The Literary Reader. A handbook of English literature, etc

Front matter

THE LITERARY READER Til LITERARY READER. A HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH LITERATURE FOR THE Higher Classes in Schools and for Home Teaching. ONE VOLUME EDITION BY Faco fl. de Beer. KCILENBURG, BLOM and OLIVIERSE. 18 8 7. Snelpersdruk van P. Beitsma — Deventer. INDEX. Page. Part 1 7 A Short account of the Histoty of English Literature. ... 7 Chapter I. 444 to 1350 7 Chapter II. 1350 to 1400. ... 10 Chapter III. 1400 to 1558. ... 12 Chapter IV, 1559 to 1603 and V. 1603 to 1660 14 Chapter VI. 1660 to 1745. ... 18 The Drama from the Restoration to 1780 22 Chapter VII. 1745 to 1832. Prose. 23 Chapter VIII. 1730 to 1832. Poetry. 28 Chapter IX. The present time. Poetry 33 Chapter X. The present time Prose Fiction 38 Chapter XI. The Present time History and Philosophy 43 Part II 48 Geoffrey Chaucer 48 The Wonne Prestes Tale. . . 48 The old English Drama, ... 55 The Merchant of Venice. ... 69 Ballads , from Percy's Reliqu.es. 115 King I.eir and Iii* Three Daughters 115 The Beggar's daughter of Bednall-Ctreen 117 Talentine and Ursine . . - ■ 128 John Milton 129 1 1> inn" 132 John Dryden 155 Ann ii* Mirabilis 158 The English Essay 190 The political Upholsterer . . 192 The Exercise of the Fan . . 194 The Citizen's Journal , . . 197 Page.

The Fine Lady* Journal . . 200 Alexander Pope 204 The Rape of the Lock . . . 205 William Cowper ....... 220 The Task (The Timepiece) . . 220 Robert Burns ........ 243 Tarn <>' Shanter 243 Samuel Johnson 249 The danger of ranging from one study to another. The importance of the early choice of a profession . . 249 The advantages of mediocrity An eastern tale 253 .Minim the Critic ...... 256 The Vanity of Human Wishes. 260 Oliver Goldsmith 268 The Traveller 299 The Lakists. William Wordsworth. 284 Samuel Taylor Coleridge . . . 286 Robert Southey 286 Twin Peaks of the Valley . 287 Mist Opening in the Hill* . 288 Among the mountains . . 289 The Moon among Trees . . 290 The Sea Shell 290 Sonnets 291 The Rime of the Ancient mariner 296 George Gordon Noel Byron . . 311 From Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 313 Harold the Wanderer . . .313 Longing 315 Night and Tempest 316 Ocean 319 The Isles of Oreece (.From Don Juan) VI INDEX Page.

To a Skylark 323 The Cloud 325 Sir Walter Scott 327 From Ivanhoe. How the Black Knight found the Jolly Hermit and took supper with him 328 How Rebecca was led to execution 336 Marmion. Canto First .... 342 Alfred Tennyson 358 l.uiich Arden 358 William Makepeace Thackeray . 377 From Vanity Fair 377 From Henry Esmond 384 The famous Mr Joseph Addison 384 Charles Dickens 391 From Oliver Twist 392 Page. Bill Sikes 392 From Nicholas Nicldeby .... 403 The Yorkshire Schoolmaster. 403 George Eliot 411 Dorothea Brooke 419 Thomas Babington Lord Macaulay. 430 The Italian Statesmen of the middle Ages 430 The Trial of the Bishops . . 432 Thomas Carlyle 439 Signs of the Times 440 The New Berline 444 Old-Dragoon Drouet .... 447 The Night of Spurs .... 449 Hero-Worship 454 Labour 456 Percy Bysshe Shelley ....

Preface

. The first edition of this work appeared in 1874. In the preface we quoted Gaston Boissier's saying , that the greatest object of Education is „apprendre h lire au peuple, rendre aux classes lettries le gout des etudes sirieuses, and above all this must be the object of our ,Middelbaar On derwijs". In de Gids for March 1871 there is a paper pointing out the fact that side by side with dry science, among the people of our nation the prefe ence for easy literature is ever growing and in such measure that we might say to our countrymen what Cherubini once said to a prince : Sire, vous n'aimez pas la musique qui vous derange. We highly appreciate scientific education but in order to prevent one sided development we maintain that our boys and girls positively require something which appeals to the feelings rather than to the understanding.

If education is to attain its object both must be developed and what our pupils want are „books" and not, as Prof. A. Pierson qualifies German books: nStore-rooms of Things not generally known." We are condemned to be a polyglot nation and so reading, speaking and writing tolerably well four languages (a thing not to be learned in a day) is an absolute necessity for any young Dutchman , who wishes to make his way in the world. Though another want to be provided for is the development of a cultivated taste for literary art which can only be done by presenting to the student selections from the very best writers. This induced me to offer to the public „the Literary Reader" as published in 1874 by M. D. A. Thieme, On his decease the copy-right came into the possession of Messrs. Blom en Olivierse, and I invited Miss E. J, Irving to co-operate with me , when the firm desired to publish a new edition, and so in 1883 and 1884 appeared the second volume : The Nineteenth Century (the third edition is now leaving the press) and the first part of the first volume From Caedmon to Milton , the former in cooperation with Miss Irving and the latter for the greater part by this author singly.

This edition the result of much study and care appeared to be highly prevace. suitable for those preparing for an Examination as English Teacher and The Nineteenth Century for schools where modern literature, obtains a prominent place. The want of a similar book comprising the whole of the English literature and more adapted for schools was strongly felt and and so I thought fit to prepare the present „One volume edition" containing the smallest amount of literary history possible whilst reserving the rest of the space for the most exquisite specimens of the English master-pieces. In this edition I have endeavoured to make each selection complete in itself , which I believe to be more preferable to the student than extracts. At the same time I have sought to assist the pupil by notes, to the right understanding of the author which he reads.

In order to keep a Handbook of Literature within certain limits I have been obliged to confine myself to those writers generally acknowledged as Representative Men. I have devoted eight pages to an extract from Shaw, comprising the History of English Literature down to 1558. In conjunction with Stopford Brooke I gave a survey of English Lite rature from 1558 to 1832. Finally from Chambers and Spalding I gave a description of the state of Literature from 1832 to 1880. I venture to hope that in accordance with the present publication, in this way English Literature may be treated satisfactorily and comprehensively in our public schools. I cannot conclude this Preface without returning my hearty thanks to Mr. James Akeroyd who has kindly assisted me in correcting the proofs and suggested many valuable additions to the Notes. Amsterdam , April 5th 1887, TACO H. DE BEER.

Part I

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Chapter I. 444—1350, The most ancient inhabitants of the British Islands, were a branch of the Celtic race. This people, under the various appel lations of Celts, Gael (Gaul) or Cymry (Cimbrians) , seems to have covered a very large extent of territory , and to have retained strong traces , in its Druidical worship , its astronomical science , and many other features , of a, remote Oriental descent. The earliest records of it which we pi sess , at the time when it came in contact with the Eoman ar? , show it to have been then in a condition very little superior / barbarism. The first important interco/ se between the primitive Britons and any foreign nation was the invasion of the country by the Romans in the year 55 B.C. The resistance of the Britons, was gradually overpowered in the first century of the Christian era by the superior skill and military organization of the Eoman armies: the country became a Roman province; and the Roman domination, though extending only to the central and southern portion of the country , may be regarded as having subsisted about 480 years.

A large body of Roman troops was permanently stationed in the new pro vince ; and the invaders , as was their custom , endeavoured to introduce among their barbarous subjects their laws, their habits, and their civilization. Such of the Celts as submitted to the yoke of their invaders acquired a considerable degree of civilization, learnt the Latin language, and became a Latinized or provincial race, similar to the inhabitants on the other side of the Channel. The other portion of the Celts , namely , those who inhabited mountainous regions inaccessible to the Roman arms, and those who, refusing to submit to the invaders, fled from the southern districts to take refuge in their rugged fastnesses, retained, we may be sure , with their hostility to the invaders , their own language dress , customs , and religion.

When the Roman troops were at length withdrawn from Britain, in order to defend Italy itself against the innumerable hordes of barbarians which menaced it, down from their mountains rushed the avenging swarms of Scottish and Pictish savages, and commenced taking a terrible vengeance on their un happy countrymen. Every trace of civilization was swept away; the furious devastation which they carried through the land is commemorated in the ancient songs and legends of the Cymry; and the objects of their vengeance, after vainly imploring the as sistance of Rome in a most piteous appeal, had recourse to the only resource now left them, of hiring some warlike race of foreign adventurers to protect them. These adventurers were the Saxon pirates. The piratical adventurers whom the old German passion for plun der and glory, and the entreaties of the "miserable Britons", allured across the North Sea from their native Jutland, Schleswig, Holstein, and the coasts of the Baltic, were the most fearless navigators and the most redoubted sea-kings of those ages.

On their arrival in Britain , these rovers were in every respect savages, though their rugged energetic Teuton nature offered a rich and fertile soil capable of being developed by Christianity and civiliza tion into a noble type of national character. The Celt in general, whether friendly or hostile, possessing a less powerful organization and a less vigorous moral constitution than the Teuton, was in the course of time either quietly absorbed into the more energetic race, or gradually disappeared. The true parentage, therefore, of the English nation, is to be traced to the Teutonic race. The language spoken by the Northern invaders was a Low-Germanic dialect, akin to the modern Dutch, but with many Scandinavian forms and words. The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, which took place in the sixth century , brought them into contact with more intellectual forms of life and with a higher type of civilization.

A very varied and ex tensive literature soon arose among the Anglo-Saxons, embracing compositions on almost every branch of knowledge , law , historical chronicles , ecclesiastical and theological disquisitions , together with a large body of poetry in which their very peculiar metrical system was adapted to subjects derived either from the scriptures , or from the mediæval lives of the saints. The curious, but rather tedious, versified paraphrase of the Bible by Caedmon - generally attributed to the middle of the seventh century — was long con sidered to be one of the most ancient among the more considerable Saxon poems; but the discovery of the manuscript of the Lay of Beowulf, has furnished us with a specimen of Anglo-Saxon poetry decidedly more ancient, as well as far more interesting.

This poem, is not inferior in energy and conciseness to the Nibelungen- Lied, though undeniably so in extent of plot and development of character. The Anglo-Saxons based their verse not upon any regular recurrence of syllables , still less upon the employment of similarly sounding terminations of lines or parts of lines, that is, upon what we call rhyme. With them it was sufficient to consti tute verse, that in any two successive lines — which might be of any length — there should be at least three words beginning with the same letter. This very peculiar metrical system is called alliteration. The language in which these works are composed is usually called Anglo-Saxon ; but in the works themselves it is always styled English, and the country England, or the land of the Angles. The term Anglo-Saxons is meant to distinguish the Saxons of England from the Saxons of the Continent, and does not signify the Angles and Saxons.

From the ninth century, in the reign of Egbert, to the middle of the eleventh century, the history of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy presents a confused and melancholy picture of bloody incursions and fierce resistance to the barbarous and pagan Danes, who endeavoured to treat the Saxons as the Saxons had treated the Celts. The only brilliant figure in this period is the almost perfect type of a patriot warrior, king and philosopher, in the person of the illustrious Alfred. For a long time the cul tivation of the Latin literature in the monasteries and among the learned, as well as the employment of the Latin language in the services of the Church, must have tended to incorporate with the Saxon tongue a considerable number of Latin words. Alfred, we know, visited Rome in his youth, acquired there a considerable portion of the learning which he unquestionably possessed, and ex hibited his patriotic care for the enlightenment of his countrymen by translating into Saxon the "Consolations" of Boethius.

The Venerable Bede , and other Saxon ecclesiastics, composed chronicles and legends in Latin and a considerable influx of Latin words may have become perceptible in it before the appearance of Normans. It is also to be remarked that the superior civilization of the French race must have exerted an influence on at least the aristocratic classes ; and the family connexions between the last Saxon dynasty and the neighbouring dukes of Normandy , must have tended to increase the Gallicizing character perceptible in Anglo-Saxon writings previous to the Conquest. The invasion of William was carried on under at least a co lourable allegation of a legal right to the inheritance of the English throne, his investiture of the crown was accompanied by a studied adherence to the constitutional forms of the Saxon monarchy ; and it was perhaps only the obstinate resistance of the sullen sturdy Saxon people, that at length wearied him into treating his new acquisition with all the rigour of a conquering invader.

The whole territory was by his orders carefully surveyed and registered in that curious monument of antiquity which still exists, entitled Domesday Book: the severest measures of police, were introduced to keep down the rising of the people; the original Saxon holders of these lands were as a general rule ousted from their estates, which were distributed among the warriors who had enabled him to subjugate the country; vast tracts of inhabited lands were depo pulated and transformed into forests for the chase, and the higher functions of the Church and State were with few exceptions con fided to men of Norman blood. The natural consequence of such a state of things, was to create in the country two distinct and intensely hostile nationalities. The Saxon race gradually descended to the level of an oppressed and servile class.

It required several ages to amalgamate the two nationalities; but, they were ultimately amalgamated , and formed a most vigorous people. The literary models introduced into England by the Norman invasion were no less important than the linguistic changes conse quent upon the admixture of their Romance dialect with the Saxon speech. Together with the institutions of feudalism the Normans brought with them the poetry of feudalism , that is , the poetry of chivalry. The lais and romances , tho fabliaux and the legends of mediæval chivalry soon began to modify the rude poetical sagas and the tedious narratives of the lives of saints and hermits which had formed the bulk of the literature of Saxon England. Tho im portant part played in these legends by the halfmythical Arthur and his knights might seem to argue in favour of a Celtic origin for these fictions for if ever such a personage as Arthur really existed he must have been a British prince; but when wo remem ber that Arthur, though mentioned in the authentic traditional poems of the ancient Britons, is a comparatively insignificant character , and that those same traditions contain no trace whatever of the existence of that chivalric state of society of which Arthur and his pre.ux are the ideal , we shall find ourselves not warranted in accepting the authenticity of a Celtic origin on these grounds.

For two centuries after the Norman conquest, the Anglo-Saxon and the Norman-French continued to bo spoken in tho island, as two distinct languages, having little intermixture with ono anothor. Tho most important change which converted the Anglo-Saxon into Old English, was not due in any considerable degree to tho Nor man conquest. The large introduction of French words into English dates from the time when the Normans began to speak tho language of tho conquered race. Tho English still remained essentially a German tongue, though it received such largo accessions of French words, as materially to chango its character. Tho picturesque illustration, so happily employed by Scott in the opening chapter of Ivanhoe, has often been quoted as a good popular exemplification of tho mode in which the Saxon and French elements were blended: the common animals serving for food to man , while under the charge of Saxon serfs and bondmon , retained their Teutonic appellation; but when served up at the tablo of the Norman oppressor received a French designation.

As examples of this , ho cites the parallels Ox and Beef, Swine and Pork, Sheep and Mutton, Calf and Veal. Chapter II. 1350—1400. The fourteenth century is the most important opoch in tho in tellectual history of Europe. It is tho point of contact betwoen two widely -differing eras in tho annals of our race; between Feu dalism and Chivalry, the Revival of Letters and tho great Protes tant Reformation. Of this groat transformation , the personal career, no loss than tho works, of tho first great English poet, Chaucer, will furnish us with the most exact typo and expression. Tho victories of Sluys, of Crocy, and Poitiers, by exciting the national pride, tended to consummate tho fusion into one vigorous nationality of the two elements which formed the English people and the English language. It was these triumphs that gave to the English character its peculiar insularity ; and made the Englishman, whether knight or yeoman, regard himself as the member of a separate and superior race, enjoying a higher degree of liberty and a more solid material welfare than existed among the neighbouring continental monarchies.

The literature , too . abundant in quantity , if not remarkable for much originality of form, was rapidly taking a purely English tone : the rhyming chronicles and legendary romances were either translated into , or originally composed in , the vernacular language. The immediate poetical predecessor of Chaucer , was Gower, whose productions , half moral , half narrative , and with a considerable infusion of the scholastic theology of the dav , rendered inestimable services to the infant literature, by giving regularity, polish, and harmony to the language. It is very curious , as an example of contemporary existence of the French . the Latin , and the vernacu lar literature at this period in England, that the three parts of Gowee's immense work should have been composed in three different languages: the Vox Clamant is in Latin, the Speculum Meditaniis in Norman-French, and the Confessio Amantis in English.

For a short account of Chaucer's life and his most important work we refer the reader to the 2nd part of this volume. By the middle of the fourteenth century the spirit of patriotism evoked by Edward III . and the influence of the continental Renais sance, were united to call forth a vigorous national literature. Its chief product . as in most similar cases , was poetry . but the earliest works in prose that can be properly called English belong to the same age. In 1356 , Mandeville dedicated his Travels to Edward IH. : in 1362 Parliament was first opened by a speech in English ; Chau cer had begun to write: and Gower had exchanged the French and Latin of his earlier works for his mother tongue. There is a famous poem of the same age, the Vision of Piers Ploughman, or rather the Vision of William concerning Piers (or Peter) Ploughman , an allegory of the difficulties in the course of human life.

Its prevalent spirit is that of satire , aimed against abuses and vices in general , but in particular against the corrup tions of the church. Tradition ascribes the work to a certain Robert Langlande; but in the Latin title the author is called William. Nothing whatever is known of his personal history. English Prose Literature begins with Sir Johs de Maxdeville , who was born about 1300. His travels and his service under Orien tal sovereigns . gave him an extensive knowledge of Palestine. Egypt. Persia, and parts of India, Tartary. and China He resided three years at Pekin. On Ms return he wrote an ac ount of what he professed to have seen, and dedicated the book to Edward III. in 1356. He borrows freely from the chroniclers and other old writers , preferring what is most wonderful ; and his own observations have so much of the marvellous as to discredit his testimony.

The work is now chiefly interesting as the earliest example , on a large scale , of English prose. The great Scottish Poet of this age , Johs Barboue . archdeacon of Aberdeen, was rather a contemporary than a precursor of Chau cer, like whom he deserves to rank as the father of a national literature. His Bruce is a chronicle of the adventures of King Robert I. . of very high merit. / ■* cj . _ The revolution effected by Chaucer m poetry was accompanied and aided by an entirely new development of religious literature , which, besides its higher fruits, rendered a similar service to prose literature. The new liberty of thought , which found expression in popular literature, showed itself also in a sifting of ecclesiastical pretensions, which led to a direct appeal to Scripture; and the re forming teachers satisfied this demand by translating the Bible into the mother tongue.

In the other Protestant countries of Europe, the revival of national literature has been connected with a similar work; and, if the German Bible of Luther, and the Danish version of 1550, exerted a more powerful influence over the respective languages than the Wicliffite translations , one chief reason is that they appeared after the invention of printing, by which art they were immediately and indefinitely multiplied. In England, this great work is ascribed to John de Wiclif, Wicliff, or Wtcliffe (b. about 1324, d. 1384). He was born at Wicliffe, near Richmond, in Yorkshire and began early to attack the corruptions of the Church; and after his deposition from the post of master of Balliol College by Archbishop Langham, and the Pope's rejection of his appeal , he gave all his energies to the work of reform , both by his writings and by theological lectures at Oxford.

Chapter III. 1400—1558. The most brilliant names which occupy the beginning of this interval are those of Scotsmen. James I. (1394 — 1437), who was taken prisoner when a child and carefully educated at Wind sor, must be regarded as a poet who does equal honour to his own country and to that of his captivity. He was the author of a collection of love-verses under the title of the King's Quhair (i. e. Quire or Book) , written in the purest English and breathing the romantic and elegant grace which the immense popularity of Petrarch had at that time made the universal pattern throughout Europe. His own national dialect , too , was that of the Lowland Scots , then and long after the language of literature , of courtly society , and of theology , and by no means to be regarded as the mere patois or provincial dialect which it has become since the union of the two crowns has destroyed the political independence of Scot land.

In it James composed a number of songs and ballads of extraordinary merit, recounting with much humour his own amorous adventures. This prince was assassinated in 1437 at Perth, by the nobles, among whom his own uncle was a chief conspirator, to revenge the king's concessions to the people. Besides King James, Scotland produced about this time several poets of great merit, the chief of whom are William Dunbar (about 1465 — 1520), and Gawin or Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld (1474—1522). Among Dun bar's numerous poetical compositions we must in particular specify his wild allegorical conception of „TAe Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins." Gawin Douglas is now chiefly remembered as the translator of Virgil into Scottish verse. Another Scottish poet, known under the appellation of Blind Harry or Harry the Minstrel, wrote, in long rhymed couplets, a narrative of the exploits of the second great national hero , William Wallace.

The reign of Henry VII. was by no means favourable to literary activity; but Henry VIII. was possessed of much of the learning of his age, and even distinguished himself by his controversial wri tings against Luther. The great and good chancellor Sir Thomas More, (1480 — 1535) is unquestionably one of the most prominent intellectual figures of this reign; whether as statesman, or man of letters. His philosophical romance of Utopia is one of the earliest of many attempts to give, under the form of a voyage to an imaginary island, the theory of an ideal republic, where the laws , the institutions , the social and political usages , are in strict accordance with a philosophical perfection. Many of our ancient preachers and controversialists too, like Hugh Latimer and the chronicler of the Protestant Martyrs, John\ Foxe , who died in 1587, contributed in writings to disseminate among tbe great mass ol the people not only an ardent attachment to Protestant doctrines , but a habit of religious discussion and consequently a tendency to intellectual activity.

Another worthy to be mentioned is Roger Ascham (1515 — 1568), the learned and affectionate preceptor of Elizabeth and the un fortunate Jane Grey. His treatise entitled the Schoolmaster , and the book called Toxophilus , devoted to the encouragement of the national use of the bow, are works remarkable for the good sense and reasonableness of the ideas. John Skelton, the date of whose birth is unknown, but who died in 1529, was undoubtedly a man of considerable classical learning. He engaged, with an audacity and an apparent impunity which now appear equally inexplicable, in a series of the most furious attacks upon the then all-powerful favorite and minister Wolsey. Alexander Barklay, who lived a little later under Henry VIII translated into English verse Sebastian Brandt's once-celebrated satire of the Ship of Fools, an epitome of the various forms of pedantry and affectation ').

In the writings of both we see the rapid development of flexibility and harmony of English versification. How rapid this progress in taste and refinement really was, may be deduced from an examination of the poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt (the elder) and the Earl of Surrey, who were nearly con temporaries in their lives and early deaths. Surrey was the first who introduced blank verse into English poetry, which he employed in translating the second and forth books of Virgil's Æneid. We cannot better conclude this Chapter than by making a few remarks on a peculiar class of compositions in which England is unusually rich, which are marked with an intense impress of nationality , and which have exerted , on modern literature in par ticular, an influence whose extent it is impossible to overrate. These are our national Ballads, produced, it is probable, in great abundance during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries , and in many instances traceable to the flNorth Countree," or the Border region between England and Scotland.

They bear the marks of having been composed , by rude wandering minstrels. Such men — probably often blind or otherwise incapacitated from taking part in active *) Brand was a learned civilian of Basel, and published in 1494 a satire in German with the above title. life — gained their bread by singing or repeating them. These poets and narrators were a very different class from the wandering trou badours or jongleurs of Southern Europe and of France; and living in a country much ruder and less chivalric , though certainly not less warlike than Languedoc or Provence, their compositions are inimitable for simple pathos , fiery intensity of feeling , and pictures queness of description. Written or composed by obscure and often illiterate poets, these productions were frequently handed down only by tradition from generation to generation : it is to the taste and curiosity , perhaps only to the family pride , of collectors , that we owe the accident by which some of them were copied and preserved; the few that were ever printed being destined for circulation only among the poorest class , were confided to the meanest typography and to flying sheets, or broadsides , as they are termed by collectors.