A manual of English literature, and of the history of the English language, from the Norman conquest

Front matter

n

'a

'' ' 8

II

1. The Original form, in whiclitlie three vowel-endings a, e, and

u are employed in the declension of norms and the conjugation of verbs ;

2. The Second form, in which the single termination e repre-

sents indiscriminately the three ancient vowel-endings, but still constitutes a distinct syllable ;

3. The Third form, in which this termination e of nouns and

verbs, though still written, is no longer syllabically pronounced.

III

1 . Saxon, or Anglo-Saxon ; throughout the period before the Nor-

man Conquest;

2. Semi-Saxon; from about the middle of the eleventh to the

middle of the thirteenth century; the period of the Infancy and Childhood of our existing national speech ;

3. Old, or rather Early, English ; from the middle of the thirteenth

to the middle of the fourteenth century ; the period of the Boyhood of our existing speech ;

4. Middle English ; from the middle of the fourteenth to the

middle of the sixteenth century ; the Youth, or Adolescence of our existing speech ;

5. Modern English ; since the middle of the sixteenth centnry ;

the Manhood of our existing speech »

IV. A.d

450. Commencement of the conquest and occupation of South Britain by the Angles and Saxons, bringing with them their ancestral Gothic speech ;

1066. Conquest of England by the Normans; Establishment of French as the courtly and literary language of the country; Commencement of the reduction of the ancient vernacular tongue to the condition of a patois, and of its conversion from a synthetic to an analytic tongue ;

1 1 54. End of the reign of the four Norman kings and" accession of the Plantagenet dynasty ; Beginning of the connexion with Southern France through the marriage of Henry II. with Eleanor of Poitou ; Termination of the National Chronicle, the latest considerable composition in the regular form of the ancient language ; Full commencement of the intermixture of the two races ;

1272. New age of the Edwards; Commencement of the connexion of the English royal family with that of France by the second marriage of Edward I. with a daughter of Philip III. ; Employment, at first occasionally, afterwards habitually, of French instead of English as the language of the Statutes ; Commencement of its active intermixture with the vernacular tongue ;

( viii )

1362. Trials at law in tlie King's Courts directed by the statute of 36 Edward III. to be conducted no longer in French but in English ; Victory of the native tongue in its new composite form over its foreign rival, and recovery of its old position as the literary language of the countiy, under the impulse of the war with France, and of the genius of Minot, Langland, and Chaucer ;

1455. Outbreak of the desolating War of the Eoses, and complete extinction for a time of the light of literature in England ;

1558. Accession of Elizabeth; Commencement of a new literarj^ era, with the native language in sole dominion ;

1660. Restoration of the Stuarts ; Noonday of the Gallican age of English literature ;

1760. Accession of George III.; Complete association in the national literature of Scottish and Irish writers with those of England.

CONTENTS,

Book;

INTRODUCTORY

The Languages of Modern Europe

Early Latin Literature in Britain

The Celtic Languages and Literatures

Decay of the Earliest Enghsh Scholarship

Origirial English (commonly called Saxon, or Anglo-Saxon)

The Norman Conquest .....

Arabic and other New Learning

Schools and Universities

Rise of the Scholastic Philosophy , ' , Classical Learning ; Mathematics ; Medicine ; Law ; The Latin Language ......

Latin Chroniclers

The French Language in England

The Langue D'Oc and the Langue D'Oyl .

Vernacular Language and Literature : — a.d. 1066 — 1216

The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries : — Ascendancy

Scholastic Philosophy Mathematical and other Studies Universities and Colleges ....

Cultivation and Employment of the Learned

Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries Last Age of the French Language in England Re-emergence of the English as a Literary Ton Second English (commonly called Semi-Saxon^ The Brut of Layamon

The Ormulum

The Ancren Pdwle ....

Early English Metrical Romances Metrical Chronicle of Piobert of Gloucester Robert Mannyng, or De Brunne Lawrence Minot ....

Alhterative Verse : — Piers Ploughman Piers Ploughman's Creed .

Tongues in the gue f the

PAGE 1

67 69 73

X CONTENTS.

PAGE

THIRD ENGLISH {Mixed or Compound English) . , .121

John Gower 155

John Barbour 157

Compound EngHsh Prose : — Sir John Mandevil ; Trevisa ;

Wiclif; Chaucer 164

Printing in England : — Caxton 167

Enghsh Chroniclers 169

Bishop Pecock ; Fortescue ; Malory 169

English Poets : — Occleve ; Lydgate 174

Scottish Poets ; — Wynton ; James I. ; Henryson ; Holland ;

Blind Harry 176

Prose Writers : — More ; Elyot ; Tyndal ; Cranmer ; Latimer . 183

Scottish Prose Writers 190

English Poets : — Hawes ; Barklay 191

Skelton 192

Roy ; John Heywood 194

Scottish Poets : — Gawin Douglas ; Dunbar ; Lyndsay . . 195

The Elizabethan Literature 198

The Mirror for Magistrates 198

Origin of the Regular Drama 200

Interludes of John Heywood 202

Udall's Ralph Roister Doister • . .203

Gammer Gurton's Needle 205

Misogonus 206

Chronicle Histories : — Bale's Kynge Johan, etc. . . . 207

Tragedy of Gorboduc : — Blank Verse 208

Other Early Dramas 211

Second Stage of the Regular Drama : — Peele ; Greene . . 212

Marlow 214

Lyly; Kyd ; Lodge 215

Earlier Elizabethan Prose : — Lyly ; Sidney ; Spenser ; Nash ; etc. 219

Edmund Spenser 224

Other EUzabethan Poetry 237

William Warner 238

Samuel Daniel 242

Michael Drayton 246

Joseph Hall 249

Joshua Sylvester 249

Chapman's Homer 251

Harington ; Fairfax ; Fanshawe 252

William Drummond 553

Sir John Davies ......... 253

John Donne 254

Shakespeare's Minor Poems 257

Shakespeare's Dramatic Works 258

CONTENTS. ■ xi THIRD ENGLISH— co?2-^wMed

PAGE

Dramatists contemporary v/ith S]iakes]3eare . , . . 265

Beaumont and Fletcher 266

Jonson . 270

Massinger; Ford . 271

Later Elizabethan Prose Writers ...... 272

Translation of the Bible . 273

Theological Writers : — Bishop Andrews ; Donne ; Hall ; Hooker 274

Francis Bacon 275

Eobert Burton 277

Historical Writers ......... 278

MIDDLE AND LATTEE PART OP THE SEVENTEENTH

CENTURY 280

Shirley, and end of the Old Drama 280

Giles Fletcher ; Phineas Fletcher ...... 282

Other Religious Poets : — Quarles ; Herhert ; Herrick ; Crashaw . 283

Cartwright ; Randolph ; Corbet . . . . . . . 284

Poets of the French School : — Carew ; Lovelace ; Suckling . . 286

Denham 288

Cleveland 289

William Browne 296

Prose Writers :— Charles 1 297

Milton's Prose Works 299

Hales; Chillingworth ......... 301

Fuller 303

Sir Thomas Browne . . ' 306

Sir James Harrington ......... 308

Newspapers . 309

Retrospect of tlie Commonwealth Literature . . . ,310

Cowley 321

Butler 323

Waller 323

Marvel 325

Other Minor Poets . . . 327

Dramatists . 331

Prose Writers :— Clarendon 333

Hobbes .334

Henry Nevile 336

Other Prose Writers :— Cudworth ; More ; Barrow ; Bunyan ; &c. 337