English literature, considered as an interpreter of English history

Front matter

Book

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

CONSIDERED AS AN INTERPRETER

Preface

IT is not the purpose of the author to add another to the many vohimes containing a chronological list of English authors, with brief comments upon each. Such a statement of works, arranged according to periods, or reigns of English monarchs, is valuable only as an abridged dictionary of names and dates. Nor is there any logical pertinence in clustering contemporary names about a principal author, however illustrious he may be. The object of this work is to present prominently the historic connections and teachings of English literature ; to place great authors in immediate relations with great events in history ; and thus to propose an important principle to students in all their reading. Thus it is that Literature and History are reciprocal : they combine to make eras.

Merely to establish this historic principle, it would have been sufficient to consider the greatest authors, such as Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton, Dryden, and Pope; but it occurred to me, while keeping this principle before me, to give also a connected view of the course of English literature, which might, in an academic curriculum, show students how and what to read for themselves. Any attempt beyond this in so condensed a work must prove a failure, and so it may well happen triat some readers will fail to find a full notice, or even a mention, of some favorite author.

English literature can only be studied in the writings of the authors here only mentioned ; but I hope that the work will be found to contain suggestions for making such extended reading profitable ; and that teachers will find it valuable as a syllabus for fuller courses of lectures.

To those who would like to find information as to the best editions of the authors mentioned, I can only say that I at first intended and began to note editions : I soon saw that I could not do this with any degree of uniformity, and therefore determined to refer all who desire this bibliographic assistance, to The Dictionary

IV PREFACE.

of Authors, by my friend S. Austin Allibone, LL.D., in which bibliography is a strong feature. I am not called upon to eulogize that noble work, but I cannot help saying that I have found it invaluable, and that whether mentioned or not, no writer can treat of English authors without constant recurrence to its accurate columns : it is a literary marvel of our age.

It will be observed that the remoter periods of the literature are those in which the historic teachings are the most distinctly visible ; we see them from a vantage ground, in their full scope, and in the interrelations of their parts. Although in the more modern periods the number of writers is greatly increased, we are too near to discern the entire period, and are in danger of becoming partisans, by reason of our limited view. Especially is this true of the age in which we live. Contemporary history is but party-chronicle : the true philosophic history can only be written when distance and elevation give due scope to our vision.

The principle I have laid down is best illustrated by the great literary masters. Those of less degree have been treated at less length, and many of them will be found in the smaller print, to save space. Those who study the book should study the small print as carefully as the other.

After a somewhat elaborate exposition of English literature, I could not induce myself to tack on an inadequate chapter on American literature ; and, besides, I think that to treat the two subjects in one volume would be as incongruous as to write a joint biography of Marlborough and Washington. American literature is too great and noble, and has had too marvelous a development to be made an appendix to English literature.

If time shall serve, I hope to prepare a separate volume, exhibiting the stages of our literature in the Colonial period, the Revolutionary epoch, the time of Constitutional establishment, and the present period. It will be found to illustrate these historical divisions in a remarkable manner. H. C.

The Lehigh University, October, 1872.

Contents

PAGE

Alphabetical Index of Authors 485

Chapter I. The Historical Scope Of The Subject

Literature and Science — English Literature — General Principle — Celts and Cymiy — Roman Conquest — Coming of the Saxons — Danish Invasions — The Norman Conquest — Changes in Language 13

CHAPTER H.

LITERATURE A TEACHER OF HISTORY. CELTIC REMAfNS.

The Uses of Literature — Italy, France, England — Purpose of the Work — Celtic Literary Remains — Druids and Druidism — Roman Writers — Psalter of Cashel — Welsh Triads and Mabinogion — Gildas and St. Colm . . . . . . .22

CHAPTER HI.

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE AND HISTORY.

The Lineage of the Anglo-Saxon — Earliest Saxon Poem — Metrical Arrangement — Periphi'asis and Alliteration — Beowulf — Caedmon — Other Saxon Fragments — The Appearance of Bede . 30

CHAPTER IV.

THE VENERABLE BEDE AND THE SAXON CHRONICLE.

Biogi-aphy — Ecclesiastical History — The Recorded Miracles — Bede's Latin — Other Writers — The Anglo - Saxon Chronicle : its Value — Alfred the Great — Effect of the Danish Invasions . 37

VI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND ITS EARLIEST LITERATURE.

PAGE

Norman Rule — Its Oppression — Its Benefits — William of Malmesbury — Geoffrey of Monmouth — Other Latin Chronicles — Anglo-Norman Poets — Richard Wace — Other Poets . 45

CHAPTER VI.

THE MORNING TWILIGHT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Semi-Saxon Literature — Layamon — The Ormulum — Robert of Gloucester — Langland. Piei's Plowman — Piers Plowman's Creed — Sir Jean Froissart — Sir John Mandevil . . . .53

CHAPTER Vn.

CHAUCER, AND THE EARLY REFORMATION.

A New Era : Chaucer — Italian Influence — Chaucer as a Founder — Earlier Poems — The Canterbury Tales — Characters — Satire — Presentations of Woman — The Plan Proposed . . .60

CHAPTER Vni.

CHAUCER (continued). REFORMS IN RELIGION AND

SOCIETY.

Historical Facts — Reform in Religion — The Clergy, Regular and Secular — The Friar and the Sompnour — The Pardonere — The Poure Persone — John Wiclif — The Translation of the Bible — The Ashes of Wiclif 70

CHAPTER IX.

CHAUCER (continued). — PROGRESS OF SOCIETY, AND OF LANGUAGE.

Social Life — Government — Chaucer's English — His Death — Historical Facts — John Gower — Chaucer and Gower — Gower's Language — Other Writers 81

CONTENTS. Vll

CHAPTER X.

THE BARREN PERIOD BET\YEEN CHAUCER AND SPENSER.

PAGE

Greek Literature — Invention of Printing. Caxton — Contemporary History — Skelton — Wyatt — Surrey — Sir Tliomas Moore — Utopia, and other Works — Other Writers . . • 91

CHAPTER XI.

SPENSER AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE.

The Great Change — Edward YI. and Mary — Sidney — The Arcadia — Defence of Poesy — Astrophel and Stella — Gabriel Harvey — Edmund Spenser : Shepherd's Calendar — His Great Work 104

CHAPTER Xn.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY IN THE FAERIE OUEENE.

The Faerie Queen e — The Plan Proposed — Illustrations of the History — The Knight and the Lady — The Wood of Error and the Hermitage — The Crusades — Britomartis and Sir Artegal — Elizabeth — Mary Queen of Scots — Other Works — Spenser's Fate — Other Writers 1 14

CHAPTER Xni.

THE ENGLISH DRAMA.

Origin of the Drama — ^Miracle Plays — T^Ioralities — First Comedy — Early Tragedies — Christopher Marlowe — Other Dramatists — Playwrights and ]\Iorals . . . . . . . .128

CHAPTER XIV.

^YILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

The Power of Shakspeare — Meagre Early History — Doubts of his Identity — What is known — Marries and goes to London — " Venus " and " Lucrece " — Retirement and Death — Literary Habitudes — Variety of the Plays — Table of Dates and Sources 137

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE (cONTINUEd).

PAGB

The Grounds of his Fame — Creation of Character — Imagination and Fancy — Power of Expression — His Faults — Influence of Elizabeth — Sonnets — Ireland and Collier — Concordance — Other Writers 148

CHAPTER XVI.

BACON, AND THE RISE OF THE NEW PHILOSOPHY.

Birth and Early Life — Treatment of Essex — His Appointments — His Fall — Writes Philosophy — Magna Instauratio — His Defects — His Fame — His Essays . . . . . . .15^

CHAPTER XVn.

THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

Early Versions — The Septuagint — The Vulgate — Wiclif; Tyndale — Coverdale; Cranmer — Geneva; Bishop's Bible — King James's Bible — Language of the Bible — Revision . . . 167

CHAPTER XVni.

JOHN MILTON, AND THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH.

Historical Facts — Charles I. — Religious Extremes — Cromwell — • Birth and Early Works — Views of Marriage — Other Prose Works — Effects of the Restoration — Estimate of his Prose . 174

CHAPTER XIX.

THE POETRY OF MILTON.

The Blind Poet — Paradise Lost — Milton and Dante — His Faults — Characteristics of the Age — Paradise Regained — His Scholarship — His Sonnets — His Death and Fame . . 184

CHAPTER XX.

COWLEY, BUTLER, AND WALTON.

Cowley and Milton — Cowley's Life and Works — His Fame — Butler's Career — Hudibras — His Poverty and Death — Izaak Walton — The Angler; and Lives — Other Writers . . . 195

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER XXI.

DRYDEN, AND THE RESTORED STUARTS.

PAGK

The Court of Charles II. — Dryden's Early Life — The Death of Cromwell — The Restoration — Dryden's Tribute — Annus Mirabilis — Absalom and Achitophel — The Death of Charles — Dryden's Conversion — Dryden's Fall — His Odes . . . 207

CHAPTER XXn.

THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE GREAT REBEL- LION AND OF THE RESTORATION.

The English Divines — Hall — ChillingsM^orth — Taylor — Fuller — Sir T. Browne — Baxter — Fox — Bunyan — South — Other Writers . . . . 221

CHAPTER XXni.

THE DRAMA OF THE RESTORATION.

The License of the Age — Dryden — Wycherley — Congreve — Vanbrugh — Farquhar — Etherege — Tragedy — Otway — Rowe — Lee — Southern . 233

CHAPTER XXIV.

POPE, AND THE ARTIFICIAL SCHOOL.

Contemporary History — Birth and Early Life — Essay on Criticism — -Rape of the Lock — The Messiah — The Iliad — Value of the Translation — The Odyssey — Essay on Man — The Artificial School — Estimate of Pope — Other Writers .... 241

CHAPTER XXV.

ADDISON, AND THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.

The Character of the Age — Queen Anne — Whigs and Tories — George I. — Addison: The Campaign — Sir Roger de Coverley — The Club — Addison's Hymns — Person and Literary Character 254

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVI.

STEELE AND SWIFT.

PAGE

Sir Richard Steele — Periodicals — The Crisis — His Last Days — Jonathan Swift: Poems — The Tale of a Tub — Battle of the Books — Pamphlets — M, B. Drapier — Gulliver's Travels — Stella and Vanessa — His Character and Death .... 264

CHAPTER XXVn.

THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN FICTION.

The Nevi^ Age — Daniel Defoe — Robinson Crusoe — Richardson

— Pamela, and Other Novels — Fielding — Joseph Andrews — Tom Jones — Its Moral — Smollett — Roderick Random — Peregrine Pickle 280

CHAPTER XXVni.

STERNE, GOLDSMITH, AND MACKENZIE.

The Subjective School — Sterne: Sermons — Tristram Shandy — Sentimental Journey — Oliver Goldsmith — Poems : The Vicar

— Histories, and Other Works — Mackenzie — The Man of Feeling 296

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE HISTORICAL TRIAD IN THE SCEPTICAL AGE. The Sceptical Age — David Hume — History of England — Metaphysics — ■ Essay on Miracles — Robertson — Histories — Gibbon — The Decline and Fall ....... 309

CHAPTER XXX.

SAMUEL JOHNSON AND HIS TIMES.

Early Life and Career — London — Rambler and Idler — The Dictionary — Odier Works — Lives of the Poets — Person and Character — Style — Junius ........ 324

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE LITERARY FORGERS IN THE ANTIQUARIAN AGE. The Eighteenth Centuiy — James Macpherson — Ossian — Thomas Chatterton — His Poems — The Verdict — Suicide — The Cause 334

CONTENTS. XI

CHAPTER XXXII.

POETRY OF THE TRANSITION SCHOOL.

PAGE

The Transition Period — James Thomson — The Seasons — The Castle of Indolence — Mark Akenside — Pleasures of the Imagination — Thomas Gray — The Elegy. The Bard — William Cowper — The Task — Translation of Homer — Other Writers 347

CHAPTER XXXni.

THE LATER DRAMA.

The Progress of the Drama — Garrick — Foote — Cumberland — Sheridan — George Colman — George Colman, the Younger — Other Dramatists and Humorists — Other Writers on Various Subjects 360

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY : SCOTT.

Walter Scott — Translations and Minstrelsy — The Lay of the Last Minstrel — Other Poems — The W^averley Novels — Particular Mention — Pecuniary Troubles — His Manly Purpose — Powers Overtasked — Fruitless Journey — Return and Death — His Fame 37 1

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY I BYRON AND MOORE.

Early Life of Byron — Childe Harold and Eastern Tales — Unhappy Marriage — Philhellenism and Death — Estimate of his Poetry — Thomas Moore — Anacreon — Later Fortunes — Lalla Rookh — His Diary — His Rank as Poet 384

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE NEW ROMANTIC POETRY (CONTINUED).

Robert Bums — His Poems — His Career — George Crabbe — Thomas Campbell — Samuel Rogers — P, B. Shelley — John Keats — Other Writers 397

Xll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

WORDSWORTH, AND THE LAKE SCHOOL.

PAGE

The New School — William Wordsworth — Poetical Canons — The Excursion and Sonnets — An Estimate — Robert Southey — His Writings — Historical Value — S. T. Coleridge — Early Life — His Helplessness — Hartley and H, N. Coleridge . . . 414

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE REACTION IN POETRY.

Alfred Tennyson — Early Works — The Princess — Idyls of the King — Elizabeth B. Browning — Aurora Leigh — Her Faults — Robert Browning — Other Poets 428

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE LATER HISTORIANS.

New Materials — George Grote — History of Greece — Lord Macaulay — History of England — Its Faults — Thomas Carlyle — Life of Frederick II. — Other Historians 439

CHAPTER XL.

THE LATER NOVELISTS AS SOCIAL REFORMERS.

Bulwer — Changes in Writers — Dickens's Novels — American Notes — His Varied Powers — Second Visit to America — Thackeray — Vanity Fair — Henry Esmond — The Newcomes — The Georges — Estimate of his Powers ..... 450

CHAPTER XLL

THE LATER WRITERS.

Charles Lamb — Thomas Hood — Thomas de Quincey — Other Novelists — Writers on Science and Philosophy .... 466

CHAPTER XLIL

ENGLISH JOURNALISM.

Roman News Letters — The Gazette — The Civil War — Later Divisions — The Reviews — The Monthlies — The Dailies — The London Times — Other Newspapers 475

CHAPTER L

THE HISTORICAL SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT,

Literature and Science.

English Literature.

General Principle.

Celts and Cymr>^.

Roman Conquest.

Coming of the Saxons.

Danish Invasions.

The Norman Conquest.

Changes in Language.

Literature and Science,

THERE are two words in the English language which are now used to express the two great divisions of rnental production — Science and Literature; and yet, from their etymology, they have so much in toramon, that it has been necessary to attach to each a technical meaning, in order that we may employ them without confusion.

Science^ from, the participle sciens, of svio, scire, to know, would seem to comprise all that can be known — what the Latins called the omne scibile, or all-knowable.

Literature is from litera, a letter, and probably at one remove from li?io, iitum, to anoint or besmear, because in the earlier tim.es a tablet was smeared with wax, and letters were traced upon it with a graver. Literature, in its first meaning, would, therefore, comprise all that can be conveyed by the use of letters.

But language is impatient of retaining two words which convey the same meaning ; and although science had at first

2 13 to do with the fact of knowing and the conditions of knowledge in the abstract, while literature meant the written record of such knowledge, a far more distinct sphere has been given to each in later times, and special functions assigned them.

In general terms, Science now means any branch of knowledge in which men search for principles reaching back to the ultimate, or for facts which establish these principles, or are cla-ssified by them in a logical order. Thus we speak of the mathematical, physical, metaphysical, and moral sciences.

Literature, which is of later development as at present used, comprises those subjects which have a relation to human life and human nature through the power of the imagination and the fancy. Technically, literature includes history^ poetry, oratory, the drama, and works of fiction, and critical productions upon any of these as themes.

Such, at least, will be a sufficiently exact division for our purpose, although the student will find them overlapping each other's domain occasionally, interchanging functions, and reciprocally serving for each other's advantage. Thus it is no confusion of terms to speak of the poetry of science and of the science of poetry ; and thus the great functions of the human mind, although scientifically distinct, co-operate in harmonious and reciprocal relations in their diverse and manifold productions.

English Literature. — English Literature may then be considered as comprising the progressive productions of the English mind in the paths of imagination and taste, and is to be studied in the v/orks of the poets, historians, dramatists, essayists, and romancers — a long line of brilliant names from the origin of the language to the present day.

To the general reader all that is profitable in this study dates from the appearance of Chaucer, who has been justly styled the Father of English Poetry ; and Chaucer even re-

HISTORICAL SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT. 1$

quires a glossary, as a considerable portion of his vocabulary has become obsolete and much of it has been modified ; but for the student of English literature, who wishes to understand its philosophy and its historic relations, it becomes necessary to ascend to a more remote period, in order to find the origin of the language in which Chaucer wrote, and the effect produced upon him by any antecedent literary works, in the root-languages from which the English has sprung.

General Principle. — It may be stated, as a general principle, that to understand a nation's literature, we must study the history of the people and of their language ; the geography of the countries from w^hich they came, as well as that in which they live ; the concurrent historic causes which have conspired to form and influence the literature. We shall find, as we advance in this study, that the life and literature of a people are reciprocally reflective.

I. Celts and Cymry. — Thus, in undertaking the study of English literature, we must begin with the history of the Celts and Cymry, the first inhabitants of the British Islands of whom we have any record, who had come from Asia in the first great wave of western migration ; a rude, aboriginal people, whose languages, at the beginning of the Christian era, were included in one family, the Celtic, comprising the British or Cambj'ian, and the Gadhelic classes. In process of time these were subdivided thus : The British into

Welsh, Sit present spoken in Wales.

Cornish, extinct only within a century.

Ai'inorican, Bas Breton, spoken in French Brittany. The Gadhelic into

Gaelic, still spoken in the Scottish Highlands.

Irish, or Erse, spoken in Ireland.

Manx, spoken in the Isle of Man.

Such are the first people and dialects to be considered as the antecedent occupants of the country in which English literature was to have its birth,

II. Roman Conquest. — But these Celtic peoples were conquered by the Romans under Caesar and his successors, and kept in a state of servile thraldom for four hundred and fifty years. There was but little amalgamation between them and their military masters. Britain was a most valuable northern outpost of the Roman Empire, and was occupied by large garrisons, which employed the people in hard labors, and used them for R.oman aggrandizement, but despised them too much to attempt to elevate their condition. Elsewhere the Romans depopulated, where they met with barbarian resistance ; they made a solitude and called it peace — for which they gave a triumph and a cognomen to the conqueror; but in Britain, although harassed and endangered by the insurrections of the natives, they bore with them ; they built fine cities like London and York, originally military outposts, and transformed much of the country between the Channel and the Tweed from pathless forest into a civilized residence,

III. Coming of the Saxons. — Compelled by the increasing dangers and troubles immediately around the city of Rome to abandon their distant dependencies, the Roman legions evacuated Britain, and left the people, who had become enervated, spiritless, and unaccustomed to the use of arms, a prey to their fierce neighbors, both from Scotland and from the continent.

The Saxons had already made frequent incursions into Britain, while rival Roman chieftains were contesting for pre-eminence, and, as early as the third century, had become so troublesome that the Roman emperors were obliged to ap-

HISTORICAL SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT. 1/

point a general to defend the eastern coast, known as comes litoris Saxonici, or count of the Saxon shore. ^

These Saxons, who had already tested the goodliness of the land, came when the Romans departed, under the specious guise of protectors of the Britons against the inroads of the Picts and Scots ; but in reality to possess themselves of the country. This was a true conquest of race — Teutons overrunning Celts. They came first in reconnoitring bands ; then in large numbers, not simply to garrison, as the Romans had done, but to occupy permanently. From the less attractive seats of Friesland and the basin of the Weser, they came to establish themselves in a charming country, already reclaimed from barbarism, to enslave or destroy the inhabitants, and to introduce their language, religion, and social institutions. They came as a confederated people of German race — Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and Frisians;^ but, as far as the results of their conquest are concerned, there was entire unity among them.

The Celts, for a brief period protected by them from their fierce northern neighbors, were soon enslaved and oppressed : those who resisted were driven slowly to the Welsh mountains, or into Cornwall, or across the Channel into French Brittany. Great numbers were destroyed. They left few traces of their institutions and their language. Thus the Saxon was established in its strength, and has since remained the strongest element of English ethnography.

IV. Danish Invasions. — But Saxon Britain was also to suffer from continental incursions. The Scandinavians — inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark — impelled by the same spirit of piratical adventure which had actuated the

1 His jurisdiction extended from Norfolk around to Sussex.

2 This is the usually accepted division of tribes; but Dr. Latham denies that the Jutes, or inhabitants of Jutland, shared in the invasion. The difficult question does not affect the scope of our inquiry.

Saxons, began to leave their homes for foreign conquest. *' Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the banquet, grasped their arms, sounded their horn, ascended their ships, and explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement."^ To England they came as Danes; to France, as Northmen or Normans. They took advantage of the Saxon wars with the British, of Saxon national feuds, and of that enervation which luxurious living had induced in the Saxon kings of the octarchy, and succeeded in occupying a large portion of the north and east of England ; and they have exerted in language, in physical type, and in manners a far greater influence than has been usually conceded. Indeed, the Danish chapter in English history has not yet been fairly written. They were men of a singularly bold and adventurous spirit, as is evinced by their voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and thence to the Atlantic coast of North America, as early as the tenth and eleventh centuries. It is more directly to our purpose to observe their character as it is displayed in their conquest of the Frankish kingdom of Neustria, in their facile reception and ready assimilation of the Roman language and arts which they found in Gaul, and in their forcible occupancy, under William the Conqueror, of Saxon England, in 1066.

V. The Norman Conquest. — The vigor of the Normans had been trained, but not weakened by their culture in Normandy. They maintained their supremacy in arms against the efforts of the kings of France. They had long cultivated intimate relations with England, and their dukes had long hankered for its possession. William, the natural son of Duke Robert — known to history and musical romance as Robert le Diable — was a man of strong mind, tenacious purpose, and powerful hand. He had obtained, by promise of Edward the Confessor, the reversion of the crown upon the

^ Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. Iv.

HISTORICAL SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT. I9

death of that monarch ; and when the issue came, he availed himself of that reversion and the Pope's sanction, and also of the disputed succession between Harold, the son of Godwin, and the true Saxon heir, Edgar Atheling, to make good his claim by force of arms.

Under him the Normans were united, while divisions existed in the Saxon ranks. Tostig, the brother of Harold, and Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway, combined against Harold, and, just before the landing of Duke William at Pevensey, on the coast of Sussex, Harold was obliged to march rapidly northward to Stanford bridge, to defeat Tostig and the Norwegians, and then to return with a tired army of uncertain mo7'ale, to encounter the invading Normans. Thus it appears that William conquered the land, which would have been invincible had the leaders and the people been united in its defence.

As the Saxons, Danes, and Normans were of the same great Teutonic family, however modified by the different circumstances of movement and residence, there was no new ethnic element introduced ; and, paradoxical as it may seem, the fusion of these peoples was of great benefit, in the end, to England. Though the Saxons at first suffered from Norman oppression, the kingdom was brought into large inter-European relations, and a far better literary culture was introduced, more varied in subject, more developed in point of language, and more artistic.

Thus much, in a brief historical summary, is necessary as an introduction to our subject. From all these contests and conquests there were wrought in the language of the country important changes, which are to be studied in the standard works of its literature.

Changes in Language. — The changes and transformations of language may be thus briefly stated : — In the Celtic period, before the arrival of the Romans, the people spoke different dialects of the Celtic and Gadhelic languages, all cognate and radically similar.

These were not much affected by the occupancy of the Romans for about four hundred and fifty years, although, doubtless, Latin words, expressive of things and notions of which the British had no previous knowledge, were adopted by them, and many of the Celtic inhabitants who submitted to these conquerors learned and used the Latin language.

When the Romans departed, and the Saxons came in numbers, in the fifth and sixth centuries, the Saxon language, which is the foundation of English, became the current speech of the realm ; adopting few Celtic words, but retaining a considerable number of the Celtic names of places, as it also did of Latin terminations in names.

Before the coming of the Normans, their language, called the Langue iV oil, or Norman French, had been very much favored by educated Englishmen; and when William conquered England, he tried to supplant the Saxon entirely. In this he was not successful ; but the two languages were interfused and amalgamated, so that in the middle of the twelfth century, there had been thus created the English language, formed but still formative. The Anglo-Saxon was the foundation, or basis ; while the Norman French is observed to be the principal modifying element.

Since the Norman conquest, numerous other elements have entered, most of them quietly, without the concomitant of political revolution or foreign invasion.

Thus the Latin, being used by the Church, and being the language of literary and scientific comity throughout the world, v/as constantly adding words and modes of expression to the English. The introduction of Greek into Western Europe, at the fall of Constantinople, supplied Greek words, and induced a habit of coining English words from the Greek. The establishment of the Hanoverian succession, after the fall of the Stuarts, brought in the practice and study

HISTORICAL SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT.* 21

of German, and somewhat of its phraseology ; and English conquests in the East have not failed to introduce Indian words, and, what is far better, to open the way for a fuller study of comparative philology and linguistics.

In a later chapter we shall reconsider the periods referred to, in an examination of the literary works which they contain, works produced by historical causes, and illustrative of historical events.

Chapter II

LITERATURE A TEACHER OF HISTORY. CELTIC REMAINS.