The Characteristics of Burke's Style. 
 
 3. Burke as a Master of Details. 
 
 4. "Refutation" in Burke's Speech on Concihation. 
 
 5. Burke's Use of Summaries. 
 
 6. Was Burko disloyal to England ? 
 
 7. The Stamp Act. 
 
 (b) THE EXPOSITORY ADDRESS 
 
 The expository address is not so stereotyped in structure 
 as an argument. It must have a definite theme and develop- 
 ment ; but the theme is not always so precisely defined nor 
 the development so inevitable. The theme of Washington's 
 Farewell Address is the welfare of the country. The value of 
 national union is emphasized, the dangers to the union pointed 
 out, its elements of strength and security enumerated, lines 
 of national conduct proposed ; but the structure is by no 
 means so systematic as that of Burke's Speech on Concilia- 
 tion. Webster's theme in The First Bunker Hill Address 
 is America's mission of liberty. Starting with the imme- 
 diate occasion, he develops from it the value of independence, 
 and proceeds to discuss the influence of our country on hu- 
 man freedom and human happiness. Yet this famous 
 address has been called " a series of eloquent fragments." 
 The expository address is not so closely logical, not so 
 rigidl}^ systematic ; but it has the advantage in freedom and 
 variety. 
 
 Certain qualities of style are especially important. Clear- 
 ness is a necessity, for a hearer cannot pause to puzzle over 
 an idea or to peruse a sentence a second time. The words, 
 therefore, must be the language of life rather than the 
 language of books. The syntax of the sentence must be
 
 122 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 unmistakable, the paragraph idea must be systematically 
 developed, the transition from thought to thought must be 
 carefully marked. The thought itself must not be too intri- 
 cate and complex. A specific and graphic style is also 
 desirable. The common mind thinks more easily in the con- 
 crete and picturesque. Generalizations are impressed most 
 effectively by particular examples and illustrations. An 
 ordinary audience will not listen to an abstract and general 
 discourse. The thought must be connected with the specific 
 and concrete experiences of everyday life. 
 
 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 
 
 In preparation for the study of this address an historical 
 review should be made of the formation of the Union, the 
 adoption of the Constitution, and the problems of Washing- 
 ton's administration. The text-books of history used in the 
 schools are sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 Notes on the Subject Matter 
 
 Paragraphs 1-6. Retirement from office. State the 
 characteristics of a good introduction and explain which 
 are illustrated here. Express in your own words Washing- 
 ton's reasons for retiring at the end of his second term. Do 
 they argue against a third term for other presidents ? Ex- 
 plain in about 200 words "the perplexed and critical posture 
 of affairs" at the end of Washington's first term, and "the 
 state of concerns, external as well as internal," at the time 
 of his retirement. 
 
 Paragraphs 7-8. Scope of the address. State in a 
 brief sentence the subject of the address as here explained. 
 Characterize Washington's attitude towards his hearers. 
 
 Paragraphs 9-14. The unity of government. Arrange 
 in clear and condensed phrases, and under headings and
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 123 
 
 subheadings, Washington's reasons for preserving the unity 
 of the government, thus ; 
 
 I. The continuance of the union is a primary object of 
 patriotic desire, for 
 
 A . Real independence depends upon it, for 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 etc. 
 
 B. Sympathies favor it, for 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 C. Interest demands it, for 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 etc. 
 
 Can the same reasons of interest be advanced for closer 
 relations with Canada? Has the fear of the excessive size 
 of the United States been proved groundless ? 
 
 Paragraphs 15-19. Dangers to the union. State briefly 
 the dangers ; and, from the subsequent history of the 
 country, show how these dangers became real in each case. 
 To what extent had the country already suffered from sec- 
 tionalism ? What have been the chief modifications of our 
 principles of government ? 
 
 Paragraphs 20-25. The dangers of 'party spirit. Do we 
 now suffer from any of the evils of party spirit pointed out 
 by Washington ? Arrange a debate on the advantages and 
 disadvantages of party spirit. Draw illustrations from 
 American history. Compare Addison's discussion of party 
 spirit in The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers.
 
 124 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Paragraphs 26-30. Elements of strength and seairity. 
 Can you give examples of any encroachment of one depart- 
 ment of our government upon the others ; for instance, 
 has the President ever used questionable means to force 
 particular legislation upon Congress? Notice the emphasis 
 upon education, morality, and religion as sources of national 
 strength. 
 
 Paragraphs 31-42. The treatment of foreign nations. 
 Explain recent efforts on the part of the United States to 
 secure permanent peace and harmony with other nations. 
 To what extent have we departed from Washington's ideal 
 in our connection with world politics? Is Washington's 
 statement that "our detached and distant situation invites 
 and enables us" to pursue a policy of isolation as true as it 
 used to be ? Give reasons. 
 
 Paragraphs 43-51. Personal references and parting 
 words. Would Washington's personal attitude be appro- 
 priate in another man ? 
 
 Notes on Structure and Style 
 
 Paragraphs 1-2. Long periodic sentences are charac- 
 teristic of the older style of public address. Burke, Wash- 
 ington, Edward Everett, Webster, all cultivated this style. 
 Fashions, however, have changed ; speakers of our time cul- 
 tivate a more simple conversational manner. Compare 
 the style of Lincoln. What are the advantages and disad- 
 vantages of the periodic style? of the conversational 
 style ? 
 
 Paragraphs 3-4. Is the vocabulary remarkable for 
 Anglo-Saxon words or for words of foreign derivation? 
 What effect does a preponderance of either have on the 
 style ? Make a list of twenty-five or fifty unfamiliar words 
 in the speech, and look up their derivation and meaning.
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 125 
 
 Do the sentences read smoothly or arc clauses inserted 
 which break the natural flow ? 
 
 Paragraph 6. This paragraph serves as a climax to the 
 group. Notice its emotional, persuasive character. 
 
 Paragraph 7. What is the purpose of this paragraph in 
 the scheme of the entire address ? 
 
 Paragraph 9. Examine the systematic development of the 
 paragraph : (1) a brief statement of the topic, (2) an enu- 
 meration of advantages, (3) a full statement of the dangers 
 to be met, (4) restatement and enforcement of the theme in 
 detail. (For a full discussion of the subject of paragraph 
 development, see Scott and Denney's Paragraph Writing.) 
 
 Paragraph 10. Explain how this paragraph is developed. 
 
 Paragraph 11. What is the purpose of paragraph 11 ? 
 
 Paragraph 12. What is the topic? Why not make a 
 single paragraph of paragraphs 11 and 12? 
 
 Paragraph 13. Sometimes the paragraph topic is not 
 stated at the beginning, but the details are given first, lead- 
 ing up to the topic sentence, which is stated as a conclusion 
 at the end. Compare paragraphs 10 and 13. 
 
 Paragraph 15. One principle of style is that words which 
 are grammatically related should not be separated by other 
 words and phrases. Find sentences where this principle is 
 not strictly followed. Characterize the effect. 
 
 Paragraphs 16-17. Frame a terse topic sentence for 
 each of these paragraphs and explain how each is developed. 
 
 Paragraph 19. These sentences are easy to understand 
 because the coordinate clauses are similar in structure. As 
 you read on in the address make notes for a class report on 
 the sentence structure. Are the sentences prevailingly long 
 or short, periodic or loose, simple or complex ? In each case, 
 what is the effect upon the style ? 
 
 Paragraph 20. What is the purpose of this paragraph ?
 
 126 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Paragraph 23. Can this be properly called a paragraph ? 
 Give reasons for uniting it with paragraph 24. 
 
 Paragraph 26. Analyze the first sentence. Explain the 
 syntax, especially of "that," "to confine," "to encroach." 
 Is there anything unusual in the syntax ? 
 
 Paragraph 27. Wherein is the sentence structure of this 
 paragraph better adapted to public address than the sen- 
 tence structure of the preceding paragraph ? 
 
 Paragraph 31. Explain all the uses of "it" in this para- 
 graph. To what do "it" and "its" refer in the last sen- 
 tence ? Hardly anything in rhetoric is more important than 
 clear and careful syntax. 
 
 Paragraph 32. Characterize the vocabulary. Are the 
 words prevailingly long or short, native or foreign, figurative 
 or literal, abstract or concrete? What effect does it all 
 have upon style ? Compare Webster's style. 
 
 Paragraph 37. Supply the omitted relative in sentence 2. 
 
 Paragraph 42. What phrases and clauses in sentence 2 
 are coordinate ? The entire address lends itself well to drill 
 in sentence analysis. 
 
 THE FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 
 
 A helpful historical introduction to this oration may be 
 found in Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. I, pp. 1-99, Green's 
 Short History of the English People, Chapter X, Section 11, 
 or Bancroft's History of America, Vol. III. A detailed and 
 interesting account of the Battle of Bunker Hill may be read 
 in E. E. Hale's Story of Massachusetts or Frothingham's 
 History of the Siege of Boston. 
 
 Notes on the Subject Matter 
 
 Paragraphs 1-5. The deep feeling of the occasion. 
 The occasion naturally furnishes the subject matter for the
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 127 
 
 introduction. Notice the emotional character of the open- 
 ing. Why is reference made to the discovery of America 
 and the settlement of the country ? Explain how paragraph 
 2 serves as a rough outline of the oration. 
 
 Paragraphs 6-7. The monument itself. Give a brief 
 account of the Bunker Hill Monument Association (see 
 Encyclopedia). Which sentence in paragraph 7 best sums 
 up the purj)ose of the monument ? Explain how elaborately 
 Webster works out the idea. The abundance of detail which 
 he has always ready to exemplify and illustrate his ideas is 
 remarkable. 
 
 Paragraphs 8-11. The fifty years since the battle. 
 Webster called these paragraphs "but a faint .abstract." 
 Why did he not go into the details ? Give more details, 
 elaborating the ideas of paragraph 9. 
 
 Paragraphs 12-17. Address to the surinvors. A good 
 speaker never forgets his audience, but always seeks to keep 
 his thought close to their experience. How does Webster 
 bring the address to the survivors into connection with the 
 main theme of his oration (paragraph 17) ? Point out 
 wherein the thought is specific and picturesque. 
 
 Paragraphs 18-23. Immediate causes and residts of 
 the battle. Give a brief account of the battle of Bunker 
 Hill ; of Lexington and Concord. Look up in your history 
 acts of Parliament "for altering the government of the 
 Province" and the act "for shutting up the port of Boston." 
 Would a quotation in Latin or Greek seem out of place in an 
 address of this kind to-day ? How do these paragraphs 
 exemplify the great unifying principle advocated by Webster 
 throughout his life — the Union of the government ? What 
 sentence sums up the idea ? This division furnishes a good 
 study in the selection of material. Why not give an account 
 of the battle ? Why not explain the Boston Port Bill ?
 
 128 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Why dwell particularly on the action of Salem ? Why speak 
 of appeals, resolutions, and addresses? If they are men- 
 tioned, why not go into details ? 
 
 Paragraphs 24-26. Address to Lafayette. Lafayette is 
 said to have arisen and remained standing during this por- 
 tion of the address. Are Webster's remarks in good taste ? 
 Explain. 
 
 Paragraphs 27-40. The great changes in fifty years. 
 Look up the facts of the revolution of South America (1810- 
 1824) and the struggle of Greece for independence (1820- 
 1828). What English poet died fighting in the cause of 
 Greece ? What poems of his treat of the struggle in Greece ? 
 Carry into further detail the contrast between the American 
 and the French revolutions. 
 
 Webster says, "A chief distinction of the present day is a 
 community of opinions and knowledge amongst men in 
 different nations, existing in a degree hitherto unknown." 
 Compare our own day with Webster's in this respect. 
 
 How does Webster narrow his theme in this division? 
 Is this narrowing appropriate to the occasion ? Explain. 
 
 Paragraphs 41-44. Exidtation in the influence of our 
 country on human freedoin and human happiness. Explain 
 how this conclusion presents the direct application of the 
 theme. Give reasons to show that the country has become in 
 some measure "a vast and splendid monument, not of oppres- 
 sion and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty." 
 Are there any limitations to be put upon it ? Have any 
 changes in American ideas of government taken place since 
 Webster's time ? 
 
 Structure and Style 
 
 Is the criticism that the oration is "a. succession of elo- 
 quent fragments" a just criticism? Would the following 
 arrangement of the principal headings be more logical ?
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 129 
 
 1. The deep feeling of the occasion. 
 
 2. The monument itself. 
 
 3. Address to the survivors. 
 
 4. Address to Lafayette. 
 
 5. Immediate causes and results of the battle. 
 
 6. The fifty years since the battle. 
 
 7. The great changes in fifty years. 
 
 8. Conclusion. Influence on human freedom and human 
 happiness. 
 
 Would anything be lost by such an arrangement ? Why 
 not begin with paragraph 6? 
 
 Read the chapters on the sentence and the paragraph in 
 Scott and Denny's Paragraph Writing and Wendell's English 
 Composition. 
 
 Paragraph 1. Read the second sentence aloud. Does 
 its dignity and sweep seem pompous ? Speakers of our own 
 day cultivate a more simple and conversational style, espe- 
 cially at the beginning. 
 
 Paragraph 2. What effect has the parallel structure of 
 the sentences ? What is the function of this paragraph as 
 part of the introduction ? 
 
 Paragraph 3. Point out an illustration of "balance" 
 in sentence structure. 
 
 Paragraph 4. Why is the natural order inverted in the 
 first sentence ? Discuss the sentence structure throughout 
 the paragraph, i.e., parallel structure in the second sentence, 
 inversion in the third, balance in the fourth, etc. 
 
 Paragraph 6. Explain the Biblical reference. 
 
 Paragraph 7. What form of sentence structure is no- 
 ticeable at both the beginning and the end of the paragraph ? 
 Explain how the careful structure of sentences is an aid to 
 clearness. Which is the topic sentence? Read the para- 
 graph in a way to bring out the emotional climax.
 
 130 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Paragraph 8. This is a clear example of a paragraph 
 with a topic sentence at the beginning developed by partic- 
 ulars and details. 
 
 Paragraph 11. Explain how this paragraph makes the 
 transition from one main heading to another. 
 
 Paragraph 12. A specific and picturesque style has been 
 much cultivated by the great orators. Learn this paragraph 
 by heart, visualize the pictures, imagine Webster's audience 
 before you, and try to speak the paragraph with sincere 
 feeling. 
 
 Paragraphs 13-14. Is the use of the apostrophe a mere 
 rhetorical device, artificial in its nature, or has it a deeper 
 justification? 
 
 Paragraph 15. What is the purpose of this paragraph? 
 
 Paragraph 17. Explain the transitional nature of this 
 paragraph and the admirable way in which it is managed. 
 
 Paragraph 18. How is this an unusually fine example 
 of the effective use of quotations ? Notice how each sen- 
 tence seems to grow out of the preceding one. This coher- 
 ence is due partly to the use of connecting words and partly 
 to skillful formation of the sentences. Illustrate. Compare 
 other paragraphs. 
 
 Paragraph 23. What is the function of this paragraph ? 
 
 Paragraph 28. Note the method by which this para- 
 graph is developed : (1) the topic stated ; (2) repetition with 
 a more specific aspect, a negative aspect, and a positive as- 
 pect ; (3) details ; (4) an emotional aspect impressed by a 
 variety of imagery ; (5) a summary expressing the result. 
 
 Analyze other paragraphs; e.g., 8, 9, 12, 21, 29. In 
 analyzing paragraphs, use the following scheme : 
 
 1. The topic sentence. 
 
 2. Methods of development. 
 
 3. Unity.
 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 From the statue by Augustus Saint-Giiudens.
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 131 
 
 4. Coherence. 
 
 5. Emphasis. 
 
 6. Most important characteristics. 
 
 Paragraph 31. This strikingly figurative passage serves 
 to give variety to the style and to pick up the attention, 
 which, in a large audience, is apt to relax during the more 
 abstract and thoughtful parts of the address. 
 
 Paragraph 32. Explain how admirably the details are 
 chosen to bring out the contrast with the French Revolution. 
 
 Paragraph 40. Explain the Biblical suggestion and note 
 how it dignifies the thought of the paragraph. 
 
 Paragraph 44. Explain how this paragraph fulfills the 
 purpose of a peroration. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. Webster's Personal Characteristics. 
 
 2. Webster's Education. 
 
 3. The Story of the Dartmouth College Case. 
 
 4. The Scene during the First Bunker Hill Address as explained 
 by an Eyewitness. 
 
 5. Description of the Battle of Bunker Hill by a Survivor. 
 
 6. The Part of General Lafayette in the American Revolution. 
 
 7. Origin and Meaning of the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 8. The Struggle for Freedom in Greece, 1820-1828. 
 
 9. The South American Revolution, 1810-1824. 
 
 10. Origin and Constitution of the Continental Congress. 
 
 11. Provisions and Purposes of the Boston Port Bill. 
 
 12. The American and French Revolutions compared. 
 
 LINCOLN'S ADDRESSES 
 
 Lincoln, in some respects, furnishes a better model of pubfic 
 speaking than either Webster or Burke. He was as able as 
 either to penetrate at once to the heart of a subject, and he 
 was never satisfied with an idea until he had ' bounded it
 
 132 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 north and bounded it south and bounded it east and bounded 
 it west." His style is more direct and conversational than 
 either Webster's or Burke's ; indeed it often has the plain- 
 ness and simplicity of the Bible. He lacked something, per- 
 haps, of the graces of style, but he was always vigorous and 
 persuasive. His figures of speech were drawn directly from 
 common experience ; his illustrations and comparisons grew 
 immediately out of the popular life. No man ever appealed 
 more directly to the popular mind and heart. No man ever 
 more sincerely expressed his convictions and feelings. Style 
 never came between him and his hearers. With him style 
 was not a contrivance to express his personality ; it was a 
 part of his personality. There was no separating the style 
 and the man, and it is the union of these two which makes 
 oratory commanding. 
 
 Moreover, the occasions on which he spoke and the sub- 
 jects which he treatetl were such as appeal to the full powers 
 of an orator. True oratory arises, as Webster says, '^ when 
 public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, 
 when great interests are at stake, and strong passions ex- 
 cited." Lincoln faced a great crisis in the national life. It 
 was not a time for the graces of rhetoric. " The costly 
 ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and 
 disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their 
 wives, their children, and their country hang on the decision 
 of the hour." Then plainness and simplicity and earnest- 
 ness and moral power are recjuisite, and these are the secrets 
 of real eloquence. 
 
 Notes and Suggestions 
 
 Speech at the Springfield Convention, June 17, 1858. 
 This speech is known as the "divided house" speech. 
 It furnished the jjoint of departure for the great series of
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 133 
 
 Lincoln-Douglas debates. Make an outline of the speech 
 on the lines laid down in the first sentence. Let each head- 
 ing and sul)heading contain just one complete but brief 
 sentence. 
 
 The First Inaugural Address. Paragraph L Com- 
 pare the introduction with the introduction of Washington's 
 Farewell Address and Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration. 
 Washington's is stately but stiff. Webster's is more natural 
 in style than Washington's, but contains a rhetorical flourish 
 in the words "human faces from the impulses of a common 
 gratitude turned reverently to heaven in this spacious 
 temple of the firmament." Lincoln's speech is dignified, but 
 studiously plain, simple, easy. 
 
 Paragraph 2. This paragraph illustrates Lincoln's way 
 of brushing aside all merely incidental matters and plunging 
 at once to the very heart of his subject. Explain. 
 
 Paragraph 4. Notice the pains taken to enforce and 
 impress unmistakably the ideas. 
 
 Paragraph 7. Did the slaveholders believe that it made 
 no material difference whether the fugitive slave law was 
 enforced by national or by state authority? Give reasons. 
 
 Paragraph 8. Was there any danger of freemen being 
 surrendered as slaves? Did the free negroes of the North 
 have "all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the 
 several states"? (Compare the details of the Dred Scott 
 Decision.) 
 
 Paragraphs 11-13. Fill out the following outline, mak- 
 ing each statement read as a reason for the heading under 
 which it comes : 
 
 1. The Union of the states is perpetual because 
 
 A 
 
 B
 
 134 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 ' C 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 Paragraph 15. Distinguish clearly in meaning between 
 "insurrectionary" and "revolutionary." 
 
 Paragraph 16. The address as a whole is very concil- 
 iatory in tone, but paragraphs like this show Lincoln's 
 firmness and stability — the iron in his character. Find 
 other traces of this in the address. 
 
 Paragraphs 19-20. Describe in a few sentences Lincoln's 
 attitude toward the South, using this passage and others to 
 explain your meaning. What literary reference do you 
 find in paragraph 20 ? 
 
 Paragraphs 21-26. Explain the relation of these para- 
 graphs to the details of the Dred Scott Case. Had the Su- 
 preme Court passed upon any of these questions ? What was 
 Lincoln's attitude towards this decision ? (See the Lincoln- 
 Douglas Debates.) 
 
 Paragraph 27. Why mention the law for the suppression 
 of the foreign slave trade ? 
 
 Paragraph 28. This is a striking example of simple, clear, 
 conversational speaking. Compare it carefully with typical 
 paragraphs from the speeches of Washington and Webster 
 in order to get the clear difference in style. {Bunker Hill 
 Address, paragraphs 7, 28, 30 ; Washington's Farewell Address, 
 paragraphs 9, 15, 17, 19.) 
 
 Paragraphs 33-35. Characterize the concluding para- 
 graphs. Do they summarize the address ? What emotional 
 qualities are contained in them ? How do they illustrate
 
 THE PUBLIC ADDRESS 135 
 
 Lincoln's character? What are the most convincing parts 
 of the speech ? What the most persuasive ? 
 
 The Gettysburg Address. This masterpiece of sim- 
 pUcity and condensation illustrates Lincoln's power to get 
 at the heart of a situation at once. Here is a brief but clear 
 historical introduction, an explanation of the occasion, the 
 meaning of the occasion from a negative and from a positive 
 point of view, the enforcement and exhortation — all com- 
 plete in little more than 150 words. Learn the address by 
 heart and speak it aloud. In speaking, is it better to join 
 the sentence, "It is altogether fitting and proper that we 
 should do this," with what precedes or with what follows? 
 
 Notice the rhythmic flow of the sentences. This address 
 should be compared with the speech of Edward Everett on 
 the same occasion. On the day after the dedication Everett 
 wrote to Lincoln as follows : 
 
 "Permit me to expre.ss my great admiration of the thoughts 
 expressed by you, with such eloquent simplicity and appropriateness, 
 at the consecration of the cemetery. I should be glad if I could 
 flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion 
 in two hours as you did in two minutes." 
 
 Second Inaugural Address. This address shows well 
 the greatness of Lincoln's character. When we think of the 
 trials and struggles of his first administration, we are amazed 
 at his freedom from bitterness, his broad charity, his frank 
 faith in God. The sincere and intimate tone of the address 
 is remarkable. Rarely does a man thus express the depths 
 of his nature in public speech. 
 
 Find all the Biblical allusions and notice what dignity 
 and strength they give to the style. Point out effective 
 uses of balance and contrast. This address should be learned 
 by heart.
 
 136 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Last Public Address. Outline the argument of Lincoln 
 foi' the acceptance of the new Louisiana government. Let 
 the phrasing read as reasons under the following heading : 
 " It is best to accept the new Louisiana government." Phrase 
 both the refutation and the direct argument. 
 
 Point out homely illustrations and figures. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. The Dred Scott Case. 
 
 2. The Lincoln-Douglas Controversy. 
 
 3. A Comparison of the Style of Webster, Washington, and 
 Lincoln. 
 
 4. The Influence on National Union of Washington, Webster, 
 and Lincoln.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 
 
 Narrative and lyric poetry differ primarily in that one 
 tells a story, the other expresses a personal emotion ; one 
 is objective, the other subjective. In narrative poetry 
 sometimes the story is told for the mere sake of the story, 
 for the simple interest in brilliant pageantry and stirring 
 incident. Sometimes it has a deeper meaning, not neces- 
 sarily allegorical, but consciously interpreting the meaning of 
 life. That is to saj^, sometimes it is pure romance ; some- 
 times it takes on certain aspects of the novel. The Lady 
 of the Lake is pure romance, a story of adventure in the 
 Scotch Highlands, in the turbulent times of the sixteenth 
 century. The interest lies in stirring narrative and pictur- 
 esque description. The Idylls of the King, on the other hand, 
 though founded on romantic material, treats a great problem 
 of life : it shadows forth the never ending struggle between 
 soul and sense. It discusses, by means of story, the poet's 
 ideals of life. Lyric poetry expresses the inner life of the 
 poet more directly and intimately. It is the cry of the heart, 
 sometimes joyful, but more often sad. In lyric poetry 
 description and narrative have little or no place, because 
 lyric poetry is emotional above all things. A great variety 
 of moods and passions find expression in many different 
 metrical forms. The emotion embodies itself in imagery and 
 in rhythm. The primary tests of lyric poetry are the sin- 
 cerity of the emotion, the truth and beauty of the phrasing, 
 the melody and harmony of the verse. 
 
 137
 
 138 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE 
 
 Scott's poetry was written earlier than his prose romances. 
 The Lady of the Lake was published in 1810, ten years before 
 the publication of Ivanhoe. Like Ivanhoe, it is full of romance 
 and the love of the past. Here, however, it is not the love 
 of medieval England, but of the past of Scotland, the life 
 which Scott's own ancestors had lived. The time of the 
 story is during the reign of James V of Scotland, the father 
 of Mary Queen of Scots. An interesting account of this 
 king and his reign may be found in Scott's Tales of a Grand- 
 father (Chapters XXVI-XXVIII). James V was little over 
 a year old when his father was killed in the battle of Flodden 
 Field (1513). Queen Margaret at once assumed the regency 
 for her son, and married Douglas, Earl of Angus, a very 
 powerful noble. Douglas held possession of the person of 
 the King, and ruled Scotland to the advantage of his own 
 house for many years in spite of the opposition of other 
 nobles and the growing disquiet of the young King, who 
 chafed under the restraints put upon him by the Douglases. 
 After the failure of many plots to free him from the hands of 
 Douglas, the King finally escaped to Stirling Castle, then in 
 the hands of a governor whom he could trust, assumed control 
 of the govermnent, and drove Douglas and all his kinsmen 
 into exile. 
 
 The social conditions of Scotland were at this time very 
 turbulent. The Highlands of Scotland were inhabited by 
 wild tri})es of men who obeyed no orders but those of their 
 own chiefs and who supported themselves by plundering 
 each other or making raids into the Lowlands of Scotland and 
 into England ; while farther up in the mountains, in almost 
 inaccessible fastnesses, lived still wilder tribes, who main- 
 tained themselves in the same warlike way. King James 
 determined to bring these tribes under the control of the law,
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 139 
 
 and proceeded against them with the greatest severity. On 
 the pretense of a hunting expedition, he led a large force 
 into the wild districts, and summoned the chiefs to l)ring 
 Iheir best dogs to take part in the event. These men, 
 having no distinct idea of their offenses and the consequent 
 displeasure of the King — so long had the laws been un- 
 enforced — came forth in good faith to welcome him, and 
 were seized and executed. By such severe measures the 
 Border and even the Highlands were outwardly pacified, 
 though the country was subject to occasional uprisings. 
 
 Such is the historical situation which furnished the setting 
 of The Lady of the Lake. The scene is laid in the Highlands 
 of Perth, in the neighborhood of Loch Katrine, a beautiful 
 country with which Scott was thoroughly familiar, and which 
 his poem has made famous. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Canto I. The metrical form of the introductory stanzas 
 is called the Spenserian stanza. How many accents are 
 there in each line? How does the last line of each stanza 
 differ from the others ? Explain the rime scheme. Why is 
 the harp made the symbol of the old poetry which the author 
 wishes to revive? Read in this connection, the beginning 
 of Scott's Laij of the Last Minstrel. 
 
 The first eight stanzas describe the hunt. Read them 
 aloud. Describe the hunt in your own words, making the 
 account as vivid as possible. Stanzas 9-16 fix attention 
 upon a hunter, the unknown hero of the poem. Stanza 17 
 introduces the unknown heroine. Get in mind a clear pic- 
 ture of each. Stanzas 17, 19, and 21 should be learned by 
 heart. Which stanzas point to the identity of Ellen and her 
 father? The falling of the sword (stanza 27) was a super- 
 stitious sign that the guest was an enemy to the house.
 
 140 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Begin to gather notes for a report on the use of superstition 
 in The Lady of the Lake. 
 
 Does the story seem real ? Scott himself tells the result 
 of reading this canto to a friend who was "a passionate 
 admirer of field sports" : 
 
 "His reception of my recitation, or prelection, was rather singular. 
 He placed his hand across his brow, and listened with great attention 
 through the whole account of the stag-hunt, till the dogs threw 
 themselves into the lake to follow their master, who embarked 
 with Ellen Douglas. He then started up with a sudden exclamation, 
 struck his hand on the table, and declared, in a voice of censure 
 calculated for the occasion, that the dogs must have been totally 
 ruined by being permitted to take the water after such a severe 
 chase. I own I was much encouraged by the species of re very which 
 had possessed so zealous a follower of the sports of the ancient 
 Nimrod, who had been completely surprised out of all doubts of 
 the reality of the tale." 
 
 Canto II. The tone of Canto II differs much from that 
 of the first canto. The first is full of description ; the second 
 starts the plot. The picture quality is strong in the first; 
 scenes from nature aliound. In the second, the story ele- 
 ment predominates, giving the interest of human life and 
 emotion. Make a summary of the plot of this canto. What 
 makes the account of Roderick's coming so vivid ? Briefly 
 characterize Ellen, Malcolm Graeme, Roderick. Explain 
 the historical allusions in .stanzas 28 and 32. 
 
 Analyze the meter, explaining the rime scheme and the 
 number and arrangement of the accents in the line. Define 
 the following metrical terms: "hexameter," "pentameter," 
 "tetrameter," "iambus," "trochee," "dactyl." 
 
 Canto III. Each canto has to do with the events of one 
 day. This, then, is the second day after the chase, and the 
 morning after Roderick's return. Contrast Brian the Hermit
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 141 
 
 w\th Friar Tuck in Ivanhoe. Why is a supernatural parent- 
 age ascribed to him ? 
 
 Gather material for an essay on the Fiery Cross. How was 
 it prepared ? How was it related to Brian's curse ? In 
 speeding the cross, why does Scott select as messenger the 
 lieir of the house at a funeral and the bridegroom at a wedding ? 
 Trace on a map the progress of the cross. Scott says in a 
 note : 
 
 "Inspection of the provincial map of Perthshire, or any large 
 map of Scotland, will trace the progress of the signal through the 
 small district of lakes and mountains, which, in exercise of my poeti- 
 cal pri\ilege, I have subjected to the authority of my imaginary 
 chieftain, and which, at the period of my romance, was really 
 occupied by a clan who claimed a descent from Alpine — a clan the 
 most unfortunate and most persecuted, hut neither the least distin- 
 guished, least powerful, nor least brave of the tribes of the Gael. 
 The first stage of the Fiery Cross is to Duncraggan, a place near Loch 
 ^>rmachar. Thence it passes toward Callander, and then, turning 
 to the left up the pass of Leny, is consigned to Norman at the Chapel 
 of Saint Bride, which stood on a small and romantic knoll in the 
 middle of the valley called Strath-Ire. Tlie alarm is then supposed 
 to pass along the Lake of Lubnaig, and through the various glens in 
 the district of Balquidder, including the neighboring tracts of 
 Glenfinlas and Strath-Gartney." 
 
 Indicate passages where the narrative is unusually brisk 
 and spirited. Explain the contrast in tone between the 
 earlier and later parts of the canto. 
 
 Canto IV. Explain the plot significance of stanzas 6, 7, 
 9, 10, 19. What are omens ? How are they used to advance 
 the plot? Is the ballad of Alice Brand an appropriate one 
 to introduce here? Define the ballad meter. What traits 
 of character in the warriors does the vigorous conversation 
 of stanza 30 bring out ? Find other passages which treat
 
 142 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 the old duty of hospitality. Why refer to the prophecy in 
 the last stanza? Point out the variety of emotions por- 
 trayed in this canto. Which are the most beautiful ? Which 
 the most rapid ? 
 
 Canto V. This canto is perhaps the most spirited and 
 picturesque in the poem. Which are the most brilliant 
 narrative passages ? Which the most vivid descriptions ? 
 Learn by heart stanzas 12-16 and recite them, trying to 
 suggest the combat by the action. Explain the lines : 
 
 "For thus spake Fate by prophet bred 
 Between the living and the dead." 
 
 The coming of Douglas to Stirling Castle is based upon 
 historic facts related of Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie. 
 In Tales of a Grandfather, Scott gives the following account : 
 
 "Archibald Douglas of Klspindie, the Earl of Angus's uncle, had 
 been a personal favorite of the King before the disgrace of his family. 
 He was so much recommended to James by his great strength, 
 manly appearance, and skill in every kind of warlike exercise, that 
 he was wont to call him his Graysteil, after the name of the champion 
 in a romance then popular. Archibald, becoming rather an old man, 
 and tired of his exile in England, resolved to try the King's mercy. 
 He thought that as they had been so well acquainted formerly, and 
 as he had never offended .James personally, he might find favor from 
 their old intimacy. He, therefore, threw himself in the King's way 
 one day as he returned from limiting in the park at Stirling. It was 
 several years since James had seen him, but he knew him at a great 
 distance, by his firm and stately step, and said, 'Yonder is my 
 Graysteil, Archibald of Kilspindie.' But when they met, he showed 
 no appearance of recognizing his old servant. Douglas turned, and 
 still hoping to obtain a glance of favoralile recollection, ran along 
 by the King's side; and although James trotted his horse hard 
 against the hill, and Douglas wore a heavy shirt of mail imder his 
 clothes, for fear of assassination, yet Graysteil was at the castle
 
 NARRATIVE AND IWRIC POETRY 143 
 
 gate as soon as the King. James passed him, and entered the castle ; 
 but Douglas, exhausted with exertion, sat down at the gate and 
 asked for a cup of wine. The hatred of the King against th(! name 
 of Douglas was so well known, that no domestic about the court 
 tlared procure for the old warrior even this trifling refreshment. 
 The King blamed, indeed, his servants for their discourtesy, and 
 even said, that but for his oath never to employ a Douglas, he would 
 have received Archibald of Kilspindie into his ser\nce, as he had 
 formerly known him a man of great ability. Yet he sent his com- 
 mands to liis poor Graj^steil to retire to France, where he died heart- 
 broken soon afterwards." 
 
 Canto W. What are the three systematically developed 
 scenes of this canto ? Explain the plan of the first : its 
 setting, its ortlerly development, its climax, its ending. Is 
 the accomit of the battle in the Trossachs naturally intro- 
 duced ? Does the setting increase the interest of the Min- 
 strel's narrative? Explain. Which are the most rapid 
 passages ? Which the most picturesque ? Who is supposed 
 to sing the lay of the imprisoned huntsman? Why is it 
 introduced ? When did you first guess the identity of Fitz- 
 James ? When Scott read the poem as a test to his farmer 
 friend, the farmer detected the identity in the first canto, 
 where Fitz-James winds his bugle to summon his attendants. 
 Scott saj's that he then went through the poem and took 
 great pains to efface any marks by which he thought the 
 secret could be detected before the conclusion. Explain the 
 devices by which all the principal characters are brought 
 naturally into the last canto. 
 
 The King delighted in going about in disguise ; and many 
 stories grew up in consequence. In Tales of a Grandfather, 
 Scott tells the following : 
 
 " King James, being alone and in disguise, fell into a quarrel 
 with some gypsies or other vagrants, and was assaulted by four or
 
 144 STUDIES #iV LITERATURE 
 
 five of them. This chanced to be very near the bridge of Cramond ; 
 so the King got on the bridge, which, as it was liigh and narrow, 
 enabled him to defend himself with his sword against the number 
 of persons by whom he was attacked. There was a poor man 
 thrashing corn in a barn near by, who came out on hearing the 
 noise of the scuffle, and seeing one man defending himself against 
 numbers, gallantly took the King's part \\'ith his flail, to such good 
 purpose, that the gypsies were obUged to fly. The husbandman 
 then took the King into the barn, brought him a towel and water to 
 wash the blood from his face and hands, and finally walked with 
 him a little way towards Edinburgh, in case he should be again 
 attacked. On the way, the King asked his companion what and 
 who he was. The laborer answered, that his name was John 
 Howieson, and that he was a bondsman on the farm of Braehead, 
 near Cramond, which belonged to the King of Scotland. James 
 then asked the poor man, if there was any wish in the world which 
 he would particularly desire should be gratified ; the honest John con- 
 fessed he should think liimself the happiest man in Scotland were 
 he but proprietor of the farm on wliich he wrought as a laborer. He 
 then asked the King, in turn, who he was ; and James repUed, as 
 usual, that he was the Goodman of Ballengiech, a poor man who had 
 a small appointment about the palace ; but he added, that if Jolm 
 Howieson would come to see him on the next Smiday, he would 
 endeavor to repay his manful assistance, and, at least, give him the 
 pleasure of seeing the royal apartments. 
 
 "John put on his best clothes, as you may suppose, and appearing 
 at a postern gate of the palace, enquired for the Goodman of BaUen- 
 giech. The King had given orders that he should be admitted; 
 and John found his friend, the goodman, in the same disguise 
 which he had formeriy worn. The King, stiU preserving the charac- 
 ter of an iixferior officer of the household, conducted John Howieson 
 from one apartment of the palace to another, and was amused with 
 his wonder and his remarks. At length, James asked his visitor 
 if he would like to see the King ; to which John replied, nothing 
 would delight him so much, if he could do so without giving offence. 
 The Goodman of Ballengiech, of course, undertook that the King
 
 Sir Galahad. 
 After till' iiaiiitiiig li.\- (IcorKc Frederic Wutts.
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 145 
 
 would not be angry. 'But,' said John, 'how am T lo know his 
 Grace from the nobles who will be all about him?' 'Easily,' 
 replied his companion ; 'all the others will be uncovered — the King 
 alone will wear liis hat or bonnet.' 
 
 "So speaking. King James introduced the countrj-man into a 
 great hall, which was filled by the nobility and officers of the crown. 
 John was a little frightened, and drew close to his attendant ; but 
 was still unable to distinguish the King. 'I told you that you 
 should know him by his wearing his hat,' said the conductor. 
 'Then,' said John, after he had again looked round the room, 'it 
 must be either you or me, for all but us two are bareheaded.' 
 
 " The King laughed at John's fancy ; and that the good yeoman 
 might have occasion for mirth also, he made him a present of the 
 farm of Braehead, which he had \\ashed so much to possess, on 
 condition that John Howieson, or his successors, should be ready 
 to present the ewer and basin for the King to wash his hands, 
 when his Majesty should come to Holyrood palace, or should 
 pass the bridge of Cramond. Accordingly, in the j^ear 1822, when 
 George IV came to Scotland, the descendant of John Howieson of 
 Braehead, who still possesses the estate which was given to his an- 
 cestor, appeared at a solemn festival, and offered his Majesty water 
 from a silver ewer, that he might perform the ser\dce by which he 
 held his lands." 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. The Story of Blanche. 
 
 2. The Character of Roderick Dhu. 
 
 3. The P'iery Cross. 
 
 4. The Druids. 
 
 5. The Use of Superstition in The Lady of the Lake. 
 
 6. The Story of EUen. 
 
 7. The Medieval Minstrel. 
 
 THE IDYLLS OF THE KING 
 
 Perhaps no other stories have played so important a part 
 in the history of English literature as the stories of King 
 
 L
 
 146 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. They have 
 their origin in the unsettled times immediately following the 
 conquest of Britain by the Saxons in the middle of the fifth 
 century, and they have been retold in almost every generation 
 since. In that early period the Britons were carrying on a 
 fierce struggle for existence. The Saxons were making con- 
 stant inroads upon them from the sea ; the savage Picts and 
 Scots were pouring down upon them from the north ; and 
 Rome had not yet relinquished all cla,im of sovereignty over 
 them. Arthur, it is alleged, was a prince of the Britons. 
 Whether he really existed or not as an historical person, we 
 cannot tell, and it does not much matter. Certainly no man 
 ever performed the deeds attributed to Arthur in the stories. 
 The name of Arthur, however, acting like a magnet, attracted 
 to itself all the stories of heroism in battle with man and 
 beast, both real and supernatural, which the imagination of 
 the people could invent, and it came to represent the national 
 ideal of knighthood and kingship. The early histories of the 
 time (" chronicles ") have little to say about him; he was a 
 traditional hero ; the stories about him passed from genera- 
 tion to generation by word of mouth, much as the old ballads 
 did. The first extant writing which contains the Arthurian 
 material at any length is GeofTrey of Monmouth's Latin 
 History of Britain, belonging to the second quarter of the 
 twelfth century (1132-1135). This was soon translated 
 into Norman French by Robert Wace, who mentions the 
 Round Table and adds much traditional material not found 
 in Geoffrey's book. This in turn was written out in English 
 by Layamon, and very much enlarged with still other tra- 
 ditional material. So the process of growth went on through- 
 out the Middle Ages, and the stories spread from land to 
 land, finding a place in the literature of France, Germany, 
 Italy, and even Sicily. Most of these romances are in the
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 147 
 
 Old French language. To the modern reader they seem well- 
 nigh endless, and soon become tiresome. Only a few scholars 
 have read them all. But in 1469, almost exactly a century 
 before the birth of Shakespeare, they were sifted by an Eng- 
 lishman, Sir Thomas Malory ; and what was best in them 
 was brought together and published in charming English 
 prose under the title Morte d' Arthur, in a book which has 
 been the storehouse of information for most writers upon the 
 subject since. This is the chief source of Tennyson's Idylls, 
 and is the book to which the modern reader should go for 
 an idea of the stories in their medieval form. 
 
 Tennyson's interest in the stories was lifelong. " The 
 vision of Arthur had come upon me," he said, " when, little 
 more than a boy, I first lighted upon Malory," and his mind 
 dwelt upon the vision with joy for more than fifty years. In 
 1832 he published three Arthur poems — Sir Galahad, 
 Sir Lancelot and Guinevere, and The Lady of Shalott, a theme 
 which was later developed into Lancelot and Elaine. In 
 1842 came Morte d' Arthur, which appears almost without 
 change in the final edition of the Idylls, as The Passing of 
 Arthur. In 1859 came Enid, Vivien, Elaine, and Guinevere; 
 in 1869, The Coming of Arthur, The Holy Grail, Pelleas and 
 Ettarre, and The Passing of Arthur; in 1872, The Last Tour- 
 nament and Gareth and Lynette; and finally, in 1885, Balin 
 and Balan. 
 
 Thus The Idylls of the King were fifty years in the making, 
 and Tennyson began with the end, continued with the 
 beginning, and ended with the middle of the cycle. Dr. 
 Van Dyke sums up admirably this most unique achievement : 
 
 "That a great poet should be engaged with his largest theme 
 for more than half a century ; that he should touch it first with a 
 Ijnic ; then witli an epical fragment and three more lyrics ; then 
 with four romantic idylls, followed, ten years later, by four
 
 148 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 others, and two years later by two others, and thirteen years later 
 by yet another idyll, which is to be placed not before or after the 
 rest, but in the very center of the cj'cle ; that he should begin 
 with the end, and continue wath the beginning, and end with the 
 middle of the story, and produce at last a poem which certainly 
 has more epical grandeur and completeness than anything that 
 has been made in Enghsh since Milton died, is a thing so marvelous 
 that no man would credit it save at the sword's point of fact. And 
 yet this is an exact record of Teimyson's deahng with the Arthurian 
 legend." 
 
 At first Tennyson loved the old stories for their own ideal- 
 istic beauty, but soon he began to read into them a profound 
 spiritual significance ; and at last, under the influence of his 
 brooding imagination, they became transformed into an 
 interpretative picture of life, a poet's vision of the constant 
 struggle in the life of man between the spirit and the world. 
 In his dedication to the Queen, the poet says : 
 
 "Accept this old, imperfect tale. 
 New-old, and shadowing Sense at war with Soul, 
 Ideal manhood ck.sed in real man. 
 Rather than that gray King whose name, a ghost, 
 Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain peak. 
 And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still ; or him 
 Of Geoffrey's book, or him of MaUeor's." 
 
 Has Tennyson, then, given us an allegory? Certainly 
 not in the sense that F Igrim^s Progress is an allegory. You 
 cannot translate all the characters into virtues and vices, nor 
 all the incidents into typical spiritual situations. Those who 
 have studied the series as an intellectual puzzle have been dis- 
 appointed. They have called it an allegory imperfectly 
 sustained, something less than an allegory. Such criticism 
 misses the point. These idylls are something Jiiore than an 
 allegory. Teimyson himself, when asked if the "three fair
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 149 
 
 queens " who stood in silence near the throne of Artliur at 
 liis crowning, and who accompanied him on liis last voyage, 
 were Faith, Hope, and Charity, said : " They mean that, and 
 they do not. They are three of the noblest of women. They 
 are also three Graces, but they are much more. I hate to 
 be tied down to say, ' This means that,' because the thougiit 
 within the image is much more than any one interpretation." 
 
 And this does not mean that the idylls are vague and inad- 
 equate allegory. They are, in fact, products not of the intel- 
 lectual imagination so much as of the emotional imagination, 
 poems not puzzles. If the idylls drop into pure allegory in 
 places, it is their weakness, not their strength. Those parts 
 are certainly not the most poetic. Each idyll pictures some 
 phase of the struggle between what is spiritual and what is 
 worldly, and all together they make a spiritual interpretation 
 of life ; but they should be read, not to figure out a mass of 
 symbolism, but to enter sympathetically into the emotional 
 situations. 
 
 The Coming of Arthur. In The Coming of Arthur, the 
 old legends are adapted to the setting up of an ideal state 
 of society, a world of action ruled by the power of the spirit. 
 The character of Artliur is the central fact. He is distinctly 
 a spiritual hero. The mystery of his birth, for example, is 
 given a spiritual significance. Supernatural agencies attend 
 his coming as a babe. Three spiritual queens are present 
 at his crowning, "friends who will help him at his need." 
 His sword, Excalil^ar, is made to suggest the sword of the 
 spirit, for the Lady of the Lake, who presents it, is pictured 
 with a wealth of sacred imagery, suggesting the church: "A 
 mist of incense curled about her," and her face was "hidden 
 in the minster gloom, " and 
 
 "There was heard among the holy hymns 
 A voice as of the waters, for she dwells
 
 150 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Down in a deep — calm, whatsoever storms 
 
 May shake the world — and when the surface rolls, 
 
 Hath poiver to ivalk the waters like our Lord." 
 
 Arthur himself shows strange spiritual powers. There was 
 something in the simple words of his authority that "flushed 
 and dazed" the knights who swore the oath. They arose 
 from kneeling "pale as at the passing of a ghost." 
 
 "And when he spake, and cheer'd his Table Round 
 With large, divine, and comfortable words, 
 Beyond my tongue to tell thee — I beheld, 
 From eye to eye thro' all their order flash 
 A momentary likeness of the King." 
 
 In the battle field the "fire of God" descended on him, so 
 that even Lancelot knew him for his King. In this spiritual 
 Arthur and his ideal kingdom we have the basis, not for a 
 mere romantic legend, but for a significant picture of life. 
 
 The tone of the battle description (lines 94 ff.) should be 
 compared with the final battle in The Passing of Arthur. What 
 is the plot significance of lines 123-133 ? Lines 316-324 
 present a graphic and significant character contrast. Make 
 notes, as you read, of all the passages which illustrate 
 the character of Gawain and Modred. Write a character 
 sketch of each. Read aloud lines 481-501 to show how 
 the sound harmonizes with the sense. Such harmony is 
 characteristic of Tennyson's poetry. Compare Scott's verse 
 in this respect. 
 
 Gareth and Lynette. This idyll stands first in the com- 
 pleted series, but it was added to the series late (1872), after 
 Tennyson had thoroughly worked out his interpretation 
 of the legend as "the struggle between soul and sense," 
 the disintegration of the ideal social state by evil forces. 
 It has, therefore, a distinct part to play in the development
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 151 
 
 of the general theme. It represents the innocent, strong 
 Hfe of ideal youth both in the individual and in society. The 
 two evil forces, sensuality and mysticism, which later under- 
 mine the individual character and overthrow the ideal social 
 state, are not yet active. The sin of Lancelot and Guinevere 
 has not yet poisoned the life of the court. The quest of the 
 Holy Grail has not yet led the knights to follow "the wander- 
 ing fires " of a false mysticism. They live in a material world 
 of action, guided and upheld by high spiritual ideals. All 
 the men are brave and all the women virtuous. Honor and 
 justice prevail. No wrong goes unavenged. Men believe 
 in courage and loyalty and high achievement. Gareth is 
 the youthful hero who approaches life with joyful confi- 
 dence, who maintains his ideals, who conquers the increasing 
 difficulties of life, and who finds, at last, in Death itself only 
 a blooming boy. The real center of interest is in Gareth's 
 character. Notice especially, in the reading, how his manli- 
 ness and self-control are proof against the pride and ridicule 
 of Lynette. 
 
 The idyll is a series of graphic scenes. Enumerate these 
 scenes, give a name to each, and thus make an outline of the 
 idyll. Select a few adjectives which best characterize the 
 introductory scene (lines 1-168). 
 
 Why does Temiyson represent the city as "moving weirdly 
 in the mist" with its mystic gateway "built by fairy kings 
 and built to music, therefore never built at all and therefore 
 built forever"? Explain the fitness of the imagery used in 
 describing Morning-Star, Noonday-Sun, Evening-Star, and 
 Death. Why, for instance, is Evening-Star "wrap't in 
 hardened skins that fit him like his owti," and why is Death 
 a blooming boy ? 
 
 What traits of character are emphasized in Gareth ? in 
 Lynette ?
 
 152 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Analyze the meter. Scan a few lines, indicating the accents 
 and showing the substitutions for the ordinary iambic foot. 
 In what feet do the variations most commonly occur ? 
 
 What is Tennyson's ideal of Knighthood ? (See lines 116- 
 118; 541-544; 1135-1139; and Gi^mez^ere, lines 456-580.) 
 
 Lancelot and Elaine. This idyll is the sixth in the com- 
 pleted series. The "struggle between soul and sense" is 
 now at its height. The sin of Lancelot and Guinevere is 
 extending its subtle mischief, undermining character and 
 threatening the integrity of the social state. Ideals are 
 relaxing. Only some of the knights are brave ; only some of 
 the ladies virtuous. Especially is the struggle great in 
 Lancelot, who is too noble a character to sin "and be the 
 sleeker for it." There is a fierce battle between his love for 
 Guinevere and his sworn allegiance to the King. Indicate 
 the lines which describe how the struggle showed itself in his 
 face and bearing. Indicate the lines which show the struggle 
 at its climax. What effect has sin had upon the character 
 of Guinevere ? 
 
 Lancelot and Elaine was first published under the title 
 Elaine in a group of four idylls called The False and the True. 
 It was a character sketch to be contrasted with Guinevere. 
 The two women, however, are strongly set off against each 
 other within this single idyll. Elaine is weak, but pure, 
 trustful, guileless, unselfish. Guinevere is strong, magnifi- 
 cent, jealous, deceitful. Indicate the lines which bring out the 
 contrast most forcibly. What lines show that Guinevere's 
 character is degenerating? Do you sympathize at all with 
 her attitude toward Arthur ? What lines indicate Lancelot's 
 feeling toward the King ? How does his feeling differ from 
 Guinevere's ? 
 
 Characterize the actions of Gawain. What new light 
 is thrown upon his character ? Why begin the idyll with the
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 153 
 
 description of Elaine dreaming over Lancelot's shield rather 
 than with the account of the diamonds ? 
 
 The three principal plot elements of the idyll are : (1) the 
 guilty love of Lancelot and Guinevere ; (2) Lancelot's devo- 
 tion to Arthur ; (3) Elaine's love for Lancelot. Explain 
 how they are woven together into the story. Learn by heart 
 lines 241-259. Pick out lines which have become popular 
 quotations; e.g., "He makes no friend who never made a 
 foe." 
 
 Indicate passages where the effect of contrast is striking. 
 Point out passages of strength and rapidity. What makes 
 these passages beautiful or strong ? The situation in which 
 Elaine betrays her love to Lancelot (lines 838-898) is hard to 
 manage, ])ut Tennyson has managed it with delicate skill. 
 Learn lines 867-872. 
 
 The Passing of Arthur. This idyll, though the last of 
 the series, was written first ; it therefore contains little that 
 can, in any sense, be called allegory. It is, however, a fitting 
 close to the theme of the series and is perhaps the most 
 richly poetical of all the idylls. Its tone is in perfect harmony 
 with the catastrophe of the Round Table. At length, the 
 clash has come. The sin of Lancelot and Guinevere has been 
 exposed. Lancelot, pursued by Arthur, has fled to the north. 
 Guinevere has retired to the convent at Almesbury. During 
 Arthur's absence, Modred has raised the standard of rebellion 
 at home, and now Arthur returns to meet him in that last 
 weird battle in the mist. It is a mournful theme developed 
 with a wealth of gloomy and somber imagery. 
 
 However, all is not despondency and failure. Tennyson is 
 no pessimist. There is a note of triumph at the end. After 
 all, soul has the final victory over sense. To all appearances, 
 one may have wrought upon the world in vain ; good may be 
 overcome by evil in the social organization ; yet the individual
 
 154 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 soul may triumph. The fellowship of the Round Table is 
 dissolved and Arthur's life seems a failure so far as any per- 
 manent accomplishment is concerned. God fulfills his pur- 
 poses in other ways. Yet Arthur has lived his life to the 
 utmost in honorable striving. His soul has never yielded. 
 
 " He passes to be king among the dead." 
 
 Bedivere heard 
 
 "Sounds, as if some fair city were one voice 
 Around the King returning from his wars." 
 
 And saw 
 
 "the speck that bore the King 
 
 Down that long water opening on the deep 
 
 Somewhere far off, pass on and on, and go 
 
 From less to less and vanish into light." 
 
 The introductory lines (1-78) explain the situation and 
 strike the emotional keynote of the idyll. Note the gloomy 
 and somber imagery : 
 
 "And fainter onward, like wild birds that change 
 Their season in the night and ivail their way 
 From cloud to cloud, down the long wind the dream 
 ShriU'd " etc. 
 
 Contrast the mood of Arthur here with that of his last 
 words of comfort to Sir Bedivere (lines 407-432). Read the 
 last interview between the King and Queen (Guinevere, lines 
 388-656). 
 
 Read the description of the battle aloud (lines 79-135). 
 Where does the sound echo the sense ? Indicate the most 
 strikingly imaginative lines. Compare the battle scene in 
 The Coming of Arthur. Analyze the meter in what seem to 
 you the best passages, noting the effect of variations from 
 the iambic foot (e.g., lines 81, 90, 91, 94, 108, 110, 117).
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 155 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. The Character of Gareth. 
 
 2. Elaine and Guinevere, a Character Contrast. 
 
 3. Malory's Morte d' Arthur. 
 
 4. Lancelot's Struggle. 
 
 5. Tennyson's Blank ^'crse. 
 
 6. The Character of Gawain. 
 
 7. A Comparison of One of the Idylls with Malory's Version. 
 
 L' ALLEGRO 
 
 U Allegro is properly classed as a lyric poem because it 
 aims to express personal emotion. It differs from a drama 
 or an epic in being subjective rather than objective. Both 
 the drama and the epic present characters other than the 
 writer, and portray passion not necessarily the writer's own. 
 A lyric poem is the outpouring of the author's personal emo- 
 tion, intense but not necessarily turbulent ; so that although 
 U Allegro is calm rather than tempestuous, still in its per- 
 sonal tone it is truly lyric. The term L' Allegro means " the 
 mirthful one." To express the lighter mood of the highly 
 cultivated person, i.e., Milton himself, is the aim of the poem. 
 It represents Milton's pleasures in the country life at Horton 
 in the beautiful English Midlands. 
 
 The mood is expressed by a series of pictures calculated 
 to produce a quiet pleasure. At the beginning, ]\Ielancholy, 
 the opposite emotion, is personified, surrounded by a mass of 
 repulsive imagery, and banished to a fit abode of darkness 
 and mist. Then Mirth is welcomed and carefully described. 
 Venus and Bacchus are rejected as probable parents of Mirth 
 because that parentage suggests coarser enjoyments than 
 Milton intends. The delicacy and refinement of Milton's idea 
 is more fitly suggested by having as the parents. Zephyr, the 
 soft M'est wind, and Aurora, the goddess of the dawn. Then
 
 156 STUDIES IX LITERATURE 
 
 follow the companions of Alirth, described in picturesque 
 language ; not Laughter simply with a capital L, which is not 
 picturesque, but " Laughter holding both his sides," which 
 is decidedly picturesque. These descriptions are followed 
 in turn by a series of delightful pictures : the song of the lark, 
 the glory of the sunrise, a barnyard scene, a hunting scene, 
 the plowman, the milkmaid, and the shepherd ; the country 
 landscape, the rural dance in the checkered shade, the fairy 
 tales, stories of medieval pageantry, the comedies of Jonson 
 and Shakespeare, and finally soft Lj-dian music. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Line 2. Cerberus was thought of as the three-headed 
 dog with snaky hair and poison-dripping jaws, who guarded 
 the entrance to the lower world. The Greeks, like all other 
 peoples, thought much about the life after death and made 
 pictures and stories about it. Hades, the abode of all the 
 dead, both good and evil, was below this earth. At its very 
 bottom was Tartarus, the dungeon of the gods and the place 
 of punishment. Li another part was Elysium, the abode of 
 the blest. Through it flowed the beautiful river Lethe, the 
 waters of which made the spirit forget the sorrows of life. 
 The other rivers of Hades were awful in their significance — 
 Cocytus, the river of wailing; Phlegethon, the river of fire; 
 Acheron, the river of woe ; and Styx, the river of hate. On 
 the banks of the St\Tc, in a forlorn cave, the terrible Cerberus 
 was born — fitting birthplace for a being so distasteful to 
 L' Allegro as Melancholy. See Gayley's Classic Myths in 
 English Literature, or some classical dictionary. 
 
 Line 10. The prevailing meter of the poem is iambic tet- 
 rameter ; but in the first ten lines, iambic trimeters alternate 
 with iambic pentameters. Explain these terms. What varia- 
 tions from the normal line occur in lines 1, 7, 8?
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 157 
 
 Lines 33-34. What is the rhythmic effect of the short 
 vowels and stop consonants ? Contrast, 
 
 "But let my iluc feet never fail 
 To walk the studious cloister's pale." 
 
 Line 45. Is it the lark or L' Allegro that comes to the 
 window ? 
 
 Line 57. Why does L' Allegro wish to be "not unseen" ? 
 
 Lines 57-68. Memorize. 
 
 Line 99. Explain the order in which the pleasures are 
 presented in the poem. Compare II Penseroso. 
 
 Line 102. Compare Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene iv, 
 lines 53 ff. 
 
 Lines 120 ff. Compare the tournament in Ivanhoe. 
 
 Line 134. What plays of Shakespeare are suggested by 
 
 this line ? 
 
 IL PENSEROSO 
 
 II Penseroso, " the serious one," is a companion poem to 
 V Allegro. In the first place it is almost identical in struc- 
 ture. Folly is banished, her parentage given, and her fit 
 abode tlescribed. Then Melanclioly is welcomed and her 
 attendant troupe described. Then comes a series of pictures 
 balancing almost exactly the pictures in L' Allegro, but aim- 
 ing to interpret the mood of seriousness. In the second place 
 the moods of the two poems are complementary rather than 
 antagonistic. The melancholy which is banished in U Al- 
 legro is quite different from the melancholy, or seriousness 
 welcomed in II Penseroso, and the folly banished in II Pen- 
 seroso is quite different from the mirth of U Allegro. The 
 two poems are in reality two complementary moods of 
 Milton's refined personality, expressing both the religious 
 fervor of the Puritan and the cultivated and courtly qualities 
 of the Cavalier.
 
 158 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Make outlines of L' Allegro and II Penseroso in parallel 
 columns, showing the similarity of structure. 
 
 Line 2. Compare the parentage of Joy with the parentage 
 of Mirth in L' Allegro. 
 
 Line 3. Explain "fixed mind." 
 
 Line 5. Mark the scansion of line 5; also of lines 8, 11, 
 12, 27, 36, 53. 
 
 Line 20. Cassiope's real boast was not of her own but 
 of her daughter's beauty. 
 
 Line 30. See Gayley's Classic Myths in English Literature, 
 p. 39. 
 
 Lines 45 ff . Compare each picture with the corresponding 
 picture in L' Allegro. 
 
 Line 65. Why wnseen ? 
 
 Lines 85-92. Read aloud to bring out the sweep and dig- 
 nity of the rhythm. Compare the tripping movement of 
 most of L' Allegro. 
 
 Lines 113-115. The ring gave the wearer the power to 
 understand the language of birds. In the glass, the owner 
 could see the evil that threatened him. On the horse, he 
 could go whithersoever he wished on land, on sea, or through 
 the air. 
 
 Lines 115-120. Explain the allusions to Spenser's Faerie 
 Queene. 
 
 Line 130. Does "minute drops" mean small drops or 
 frequent drops ? How so ? 
 
 Lines 147-150. Explain the imagery, phrase by phrase. 
 
 COM US 
 
 The type of drama called the mask, of which Milton's 
 Camus is an example, originated in the masquerade dances 
 at court. At these dances the dancers were introduced
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 159 
 
 into tho hall by torchbearers, while the musicians played. 
 The women first danced alone ; then the men alone ; and 
 then the men and women together. After they had danced 
 the slow and stately dances assigned to them, the " Morris 
 dancers," probably professionals, came in to dance the more 
 lively and the less dignified measures. At this early time 
 there was no singing or speaking. 
 
 Gradually scenery and conversation were introduced. At 
 an entertainment at Westminster Hall in the year 1501 a 
 castle on wheels, after the fashion of the wagons on which the 
 Miracle plays were enacted, was drawn into the hall with 
 eight " goodly and fresh ladies " looking out of the windows. 
 To these ladies came Hope and Desire as ambassadors in love 
 from certain knights. The ladies scorned the suit; where- 
 upon the knights stormed the castle and carried off the ladies 
 as prizes. The dance then began. Soon it became common 
 for little scenes with speaking and singing to precede and ex- 
 plain the dance. The characters were, for the most part, not 
 men and women out of real life, but virtues and vices person- 
 ified, and the gods and goddesses of classical mythology. 
 
 In the early years of the seventeenth century the mask 
 received a remarkable development. The best poets of the 
 time contributed the words ; the best musicians of the time 
 wrote the music ; the best architects were employed upon 
 the scenery. The costumes were extravagant. Variety was 
 introduced in the form of an antimask, in which profes- 
 sional players performed comic dances to give relief to the 
 slow and stately measures. Members of the nobility and of 
 learned societies vied with one another to make these enter- 
 tainments elaborate, until the expense of producing a mask 
 became enormous. The Triumph of Peace, performed in 1634 
 by four learned societies, is said to have cost the almost 
 incredible sum of $100,000.
 
 160 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 The mask, then, differed from the ordinary drama in the 
 following particulars : 
 
 (1) The scenery was elaborate. 
 
 (2) The costumes were unusually expensive. 
 
 (3) Music and dancing were the important factors. 
 
 (4) The characters were allegorical and supernatural. 
 
 (5) The dignified parts were taken by amateur actors, 
 persons of high social standing. Only the comic antimask 
 was given over to professionals. (For a more complete 
 account of the mask, see Introduction to Evans's English 
 Masque.) 
 
 Comus was written to celebrate the entrance of John, 
 Earl of Bridgewater, upon his duties as Lord President of 
 Wales, and was performed at Ludlow Castle in September, 
 1634. Inigo Jones, a famous architect of the time, contrived 
 the scenery. Lawes, a musician of London and tutor to 
 the children of the Earl, wrote the music and had general 
 charge of the performance. Lawes himself played the part 
 of the Attendant Spirit. The parts of the Lady and the Two 
 Brothers were taken by the children of the Earl. 
 
 Suggestions for Study 
 
 Lines 5-11. Express the thought in plain language. 
 
 Lines 12-13. See Matthew xvi. 19. 
 
 Lines 19-33. Explain how all this mythology is worked 
 into an elaborate compliment to the Earl of Bridgewater. 
 Line 33 is an appeal to local feeling. 
 
 Lines 37-38. Keep the scene before the mind. Remem- 
 ber that the best architect of the time contrived the scenery. 
 
 Lines 50-72. What is the difference between the power 
 of Circe (see Gayley's Classic Myths, pp. 318 ff.) and that 
 of Comus ? Give both a dramatic and a symbolic reason for 
 making the potion of Comus affect the head only.
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 161 
 
 Lines 73-77. What is tlic allogorical meaning ? 
 
 Lines 93 ff. " ( 'Omus" is a Greek word meaning revelry. 
 Comus and his rout present the antimask. The parts 
 were tak(>n ])y hired actors. Picture the scene (see stage 
 directions). Expkain the change in the meter. What is 
 the effect of the change ? 
 
 Line 118. Scan the Hne. 
 
 Line 126. Explain how this is a low standard of morals, 
 and so expresses the moral depravity of Comus. 
 
 Lines 129-133. What is the effect of the change in the 
 meter ? 
 
 Line 144. The speaking stops here, while Comus and his 
 
 company dance. 
 
 Line 145. Why change from the short rhymed couplet 
 
 to blank verse ? 
 
 Lines 153-154. What does the actor do as he pronounces 
 these lines? (Cf. line 165.) 
 
 Line 179. Explain the etymology and history of "wassail." 
 
 Lines 188-190. Note how definite is the picture of the 
 coming of night. Explain "sad," "votarist," "palmer," 
 "weed," "Phoebus," "wain." 
 
 Lines 219-225. "Notice the ingenious device by which 
 the Spirit, hiding above, is enabled to confirm the Lady's 
 faith, and the audience is reminded of his presence and his 
 purpose." 
 
 Lines 230-243. Read aloud to catch the rhythm. Look 
 up the story of Echo and Narcissus in a classical dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Line 243. "Add the charm of Echo to the music of the 
 spheres" (Bell). Explain "the music of the spheres." 
 
 Line 244. What two persons are complimented ? 
 
 Line 254. The Naiades were water nymphs. What were 
 wood nymphs called (line 964)? 
 
 M
 
 162 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Line 262. Are these words appropriate in the mouth of 
 Comus ? 
 
 Line 273. "Extreme" is accented on the first syllable. 
 (Cf. "complete," line 420.) In Milton and Shakespeare, 
 adjectives of two syllables are accented on the first syllable 
 if 'the word following is accented on the first syllable. Other- 
 wise the adjective takes the accent on the last syllable. Ex- 
 plain how the metrical requirements determine this law. 
 
 Lines 331 ff. How do the two brothers differ in tempera- 
 ment ? Is the dialogue dramatic ? 
 
 Lines 381-384. Memorize. 
 
 Lines 441-452. What is peculiar about Milton's inter- 
 pretation of the myths of Diana and Minerva? (For the 
 myths, see Classical Dictionary.) 
 
 Line 495. The waters stop in their course to listen. Cf. 
 II Penseroso, 59. 
 
 Line 553. One manuscript reads "drowsy frighted;" 
 another, "drowsy flighted." Which seems the better? 
 
 Lines 555-562. A splendid example of exaggeration used 
 for compliment to Lady Alice. 
 
 Line 637. Where has the story which is here referred to 
 been mentioned before ? 
 
 Line 656. Why does the Spirit leave to the brothers the 
 task of rescuing the Lady ? 
 
 Lines 667 ff . Explain how truth and falsehood are craftily 
 mixed in the words of Comus. Has the conversation which 
 follows any bearing upon the notions about life held by the 
 Cavaliers and the Puritans? Milton is not quite in sym- 
 pathy with either party. 
 
 Lines 756-800. Milton has forgotten that it is the Lady 
 who is talking, and speaks in his own person. Note other 
 undramatic passages in the poem.
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 163 
 
 Line 814. Why does Milton make the success of the 
 ])rothers only partial ? 
 
 Lines 922 ff. Read aloud to get the beauty of the lines, 
 and to visualize the imagery. 
 
 Line 957. The second part of the antimask. 
 
 Line 965. What takes place on the stage, lines 965-966 ? 
 
 Line 1000. For Venus and Adonis, see Classical Dictionary. 
 
 Line 1005. For Cupid and Psyche, see Pater's Marius 
 the Epicurean, Chapter V, or William Morris's Earthly 
 Paradise. 
 
 Topics for Essays and Reports 
 
 1. The Structure of U Allegro and II Penseroso. 
 
 2. The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice. 
 
 3. The Story of Echo and Narcissus. 
 
 4. The Story of Cupid and Psyche. 
 
 5. The Powers of Circe and Comus. 
 
 6. How far Milton was a Puritan. 
 
 7. The Mask and the Drama compared. 
 
 8. Milton's Political Life. 
 
 THE GOLDEN TREASURY, BOOK IV 
 
 The poems of this book belong, for the most part, to the 
 first thirty years of the nineteenth century, the blossoming 
 time of modern English poetrj'. The tendency toward the 
 emotional and imaginative, which had steadily increased 
 during the last half of the eighteenth century, reached its 
 climax with the publication of The Lyrical Ballads in 1798, 
 and maintained ascendency for the next quarter of a centur}' 
 in the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, 
 and Keats. This poetry has the following marked character- 
 istics : 
 
 (1) Much of it treats of common life, particularly English 
 rural life. Princes and nobles were no longer necessary for
 
 164 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 heroes. The lives of the poor and the lowly were thought to 
 exemplify better the most sincere and fundamental human 
 emotions. Artificiality gave place to simplicity and sincerity. 
 
 (2) There was a renewed interest in the old ballads and 
 in the mystery and superstition of the Middle Ages. The 
 atmosphere of romance was greatly loved. 
 
 (3) Interest in Nature was intense. The poets lived 
 much in the country and had an intimate relation with field 
 and hill and stream. All the changing moods of Nature were 
 sympathetically studied, and the emotions which the poets 
 felt in the presence of Nature were minutely described. 
 
 (4) Free rein was given to the emotions and passions. No 
 period in Englisli literature is richer in genuine lyric poetry. 
 Love lyrics are especially numerous. 
 
 (5) The note of melancholy is often sounded. The sorrow 
 of disappointed love, eulogy of the dead, serious reflections 
 on the deeper meaning of life — all find their place in this 
 period of varied emotional and imaginative interests. 
 
 (6) The variety of metrical forms is noticeable. The he- 
 roic couplet of Pope had lost its great popularity. Blank 
 verse and the octosyllabic couplet of Milton had found favor, 
 and these were followed by a great variety of verse forms 
 fitly expressing the variety of emotion. The sonnet was 
 particularly cultivated. The ode furnished the form for the 
 most dignified and exalted moods. 
 
 (a) Narratives of Common Life 
 
 Lucy Gray (ccxxvi) illustrates the narrative of common 
 life at its best. There is nothing extraordinary in the subject 
 matter. The style is simple and sincere without any of the 
 adornments of "poetic diction." Yet, here is genuine poetry. 
 Emotion and imagination have elevated the story above 
 the commonplace and the prosaic. The poetic quality does
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 165 
 
 not lie in diction and rimo alone, but in the very texture 
 of the thought. Read the poem a number of times, until 
 this fact becomes clear. 
 
 Simon Lee (cdxxiii) and Ruth (cccxx) also illustrate 
 the narrative of common life. Which seems to you 
 the more poetic? Wh}-? Compare them with Lucy 
 Gray. Indicate passages which emotion and imagination 
 have not lifted out of the commonplace into real poetry ? 
 Read, for comparison, Wordsworth's Michael and Tennyson's 
 Dora. 
 
 The Two April Mornings (cccxxx) and The Fountain 
 (cccxxxi) are not narratives, but incidents. They are 
 little pictures. The author seizes upon a life at some 
 significant moment and gives an impression which explains 
 the whole life. These poems are as simple and direct as 
 Simon Lee and Ruth. Are they more poetic or less poetic ? 
 Why? Characterize Matthew, citing passages to support 
 your statements. Was he a pleasant companion ? Was 
 he a happy man ? Point out striking similes and compari- 
 sons. 
 
 (b) The Influence of Ballads 
 
 Jack of Hazeldean (ccxxvii) is a modern ballad which 
 seeks to reproduce both the subject matter and the simple 
 objective style of the old ballads. There is no thought of 
 reading into the material any modern ideas of life. Explain 
 how a judicious selection of material makes possible the leav- 
 ing of much to be read between the lines. Comment on 
 the unity of the poem. 
 
 The Pride of Youth (cclxxiii) also illustrates these 
 simple objective qualities. The poem is dramatic rather than 
 analytical (see Palgrave's note). What is the "pathetic 
 meaning" of the poem ?
 
 166 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 La Belle Dame Sans Merci (ccxxxvi). Has this poem 
 any suggested meaning ? For instance, does the fairy stand 
 for Poesy and the disconsolate knights for unsuccessful poets ? 
 Or does the poem suggest the modern conception of the selfish 
 woman who exacts everything from the lover, but brings to 
 him no inspiration and uplift ? Cf . Browning's Andrea del 
 Sarto and Burne-Jones's picture The Vampire, together with 
 the verses written by Kipling to interpret the picture. Read 
 Keats's poem aloud till you catch the rich music of the lines. 
 Are the adjectives and adverbs well selected? Why? 
 
 Read in connection with these ballads numbers ccxiii, 
 ccxxv, ccxxxviii, ccxi, ccxli, cclxxxi, cclxxv. 
 
 (c) War Poems 
 
 Closely allied to the ballads and narratives of common 
 life are the war poems : Ye Mariners of England (ccl), 
 Hohenlinden (cclix), AJter Blenheim (cclx). The Battle 
 of the Baltic (ccli). The Burial of Sir John Moore (cclxii). 
 
 The Soldier's Dream (eccix) is particularly remarkable 
 for unity and for careful selection of material, specific, graphic, 
 emotional. Explain, and cite passages in illustration. Find 
 other poems of war and patriotism in this volume, and com- 
 pare them with those already mentioned. 
 
 {d) Interest in Nature 
 
 The poets of the early nineteenth century studied Nature 
 intimately and often wrote with the eye upon the object ; 
 consequently their work is specific, detailed, accurate. To 
 be sure, their descriptions are not scientific ; they do not 
 always identify species. But that is not the object of poetic 
 description. The poet does not necessarily select the details 
 which appeal to the understanding alone, and which make it 
 possible to identify the object when seen again. He chooses
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 167 
 
 rather those details which interpret his emotions in the 
 presence of the ol).)ect. Ho is interested in the emotional 
 and imaginative imi)ressi()ii. His observations, however, 
 are often quite as accurate and keen as those of the scientist. 
 The Green Linnet (cclxxxviii) is an example of poetic 
 description. For the purpose of distinguishing between 
 scientific and artistic description compare this poem with 
 the following description from a book on ornithology. 
 
 "Tail very deeply forked; outer feathers (of tail) several inches 
 longer than the inner, very narrow toward the end ; above glossy- 
 blue, with concealed white in the middle of the back ; throat chest- 
 nut ; rest of lower part reddish-white, not conspicuously different ; a 
 steel blue collar on the upper part of the breast, interrupted in the 
 middle ; tail feathers with a white spot near the middle, on the 
 inner web. Female with the outer tail feather not quite so long. 
 Length, six and ninety one-hundredths inches; wing five inches, 
 tail, four and fifty one-hundredths inches." 
 
 Wherein lies the difference ? What is the guiding principle 
 in the choice of details in each ? 
 
 The Daffodils (ccci) and Kubla Khan (cccxv) are 
 also poems in which details are chosen for their emotional 
 and imaginative suggestion as well as for their picturesque- 
 ness. Classify with these, other poems which show the same 
 qualities. Explain how The Daffodils illustrates Words- 
 worth's idea that "poetry is emotion recollected in tran- 
 quillity." Analyze the meter of Kubla Khan, showing that 
 the changes in rhythm are in harmony with the changes in 
 thought. 
 
 My heart leaps wp (cccxxxvii) has been called Words- 
 worth's poetic creed. Explain th(^ creed. What is meant 
 by, "The Child is father of the Man"? 
 
 The Reaper (ccxcviii) illustrates the reflective, moraliz- 
 ing attitude, calm, .serene, elevated. Explain. This refiec-
 
 168 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 tive quality in Nature poetry is noteworthy. The passionate 
 feeling in the presence of Nature does not always become 
 poetry at once. Wordsworth, the greatest of Nature poets, 
 called poetry, " Emotion recollected in tranquillity." There 
 is a calm philosophical tone throughout his work. He 
 believed the objects of Nature are the language of God, and 
 that it is the function of the poet to translate this divine 
 language into the language of men. Wordsworth's feeling 
 for Nature is clearly explained in his poem on Tintern Abbey, 
 which should be carefully studied in this connection. 
 
 The Reverie of Poor Susan (ccxcix) also illustrates 
 Wordsworth's reflective method. It is a beautiful picture, 
 rich in pathos. Is the introductory couplet admirable? 
 Give reasons. Is the picture the real point of the poem ? If 
 not, what is? 
 
 To the Cuckoo (cclxxxix) shows this reflective mood of 
 Wordsworth flashing up into exaltation. Determine what 
 other poems are to be classified with this, and make brief 
 comments on their striking characteristics. Explain the 
 effect which the songs of different birds have upon you. 
 
 To the Skylark (cclxxxvi) should be compared with 
 Shelley's To a Skylark (cclxxxvii). These poems bring 
 into contrast the prevailing moods of the two men. Words- 
 worth remains upon the ground, and connects his skylark 
 with the earth and with the life of men. Shelley soars with 
 his skylark in rapt abandonment. Shelley's temperament is 
 more passionate, or at any rate, less reflective than is Words- 
 worth's. Both poets employ metaphor and simile. Point 
 out the most effective examples of each, giving reasons for 
 your choice. Is the meter of each poem appropriate to the 
 poet's mood? Explain. 
 
 Written Among the Euganean Hills (cccxxi) shows the 
 luxuriant picturesqueness as well as the passionate tone of
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 169 
 
 Shelley's imagination. Explain the symbolism of the first 
 division. Find other examples of symbolism. Write a few 
 paragraphs contrasting Shelley's attitude toward Nature 
 with that of Wordsworth, illustrating from the poems. 
 Which is the more musical poet ? Cite the most musical 
 passages. 
 
 (e) Poems of Love 
 
 More than half of the poems in Book IV have to do with 
 love. "AH its aspects are portrayed ; its despair, its exalta- 
 tion, its joys, its sorrows, its abandonment, its reflective 
 richness. 
 
 She was a Phantom of DcllgJit (ccxvii) is rich in reflec- 
 tion. Wordsworth never allows his heart to run away with 
 his head. Is there any example in this poem of an ill-chosen 
 word? Is this poem superior in any way to the poem by 
 Lord Byron which immediately precedes (ccxvi) ? 
 
 Lovers Philosophy (ccxxviii) and The Indian Serenade 
 (ccxv) show the abantlonment of love, a mood very char- 
 acteristic of Shelley. Find other examples in Shelley's 
 poems. Compare Shelley with Wordsworth in this respect, 
 citing passages to illustrate the comparison. 
 
 She dwelt among the untrodden ways (ccxx) coukl hardly 
 be surpassed for simple and sincere pathos. Which lines 
 best illustrate simplicity and pathos? Characterize the 
 imagery of the second stanza. 
 
 A Lost Love (ccxxiv) and At the Mid-hour of Night 
 (ccxlv) portray the sweetness of sorrow to which the soul 
 has become partly reconciled. 
 
 When ive two parted (ccxxxiv) is the cry of despair. How 
 is it typical of Byron's sad, rebellious experience? What 
 other love poems in the collection are striking? Explain 
 why they interest you.
 
 170 STUDIES IX LITERATURE 
 
 (/) The Tone of Melancholy 
 
 It has been often remarked that a deep strain of melan- 
 choly runs through English poetry : reflection on the mysteries 
 of life, sad retrospection over disappointments, the dwelling 
 on lost associations. The Old Familiar Faces (cclxiv) is 
 one of the tenderest and richest. Indicate others which 
 seem to you good examples in this kind, and explain why you 
 
 choose them. 
 
 (g) The Sonnets 
 
 The varied verse forms of this volume give excellent 
 opportunity for the study of versification. The subject 
 should be looked up carefully in Bright and Miller's English 
 Versification or in some similar book. Various poems, e.g., 
 Kuhla Khan (cccxvi) should be analyzed. 
 
 One of the most interesting forms is the sonnet. It con- 
 sists of fourteen iambic pentameter lines, e.g., 
 
 " The world/is too/much with/us. Late/and soon" 
 w ^/^ ^/w ^/w ^/w ^/ 
 
 The arrangement of the rimes distinguishes two well 
 established types, the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean. 
 
 The Petrarchan is divided into two parts, an octave and 
 a sestet. The rime scheme of the octave, or first eight lines, 
 is fixed ; those of the sestet, or last six lines, are variable. 
 In general, the rime scheme is as follows : octave, abbaabba; 
 sestet, cdecde. However, almost any combmation may 
 be used in the sestet except a couplet at the end. Ccx 
 is a typical Petrarchan sonnet. 
 
 The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains 
 (four lines) with alternate rimes, followed by a couplet, as 
 follows : abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Of the twenty-two sonnets 
 in this volume only three (or possibly four) may be called 
 Shakespearean (ccxlii, ccxliii, ccxxxiii, ccxcv).
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 171 
 
 The Petrarchan form is l^ost adapted to a theme which 
 naturally divides itself into two parts, the one balancing 
 itself against the other. The theme rises and develops in 
 the octave, it falls and concludes in the sest(^t. 
 
 Milton: thou shouldHt be living at this hour (cclvii) is an 
 almost perfect Petrarchan sonnet. The picture of Eng- 
 lish conditions in the octave is set off against the character 
 and influence of Milton in the sestet. The division is exact. 
 Explain more fully the social and political conditions to 
 which Wordsworth refers. 
 
 By the Sea (cccix). Explain- how the octave is set off 
 against the sestet. Comment on the choice of adjectives 
 and on the effectiveness of the imagery. Describe in more 
 detail the picture which the second and third lines suggest. 
 
 The world is too much with us (cccxxvi) gives the situa- 
 tion in the octave, and the conclusion in the sestet. The 
 connection in thought between octave and sestet is here more 
 marked. The turning point, however, is not exactly at the 
 end of the octave. Is this a blemish ? Is the thought of 
 the poem true of most of us? Explain. Why is it worth 
 w"hile to cultivate the imagination and the emotions ? 
 
 On First Looking into Chapman' s Homer (ccx). Here, 
 also, the balance of thought is exact. Unfortunately, how- 
 ever, Cortez was not the first to view the Pacific. Who was ? 
 Read Matthew Arnold's criticism of Chapman's Homer in 
 On the Study of Celtic Literature and on Translating Homer. 
 Was Keats a classical scholar? Find the sonnets in which 
 the thought is not perfectly adapted to the form. 
 
 The Shakespearean form is best adapted to a thought 
 which gradually develops from different points of view to a 
 conclusion or a climax at the end, which can be summed up 
 in a couplet. 
 
 The Terrors of Death (ccxliii) is a perfect example,
 
 172 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 consisting of three "when" ideas, in three quatrains, 
 brought to a conckision in a couplet. To what facts in the 
 life of Keats does this sonnet have reference? 
 
 The Human Seasons (cccxxxii) is adapted in thought 
 to the Shakespearean form, l)ut the concluding couplet is 
 not a summary or an application of the theme. 
 
 Bright Star (ccxlii). Is the theme here more suitable 
 to the Shakespearean or to the Petrarchan form ? Why ? 
 
 Admonition to a Traveler (ccxcvi) has a theme which 
 naturally develops through three parts to a conclusion. It 
 concludes with a couplet in the Shakespearean manner, but 
 begins with an octave in the Petrarchan manner. 
 
 (/?) The Odes 
 
 The most dignified, sublime, and philosophical themes in 
 this volume are cast into the form of odes. Some odes are 
 comparatively regular in their verse form, being practically a 
 series of uniform stanzas (cf. Ode to Duty, cclii). Others are 
 irregular (cf. Ode on Intimations of Immortality, cccxxxviii). 
 Look up the subject of odes in Bright and Miller's English 
 Versification, pp. 139 ff., or in an encyclopedia. 
 
 Ode to Duty (cclii). Notice the dignity, elevation, 
 philosophic calm, moral stability, and spiritual poise of this 
 poem. Give a brief explanation of how the thought is devel- 
 oped from stanza to stanza. Give a brief but complete 
 explanation of the metrical form. 
 
 Ode to a Nightingale (ccxc). Paraphrase closely the 
 first stanza to bring out the exact meaning of lines 4, 5, 6, 
 and 7. Parse "being," line 6. Memorize the seventh 
 stanza. Read the story of Ruth in the Bible in order to get 
 the full poetic beauty of this passage. What words in the 
 poem seem to you particularly well chosen ? 
 
 Matthew Arnold well said that one of the best means of
 
 NARRATIVE AND LYRIC POETRY 173 
 
 getting an approciation of poetry is to collect a few lines of 
 undoubted poetic power, brood over them sympathetically, 
 and then use them as tests by which to judge other lines. 
 Such lines in this poem are : 
 
 "To ccaw upon the midnight without pain." 
 
 "She stood in tears amid the alien com." 
 
 "Magic casements opening on the foam 
 Of perilous seas in faery lands forlorn." 
 
 Find other lines which seem to you to have fine emotional 
 or imaginative (lualities. Select two or three adjectives 
 which seem to you to characterize best the prevailing atmos- 
 phere of this poem. 
 
 Explain "Lethe," "dryad," "Provengal," "Hippocrene," 
 "Bacchus." 
 
 Ode to the West Wind (cccxxii). The metrical form of 
 this ode is terza rima, the meter of Dante's Divine Comedy. 
 Analyze and explain it. 
 
 If the ideas of the poem are not clear, study the syntax 
 more carefully. If the poem does not appeal to the emotions 
 and the imagination, try to visualize the imagery more 
 completely. Read the poem aloud. A scholarly apprecia- 
 tion of poetry requires at least : (1) discrimination in the 
 meaning of words, (2) a sure knowledge of syntax, (3) the 
 power to visualize imagery, and (4) an ear for rhythm. 
 
 Analyze the thought of the poem. What relation has the 
 fourth stanza to the preceding stanzas ? Explain how the 
 thought of the last stanza reverts to the thought of the first. 
 
 Ode on a Grecian Urn (cccxxviii). There are urns in 
 the British Museum which may have suggested the detail 
 of this poem, but no one of them is here exactly described. 
 What would pictures illustrating the poem look like ? How 
 many distinct pictures are there? Indicate wherein pic-
 
 174 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 tures could not adequately express the content of the 
 poem. 
 
 The last two lines are said to constitute the poetic creed 
 of Keats. Criticize that creed. Compare it with the creed 
 of Wordsworth (cccxxxvii). 
 
 Ode on Intimations of Immortality (cccxxxviii). Make 
 a brief summary of the poem — such a summary as 
 might begin : "My feeling for Nature has changed with the 
 years. The objects of Nature are still beautiful, but a cer- 
 tain early glory has departed. However, let not my grief 
 wrong the season," etc. Relate any similar experience of 
 your own childhood. Memorize the nineteen lines be- 
 ginning, "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting," and 
 also the seven lines beginning, "Hence in a season of calm 
 weather." 
 
 Characteristics of the Poets 
 
 1. Which poet represented in these selections seems to have been 
 most affected by the old ballads and the atmosphere of chivalry ? 
 
 2. Which poet is the most passionate ? 
 
 3. Which is the most reflective ? 
 
 4. Which shows the deepest interest in Nature ? 
 
 5. What is the difference between Wordsworth and Shelley in 
 their attitude toward Nature (of. the poems on the skylark) ? 
 
 6. Which is the most musical poet ? 
 
 Topics for Short Compositions 
 
 1. Wordsworth's Ideas about Nature. 
 
 2. The English Lake District. 
 
 3. Why some Students do not appreciate Poetry. 
 
 4. Renewed Interest in Country Life in America. 
 
 5. A Nature Description. 
 
 6. The Songs of Birds distinguished.
 
 PART II 
 A BRIEF SURVEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
 
 
 
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 Facaimile from thu MS. in the Bodleian Library.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD 
 (a) THE EARLY LITERATURE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 
 
 The People. — For the beginnings of English literature we 
 must go back to a time before our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 
 came to England, when ihey were still living on the shores 
 of the North Sea in Denmark and about the mouth of 
 the Elbe River in northern Germany. They were Low- 
 German tribes, allied more closely to the modern Dutch 
 than to the modern Germans both by language and by blood. 
 It is thought that they did not penetrate far into the swamps 
 and forests of the interior, but lived along the shore and on 
 the sea. They were uncivilized people, but not savages. 
 Their literature shows — and we always go to literature to 
 find out the inner life of a people — that they loved their 
 homes, reverenced their women, felt the influences of Nature, 
 believed in their gods, loved personal freedom, sought honor 
 and glory. They were adventurous seafarers, stern of 
 heart and strong of hand ; but they were not pirates. 
 
 Their Gloomy Life. — Their life was gloomy. Denmark and 
 Germany are lands of cloud and mist. During the entire 
 year the sun can be seen only a third of the time that it is 
 above the horizon. In winter, darkness comes in the middle 
 of the afternoon. Moreover, the struggle with storm and sea 
 was long and hard. No wonder this people was a stern and 
 somber race, with a gloomy religion, and with melancholy 
 ideas of life and fate. Life was almost without joy save 
 N 177
 
 178 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 perhaps the joy of conflict ; and the whole of man's life, with 
 whatever of joy it might have, was but the flicker of a candle 
 between two great darknesses. The essential gloom of it 
 was well expressed somewhat later in Northumbria by one 
 of their own chiefs : 
 
 "You remember, it may be, king, that which sometimes 
 happens in winter when 3^ou are seated at table with your earls 
 and thanes. Your fire is lighted, and your hall warmed, and without 
 is rain and snow and storm. Then comes a swallow flying across 
 the hall ; he enters by one door, and leaves by another. The brief 
 moment while he is ^vithin is pleasant to him ; he feels not rain nor 
 cheerless winter weather ; but the moment is brief — the bird flies 
 away in the twinkling of an eye, and he passes from winter to winter. 
 Such, methinks, is the life of man on earth, compared with 
 the uncertain time beyond. It appears for a while ; but what is the 
 time which comes after — the time which was before ? We know 
 not. If, then, this new doctrine [Christianity] may teach us some- 
 what of greater certainty, it were well that we should regard it." 
 
 Literature of Tradition. — Life, however, was not alto- 
 gether without solace. In the long winter evenings the lord 
 and his retainers gathered in the hall and sat around the 
 mead bench, drinking together and listening to the song of 
 the scop and the gleeman. These poets and reciters kept 
 alive the traditions of the people, interpreting their ideals 
 in mjrth and legend and heroic story. This was their lit- 
 erature ; not books, not even manuscripts. Stories of gods 
 and heroes passed from generation to generation by word of 
 mouth, even as the story of the wrath of Achilles was handed 
 down among the prehistoric Greeks. Some of these stories 
 are history ; most of them, myths about the struggle of the 
 race with sea and storm and pestilence. 
 
 When our forefathers came to England in the fifth century, 
 they brought with them these traditions just as the pre-
 
 THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD 179 
 
 historic Greeks took their traditions to Asia Minor ; and just 
 as the story of the siege of Troy deveh)ped in Asia Minor into 
 The Iliad, so the Anglo-Saxon legends developed in England 
 into an Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf. 
 
 " Beowulf." — The scene of the early part of this story is 
 Denmark. Hrothgar, King of the Danes, had built a splendid 
 mead hall by the sea, where he and his thanes gathered to 
 feast and to listen to the songs of the gleemen. But a fright- 
 ful monster, Grendel, came now and again and carried off 
 the warriors to devour them in his lair. Arms could not 
 prevail against him, and joy was turned to mourning in 
 Hrothgar 's Hall. At length from across the sea came the 
 hero Beowulf to fight with the monster in the hall, and to 
 pursue him wounded to the death to his lair beneath the 
 waters of a sea pool. Here Beowulf also meets and destroys 
 Grendel's mother. The hero then returns in great honor 
 to his home in South Sweden, where he rules over his people 
 for fifty years. In his old age, he destroys a fire dragon, and 
 thereby secures for his people a great treasure-hoard ; but, in 
 the battle, he loses his own life. A grateful people burn his 
 body in pomp upon a funeral pyre and, upon a promontory 
 overlooking the sea, erect a memorial barrow above his ashes. 
 The end of the poem is too fine to pass over without quoting : 
 
 "Then fashioned for him the folk of Geats 
 firm on the earth a funeral-pile, 
 and hung it with helmets and harness of war 
 and breastplates bright, as the boon he asked ; 
 and they laid amid it the mighty chieftain, 
 heroes mourning their master dear. 
 Then on the hill that hugest of balefires 
 the warriors wakened. Wood-smoke rose 
 black over blaze, and blent was the roar 
 of flame with weeping (the wind was still),
 
 180 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 till the fire had broken the frame of bones, 
 
 hot at the heart. In heavy mood 
 
 their misery moaned they, their master's death. 
 
 Wailing her woe, the widow old, 
 
 her hair upbound, for Beowulf's death 
 
 sung in her sorrow, and said full oft 
 
 she dreaded the doleful days to come, 
 
 deaths enow, and doom of battle, 
 
 and shame. — The smoke by the sky was devoured. 
 
 "The folk of the Weders fashioned there 
 on the headland a barrow broad and high, 
 by ocean-farers far descried : 
 in ten days' time their toil had raised it, 
 the battle-brave's beacon. Round brands of the pyre 
 a wall they built, the worthiest ever 
 that wit could prompt in their wisest men. 
 They placed in the barrow that precious booty, 
 the rounds and the rings they had reft erewhile, 
 hardy heroes, from hoard in cave, — 
 trusting the ground with treasure of earls, 
 gold in the earth, where ever it lies useless to men as of 
 yore it was. 
 
 " Then about that barrow the battle-keen rode 
 atheling-born, a band of twelve, 
 lament to make, to mourn their king, 
 chant their dirge, and their chieftain honor. 
 They praised his earlship, his acts of prowess 
 worthily witnessed : and well it is 
 that men their master-friend mightily laud, 
 heartily love, when hence he goes 
 from life in the body forlorn away. 
 
 "Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland, 
 for their hero's passing his hearth-companions : 
 quoth that of all the kings of earth, 
 of men he was the mildest and most belov'd, 
 to his kin the kindest, keenest for praise."
 
 THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD 181 
 
 In this poem we see the scenes with which our forefathers 
 were famiUar, enter into their hopes and fears, and reahze 
 their passion for honor and glory, their high feehng of duty, 
 and the stern heroism with which the}' took leave of life. 
 
 Other poems which give us insight into Anglo-Saxon char- 
 acter and life are Widsith, an account of the wanderings of 
 a gleeman ; The Sea-farer, written in the spirit of Odysseus, 
 though the northern seas differ much from the Mediter- 
 ranean; and the Battle of Brunanhurh and the Battle of 
 Maldon, fine expressions of the warlike spirit of the race. 
 
 (b) THE TRADITIONAL LITERATURE OF THE CELTS 
 
 The Celts in Britain. — The people who inhabited Eng- 
 land — or Britain as it was then called — before the Anglo- 
 Saxon conquest, were Celts, that branch of the Indo-Euro- 
 pean family of races which had overspread France, Spain, and 
 "the British Islands before the time of recorded history in 
 western Europe. Csssar had fought against many of the 
 Celtic tribes in Gaul, and in 55 B.C. had crossed over into 
 Britain and defeated the British tribes there. Later Britain 
 had become a Roman province, adopting to a certain extent 
 the civilization of Rome. By the early part of the fifth 
 century, however, the Roman legions had been withdrawn 
 from Britain to protect the imperial city from the inroads of 
 the Teutonic tribes of northern Europe, leaving the Celts 
 of Britain to take care of themselves. The}' resisted the 
 Anglo-Saxon invaders as best they could ; but they were 
 little by little driven back into the mountains of Wales and 
 Scotland, and some of them passed over into Armorica on 
 the northwest coast of France. 
 
 Literature of the Britons. — These people, as well as the 
 Anglo-Saxons, had their traditional literature of myth and 
 legend and heroic story, which has had a large influence in
 
 182 STUDIES ly LITERATURE 
 
 the development of English literature. These traditions 
 clustered especially about the name of Arthur, supposed to 
 be a British prince who gathered the scattered bands of his 
 people about him, and stemmed for a time the tide of Anglo- 
 Saxon invasion, defeating the invaders in twelve great 
 battles, of which the last was the famous battle of Mount 
 Badon. The earlj^ form of these stories is not known to us. 
 We have no mention of them until about the ninth century ; 
 and, so far as we know, they did not find their way into 
 manuscript until the eleventh or twelfth century, being trans- 
 mitted from generation to generation by word of mouth 
 like the story of the wrath of Achilles, and the story of the 
 exploits of Beonoilf. They need not be discussed in this 
 chapter, for, in the form in which they have come down to 
 us, they belong to a time later than the Old English period. 
 It is enough to say here that they reveal a people quite dif- 
 ferent from the Anglo-Saxon; a less somber people, gayer 
 and more fanciful, more eager, more excitable, more buoy- 
 ant, more appreciative of beauty, richer in sentiment, more 
 keenly sensitive to joy and sorrow ; but less steady, less perse- 
 vering, less enduring, less likely to conquer, to achieve, and to 
 
 prevail. 
 
 (c) CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 
 
 When the Anglo-Saxons conquered Britain, they were 
 pagans, and they remained pagans for one hundred and fifty 
 years. Then Christianity came. 
 
 The Coining of Christianity. — One day in Rome in the 
 latter half of the sixth century, a monk by the name of 
 Gregory, seeing in the slave market at Rome two fair-haired 
 slaves from Britain, asked to what race they belonged and 
 was told that they were Angles. Thinking their faces more 
 like Angels than Angles, he determined that this race should 
 know Christianity; and later when he became Pope, sent
 
 THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD 183 
 
 St'. Augustine to convert tliom. St. Augustine came to 
 southern England at the very end of the sixth century, estab- 
 lished monasteries and schools, and instituted Christian civil- 
 ization. About the same time; also monks came from Irc- 
 and, which had long been a center of religion and learning, 
 and established Irish (Celtic) monasteries in the north. 
 These two streams of C'hristian infiuence brought to the 
 English new thoughts and feelings, new ideas about life, and 
 before long produced a literature different in many ways from 
 the traditional pagan literature of the earlier Anglo-Saxons. 
 Caedmon. — The first Christian literature grew up in the 
 north during the seventh century. One of the most impor- 
 tant of the northern monasteries was at Whitby on the 
 eastern coast, northeast of the city of York (see map). 
 Here lived Csedmon, a poor ignorant man, who, if the 
 legend about him is true, was miraculously led to the writing 
 of poetry. Bede, who was born about the time of the death of 
 Csedmon, tells the story in his Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 " There was in the monastery of this abbess a certain brother es- 
 pecially distinguished by the grace of God, since he was wont to 
 make poems breathing of piety and religion. Whatever he learned 
 •of Sacred Scripture by the mouth of interpreters, he in a little time 
 gave forth in poetical language composed with the greatest sweetness 
 and depth of feeling, in English, his native tongue ; and the effect of 
 his poems was ever and anon to incite the souls of many to despise 
 the world and long for the heavenly life. Not but that there were 
 others after him among the people of the Angles who sought to com- 
 pose religious poetry ; but none there was who could equal him. 
 He (Csedmon) did not learn the art of song from men, nor through 
 the means of any man ; rather did he receive it as a free gift from 
 God. Hence it came to pass that he never was able to compose 
 poetry of a frivolous or idle sort ; none but such as pertain to 
 rehgion suited a tongue so religious as his. Living always the life 
 of a layman until well advanced in years, he had never learned
 
 184 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 the least thing about poetry. In fact, so little did he understand 
 of it that when at a feast it would be ruled that every one present 
 should, for the entertainment of the others, sing in turn, he would, 
 as soon as he saw the harp coming anywhere near liim, jump up 
 from the table in the midst of the banqueting, leave the place, and 
 make the best of his way home. 
 
 " This he had done at a certain time, and leaving the house where 
 the feast was in progress, had gone out to the stable where the care of 
 the cattle had been assigned to him for that night. There, when it 
 was time to go to sleep, he had lain down for that purpose. But 
 while he slept some one stood by him in a dream, greeted him, called 
 him by name, and said, 'Csedmon, sing me something.' To this 
 he replied, 'I know not how to sing, and that is the very reason 
 why I left a feast and came here, because I could not sing.' But 
 the one who was talking with him answered, 'No matter, you are 
 to sing for me.' 'Well, then,' said he, 'what is it that I must sing ?' 
 'Sing,' said the other, 'the beginning of created things.' At this 
 reply he immediately began to sing verses in praise of God the 
 Creator, verses that he had never heard, and whose meaning is as 
 follows : ' Now should we praise the Keeper of the heavenly king- 
 dom, the might of the Creator and His counsel, the works of the 
 Father of glory ; how He, though God eternal, became the author 
 of all marvels. He, the almighty Guardian of mankind, first created 
 for the sons of men heaven as a roof, and afterwards the earth.' 
 This is the meaning, but not the precise order, of the words which 
 he sang in his sleep ; for no songs, however well they may be com- 
 posed, can be rendered from one language into another without 
 loss of grace and dignity. When he rose from sleep, he remembered 
 all that he had sung while in that state, and shortly after added, in 
 the same strain, many more words of a hymn befitting the majesty 
 of God. 
 
 " In the morning he went to the steward who was set over him, 
 and showed him what gift he had acquired. Being led to the 
 abbess, he was bidden to make known his dream and repeat his poem 
 to the many learned men who were present, that they all might 
 give their judgment concerning the thing which he related, and
 
 THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD 185 
 
 whence it was; and they were unanimously of the opinion that 
 heavenly grace had been bestowed upon him by the Lord. They 
 then set about expounding to him a piece of sacred history or teach- 
 ing, bidding him, if he could, to turn it into the rhj^hm of poetry. 
 This he undertook to do, and departed. In the morning he returned 
 and delivered the passage assigned to him, con\-erted into an ex- 
 cellent poem. The abbess, honoring the grace of God as displayed 
 in the man, shortly afterward instructed him to forsake the condi- 
 tion of a layman and take upon himself the vows of a monk. She 
 thereupon received him into the monastery with his whole family, 
 and made him one of the company of the brethren, commanding that 
 he .should be taught the whole course and succession of Bil)lical 
 history. He, in turn, calling to mind what he was able to learn by 
 the hearing of the ear, and, as it were, Uke a clean animal, cheM\ing 
 upon it as a cud, transformed it all into most agreeable poetry; 
 and, by echoing it back in a more harmonius form, made his teachers 
 in turn hsten to him. Thus he rehearsed the creation of the world, 
 the origin of man, and all the story of Genesis ; the departure of 
 Israel from Egypt and their entry into the Promised Land, together 
 with many other histories from Holy Writ ; the incarnation of our 
 Lord, his passion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven; the 
 coming of the Holy Ghost and the teaching of the Apostles ; more- 
 over, he made many poems about the terror of the future judgment, 
 the awfulness of the pains of hell, and the joy of the heavenly king- 
 dom, besides a great number about the mercies and judgments of 
 God. In all these he exerted himself to allure men from the love 
 of wickedness, and to impel them to the love and practice of right- 
 eous living ; for he was a very devout man, humbly submissive to 
 the monastic rule, but full of consuming zeal against those who were 
 disposed to act otherwise. 
 
 " Hence it came to pass that he ended his life vath a fair death. 
 For when the hour of his departure di-ow nigh, he was afflicted for 
 the space of a fortnight with a bodily weakness which seemed to 
 prepare the way; yet it was so far from severe that he was able 
 during the whole of that time to walk about and converse. Near 
 at hand there was a cottage, to which those who were sick and
 
 186 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 appeared nigh unto death were usually taken. At the approach of 
 evening on the same night when he was to leave the world, he 
 desired his attendant to make ready a place there for him to take 
 his rest. The attendant did so, though he could not help wondering 
 at the request, since he did not seem the least like a person about to 
 die. When he was placed in the infirmary, he was somehow full of 
 good humor, and kept talking and joking with those who had 
 already been brought there. Some time after midnight he asked 
 whether they had the Eucharist at hand. 'What do you need of 
 the Eucharist ? ' they answered, 'you aren't going to die yet, for you 
 are just as full of fun in talking with us as if nothing were the matter 
 with you.' 'Never mind,' said he, 'bring me the Eucharist.' 
 Taking it in his hand, he asked, ' Are you all at peace with me, and 
 free from any grudge or ill \vill?' 'Yes,' they all responded, 'we 
 are perfectly at peace with you, and cherish no grievance whatever.' 
 'But are you,' said they, 'entirely at peace with us?' 'Yes, my 
 dear children,' he answered without hesitation, 'I am at peace with 
 aU the servants of God.' And thus sajdng, he made ready for his 
 entrance into the other hfe by partaking of the heavenly journey- 
 bread. Not long after he inquired, 'How near is it to the hour 
 when the brethren are wakened for lauds?' 'But a httle while,' 
 was the reply. 'Well then,' said he, 'let us wait for that hour,' and, 
 making o\'er himself the sign of the cross, he laid his head on the 
 pillow, and falling into a light slumber, ended his life in silence. 
 And so it came to pass that, as he had served the Lord in 
 simplicity and purity of mind, and with serene attachment and 
 loyalty, so by a serene death he left the world, and went to 
 look upon His face. And meet in truth it was that the 
 tongue which had indited so many helpful words in praise 
 of the Creator, should frame its very last words in His praise, 
 while in the act of signing himself ^vith the cross and of commend- 
 ing his spirit into His hands. And that he foresaw his death is 
 apparent from what has here been related." ^ 
 
 The long epic poem which has come down to us associated 
 
 1 Cook and Tinker, Translations from Old English Poetry, pp. 180-183.
 
 THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD 187 
 
 with the name of Cadmon consists of a paraphrase of 
 Genesis, Exodus, and a part of Daniel. It was not, however, 
 all written by Csedmon ; and no one knows exactly what 
 parts are his. The tone is almost as much pagan as Chris- 
 tian. Armies and battles are described with enthusiasm. 
 The destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea is sung with 
 savage zest. The poem represents a civilization nominally 
 Christian, but still permeated with pagan thought and 
 feeling. 
 
 Cynewulf was another important poet who wrote in Anglo- 
 Saxon. Almost nothing is known of his life. We are not 
 sure how many of the poems attributed to him were really 
 wTitten by him ; but some of them certainly were, since he 
 worked his name into the text in a kind of cipher, using runes 
 for the purpose.^ 
 
 " Elene " and " Christ." — The most important of Cyne- 
 wTilf's undoulited poems are Elene and Christ. Elene re- 
 lates how Constantine, on the eve of battle, had a vision of 
 the cross, and afterwards sent his mother, Elene, to search 
 for the original cross in Jerusalem. The Christ tells the story 
 of the nativity of Christ, his ascension, and the last judgment. 
 Like most of the medieval writers and painters, Cynewulf 
 loved to depict the tortures of the wicked and the joys of 
 the redeemed. The Christ, however, is prevailingly didactic, 
 though rising at times to the level of genuine reflective poetry. 
 The following is a typical passage. It compares life to a 
 journey on the sea. 
 
 "Now 'tis most like as if we fare in .ships 
 On the ocean's flood, over the water cold, 
 Driving our vessels through the spacious seas 
 With horses of the deep. A perilous way is this 
 Of boundless waves, and there are stormy seas 
 
 ' See Cook and Tinker, Translations from Old English Poetry, p. 83 f.
 
 188 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 On which we toss here in this (reehng) world 
 O'er the deep paths. Ours was a sorry phght 
 Until at last we sailed unto the land, 
 Over the troubled main, Help came to us 
 That brought us to the haven of salvation, 
 God's Spirit-Son, and granted grace to us 
 That we might know e'en from the vessel's deck 
 Where we must bind with anchorage secure 
 Our ocean steeds, our stallions of the waves." 
 
 Bede's "Ecclesiastical History." — Another writer from 
 the north of England was the Venerable Bede, who lived at 
 Jarrow near the mouth of the Tyne. (See map.) He was a 
 scholar, considering the time in which he lived; and al- 
 though he made many mistakes, we owe to him most of our 
 knowledge of English history from the landing of Caesar 
 down to the year 731. His principal work is The Ecclesi- 
 astical History of the English People, written in Latin, as 
 most of his other works were. He is said to have made 
 an Anglo-Saxon translation of the Gospel of St. John, but the 
 manuscript is unfortunately lost. His account of Caedmon 
 shows his interesting style. 
 
 The Coming of the Danes. — Near the end of the eighth 
 century the Danes from the Baltic began to make inroads into 
 northern England ; and by the middle of the ninth century 
 the learning and civilization of Northumbria had been prac- 
 tically swept away. Monasteries were demolished, teachers 
 and scholars slain, and libraries utterly destroyed. The 
 Northumbrian literature is preserved only in West Saxon 
 transcripts, made, probably, at the court of King Alfred the 
 Great (848-901). 
 
 Alfred the Great, who succeeded for a time in checking 
 the Danes in their progress to the south, maintained at his 
 court in Wessex a center of literature and scholarship. He
 
 THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD 189 
 
 gathered learned men about him, estahhshed a court sehool, 
 and caused many foreign manuscripts to be translated into 
 Anglo-Saxon. He was himself a scholar and a translator. 
 He gave to his people Anglo-Saxon versions of a manual of 
 history and geography by Orosius, the Consolations of Phi- 
 losophy by Boethius, and the Pastoral Care by Gregory. He 
 translated Bede's Ecclesiastical History, and, above all, 
 developed the famous Saxon Chronicle, the earliest history 
 of England in the language of the people. Extracts from 
 the Chronicle are accessible in Manly's English Prose, and in 
 Cook and Tinker's Translations from Old English Prose. 
 Much of it, especially the account of Alfred's own reign, is 
 literature as well as history. Alfred has fittingly been called 
 the father of English prose. « 
 
 After the death of Alfred (901 a.d.) literature declined. 
 There was no national Hfe, and consequently no national 
 literature. Monks in the monasteries wrote homilies, and 
 the Saxon Chronicle was continued ; but the Anglo-Saxons 
 had produced the best that was in them, and were in need of 
 new blood and a new national impulse. These came with 
 the Norman Conquest in 1066. 
 
 Readings in Anglo-Saxon Literature 
 
 1. Beowulf: Translated by Gummere (The Macmillan Com- 
 pany), and by Child in the Riverside Literature Series (Houghton, 
 Mifflin, and Company). 
 
 2. Miscellaneous selections translated by Cook and Tinker in 
 Translations from Old English Poetry and Old English Prose (Ginn 
 and Company).
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 
 
 (a) THE ROMANCE AND THE BALLAD 
 
 The Norman Invasion. — In 1066 William of Normandy 
 invaded England, won the battle of Hastings against Harold, 
 the last of the Saxon kings, and set up in England a Norman 
 kingdom. The Normans, as their name suggests, came 
 originally from the north, ajid were allied by blood to the 
 Danes who had devastated Northumbria and destroyed the 
 Saxon civilization there. The Normans had settled in 
 Northern France, had intermarried with the French, and 
 had adopted the French language and many of the French 
 customs and ideas of life. The result was a race which pos- 
 sessed the vigor and perseverance of the Teutons, and also 
 the gayety, imagination, and sensitiveness of the French. It 
 was well that such a race should come into England. 
 
 The Blending of the Races. — For many years the Normans 
 and Saxons lived side by side in England as conquerors and 
 conquered without much intermingling; but gradually the 
 same thing happened which had happened when the Normans 
 settled in France. The two races united. Norman and 
 Saxon were merged to form the Englishman. The influence 
 of the Celt and the Dane was not insignificant, but the com- 
 posite Englishman was prevailingly Saxon and Norman. Sir 
 Walter Scott's Ivanhoe presents a picture of English life dur- 
 ing the three centuries after the conquest, when the races 
 were distinct and the language in hopeless confusion. Scott 
 
 190
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 191 
 
 has brought together (see Part I, p. 18 f.), in the reign of Rich- 
 ard the Lion-hearted, race antagonism which belonged to a 
 century previous, and ideas of chivahy which belonged to 
 a century or two later, so that his history is not accurate as 
 a picture of the time of Richard ; but, if we wish to think of 
 the three centuries together, Ivanhoc gives us a fairly ade- 
 quate idea of life in this period of transition. That life is 
 reflected also in the Middle English literature, especially 
 in the romances and ballads which furnished the most impor- 
 tant literature between the Norman Conquest and the time 
 of Chaucer. 
 
 Beginning of Modern English. — Although the hostility 
 between the races soon died out, it was longer before the 
 languages blended into modern English. There were three 
 languages in England immediately after the conquest : 
 Latin, the language of learning ; P'rench, the language of 
 the court and of polite society ; and Saxon, the language of 
 the common people. Moreover, there were three dialects of 
 Saxon: the Northumbrian, the Midland, and the Southern, 
 about as different as the Scotch of Burns and the Enghsh of 
 Addison. It was not until the time of Chaucer (fourteenth 
 century) that the Midland dialect finally triumphed and 
 became the basis of modern English, absorbing many north- 
 ern and southern forms, and adding to its vocabulary a 
 large number of Norman-French words. ^ 
 
 (1) Romances 
 
 Arthurian Romance. — The Normans brought a new element 
 into English literature. Preeminently interested in chivalry 
 and romance, they possessed many stories of knightly prowess 
 and romantic adventure, brilliant in description, extrava- 
 gant in action, abounding in superstition. Among these 
 
 ' Cf. Ivanhoe, Chapter I, for the relation of Norman-French and Saxon.
 
 192 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 were stories of King Arthur and his knights. It will be re- 
 membered (see p. 181) that when the Britons were driven 
 back into the fastnesses of Wales and the North, many of 
 them passed over into Brittany in France, carrying with 
 them traditions of their famous prince. These stories were 
 developed in Brittany as well as in England by the addition 
 of much popular folk-lore, myth, and legend, were further 
 enlarged by the French, and, in the end, became popular 
 all over Europe, extending even into Germany and Italy. 
 Some of the earliest and best of the Arthur stories are in 
 Norman-French. When the Normans came to England, the 
 continental stream and the native Welsh stream of the 
 Arthurian story came together and produced a variety of 
 literature in Latin, French, and English. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth's History. — The first important 
 book to treat the Arthurian stories was Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouth's History of the Kings of Britain, written in Latin 
 about the middle of the twelfth century. Geoffrey pre- 
 tended that his book was sober history, but he seems to have 
 cared little for historic facts. Indeed he has been called 
 " the champion liar of the twelfth century." His book is 
 full of events which never could have happened — pure ro- 
 mance. He was in a position to know both Welsh and Breton 
 traditions, for he belonged to a Welsh monastery which had 
 intimate connections with the Bretons on the continent. 
 The truth seems to be that he brought together the two 
 masses of tradition and foisted them upon the public as gen- 
 uine history. To be sure, he claimed to be translating an 
 old manuscript, but no trace of such a manuscript has ever 
 been found. It was the fashion to have a source upon which 
 to base a book, so Geoffrey simply invented a book for the 
 purpose. Although, then, Geoffrey's book was not written 
 in the form of a romance, it is genuine romance material
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 193 
 
 and the real progenitor of the great mass of subsequent 
 Arthurian literature, including Malory's Morte d' Arthur 
 and Tennyson's hbjlh of the King. 
 
 Layamon's " Brut." ^— Geoffrey's book was immediately 
 translated into French by Wace of Jersey, who added much 
 from oral tradition which Geoffrey seems not to have known. 
 Wace's book, in turn, was translated into English and much 
 enlarged about the year 1200 by a monk named Layamon. 
 Layamon called his book Brut. It tells of the founding of 
 the British nation by Brutus, a great grandson of ^Eneas, 
 and then traces the course of British history down to the 
 author's own time. Nearly a third of the book is taken up 
 with the achievements of Arthur and his knights, Laya- 
 mon was not content merely to translate Wace and Geoffrey 
 and Bede, his acknowledged authorities ; he himself lived on 
 the Severn River close to the Welsh border, where he could 
 not fail to become familiar with Celtic tradition; and this 
 tradition he did not scruple to use. He adds, for instance, 
 the story of the founding of the Round Table and the ac- 
 count of the fays who attended Arthur's l)irth and, after his 
 last battle, carried him to Avalon to be healed of his wounds. 
 
 The Language of Layamon. — Layamon's book is also 
 important because it was the first romance written for 
 Englishmen in the English language. After the Norman 
 Conquest, the English vernacular had ceased to be a liter- 
 ary tongue. Books were all written in Latin or French, 
 except the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was continued 
 down to the year 1154. Layamon favored the popular 
 language and employed it again for literary purposes. It 
 had become much changed, however, in the century and a 
 half since the conquest, resembling more the English of 
 Chaucer than the English of Alfred and Caedmon. 
 
 The Holy Grail. — During the three centuries following 
 o
 
 194 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 the Norman Conquest Arthurian romance was in a highly 
 flourishing condition. At the beginning, the stories were 
 purely pagan, but they early took on religious aspects, as 
 the story of the Holy Grail so interestingly shows. This 
 story is thought by some to have been originally a pagan 
 myth about vegetation, a sacrifice to propitiate the god of 
 fertility and growth, and thus to bring in the summer of joy 
 and fruitfulness after the sadness and death of winter. 
 Later the sacrificial vessel seems to have become confused 
 with the cup from which Jesus drank at the last supper, and 
 the sacrificial spear to have become the spear of Longinus, 
 which pierced the side of Christ on the cross. The grail 
 thus became Christian, representing the medieval idea of 
 purity, and visible only to the pure in heart and the righteous. 
 " Gawayneand the GreenKnight." — Of the many romances 
 which appeared in English during the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries the best, by almost universal consent, is 
 Gawayne and the Green Knight. The following is the sub- 
 stance of the story : 
 
 "On New Year's day, while Arthur and his knights are keeping 
 the Yuletide feast at Camelot, a gigantic knight in green enters 
 the banquet hall on horseback and challenges the bravest knight 
 to present an exchange of blows ; that is, he will expose his neck to 
 a blow of his own big battle-ax, if any knight will agree to abide a 
 blow in return. After some natural consternation and a fine speech 
 by Arthur, Gawain accepts the challenge, takes the battle-ax, and 
 with one blow sends the giant's head rolling through the hall. The 
 Green Knight, who is evidently a terrible magician, picks up his 
 head and mounts his horse. He holds out his head and the ghastly 
 hps speak, warning Gawain to be faithful to his promise and to 
 seek through the world till he finds the Green Chapel. There, on 
 next New Year's day, the Green Knight will meet him and return 
 the blow. 
 
 "The second canto of the poem describes Gawain's long journey
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 195 
 
 through tlie wilderness on his steed Gringolet, and his adven- 
 tures with storm and cold, with wild beasts and monsters, as he 
 seeks in vain for the Green Chapel. On Christmas eve, in the midst 
 of a vast forest, he offers a prayer to 'Mary, mildest mother so dear, ' 
 and is rewarded by sight of a green castle. He enters and is royally 
 entertained by the host, an aged hero, and by his wife, who is the 
 most beautiful woman the knight ever beheld. Gawain learns 
 that he is at last near the Green Chapel, and settles down for a 
 little comfort after his long quest. 
 
 "The next canto shows the Ufe in the castle, and describes a 
 curious compact between the host, who goes hmiting daily, and the 
 knight, who remains in the castle to entertain the young wife. 
 The compact is, that at night each man shall give the other whatever 
 good thing he obtains during the day. While the host is hunting, 
 the 3'oung woman tries in vain to induce Gawain to make love to her, 
 and ends bj' giving liim a kiss. When the host returns and gives 
 his guest the game he has killed, Gawain returns the kiss. On the 
 third day, her temptations ha\dng twice failed, the lady offers 
 Gawain a ring, which he refuses ; but when she offers a magic green 
 girdle that ^nll preserve the wearer from death, Gawain, who re- 
 members the giant's ax so soon to fall on Ms neck, accepts the girdle 
 as a 'jewel for the jeopardy' and promises the lady to keep the gift 
 secret. Here, then, are two conflicting compacts. When the host 
 returns and offers his game, Gawain returns the kiss, but says nothing 
 of the green girdle. 
 
 "The last canto brings our knight to the Green Chapel, after he 
 is repeatedly warned to turn back in the face of certain death. The 
 Chapel is a terrible place in the midst of desolation ; and as Gawain 
 approaches he hears a terrifjang sound, the grating of steel on stone, 
 where the giant is sharpening a new battle-ax. The Green Kiiight 
 appears, and Gawain, true to his compact, offers his neck for the 
 blow. Twice the ax s\\ings harmlessly ; the third time it falls on 
 his shoulder and womids him. Whereupon Gawain jumps for 
 his armor, draws his sword, and warns the giant that the compact 
 calls for only one blow, and that, if another is offered, he will de- 
 fend himself.
 
 196 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 "Then the Green Knight explains things. He is lord of the 
 castle where Gawain has been entertained for days past. The 
 first two swings of the ax were harmless, because Gawain had been 
 true to his compact and twice returned the kiss. The last blow 
 had wounded him, because he concealed the gift of the green girdle, 
 wliich belongs to the Green Knight and was woven by his wife. 
 Moreover, the whole thing has been arranged by Morgain the fay- 
 woman (an enemy of Queen Guinevere, who appears often in the 
 Arthurian romances). Full of shame, Gawain throws back the gift 
 and is ready to atone for his deception ; but the Green Knight thinks 
 he has already atoned, and presents the green girdle as a free gift. 
 Gawain returns to Arthur's court, tells the whole story frankly, and 
 ever after that the knights of the Round Table wear a green girdle 
 in his honor." ^ 
 
 The Arthurian Romances as a whole did not reach their 
 best form until near the end of the fifteenth century. At 
 that time Thomas Malory, an English knight, selected all 
 that was best in the old English and French romances, and 
 retold it in quaint and charming English prose. His book, 
 Morte d' Arthur, is the original of most of the modern ver- 
 sions of the Arthur stories. It has inspired the great writers 
 of England in nearly every generation since its appearance. 
 There are many references to the stories in Shakespeare. 
 Spenser made Arthur the connecting link between the parts 
 of The Faerie Queene. Milton considered long whether he 
 should not make the Arthurian material, instead of the fall 
 of man, the subject of his great epic. In the nineteenth 
 century Arnold, Tennyson, Morris, and Swinburne all wrote 
 Arthurian stories. Perhaps no other literary material has 
 played so large apart in English literature as these old 
 romances. 
 
 There were other famous cycles of Romance, notably the 
 
 ' Long, English Literature, pp. 57-58.
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 197 
 
 stories of Troy, the stories of Alexander, and the stories of 
 Charlemagne, but none of them are so important in English 
 literature as the native stories about Arthur, 
 
 (2) Ballads 
 
 Ballad Literature. — The romances of chivalry, although 
 based upon popular tradition, were, for the most part, put 
 into literary form by the Normans, and really represent the 
 courtly class. The common people had a popular literature 
 all their own. They composed and sang the traditional 
 ballads, passing them on from generation to generation by 
 word of mouth. The origin of ballad making is far back in 
 the primitive period of civilization, when the unity of tribe 
 or nation was strong, and before the people had become di- 
 vided into educated and uneducated classes. When these 
 rude people met upon the green for game and dance and song, 
 a leader would begin to chant a bit of heroic story, some 
 achievement, perhaps, of a member of the tribe. Imme- 
 diately the entire company would take it up, developing the 
 story in song, and acting out the events in dramatic dance. 
 In a certain sense the ballad was the production of the throng 
 rather than of an individual artist. No one claimed the 
 authorship. It represented the ideas of no particular indi- 
 vidual. It was altogether spontaneous, objective, direct, 
 — a pure story in its simplest form, without any marks of 
 reflection and learning. The ballad was sung by everybody, 
 changed at will, and transmitted to the next generation by 
 word of mouth. Eventually it either passed out of remem- 
 brance or was caught by some maker of books and written 
 down. 
 
 Robin Hood. — This " merry art of ballad making " 
 in the old traditional manner is practically extinct, though 
 it is said that the old English ballads survive by tradition
 
 198 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 among the southern mountaineers, and ballads of a similar 
 nature have been collected among the cowboys of the fron- 
 tier. (See Lomax, John A : Coivboy Songs and Other Frontier 
 Ballads.) In the years following the Norman Conquest, 
 however, the custom was in vigorous survival in England. 
 The most important ballads have to do with the story of 
 Robin Hood, of which Sir Walter Scott made much use in 
 Ivanhoe. Robin Hood is an idealized outlaw ; a hero of the 
 common people, brave and honest, hating all forms of 
 injustice ; an enemy of the rich and powerful ; a friend of the 
 poor, and particularly of unfortunate knights. He em- 
 bodies the protest against the oppression of church and 
 state. 
 
 A Gest of Robin Hode is one of the oldest as well as one of 
 the best of the Robin Hood ballads. " The whole poem," 
 says Professor Child, " may have been put together as early 
 as 1400 or before." It is, however, based on still older 
 ballads. There are at least three distinct episodes : Robin's 
 experiences with the Knight, with the Sheriff, and with the 
 King. Perhaps these were originally separate ballads. 
 The story is very simple and direct, almost bald. Just the 
 necessary facts are told, nothing more. The story moves, 
 too, with great rapidity. When, for instance, the king has 
 come to the forest in disguise and has defeated Robin in an 
 archery contest, in which the penalty of defeat is a blow 
 from the victor, we have the following simple scene : 
 
 "Then bespake good Gylberte, 
 And thus he gan say ; 
 'Mayster,' he sayd, 'your takyll is lost, 
 Stande forth and take your pay.' 
 
 " 'If it be so,' say'd Robyn, 
 'That may no better be, .
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 199 
 
 Syr Abbot, I delyver the myn arowe, 
 I pray the, syr, serve thou me.' 
 
 '"It falleth not for myn ordre,' sayd our kynge, 
 ' Robyn, by thy leve, 
 For to smyte no good yeman, 
 For doute I sholde hym greve.' 
 
 " 'Smyte on boldely,' sayd Robyn, 
 ' I give the large leve : ' 
 Anone our kynge, with that worde, 
 He folde up his sieve. 
 
 And sych a buffet he gave Robyn, 
 
 To grounde he yede full nere : 
 *I make myn avowe to God,' sayd Robyn, 
 
 'Thou arte a stalworthe frere. 
 
 " 'There is pith in thyn arme,' sayd Robyn, 
 ' I trowe thou canst well shete ' ; 
 Thus our kynge and Robin Hode. 
 Togeder gan they mete." 
 
 Another famous ballad, somewhat later in date, is Chevy- 
 Chace, a story of a hunt on the Scottish border ending in a 
 clash of arms between the famous nobles Percy and Douglas. 
 Another is Tarn Lin, a supernatural ballad of transformation, 
 in subject matter not unlike the " Ballad of Alice Brand " 
 in The Lady of the Lake, but of course composed in a more 
 primitive and, therefore, more genuinely ballad style. 
 
 " ^ir Patrick Spence." — Of all the ballads which have come 
 down to us, however, none perhaps surpasses the strong and 
 graphic ballad of Sir Patrick Spence. It is short enough for 
 reproduction here. 
 
 1. " The king sits in Dumferling toune, 
 Drinking the blude-reid wine :
 
 200 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 ' whar \vi\\ I get guid sailor, 
 To sail this schip of mine ? ' 
 
 2. " Up and spak an eldern knicht, 
 
 Sat at the kings richt kne : 
 ' Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor, 
 That sails upon the se.' 
 
 3. " The king has written a braid letter, 
 
 And signed it wi his hand, 
 And sent it to Sir Patrick Spence, 
 Was walking on the sand. 
 
 4. " The first hne that Sir Patrick red, 
 
 A loud lauch lauched he ; 
 The next line that Sir Patrick red. 
 The teir blinded his ee. 
 
 5. " '0 wha is this has don this deid, 
 
 This ill deid don to me, 
 To send me out this time o' the yeir. 
 To sail upon the se! 
 
 6. " ' Mak hast, mak haste, uiy mirry men alL 
 
 Our guid schip sails the morne :' 
 '0 say no sae, my master deir, 
 For I feir a deadlie storme. 
 
 7. " 'Late late yestreen I saw the new moone, 
 
 Wi the auld moone in hir arme. 
 And I feir, I feir, my deir master. 
 That we will cum to harme.' 
 
 8. " our Scots nobles wer richt laith 
 
 To weet their cork-heild schoone ; 
 Bot lang owre a' the play wer plaj^d, 
 Thair hats they swam aboone. 
 
 9. "0 lang, lang may their ladies sit, 
 
 Wi thair fans into their hand,
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 201 
 
 Or eir they se Sir Patiick Spence 
 Cum siiiling to the land. 
 
 10. " O lang, lang may the ladies stand, 
 
 Wi thair gold kcms in their hair, 
 Waiting for thair ain deir lords. 
 For they'll se thame na mair. 
 
 11. " Haf owre, haf owre to Aberdour, 
 
 It's fiftie fadom deip, 
 And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence, 
 Wi the Scots lords at his feit." 
 
 Here is story reduced to its lowest terms. There is noth- 
 ing superfluous, for only the most significant facts are told. 
 Much must be read between the lines, yet to read between 
 the lines is easy, and the facts are unusually direct and 
 graphic. 
 
 Outside of ballads and romances, little need be said of the 
 
 literature between the Norman Conquest and the time of 
 
 Chaucer. Two productions only are of special interest. The 
 
 Pearl and Ancren Riwle. The Pearl is an intensely human 
 
 picture of a father's grief over the loss of his little daughter ; 
 
 The Ancren Riwle, advice for the guidance of anchoresses, 
 
 is one of the most beautiful pieces of early English prose. 
 
 For further information on these and other productions of the 
 
 period, the reader is referred to the standard histories of 
 
 literature. 
 
 (b) THE AGE OF CHAUCER 
 
 The Rise of the People. — The fourteenth century is re- 
 markable for the rising importance of the common people. 
 The Hundred Years War between France and England, 
 which broke out early in the century, not only loosened the 
 Normans' political ties with France, but also emphasized 
 their dependence upon the English peasantry. These peas-
 
 202 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 ants made valuable soldiers. The success of Edward III 
 and the Black Prince was largely due, not to knights in 
 armor, but to English yeomen, who fought with the bow. 
 Moreover, the scourge of the Black Death destroyed half 
 of the people of the country, and so made labor rare and 
 valuable. The common man began to realize his importance 
 in the state, and to demand a larger freedom and clearer 
 rights and privileges. In 1381 under the leadership of Wat 
 Tyler, Jack Straw, and John Balle, the peasants marched to 
 London, took possession of the city, and made their demands 
 upon King Richard II. Their express demands were not 
 granted, but they had demonstrated their power, and had 
 become conscious of their wrongs and needs. The masses 
 of the English people were beginning to think, and hence- 
 forth had to be reckoned with. 
 
 Langland's " Vision of Piers Plowman." — One of the most 
 important literary figures connected with the awakening of 
 the common people was William Langland (1332-1400), 
 who wrote The Vision of Piers Plowman. In this dream, 
 Langland brings together in an open field a crowd of people 
 representing all classes of English society; the plowman, 
 the laborer, the tradesman, the lawyer, the minstrel, the 
 friar, the pardoner, the knight. The central figure is Lady 
 Bribery, expressing the corrupt social life of the time. Lang- 
 land's sympathies are distinctly with those who are made 
 to labor that others may enjoy the fruit of their labors. 
 One entire division of the poem is a plea for the dignity and 
 worth of toil. The Seven Deadly Sins come to Piers to have 
 him lead them on the way to Truth, but he refuses to go 
 until his field has been plowed. They all set to work on the 
 field and thereby secure their salvation, for, as they work, 
 pardon comes to them for their sins. Another division shows 
 the religious awakening of the time. Its subject is " The
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 203 
 
 Search for Dowol, Dobot, Dobest." He who does well is 
 moral jind upriglit ; he who does better is also loving and 
 kind ; he does best who lives after the model of Christ. 
 Indeed, Piers in a way represents Christ, and appears in the 
 poem und(>r a halo of light. 
 
 John Wyclif . — A still more influential leader of the 
 people was John Wyclif (1323-1384), whose greatest service 
 Avas his translation of the Bible into English. This Bible 
 profoundly affected the life of the English people in spite of 
 the fact that it had to be circulated entirely in manuscript, 
 and for that reason could not be universally read. It was, 
 moreover, the first influential piece of real literary English 
 prose, with the possible exception of Sir John Mandeville's 
 Travels. Its influence both on English prose and on the 
 lives of the English people can hardly be overestimated. 
 Wyclif also organized the famous Lollard movement for the 
 purification of religion, modifying many of the ideas of the 
 Roman church. Influential friends protected him from per- 
 secution during his lifetime, but some years after his death 
 his bones were dug up and burned, and his ashes thrown into 
 the river Swift. 
 
 Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), however, was by far the 
 greatest literary figure of the time. He was not a reformer 
 in the sense that Langland and Wyclif were. He made no 
 war upon society. He made no war against the church. He 
 was, however, a very penetrating critic of life and the prince 
 of story-tellers. The entire life of the time is reflected in his 
 poetry. He knew the court ; he knew the common people ; 
 and he has given us a very graphic picture of the virtues and 
 follies of both. His poems, especially The Canterbury Tales, 
 are full of the most delightful satire on all classes. 
 
 Period of French Influence. — His literary life naturally 
 divides itself into three periods. Until he was thirty years
 
 204 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 old, he was a student of French hfe and Hterature. Under 
 the French influence, he wrote in EngUsh verse a long trans- 
 lation of the famous French poem, The Romaunt of the Rose, 
 an allegory about love. The winning of a lady's favor is 
 represented by the effort to secure a rose which blooms in a 
 mystic garden. Some of the characters in the action are 
 Love, Hate, Envy, Jealousy, Idleness, Sweet Looks. The 
 Death of Blanche the Duchesse also belongs to this period. 
 It was written after the death of Blanche, wife of Chaucer's 
 patron, John of Gaunt, to solace the bereavement of her hus- 
 band. 
 
 The Italian Period. — In 1370 Chaucer was sent abroad by 
 the government on the first of those diplomatic missions upon 
 which he was to be engaged for the next fifteen years. He 
 visited Italy and soon came under the influence of the great 
 Italian writers. The period, therefore, from 1370 to 1386 
 has been called the Italian period of Chaucer's life. To this 
 period belong Troilus and Criseyde, The House of Fame, and 
 The Legend of Good Women. 
 
 " The Legend of Good Women." — The prologue to The 
 Legend of Good Women relates that on Chaucer's return one 
 evening from a walk in the fields he fell asleep in his garden 
 and dreamed that he saw coming toward him across the 
 meadow the God of Love, suncrowned and radiant faced, 
 leading by the hand the royal Alcestis. The God of Love 
 chides Chaucer for writing books of false and fickle love such 
 as The Romaunt of the Rose and Troilus and Criseyde, when 
 he might be writing of the virtue and faithfulness of women. 
 Alcestis pleads in his behalf, and secures for him the penance 
 of writing a series of stories in praise of good women. Then 
 follow nine stories celebrating, among others, Cleopatra, 
 Dido, Thisbe, Lucretia, Ariadne, and Medea. 
 
 The House of Fame is also a dream. Chaucer finds him-
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 205 
 
 self in a temple of glass sacred to Venus. The place is full 
 of beautiful statues, one, in particular, being a statue of 
 Venus herself, floating in a lake. The chief interest of the 
 poet, however, is in a brass tablet upon which he reads the 
 story of The jEncid, beginning, 
 
 " I wol now singe, if that I can, 
 The amies and al-so the man, 
 That first came, through his destinie, 
 In Itaile, with ful moche i)yne. 
 Unto the strondes of Lavj'ne." 
 
 Practically all of Book I is taken up with a summary of Vir- 
 gil's Mneid, emphasis being placed upon ^neas's desertion 
 of Dido. 
 
 In the second book, Jove's bright eagle snatches up the 
 poet, and carries him to the House of Fame, midway between 
 heaven and earth. Thither all the sounds of the world are 
 rushing, making a noise like " the beating of the sea against 
 the hollow rocks in time of tempest." Within the house, 
 Fame sits upon her throne receiving various groups of people 
 who come to have their fames decreed. Eolus, the god of 
 the winds, stands by ready to blow their fames upon one of 
 two clarions. Praise or Slander. Outside the palace is a house 
 sixty miles long, made of twigs in constant motion. Here 
 every rumor good or bad takes its shape before going to the 
 House of Fame to be blown over the earth by the trumpet of 
 Eolus. The poem breaks off abruptly at the 2158th line. 
 
 The English Period. — The third period of Chaucer's life 
 and work is peculiarly English. He lived in London in close 
 touch with English life, growing away gradually from French 
 and Itahan influences. He felt keenly all th(> new forces of 
 English national life : the sense of unity between Norman 
 and Saxon, the national pride in the foreign victories of 
 Edward III, the growing power of parliament, the awakened
 
 206 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 consciousness of the common people. All this he sought to 
 interpret in the crowning work of his life, The Canterbury 
 Tales. 
 
 The scheme of The Canterbury Tales was happily chosen. 
 In the Prologue the poet imagines himself one evening at the 
 Tabard Inn in Southwark, near the southern end of London 
 Bridge, in company with twenty-nine men and women from 
 all classes of English society, ready to start on a pilgrimage 
 to the shrine of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. • Chaucer 
 describes these pilgrims with fine accuracy and great good 
 humor. 
 
 The Pilgrims. — The chivalric courtly class is represented 
 by the knight and the squire. The knight is a model of 
 truth and honor, liberality and courtesy. He has fought for 
 the faith in many tournaments and battles, and always had 
 renown. The squire, his son, is a gay young man of twenty, 
 with curly hair and richly embroidered garments, and adept 
 at singing, dancing, and playing the flute, yet skillful and 
 strong withal. To the peasantry belong a yeoman, with 
 coat and hood of green, and a forester with bow and arrows 
 and horn. The church is represented by a group comprised 
 of a prioress, a monk, a friar, a parson, a pardoner, and a 
 summoner. They represent the shortcomings and the virtues 
 of the churchmen of the time, both the corrupt ecclesiastics, 
 against whom Langland wrote, and the reforming class, to 
 which Wyclif belonged. The monk is a man of pleasure, 
 provided with rich clothes and fine horses and especially fond 
 of hunting and feasting. The friar is "a wanton and a 
 merry " ecclesiastic, free in granting his absolutions, and easy 
 in imposing penances. The summoner is a very repulsive 
 person, with blotched face, fiery red, and with a fondness for 
 garlic, onions, and strong drink. The pardoner is a careless 
 fellow with a wallet full of " pardons come from Rome all
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 207 
 
 hot." He carries also bits of cloth and pig's bones, which he 
 sells as relics of the holy saints. The prioress is a dainty 
 lady, whose table manners are the most exquisite, and who 
 sings the divine service " entuned in her nose ful semely." 
 The parson is the true and noble representative of the (diurch, 
 rich in holy thought and work, a real preacher of the Gospel, 
 careful of tiie good of his people, helpful in sickness and dis- 
 tress, a noble example of right living, a true follower of Wyclif 
 and the other reformers. The landed proprietors are repre- 
 sented by the franklin, Epicurus's own son ; the professional 
 classes, by the doctor and the lawyer ; the business class, 
 by the merchant, the miller, the carpenter, the weaver, the 
 dyer, and the upholsterer. The Wife of Bath represents the 
 women of the middle class. Her face is bold and her teeth 
 far apart and protruding. She is conspicuously dressed, 
 with hat as " broad as is a buckler or a targe," with scarlet- 
 red stockings, and with spurs upon her " shoes ful moiste 
 and newe." She has a mania for pilgrimages. At the same 
 time, she is an expert spinner and weaver, and has been 
 attractive enough to win five husbands. Finally, the schol- 
 ars are represented by a clerk of Oxford, an unworldly, hol- 
 low-cheeked man in threadbare coat, but all aglow with the 
 new passion for learning : 
 
 "For him was levere have at his beddes heed 
 Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed 
 Of Aristotle and his philosophye. 
 Than robes riche, or fithele or gay sautrye. 
 But al be that he was a philosophre, 
 Yet hadde he Ijut litel gold in oof re ; 
 But al that he mighte of his frendes hente. 
 On bokes and on lerninge he it spente, 
 And busily gan for th(> soulos preye 
 Of hem that yaf him wlierwith to scoleye.
 
 208 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Of studie took he most cure and most hede. 
 Noght o word spak he more than was nede, 
 And that was seyd in forme and reverence, 
 And short and quik and ful of hy sentence ; 
 Sowninge in moral vertu was liis speche, 
 And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche." 
 
 " The Knight's Tale." — At the suggestion of the host at 
 the Tabard Inn, each pilgrim agrees to tell two stories on the 
 way to Canterbury, and two returning, with the understand- 
 ing that the best story-teller shall receive a free dinner at 
 the end. Chaucer wrote, however, only twenty-four of these 
 stories. The most interesting are The Knight's Tale and The 
 Nun's Priest's Tale. The Knight tells the story of Palamon 
 and Arcite, two Theban youths who have been captured 
 by Theseus and confined in an Athenian prison. From 
 the prison window, they see Theseus' s sister, EmiHe, 
 walking in the garden, and both fall violently in love 
 with her. Arcite is released from prison and Palamon 
 escapes. They meet by chance in a wood and are on the 
 point of fighting when Theseus and his train interrupt. Both 
 lovers are at first condemned to death ; but on the interces- 
 sion of the women, a great tournament is arranged instead. 
 Each lover is to appear with a hundred knights and fight for 
 Emilie as the prize of victory. Palamon is overcome ; but 
 in the moment of victory, Arcite is thrown from his horse and 
 mortally injured. In the end Palamon and Emilie are 
 married. 
 
 The Nun's Priest's Tale is a quaint and humorous story 
 of the cock and the hen. Chanticleer, the king of a poor 
 widow's barnyard, and Pertelote, the most beautiful of his 
 seven wives, are very learned fowls, conversant with all the 
 literature of the Middle Ages and even of the classical past. 
 Chanticleer has had a disturbing dream, in which a bushy-
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 209 
 
 tailed beast threatened to carry him off. Pertelote twits 
 him for his cowardice, and, in the exact manner of the 
 medieval schoolmen, quotes Cato to prove that dreams are 
 of no significance. He needs to be purged ; and she herself 
 will prepare the medicine. Chanticleer replies with quotations 
 from Macrobius, Daniel, Joseph, and others to prove the 
 significance of dreams. Indeed, he quite overcomes poor 
 Pertelote with arguments and citations, and scorns her 
 laxative. The fox presently discovers himself, and after 
 flattering Chanticleer till he is off his guard, seizes him and 
 starts for the woods. Then the hens set up such a cry as 
 was not heard when Troy was taken and King Priam slain. 
 Pertelote shrieks louder than Hasdrubale's wife at the burn- 
 ing of Carthage, when her husband lost his life. The din 
 arouses the widow and her daughters, who pursue the fox. 
 The chase is joined by men with staves, by the dog, by the 
 cow and calf, even by the very hogs, all shouting "like fiends 
 in hell." At this crisis, Chanticleer persuades the fox to 
 shout defiance at his pursuers and, when the fox opens 
 his mouth to do so, escapes to a neighboring tree and is safe. 
 The moral of the story is explained by both the cock and the 
 
 fox: 
 
 "For he that winketh, whan he sholde see, 
 Al wilfully, God lat him never thee [thrive]!" 
 
 " ' Nay' quod the fox, 'but God give him mischaunce 
 That is as undiscrete of governaunce, 
 That jangleth whan he sholde holde his pees.' " 
 
 The fine satire of the poem can only be appreciated when the 
 entire story is read in the original. 
 
 (c) THE RISE OF THE DRAMA 
 
 The Religious Plays. — The chief literary interest between 
 the death of Chaucer (1400) and the birth of Shakespeare
 
 210 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 (1564) is in the rise of the drama. The modern drama really 
 began in the services of the medieval church. The mass 
 itself was a kind of drama of repentance, sacrifice, and for- 
 giveness, with the dramatic effect enhanced by the belief 
 that the bread and wine of the communion were actually 
 changed into the body and blood of Christ. It was alto- 
 gether natural that the details should be worked up with 
 an eye for dramatic effects. At first, in the chanting of the 
 mass, certain tones were prolonged and grace notes added. 
 Later, words were supplied from the Bible text appropriate 
 to the service of the day, the birth of Christ at Christmas, 
 for instance, or the resurrection at Easter. Individual singers 
 took the parts of the Shepherds who came to adore the baby 
 Christ, or represented the angel at the grave of the Saviour, 
 or the three Marys who came early on Easter morning to see 
 where their Lord had been laid. As time went on, complete 
 scenes with dialogue and appropriate action were presented 
 in the midst of the mass, helping the audience to understand 
 the service, and adding much to the popular interest. Gradu- 
 ally, the scenes grew too long to be a part of the service, and 
 the setting too large for the space around the high altar. The 
 scenes then became separated from the mass proper and were 
 performed by themselves, first in the aisles of the church, then 
 at the church door, and finally, on pageant wagons drawn from 
 place to place in the city streets. Finally, there were long 
 series or cycles of plays representing the entire Bible story 
 from Creation to Doomsday. The most important series in 
 English are The Chester Plays, The York Plays, and The 
 Townley Plays. These plays were exceedingly popular at the 
 end of the fourteenth and throughout the fifteenth centuries. 
 The Popular Entertainments. — - When the early dramas 
 ceased to be a part of the regular church service, they had to 
 compete with popular entertainments, and thus became
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 211 
 
 more subject to the popular taste. This taste had been 
 fashioned by certain popuhir customs more or less dramatic. 
 The old ballads, for instance, were acted in song and dance. 
 In the May season, two young men, dressed to represent 
 Summer and Winter, engaged in a symbolic contest, and 
 fought till Summer won. The story of Robin Hood in 
 dramatic form had a place in the Mayday celebration. 
 There was also the custom of disguisings in skins of beasts 
 and in masks representing beasts' heads. In particular, 
 the devil with horns and tail and cloven feet was represented 
 playing tricks upon the unwary, and executing countless 
 buffooneries. Last of all, certain strolling entertainers 
 performed feats of jugglery, represented little comic scenes 
 in dialogue, and perhaps continued some of the traditions of 
 the classical theater. 
 
 The Mystery or Miracle Play. — The plays which grew 
 out of the church service and became known as Mystery 
 or Miracle plays were quite different from these popular 
 comic entertainments, but they had to be adapted to the 
 popular demands. Since the Bible story itself was hardly 
 suited to comic treatment, scenes which had nothing to do 
 with the Bible had to be introduced. The first of these 
 scenes seems to have grown up in connection with the devil, 
 who was a character both in the popular dramatic customs 
 and in the religious plays. The church thought of him 
 primarily as the great principle of evil, the adversary of God 
 and of man, strong in the battle for souls, and delighting to 
 torture those who, through his wiles, lost their hope of bliss. 
 But the popular imagination had changed him into a beast- 
 demon, with horns and tail and cloven feet, exhibiting gro- 
 tesque and sportive characteristics. As we have seen, he was 
 connected with the popular customs as a player of pranks. 
 Of course, when the devil came to be represented in the
 
 212 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Miracle plays, the people demanded, not the old theological 
 devil, but their own familiar fiend. He came upon the stage 
 with his horns and tail and cloven feet, playing his pranks, 
 and bringing with him much of the comedy with which he had 
 been associated in the popular customs. 
 
 The Shepherd's Play. — This comedy soon spread beyond 
 the scenes in which devils appeared ; and, in the end, elabo- 
 rate comic scenes were introduced, sometimes quite incongru- 
 ously. In the Shepherd's Play of the Townley series, for 
 instance, a genuine farce is developed, a sheep-stealing 
 episode. While the shepherds are keeping watch over their 
 flocks a suspicious character of the neighborhood, Mak 
 by name, approaches. The shepherds are openly distrust- 
 ful of the scamp, and when they lie down to sleep, make him 
 lie between two of the shepherds, lest he rob their flock. 
 However, while the shepherds are sleeping, Mak contrives to 
 escape, steals and carries home a fat wether, and creeps back 
 unnoticed to his place between the shepherds. When the 
 shepherds waken, they go to count their sheep, and Mak 
 hastens home to tell his wife that the theft has been discovered 
 and that the shepherds will soon be at hand to search the 
 house. The two plan to put the dead sheep in a cradle 
 and to pretend that a baby has been born. Presently the 
 shepherds appear and search the house in vain, Mak caution- 
 ing them all the time not to waken the baby. Unfortunately 
 for Mak, however, one of the shepherds, when on the point 
 of leaving, regrets that he has been unjust to Mak and 
 returns to make a little present to the baby. He pulls 
 back the coverlet and discovers the sheep. 
 
 " ' Gyf me lefe hym to kys 
 And h'ft up the clowtt. 
 What the de\ill is this? 
 He has a long snowte.' "
 
 THE MIDDLE EXdLISH PERIOD 213 
 
 The shepherds punish Mak by tossing him in a sheet. 
 Just as they are finishing, the angel of the Lord ap- 
 pears and the heavenly host sings the Gloria in Excelsis. 
 The shepherds then proceed to Bethlehem to adore the 
 Christ. 
 
 It does not seem to have occurred to the medieval mind 
 that this crude combination was either incongruous or 
 sacrilegious. It pleased the audience, and — a thing which 
 is of much more importance — it introduced into the English 
 drama the notion of double plot, a serious main plot and 
 a comic underplot, side by side, but often quite inde- 
 pendent. 
 
 The Morality Play. — In the course of time the Miracle 
 plays passed beyond the control of the clergy into the hands 
 of the trade guilds, which used them as the attractive feature 
 of great public fairs. These occasions furnished a harvest 
 time for thieves and scoundrels. Confidence games and 
 all sorts of immoralities flourished. The clergy, therefore, 
 turned against the Miracle play and introduced a new and 
 less objectionable drama. This was the Morality play, in 
 which abstract qualities were personified and brought upon 
 the stage to work out some moral lesson. Virtues and vices, 
 for instance, contended for the soul of mankind, the virtues, 
 of course, being victorious. The best known of these plays 
 is Everyman. 
 
 "After a brief prologue spoken by a Messenger, the action opens 
 when Adonai, looking down upon the sinful earth, perceives how 
 Everyman 'lyveth after his own pleasure,' as if ignoring the utter 
 uncertainty of the tenure of human life. He therefore calls upon 
 Death, his 'mighty messengere ' to proceed to Everyman, and 
 summon him to undertake a pilgrimage which ho in no wise may 
 escape, and bid him bring with him without delay a sure reckoning. 
 Death delivers his message to Everyman, wlio tries in vain by pleas
 
 214 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 and bribes to turn the summoner away. Then, having received 
 the hint that he ' should prove his friends if he can,' to see whether 
 any of them is so hardy as to accompany him on the journey 
 which he must take, Every man, left alone in his terror, bethinks him 
 of appealing to his old friend Fellowship, his comrade in many a 
 day of sport and play, to go with him. Fellowship, accosted as 
 he passes over the stage, is full of assurances, for which he will not 
 be thanked. But a mention of the service required soon brings a 
 change over his professions, though he is quite at Evenjman's 
 service for a cUnner or murder or anything of that sort. When 
 he has departed, and Everyman has made a similarly futile appeal 
 to two associates called Kinsman and Cousin, he calls to mind one 
 other friend whom he has loved all his life, and who will surely 
 prove true to him in his distress. Riches this abstraction is called ; 
 'Property' would be the modern equivalent. . . . But although, 
 with self-confidence of capital. Riches avers that there is no difficulty 
 in the world which he cannot set straight, Everyman's difficult)^ is 
 unfortunately not one this world can settle. He has therefore in 
 despair to fall back upon the very last of the friends of whom he can 
 think — his Good-Deeds. Good-Deeds answers that she is so weak 
 that she can barely rise from the ground, where she lies cold and 
 bound in Everyman's sins. Yet not only will she respond to his 
 entreaty, but she will bring with her Knowledge, her sister, to help 
 liim in making 'that dredeful rekenyge.' Knowledge, by whom we 
 may suppose to be meant the discreet and learned advice which 
 religion has at her service, declares her willingness to stand by 
 Everyman at the judgment seat, and meanwhile by her advice 
 he addresses himself to Confession, who bestows on him a precious 
 jewel, 'Called penannce, voyder of adversyte.' 
 
 As he begins his last journey, a mortal weakness comes over him ; 
 one after another his companions, Beauty, Strength, Discretion, the 
 Five Wits, take their leave. Good Deeds shall make all sure; and 
 that the voices of angels are even now welcoming the ransomed soul. 
 And as an Angel descends to carry it heavenward, a personage called 
 Doctor epitomizes the lesson which the action of the play has illus- 
 trated."
 
 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 215 
 
 The Interlude. — Another type of play was the interlude, 
 at first a little scene performed between the courses of a 
 banquet, but later enlarged and developed. An example is 
 The Foure PP by John Heywood, a scene in which a Pothe- 
 cary, a Pardoner, and a Palmer enter into a contest to deter- 
 mine which can tell the biggest lie. The Pedler is the judge. 
 The Pothecary tells of his wondrous cures ; the Pardoner, 
 of how he went down to hell to pardon a sinner. Each 
 tells a lie worthy of the prize, but the Palmer wins with the 
 following : 
 
 " Yet have I sene manj^ a myle 
 And many a woman in the whjde, — 
 Not one good cytye, towne, nor borough 
 In Crist endom but I have be thorough ^ 
 And this I wolde ye shulde understande : 
 I have scne women a hundred thousands 
 And oft with them have longe tyme taryed. 
 Yet in all places where I have been 
 Of all the women that I have sene, 
 I never sawe nor knewe, in my consyens 
 Any one woman out of paciens." 
 
 They all cry out at the magnitude of this lie, and the Pedler 
 awards the prize to the Palmer. 
 
 Conclusion. — The Miracles, Moralities, and Interludes 
 were the principal types of native English drama before the 
 Renaissance. In the sixteenth century, however, the re- 
 vival of learning brought into favor, especially at the schools 
 and universities, the dramatic literature of Greece and of 
 Rome. Plautus, Terence, and Seneca were especially pop- 
 ular among the cultivated classes. Gradually the influence 
 of these dramatists affected the popular theater. In the 
 end, the two — the drama of the schoolmen and the drama 
 of the people — united to produce the great dramatic lit-
 
 216 STUDIES IX LITERATURE 
 
 erature of Shakespeare's time. A discussion of this, how- 
 ever, belongs in the next chapter. 
 
 Suggested Readings^ 
 
 Ballads and Romances: (1) Selections from Old English Ballads; 
 (2) Malory's Mode d' Arthur, Books XIII and XVII. 
 
 Chaucer: Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, The Knight's Tale, 
 The Nun's Priest's Tale. 
 
 Drama : The Second Shepherd's Play, Everyman, and Other Early 
 Plays. (Riverside Literature Series, Xo 191.) 
 
 ' Except where special editions are mentioned, the books are to be found 
 in the Pocket Series of English Classics, published by The Macmillan 
 Company.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 
 
 The sixteenth century was a time of great intellectual 
 activity in England ; almost, if not quite, the most brilliant 
 period in English literature. Back in the fifteenth century 
 events had taken place which were fast transforming the in- 
 tellectual life of all Europe. At first these events were more 
 influential on the continent than in England, because the 
 Wars of the Roses hatl so distracted the English people and 
 wasted their enc^rgies that intellectual progress was almost 
 impossible. Still, there were signs of revival even in fifteenth- 
 century England, and at the beginning of the new century 
 the nation was ready to yield itself with enthusiasm to all 
 the forces of the Renaissance. The most important of these 
 forces, as far as literature is concerned, were the rise of Human- 
 ism, the invention of printing, the discovery of the new world, 
 and the Reformation. 
 
 Humanism is the name given to the reawakened interest 
 in the study of the classical literature of Greece and of Rome. 
 It began in Italy. Indeed, at the end of the fifteenth century, 
 Italy led the world in learning. Earlier in the century, 
 Constantinople had been the center of the Greek learning ; 
 but after the capture of the city by the Turks in 1453 
 Greek scholars flocked into Italy, bringing numerous Greek 
 manuscripts with them, and spreading the influence of 
 their learning everywhere. Copies of these manuscripts 
 were distributed over all Europe, reaching, among other 
 places, the English universities. 
 
 217
 
 218 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 The Invention of Printing. — This humanistic movement 
 was greatly accelerated by Gutenberg's invention of printing. 
 Before this invention the masterpieces of literature were 
 written out by hand on parchment or vellum, and were there- 
 fore very costly. The only books, as the terra is commonly 
 understood, were picture books called " block books," printed 
 on coarse paper from wooden blocks. Some of the " blocks " 
 contained words and sentences, but movable type was not used 
 until Gutenberg invented the printing press. The method of 
 printing from movable type was completely successful before 
 the end of the fifteenth century, and was introduced into 
 England by William Caxton in 1476. Printing made books 
 much cheaper. Manuscripts were worth fifty cents a page 
 or more, and were consequently beyond the reach of all but 
 the most wealthy. One of Caxton's books entire could be 
 bought for from thirty to fifty dollars. This seems high- 
 priced to us in the days of numerous cheap editions, but the 
 printed book was so much less expensive than manuscript 
 that a great impetus was given to the spread of learning. 
 
 Maritime Discoveries. — The minds of men were stim- 
 ulated also by a rapid series of maritime discoveries. Colum- 
 bus discovered America in 1492. Almost immediately 
 afterward Vasco da Gama rounded Africa and reached In- 
 dia by sea. The Cabots sailed to the mainland of North 
 America, and brought back wonderful stories of the new 
 continent. In 1520 Magellan sailed round the world. And 
 to know the circumference of the earth was not all, for 
 Copernicus discovered that the earth itself, huge as it seemed, 
 is but an insignificant thing in the wide universe, just one of 
 the myriad stars, and by no means the most important. All 
 this knowledge enlarged the mind and stimulated the imagina- 
 tion more than we can easily realize. 
 
 The Reformation. — The Reformation, too, was a mighty
 
 THE RENAISSANCE • 219 
 
 influence. Martin Luther, in Germany, insisted upon the 
 right of the individual to think for himself, and aroused a 
 widespread desire for a more thorough knowledge of the 
 Scriptures in order to learn better the real grounds for the 
 Christian faith. This inspired William Tyndale, an English 
 clerg3^man, to translate the Bible into the English of his own 
 day. Wyclif's translation had had but a limited influence, 
 because it had circulated only in manuscript, and because 
 the language had changed much since Wyclif's time. Tyn- 
 dale's printed Bible was far more influential. The Reverend 
 Stopford Brooke says of it : "It was this Bible which, re- 
 vised by Coverdale and edited and reedited as Cromwell's 
 Bible in 1539, and again as Cranmer^s Bible, 1540, was set 
 up in every parish church in England. It got north into 
 Scotland and made the Lowland English more like the 
 London English. It passed over to the Protestant settle- 
 ments in Ireland. After its revival in 1611 it went with the 
 Puritan Fathers to New England and fixed the standard of 
 English in America. Millions of people now speak the Eng- 
 lish of Tyndale's Bible, The King James Version, and there 
 is no other book which has had so great an influence on the 
 style of English literature and the standard of English Prose." 
 
 (fl) NON-DRAMATIC LITERATURE 
 
 Miscellanies. — One of the first significant books showing 
 the Renaissance influence in England is TotteVs Miscellany, 
 a collection of poems published in 1557, the year before 
 Elizabeth's accession. Many of the poems of this collection 
 were written by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, 
 Earl of Surrey, court poets of the time of Henry VIII, who 
 were inspired largely by the Italian culture. Twenty-six 
 of Wyatt's sonnets, for example, are translations from 
 Petrarch. This miscellany was followed by many similar
 
 220 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 collections both in poetry and pro.sc, notably The Mirror for 
 Magistrates (1559), Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576), and 
 Painter^ s Palace of Pleasure (1566). These collections, es- 
 pecially the last, furnished Shakespeare and his contem- 
 poraries with the subject-matter for many of their famous 
 masterpieces. 
 
 John Lyly and Sir Philip Sidney. — More important than 
 miscellanies are John Lyly's Euphues and Sir Philip Sidney's 
 Arcadia. Both are prose stories, long and full of digressions. 
 Euphues consists of a loose framework of story into which 
 Lyly fits his ideas of love, friendship, education, and religion. 
 The latter part reflects the life, the talk, and the dress of the 
 court of Elizabeth, its fantastic and extravagant gallantry, 
 its fanciful imitation of chivalry, its far-fetched metaphors 
 and playing with language, its curious and gorgeous fashions 
 in dress. The Arcadia is a pastoral romance, full of fine and 
 delicate sentiment, polished and poetic, quite like its author, 
 the noble Christian knight who was recognized as the pattern 
 gentleman of his time. Both stories represent the new Re- 
 naissance interest in the art of writing. There is an effort 
 to make them smooth and charming in style. They seem 
 artificial to-day because they are so fantastic and flowery. 
 Yet they helped to give polish to literature, and they are full 
 of imaginative thought, which furnished much material to the 
 poets of the time. 
 
 ''The Shepherd's Calendar." — The most famous poet of 
 the period was Edmund Spenser (1552-1599). His work 
 represents the indirect and artificial manner of the pastoral 
 and the allegory. His first important work, The Shepherd^s 
 Calendar (1579), is a conventional pastoral. The characters 
 are spoken of as shepherds and shepherdesses, and they have 
 the sheep and the crook, but in thought they are far from 
 simple country people. The Calendar is a collection of poems,
 
 rilE RENAISSANCE 221 
 
 one for each month of the year. Only five of them have to 
 do directly with country life. The rest comprise fable, 
 satire, allegory. One of them is in praise of the Queen. 
 They were recognized at once as being the best poetry since 
 Chaucer's time. 
 
 "The Faerie Queene." — Spenser's greatest work was The 
 Faerie Queene, an allegory published in 1590. The poem is 
 an allegorical romance of chivalry. In the introductory 
 letter to Raleigh, Spenser explains that his plan is to write, 
 in twelve books, the adventures of twelve knights, who 
 represent the twelve virtues of Aristotle, and who contend 
 with the opposing vices. The main hero, however, was to 
 be Arthur, the hero of the old romances, who represents the 
 sum of all virtues. In the end he was to be wedded to the 
 Faerie Queene, the glory of God, to which all human act 
 and thought aspire. The Faerie Queene also represents 
 Queen Elizabeth. Duessa is Mary Queen of Scots. Arthur 
 is sometimes Leicester, and sometimes Sidney. Other al- 
 legories also slip in, referring often to the events of the day. 
 Only six of the proposed books were completed, the legends 
 of Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and 
 Courtesy. The allegory is clear in the first two books ; but, 
 as the story advances, digressions frequently appear, and 
 the allegory becomes complicated. 
 
 It is not necessary, however, to figure out all the allegory 
 in order to enjoy the book. The poem may be read simply 
 for its exquisite pictures, its rich and varied imagery, the 
 ever changing music of the verse, and, in general, the pre- 
 vailing atmosphere of romance. The Reverend Stopford 
 Brooke says of it : 
 
 "It is the jiocm of the noble power of the human soul struggling 
 towards union with God, and warring against all the forms of 
 evil ; and these powers become real personages, whose lives and
 
 222 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 battles Spenser tells in verse so musical and gliding, so delicately 
 wrought, so rich in imaginative ornament, and so inspired with the 
 finer life of beauty, that he has been called the poet's Poet. De- 
 scriptions like those of the House of Pride and the Mask of Cupid, 
 and of the Months, are so i-ivid in form and color, that they have 
 alwaj's made subjects for artists, while the allegorical personages 
 are, to the very last detail, wrought out by an imagination which 
 describes not only the general character, but the special characteris- 
 tics of the Virtues or the Vices, of the Months of the j^ear, or of the 
 Rivers of England. In its ideal whole, the poem represents the 
 new love of chivalry, of classical learning, the dehght in mystic 
 theories of love and reUgion, in allegorical schemes, in splendid 
 spectacles and pageants, in wild adventure, the love of England, the 
 hatred of Spain, the strange worship of the Queen, even Spenser's 
 own new love. It takes up and uses the popular legends of fairies, 
 dwarfs, and giants, all the machinery of the Itahan epics, and 
 mingles them up \\'ith the wild scenery of Ireland and the savages 
 and wonders of the New World. Almost the whole spirit of the 
 Renaissance under Ehzabeth, except its coarser and baser ele- 
 ments, is in its pages. Of anj'thing impure, or ugly, or violent, 
 there is no trace. ^\nd Spenser adds to all his own sacred love of 
 love, his ow^l preeminent sense of the lovehness of loveliness, walk- 
 ing through the whole of this woven world of faerie — 
 
 'With the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace. ' " 
 
 The Spenserian Stanza. — The verse form of The Faerie 
 Queene was an invention of Spenser and is known as the 
 Spenserian stanza. It consists of nine iambic lines, eight of 
 five feet each, and the last of six feet, riming abahhcbcc. The 
 following passage, relating to Morpheus, god of sleep, illus- 
 trates the meter and at the same time well exemplifies the 
 sweetness and beauty of poetic style which is peculiarly 
 Spenserian. 
 
 "And more to luUe him in his slumber soft, 
 
 A trickling streame from high rock tumbling downe,
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 223 
 
 And ever-drizling raine upoii tlie loft, 
 Mixt with a murmuriiif^ winde, much Hke the sowne 
 Of swarming Bees, did cast him in a swowne. 
 No other noyse, nor people troublous cryes, 
 As still are wont t'annoy the walled towne, 
 Might there be heard ; but carlesse Quiet lyes 
 Wrajjt in eternal silence farre from enimyes." 
 
 Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was another distinguished 
 literary figure. He was a man of great learning, a judge, an 
 effective speaker in parliament, a writer of essays and philo- 
 sophical treatises. Most of his philosophical work is in 
 Latin ; The Advancement of Learning, in both Latin and Eng- 
 lish ; the Essays, in English alone. His fame in English 
 literature rests largely upon the Essays, notably those on 
 Studies, Riches, Adversity, Friendship, Great Place. His writ- 
 ings are not emotional and romantic like Lyly's Euphues and 
 Sidney's Arcadia, but highly intellectual. Simplicity and di- 
 rectness are the prevailing attributes of his style. The follow- 
 ing much-quoted passage from Studies is characteristic : 
 
 "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." 
 
 (b) DRAMATIC LITERATURE 
 
 The most important literature of this period is the drama. 
 The age itself was objective, adventurous, dramatic ; and 
 naturally expressed itself in dramatic form. The theater be- 
 came the center of the national life. It served as newspaper, 
 magazine, and text book of history, as we have explained 
 elsewhere (Part I, p. 39). Nearly every phase cf life and 
 thought was reflected in the stage plays. Never has the 
 drama been more sensitive to the influences of real life.
 
 224 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Revival of Classical Drama in the Schools. — Humanism 
 had its part to play in this dramatic development. During 
 the Middle Ages the traditions of the classical drama had been 
 practically obliterated. The manuscripts of the Greek and 
 of the Latin plays were well-nigh forgotten, hidden away, 
 as they were, in the libraries of the monasteries, and 
 seldom read. But with the revival of learning, these 
 plays were brought to light and carefully studied in the 
 monasteries and schools. It was found that a good way 
 to teach Latin to boys was to have them present, in 
 Latin, scenes from Plautus and Terence, or act drama- 
 tized versions of stories like that of the Prodigal Son. 
 Thus. originated " the drama of the schools," founded upon 
 classical models. 
 
 " Ralph Roister Doister." — The first play in English on the 
 classical models is generally supposed to be Ralph Roister 
 Doister (1552 or 1553). It was written by Nicholas Udall, 
 a schoolmaster, to be acted by the boys of Eton School. 
 It was full of horse-play of the kind the boys certainly de- 
 lighted in acting. Ralph, the central figure, is a conceited 
 simpleton upon whom Merrygreeke and others play numerous 
 tricks. Ralph wishes to marry a rich widow, and writes her 
 a love letter. But Merrygreeke changes the punctuation and 
 reads the letter to the lady in such a way as to alter the 
 entire meaning. The widow becomes angry ; but Ralph 
 persists in his suit. Finally, annoyed beyond endurance, 
 she arms her maidens with broomsticks and other household 
 articles, and drives him away in great discomfiture. The 
 play is written on the model of the comedies of Plautus. 
 It furnished English playwrights an excellent example of 
 rapid dialogue and clearly constructed plot. 
 
 " Gammer Gurton's Needle," another early comedy, is a 
 more realistic picture of English peasant life.
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 225 
 
 "Gammer Gurton is patching the leather breeches of her man 
 Hodge, when Gib, the cat, gets into the milkpan. While Gammer 
 chases the cat the family needle is lost, a veritable calamity in those 
 daj's. The whole houscOiold is turned upsi(l(» down and the neighbors 
 are dragged into the affair. X'arious comical situations are l^rought 
 about by Dicicon, a thieving vagabond, who tells Gammer that her 
 neighbor. Dame Chatte, has taken her needle, and who then hurries 
 to tell Dame Chatte that she is accused by Gammer of stealing a 
 favorite rooster. Naturally there is a terrible row when the irate 
 old women meet and misunderstand each other. Diccon also 
 drags Doctor Rat, the curate, into the quarrel by teUing him that, 
 if he will but creep into Dame Chatte's cottage by a hidden way, 
 he will find her using the stolen needle. Then Diccon secretly 
 warns Dame Chatte that Gammer Gurton's man Hodge is coming 
 to steal her chickens ; and the old woman hides in the dark passage 
 and cudgels the curate soundly with the door bar. All the parties 
 are finally brought before the justice, when Hodge suddenly and 
 painfully finds the lost needle — which is all the while stuck in 
 his leather breeches — and the scene ends uproariously for both 
 audience and actors." 
 
 " Gorboduc." — The first English tragedy along classical 
 lines was Gorboduc, written by Thomas Sackville and Thomas 
 Norton. It was acted in 1561(2) at the Inner Temple, the 
 London law school to which the authors belonged. The 
 story is similar to that of King Lear. The outline follows : 
 
 "Gorboduc, king of Brittaine, divided his realme in his lifetime 
 to his sonnes, Ferrex and Porrex ; the sonues fell to discention ; the 
 yonger killed the elder ; the mother, that more dearely loved the 
 elder, for revenge killed the yonger; the people, moved by the 
 crueltie of the fact, rose in rebellion and slew both father and 
 mother; the nobility assembled and most terrilily destroyed the 
 rebels ; and after wardes, for want of issue of the jjrince, whereby 
 the succession of the crowne became uncertaine, they fell to ci\nl 
 warre, in which both they and many of their issues were slain, and 
 the land for a long time almost desolate and miserably wasted." 
 Q
 
 226 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 The plan of the play follows the classical rules of Seneca. 
 Blood flows profusely, but not a drop is shed upon the stage. 
 Messengers relate the bloody deeds, and choruses comment 
 upon them. 
 
 The Chronicle History Play. — The influence of the classical 
 drama was for some time confined to the schools and univer- 
 sities. The plays performed by professional actors in the 
 inn-yards and, after 1576, in theater buildings, followed 
 native traditions. The popularity of the old Miracle play 
 had waned ; but the new Chronicle History play preserved 
 the old dramatic traditions. The only important change 
 was to substitute English history for Bible history. Ex- 
 amples of the Chronicle History play are The First part of 
 the Contention betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke and 
 Lancaster, The True Tragedie of Richard, Duke of Yorke, and 
 The Famous Victories of Henry V. These plays are re- 
 markable, not for their intrinsic merits, but because the first 
 two formed the basis of the three parts of Henrtj VI, at- 
 tributed to Shakespeare, and the third furnished suggestions 
 for Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts I and H, and Henry V. 
 Compared with Shakespeare's work, they seem very crude 
 indeed. 
 
 The Drama of Blood. — The same popular dramatic 
 methods were used in putting on the stage every new murder 
 or scandal and all the thrilling Italian and Spanish stories 
 which now began to crowd the London bookstalls. A 
 veritable drama of blood grew up, very crude in form, glut- 
 ting the people with horrors. Unlike Gorboduc, these popular 
 tragedies presented all the bloodshed on the stage. The 
 people demanded the representation of the deed itself. A 
 mere account of it by a messenger was too tame. 
 
 " The Spanish Tragedy." — The most popular of these 
 dramas was, perhaps. The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd,
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 227 
 
 who is also supposed to have written the first play on the 
 Hamlet story. The outline of The Spanish Tragedy reveals 
 its general character. Andrea, a Spanish nobleman, is sent 
 to claim tribute from the king of Portugal. War arises and 
 Andrea is slain. His friend Horatio captures the Portu- 
 guese prince, Belthazar, and returns to Spain. Here Horatio 
 falls in love with Bel-Imperia, formerly the lady love of 
 Andrea, and is beloved by her in return ; but her brother 
 Lorenzo, a court villain of the blackest stamp, wishing her 
 to marry Belthazar, murders Horatio and hangs him to a 
 tree in his father's garden. Here Hieronimo, the father, 
 discovers the body of his son, and vows the rest of his life 
 to vengeance upon the assassin. A play is devised at court 
 in which Lorenzo and Belthazar take part. At the close 
 Hieronimo and Bel-Lnperia stab the two traitors and after- 
 wards put an end to their own lives. In this play there are 
 six murders, three executions, two deaths in combat, and 
 three suicides. The popular playwright cared little for the 
 restraint of the classical drama. 
 
 The Popular Drama and the Drama of the Schools. — 
 There was thus a marked contrast between the popular 
 drama and the drama of the scholars. The popular play- 
 wrights scorned what they considered the stupid pedantry 
 in the plays of the schoolmen, and the tedious description 
 and disquisition. The scholars, in turn, scoffed, not with- 
 out reason, at the rustic buffooneries and profuse bloodshed 
 in which the popular writers seemed to delight. The school- 
 men represented art without life ; the popular plaj'wrights, 
 life without art. There was also a contrast in dramatic 
 method. When the popular pla}'wright wished to dramatize 
 a story, he took it up at the beginning and by a series of 
 scenes with changes of time, place, and action, developed it 
 gradually to its climax and catastrophe. The schoolman
 
 228 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 
 
 on the contrary, had a tendency to hit at once upon the crisis 
 or catastrophe, and to present only that confined to one time 
 and place, bringing out what had happened before or else- 
 where by a messenger, who relates it, or by the chorus, which 
 reflects upon it. The schoolmen tried to force upon the 
 popular playwrights the methods of the ancient dramatists. 
 They pointed out the irregularities and inconsistencies of 
 the popular dramas and laughed at their lack of art.^ The 
 playwrights, however, cared little for this. They had the 
 ear of the people and would not put up with the restraints 
 and limitations of classical art. The real dramatic problem 
 of the time was to take what was best in each of these schools 
 — the art of the one and the vigorous life of the other — ■ 
 and unite them into enduring drama. This was accom- 
 plished by Marlowe, Shakespeare, and their contemporaries. 
 Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was the son of a 
 shoemaker, ]>ut he had the advantages of university life 
 at Cambridge, and when he came up to London to write 
 plays for the public stage, he brought with him a knowl- 
 edge of classical dramatic art. He was forced to write in 
 the popular style or starve. Yet he saw the weaknesses of 
 the popular style and began at once to modify it. To the 
 rambling stories he gave a more definite unity than had before 
 been attempted. He always came to his work with some 
 great central idea to express, some master passion to de- 
 lineate. In Tamburlaine, it is the thirst for unlimited power, 
 the inordinate desire of a man in the lowest rank of life for 
 the honors of an absolute throne. In Doctor Faushis, it 
 is the scholar's desire for more than mortal knowledge, 
 " the climbing after knowledge infinite," even at the 
 risk of his innnortal soul. In The Jew of Malta, it is the 
 inordinate desire for gold — not the sordid vice of avarice, 
 
 1 See Sidney, The Defence of Poesie.
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 229 
 
 but a passion lifted by the imagination into the realm of 
 poetry. In Edward II, it is again the thirst for power, an 
 overmastering passion which cares not to count the cost. 
 The same audacity that made Tamburlaine say, 
 
 "I'll mouui the top with my aspiring wings 
 Although my downfall be the darkest hell," 
 
 the same recklessness that made Faustus exclaim, 
 
 "Had I as many souls as there be stars 
 I'd give them all for Mephitopholis," 
 
 led Mortimer in Edward II to hazard everything for the 
 tlirone, and to say at last when retribution came upon him, 
 
 "Base fortune now I see that in thy wheel 
 There is a point, to which, when men aspire, 
 They tumble headlong down ; that point I touch'd 
 And seeing there was no place to mount higher 
 Why should I grieve at my decUning fall?" 
 
 Passion Interest. — The passion interest is often extrava- 
 gant. Tamburlaine, " scourging kingdoms with his con- 
 quering sword," is sometimes absurd. The atrocities of the 
 Jew of Malta are quite inhuman. Yet to unify the action 
 about one central theme was a distinct dramatic gain ; and 
 in his grand way Marlowe was sometimes very effective. 
 Charles Lamb says of the catastrophe scene in Edward II, 
 where the King, standing in the " mire and puddle " of 
 the dungeon of Berkeley Castle, gazes into the eyes of his 
 murderer with the fine spirit of the Plantagenets : " This 
 scene moves pity and terror beyond any scene ancient or 
 modern with which I am familiar." 
 
 Characterization. — Some of the characters lack individ- 
 uality. Tand)urlaine is just the incarnation of brute force. 
 The Jew of Malta is not a real Jew ; he is only the personi-
 
 230 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 fication of the popular hatred of the Jew. There is no 
 humanity about him as there is about Shakespeare's Shylock, 
 Even Dr. Faustus is not strongly individualized. Yet 
 Faustus is after all a fine type of medieval rebel, pursuing the 
 path of forbidden knowledge with unholy ardor. Mortimer, 
 in Edward II, reminds us a little of Shakespeare's Hotspur. 
 And Edward II reveals, in the end, a ilistinct personality, 
 weak in many ways, it is true, but with the genuine dignity 
 and strength of kingship behind all the folly and caprice. 
 Marlowe's characters lack the delicate, refining touches of 
 finished work ; but they are colossal figures, grandly con- 
 ceived and magnificently executed. 
 
 Marlowe's Blank Verse. — Marlowe also did much for the 
 development of blank verse. The schoolmen had employed 
 lines of ten syllables without rime since the time Gorboduc 
 was written, but their failure to produce varied and rhythmi; 
 cal verse was conspicuous. There was not the jingle of the 
 recurring rime, but each line stood awkwardly in its place, 
 stiff, monotonous, isolated. Marlowe made the thought 
 flow on from line to line unimpeded ; balanced phrase against 
 phrase ; built up periods as in prose ; and by a variety of 
 cadences gave to the verse a changing melody. Some of 
 his later lines would not seem out of place in Shakespeare. 
 
 Periods of Shakespeare's Work. — Shakespeare carried 
 on and developed the Marlowe tradition, adding to dignity 
 and strength, delicacy and humor. The year 1600 divides 
 Shakespeare's work almost exactly in the middle. For ten 
 or twelve years before, and for ten or twelve years after 
 1600, he was closely connected with the London public 
 theater both as plajn^-right and actor. These two periods 
 in turn divide themselves almost equally, making four well- 
 defined periods in the development of Shakespeare's art as a 
 dramatist. The first period was a time of apprenticeship
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 231 
 
 and experiment, when he was working out from under the 
 influence of other men, and feehng his way along new lines 
 of dramatic work. Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer 
 Night's Dream belong to this period. Professor Dowden 
 characterizes this time by the catch phrase " In the Work- 
 shop." During the second period (1595-1601) Shakespeare 
 was enlarging his experience of the world, delighting in its 
 pageantry, analyzing its forces, formulating its laws, and 
 learning to express himself with freedom of style and mastery 
 of dramatic form. It is the great ol^jective period of the 
 poet's life. Professor Dowden characterizes it by the 
 phrase " In the World." Here belong Henry V and Twelfth 
 Night as typical plays. In the third period (1601-1608) 
 Shakespeare was concerned with the deeper experiences of 
 life, not the pageantry of the world without, but the prob- 
 lems of the world within. He wrestled with the problem of 
 the inner life, the motives for conduct, the passions of the 
 human heart. Professor Dowden calls this period " Out of 
 the Depths." To it belong the great tragedies, of which 
 Macbeth and Hamlet are examples. In the fourth period 
 (1608-1612) the poet worked away from this dark and som- 
 ber tragedy, from experiences of questioning and tumlilt and 
 passion, into a serene philosophic calm. "On the Heights" 
 is Professor Dowden 's phrase for this period. Typical plays 
 are The Tempest and Winter's Tale. " In the Workshop," 
 " In the World," " Out of the Depths," " On the Heights " ; 
 apprenticeship, objective experience, subjective analysis, 
 philosophic serenity — this represents a bird's-eye view of 
 Shakespeare's mental development. The following table 
 classifies the poet's works according to the four periods : 
 
 First Period, Early Experiment. Venus and Adonis, 
 Rape of Lucrece, 1594 ; Titus Andronicus, Henry VI (three 
 parts), 1590-1591; Love's Labour's Lost, 1590; Comedy of
 
 232 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1591-1592; Richard III, 
 1593 ; Richard II, King John, 1594-1595 ; Sonnets, 1593- 
 1598. 
 
 Second Period, Development. Romeo and Juliet, Mid- 
 summer Night's Dream, 1595 ; Merchant of Venice, Henry IV 
 (first part), 1596; Henry IV (second part), Merry Wives of 
 Windsor, 1597 ; Much Ado About Nothing, 1598 ; As You 
 Like It, Henry V, 1599. 
 
 Third Period, Maturity and Gloom. Twelfth Night, 1600 ; 
 Taming of the Shrew, Julius Ccesar, Hamlet, Troilus and 
 Cressida, 1601-1602; AWs Well That Ends Well, Measure for 
 Measure, 1603; Othello, 1604; King Lear, 1Q05; Macbeth, 
 1606; Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, 1607. 
 
 Fourth Period, Philosophic Serenity. Coriolanus, Pericles, 
 1608; Cymbeline, 1609; Winter's Tale, 1610-1611; The 
 Tempest, 1611; Henry VIII. 
 
 Shakespeare was not a genius who wrote as well at the 
 beginning as at the end of his career. He had to learn his 
 art just as other men do. He learned, however, through 
 experiment and not by writing from models ; for with the 
 exception of some of Marlowe's work he had in the plays then 
 in vogue in the public theaters only crude models to work 
 from, and the classical plays of the schools were not adapted 
 to the popular taste. His work was to develop dramatic 
 types which were both successful stage plays and pieces of 
 literary art. The principal Shakespearean types are his- 
 tory, comedy, and tragedy. All three existed in a crude 
 form when he began to write for the stage. He developed 
 each to a high degree of perfection. 
 
 The History Play, or, more strictly, the Chronicle History 
 play, never shook off the older conventional form, even 
 under Shakespeare's hand. The serious main plot and the 
 comic underplot remained side by side without a connection
 
 FropiTty of the Melropalitan Museum of Art. 
 Portia. 
 After the painting by John Everett Millais.
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 233 
 
 vital enough to give real dramatio unity to the play as a 
 whole ; and the dialogue in the serious main plot never 
 became acting dialogue in a true dramatic sense ; to the end, 
 it retained its narrative and oratorical qualities. Yet instead 
 of the tedious narrative, bombastic declamation, and crude 
 buffoonery of the early plays, Shakespeare developed bril- 
 liant oratory and spirited declamation in the main plot, and 
 a genuine comedy of mann(n-s in the underplot. The por- 
 trayal of character, too, finds full development. Henry V 
 is Shakespeare's ideal man of action. Falstaff is still con- 
 sidered the greatest comic character in literature. 
 
 Comedy had existed before Shakespeare as a distinct 
 dramatic type in the plays of John Lyly, with their clever 
 dialogue ; in the mask entertainments of the court, full of 
 dancing and singing; and in the classical comedies like 
 Ralph Roister Doister, notable for their comic situations. 
 Shakespeare doubled the complications of the classical 
 dramas in his Comedy of Errors ; utilized all the mask effects 
 in A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest; and, in 
 such plays as Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing, 
 developed the type known as Romantic Comed}-, employing 
 all the sources of comic effect in genuinely clever dialogue, 
 well-conceived situations, and carefully constructed plots. 
 
 Tragedy. — The drama of blood was elevated by Shake- 
 speare into real tragedy. In his plays, the emphasis is no 
 longer upon the shedding of blood for the mere horror of it, 
 but upon the motives for action which lie deep in the pas- 
 sionate heart. He treats the very essence of tragedy in the 
 struggle between the individual and his surroundings, the 
 conflict between will and fate, the strife between the " musts " 
 and the " can'ts " in human life. (See Part I, p. 46.) When 
 the individual will says, " I must," and the external forces 
 of life say, " You can't," we have the basis for the tragic
 
 234 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 clash which Shakespeare made his plays interpret. Mac- 
 beth, Hamlet, and King Lear are not mere dramas of blood, 
 but very searching interpretations of life. 
 
 Ben Jonson's Tragedies. — Ben Jonson (1573?-1637) 
 was Shakespeare's greatest contemporary and rival. He was 
 of humble birth, but he had more schooling than Shake- 
 speare, and became, in the end, the most learned dramatist 
 of the time. He set hirhself against what he considered the 
 imaginative extravagance of his contemporaries and culti- 
 vated the restraint of the classicists. In tragedy, particularly, 
 he took up the line of development which had been begun in 
 Gorboduc and tried to convert the popular drama to the 
 ideas of Seneca. Sejanus and Cataline are his important 
 historical tragedies. They are very learned ; they are 
 scrupulously accurate in the matter of historical details ; 
 they conform in general to the classical " unities." The 
 characters, however, are not so genuinely human as are 
 Shakespeare's men and women. The style is not so direct 
 and strong. 
 
 Jonson's Comedies. — Jonson's best comedies are: Every- 
 man in his Humour, The Silent Woman, Volpone, The 
 Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. They illustrate " the 
 comedy of humors." The author seizes upon some eccen- 
 tricity of character, some peculiar trait of human nature, 
 and emphasizes that, neglecting the natural complexities 
 of character. Volpone, for example, is a study of avarice ; 
 The Alchemist, a study of quackery. The Silent Woman 
 is particularly noteworthy. The leading character's special 
 peculiarity or " humor " is a horror of noise. This person, 
 Morose by name, lives in a street too narrow to admit 
 carriages ; he pads the door ; he puts mattresses on the 
 stairs ; he forces his servants to go about in thick stockings. 
 In a hasty moment, he resolves to marry in order to keep
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 235 
 
 his money away from a nephew, Eugenic, whom he disHkes. 
 He beheves his wife to be a rare silent woman ; but she finds 
 her voice immediately after the marriage, talks loudly, 
 reforms the household, and drives Morose in distraction to 
 the garret. Morose finally agrees to give the nephew £500 
 a year to be released from, his torment. The silent woman 
 turns out to be a boy in disguise. The play is full of bright, 
 quick movement and splendid fun. 
 
 Jonson's Masks. — Jonson was also famous as a writer of 
 masks. They were performed mostly before the court of 
 James I at Whitehall. Mythological and allegorical scenes 
 were presented with magnificent costuming and against a 
 background of elaborate scenery designed by the court arch- 
 itect, Inigo Jones. The best of these masks are The Masque 
 of Beauty, The Hue and Cry after Cupid, and The Masque 
 of Queens. 
 
 Thomas Heywood was a dramatist of whose life as a writer 
 little is known except that it was long, extending from the 
 time of Marlowe to the closing of the theaters in 1642. He 
 has been called a " dramatic journalist," because he tried to 
 do through the drama what is now accomplished through 
 the newspaper and the lecture. His most famous play is a 
 drama of simple domestic life, A Woman killed loith Kind- 
 ness. Domestic life mixed with adventure is exemplified in 
 The Fair Maid of the West; it contains pictures of life in an 
 English seaport town and some spirited, melodramatic sea 
 fighting. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher. — Thomas Beaumont (1584- 
 1616) and John Fletcher (1579-1625) worked together; 
 over fifty plays bear their joint names. Both were high 
 born and well educated, though not classicists in the sense 
 that Ben Jonson was. The partnership worked so well that 
 the critics have not been able to determine exactly what
 
 236 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 part of the work is Beaumont's and what part Fletcher's. 
 The most that can be said is that Beaumont seems to have 
 had the deeper and more serious imagination and a greater 
 power of dramatic construction. Flt>tcher's gifts were lyric 
 sweetness and sentiment and a fluency of style. Philaster 
 is their most famous joint product. It treats c" a jealous 
 lover and a faithful lady love, who follows him in the disguise 
 of a page. The play is thoroughly romantic in tone. 
 
 " The Faithful Shepherdess." — Beaumont died in 1616, 
 leaving Fletcher to work on alone until 1625. Of the plays 
 which Fletcher wrote alone, The Faithful Shepherdess is the 
 most noteworthy. It is a pastoral play of rare beauty. 
 The songs are particularly exquisite. Milton took from this 
 play many hints for his Comus. 
 
 Middleton and Webster. — Thomas Middleton (1570?- 
 1627) and John Webster reverted to the old " tragedy of 
 blood " in the style of Kyd and Marlowe. Shakespeare had 
 lifted this type into real spiritual tragedy in such plays as 
 King Lear and Hamlet, but Middleton and Webster did not 
 maintain Shakespeare's high standard. They relied, for the 
 most part, upon the mere physical horror of the graveyard 
 and the madhouse. Middleton's Changeling, his best-known 
 play, is sensational and repulsive. The situations are un- 
 natural and do violence to the moral sense. Webster's 
 greatest plays, The White Devil and The Duche:.s of Malfi, 
 are crowded with physical horrors. In spite of Middleton's 
 mastery of language and Webster's power of conceiving 
 character, in spite of occasional fine outbursts of poetry on 
 the part of each, their plays show clearly the dramatic 
 decadence which soon went from bad to worse in the plays 
 of Ford, Massinger, and Shirley. 
 
 Conclusion. — Indeed, after the death of Shakespeare, the 
 drama shows a steady decline. This was partly due to the
 
 THE RENAISSANCE 237 
 
 Puritan opposition, antl partly the cause of that opposition. 
 In Shakespeare's time, in spite of the patronage of Elizabeth, 
 the Puritans had been able to keep the theaters outside the 
 city limits of London. And after the accession of James, 
 when the court became more corrupt and the Puritans more 
 aggressive, tlie theater became the victim of the changing 
 age. More and more it had to make its appeal to the in- 
 creasingly corrupt taste of the court, and consequently the 
 Puritan opposition became even more justifiable and more 
 effective. The theaters were closed in 1642, and not opened 
 again until the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660. 
 
 Suggested Readings ' 
 
 Spenser: The Faerie Queene, Book I. 
 
 Bacon: Essm/s. 
 
 Palgrave : Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics, Book I. 
 
 Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry IV {first part), 
 Henry V, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Julius Ccesar, Hamlet, 
 Macbeth, The Tempest. 
 
 Fletcher: The Faithful Shepherdess. (The Temple Dramatists.) 
 
 1 Except where special editions are mentioned, the books are to be found 
 in the Pocket Series of English Classics published by The Macmillan Com- 
 pany.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE PURITAN AGE 
 
 The Puritan Age. — The years which followed the death of 
 Shakespeare were years of national division, controversy, 
 and conflict. Elizabeth had ruled firmly but wisely, and 
 had kept her people reasonably well united and loyal. King 
 James, however, was of a different temperament : ridiculous, 
 cowardly, tyrannical. He insisted at all times upon the 
 doctrine of the divine right of kings, maintaining that the 
 people had no right to interfere with his actions, however 
 unjust those actions might be. He and his son, Charles I, 
 came into sharp conflict with the leaders of the people, es- 
 pecially with the Puritans. The different views of life repre- 
 sented by the court party and the Puritan party had been 
 marked even in Elizabeth's time. In the time of James and 
 Charles the two parties came into open conflict, resulting 
 in civil war (1642-1648). The Puritans under Oliver 
 Cromwell were victorious, Charles I was beheaded, and the 
 Stuart family was driven into exile. Such troublesome times 
 are not favorable to great literature. 
 
 The Cavalier Poets. — There were three classes of people 
 in the state, however, whose ideas of life found their way into 
 literature : the court party, the party of the established 
 church, and the Puritan party. To the court party belonged 
 the so-called Cavalier poets, lyric poets who wrote in a light, 
 fanciful vein on rather trivial subjects. The most important 
 
 238
 
 THE PURITAN AGE 239 
 
 of these poets were Carew, Suckling, and Lovelace. A 
 characteristic example of their poetry is Lovelace's To 
 Althea from Prison. The first and last stanzas follow : 
 
 " When love with unconfiued wings 
 
 Hovers within my gates, 
 And my diAdne Althea brings 
 
 To whisper at the grates ; 
 When I he tangled in her hair 
 
 And fetter'd to her eye. 
 The Gods that wanton in the air 
 
 Kaiow no such liljerty 
 
 ***** 
 Stone walls do not a prison make, 
 
 Nor iron bars a cage ; 
 Minds imiocent and quiet take 
 
 That for an hermitage ; 
 If I have freedom in my love 
 
 And in my soul am free, 
 Angels alone, that soar above, 
 
 Enjoy such liberty." 
 
 Robert Herrick (1591-1674) may also be classified with 
 the Cavalier poets, though he was also a religious poet and 
 a poet of Nature. The Litany is his famous religious poem, 
 somber and melancholy in tone ; Corinna's Maying is his 
 most notable lyric of country life. His lighter verse, which 
 links him to the Cavalier group, is well illustrated by his 
 Counsel to Young Girls. 
 
 " Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 
 Old Time is still a-flying. 
 And this same flower that smiles to-day 
 To-morrow will be dying. 
 
 ** The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun, 
 The higher he's a-getting
 
 240 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 The sooner wdll his race be run 
 And nearer he's to setting. 
 
 " The age is best which is the first, 
 
 When youth and blood are warmer, 
 But being spent, the worse, and worst 
 Times, still succeed the former. 
 
 " Then be not coy, but use your time ; 
 And while ye may, go marry : 
 For having lost but once your prime, 
 You may forever tarry." 
 
 The Metaphysical School. — Light and fanciful lyric 
 poetry, however, did not represent the prevailing mood of 
 the age. The chief interest was in religion of a mystical and 
 melancholy kind. The literature of both the Anglicans and 
 the Puritans represent it, though the Puritan habit of mind 
 was not distinctly literary. Among the religious poets, 
 the most important were Donne, Herbert, and Vaughan. 
 With these may be classed Crashaw, a Roman Catholic. 
 John Donne was the Dean of St. Paul's in London, a preacher 
 of power, and a poet with flashes of genius. " His poetry is 
 full of strange, interrupted music and of vivid passion which 
 breaks in jets and flashes through a veil of obscure thought 
 and tortured imagery. In these moments of illumination, it 
 becomes wonderfully poignant and direct, heart-searching in 
 its simple human accents, with an originality and force for 
 which we look in vain among the clear and fluent melodies 
 of Elizabethan lyrics." ^ The ordinary reader, however, 
 finds Donne obscure. His poetry is full of fanciful conceits, 
 strained metaphors, and difficult comparisons. So intellect- 
 ually subtle is the style that Dr. Johnson nicknamed Donne 
 and his followers "the metaphysical school." 
 
 ' Moody and Lovett, A History of English Literature, p. 144.
 
 THE PURITAN AGE 241 
 
 Herbert and Crashaw. — The greatest of Donne's fol- 
 lowers were George Herbert (1593-1632) and Riehard 
 Crashaw (1613?-1()50?). Herbert's poetry is prevaiHngly 
 intellectual, though of earnest and sincere piety; Crashaw's 
 is ecstatic and mystical. Crashaw had the religious fervor 
 of the Middle Ages, and the controversies of the seventeenth 
 century naturally drove him back to the mother church. 
 His most characteristic poems are The Flaming Heart and 
 Hymn to Saint Theresa. Herbert was a typical church of 
 England man. His volume of poems, The Temple, reflects 
 the prevailing spiritual agitation and melancholy of the 
 seventeenth century. The Gifts of God is one of his most 
 notable poems : 
 
 " When God at first made Man, 
 Having a glass of blessings standing by ; 
 Let us (said He) pour on him all we can : 
 Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie. 
 Contract into a span. 
 
 " So strength first made a way ; 
 Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honor, pleasure ; 
 When ahnost all was out, God made a stay, 
 Perceivdng that alone, of all his treasure, 
 Rest in the bottom lay. 
 
 " For if I should (said He) 
 Bestow this jewel also on My creature. 
 He would adore My gifts instead of Me, 
 And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature, 
 So both should losers be. 
 
 " Yet let him keep the rest. 
 But keep them with repining restlessness. 
 Let liim be rich and wearj', that at least. 
 If goodness lead him not, yet weariness 
 
 May toss him to My breast."
 
 242 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) also requires mention in 
 connection with the " metaphysical school." His contem- 
 poraries considered him the greatest of poets, though pos- 
 terity has not confirmed the judgment. The Mistress, a 
 series of love poems, and Davideis, an heroic poem of King 
 David of Israel, were once famous, but are now rarely read. 
 He was much quoted, however, in the Classical Age ; and 
 he gave his name to the verse form known as the " Cowleyan 
 Ode," " a series of verse groups of unequal length and ir- 
 regular structure," adapted from the old Pindaric ode. 
 
 Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy." — Among the prose 
 writers, the most important were Robert Burton (1577- 
 1640), Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), and Sir Thomas Browne 
 (1605-1682). Robert Burton's famous book. The Anatomy 
 of Melancholy, analyzes the prevailing national mood as a 
 disease. It discusses the causes, the manifestations, and the 
 cure of melancholy. Part I treats a somewhat heterogeneous 
 list of causes: (1) God, (2) spirits, devils, etc., (3) witches 
 and magicians, (4) old age, (5) heredity, (6) bad diet, (7) idle- 
 ness, (8) anger, (9) ambition, (10) study, etc. Part II dis- 
 cusses the treatment of these various causes. Part III is 
 devoted entirely to the causes and cures of love melan- 
 choly. 
 
 Jeremy Taylor. — Taylor's most influential work was 
 Holy Living and Holy Dying, a noble and tolerant book 
 widely read both in Taylor's own day and since. Hazlitt 
 says of it : " It is a divine pastoral. He writes to the faith- 
 ful followers of Christ as a shepherd pipes to his flock. , . . 
 He makes life a procession to the grave, but crowns it with 
 garlands, and rains sacrificial roses on its path." Taylor 
 has been called " the Shakespeare of divines," and " a kind 
 of Spenser in a cassock." His style is richly poetic and 
 melodious, though often over-fanciful and diffuse.
 
 THE PURITAN AGE 243 
 
 Sir Thomas Browne: " Religio Medici" — Sir Thomas 
 Browne is known chiefly for his Religio Medici, an expression 
 of his own personal religious beliefs. The book is melan- 
 choly and mystical, like most other books of the period. 
 " He (Browne) loves to stand before the face of the Eternal 
 and the Infinite until the shows of life fade away, and he is 
 filled with a passionate quietude and humility." His grand 
 and solemn style is at times very impressive. Some mod- 
 ern readers, however, consider it " desultory and magnilo- 
 quent." 
 
 Walton's " The Compleat Angler." — Isaak Walton (1593- 
 1683) is a writer who defies classification. Instead of dis- 
 cussing melancholy, like most of his contemporaries, he 
 found a practical cure for it. He went fishing. His book, 
 The Compleat Angler, has no touches of melancholy. The 
 book begins in the form of conversations between a falconer, 
 a hunter, and an angler ; but the falconer soon drops out of 
 the story, and the angler, true to nature, does most of the 
 talking. The style is charming, showing a close and sympa- 
 thetic observation of woods and fields and streams, a love of 
 simple and wholesome pleasures, and a kindliness of spirit 
 as delightful as it is rare. The angler says, " I envy not him 
 that eats better meat than I do ; nor him that is richer, or 
 that wears better clothes than I do ; I envy nobody but him, 
 and him only, that catches more fish than I do." This 
 book seems out of place in the seventeenth century. 
 
 The Puritans. — The stern temper of the Puritan mind 
 would seem antagonistic to literature ; yet two of the most 
 widely known writers of the time were Puritans. Milton 
 and Bunyan are still read by people who hardly know the 
 names of the other writers of the period. Macaulay has 
 pointed out that Milton's cast of mind was not strictly 
 Puritan. He belonged to the Puritan faith, and had the
 
 244 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 intense religious enthusiasm and exaltation of the Puritans ; 
 but he was "perfectly free from the contagion of their fran- 
 tic delusions, their savage manners, their ludicrous jargon, 
 their scorn of science, and their aversion to pleasure." He 
 hated tyranny, but he possessed the mental graces of the 
 Cavalier. His tastes were refined ; his sense of the value of 
 literatu.^ strong. He united in himself the virtues of the 
 Puritan and the graces of the cavalier. 
 
 Milton's First Period. — Milton's work naturally divides it- 
 self into three periods : (1) the period before the outbreak of 
 civil war in 1642 ; (2) the period of the Revolution and the 
 Commonwealth from 1642-1660, and (3) the period imme- 
 diately following the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660. To 
 the first period belong the Minor Poems, notably L' Allegro, 
 II Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas. After receiving his de- 
 gree from Cambridge, Milton retired to a country place at 
 Horton, and devoted himself to the pursuit of poetry. The 
 graceful and charming qualities of his mind here found free 
 play. L' Allegro and // Penseroso represent two moods of 
 the poet, the keen delight in mirth of a light yet wholesome 
 character, and the more serious delight in reflection, music, 
 and religious musing. Comus, a mask, shows also the 
 brighter side of Milton's character, the side which is least 
 Puritanic. 
 
 Lycioas is universally considered one of his most finished 
 poems. It is a lament for the death of a college acquaint- 
 ance, Edward King, who was drowned in the Irish Channel. 
 Its literary form is the conventional pastoral. Milton and 
 King are represented as shepherds who tend their sheep and 
 play rustic music. But the poem is not intended to repre- 
 sent real country life ; it is only a translation of the experi- 
 ence of the two into pastoral imagery. For instance when 
 Milton says :
 
 THE PURITAN AGE 245 
 
 "For we were nursed upon the self-same hill 
 Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade and rill," 
 
 he means that he and King went to college together (Christ's 
 College, Cambridge) and engaged in the same studies and 
 pursuits. Every detail in the poem does not have a hidden 
 meaning, but the conventional pastoral imagery is used in a 
 general way to express the experience of the two men. 
 Milton also expresses in the poem his idea of the state of 
 literature and of the church. The poem also illustrates the 
 rich color and varied music of Milton's early verse. 
 
 The Second Period. " Areopagitica." — During the 
 second period, Alilton wrote no poetry except occasional 
 sonnets, for much of his time was occupied with political 
 controversies. He held the position of Secretary for Foreign 
 Tongues under the Puritan government. Most of his official 
 writing was in Latin. Only occasionally did he produce a 
 piece of genuine English prose literature. Such is the Areo- 
 pagitica, a vigorous plea for freedom of the press, written in 
 an elaborate, highly figurative, and melodious style. As a 
 whole this period of Milton's life has comparatively little 
 literary significance. The writing of one of his controversial 
 pamphlets made him blind. 
 
 The Third Period. — To the third period belong Paradise 
 Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. Samson 
 Agonistes is a tragedy in the Greek manner, based on the 
 story in the sixteenth chapter of Judges. Paradise Regained 
 treats of Christ's temptation in the wilderness (Matthew iv). 
 Neither of them equals in importance Paradise Lost, Milton's 
 greatest achievement. 
 
 " Paradise Lost." — From boyhood, Milton felt himself 
 dedicated to the task of writing a great literary masterpiece, 
 and the theme of Paradise Lost was in his mind for many 
 years. At first he thought of making a drama of it and
 
 246 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 sketched out a plan on the Greek model ; but this idea was 
 abandoned for the epic form before he had written much on 
 the theme. Paradise Lost is one of the greatest poems in 
 the English language. To be sure, the idea of the universe 
 with the earth in the center, surrounded by a series of con- 
 centric spheres in which the planets and stars are fixed, is 
 totally wrong, as possibly INIilton knew ; but the poem re- 
 mains great because its imagination is so wonderful and its 
 verse so nearly perfect. Milton thought his minor poems 
 were nothing but literary exercises compared with Paradise 
 Lost. Of this poem he thought highly, though he aimed 
 to be satisfied with nothing short of perfection. No one 
 since has been able to sustain so grand a style. 
 
 A Literary Epic. — Paradise Lost is a literary epic like 
 Virgil's /Eneid, as distinguished from a popular epic like 
 The Iliad or Beowulf. It is not simple story, not a direct 
 picture of life. Milton has a problem to discuss. He says : 
 
 "What in me is dark 
 Illumine ; what is low raise and support ; 
 That to the highth of this great argument 
 I may assert Eternal Pro^^dence 
 And justify the ways of God to men." 
 
 The poem is a great artist's idea about the problem of evil 
 in the world. It treats the revolt of Satan and the angels 
 from God ; their overthrow and the casting of them into Hell ; 
 their plan of revenge by corrupting man, whom God had 
 created and placed in paradise ; the temptation and fall of 
 Adam and Eve ; and the expulsion from paradise. At the 
 end the outcasts are comforted b,y the promise of atonement 
 through the coming of Christ. Adam is the hero ; but Satan 
 is the more interesting character, perhaps because he is 
 more human.
 
 THE PURITAN AGE 247 
 
 The Greatness of the Poem. — The poem is conceived and 
 executed on a grand scale. The scene of th(> action com- 
 prises heaven, hell, and the entire universe between. The 
 characters are God, the angels, fallen spirits, and man. The 
 imagery is vivid and sublim(> ; the flow of the verse, stately 
 and harmonious. Tlu^ lasting interest in the poem lies in 
 the colossal images, exalted thought, and wonderful melody. 
 
 "Pilgrim's Progress." — John Bunyan (1628-1688) was 
 another Puritan who wrote enduring literature. He was a 
 tinker by trade, and had little or no education; but he 
 knew his Bible almost by heart, and was an artist by instinct. 
 His religious experience was exceedingly vivid and dramatic. 
 Intense religious feeling, vital imagination, and a thorough 
 knowledge of the simple style of the Bible made him a great 
 writer. Pilgrim's Progress is one of the most perfect alle- 
 gories ever written. All the difficulties and triumphs of the 
 Christian life are here represented in story. At the beginning. 
 Christian sets out from the city of Destruction to make 
 his way to the Holy City. He carries on his back the burden 
 of his sins and fears. Evangelist tells him the way to go and 
 he pushes onward in spite of the petitions of his family, his 
 neighbors, and his friends. Scene after scene follows, 
 picturing spiritual experiences. Christian falls into the 
 Slough of Despond, travels into the Valley of Humiliation, 
 climbs the Hill of Difficulty, has a fight with the demon 
 Apollyon, is thrown along with Hopeful into the dungeon of 
 Doubting Castle by Giant Despair. At length, after many 
 difficulties, he comes to the city of All Delight, where he is 
 welcomed by a company of angels that come singing down 
 the street. Pilgrim's Progress has been translated into 
 seventy-five languages and dialects, and has perhaps been 
 more widely read than any other book in the English lan- 
 guage except the Bible.
 
 248 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Suggested Readings ^ 
 
 Palgrave : Golden Treasunj, Book II. 
 Walton: The Compleat Angler. (Everjmian's Library.) 
 Milton : L' Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, Ltjcidas, Sonnets, Par- 
 adise Lost, Books I and II. 
 
 Bunyan : Pilgrim's Progress. 
 
 1 Except where special editions are mentioned, the books are to be found 
 in the Pocket Series of English Classics published by The Macmillan Com- 
 pany. 
 
 I
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 CLASSICISM 
 
 Characteristics of the Age. — The restoration of the Stuarts 
 in 1660 brought a strong reaction against Puritanism. The 
 upper classes, especially, had grown weary of the Puritanic 
 restraints, and quickly adopted the new ideas, new fashions, 
 and new moral standards which the gay court of Charles II 
 introduced from France. In their hatred of hypocrisy and 
 cant they went even further : they set aside not only the 
 restraints of Puritanism, but also all that is emotional, 
 mysterious, and vital in religion. Decent conformity to a 
 conventional religion was all that could be asked. Many 
 rejected the personal God with whom the Puritan had 
 communed face to face, and made for themselves a god by 
 means of the reason alone, neglecting the revelations of the 
 Bible. These deists, as they were called, belonged to the 
 established English church, but they defended the church, 
 not on the ground that it represented the true faith, but be- 
 cause it was an established institution and helped to maintain 
 law and order. Moral standards were low. Corruption in 
 public life was almost universal. Walpole maintained his 
 power for twenty years by open and notorious bribery. Polite 
 society gathered about the gaming tables, where immense 
 sums were lost and won ; or frequented the theaters, where 
 plays were enacted, so immoral that no one can read them 
 to-day without surprise and disgust. To be sure, there was 
 a certain veneer and polish, a superficial refinement, but at 
 heart the age was coarse and corrupt. 
 
 249
 
 250 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 The intellectual life was brilliant rather than profound. 
 There was no effort, as with the Puritans, to solve the deep 
 mysteries of life ; no effort, as with the Elizabethans, to 
 reach out beyond the limits of ordinary experience and explore 
 unknown worlds. Men were content to make what they could 
 out of ordinary experiences through the exercise of reason 
 and common sense. The center of interest was in the coffee- 
 houses and clubs. Here came, daily, groups of politicians 
 and literary men to discuss the gossip of the town, the newest 
 drama, the latest book, the most startling gains and losses 
 at the gaming table, the latest news of the drawing-rooms, 
 the probable fortunes of political parties. There was about it 
 all, however, a great intellectual zest. Daily discussion made 
 the minds of men keen, discriminating, brilliant. 
 
 Characteristics of the Literature. — The change in social, 
 moral, and intellectual standards brought a corresponding 
 change in literature. Instead of a literature of enthusiasm, 
 emotion, and mystery, or of mysticism and melancholy, 
 we have a literature of reason, appealing almost exclusively 
 to the intellect, a literature of the town life consisting 
 largely of wit, satire, and travesty. There were dramas 
 like those of Congreve, witty and licentious, the direct 
 expression of a social life devoid of moral standards. There 
 were essays like those in The Spectator, comments on life 
 by the frequenters of the drawing-rooms, the coffee-house, 
 and the club. There was didactic and satirical verse like 
 that of Pope, cl-ever, witty, and faultlessly regular, but never 
 profound ; fanciful, but not imaginative. Writers thought 
 less of what they said than of how they said it. Every piece 
 of writing was severely tested by the set rules of art which 
 the French under the leadership of Malherbe and Boileau 
 had formulated from the study of the classical writers and of 
 the Italian scholars. Milton, Shakespeare, and Spenser were
 
 CLASSICISM 251 
 
 neglected. The result was a clever and finished but not 
 profoundly imaginative literature. 
 
 (a) THE DRAMA 
 
 Classical Ideas. — The characteristics of the period are 
 well illustrated in the drama. The theaters had been closed 
 by the Puritans in 1642 ; but the pressure for dramatic enter- 
 tainments had been so great that, before the end of the 
 Commonwealth, permission had been given to Davenant 
 to present his operatic drama, The Siege of Rhodes. This 
 play, Dryden claims, was the beginning of the " heroic 
 drama," the first type of drama to develop when the theaters 
 were opened after the Restoration. Dryden himself was the 
 principal exponent of this kind of play. He did not follow 
 the traditions of Shakespeare and the romantic drama of 
 the Elizabethan time. He followed, rather, Ben Jonson's 
 classical ideas enforced and modificfl by the rules of dramatic 
 composition wh'ch had been formulated by the French 
 critics and exemplified by Corneille and other French dram- 
 atists. He tried to conform to the requirements of the three 
 unities, i.e., that the action should be confined to a single 
 place, that the time represented should not exceed twenty- 
 four hours, and that the action should have a clearly defined 
 unity. Dryden's principal heroic plays are The Indian 
 Emperor (1665) and The Conquest of Granada (1670). They 
 did not altogether satisfy the new classical interest in re- 
 straint, for the characters were pushed into an extravagance 
 of passion which caused the plays to be caricatured by the 
 Duke of Buckingham in a mock-heroic play, called The 
 Rehear.ml. They were, however, prevailingly classical in tone. 
 
 Dryden's early plays were written in th(> heroic couplet, 
 two iambic pentameter lines united by rime ; l)ut in his 
 later work rimed verse was abandoned. All for Love
 
 252 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 (1678), a rehandling of the story of Antony and Cleopatra, 
 was written in blank verse. This play is considered the best 
 of Dryden's tragedies. 
 
 Thomas Otway (1651-1685), an unsuccessful actor who 
 turned to the writing of plays, produced two tragedies, which 
 are nearly, if not quite, equal to any of Dryden's. They are 
 The Orphan (1680) and Venice Preserved (1682). The latter 
 held the stage for many years, and was considered a model 
 for the writing of tragedies. Tragedy did not flourish, 
 however, in the classical period. Even Addison's Cato and 
 Johnson's Irene are notable largely because their authors 
 became famous in other kinds of writing. 
 
 Comedy was more in accord with the spirit of the time, 
 and reflects the time in fashions, manners, and speech. The 
 prevailing taste was for love intrigues developed by means 
 of brilliant dialogue. George Etheredge, an Englishman 
 educated in Paris and familiar with Moliere, was the first 
 to write plays of this kind. He was followed by William 
 Wycherley (1640-1715), whose most important play is 
 The Plain Dealer (1674), and by the more brilliant William 
 Congreve (1670-1729), whose masterpieces were Love for 
 Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700). All of these 
 plays are reckless and cynical, expressing the immoral at- 
 mosphere of the corrupt court of the Restoration. This 
 gross immorality called forth in 1698 the vigorous protest of 
 Jeremy Collier in a Shoii View of the Profaneness and Im- 
 morality of the English Stage, but the coarseness continued 
 in the plays of John Vanbrugh (1666-1726) and to an extent 
 in the work of George Farquhar (1678-1707). After the 
 turn of the century, however, new forces began to work, 
 making for morality and decent living ; and in Richard 
 Steele's plays comedy comes into alliance with these forces. 
 The later comedy of the eighteenth century, represented
 
 CLASSICISM 253 
 
 •by Goldsmith (1728-1774) and Shoridan (1751-1816), retains 
 the brilHant dialogue without the gross immorality of the 
 Restoration plays. Goldsmith's She Stoop.'^ to Conquer and 
 Sheridan's The Rivals and The School for Scandal have held 
 the stage down to the present time. Tony T.umpkin, the 
 loutish squire of She Stoops to Conquer, Mrs. Malaprop and 
 Bob Acres in The Rivals, and Lady Teazle in The School 
 for Scandal are still familiar to theater-goers. Their sparkling 
 dialogue is a never failing source of enjoyment. In these 
 plays we have an amusing mock world, light, trifling, and 
 frivolous, but not fundamentally and flagrantly immoral. 
 
 (b) NON-DRAMATIC POETRY 
 
 Lyric Poetry. — The poetry of classicism — as might 
 be expected in an age in which reason and common sense 
 were emphasized at the expense of imagination and emotion 
 — was for the most part satiric, didactic, and mock-heroic. 
 There was some lyric verse of a high order, Dryden's Alex- 
 ander's Feast for example, a fine ode on the power of music ; 
 but for the most part the poetry consisted of light society 
 verse, poems of political and religious controversy, and poetic 
 literary criticism. 
 
 Political Satire. — Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel 
 and Mac Flecknoe are typical examples of the satiric verse. 
 The former is a political satire. While Charles II was king, 
 the court and country were divided, on the matter of the 
 succession, between the partisans of the king's brother James, 
 who was a Papist, and the adherents of the king's illegitimate 
 son, the Duke of Monmouth. The famous Earl of Shaftes- 
 bury was a partisan of Monmouth, and pushed his claims 
 vigorously before the people and parliament. Dryden, in 
 adherence to James, wrote Absalom and Achitophel as a 
 satire on the agitation in behalf of Monmouth. He told
 
 254 STUDIES TN LITERATURE 
 
 the old story of Absalom's revolt against King David in such 
 a way that Absalom was clearly understood to be the Duke 
 of Monmouth ; Achitophel, the Earl of Shaftesbury ; David, 
 King Charles II. All the characters, indeed, and all the events 
 have a direct relation to Dryden's own time. Mac Flecknoe 
 was an attack upon the poet Shadwell who had entered the 
 controversy as a champion of Shaftesbury and the Whigs. 
 
 " Hudibras." — Another satire quite as popular was Samuel 
 Butler's Hudibras, a scurrilous mock romance directed 
 against the hypocrisy, intolerance, and cant of the Puritans. 
 It was remarkably popular at the court of King Charles II. 
 The king is said to have carried a copy about with him con- 
 stantly. A short extract will show its burlesque tone. 
 
 " He was in logic a great critic. 
 Profoundly skilled in analytic ; 
 He could distinguish, and divide 
 A hair 'twixt south and southwest side ; 
 On either which he would dispute, 
 Confute, change hands, and still confute ; 
 He'd undertake to prove, by force 
 Of argument, a man's no horse ; 
 He'd run in debt by disputation, 
 And pa}^ with ratiocination. 
 
 " For he was of that stul^born crew 
 Of errant saints, whom all men grant 
 To be the true Church Militant ; 
 Such as do build their faith upon 
 The holy text of pike and gun ; 
 Decide all controversies by 
 Infallible artillery ; 
 And prove their doctrine orthodox 
 By apostolic blows and knocks ; 
 Compound for sins they are inclined to, 
 By damning those they have no mind to."
 
 CLASSICISM 255 
 
 Pope's Satires. — Pope's most famous satires are The 
 Dunciad and the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. The Dunciad 
 is directed against Pope's literary rivals. The dullards, the 
 pedants, and the bad poets are presented in ridiculous situa- 
 tions. The poem is brilliant, but not judicious, for Pope 
 satirized every one against whom he had the slightest per- 
 sonal spite. The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot contains the 
 famous clever but unfair description of Addison : 
 
 " Peace to all such ! but were there one whose fires 
 True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires ; 
 Blest with each talent, and each art to please, 
 And born to write, converse, and live with ease : 
 Should such a man, too fond to rule alone. 
 Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne, 
 View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, 
 And hate for arts that caused himself to rise; 
 Danrn with faint praise, assent with ci\il leer. 
 And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; 
 Willing to woimd, and yet afraid to strike 
 Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike ; 
 Alike reserved to blame, or to commend, 
 A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend ; 
 Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged, 
 And so obliging, that he ne'er obhged ; 
 Like Cato, give his little senate laws, 
 And sit attentive to his own applause ; 
 While wits and templars every sentence raise, 
 And wonder with a foolish face of praise — 
 Who but must laugh, if such a man there be ? 
 Who would not weep, if Atticus were he ? " 
 
 Later in the century came the less bitter, but none the 
 less interesting Retaliation by Oliver Goldsmith. The 
 poet gives amusing pictures of David Garrick, Edmund
 
 256 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other famous members of 
 Dr. Johnson's literary club. 
 
 Social satires also were popular. The best is Pope's 
 Rape of the Lock, a mock-heroic poem on the artificial society 
 of Queen Anne's time. The theme was suggested by the rude 
 behavior of Lord Petre in cutting a lock of hair from the 
 head of Miss Fennor at a card party at Hampton. The 
 poem pokes delightful fun at the society belle, and is a clever 
 parody of the heroic style in poetry. Dr. Johnson's London 
 and The Vanity of Human Wishes are in the manner of 
 Juvenal's Latin satires. Goldsmith's Deserted Village is an 
 emotional and sympathetic account of the sufferings of 
 the poor. This poem is classical in form, but in its general 
 feeling anticipates the romantic period. The same may be 
 said of Crabbe's Village. 
 
 The didactic poetry is of less interest. The most important 
 examples are Pope's Essay on Man and his Essay on Criti- 
 cism. The Essay on Man is an explanation of man's rela- 
 tion to God and the universe, based on reason and common 
 sense rather than on revelation and faith. The first epistle 
 discusses man's place in the universe ; the second, his indi- 
 vidual nature ; the third, his relation to society ; the fourth, 
 his attitude toward happiness. The Essay on Criticism is a 
 versified statement of the ideas about literature and the rules 
 of criticism which had been formulated by the classical 
 school along the lines suggested by the French critics. The 
 poem sets forth the artistic principles of the time in finished 
 form. 
 
 The Closed Couplet. — Most of the poetry was written in 
 " the closed couplet," which consists of two iambic pen- 
 tameter lines united by rime. The thought is for the most 
 part confined to the limits of the couplet. This verse had 
 been used before in English literature, especially by Waller
 
 CLASSICISM 257 
 
 and Cowley in the middle of the seventeenth century, but 
 not until the time of Pope did it reach perfect artistic finish, 
 and not until then was the principle established that the 
 thought should be complete at the end of each couplet. 
 The closed couplet became the conventional meter of the 
 classicists, 
 
 (c) THE ESSAY AND THE PAMPHLET 
 
 Periodical Literature. — It was to be expected that an age 
 of reason and common sense — an age in which the principal 
 interests were in social life and in political controversy — 
 should develop a literature of prose even more important 
 than its poetic literature. Indeed the eighteenth century is 
 distinctly a century of prose. Most of this prose literature, 
 with the exception of novels, appeared in the form of periodi- 
 cals and pamphlets. The most important periodicals were 
 The Tatler and The Spectator, edited by Addison and Steele ; 
 The Examiner, conducted by Swift ; The Rambler and The 
 Idler, edited by Dr. Johnson ; and The Gentleman'' s Magazine 
 and the London Magazme, the forerunners of the famous 
 Edinburgh, Quarterly, and Blackwood's. 
 
 Addison. — The Tatler and The Spectator set the fashion 
 and became the models in this kind of writing. The chief 
 aim was to make fun of vices and follies and elevate the 
 morals of the age. Addison in particular had a moral purpose, 
 not very profound, perhaps, but representing a distinct 
 reaction against the profligacy and excess of the years im- 
 mediately following the Restoration. H(> directed his satire 
 against the coarse vices of gambling, drinking, swearing, 
 dueling, practical joking, indecent conversation. He was 
 the apostle of politeness and refinement, of conventional 
 morality. He wrote also literary criticism, such as the famous 
 series on Milton, and the essay on The Ballad of Chevy Chace.
 
 258 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Above all he developed that series of character sketches 
 which is almost a novel, The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers. 
 He was perhaps the most graceful and winning humorist 
 of the time. 
 
 Richard Steele (1672-1729), who has the credit of founding 
 The Taller and who was intimately associated with Addison 
 in editing The Spectator, was a more sympathetic writer 
 than Addison, but not so strong of character nor so keen of 
 intellect. Indeed there is a marked discrepancy between 
 his personal life and the tenor of much of his writings. 
 However there is a sincere human quality about his incon- 
 sistencies which gives his work a peculiar charm. His 
 style is more careless, flexible, and free than that of Addison. 
 
 Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) had a more vigorous mind than 
 either Addison or Steele, and in his way was quite as impor- 
 tant a personage. He wrote for the periodicals, especially 
 political periodicals, and was the editor of The Examiner, 
 an influential Tory paper. Much of his writing, however, 
 appeared in the form of pamphlets. His distinguishing 
 characteristic is his pessimism. He had a thoroughgoing 
 contempt for human nature and was most bitter in his satire. 
 He liked to play practical jokes to show his contempt for 
 men. Once he dispersed a crowd which had gathered to see 
 an eclipse by sending a message that according to the Dean's 
 order the eclipse would be put off for a day. Another practi- 
 cal joke was directed against a man named Partridge, who 
 issued an almanac containing predictions of events to take 
 place during the next year. To expose Partridge, Swift 
 published, over the name Isaac Bickerstaff, Predictions for 
 the Year 1708, in which he predicted the death of Partridge 
 on the 29th of March, and, on the 30th of March, followed 
 the prediction with an account of Partridge's last days and 
 death. Of course Partridge insisted that he was still alive,
 
 CLASSICISM 259 
 
 but BickcTstaff replied with various arguments in the manner 
 of Partridge's ahiianac, proving that the impostor was cer- 
 tainly dead. Partridge became the laughing-stock of the 
 town. 
 
 Swift's Satirical Method. — Swift's writings are, for the 
 most part, both earnest and playful, and often full of very 
 bitter irony. The Battle of the Books is a humorous dis- 
 cussion of the comparative merits of ancient and modern 
 writers, suggested by the controversy in which Swift's 
 patron, Sir William Temple, was then deeply engaged. 
 The Tale of the Tub, a fierce satire on religion, is, on the 
 face of it, the story of three stupid brothers quarreling over 
 their inheritance. Each of the three has received from his 
 father a coat with minute direction for its care and use. The 
 coat is Christian truth. The brothers, Peter, Martin, and 
 Jack, represent the Church of Rome, the Lutherans, and 
 the Calvinists. The way in which the sons evade their 
 father's will by changing the fashion of their garments 
 constitutes the satire on religious sects. The Modest Proposal 
 for preventing the poor in Ireland from becoming burden- 
 some contains the sarcastically cruel suggestion that the 
 children be killed and eaten like pigs and sheep. This 
 would create a market for the largest and, under the existing 
 circumstances, most useless product of the poor. It would 
 make children an asset instead of a bill of expense. It would 
 change the financial burden of the poor into a profitable 
 business. 
 
 " Gulliver's Travels." — Swift's most widel}' known book 
 is Gulliver's Travels. It may be read with interest merely as 
 a story of adventurous journeys to Lilliput and Brobding- 
 nag and to the country of the Houyhnhnms. Many children 
 have been charmed with it, who knew nothing of its hidden 
 meaning. Beneath the story, however, the mature reader
 
 260 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 sees a bitter satire on human nature. In the voyage to 
 Lilliput human motives are set to work on a small scale 
 for the purpose of suggesting the littleness and meanness of 
 human life. In the voyage to Brobdingnag, people larger 
 than men are described and the actions of ordinary human 
 beings made petty and insignificant in comparison. In the 
 land of the Houyhnhnms horses are the rulers and masters; 
 man is in servitude and degradation. The picture of the 
 Yahoo, the human beast, shows Swift's contempt for man 
 at its worst. 
 
 Swift was often coarse and to some people disgusting; 
 but his sincere, fierce hatred of sham and affectation made his 
 criticism keen and vigorous. His style, too, often has a di- 
 rectness and simplicity which are truly admirable. Our best 
 source of information about the man himself as an active, 
 successful man of affairs is the daily account of his doings 
 which he himself wrote in his Journal to Stella. 
 
 Dr. Johnson. — In the middle of the eighteenth century 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was the most conspicuous 
 literary figure. Thanks to Boswell's detailed and gossipy 
 account, we know Johnson more intimately than almost any 
 other man of letters; a striking and original person, out- 
 wardly huge, awkward, vulgar, contentious, an eccentric 
 " old bear"; inwardly a brave, heroic soul, battling man- 
 fully with poverty, disease, and the fear of death, yet never 
 losing faith in God or in himself. This vulgar eccentric be- 
 came a social lion, the welcome associate of artists, scholars, 
 actors, and literary men, the acknowledged dictator of an 
 elegant age, one of the most learned men of his time. 
 
 Range of the Work. — His range of work is noteworthy. 
 Besides the poetry and drama already mentioned, he contrib- 
 uted essays to The Rambler and The Idler in the fashion of 
 Addison, though without Addison's grace of style. He
 
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 CLASSICISM 2G1 
 
 compiled a Dictionary of the English Language, whimsical 
 in places rather than scholarly, but important as a pioneer 
 book of its kind. In a single week he wrote Rasselas, Prince 
 of Abyssinia, the reflections of the author in story form. 
 He edited the works of Shakespeare ; and, in spite of his 
 scant knowledge of the sixteenth-century literature, did it so 
 well that many of his sensible comments still appear in anno- 
 tated editions of the plays. His best and most lasting work 
 is his Lives of the Poets, brief accounts of the authors with 
 critical comments on their writings. His criticisms are not 
 always just, for Johnson was a man of prejudices ; but most 
 of the " lives " are well worth reading as the honest though 
 prejudiced judgment of a powerful mind. 
 
 Johnson's Style. — Johnson's style is in marked contrast 
 with that of Addison. He praised Addison's style, saying 
 that " the person who would secure a perfect English style 
 must give his days and nights to the study of Addison." But 
 either Johnson did not follow his own advice or did not 
 profit by the study, for his style is often pompous and heavy, 
 crowded with Latin derivatives, and full of long and involved 
 sentences. To be sure these long sentences with all their 
 modifiers often have an effective rhythmic eloquence ; and 
 Johnson could be terse and simple when he chose, as the 
 directness of his conversation related by Boswell and some of 
 his later literary productions amply show. Yet in general 
 his style is exceedingly artificial and bookish. 
 
 Edmund Burke. — One of the last of the eighteenth-cen- 
 tury classicists was Edmund Burke. His works have not 
 found a large place in literature, because he gave his atten- 
 tion to political affairs rather than to literary pursuits. He 
 did not hold high political office, but was for long the brains 
 of the Whig opposition to the efforts of George III to increase 
 the royal prerogative. Most of his productions, therefore, are
 
 262 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 contributions to the literature of politics and government. 
 His speeches on American Taxation (1774) and on Concilia- 
 tion with America (1775) give his ideas on the American 
 Revolution. The Nabob of Arcofs Debts and the Impeach- 
 ment of Warren Hastings discuss political affairs in India. 
 Reflections on the French Revolution (1790) and Letters on a 
 Regicide Peace (1796) are his best contributions to the litera- 
 ture of the French Revolution. He was a practical man of 
 reason and common sense, and therefore naturally a classicist. 
 He believed in established institutions and in the slow 
 development of civilization. He shunned what he thought 
 were impractical doctrines and theories. He was against 
 coercion in America simply because he thought coercion im- 
 practicable ; and he opposed the French Revolution because 
 it broke connections with the past and was based upon 
 theory and not upon experience. He believed safety lay in 
 stemming the tide of revolution in Europe, and therefore did 
 what he could to marshal the forces of reaction, contrib- 
 uting much to the final English success at Trafalgar and 
 Waterloo. 
 
 Romantic Tendencies in Burke and Johnson. — Standing 
 thus for the reasonable and the practical, he allied himself 
 with the classicists in literature ; yet he was not an uncom- 
 promising adherent of that school. The breadth of his sym- 
 pathy and the fervor of his imagination gave him a kinship 
 with the rising romanticists. Both Burke and Johnson, 
 indeed, show signs of the new influences. In general they 
 both followed in the way of the classicists, and championed 
 the old ideas of art ; but in critical ideas Johnson was not so 
 thorough a formalist as his immediate predecessors, accept- 
 ing, for instance, only with considerable modification and 
 reservation the doctrine of the three dramatic unities, as the 
 preface to his edition of Shakespeare clearly shows; and
 
 CLASSICISM 263 
 
 Burke departed from the practice of the classicists in 
 mingling with his statistics and his philosophy brilliant 
 flights of imagination and powerful emotional appeals. 
 
 (d) THE NOVEL 
 
 The Periodicals. ^— The classical age of reason and com- 
 mon sense developed a type of prose fiction radically different 
 from the old romances of chivalry, which were far too extrav- 
 agant to appeal to a matter-of-fact age. The new tendency 
 is seen in the periodical literature as early as The Tatler and 
 The Spectator. The character sketching, at first abstract 
 and general, becomes incUvidual, personal, lifelike. Brief 
 stories appear under such titles as The Civil Husband {Tatler, 
 No. 53) and The Story of Miss Betty Cured of Her Vanity 
 {Guardian, No. 159). The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, a 
 series of essays united by common characters and by a con- 
 tinuous story, is a real forerunner of the novel of life. 
 
 Picaresque Stories. — Another influence came from the 
 Spanish picaresque stories, autobiographical accounts of 
 the vagrant experiences of unscrupulous rogues, who mingle 
 in real life, lying, cheating, and stealing, and who tell of their 
 rogueries with impudent candor. Daniel Defoe's Colonel 
 Jack is a typical English story of this kind. The hero is of 
 gentle blood, but is brought up among thieves and pick- 
 pockets, with no adequate conception of right and wrong. 
 He is kidnapped and taken to Mrginia, where he rises to 
 influence. He returns to England, a merchant, goes to the 
 wars, behaves bravelj-, gets preferment, and is finalh" made 
 colonel of a regiment. The Journal of the Plague Year 
 illustrates the same kind of writing. Defoe had a way of 
 making all his stories marvelously real by the massing of 
 details and by a simple matter-of-fact style. His Robinson 
 Crusoe has been one of the most widely read of English books.
 
 264 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Swift's Gulliver's Travels shows this type of story adapted to 
 purposes of satire. 
 
 The Love Story. — Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) was 
 the first great writer of love stories. He was minute in the 
 analysis of character, developed carefully the idea of plot, and 
 emphasized sentiment. He began as a letter writer. One 
 of his diversions as a young man was to write love letters 
 for the young women of his neighborhood, all of whom seem 
 to have made him their confidant in love affairs. Indeed he 
 made a specialty of the feminine heart. His most famous 
 book, Clarissa Harloioe, is a love story in the form of letters. 
 It is most elaborately analytical. Every movement of 
 Clarissa's mind, every flutter of her heart, is subjected to the 
 most searching analysis and then discussed and rediscussed 
 from every conceivable point of view. The plot movement is 
 slow, but it is constant, and is developed to a high tension at 
 the climax. In scenes of intense passion Richardson is at his 
 best. His other stories are Pamela and Sir Charles Grandison. 
 
 Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was a more genuine realist 
 than Richardson. He knew more of life, and he knew it 
 better. He began novel writing in protest against the 
 moral pretensions and sentimentality of Richardson. The 
 contrast is therefore marked. Richardson's novels are of 
 the hothouse variety ; Fielding's have the vigor of the sun- 
 shine and the air. 
 
 Tom Jones is Fielding's most famous book. The story 
 opens with the discovery of the hero as a new-born babe 
 in the house of a virtuous gentleman, Mr. Allworthy. Here 
 he grows up with Allworthy's nephew Blifel, who out of 
 jealousy ruins Tom's reputation with his benefactor, and 
 gets him turned out into the world. Meanwhile Tom has 
 fallen in love with the daughter of a neighbor, Miss Sophia 
 Western, who returns his love in spite of the opposition of
 
 CLASSICISM 265 
 
 her father. Tom travels to London, with many wayside 
 adventures ; he passes, not unscathed, through various 
 temptations ; and finally, by the discovery of the secret of 
 his birth and the revelation of Blifel's villainy, he is advanced 
 to his happy fortune, the favor of Allworthy, and marriage 
 with Sophia. The structure of the story is particularly 
 noteworthy. The secret of Jones's parentage is skillfully 
 kept from the reader till the end and tluni disclosed in a 
 natural way. Cheap devices of plot, based on pure chance, 
 are avoided. Conversations are direct, not reported. The 
 scenes are localized and given a real background. Char- 
 acter and incident are equalized. 
 
 Other novels by Fielding are Joseph Andrews, Jonathan 
 Wild, and Amelia. Fielding's work is often coarse, and his 
 point of view worldly like the age. And since he cared 
 nothing for spiritual things, his ideals are not high. Still he 
 is always direct and sincere. His novels display genuine 
 humanity. 
 
 Smollett and Sterne. — Two other stories of wide repu- 
 tation are Smollett's Humphrey Clinker and Sterne's Tristram 
 Shandy. Humphrey Clinker is haphazard in plot and full 
 of unpleasant incidents. The humor is of a savage sort, 
 consisting largely of cruel practical jokes. The method 
 of treatment is far less sympathetic than Fielding's. As a 
 record of contemporary life and manners, however, the book 
 has decided interest. Tristram Shandy can hardly be called 
 a novel. It has no plan ; no beginning, no progress, no con- 
 clusion. Sterne says, " I began it with no clear idea of what it 
 was to turn out, only a design of shocking people and amusing 
 myself." Sterne had absolutely no sense of propriety; and 
 since his mind was incongruous and thoroughly sentimental, 
 he naturally wrote a whimsical and immoral book. The 
 characters, however, are so very real and have such distinc-
 
 266 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 lively human charm that the book is still read with interest 
 in spite of its obvious faults. 
 
 Goldsmith's " Vicar of Wakefield." — One of the most 
 delightful books of the period is Oliver Goldsmith's The 
 Vicar of Wakefield. The plot is artlessly absurd, the situa- 
 tions comical, the humor delightful, the style graceful. The 
 wholesome optimism of the book is in marked contrast with 
 the work of Sterne and of Swift, and not altogether character- 
 istic of classicism. Goldsmith is not a realist ; he does not 
 accept the world as it is ; he insists upon idealizing it. Nor 
 does his story have to do with the social life of cities. It is 
 an account of simple family life, and treats " the out-of-doors " 
 with real feeling. Indeed Goldsmith has much in common 
 with the new romantic tendencies. The Vicar of Wakefield 
 belongs to the literature of transition. 
 
 (e) CRITICISM 
 
 Criticism. — The ideas of the classicists about literature 
 are expressed in their critical writings. The earliest impor- 
 tant work is Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy. In his de- 
 fense of contemporary English writers, he takes for granted 
 that they are to be judged in general by the classical rules 
 formulated by the French. Reference is made to Shakespeare, 
 and his genius commended ; but as a technical artist Ben 
 Jonson is considered his superior. The argument is that 
 Jonson and those who have followed his example in English 
 have conformed to the classical standards quite as rigidly 
 as the great French dramatists. Dryden argues also for the 
 heroic couplet as the most satisfactory verse form for tragedy. 
 A few years later. Pope put the classical ideas into poetic 
 form in his Essay on Criticism. A few quotations will 
 illustrate its prevailing ideas — the dependence on rules, 
 the emphasis upon form, the appeal to reason and restraint :
 
 CLASSICISM 267 
 
 "Be Homer's works your study and delight : 
 Read them by day, and meditate by night." 
 
 "Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem ; 
 To copy nature is to copy them." 
 
 "Those rules of old discovered, not devised, 
 Are nature still but nature methodized." 
 
 "True wit is nature to advantage dress'd : 
 What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed." 
 
 "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance." 
 
 "Be not the first by whom the new are tried 
 Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." 
 
 "A Boileau still in right of Horace sways." 
 
 Later Criticism. — Addison's critical essays in The Spec- 
 tator follow the same lines, though he departed from conven- 
 tional notions in praising Milton, whom the classicists, 
 in general, neglected, and especially in commenting with fa- 
 vor on the old l^allad literature as illustrated in Chevy Chace. 
 As the century advanced the critical formulas became less 
 rigid. Dr. Johnson praised Shakespeare, and refused strict 
 adherence to the rules for the three dramatic unities. A little 
 later Thomas and Joseph Warton paid tribute to Spenser, 
 the greatest of early romanticists, in their Observations on 
 the Faerie Queene. This book led the critical revolt against 
 classicism. The last important critical work of the classicists 
 was Burke's Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our 
 Ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful. 
 
 Suggested Readings^ 
 
 Pope : The Rape of the Lock. 
 
 Addison and Steele : The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers. 
 
 1 Except where special editions are mentioned, the works are to be 
 found in the Pocket Series of English Classics, published by The Macmillan 
 Company.
 
 268 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Defoe : Robinson Crusoe, or The Journal of the Plague Year. 
 
 Swift : Gulliver's Travels. 
 
 Johnson : Life of Pope in The Lives of the Poets. (Cassell's 
 National Library.) 
 
 Goldsmith : Tlie Deserted Village, She stoops to Conquer, Retalia- 
 tion, The Vicar of Wakefield. 
 
 Sheridan : The Rivals. 
 
 Burke : Speech on Conciliation vnth America. 
 
 Ir\dng : Life of Goldsmith. 
 
 Thackeray : Henry Esmond.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ROMANTICISM 
 (a) POETRY 
 
 Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century. — Although the 
 spirit of classicism, with its emphasis upon reason and com- 
 mon sense, and with its interest in literary form over sub- 
 ject matter, was in control in the eighteenth century, it was 
 not the only influence at work. Side by side with it were 
 other interests, growing in importance through the century, 
 until, in the end, they became the dominant forces, and 
 resulted in the great outburst of romanticism in the early 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 Influence of Spenser. — One of the first of the new in- 
 fluences was a renewed interest in the older English writers, 
 especially Spenser and Milton. The earliest interest was in 
 poetic form merely. Although the prevailing meter was the 
 heroic couplet, still the Spenserian stanza — consisting of nine 
 lines, eight iambic pentameter lines supplemented by one 
 iambic hexameter or Alexandrian, riming ababbcbcc — was 
 used to a limited extent from the beginning of the cen- 
 tury. At first, however, it was employed only for pur- 
 poses of satire, with no effort to get the atmosphere of mystery 
 and romance or the rich melody of the verse. The first poet 
 to get the real Spenserian manner was Shenstone. He began 
 a satire called The Schoohnistress in the Spenserian stanza, 
 studying Spenser as he wrote. He soon became genuinely 
 
 269
 
 270 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 interested, and before his poem was finished, he had changed 
 it into a sincere Spenserian imitation. 
 
 James Thomson (1700-1748) also imitated Spenser sym- 
 pathetically in The Castle of Indolence. Compare the fol- 
 lowing stanza from Thomson with the stanza from Spenser 
 quoted on page 222. 
 
 "A pleasing land of drowsy-head it .was, 
 Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; 
 And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 
 Forever flusliing round a summer sky : 
 There eke the soft delights, that witchingly 
 Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast ; 
 And the calm pleasures always hovered nigh ; 
 But whate'er smacked of noyance or unrest. 
 Was far, far off expelled from this delicious nest." 
 
 The Wartons, by their Observations on the Faerie Queene, 
 increased the appreciation of Spenser. 
 
 The Influence of Milton. — Milton also was imitated both 
 in form and thought. . The octosyllabic couplet of II Pense- 
 roso and later the blank verse of Paradise Lost were used by 
 Parnell, Joseph and Thomas Warton, and others ; and this 
 mood of " meditative comfortable melancholy " — the II 
 Penseroso mood — gave rise to an entire school of " grave- 
 yard poetry," of which Robert Blair's The Grave and Edward 
 Young's Night Thoughts are examples, and of which Thomas 
 Gray's An Elegy in a Country Churchyard is the most finished 
 product. 
 
 Romance. — A second tendency away from classicism 
 was a new interest in medieval ideas and customs. Horace 
 Walpole, the model of fashion, started the interest by build- 
 ing a Gothic castle on Strawberry Hill, and gathering to- 
 gether there a collection of antiquities. He also wrote a 
 medieval romance full of mystery and superstition. This
 
 ROMANTICISM 271 
 
 romance, The Castle of Otranto, was the forerunner of a long 
 series of stories, of which Clara Reeve's The Old English 
 Baron, Ann Radeliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, and 
 Matthew Gregory Lewis's Monk are rather crude examples, 
 and of which the novels of Sir Walter Scott are the artistic 
 climax. 
 
 Ballads. — The old ballads and romances also came into 
 vogue. As early as 1711 Addison spoke favorably, though 
 conservatively, of Chevy Chace, and Bishop Percy firmly estab- 
 lished the ballad interest by the publication of the Reliques 
 of Ancient Poetry in 1765. The old manuscript which 
 formed the basis of Percy's book was found b}- chance in the 
 house of a friend. Percy discovered it under an old bureau, 
 where it had been carelessly thrown, after some of the leaves 
 had been torn away. He read the manuscript with much 
 interest, and after consultation with his friends, decided to 
 print it along with a number of modern songs. The volume 
 contains a fairly representative selection of the older ballads : 
 heroic ballads like Robin Hood, historical ballads like Chevy 
 Chace and Sir Patrick Spence, romance ballads like Lord 
 Thomas and Fair Annet. The Reliques of Ancient Poetry 
 was followed by the collections of Ritson, Sir Walter Scott, 
 and others. The freshness and simplicity of these old ballads 
 delighted all those who were becoming tired of the conven- 
 tions and artifices of classicism. 
 
 Northern Antiquities. — Bishop Percy is responsible for 
 another epoch-making book entitled Northern Antiquities 
 (1770), which was translated from a French work written 
 by Paul H. Mallet, professor at the University of Copenhagen. 
 This book gives an account of the weird northern mythology, 
 and contains translations from the Old Norse literature. Its 
 influence in England is best seen in the poetry of Thomas 
 Gray, especially in The Descent of Odin and The Fatal
 
 272 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Sisters. The same interest in the somber, mysterious, and 
 weird is illustrated in James Macpherson's Ossian, a story 
 developed out of scraps of legend which ]\Iacpherson had 
 picked up in the highlands of Scotland. To the same general 
 movement belong Robert Evans's Some Specimens of the 
 Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards, Collins's Ode on the Popular 
 Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland, and Thomas 
 Chatterton's Rowley Poems, inspired by manuscripts which 
 he found in the old church of St. ^lary Redcliffe in Bristol. 
 
 Renewed Interest in Nature. — ^ A third romantic tendency 
 was the renewed interest in nature and in country life. The 
 classicists loved the city. Their only interest in nature 
 came from classical books, or from artificial gardens mathe- 
 matically laid out. Gradually, however, there grew up an 
 interest in real English woods and fields and streams. People 
 began to seek relaxation in the country, and came to enjoy 
 nature in her rural state. The most important nature poems 
 of the middle eighteenth century are James Thomson's 
 (1700-1748) Seasons and William Cowper's (1731-1800) The 
 Task. Thomson was reared in the countrj^ ; Cowper spent 
 most of his life there. Both loved nature sincerely. Thom- 
 son had the wider interest ; but Cowper was a more accurate 
 observer, and had the advantage of writing with his eye 
 upon the object to be described. Cowper had less, too, of 
 the conventional poetic phraseology of the classical school. 
 Both men, however, show a marked departure from the 
 manner of the classicists. 
 
 The French Revolution. — The French Revolution fur- 
 nished still another impetus to romanticism. It stimulated 
 Englishmen to throw off the restraint of convention ; to be- 
 come more independent of laws, customs, and traditions ; to 
 assert individuality. Tt created a discontent with the world 
 as it was, and stimulated the imagination to dwell upon the
 
 ROMANTICISM 273 
 
 ideal human state. The influence was both doctrinal and 
 emotional. WilHam Godwin's Political Justice introduced 
 into England the doctrines of the French Revolution ; the be- 
 lief in simplicity, the reliance on natural impulse as opposed to 
 reason and common sense, and the faith in tlie perfectability 
 of the human race, if it could be freed from the restraints 
 of customs and conventions, of religion and laws. This book 
 had a large influence upon the romantic poets, especially 
 upon Shelley, Godwin's son-in-law. But, independent of 
 doctrines, the whole outburst in France in favor of liberty, 
 equality, and fraternity aroused the enthusiasm of young 
 Englishmen, and helped emphasize in literature the imagina- 
 tion and the emotions. It called attention to the poor and 
 lowly ; it evoked interest in the simple and fundamental 
 things of life. 
 
 Robert Burns. — By far the most popular of the early 
 romantic poets was Robert Burns (1759-1796), a poor Scotch 
 farmer with an impulsive nature, rich in emotions, and with 
 a remarkable genius for song. He voiced the loves and sor- 
 rows of the simple poor with rare truth and intensity. His 
 democratic ideas, his large human sympathy, his love of 
 nature, especially of animals and flowers, his hatred of cant 
 and hypocrisy, his rich humor — all united to give him a 
 deservedly wide popularity. His moral fiber, however, 
 was weak. He lived a pathetic life, struggling desperately 
 for daily bread, giving himself over to dissipation, and dying 
 in poverty and bitter neglect. One stanza of his epitaph 
 written by himself should be remembered. 
 
 "The poor inhabitant below 
 
 Was quick to learn, and wise to know. 
 And keenly felt the friendly glow and softer flame, 
 But thoughtless follies laid him low 
 And stain'd hi.s name," 
 
 T
 
 274 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 His Poetry. — The best poem of Burns on the virtues of 
 the Scotch peasant is The Cotter's Saturday Night. Humor 
 prevails in The Jolly Beggars and Tarn o' Shanter. The 
 most exquisite nature touches are found in To a Mountain 
 Daisy and To a Mouse. The most striking patriotic song is 
 Scots wha ha' wi' Wallace Bled; the most tender love songs: 
 Green Grows the Rashes 0, John Anderson my Jo, To Mary 
 in Heaven, and The Banks o' Doon. The most famous poem 
 on equality and democracy is A Man's a Man for a' That. 
 In these poems particularly Burns shows his great qualities 
 as a poet: downright sincerity, intensity of emotion, keen- 
 ness and vigor of mind. 
 
 Wordsworth. Peasant Poetry. — William Wordsworth 
 (1770-1850) was, like Burns, a poet of the poor and the 
 lowly. He believed that among the lower classes the most 
 simple and fundamental human emotions were to be found 
 at their best. Michael, his most popular poem of this kind, 
 is a simple story of a Westmoreland peasant who is compelled 
 to send his onl}' son away from home to make a living. The 
 boy falls into evil ways in the city, and is finally forced " to 
 seek a hiding place beyond the sea," leaving the old man to 
 wear out his life in poverty and sorrow. The story is re- 
 markable for its simple pathos. It shows how Wordsworth, 
 when at his best, could lift the commonplace into genuine 
 poetry. 
 
 Nature Poetry. — But Wordsworth was preeminently 
 the romantic poet of nature. He spent nearly all his life of 
 eighty years in the lake and mountain region of Westmore- 
 land and Cumberland, developing in the midst of quiet 
 surroundings that poise of mind and serenity of spirit which 
 were his chief gifts to his age. His ideas about nature were 
 peculiar. As a boy, he loved her just for the sake of her 
 beauty and for the sake of the physical joy of healthy out-
 
 ROMANTICISM 275 
 
 door life ; but, as he grew older, he saw her deeper meaning. 
 He believed in the spiritual kinship between man and nature. 
 Nature seemed to him the language of the divine; and he 
 thought it was his mission as poet and seer to interpret the 
 meaning of that language. In this he was more romantic 
 than Thomson or C'owper, or indeed, than any of the nature 
 poets who had preceded him. 
 
 His theory of nature is expressed in Lines Composed a Few 
 Miles above T intern Abbey: 
 
 "For nature then [in boyhood] 
 * * * * * ^ 
 
 ****** 
 
 To me was all in all. — I cannot paint 
 
 What then I was. The sounding cataract 
 
 Haunted me like a passion ; the tall rock, 
 
 The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood. 
 
 Their colours, and their forms were then to me 
 
 An appetite ; a feeling and a love. 
 
 That had no need of a remoter charm, 
 
 By thought supplied, nor any interest 
 
 Unborrowed from the eye. — That time is past, 
 
 And all its aching joys are now no more, 
 
 And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this 
 
 Faint I, nor mourn, nor murmur ; other gifts 
 
 Have followed ; for such loss, I would beUeve, 
 
 Abundant recompense. For I have learned 
 
 To look on nature, not as in the hour 
 
 Of thoughtless youth ; but hearing often times 
 
 The still, sad music of humanity. 
 
 Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power 
 
 To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 
 
 A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
 
 Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime 
 
 Of something far more deeply interfused,
 
 276 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Whose dwelling is the light of setting smu^ 
 And the round ocean and the living air, 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ; 
 A motion and a spirit, that impels 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
 And rolls through all things. Therefore am I stiU 
 A lover of the meadows and the woods, 
 And mountains ; and all that we behold 
 From this green earth ; of all the mighty world 
 Of eye, and ear, — both what they half create. 
 And what perceive ; well pleased to recognize 
 In nature and the language of the sense. 
 The anchor of my purest thought, the nurse, 
 The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul 
 Of all my moral being." 
 
 Wordsworth's Speculations. — Wordsworth delighted in 
 mysterious and mystical speculations. Spiritual facts some- 
 times appeared to him more real than physical facts. The 
 physical world seemed a kind of prison house confining 
 spirits which had belonged to a larger life, and which would 
 return to that larger life when released from the flesh. His 
 boldest speculative poem is perhaps Intimations of Immor- 
 tality, of which the following stanza contains the central 
 
 idea : 
 
 "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting : 
 The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting. 
 
 And cometh from afar ; 
 Not in entire forgetfulness. 
 And not in utter nakedness. 
 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
 
 From God, who is our home : 
 Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! 
 Shades of the prison-house begin to close 
 Upon the growing Boy,
 
 ROMANTICISM 277 
 
 But he beholds the Hght, and whence it flows, 
 
 He sees it in liis jo.y; 
 The Youth, who daily farther from the east 
 
 Must travel, still is Nature's Priest, 
 
 And by the vision splendid 
 
 Is on his way attended ; 
 At length the Man perceives it die away, 
 And fade into the light of common day." 
 
 Moral Ideas. — The lofty moral ideas of Wordsworth are 
 further expressed in The Prelude and in The Ode to Duty. 
 The Prelude is an autobiographical account of the growth 
 of the poet's mind. It is not significant as a piece of literary 
 art, but very important in the understanding of the poet's 
 personality. Tlie Ode to Duty is remarkable for its high moral 
 enthusiasm, expressed with great dignity and restraint. 
 
 Wordsworth's Sonnets. — Wordsworth is also one of the 
 greatest sonnet writers of the nineteenth century. The 
 limitations of the form seem to have helped rather than to 
 have hindered his imagination. Among the best of his 
 sonnets are To Milton, It is a Beautiful Evening, Westminster 
 Bridge, The World is too Much with Us. 
 
 Coleridge's Poetic Method. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge 
 (1772-1834) was the most intimate friend of Wordsworth 
 during the years when the best poetry of each was written. 
 Their first public venture in poetry. The Lyrical Ballads 
 (1798), was planned as a joint production, though, in the end, 
 the only important contribution of Coleridge was The Rime 
 of the Ancient Mariner. The poetical methods of the two 
 men, however, differed widely. Wordsworth's idea was 
 to take real and commonplai^e incidents as subjects, and lift 
 them by means of his reflective imagination into the realm 
 of poetry. Coleridge's aim was to take the most mysterious, 
 superstitious, and improbable incidents, and by detailed and
 
 278 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 specific treatment make them seem real. All that was weird 
 and mysterious and improbable in the old ballads and ro- 
 mances stimulated Coleridge's imagination ; he loved, too, 
 their simplicity and naivete. The Rime of the Ancient 
 Mariner and Christabel illustrate medieval luxuriance of 
 imagination wrought into finished poetry by the conscious 
 artist. The Ancient Mariner, moreover, is in the ballad 
 meter, and shows many of the tricks of the ballad style. 
 Other notable ballads are The Dark Ladie and The Three 
 Graves. The dreamy and intangible ciuality of imagination 
 is at its height in Kubla Khan, an oriental dream picture, 
 which defies analysis, but charms by its rhythmic imagery. 
 There is a magic quality about Coleridge at his best which 
 has never been equaled. 
 
 Loss of Poetic Power. — Unfortunately, however, his 
 poetic output was not great. He lacked the power of sus- 
 tained and protracted poetic effort, his mind turned to phil- 
 osophic speculation, and he lost what he called his " shaping 
 spirit of Imagination." In Dejection: an Ode, he says : 
 
 "There was a time when, though my path was rough, 
 
 This joy within me daUied with distress. 
 And all misfortimes were but as the stuff 
 
 Whence Fancy made me dreams of happiness : 
 For hope grew romid me, like the twining vine. 
 
 And fruits, and foliage, not my own, seemed mine. 
 But now afflictions bow me down to earth : 
 
 Nor care I that they rob me of my mirth ; 
 But oh ! each \'isitation 
 Suspends what nature gave me at my birth, 
 
 My shaping spirit of Imagination. 
 For not to think of what I needs must feel, 
 
 But to be still and patient, all I can ; 
 And haply by abstruse research to steal 
 
 From my own nature all the natural man —
 
 ROMANTICISM 279 
 
 This was my sole resource, my only plan ; 
 Till that whi(!h suits a part infects the whole, 
 And now is almost grown the habit of my soul." 
 
 Revolutionary Poems. — Both Coleridge and Wordsworth 
 were influenced by the French Revolution, but only in an 
 emotional way. Both were by nature too religious to accept 
 the materialism, atheism, and anarchy of the revolutionary 
 doctrines ; consequently as soon as the excesses in Franco 
 became prominent, both repudiated the movement. Words- 
 worth took refuge in nature ; Coleridge, in philosophical 
 speculation. Among Coleridge's revolutionary poems, The 
 Destruction of the Bastile is an early outburst of emotional 
 sympathy ; the Ode on the Departing Year is a reproach of 
 England for joining the coalition against France. France: 
 an Ode is a bitter recantation. When liberty in France had 
 drifted into tyranny, and, mad for conquest, had overthrown 
 the freedom of Switzerland, Coleridge turned away in bitter- 
 ness and disgust. 
 
 "Forgive me. Freedom ! forgive those dreams 1 
 
 I hear thy voice, I hear thy loud lament. 
 
 From bleak Helvetia's icy caverns sent — 
 I hear thy groans upon her blood-stained streams. 
 
 Heroes, that for your peaceful country perished, 
 And ye that, fleeing, spot your mountain snows 
 
 With bleeding wounds : forgive me that I cherished 
 One thought that ever blessed your cruel foes ! 
 
 To scatter rage and traitorous guilt 
 
 Where Peace her jealous home had built ; 
 
 A patriot-race to disinherit 
 Of all that made their stormy wilds so dear 
 
 And with inexpiable spirit 
 To taint the bloodless freedom of the mountaineer — 
 France, that mockest Heaven, adulterous, blind, 
 
 And patriot only in pernicious toils !
 
 280 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Are these thy boasts, Champion of human kind ? 
 
 To mix with Kings in the low lust of sway, 
 Yell in the hunt, and share the murderous prey ; 
 To insult the shrine of Liberty with spoils 
 
 From freedom torn ; to tempt and to betray ? " 
 
 Shelley's Revolutionary Poems. — A more genuine child 
 of the Revolution was Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). 
 He was a rebel from the very beginning, chafing under every 
 form of restraint. At school, he was called " mad Shelley, 
 the atheist." In early manhood, when he came under the 
 influence of Godwin, he accepted the revolutionary doc- 
 trines entire. Thus it happened that, unlike Wordsworth 
 and Coleridge, he represents the revolution on both its doc- 
 trinal and emotional sides. He believed profoundly that 
 all the woes of men were to be traced to the tyranny of 
 priests and kings. If man could only do away with govern- 
 ments and religions, and start the world afresh along lines of 
 absolute freedom, the race could be educated into a state of 
 perfection. Queen Mob, his earliest revolutionary poem, 
 is a fierce denunication of priests and kings. The Revolt 
 of Islam is a story of heroic sacrifice in the cause of liberty. 
 His most characteristic work, however, is Prometheus Un- 
 bound. It is a revision of the old classical myth according to 
 which Prometheus, the champion of mankind against the 
 tyranny of Zeus, has been chained to a rock on Mount 
 Caucasus, from which torment Zeus is determined not to 
 free him, unless he will tell the secret upon which the con- 
 tinuance of the power of Zeus depends. The old myth 
 relates that Prometheus finally tells the secret, and is set 
 free. Shelley changes the myth to suit his revolutionary 
 ideas. Prometheus represents, not the deliverer of mankind, 
 but mankind itself, bending under the tyranny of priests 
 and kings. He will not yield. Furies torment him with the
 
 ROMANTICISM 281 
 
 thought that all efforts of the past for the good of mankind 
 have been turned to evil; hut spirits of heroic action, self- 
 sacrifice, wisdom, imagination, and love comfort him. In 
 the fullness of time Demagorgon (Necessity) hurls tyranny 
 from the throne. Asia, who represents the spirit of love in 
 nature, is united to Prometheus, the spirit of man, and the 
 golden age begins. The last act is a series of lyrics, cele- 
 brating the age of perfect justice and peace. The poem 
 shows Shelley's hatretl of tyranny, and his sublime faith in a 
 perfected humanity ruled everywhere by love. Its weak- 
 ness is that it gives no light on how the result is to be brought 
 about. 
 
 Shelley not a Constructive Thinker. — Indeed Shelley 
 was not a constructive thinker ; he was a lyric poet. His 
 sense of fact was not strong. He deals less with the practical 
 actualities of life than any of his contemporaries. He was 
 an uncompromising idealist, with a sublime faith in the future 
 of mankind ; but the visions which his faith pictured were 
 unaccompanied by serious thought of how those visions were 
 to be realized. However, the wealth of his imagination and 
 the rich music of his verse gave his ideas enduring artistic 
 form. 
 
 " Adonais." — His poetry is of the elusive, etherial quality 
 almost baffling to the commonplace mind. Even his nature 
 imagery has to do with evanescent forms, the wind, the 
 cloud, the voice of the unseen nightingale or skylark. This 
 air of unreality is well illustrated in Adonais, his elegy on the 
 death of John Keats. Those who come to weep over the 
 bier are Urania (Heavenlj^ Love), Splendors, Glooms, Hours, 
 Destinies, and even the lovely Dreams which have emanated 
 from the poet's brain in life. Shelley has been well called the 
 poet's poet. 
 
 The Poetry of Scott. — Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
 
 282 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 represents primaril}' the influence of the old ballads and 
 romances. From a child, he was familiar with all the 
 legendary lore of the Scotch, and later published a large col- 
 lection of old border ballads under the name. Minstrelsy of 
 the Scottish Border. His first original productions were 
 metrical romances, the meter being suggested by Coleridge's 
 Christabel. The best are The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805) 
 a tale of Scottish border life in the Middle Ages, Marmion, 
 A Tale of Flodden Field (1808), and The Lady of the Lake 
 (1810), a story of the Scottish highlands at the time of James 
 V of Scotland. Of these, Marmion is the most swift and 
 powerful ; The Lady of the Lake, the richest and most charm- 
 ing. These poems made Scott for a time the most popular 
 literary man in the British Islands, and the Scott countr}^ 
 still remains one of the most popular of literary pilgrimages. 
 
 Qualities of his Poetry. — His poetry was not so deeply 
 imaginative, not so artistically finished, as the poetry of 
 Wordsworth and Coleridge. Scott was interested primarily 
 in the pageantry of life. His romantic scenery is picturesque, 
 his characters bold and wholesome, his story spirited and 
 borne along on a rapid and buoyant verse. There is much 
 brilliant declamation. 
 
 Byron's Romanticism. — After the triumph of The Lady 
 of the Lake, Scott's fame as a poet began to decline, his place 
 in the popular favor being taken by Lord Byron (1788-1824). 
 Byron's early poetry shows the influence of classicism. 
 English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, for instance, is written 
 in rimed couplets and in the manner of eighteenth-century 
 satire. But he soon developed marked romantic tendencies. 
 His tales of Oriental life. The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, 
 The Corsair, Lara, etc., are lurid and extravagant. Childe 
 Harold is a story of travel, written in Spenserian stanzas, 
 and recounting journeys in Portugal, Spain, Illyria, Greece,
 
 ROMANTICISM 283 
 
 Turkey, the Rhine Countrj', and Italy. It is full of brilliant 
 description, enriched by literary and historical allusions. 
 Its mood is somber, passionate, rebellious. Harold, the 
 protagonist, is a typical romantic figure, fleeing from the real 
 world to find solace in solitude. 
 
 Byron a Poet of Revolution. — Byron was the prince of 
 radicals and revolutionists. He became for all Europe the 
 prophet of liberty, voicing better than any one else the rev- 
 olutionary feeling which smoldered everywhere after the 
 failure of the French Revolution. Less of a doctrinaire 
 than Shelle}' , he yet had a supreme contempt for all manner 
 of restraint, and a passionate love of liberty. Add to this 
 an oratorical method free from all refinements and subtleties, 
 and the reason for his wide popularity is explained. His 
 dramas Manfred and Cain are characteristic revolutionary 
 pieces. Manfred is a kind of Faust, living high up in the 
 Alps in gloomy and letter isolation, scornful of his fate. 
 Cain, the first murderer, is pictured as an heroic rebel against 
 the tyranny of God. He is one of those 
 
 "Souls who dare to look the Omnipotent tyrant in 
 His everlasting face, and tell him that 
 His evil is not good." 
 
 Byron has been called the chief example of the " Satanic 
 School of Poetry." 
 
 " The Prisoner of Chillon." — His most finished poem is 
 The Prisoner of Chillon, the pathetic recital of a Swiss patriot 
 who has been released from a dungeon after years of imprison- 
 ment, having seen his two brothers, who were imprisoned 
 with him, die in their chains, and find graves beneath the 
 floor of the dungeon. 
 
 Byron's Satires. — Byron was also a satirist, the only one 
 of the great romantic poets to win fame in this form of art.
 
 284 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 His English Bards and Scotch Reviewers is a clever attack 
 upon the critics and poets of his time. The Vision of Judg- 
 ment is directed against the poet Southey, who had aroused 
 Byron's ire by praising George III. Don Juan, the most 
 famous of all, is a comprehensive satire on modern society. 
 Byron ruthlessly exposes the social corruption hidden be- 
 neath the conventional veneer. The work is licentious 
 but brilliant. It is, of all Byron's poems, the most complete 
 expression of his strange personality. 
 
 John Keats (1796-1821) occupies a place apart from his 
 fellow-romanticists. He took almost no interest in the 
 problems of his own time. His poetic inspiration came 
 almost exclusively from the classical and medieval past. 
 Most of his information about Greek story and mythology 
 came out of the classical dictionary, for he could not read 
 the Greek language ; yet somehow he gained a sympathetic 
 appreciation of the Greek spirit. At the same time, he knew 
 and loved medieval romance with all its imaginative luxuri- 
 ance. The combination of the classical and the romantic 
 in his nature made him unique in his time. Emlymion is 
 a classical theme treated with romantic extravagance. 
 Lamia, too, is rich in romantic coloring. Isabella and The 
 Eve of St. Agnes are medieval themes. The Eve of St. Agnes 
 has been called an " unsurpassed example of the pure charm 
 of colored and romantic narrative in English verse." Hy- 
 perion shows the Miltonic influence ; it is an example of 
 " the grand style in poetry." His great odes, especially the 
 Ode on a Grecian Urn and the Ode to a Nightingale, have rare 
 beauty and finish. Indeed, Keats worshiped beauty. His 
 poetic creed is expressed at the end of the Ode on a Grecian 
 Urn: 
 
 "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, this is all 
 We know on earth and all we need to know."
 
 Isabella and the Pot of Basil. 
 After the painting by Hohnan Hunt.
 
 ROMANTICISM 285 
 
 The second volume he published began with the line 
 "A thing of beauty is a joj^ forever." 
 
 Keats died at the age of twenty-five ; yet he left work of 
 such rare excellence that it has had a profound influence upon 
 subsequent verse. 
 
 (b) PROSE 
 
 As the age of reason and common sense was preeminently 
 an age of prose, so the age of imagination and emotion was an 
 age of poetry. Still, romanticism had its stories in prose and 
 its essays. Sir Walter Scott was the great exponent of the 
 prose romance. When his poetic inspiration began to abate, 
 and Byron threatened to take away his popularity, Scott 
 turned to the writing of prose stories, and published Waverley, 
 the first of the so-called Waverley Novels. He did not con- 
 tinue the realistic traditions of Richardson or Fielding, but 
 set himself rather to develop the method of Mrs. Radcliffe 
 and " Monk " Lewis, looking back to the Middle Ages for 
 inspiration, exploiting the mystery and superstition and 
 high adventure of that romantic past. He played upon it all, 
 however, with the hand of an artist, so that, although Mrs. 
 Radcliffe and her school are now ridiculous, Scott still re- 
 mains one of our great English masters. 
 
 Scott's Prose Romances. — His romances may be divided 
 into two general classes : one pertaining to the medieval past 
 of England ; the other, to the past of Scotland. Iimihoe is 
 a story of the time of the crusades ; Kenilworth, of the time 
 of Queen Elizabeth. These represent the English past. 
 Old Mortality treats of the Scotch Covenanters. Other 
 Scotch romances are Guy Mannering, The Heart of Mid- 
 lothian, Rob Roy. 
 
 Scott's Method. — Scott placed the emphasis on pag- 
 eantry and adventure. To be sure, the characters are often
 
 286 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 fine typical figures : Bailie Jarvis in Rob Roy, Jeanie Deans 
 in The Heart of Midlothian, Meg Merrilies in Guy Mannering 
 are vivid Scotch portraits. Yet we are interested not so 
 much in their character as in their fortunes ; and not so much 
 in the meaning of life as in its outward show. Scott's 
 chief purpose was to entertain. He was not a romanticist 
 of the Byron or Shelley type ; he had no radical tendencies, 
 political or social ; he did not feel the tyranny of conven- 
 tional life. He had just a fascinating interest in the past of 
 England and Scotland and knew how to make its pageantry 
 and high adventure live again. He exploited the simple 
 and fundamental aspects of romance. 
 
 Wordsworth's Critical Writings. — The romantic school 
 also developed a literature of criticism. Wordsworth, in 
 his famous prefaces to the various editions of The Lyrical 
 Ballads, took direct issue with the classicists. First, he in- 
 sisted that the passions were the subject matter for poetry. 
 Poetry, to him, was not a mechanical process, but " the spon- 
 taneous overflow of the feelings," modified, to be sure, by 
 reflection, but generated, not manufactured. He spoke of 
 poetry as " emotion recollected in tranquillity." Secondly, 
 he believed that the poor and the lowly are fitter subjects 
 for poetry than the great, because among the plain people 
 the simple and fundamental emotions are to be found in the 
 greatest sincerity and truth. In the third place, he dis- 
 carded the old doctrine of poetic diction, going so far as to 
 claim that the language of poetry differs in no essential 
 particular from the language of prose. In the fourth place, 
 he insisted upon the imagination as the shaping power of 
 poetry. 
 
 Coleridge as a Critic. — Coleridge, in his Biographia 
 Literaria and other critical and philosophical works, agreed 
 in general with Wordsworth, except in the matter of poetic
 
 ROMANTICISM 287 
 
 diction. He emphasized especially the function of the 
 imagination, which he explained and defended according to 
 the principles of German idealism. He laid much stress upon 
 a distinction between "reason" and "understanding," the 
 " reason " being a peculiarly high power of the mind to grasp 
 truth which cannot be explained by the common "under- 
 standing." Carlyle spoke of Coleridge's ideas as " philo- 
 sophical moonshine," and there may be truth in the remark 
 as far as abstract philosophical speculation is concerned ; 
 yet Coleridge's criticisms of particular pieces of literature, 
 such as his comments on Shakespeare, are highly apprecia- 
 tive and illuminating. Indeed his present rank as a critic 
 is very high, perhaps among the world's great five or 
 six. 
 
 The Critical Reviews. — This period was also the period 
 oi the great critical reviews: The Edinburgh Review, The 
 Quarterly Review, and Blackwood's Magazine. The most 
 influential contributors were Francis Jeffrey and Professor 
 John Wilson. They were acknowledged authorities. Their 
 criticism was keen and penetrating, but often bitterly dog- 
 matic, the result of mere personal opinion and prejudice. 
 It was against Jeffrey in particular that Byron's English 
 Bards and Scotch Reviewers was directed. 
 
 Appreciative Criticism. — William Hazlitt (1784-1859) 
 and Charles Lamb (1775-1834) were more sympathetic 
 critics. They made criticism " a kind of romance in the 
 world of books." Lamb was an especially sympathetic 
 critic, a lifelong friend of Coleridge, a defender of Words- 
 worth and the new poetic school, an enthusiastic admirer 
 of the older romantic literature of the Elizabethan time. 
 His Specimens of Early English Dramatists, with critical 
 comments, displays a wide and discriminating reading in 
 Shakespeare's contemporaries. It did much to revive the
 
 288 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 fame of the lesser dramatists, whom the classicists had almost 
 entirely neglected. 
 
 Lamb as a Critic of Life. — But Lamb was cjuite as much a 
 critic of life as a critic of literature. He lived year in and 
 year out in London, a close and sympathetic obser^^er of men 
 and manners. Moreover, he saw everything in the light of 
 the ciuaint humor of his own character and in the light of 
 the touching pathos of his own simple, heroic life. His keen 
 sympathy and quaint style have made him one of the most 
 charming of English essayists. His Essays of Elia and Last 
 Essays of Elia are his most popular books. Among the 
 individual essays. Old China, A Dissertation on Roast Pig, 
 and Dream Children illustrate very well the delicacy of his 
 dreamy imagination, the quaintness of his humor, and the 
 sincerity of his pathos. 
 
 Thomas De Quincey. — In Thomas De Quincey (1785- 
 1859) the romantic element is even more pronounced. He 
 was one of the earliest converts to the ideas of Wordsworth 
 and Coleridge, and lived neighbor to Wordsworth for twenty 
 years at Grasmere. There he read a prodigious number of 
 books, ate vast quantities of opium, and dreamed the most 
 glorious and most terrible dreams. His Confessions of an 
 Opium Eater is an extended autobiography from his earliest 
 recollections down to the time when he became an absolute 
 slave of the opium habit (1819). Susperia de Profundis 
 (Sighs from the Depths), a sequel to The Opium Eater, 
 tells of the wandering of his mind when under the spell of 
 the drug. It is a gloomy and terrible series of dreams, of 
 which Lavana and Our Ladies of Sorrow is the most widely 
 known. The English Mail Coach is also a dream product. 
 It relates that, when De Quincey was riding one night on 
 the top of His Majesty's mail, the coach collided with a frail 
 carriage containing a pair of lovers. The horror and anguish
 
 ROMANTICISM 289 
 
 of the catastrophe, especially the vision of the girl in terror 
 of death, entered into his dreams, appearing again and again 
 in unexpectod and weird dream combinations. 
 
 De Quincey's Critical Works. — The most important of 
 De Quincey's critical works are On the Knocking at the 
 Gate in Macbeth (1823), Murder Considered as a Fine Art 
 (1827), and Literary Reminiscences. The Reminiscences 
 contain appreciations of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, 
 Shelley, Keats, and other literary figures of the Romantic 
 School, many of whom De Quincey knew personally and in 
 some cases intimately. 
 
 De Quincey's Style — De Quincey's style is luxuriant and 
 full of romantic coloring — highly imaginative prose. The 
 range of his vocabulary was exceeded only by that of Shake- 
 speare and Milton, and he used that vocabulary with the 
 finest precision. His style is richly figurative, and moves along 
 with a stately rhythm which gives it many of the emotional 
 qualities of verse. The diff useness of his writing, however, is 
 often irritating to the reader who is impatient of digressions. 
 De Quincey often stops for incidental, even trivial remarks, 
 and is sometimes led far afield by his wayward fancy. It 
 has been well said of him : " He illustrates both the defects 
 and the virtues of the romantic temper; its virtues in the 
 enkindled splendor of his fancy and the impassioned sweep 
 of his style ; its defects in his extravagance, his unevenness, 
 his failure to exercise adequate self-criticism." 
 
 Suggestions for Reading^ 
 
 Gray : Eleqy in a Country Church Yard. 
 
 Burns : Poems. 
 
 Carlyle : Essay on Burns. 
 
 ' All these readings may be found in the Pocket Series of English Classics 
 published by The Macmillan Company. 
 V
 
 290 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Coleridge : The Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, and Christabel. 
 Wordsworth : Shorter Poems. 
 Byron : Childe Harold, Books III and IV. 
 SheUey and Keats : Selections from Shelley and Keats. 
 Lamb: "Old China," "A Dissertation on Roast Pig," and 
 " Dream Children " in Essays of Elia. 
 De Quincey : The English Mail Coach. 
 Scott : Marmion, The Lady of the Lake, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 
 
 Characteristics of the Victorian Era. — We have seen that, 
 in the age of classicism, the emphasis in literature was placed 
 upon reason and common sense. The primary appeal was 
 to the intellect. Imagination and emotion had an incidental 
 place. In the Romantic period the reverse was true. Imagi- 
 nation and emotion were emphasized. Reason and common 
 sense often gave way to extravagance and excess. In the 
 Victorian Era both influences are strong, and run side by 
 side throughout the century, each modifying and restraining 
 the excess of the other. The literature of reason is less 
 rigid and formal ; the literature of the imagination, less 
 extravagant and unreal. It is difficult to say which group 
 is of greatest importance : Macaulay, Thackeray, Darwin, and 
 George Eliot ; or Carlyle, Tennyson, Browning, and Stevenson. 
 Nor is it always easy to classify authors, for the two streams 
 of influence often came together, particularly in the greatest 
 men. The case is not so easy with George Eliot and Alfred 
 Tennyson as with Macaulay and Stevenson. George Eliot 
 is not a thoroughgoing realist in spite of her own professions. 
 (See Part I, p. 16.) Alfred Tennyson's romanticism was 
 much modified by the investigations of science ; he accepted 
 without hesitation the principles of Evolution. Yet the 
 prevailing attitude toward life of Macaulay, Thackeray, Dar- 
 win, and George Eliot is distinctly intellectual ; that of Car- 
 lyle, Tennyson, Browning, and Stevenson, imaginative and 
 
 291
 
 292 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 spiritual. It must be remembered, however, that the 
 greater the writer, the harder it is to classify him. 
 
 Seeming Decline of Romanticism. — At the time of the 
 death of Scott (1832), the great romantic impulse seemed to 
 have spent itself. Byron, Shelley, and Keats were dead. 
 Coleridge's " shaping spirit of imagination " had* departed 
 from him, and he wrote but little great poetry afterward. 
 Wordsworth's best work was already done. The world 
 seemed sinking back into a commonplace, matter-of-fact 
 existence. But romanticism only changed its point of view ; 
 it did not die out. There was a marked revival of interest 
 in reason and fact, but it did not entirely displace the in- 
 terest in the things of the spirit. At the very beginning of 
 the new era, each interest had its champion. Thomas 
 Babington Macaulay was the brilliant intellectual exponent 
 of the things of the sense, the world of affairs. Thomas 
 Carlyle was the great preacher of the things of the spirit, 
 of the world of ideals. 
 
 Macaulay was preeminently a man of affairs, a man of the 
 most brilliant intellectual powers, but of meager spirituality. 
 He was a member of parliament, a wit, an orator, an essayist, 
 an historian. He was eminently practical, ready to accept 
 things as they were and make the best of them. His interest 
 was primarily in politics and government, and in commerce 
 and industry. His chief reliance in life was on ballot-boxes 
 and machinery. He is a typical exponent of the practical 
 and purely intellectual side of nineteenth-century life. 
 
 Macaulay's Prose Works. — With the exception of The 
 Lays of Ancient Rome — celebrations in verse of the ancient 
 civic virtues of the Romans — Macaulay's literary work was 
 almost exclusively in prose. His literary fame began with 
 the essay on Milton, published in The Edinburgh Review in 
 1825. Other literary essays are those on Addison, Bacon,
 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 After the portrait by James McNeil Whistler.
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 293 
 
 and Dr. Johnson, all of whom interested him hirgely because 
 they were in touch with practical everyday life. Among his 
 essays and addresses on public men, the most irn])ortant 
 are those on William Pitt, Lord Clive, and Warren Hastings. 
 They are remarkable for clear statements, apt illustrations, 
 skillful emphases, strong contrasts, striking antitheses, 
 rapid and graphic narration. Biography and history were 
 his specialties, and he brought to them a breadth of reading 
 and a power of memory rarely surpassed. His most extensive 
 work. The History of England from the Accession of James II, 
 only five volumes of which were completed, shows Macaulay's 
 prejudices, and is full of exaggerations ; yet, because of its 
 clear and brilliant style, it took hold of the public like a novel. 
 Indeed, it was Macaulay's conscious purpose to appeal to 
 the novel reading public. 
 
 Carlyle's Philosophy of Life. — The work of Thomas 
 Carlyle (1795-1881) is a wild protest against the attitude 
 toward life represented by Macaulay. Carlyle lifted his 
 voice in awful warning against the worship of machinery and 
 of the ballot-box. He could not accept things as they were 
 with mild complacency, because he thought there was need 
 of radical reform. He was not a politician, however, but a 
 prophet and a seer, a man not of compromises, but of ideals. 
 Macaulay was interested in the machinery of life ; Carlyle, 
 in the great spiritual forces at work behind the machinery, 
 without which the machinery would be dead. Like Cole- 
 ridge, he steeped himself in German idealism, though he took 
 his idealism not from the abstract philosophies, as Coleridge 
 did, but from the more concrete literary embodiments, es- 
 pecially from the works of Goethe ; and whereas Coleridge 
 was the first expounder of German idealism, or transcenden- 
 talism, in England, Carlyle was its great propagandist. 
 Carlyle's ideas are best expressed, perhaps, in his clothes-
 
 294 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 philosophy, explained at length in Sartor Resartus. From 
 one point of view this book is an attack against shams, and 
 a plea for sincerity. Laws, customs, social forms, even reli- 
 gious creeds are only the clothes in which the spirit of man 
 arrays itself. The great realities are the spiritual realities. 
 The outward forms in which the spirit manifests itself are 
 comparatively unimportant. Carlyle complains that men 
 forget the spirit, and foolishly worship the forms. The 
 developing spirit of man, he says, outgrows its clothes ; and 
 when outgrown', the old clothes -should be cast aside. There 
 is nothing sacred about laws or creeds. As long as they 
 fitly clothe and truthfull}^ represent the spirit, well and good ; 
 but when they have become outworn or outgrown, away with 
 them. Let us have no sham customs, no sham creeds. 
 From another point of view, the book is constructive rather 
 than destructive. The physical universe is the visible gar- 
 ment of God — a conception of nature not altogether unlike 
 AYordsworth's. Behind the garment is the genuine spiritual 
 reality. Carlyle considered the man foolish and narrow who 
 thought only of the texture and style of the garment, and 
 cared not to know the personality within. 
 
 Carlyle's Purposes. — All this is plain romantic doctrine, 
 but Carlyle is trying to bring to it a clearer moral purpose. 
 Like the earlier romanticists, he repudiates the world's old 
 clothes ; this is his Everlasting Nay. But he would not 
 have the world without clothes. Make new and more 
 suitable clothes for the human spirit and weave them in the 
 loom of life; this is his Everlasting Yea. Here emerges 
 Carlyle's Gospel of Work. Carlyle preaches the task of the 
 nineteenth-century idealism, i.e., to infuse into romanticism 
 a great moral purpose, and construct a livable world which is 
 at once both ideal and real. 
 
 History and Biography. — In his views about government,
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 295 
 
 Carl}' le was not genuinely democratic, and in this" he differs 
 from his revohitionary prc^deeessors. One of his cardinal 
 doctrines was "government by the best." Democracy he 
 thought to be "government by the worst." Carlyle was 
 a hero worshiper, and his Heroes and Hero-Worship is one 
 of his most significant books. He took no stock in the 
 judgment and insight of the masses. To him the real prob- 
 lem of life was to find out the superior, God-inspired men, the 
 genuine heroes, and to follow them. Carlyle is, therefore, 
 in constant search of great personalities. History, to him, 
 was but a series of biographies of great men. Like Macaulay, 
 most of his work has to do with biography and history. Yet 
 both his point of view and his method are different. JVIa- 
 caulay was interested in what men did ; Carlyle, in what men 
 actually were. One emphasizes events ; the other, per- 
 sonality. Macaulay's History of England is a well-planned, 
 progressive narrative of events. Carlyle's History of the 
 French Revolution is a drama in which great personalities 
 such as IVIirabeau display their power in scenes of confusion. 
 In biography, Carlyle's work is far more sympathetic and 
 penetrating than Macaulay's, as a comparison of their 
 essays on Dr. Johnson shows. The History of Frederick the 
 Great is Carlyle's most stupendous, perhaps his greatest 
 biographical work. The most appreciative and sympathetic 
 of his shorter sketches is the Essay on Burns. 
 
 (a) REALISM 
 
 The Realistic Novel. — Carlyle's protest against his time 
 was vigorous and influential, but it did not stop realistic 
 tendencies, as the development of the nineteenth-century 
 novel attests. Back in the romantic period Jane Austen 
 had made a more or less conscious protest against the ex- 
 travagance of Mrs. RadcUffe and " Monk " Lewis in her
 
 296 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 novels of manners, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, 
 Mansfield Park, and Emma. And now in the middle of the 
 nineteenth century the effort to treat everyday life in the 
 novel is further emphasized by Charles Dickens, William 
 Makepeace Thackeray, and George Eliot. 
 
 Dickens's Character Creations. — Charles Dickens (1812- 
 1870) was a representative everyday Englishman. He 
 lived very close to the public, and knew well how to repre- 
 sent it and to speak for it. He began life as a reporter, and 
 later became an editor, amateur actor, and public reader. 
 As reporter he studied his public, as actor and reader he 
 learned how to play upon it. Early in his career he began 
 to write sketches of London life, mostly caricatures. Urged 
 on by their success, he invented the " Pickwick Club," 
 and worked out a large book of sketches. The Pickwick 
 Papers, a book without any careful plan, but full of comic 
 figures. Later, he conceived grotesque and terrible char- 
 acters : Fagin and Sykes in Oliver Twist (1838), Quilp in Old 
 Curiosity Shop (1841), and Madam Defarge in A Tale of 
 Two Cities (1859). His child characters, too, are famous, 
 Little Nell, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, pathetic and 
 abused little creatures. The stories are often carelessly 
 constructed ; indeed, many of them were written and pub- 
 lished in installments, Dickens himself not knowing at 
 the beginning how the story was to end. But the char- 
 acters are always inimitable. Dickens was a great showman, 
 with an inexhaustible supply of figures, humorous and 
 pathetic, vicious and innocent. 
 
 Dickens as a Reformer. — His work has also distinct 
 moral purpose. Dickens attacked public abuses, and sought 
 to redress wrongs. His stories aided many a reform. Oliver 
 Twist attacks the workhouse ; Bleak House, the chancery 
 court; Little Dorrit, the debtor's prisons. Domhey and
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 297 
 
 Son and Nicholas Nickieby by exposing the cruelties prac- 
 ticed in English schools, helped to put a stop to the shameful 
 exploitation of innocent children. Indeed, the memory of 
 Dickens's own bitter childhood is at the root of his opposition 
 to social injustice and of his zeal for reform. It is easy to 
 find fault with the work of Dickens. His characters are not 
 so much portraits as caricatures. His plots are often form- 
 less. Mistakes in English may be found on almost every 
 page. Yet he was the most popular writer of his day, and 
 the hundredth anniversary of his birth hardly finds his fame 
 diminished. He lived close to the popular life. He had 
 rare sympathy and insight. He knew well how to produce 
 laught(n- and horror and tears. 
 
 Thackeray's Attitude toward Life. — William Makepeace 
 Thackeray (1811-1863) likewise wrote novels of real life, 
 but his point of view differed from that of Dickens. Dickens 
 was a man of the common people ; Thackeray, of the draw- 
 ing-room and the club. Thackeray was the easy-going 
 satirist of social life, drawing intellectual inspiration from 
 the classicism of the eighteenth century. He represents 
 the common-sense point of view of the critical clubman, not 
 caring to make the world over, but accepting it as it is with 
 all its irregularities, and laughing at it in a manner a little 
 patronizing. He despises hypocrisy and sham, but does not 
 employ invective as Carlyle does. His method is subtle, 
 suggestive, and insinuating, without being cynical. He 
 does not despise human nature as the true cynic does, but 
 believes rather in its essential worth. The simple goodness 
 of Colonel Newcome, for example, is treated with genuine 
 sympathy, though not with the frank simplicity of Dickens. 
 Thackeray is more critical, and maintains always a half- 
 smiling reserve. 
 
 His Novels. — Thackeray's novels show a thorough knowl-
 
 298 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 edge of life and literature in the eighteenth and early nine- 
 teenth centuries. Henry Esmond and its sequel, Tke 
 Virginians, picture English social life from the time of 
 Addison to the time of the war for American independence. 
 English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century shows a keen 
 appreciation of the literature. Life in the late eighteenth 
 and early nineteenth century is treated in Pendennis, The 
 Newcomes, and Vanity Fair. The development of these 
 stories is desultory and haphazard, Henry Esmond alone 
 being carefully wrought out. The characters, too, are not so 
 carefully analyzed as those of George Eliot, for instance, are. 
 Thackeray had no scientific and philosophical ideas of novel 
 writing, no elaborate theorj^ of realism, no set of principles. 
 He simply had a clear vision and a critical judgment, a genius 
 for significant details, a chatty and confidential manner. He 
 avoided fundamental spiritual conflicts and problems; but 
 for a vivid picture of English social manners and customs in 
 the eighteenth and early nineteenth centurj^, as seen from 
 the point of view of a common-sense man of the world, there 
 is perhaps no better place to go than to the novels of Thack- 
 eray. 
 
 Henry Esmond shows Thackeray at his best. Esmond is 
 a character of dignity and worth, an honorable and loyal 
 English gentleman, who is allowed to tell his own story from 
 his own essentially noble point of view. Moreover, Thack- 
 eray's sympathetic knowledge of the eighteenth century gives 
 the book peculiar reality and warmth. " The vanished world 
 lives for us in character and in episode ; lives with a dignity 
 and richness of conception and style that shows Thackeray 
 to have been, when he chose, the greatest artist among the 
 English novelists." ^ 
 
 George Eliot's Realism. — George Eliot (1819-1880) took 
 1 Moody and Lovett, History of English Literature.
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 299 
 
 the art of novel writing far more seriously than Thackeray 
 did. Thackeray did not scorn to gossip about life. George 
 Eliot strove earnestly to interpret it. Her stories arose for 
 the most part out of her real experiences, and her charac- 
 ters were often suggested by real people. Adam Beds, for 
 example, was suggested by an incident in the life of her aunt, 
 who was the original of Dinah Morris, the woman preacher. 
 Mrs. Poyser is supposed to have traits of George Eliot's 
 mother. Cabel Garth in Middlemarch is like her father. 
 There is much that is autobiographical in Maggie Tulliver 
 in The Mill on the Floss. George Eliot's earlier stories of 
 rustic life have great reality and freshness, but she was not 
 content to give us a mere photograph of life. She must 
 uncover the hidden springs of action and discuss moral prob- 
 lems as an ethical teacher. Not content with surface 
 reality, she must interpret the obvious facts philosophically 
 and scientifically. She claimed to be a realist ; and so she 
 was to the extent that she gave no false idea of life, did not 
 exaggerate life for effect, or color it, or throw it out of true 
 perspective. But her books are not mirrors of life. Her 
 sympathetic imagination plays around it all, and facts are 
 always used for a conscious moral purpose. Silas Marner, 
 for instance, treats of the regeneration of character. Har- 
 dened and embittered by unjust suspicion, Silas is later 
 humanized through the influence of love. Love will heal 
 a morbid nature, is the theme. The story also illustrates 
 the law of life that "' whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
 also reap." Roniola is a psychologic study of the degenera- 
 tion of character in Tito. George Eliot's purpose is to show 
 that ethical law is as inexorable as physical law. 
 
 Structure and Style. — In structure and style, George 
 Eliot was more painstaking than either Dickens or Thack- 
 eray. Her stories were first thoughtfully planned, and then
 
 300 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 carefully elaborated. Every effect was calculated. Espe- 
 cially were suspense and contrast consciously and skillfully 
 applied. The backgrounds for the action are fully devel- 
 oped. The characters talk with absolute realism. The 
 descriptions of Warwickshire, where her early novels are 
 localized, are painstakingly exact. The language of rustic 
 characters like Mrs. Poyser truly smack of the soil. 
 
 The novels most interesting as stories, are Adam Bede, 
 The Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner. In later novels, 
 the philosophical and moral purpose interferes with the 
 story interest. Romola and Middlcmarch show Eliot's great 
 learning, but lack the freshness and reality of her early work. 
 Daniel Deronda, although regarded by Eliot as her greatest 
 book, is too analytical and moralizing to suit most readers 
 of fiction. As a whole, however, her books represent the 
 highest development in English of realistic fiction with a 
 purpose. 
 
 Meredith's Novels. — George Meredith (1828-1909) began 
 to write as early as George Eliot, but his books did not find a 
 wide public, until the end of the Victorian Era. Like George 
 Eliot he was a psychologist, a moralist, and interpreter of life. 
 His realism, however, is not so pronounced as George Eliot's. 
 His characters are not always so clearly individualized. 
 Indeed, as in The Egoist, they are often frankly presented 
 as types. Nor does Meredith always take pa-ins to have 
 the dialogue true to life. He feels that his men and women 
 must be made essentially human, but he cares more for typi- 
 cal than for individual peculiarities, and is willing to com- 
 press his dialogue more highly and weight it more heavily 
 with meaning than would be possible in actual life. His 
 thought, too, is often complicated and his style abrupt. 
 But to the practiced reader his books are significant and stim- 
 ulating. He teaches his moral lessons more often through
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 301 
 
 comedy than through tragedy, making vice ridiculous rather 
 than terrible. His most notable novels are The Ordeal oj 
 Richard Feverel (1859), Beauchamp's Career (1876), The 
 Egoist (1879), and Diana of the Crossways (1885). 
 
 The Science Movement. — A further realistic movement 
 which influenced profoundly though indirectly the literature 
 of the Victorian Era is the development of science, especially 
 the theory of evolution as made known to the world by 
 Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species (1859). Other 
 scientific writers were Lyell, Huxley, Tyndall, and Wallace. 
 The conclusions of geology and biology which the work of 
 these men represent changed the whole conception of life. 
 The great popular preacher of the movement was Huxley. 
 His Autobiography and Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews 
 are free from learned technicalities and are carefully and 
 elaborately exemplified and illustrated. They are perhaps, 
 for the general reader, the clearest and most readable scien- 
 tific books of this period. 
 
 (b) IDEALISM 
 
 Religious Movements. — These realistic and scientific 
 tendencies, however, did not monopolize the thought of the 
 period. The romantic spirit was still alive and active. 
 The German idealism, which Coleridge had introduced, and 
 Carlyle had so loudly preached, continued influential. At 
 the University of Cambridge, Julius Hare, afterwards arch- 
 deacon, and Frederick Maurice, preacher and writer, formed 
 the center of a group of so-called Coleridgeans, and, more 
 important still, at Oxford there was the great spiritual 
 revival known as The Oxford Movement. Alarmed at the 
 growing materialism of English thought, at the prevailing 
 mechanical conception of life, and at the lack of spirituaHty 
 in the church, where the conventional notions of the eight-
 
 302 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 eenth century still lingered, a group of men under the leader- 
 ship of John Henry Newman sought to bring back the moral 
 enthusiasm and spiritual mystery of the early church. 
 
 This movement owed much to the romanticists. In his 
 Apologia pro Vita Sua, Newman himself tells how largely 
 he drew inspiration from them : 
 
 "What will best describe my state of mind at the early part of 
 1839, is an Article in the British Critic for that April. . . . After 
 stating the phenomenon of the time, as it presented itself to those 
 who did not sympathize in it, the Article proceeds to account for it ; 
 and this it does by considering it as a re-action from the dry and 
 superficial character of the religious teaching and the hterature of the 
 last generation, or century, and as a result of the need which was 
 felt both by the hearts and the intellects of the nation for a deeper 
 philosophy, and as the e\'idence and the partial fulfilment of that 
 need, to which even the chief authors of the then generation had 
 borne witness. First, I mentioned the literary influence of Walter 
 Scott, who turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages. 
 ' The general need,' I said, ' of something deeper and more attractive, 
 than what had offered itself elsewhere, may be considered to have 
 led to his popularity ; and by means of his popularity he re-acted 
 on his readers, stimulating their mental thirst, feeding their hopes, 
 setting before them visions, which, when once seen, are not easily 
 forgotten, and silently indoctrinating them with nobler ideas, which 
 might afterwards be appealed to as principles.' 
 
 "Then I spoke of Coleridge, thus: 'While history in prose and 
 verse was thus made the instrument of Church feelings and opinions, 
 a philosophical basis for the same was laid in England by a very 
 original thinker, who, while he indulged a liberty of speculation 
 which no Christian can tolerate, and advocated conclusions which 
 were often heathen rather than Christian, yet after all installed a 
 higher philosophy into inquiring minds,, than they had hitherto 
 been accustomed to accept. In this way he made trial of his age, 
 and succeeded in interesting its genius in the cause of Catholic 
 truth.'
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 303 
 
 " Then come Southey and Wordsworth, 'two living poets, one of 
 whom in the department of fantastic fiction, the other in that of 
 philosophical meditation, have addressed themselves to the same 
 liigh principles and feelings, and carried forward their readers in 
 the same direction.' " ' 
 
 "Apologia pro Vita Sua." — This romantic tendency in 
 NewTnan led him to the love of mystery and the spiritual 
 longing of medieval Christianity, and thence to the faith of 
 the primitive church. The movement which he championed 
 drifted into a stormy theological controversy, and finally 
 collapsed, Newman and some of his followers passing over 
 to the Roman Catholic Church. Still, imaginative and 
 spiritual interests were greatly stimulated and literature 
 incidentally influenced, though with the exception of a few 
 hj'mns like Lead Kindly Light, the onlj' direct contribution 
 to genuine literature made by the movement is the auto- 
 biography of Newman, Apologia pro Vita Sua. Newman's 
 theological ideas do not command a wide popular interest, 
 but his strong spiritual personality and admirably clear and 
 beautiful style make his book an undoubted contribution to 
 real literature. 
 
 Arnold's Attitude toward Life. — Matthew Arnold (1822- 
 1888) shows both romantic and classical tendencies. The 
 mantle of Thomas Carlyle is said to have fallen upon him, 
 but he wore it with a decided difference. Like Carlyle 
 he hated the crass materialism of his time. Those w^ho held 
 the machine view of life, who relied upon ballot-boxes, 
 steam-engines, and trade, he called philistines, enemies of 
 the children of light ; and he w^as never weary of inveighing 
 against them. He was not, however, a genuine romanticist. 
 Indeed, his whole thinking was deeply colored wdth classical 
 ideas. He was a " wanderer between two w^orlds." He 
 
 ' Newman, Apologia pro Vita Sua, pp. 76-77.
 
 304 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 had romantic inspirations, but revolted against romantic 
 formlessness and extravagance. Carlyle prayed for light ; 
 Arnold, for " sweetness and light." Carlyle preached the 
 value of conduct. Arnold added the complementary virtue 
 of open-mindedness, reasonableness, culture. Culture, " the 
 knowledge of the best which has been thought and done in 
 the world," was to Arnold the panacea for all ills — the road 
 of deliverance in religion, politics, education, and literature. 
 This classical idea of the well-rounded nature, perfect 
 symmetry of life, is his fundamental doctrine. He fought 
 the narrow-mindedness and self-satisfaction of the rising 
 middle class. He preached, in season and out of season, 
 " the study of perfection." These ideas are clearly devel- 
 oped in Culture and Anarchy and Literature a7id Dogma. 
 
 Literature vs. Science. — In education, Arnold was a great 
 champion of the study of literature, '' the best which has 
 been thought and said in the world." He was jealous of the 
 encroachments of what he called the " instrumental knowl- 
 edges " into the curriculum of the schools. He thought that 
 literature best met the fundamental demand of human nature 
 to relate knowledge to '' the sense of conduct " and to " the 
 sense of beauty." He believed, therefore, that literature and 
 not science should constitute the bulk of education for the 
 majority of mankind, and he entered into a very lively con- 
 troversy with Huxley upon this subject. Huxley's Science 
 and Culture, originally delivered as an address at the opening 
 of Sir Josiah Mason's College, Birmingham, is the argument 
 for science. Literature and Science, one of Arnold's American 
 addresses, contains the argument for literature. 
 
 Arnold's Literary Criticism. — In literary criticism also 
 Arnold sought the middle way between the real and the 
 ideal. He appreciated the romantic impulses, but was not 
 swept away by passion and by mystic vision. He stood for
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 305 
 
 sanity, " sweet reasonableness," moderation, symmetry, 
 balance. His first famous piece of criticism is his essay 
 On Translating Homer. Among his best critical essaJ^s are 
 those on Wordsworth and Byron in Essays in Criticism, and 
 that on Emerson in Discourses in America. Arnold was the 
 literarj" dictator of his day. 
 
 Arnold's poetry, likewise, is midway between the classical 
 and the romantic. His poems are never extravagant or 
 mj'stical. They err rather in the direction of restraint. 
 Arnold tried to unite romantic feeling with classical purity 
 of form and style. Sohrab ami Rustum, The Scholar Gypsy, 
 and Thyrsis are good examples. Dover Beach, a beautiful 
 and exquisite lyric, shows particularly well Arnold's restraint 
 in the treatment of nature. Like Wordsworth he loved 
 the sublime calm of nature as opposed to the turmoil of 
 human life, but he did not find nature so full of moral 
 meaning as Wordsworth did. Arnold's view was more 
 scientific. 
 
 Arnold's general poetic mood is melancholy rather than 
 serene. Unfortunately he had no great message of inspira- 
 tion and faith. Life was full of sadness, renunciation, and 
 despair. Dover Beach is a characteristic expression of his 
 prevailing mood. After speaking of " the eternal note of 
 sadness " in the wash of the waves on the beach, he continues : 
 
 "Sophocles long ago 
 Heard it on the ^Egean, and it brought 
 Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow 
 Of human misery ; we 
 Find also in the sound a thought. 
 Hearing it by tliis distant northern sea. 
 
 " The Sea of Faith 
 Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore 
 Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.
 
 306 STUDIES IN. LITERATURE 
 
 But now I only hear 
 
 Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, 
 
 Retreating to the breath 
 
 Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear 
 
 And naked shingles of the world. 
 
 " Ah, love, let us be true 
 To one another ! for the world which seems 
 To lie before us like a land of dreams, 
 So various, so beautiful, so new, 
 Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, 
 Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain ; 
 And we are here as on a darkling plain 
 Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, 
 Where ignorant armies clash by night." 
 
 Ruskin's Writings on Art. — John Ruskin (1819-1900) 
 was likewise a mediator between the ideal and the real. As 
 we have already seen, one of the most striking characteristics 
 of the romanticism of the middle of the nineteenth century 
 was its moral purpose, the effort to democratize the things of 
 the imagination and the spirit, and to open the eyes of 
 commonplace Englishmen to the spiritual meaning of life ; 
 in other words to make romanticism practical. Ruskin 
 pushed this propaganda with something of the intensity 
 of Carlyle, of whom he was an acknowledged follower. His 
 early energy was devoted to art. Modern Painters, his first 
 book, discusses the underlying principles of landscape paint- 
 ing. The Seven Lamps of Architecture and Stones of Venice 
 have to do with architecture. Ruskin believed that all 
 genuine art has its source in the moral nature of the artist, 
 and represents the moral temper of the nation in which it is 
 produced. His mission was to preach the spiritual meaning 
 of art, which he exalted above mere technique. He did 
 more than any of his contemporaries to broaden the appre-
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 307 
 
 ciation of art, and thus to temper the prevaiHng materialism 
 of En}i;lish thouglit. 
 
 " Unto this Last." — In liis later life he devoted himself 
 to the larger criticism of life. During his study of art he had 
 become convinced that great art expresses the national life, 
 and is therefore dependent upon the health and beauty of 
 society as a whole. He believed that the debased condition 
 of art in his day in England was due to the industrial organi- 
 zation of society, to the emphasis upon machinery, to the 
 prevalence of purely commercial standards of life, to the 
 worship of the " Goddess of getting-on." He therefore 
 became an economic and social reformer. Unto this Last 
 (1862) contains his ideas of reform in political economy. 
 He begins with the central idea of wealth, and inquires 
 what wealth is. The real wealth of a nation, he says, is not 
 money, but men. A man's soul is more important than his 
 pocketbook. A political economy which considers only the' 
 accumulation and distribution of material wealth, neglect- 
 ing the human element, is narrowing and debasing to the 
 nation. He wishes a political economy which shall give 
 attention to the production of healthy, happy, useful men. 
 His ideas are distinctly socialistic. He pleads : (1) for 
 government training schools to teach young men and women 
 the trades by which they shall live, in addition to the laws 
 of health and the principles of justice ; (2) for government 
 farms and workshops, where the necessaries of life shall be 
 produced, honest work demanded, and a just standard of 
 wages maintained ; (3) for a government guarantee of work 
 for the unemployed ; (4) for adequate provision for the sick 
 and the aged. Ruskin did much to emphasize the idea of 
 social justice, which has commanded so much attention 
 since Ruskin's time. 
 
 Other Works. — Ruskin's most popular works are Sesame
 
 308 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 and Lilies, which proclaims the gospel of spiritual wealth, 
 especially as deposited in books, and The Crown of Wild 
 Olive, a series of lectures to workingmen on Work, Traffic, 
 and War. Fors Clavigera contains some of his ripest teach- 
 ing. Prceterita, his autobiography, gives an especially 
 delightful account of his boyhood and youth. 
 
 Tennyson's Early Poetry. — Each of the writers thus far 
 discussed, Carlyle, Arnold, Ruskin, Macaulay, Dickens, 
 Thackeray, George Eliot, represents some important phase 
 of nineteenth-century literature, but none of them represents 
 the age more completely than Alfred Tennyson. He touched 
 the thought of the time at many points, puzzled over its 
 problems, came close to its struggle between doubt and faith. 
 His early tendencies were romantic : he was brought up in 
 the country under all the influences of natui'e ; his young 
 mind was steeped in ballad and romance ; Byron was one of 
 his j'outhful idols. Some of the best of his early poems such 
 as The Lady of Shalott and Recollections of the Arabian 
 N'ights have all the atmosphere of pure romance. The 
 Palace of Art shows his relation to the new moral tendencies, 
 his wish to be a teacher as well as a singer. The volume of 
 1842 shows even finer qualities of romance in Sir Galahad, 
 Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere, and Morte d' Arthur. 
 Classical interests are shown in G^none, The Lotus Eaters, 
 and Ulysses. Already, to romantic fervor of imagination 
 and atmospheric charm was added a classical sense of form 
 and finish. A tendency to treat real problems of life appears 
 in The Palace of Art, St. Simeon Stylites, and The Vision 
 of Sin. The Princess (1845) is a half-playful, half-earnest 
 contribution to the question of the higher education of 
 women. 
 
 Science and Faith. — At the same time Tennyson was 
 struggling with deeper problems. In 1833 his dearest friend,
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 309 
 
 Arthur Hallam, died. Grief for this friend brought Tennyson 
 face to face with the mystery of death, and with the question 
 of immortahty. It plunged him into the midst of the great 
 nineteenth-century struggle between science and faith. 
 The new developments of science in the direction of the 
 principles of evolution appealed to his keen, strong intellect ; 
 but the conclusions of science seemed to destroy some of 
 the xrost cherished doctrines of the Christian faith, and 
 Tennyson's nature was profoundly religious. How to recon- 
 cile science and faith was the great jjroblem of the time. It 
 now became Tennyson's personal problem. Did the truths 
 of science actually behe revelation and deny immortality? 
 Could he accept evolution, and still maintain his Christian 
 faith? The record of his struggle with this problem and what 
 he felt to be a triumphant conclusion is given in In Memoriam 
 (1850), a series of lyrics written at various times after 1833, 
 showing the progress of his experiences from grief and de- 
 spair to a larger human sympathy and a surer Christian faith. 
 He came to believe that scientific truth and spiritual truth 
 are not antagonistic but complementary, each as real as the 
 other. To be sure new scientific truth made it necessary to 
 modify old creeds, but it did not destroy spirituality nor re- 
 move the necessity of faith. He sums up this belief in the 
 introduction to In Memoriam. 
 
 "Strong Son of God, immortal Love, 
 
 Whom we, that have not seen thy face, 
 By faith, and faith alone, embrace, 
 Beliexang where we cannot prove ; 
 
 " We have but faith : we cannot know ; 
 For knowledge is of tilings we see ; 
 And yet we trust it comes from thee, 
 A beam in darkness : let it grow.
 
 310 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 " Let knowledge grow from more to more, 
 But more of reverence in us dwell ; 
 That mind and soul, according well, 
 May make one music as before, 
 
 "But vaster." 
 
 Estimates of '' In Memoriam." — In Memoriam is the 
 most representative poem of the experience of the nineteenth 
 century. All recognize this, though the poem has come to 
 various readers with varying degrees of satisfaction and 
 finality. Some think it represents only the inadequate con- 
 clusions of a bewildered age, and speak of it disparagingly 
 as representing " the great Victorian compromise." Others, 
 like Tennyson himself, have seen in it the triumphant rec- 
 onciliation of science and faith. 
 
 "The Idylls of the King." — ^ Another of Tennyson's 
 masterpieces, thought by some to be as great as In Memoriam, 
 is The Idylls of the King, a series of romances on the Arthurian 
 material, which has haunted the imagination of Englishmen 
 since the Norman Conquest. Here again the moral purpose 
 of nineteenth-century romanticism is evident. The stories 
 are told with the avowed purpose of treating modern spirit- 
 ual problems. Tennyson says in the dedication to the 
 
 queen : 
 
 "Accept this old imperfect tale. 
 New-old, and shadowing Sense at war with Soul ; 
 Ideal manhood closed in real man. 
 Rather than that gray king, whose name, a ghost. 
 Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain peak. 
 And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still ; or him 
 Of Geoffrey's book, or him of Malleor's." 
 
 The poem is not an allegory in any strict sense, but the 
 stories are so modified as to represent the great struggle in
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 311 
 
 life between material and spiritual forces — another form 
 of the theme of In Memoriam. 
 
 Theme of the Idylls. — Tennj^son was interested in the 
 Arthurian legends all his life. As a boy he played that he 
 was a Knight of the Round Table. Among his earliest 
 poems was The Lady of Shalott and other lyrics on Arthurian 
 themes. In 1842 came Morte cV Arthur, afterwards to be made 
 a part of the completed Idylls under the name of The Passing 
 of Arthur. At first he was interested only in the stories 
 as such. Even as late as 1859, when Enid, Vivien, Elaine, 
 and Guinevere were published, his idea was merely to pre- 
 sent contrast pictures between false and true types of woman- 
 hood. Not till 1869 was the epic character of the series 
 worked out. The theme was then developed of an ideal 
 society gradually destroj'ed by the forces of sensu?ility and 
 mysticism. The influence of these two destructive forces 
 running through the series gives the unit}' to the poem. 
 Tennyson took the middle conservative ground between 
 materialism and extravagant romanticism. The Holy Grail 
 shows how his ideas differed from medieval ideas, or even 
 from the ideas of the early nineteenth-century roman- 
 ticists. The duty of man is not to make an ideal world for 
 himself apart from real life. Tenn^'son's ideal is neither 
 ascetic cr mystical. He actually condemns the quest of 
 the Holy Grail as a following after wandering fires, when 
 men should be struggling to overcome the evil in the world. 
 
 Tennyson's Spiritual Triumph. — Essentially, then, Ten- 
 nyson was a great religious poet. He preached the prac- 
 tical application of religious faith to modern thought and 
 conduct. He had a positive spiritual message for a time 
 which certainly needed such a message. As he grew old 
 his spiritual experience deepened and at the end he was able 
 to say triumphantly :
 
 312 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 "I have climb'd to the snows of Age, and I gaze at a field in the Past, 
 Where I sank with the body at times in the sloughs of a low desire. 
 But I hear no yelp of the beast, and the man is quiet at last 
 As he stands on the heights of his hfe with a ghmpse of a height 
 that is higher." 
 
 His calm departure from life is told in Crossing the Bar, one 
 of his last poems. 
 
 Robert Browning. — Side by side with Tennyson in great- 
 ness, though not so popular a representative of his age, 
 stands Robert Browning (1812-1889). He, too, cherished 
 romantic traditions. He was an idealist and an optimist, 
 a great spiritual poet, a poet of love and faith. His poetry 
 is not so easy to read as Tennyson's, because he was not so 
 great a master of style, and because he takes so much for 
 granted on the part of the reader, who must read between 
 and behind the lines, before a poem can really be under- 
 stood. He had, however, a more vigorous mind and an 
 equally high moral earnestness. His poetry is highly stimu- 
 lating to many who see in Tennyson's poems more beauty 
 than strength. 
 
 His Dramatic Qualities. — Browning was more dramatic 
 than Tennyson. He did not write successful stage plays, 
 but he was very keen in the analysis of his characters, and 
 very successful in bringing out their point of view of life 
 in dramatic monologue. My Last Duchess illustrates this. 
 Only one person, a proud medieval duke, speaks ; but both 
 his character and the character of his wife, about whom he 
 speaks, are made perfectly clear. Moreover between and 
 behind the lines the reader sees a dramatic situation enacted. 
 
 Browning's range was wide. His characters belong to 
 many countries and to various periods of history. His 
 favorite method was to find some crisis point in the thinking 
 of an entire age, imagine it as the crisis point in the experi-
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 313 
 
 ence of an individual, and then cause that person to develop 
 the situation in monologue in such a way as to bring out 
 Browning's own idea of the meaning and worth of life. Saul 
 so presents the old Hebrew vision of the Messiah as to bring 
 out Browning's idea of the significance of the love of God as 
 revealed in Christ. Cleon treats of the despondency and 
 vain longing of the Greek mind in the first century after 
 Christ, when the vitality of both Greek religion and Greek 
 literature had passed away. The theme is used b}^ Brown- 
 ing to explain the weakness of the pagan conception of life, 
 the emptiness of life without Christian ideals. Andrea del 
 Sarto treats of the decadence of art in Italy, when painting 
 was no longer represented by Raphael and Michael Angelo, 
 but by such men as Andrea del Sarto, a painter perfect in 
 techniciue, but with no large inspiration; an artist great of 
 execution, but small of soul. The situation is used to explain 
 Browning's idea that the basis of great art is in character 
 rather than in skill, that no artist can be great without 
 spiritual power. The same method is seen in Caliban, A 
 Death in the Desert, Rabbi Ben Ezra, and many other poems. 
 No one has made so much of the dramatic monologue as 
 Browning, 
 
 The Ring and the Book is his longest, perhaps his greatest, 
 masterpiece. In it he has transformed the crude raw material 
 of an old Italian murder trial into a great piece of art, inter- 
 preting profoundly the most fundamental passions and emo- 
 tions. A single story is told from twelve different points 
 of view, the most interesting of which are (1) the view of the 
 husband, who defends the murder of his wife, (2) the view 
 of the wife, who tells her story from her deathbed, (3) the 
 view of the chivalrous priest, who relates how he tried to 
 rescue the wife from the cruelty of her husband, and (4) the 
 view of the Pope, who gives the final judgment in the case.
 
 314 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 Browning's Fame. — Browning was slow in gaining a 
 public, largely on account of the peculiarities of his style ; 
 but his intense and positive nature at last won an influence 
 unusually strong and permanent. " The robustness of 
 Browning's nature, its courage, its abounding joy and faith 
 in life, make his works a permanent storehouse of spiritual 
 energy for the race, a storehouse to which for a long time 
 to come it will in certain moods always return. In an age 
 distracted by doubt and divided in will, his strong unfalter- 
 ing voice has been lifted above the perplexities and hesita- 
 tions of men, like a bugle call to joyous battle in which the 
 victory is to the brave." ^ 
 
 Rossetti. — Romantic traditions were further continued 
 in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, of which the most impor- 
 tant literary figures are Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William 
 Morris. As the name Pre-Raphaelite implies, the movement 
 at first had to do with painting rather than with literature. 
 The aim was to choose ideal and even mystical subjects, and 
 then paint them with painstaking attention to detail. The 
 school stood for idealism in conception and realism in exe- 
 cution. As far as subject matter was concerned, inspiration 
 came from the poetry of Keats, the old ballads and romances, 
 and the mystical religion of Dante and the medieval church. 
 The early Pre-Raphaelites were Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 
 John Francis Millais, and Henry Holman Hunt. Of these 
 only Rossetti became prominent in literature. He was 
 a great lover of Dante, and indeed of all the mystery and ro- 
 mance of the Middle Ages. His literary work consists 
 largely of ballads and romances with the exception of his 
 great sonnet sequence. The House of Life. His most pas- 
 sionate ballads are Sister Helen and The King's Tragedy. 
 The Blessed Darnosel illustrates particularly well the Pre- 
 
 ^ Moody and Lovett, History of English Literature.
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 315 
 
 Raphaelitc union of spirituality in conception and concrcte- 
 ness and simplicity in the treatment of detail. As might 
 be expected of a painter-poet, Rossetti's poems are marked 
 by great picturesque beauty. Many of them, notably 
 The Blessed Damosel and a large number of sonnets, are 
 companion pieces to pictures on the same themes. Rossetti's 
 world was a dream world richly visualized. 
 
 William Morris (1834-1896) was a follower of Rossetti, 
 though not so mystical a thinker nor so sensuous an artist. 
 He was, however, more versatile and practical. Besides 
 being a painter and man of letters, he manufactured artistic 
 furniture and many kinds of household decorations such as 
 wall paper and tapestries. He also founded the famous 
 Kelmscott Press for the production of artistic printing and 
 bookbinding. His poetic career began in true romantic 
 fashion with the passionate Defense of Guinevere, which was 
 followed by a long series of romances in both poetry and prose. 
 The Earthly Paradise is a collection of stories in verse taken 
 from both classical and Icelandic myth and legend. One 
 of the most spirited and sustained is The Lovers of Gudrun, 
 taken from an old Icelandic saga. Interest in the literature 
 of the North is further attested by Sigurd the Volsung, an 
 epic founded on one of the old sagas, and by the prose ro- 
 mances. The House of the Woljings, The Story of the Gliiter- 
 ing Plain, and The Roots of the Mountains. Later in life 
 Morris became a socialist. The Dream of Johi Ball and 
 News from Nowhere are romances having to do with the 
 problem of an ideal social state. 
 
 Stevenson's Romances. — At the close of the Victorian 
 Era three important forms of literature were represented 
 by three significant men : the prose romance, by Robert 
 Louis Stevenson ; poetry, by Algernon Charles Swinburne, 
 and criticism, by Walter Pater. Robert Louis Stevenson
 
 316 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 (1850-1894) wrote a small amount of poetry, notably 
 poems of child life ; but most of his work was in prose. 
 He was primarily a story-teller who avoided the moral 
 strenuousness of his age and reverted to the old romantic 
 stories of adventure represented by the writings of Sir 
 Walter Scott. Treasure Island is a tale of piracy and 
 search for hidden treasure. Kidnapped and David Balfour 
 relate the adventures of a youth who is kidnapped and sent 
 to sea that he may be deprived of his inheritance, and who, 
 after shipwreck and wandering, returns at last to claim and 
 secure his rights. The New Arabian Nights is a collection 
 of fantastic and extravagant stories in modern setting. 
 The character work is never subtle, the emphasis being 
 always upon the story. The structure and style are superior 
 to Scott's. Description for its own sake is avoided. The 
 story movement is more rapid, the diction more discrimi- 
 nating, the sentence structure firmer, the grace of style 
 more pronounced. 
 
 Swinburne's Paganism. — Algernon Charles Swinburne 
 (1837-1909), the last of the great Victorian poets, stands 
 somewhat apart from his age. He was not a moral and 
 religious poet like Tennyson or Browning ; on the contrary, 
 he inveighed against Christianity. He did not find his 
 chief inspiration in the mystery and superstition of the 
 Middle Ages, although one of his best long narrative poems 
 is Tristram of Lyonesse. His inspiration came chiefly from 
 paganism. He was an impressionalist, giving way to self- 
 indulgence and neglecting moral issues. 
 
 Swinburne's Poetic Style. — His poetic style is to most 
 readers l)ewildering, for it is inexhaustibly rich in words and 
 images. At times it is verbose. The charm of his poetry 
 lies in his mastery of rhythm and rime. Sometimes the 
 rich music of the verse is developed at the expense of the
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 317 
 
 thought. The reader is borne along by mere sensuous 
 beauty independent of the meaning of the lines. The effect 
 is that of verse music rather than of poetry. The best 
 lyrics have to do with the sea and with the beauty and 
 pathos of child life. One of his most finished longer poems 
 is Atalanta in Calydon, a drama after the Greek model. 
 " The action moves with stately swiftness, in obedience to 
 the strict canons of Greek form ; the pathos is deep and gen- 
 uine ; and the music, especially in the choruses, is splendid 
 in range and sweep." 
 
 Walter Pater (1839-1894) was an impressionistic critic. 
 He had a highly sensitive nature and gave himself to the 
 analysis and explanation of his sensations. To him the en- 
 tire world of experience was in a state of flux ; nothing was 
 fixed. His business was to catch the impression of the 
 moment, and experience its full aesthetic effect. He was a 
 highly refined pagan — an Epicurean in the best sense. He 
 believed in life, abundant life, a life of various and select 
 sensations. He was not opposed to harmony, discipline, 
 and self-control ; but he did not emphasize these as Matthew 
 Arnold did. Pater would cultivate in every way the power 
 to appreciate impressions and sensations. He became 
 therefore an appreciative rather than a dogmatic critic of 
 life and literature. His most characteristic writings are: 
 Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873), Marius the 
 Epicurean (1885), Imaginary Portraits (1887), and Appreci- 
 ations (1889). Marius, the Epicurean seems to contain 
 much that is autobiographical. 
 
 Summary. — With Stevenson, Swinburne, and Pater the 
 Victorian Era comes to an end. It was an age, as we 
 have seen, rich in both prose and poetry, with influences 
 both romantic and classical, both idealistic and materialis- 
 tic. The great writers represent all the phases of a many-
 
 318 STUDIES IN LITERATURE 
 
 sided national life. Macaulay was the brilliant historian 
 of material progress ; Carlyle, the preacher of idealism ; 
 Ruskin, the democratizer of art ; Arnold, the analytical 
 critic ; Dickens, the champion of the lower classes ; Thack- 
 eray, the mild satirist of high society ; George Eliot, the 
 philosophical interpreter of the laws of life ; Browning, the 
 poet of optimism ; Tennyson, the poet of the struggle be- 
 tween science and faith. All of them show the intimate 
 relation which exists between literature and life. 
 
 Suggested Readings^ 
 
 Macaulay : Essmj on Dr. Johnson. 
 
 Essays on Milton and Addison. 
 Carlyle : TJie Essay on Burns. 
 
 Heroes and Hero-Worship, Lecture I. 
 Dickens : A Tale of Two Cities. 
 Thackeray : Henry Esmond. 
 George Eliot : Silas Marner. 
 Arnold : Sohrab and Rustum. 
 Huxley : Selections from Lay Sermons. 
 Ruskin : Sesame and Lilies. 
 
 The King of the Golden River. 
 Tennyson : Idylls of the King. 
 Browning : Shorter Poems. 
 Morris: The Lovers of Gudrun in The Earthly Paradise, The 
 
 Story of the Glittering Plain (published by Longmans, 
 Green and Co.). 
 Stevenson : Treasure Island, Kidnapped. 
 
 ' Except where special editions are mentioned, the books may be had 
 in the Pocket Series of English Classics published by The Macmillan 
 Company.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 A. WORKING LIBRARY FOR THE STUDY OF ENGLISH 
 IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS i 
 
 BOOKS ON LANGUAGE AND RHETORIC 
 
 Abbott, E. A., Shakespearian Grammar, Macmillan. ... $ 1.50 
 
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 Bradley, H., The Making of English, Macmillan LOO 
 
 Bright & Miller, Elements of English Versification, Ginn .80 
 
 ♦Genung, J. F., Working Principles of Rhetoric, Ginn. . 1.40 
 ♦Greenough, B., and Kittredge, G. L., Words and Their 
 
 Ways in English Speech, Macmillan 1.10 
 
 *Hill, A. S., Principles of Rhetoric, New Edition, Ameri- 
 can Book Co 1.20 
 
 Jespersen, O., Growth and Structure of the English Lan- 
 guage, (N. Y.) Stechert 1.00 
 
 Johnson, C. F., Forms of English Poetry, American Book 
 
 Co 1.00 
 
 *Krapp, G. F., Modern English, Scribner 1.25 
 
 Lounsbury, T. R., History of the English Language, Holt 1.12 
 Nesfield, J. C, English Grammar Past and Present, Mac- 
 millan 1.10 
 
 *Skeat, W. W., An Etymological Dictionary of the English 
 
 Language, (1910), Oxford University Press 9.50 
 
 *Skeat, W. W., Principles of English Etymology, (2 
 
 Vols.), Clarendon Press 5.35 
 
 Sweet, H., New English Grammar, (2 parts), Clarendon 
 
 Press 2.65 
 
 *Whitney, W. D., Essentials of English Grammar, Ginn .75 
 
 ' The asterisk indicates that the book is especially valuable. 
 
 319
 
 320 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
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 ton $3.00 
 
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 *Atlas of America, Historical and Literary (Everyman's 
 
 Lib.) Button 35 
 
 *Atlas of Europe, Historical and Literary (Everyman's 
 
 Lib.) Button 35 
 
 Bates, Arlo, Talks on the Study of Literature, Houghton 1.50 
 Beers, H. A., English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Cen- 
 tury, Holt 2.00 
 
 Beers, H. A., English Romanticism in the Nineteenth 
 
 Century, Holt 1,75 
 
 Berdoe, Edward, The Browning Cyclopedia, Maemiilan 3.50 
 Bradley, A. C, Shakespearean Tragedy, Maemiilan. . . . 3.25 
 Bronson, W. D., English Poems, (4 Vols.), University of 
 
 Chicago Press 6.00 
 
 Brooke, S. A., History of Early English Literature, Mae- 
 miilan 2.50 
 
 Child, C. G., Early Plays, (Riv. Ser.), Houghton 40 
 
 Corson, H., Introduction to Shakespeare, Heath 1.50 
 
 Corson, H., Introduction to the Study of Robert Brown- 
 ing's Poetry, Heath 1.50 
 
 Cross, W. L., Development of the English Novel, Mae- 
 miilan 1 .50 
 
 Dixon, W. M., Tennyson Primer, Dodd, Mead 1.25 
 
 Dowden, E., Shakspere: His Mind and Art, Harper. . . 1.75 
 Dowden, Edw., The French Revolution and the English 
 
 Poets, Scribner 1.25 
 
 *English Men of Letters, ed. by J. Morley, (39 Vols.), 
 
 Harper 29.25 
 
 Fairehild, A. H. R., The Making of Poetry, Putnam. . . 1.50 
 Furnivall and Munro, Shakespeare: Life and Work, 
 
 Cassell .35 
 
 *Gayley, C. M., Classic Myths in English Literature, 
 
 Ginn, Revised Edition 1.50 
 
 Gayley, C. M., Representative English Comedies, Mae- 
 miilan 1.50
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 321 
 
 Gosse, E. W., History of Eighteenth Century Literature, 
 
 Macmillan $ 1 .50 
 
 Gummere, F. B., Old English Ballads (Athen. Press), 
 
 Ginn 80 
 
 Gummore, F. B., The Beginnings of Poetry, Macmillan . . 3.00 
 
 Gummere, F. B., The Oldest English Epic, Macmillan. . 1.10 
 Maccallum, M. W., Shakespeare's Roman Plays and their 
 
 Background, Macmillan 2.50 
 
 Mackail, J. W., Latin Literature, Scribner 1.25 
 
 Manly, J. M., English Poetry, Ginn l.,50 
 
 Manly, J. M., English Prose, Ginn 1.50 
 
 Minto, W., Manual of English Prose Literature, Ginn. . . 1.50 
 Neilson, W. A., Essentials of Poetry, Houghton Mifflin 
 
 Co 1.25 
 
 Newcomer, A. G., Twelve Centuries of English Prose and 
 
 Poetry, Scott, Foresman 1.75 
 
 Page, C. H., Chief American Poets, Houghton 1.75 
 
 *Perry, Bliss, The Study of Prose Fiction, Houghton, Mif- 
 flin Co 1.25 
 
 Pollard, A. W., English Miracle Plays, Clarendon Press 1.90 
 Pound, L., The Periods of English Literature, University 
 
 of Nebraska Press .75 
 
 Raleigh, W., Shakespeare, Macmillan .50 
 
 Raleigh, W., Wordsworth, (London), Arnold 2.00 
 
 Ryland, T., Chronological Outlines of English Literature, 
 
 Macmillan 1 .75 
 
 Saintsbury, G., History of Elizabethan Literature, Mac- 
 millan 1.75 
 
 Saintsbury, G., History of Nineteenth Century Literature, 
 
 Macmillan l.,50 
 
 Schelling, F. E., English Literature during the Life- 
 time of Shakespeare, Holt 2.00 
 
 *Schmidt, Alex., Shakespeare-Lexicon (3d. ed.) (2 Vols.) 
 
 Stechert 8.00 
 
 Schofield, W. H., English Literature from the Norman 
 
 Conquest to Chaucer, Macmillan 1.50 
 
 Sellar, W. J., Roman Poets of the Augustan Age, Virgil, 
 
 Clarendon Press 2.25 
 
 Stedman, E. C, American Anthology, Houghton 3.00 
 
 Stedman, E. C, Victorian Anthology, Houghton 3.00 
 
 Y
 
 322 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Stephenson, H. T., Shakespeare's London, Holt $2.00 
 
 Taine, H., History of English Literature, Holt 1.75 
 
 *Taylor, H. O., Ancient Ideals, Macmillan 5.00 
 
 Thayer, W. R., Best English Plays, Ginn 1.40 
 
 *Thorndike, A. H., Tragedy, Houghton, Mifflin Co 1.50 
 
 Tolman, A. H., Questions on Shakespeare, University of 
 
 Chicago Press Part I, 75 cents; Part II, 1.00 
 
 Walker, Hugh, The Literature of the Victorian Era, 
 
 Cambridge University Press 3.50 
 
 Ward, T. H., English Poets, (4 Vols.), Macmillan 4.00 
 
 Wendell, B., Literary History of America, Scribner 3.00 
 
 Woodbridge, Elizabeth, The Drama: its Law and its 
 
 Technique, Allyn and Bacon .80 
 
 ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 Addison, J., Spectator, Macmillan 1.50 
 
 Arnold, M., Essays in Criticism, (2 Vols.), Macmillan. . 3.00 
 
 Austen, J., Works, (5 Vols.), Putnam 2.50 
 
 Bacon, Essays, ed. by West, Putnam 1.00 
 
 Blackmore, Lorna Doone, Ginn .65 
 
 Boswell, Life of Johnson, (2 Vols.), (Everyman's Lib.), 
 
 Button 70 
 
 Browne, Sir T., Religio Medici Sind Urn Burial, (Every- 
 man's Lib.), Button .35 
 
 Browning, R., Complete Works, (Cambridge ed.), Hough- 
 ton 3.00 
 
 Bryant, W. C, Poetical Works, (Household ed.), Apple- 
 ton 1.50 
 
 Bunyan, J., Pilgrim's Progress, (Everyman's Lib.), 
 
 Button .35 
 
 Burke, E., Selected Works, (3 Vols.), Macmillan 3.60 
 
 Burns, R., Poems, Songs and Letters, (Globe ed.), Mac- 
 millan 1.75 
 
 Byron, Lord, Poems, (Cambridge ed.), Houghton 3.00 
 
 Carlyle, T., Heroes and Hcro-Worship, (Athen. Press), 
 
 Ginn 80 
 
 Carlyle, T., Sartor Resartus, (Athen. Press), Ginn 80 
 
 Chaucer, G., Thr Student's Chaucer, (ed. by Skeat), Mac- 
 
 miUan 1-75
 
 BIBLIOGRA PII Y 323 
 
 Clemens, S. L., (Mark Twain), Works, (Complete sets, 
 
 18 Vols.), Harper $33.50 
 
 Coleridge, S. T., Poetical Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan 1.75 
 Cooper, J. F., The Spy, The Pilot, and the five " Leather- 
 stocking Talcs,'' (5 Vols.), (Everyman's Lib.), 
 
 Button 1.75 
 
 Cowper, W., Poetical Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan. . . 1.75 
 Defoe, D., Robinson Crusoe, (Everyman's Lib.), But- 
 ton 35 
 
 Be Quincey, T., Confessions of an English Opium Eater, 
 
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 Bickens, C, Works, (20 Vols.), Macmillan 20.00 
 
 Bryden, J., Poetical Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan. . . 1.75 
 
 Emerson, R. W., Works, (5 Vols.), (Bohn Lib.), Bell. . . 4.35 
 Evans, Mary A., ("George Eliot"), Works, (12 Vols, at 
 
 .90), Harper 10.80 
 
 Goldsmith, O., Miscellaneous Works, (Globe ed.), Mac- 
 millan 1 .75 
 
 Gray, T., Selections, (Athen. Press), Ginn 80 
 
 Harte, B., Complete Poems, (Cabinet ed.), Houghton. . . 1.00 
 Harte, B., The Luck of Roaring Camp, etc., Houghton 1.00 
 Hawthorne, N., Works, (8 Vols.), (Popular ed.), Hough- 
 ton 10.00 
 
 Holmes, O. W., Works, (14 Vols.), (Riverside ed.), Hough- 
 ton 21.00 
 
 Howells, W. B., A Hazard of New Fortunes, (2 Vols.), 
 
 Harper 1.50 
 
 Howells, W. B., The Rise of Silas Lapham, Houghton. . 1.50 
 
 Irving, W., Works, (10 Vols.), Crowell 10.00 
 
 Johnson, S., Lives of the Poets, (2 Vols.), (World's Clas- 
 sics), Oxford Press 11.00 
 
 Keats, J., Poetical Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan 1.75 
 
 Kingsley, C, Westward Ho, Macmillan 1.00 
 
 Kipling, R., Works, (15 Vols.), Boubleday 15.00 
 
 Lamb, C, Essays of Elia and Eliana, Bell 1.00 
 
 Lamb, C, Tales from Shakespeare, Macmillan 1.50 
 
 Lanier, S., Poems, Seribner 2.00 
 
 Longfellow, H. W., Complete Poetical and Dramatic 
 
 Works, (Cambridge ed.), Houghton 2.00 
 
 Lowell, J. R., Poems, (Household ed.), Houghton 1.50
 
 324 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
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 Maeaulay, T. B., Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous 
 
 Essays, (3 Vols.), Houghton 3.75 
 
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 Scott 25 
 
 Malory, Sir T., Morte d" Arthur, (Globe ed.), Macmillan 1.75 
 
 Meredith, G., Works, (16 Vols.), Scribner 24.00 
 
 Milton, J., Poetical Works, ed. by Beeching, Oxford 
 
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 or by Moody, Houghton 2.00 
 
 Poe, E. A., Complete Works, (17 Vols.), (Virginia ed.), 
 
 CroweU 21.00 
 
 Pope, A., Poetical Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan 1.75 
 
 Reade, C, The Cloister and the Hearth, Page 1.50 
 
 Rossetti, D. G., Poems, CroweU .75 
 
 Ruskin, J., Crown oj Wild Olive, Ethics of the Dust, 
 
 Sesame and Lilies, (3 Vols.), Merrill 4.50 
 
 Scott, W., Poetical Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan 1.75 
 
 Scott, W., Waverley Novels, (12 Vols.), Estes 12.00 
 
 Shakespeare, W., Works, ed. by Craig, (Oxford ed.), 
 
 Clarendon Press 1.50 
 
 Shakespeare, W., Works, ed. by Rolfe, (40 Vols.), Ameri- 
 can Book Co each . . .56 
 
 Shelley, B. P., Poetical Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan. 1.75 
 
 Spenser, E., Complete Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan. . 1.75 
 
 Stevenson, K. L., (27 Vols.), Scribner 27.00 
 
 Swift, J., Gulliver's Travels, (ed. by Scott), Bell 1.00 
 
 Swift, J., Tale of a Tub, (ed. by Scott), Bell 1.00 
 
 c • , » n r. I CroweU 1.75 
 
 Swinburne, A. C, Poems, 
 
 (6 Vols.), Harper 12.00 
 
 Taylor, B., Poetical Works, (Household ed.), Hough- 
 ton 1.50 
 
 Tennyson, A., Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan 1.75 
 
 Thackeray, W. M., Complete Works, (10 Vols.), Estes. . 10.00 
 
 Thomson, J., Poetical Works, Oxford Press 1.00 
 
 Thoreau, H., Walden, Houghton 3.00 
 
 Walton, I., Complete Angler, (Everyman's Lib.), Dutton .35 
 
 Webster, D., Great Speeches and Orations, Little. ...... 3.00
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 325 
 
 Wliittier, J. G., Complete Poetical Works, (Cambridge 
 
 ed.), Houghton $2.00 
 
 Wordsworth, W., Poetical Works, (Globe ed.), Macmillan 1.75 
 
 TRANSLATIONS 
 
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 millan 2.00 
 
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 Button 1.00 
 
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 Lib.), Button 70 
 
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 Lib.), Button 35
 
 INDEX 
 
 Absalom and Achitophcl, 253. 
 
 AduDi Bede, 16, 2U9, 300. 
 
 Addison, 76, 77, «4, 85, 86, 88, 92, 
 123, 191, 260, 261, 267; Coverley 
 papers, 77-83 ; Cato, 252 ; Pope's 
 satire, 255 ; Tatler and Spectator, 
 257. 
 
 Adonais, 281. 
 
 yEneid, The, 9-14, 205, 246; a 
 literary epic, 9 ; compared with The 
 Iliad, 9-10; relation to national 
 tradition, 10; suggestions for 
 study, 10-14. 
 
 Alexander's Feast, 253. 
 
 Alfred the Great, 188. 
 
 All for Love, 251. 
 
 Anatomy of M dancholy , 242. 
 
 Ancren Riwle, 201. 
 
 Andrea del Sarto, 166, 313. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 189, 193. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Literature, early litera- 
 ture, 177 ; literature of tradition, 
 178; Bcoirulf, 179; Christian 
 literature, 182-189. 
 
 Apologia, Newman's, 302, 303. 
 
 Arcopagitica, 245. 
 
 Argumentative Address, 109 ; Speech 
 on Conciliation, 110-121. 
 
 Aristotle, 221. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 8, 12, 171, 172, 
 196; attitude toward life, 303; 
 literature vs. science, 304 ; criti- 
 cism, 304; poetry, 305. 
 
 Arthur, King, 182, 192, 193, 221. 
 
 Atalanta in Calydon, 317. 
 
 Austen, Jane, 295. 
 
 Bacon, Francis, 223. 
 Balder Dead, 12. 
 
 Ballad, the, 197-201 ; Robin Hood, 
 197; Sir Patrick S pence, 199; 
 Chevy Chace, 199; Tarn Lin, 199; 
 eighteenth century, 271 ; Cole- 
 ridge's ballads, 278 ; Minstrelsy 
 of the Scottish Border, 282 ; Ros- 
 setti's ballads, 314. 
 
 Battle of Brunanburh, 181. 
 
 Battle of the Books, 259. 
 
 Battle of Maldon, 181. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, 235. 
 
 Bede, Ecclesiastical History, 183, 
 188. 
 
 Beowulf, 179, 182, 246. 
 
 Biographia Literaria, 286. 
 
 Blackwood's Magazine, 92, 257, 287. 
 
 Blair, Robert, The Grave, 270. 
 
 Boswell, James, 92, 93, 94, 260. 
 
 Browne, Sir Thomas, 242, 243. 
 
 Browning, Robert, 166, 291; dra- 
 matic qualities, 312; range, 313; 
 fame of, 314. 
 
 Brut, Layamon's, 193. 
 
 Budgcll, Eustace, 80, 81. 
 
 Bunyan, John, 243, 247. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 97, 109, 124, 131, 
 256; Speech on Conciliation, 110- 
 121 ; romantic tendencies, 262 ; 
 essays, 267. 
 
 Burns, Robert, 92 ; Carlyle's essay, 
 100-109 ; poetry. 273. 
 
 Burton, Robert, 242. 
 
 Butler, Samuel, 254. 
 
 Byron, 103, 163, 169, 305 ; romanti- 
 cism, 282 ; influence of the French 
 Revolution, 283 ; satires, 283. 
 
 Ca^dmon, 183, 193. 
 
 Canterbury Tales, The, 203, 200, 20S 
 
 327
 
 328 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 92, 93, 94, 287, 
 291, 292, 297, 303; Essay on 
 Burns, 100-107 ; philosophy of 
 life, 293 ; history and biography, 
 295. 
 
 Castle of Indolence, 270. 
 
 Castle of Otranto, 271. 
 
 Celts, the, 181. 
 
 Chatterton, Thomas, 272. 
 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 191, 221 ; Age 
 of, 201-209; French period, 203; 
 Italian period, 204 ; English 
 period, 205. 
 
 Chevy Chace, 199, 257, 267, 271. 
 
 Childe Harold, 282. 
 
 Christabel, 278. 
 
 Chronicle History plays, 39-45, 52, 
 226, 232. 
 
 Clarissa Harlowe, 264. 
 
 Cleon, 313. 
 
 Clive, Essay on, 92. 
 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 59, 93, 
 163, 282, 287, 289, 293; poetic 
 method, 277 ; loss of poetic power, 
 278 ; influence of French Revolu- 
 tion, 279; critical work, 286. 
 
 Comedy, 63-74; characteristics, 63- 
 65 ; study of, 64-74 ; after the 
 Restoration, 252. 
 
 Compleat Angler, The, 243. 
 
 Comus, 158-163, 236. 
 
 Coming of Arthur, 149-150, 154. 
 
 Conciliation with America, Burke's 
 speech, 110-121, 262; notes on 
 subject matter, 115-118; notes 
 on structure and style, 119-121. 
 
 Congreve, William, 250, 252. 
 
 Conquest of Granada, The, 251. 
 
 Consolations of Philosophy, 189. 
 
 Cowley, Abraham, 242, 257. 
 
 Cowper, William, 272, 275. 
 
 Crashaw, Richard, 241. 
 
 Criticism, 266-267. 
 
 Cynewulf, 187. 
 
 Dante's Divine Comedy, 173. 
 Daniel Deronda, 300. 
 Darwin, Charles, 291, 301. 
 Davenaut, 251. 
 
 Death of Blanche the Duchesse, 204. 
 
 Defoe, Daniel, 102, 263. 
 
 De Quincey, Thomas, 60, 85, 288; 
 critical works, 289 ; style, 289. 
 
 Deserted Village, The, 256. 
 
 Dickens, Charles, 296. 
 
 Doctor Faustus, 228. 
 
 Donne, John, 240. 
 
 Dover Beach, 305. 
 
 Drama, 38-73 ; beginnings, 38 ; 
 chronicle history, 39-45 ; tragedy, 
 45-63 ; comedy, 63-73 ; rise of, 
 209-217; drama of blood, 226; 
 after the Restoration, 251-253. 
 
 Dryden, John, 251, 253, 266. 
 
 Dunciad, The, 255. 
 
 Earthly Paradise, The, 163, 315. 
 Edinburgh Revieiv, The, 91, 257, 
 
 287. 
 Edward II, 229, 230. 
 Elegy, Gray's, 270. 
 English Mail Coach, The, 85, 288. 
 English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, 
 
 284. 
 Epic, the, popular, 1 ; origin, 2 ; 
 
 literary, 246. 
 Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 255. 
 Essay, the, 75-107 ; informal, 75- 
 
 91 ; formal, 91-107 ; definition, 
 
 75 ; popularity, 76 ; suggestions 
 
 for study, 77-107 ; eighteenth 
 
 century, 257-263. 
 Essay of Dramatic Poetry, Dryden's, 
 
 266. 
 Essay on Burns, 100-107 ; sugges- 
 tions for first reading, 101-104 ; 
 
 suggestions for second reading, 
 
 104-107. 
 Essay on Criticism, 256, 266. 
 Essay on Man, 256. 
 Essays of Elia, 288. 
 Euphues, 220, 223. 
 Everett, Edward, 135. 
 Everyman, 213. 
 Examiner, The, 258. 
 E.xpository Address, the, 121-136; 
 
 defined, 121 ; suggestions for 
 
 study, 122-136.
 
 INDEX 
 
 329 
 
 Faerie Queene, The, 158, 221. 
 
 Faithful Shepherdess, The, 236. 
 
 Farewell Address, Washington's, notes 
 on sut)joct matter, 122-12-1; notes 
 on structure and style, 124-126. 
 
 Fielding, Henry, 264, 265, 285. 
 
 First Bunker Hill Oration, Webster's, 
 133, 134; subject matter 126- 
 128 ; structure and style, 128- 
 131 ; topics, 131. 
 
 Fiske, John, 110, 126. 
 
 Fletcher, John, 97. 
 
 Frazer's Magazine, 92. 
 
 French Revolution, 106 ; influence 
 of, 272, 279, 280, 283. 
 
 Gammer Gurton's Needle, 224. 
 
 Gareth and Lynette, 150-152. 
 
 Garrick, David, 95, 255. 
 
 Gawayne and the Green Knight, 194. 
 
 Gentleman's Magazine, The, 257. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, 14G, 192. 
 
 George Eliot, 16, 24, 34, 291, 296; 
 realism, 298 ; structure and style, 
 299. 
 
 Godwin, William, 273. 
 
 Golden Treasury, Palgrave's, 163- 
 174 ; narratives of common life, 
 164-165; ballads, 165 ; war poems, 
 166 ; nature poems, 169 ; poems of 
 melancholy, 170; sonnets, 170; 
 odes, 172-174. 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 95, 253, 255, 266. 
 
 Gorboduc, 225, 226, 230, 234. 
 
 Gray, Thomas, 270, 271. 
 
 Gregory, Pope, 182, 189. 
 
 Gulliver's Travels, 79, 259, 264. 
 
 Hamlet, 231, 234, 236. 
 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 17, 91. 
 
 Hazlitt, William, 287. 
 
 Henry ir, 40, 88. 
 
 Henry V, 42-45, 231. 
 
 Henry Esmond, 298. 
 
 Herbert, George, 241. 
 
 Heroes and Hero-Worship, 295. 
 
 Herrick, Robert, 239. 
 
 Heywood, John, 215. 
 
 Heywoed, Thomas, 235. 
 
 Holinshcd, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 63. 
 
 Holy Grail, The, 193. 
 
 Holy Living and Holy Dying, 242. 
 
 House of Fame, The, 204. 
 
 House of Seven Gables, The, 18 ; 
 
 a romance of the spirit, 31-32 ; 
 
 suggestions for study, 32-37. 
 Hudibras, 254. 
 Humanism, 217. 
 Humphrey Clinker, 265. 
 
 Idealism of Victorian Era, 301-318. 
 
 Idler, The, 257, 260. 
 
 Idylls of the King, 137, 193 ; in- 
 troduction, the study of, 145-149 
 The Coming of Arthur, 149-150 
 Gareth and Lynette, 150-152 
 Lancelot and Elaine, 152-153 ; The 
 Passing of Arthur, 153-155 ; topics, 
 155; theme of, 311. 
 
 Iliad, The, 2-8, 179, 246; popular 
 epic, 2 ; life of, 3 ; origin, 3 ; sug- 
 gestions for study, 4-9. 
 
 II Penseroso, 157, 158, 162, 244, 270. 
 
 Impeachment of Warren Hastings, 
 262. 
 
 Indian Emperor, The, 251. 
 
 In Memoriam, 309. 
 
 Interludes, 215. 
 
 Intimations of Immortality, Ode on, 
 276. 
 
 Invention of Printing, the, 218. 
 
 Irving, Washington, 83, 84-91, 92. 
 
 Ivanhoe, 18, 35, 138, 141, 157, 190, 
 198 ; a romance, 18-19 ; sug- 
 gestions for study, 19-24 ; topics, 
 24. 
 
 Jeffrey, Francis, 92, 287. 
 
 Jew of Malta, The, 228. 
 
 Johnson, Samuel, 75, 77 ; life, 92- 
 100 ; drama, 252 ; poems, 256 ; 
 range, 260 ; style, 261 ; romantic 
 tendencies, 262 ; praise of Shake- 
 speare, 267. 
 
 Jones, Inigo, 160, 235. 
 
 Jonson, Ben, tragedies, 234 ; come- 
 dies, 234; masks, 235, 251. 
 
 Journal of the Plague Year, 263,
 
 330 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Journal to Stella, 2G0. 
 Julius • Cwsar, 47-48 ; suggestions 
 for study, 48-52. 
 
 Keats, John, 163, 166, 171, 172, 174, 
 
 284, 289, 314. 
 Kelmscott Press, 315. 
 JCulnappcd, 316. 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 166. 
 Knight's Tale, The, 208. 
 Kuhla Khan, 278. 
 
 Lady of the Lake, The, 137, 199; 
 suggestions for study, 139-145 ; 
 topics, 145. 
 
 L' Allegro, 155-157, 158, 244. 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 229, 287, 289. 
 
 Lancelot and Elaine, 152-153. 
 
 Langland, William, 202, 206. 
 
 Lawes, Henry, 160. 
 
 Layanion, Brut, 193 ; language, 193. 
 
 Lay of the Last Minstrel, The, 282. 
 
 Lear, King, 232, 234, 236. 
 
 Legend of Good Women, 204. 
 
 Letters on a Regicide Peace, 262. 
 
 Lewis, Matthew Gregory, 271, 285, 
 295. 
 
 Life of Johnson, Macaulaj^'s, 92- 
 100; subject matter, 94-98; struc- 
 ture and style, 98-100. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 124 ; addresses, 
 131-136. 
 
 Lives of the Poets, Johnson's, 261. 
 
 London Magazine, 257. 
 
 Love for Love, 252. 
 
 Lovelace, Richard, 239. 
 
 Lowell, James R., 87. 
 
 Luther, Martin, 219. 
 
 Lycidas, 244. 
 
 Lyiy, John, 220, 233. 
 
 Lyrical Ballads, The, 163, 277. 
 
 Lyric Poetry, L' Allegro, 155-157 ; 
 II Penseroso, 157-158; Comus, 
 158-163 ; Palgrave's Golden Treas- 
 ury, 163-174. 
 
 Macaulay, T. B., 5, 7S, 79, 92, 102, 
 
 106, 291, 292. 
 Macbeth, 48, 231, 234; struduro, 
 
 52-53 ; suggestions for study, 
 54-63; topics, 63. 
 
 MacFlecknoe, 253, 254. 
 
 Maldon, The Battle of, 181. 
 
 Malory, Sir Thomas, 88, 147, 193, 
 196. 
 
 Manfred, 283. 
 
 Marius the Epicurean, 163. 
 
 Marlowe, Christopher, 46, 228-230, 
 236. 
 
 Marmion, 282. 
 
 Meredith, George, 300, 301. 
 
 Metaphj'sical School of Poetry, 
 240. 
 
 Michael, 165. 
 
 Middlemarch, 299. 
 
 Middleton, Thomas, 236. 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, 70-74, 
 231, 233 ; connection with the 
 mask, 70-72 ; suggestions for 
 study, 72-74 ; topics, 74. 
 
 Mill on the Floss, The, 299, 300. 
 
 Milton, John, 1, 92, 243, 244, 250, 
 257, 270 ; Macaulay's Essay, 102 ; 
 L' Allegro, 155-157 ; II Penseroso, 
 157-158; Comus, 158-163; Areo- 
 pagitica, 245 ; Paradise Lost, 245 ; 
 influence in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, 269. 
 
 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 
 282. 
 
 Miracle Plays, 39, 211. 
 
 Mirror for Magistrates, 220. 
 
 Modern Painters, 306. 
 
 Modest Proposal, 259. 
 
 Monk, The, 271. 
 
 Morality Plays, 213. 
 
 Morris Dance, 71, 159. 
 
 Morris, William, 163, 196, 314, 315. 
 
 Morle d' Arthur, 193, 196. 
 
 Much Ado About Nothing, 232, 233. 
 
 Mysteries of Udolpho, The, 271. 
 
 Mystery Plays, 211. 
 
 Narrative Poetry, 137-174. 
 Nature in Eighteenth Century Litera- 
 ture, 272. 
 Newcomes, The, 298. 
 Newman, John Henry, 302.
 
 INDEX 
 
 331 
 
 Night Thoughts, 270. 
 
 Northern Antiquities, 271. 
 
 Novel, the, compared with the 
 romance, 16-17, 25; in the 
 eighteenth century, 263-266. 
 
 A'M/i's Priest's Tale, The, 20S. 
 
 Observations on the Faerie Queene, 
 267, 270. 
 
 Ode, the, 172-175; Ode on a Gre- 
 cian Urn, 284 ; Ode to a Nightin- 
 gale, 284 ; Ode to Duty, '111 ; De- 
 jection: an Ode, 278; Ode on the 
 Departing Year, 279; France: 
 an Ode, 279 ; Ode on Intimations 
 of Immortality, 276. 
 
 CEnone, 11. 
 
 Old English Baron, The, 271. 
 
 Origin of Species, The, 301. 
 
 Orphan, The, 252. 
 
 Ossiau, 272. 
 
 Otway, Thomas, 252. 
 
 Oxford Movement, the, 301. 
 
 Palace of Pleasure, Painter's, 220. 
 
 Pamela, 264. 
 
 Paradise Lost, 4, 245, 270. 
 
 Partridge Predictions, The, 258. 
 
 Passing of Arthur, The, 150, 153- 
 155. 
 
 Pater, Walter, 163, 315, 317. 
 
 Pearl, The, 201. 
 
 Pepys, Samuel, 88. 
 
 Percy, Bishop, 271. 
 
 Petrarch, 219. 
 
 Picaresque Stories, 263. 
 
 Piers Plowman, 202. 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress, 148, 247. 
 
 Plautus, 215, 224. 
 
 Poetry, Romantic, 269-285. 
 
 Pope, Alexander, 94, 95, 250, 255, 
 256, 257. 
 
 Pre-Raphaelite Movement, The, 314. 
 
 Pride and Prejudice, 296. 
 
 Prisoner of Chillon, The, 283. 
 
 Prometheus Unbound, 280. 
 
 Public Address, The, 108-136; de- 
 fined, 108; argumentative, 109- 
 121; expository, 121-136. 
 
 Quarterly Review, The, 92, 257, 
 287. 
 
 Radcliffe, Mrs. Ann, 271, 285, 295. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 221. 
 
 Ralph Roister Doister, 224, 233. 
 
 Rambler, The, 99, 257, 260. 
 
 Rape of the Lock, The, 256. 
 
 Rasselas, 100, 261. 
 
 Realism, 295-301. 
 
 Reeve, Clara, 271. 
 
 Reflections on the French Revolution, 
 
 Burke's, 262. 
 Religio Medici, 243. 
 Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 
 
 271. 
 Renaissance, The, 217-237. 
 Retaliation, 95, 255. 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 97. 
 Richardson, Samuel, 102, 264, 285. 
 Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 277. 
 Ring and the Book, The, 313. 
 Rivals, The, 253. 
 
 Robin Hood, 21, 22, 24, 197, 211, 271. 
 Robinson Crusoe, 263. 
 Romance, 15; of the spirit, 17-18; 
 
 medieval, 191-197 ; Arthurian, 
 
 191 ; in the eighteenth century, 
 
 270. 
 Romanticism, in the eighteenth 
 
 century, 269 ; decline of, 292. 
 Romaunt of the Rose, The, 204. 
 Romeo and Juliet, 157, 231. 
 Ro7nola, 299. 
 Rossetti, D. G., 314. 
 Ruskin, John, 306-307. 
 
 Samson Agonistcs, 245. 
 
 Sartor Resartus, 106, 294. 
 
 Saul, 313. 
 
 School for Scandal, The, 253. 
 
 Schoolmistress, The, 269. 
 
 Science, 301. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 15, 26, 33, 93, 150, 
 271 ; poetry of, 281 ; prose ro- 
 mances, 285 ; methods of, 285. 
 
 Scylla and Charybdis, 11. 
 
 Sea-farer, The, 181. 
 
 Seasons, The, 272.
 
 332 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Seneca, 215, 226, 234. 
 
 Sense and Sensibility, 296. 
 
 Seven Latnps of Architecture, 306. 
 
 Shakespeare, William. 1, 46, 47, 80, 
 87, 90, 97, 157, 196, 2.30-233, 250, 
 251, 261, 287; periods of work, 
 231; history plays, 232; comedy, 
 233 ; tragedy, 233. 
 
 Shelley, P. B., 163, 168, 174, 283, 
 286, 289 ; Godwin's influence on, 
 273 ; revolutionary poems, 280 ; 
 as a thinker, 281 ; Adonais, 
 281. 
 
 Shenstone, William, 269. 
 
 Shepherd's Calendar, 220. 
 
 Sheridan, R. B., 253. 
 
 Sidney, Sir Phihp, 220, 221, 223. 
 
 Silas Marner, 18, 299 ; character- 
 istics, 24-25 ; suggestions for 
 study, 26-31. 
 
 Silent Woman, The, 234-235. 
 
 Sir Charles Grandison, 264. 
 
 Sir Patrick Spence, 199, 271. 
 
 Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, The, 
 85, 123, 258, 263; suggestions 
 for study, 77-83 ; topics, 83. 
 
 Sketch Book, The, 83-91 ; notes on, 
 85-91 ; topics, 91. 
 
 Smollett, Tobias, 265. 
 
 Sonnet, The, 170. 
 
 Sophocles, 97. 
 
 Southey, Robert, 284. 
 
 Spanish Tragedy, The, 226. 
 
 Spectator, The, 76, 91, 250, 257, 
 263, 267. 
 
 Spenser, Edmund, 158, 196, 220, 
 221, 250, 269. 
 
 Spenserian Stanza, The, 222. 
 
 Steele, Richard, 76, 77, 78, 81, 252, 
 258. 
 
 Sterne, Laurence, 265. 
 
 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 291, 315. 
 
 Stones of Venice, 306. 
 
 Story of the Glittering Plain, The, 
 315. 
 
 Surrey, Earl of, 219. 
 
 Swift, Jonathan, 79, 258, 264. 
 
 Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 196, 
 315-317. 
 
 Tale of a Tub, 259. 
 
 Tamburlaine, 228. 
 
 Task, The, 272. 
 
 Tatler, The, 76, 91, 257, 258, 263. 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy, 242. 
 
 Taylor, Tom, 59. 
 
 Tennyson, Alfred, 1, 11, 88, 196, 
 
 291; Dora, 165; Idylls of the 
 
 King, 193, 310-311; early poetry, 
 
 308 ; science, 309 ; In Memoriam, 
 
 310. 
 Terence, 215, 224. 
 Thackeray, William Makepeace, 24, 
 
 291, 296-299. 
 Thomson, James, 270, 272, 275. 
 Tintern Abbey, 275. 
 Tom Jones, 264. 
 TotteVs Miscellany, 219. 
 Tragedy, 45-63, 233 ; beginnings, 
 
 46 ; structure, 46-47 ; study of 
 
 Julius Ccesar, 47-52 ; study of 
 
 Macbeth, 52-63. 
 Treasure Island, 316. 
 Tristram Shandy, 265. 
 Triumph of Peace, The, ITO. 
 Twelfth Night, 64, 66, 73, 90, 231, 
 
 233 ; suggestions for study, 67- 
 
 90. 
 Tyndale, WUliam, 219. 
 
 Unto this Last, 307. 
 
 Van Dyke, Henrj-, 147. 
 Vanity Fair, 298. 
 Venice Preserved, 252. 
 Vicar of Wakefield, The, 266. 
 
 Waller, Edmund, 256. 
 Walton, Isaac, 243. 
 Warren Hastings, 92. 
 Warton, Joseph, 267, 270. 
 Warton, Thomas, 267, 270. 
 Washington, George, 82, 121, 124, 
 
 133, 134. 
 Way of the World, The, 252. 
 Webster, Daniel, 108, 121, 124, 126- 
 
 131, 133, 134; study of orations, 
 
 126-131. 
 Webster, John, 236. 
 
 I
 
 INDEX 
 
 333 
 
 Westminster Abbey, 83, 88. 
 
 Widsith, 181. 
 
 Wilson, John (Christopher North), 
 92, 287. 
 
 Wordsworth, WiUiam, 93, 163, 165, 
 167, 168, 169, 171, 174, 280, 287, 
 289, 294, 305 ; peasant poetry, 
 274-275 ; speculations, 276 ; moral 
 
 ideas, 277 ; sonnets, 277 ; influ- 
 ence of the French Revolution, 
 279 ; critical writings, 286. 
 
 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 219. 
 
 Wycherley, William, 252. 
 
 Wyclif, John, 203, 206, 219. 
 
 Young, Edward, 270.
 
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 Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. (Bowles.) 
 Scott's Marmion. (Alton.) 
 Scott's Quentin Durward. (Eno.) 
 Scott's Talisman. (Treudley.) 
 Select Orations. (Hall.) 
 
 Selected Poems for Required Reading in Secondary Schools. (Buynton.) 
 Selections for Oral English. (Fuess.) Preparing. 
 Shakespeare's As You Like It. (Gaston.) 
 Shakespeare's Hamlet (Sherman ) 
 Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. (G. W. and L G. Hnfford.) 
 Shakespeare's King Lear. (Buck.) 
 Shakespeare's King Henry V. (Bowles.) 
 Shakespeare's King Richard II. (Moffatt.) 
 Shakespeare's Macheth. (French.) 
 Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. (Underwood.) 
 Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream. (Noyes.) 
 Shakespeare's The Tempest. (Newsom.) 
 Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. (Morton.) 
 Shelley and Keats. Selections. (Newsom.) 
 Sheridan's The Rivals, and The School for Scandal. iHowe.) 
 Southern Orators. (McConnell.) 
 Southern Poets. Selections. (Weber.) 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book I. (Wauchope.) 
 Stevenson's Kidnapped. (Brown.) 
 Stevenson's Master of Ballantrae. i White.) 
 
 Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey, and An Inland Voyagi,. (.Jross.) 
 Stevenson's Treasure Island. (Vance.) 
 Swift's Gulliver's Travelii. (Johnson.) 
 
 4
 
 Tennyson's Idylls of the King. (French.) 
 
 Tennyson's Princess. (Farrand. ) 
 
 Tennyson's Shorter Poems (Nutter.) 
 
 Thackeray's English Humorists. (Castleman.) 
 
 Tbickeray's Henry Esmond. (Henneman.) 
 
 Thoreau's Walden. (Rees.) 
 
 The Aneid of Virgil. Conington Trans. (Shutnway.) 
 
 Selections from Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay. (Barley. i Preparing. 
 
 Washington's Farewell Address, and Webster's Bunker Hill Orations. (Peck.) 
 
 Whittier's Snow-bound, and other Poems. (Bouton.) 
 
 John Woolman's Journal. 
 
 Wordsworth's Shorter Poems. (Fulton.) 
 
 Note. — Neiu volumes for both secondary schools and graded schools are constantly 
 being added to this series. 
 
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