English literature

Preface

The writer of this volume has tried to furnish students and general readers with a clear and concise account of English literature and its makers from the beginnings to the present day. The influences of social and other movements on literary development have been brought out in the brief introductions to the chapters. The biographies set forth the important facts of the authors' careers without extensive comment. This is in accord with the present writer's conviction that much ready-made interpretation of conditions and motives, after the setting of an author's work and his characteristics have been made clear, is a hindrance rather than a help to students. Since literature is in a peculiar sense an expression of personality, an attempt has been made to sum up the personal traits of each prominent author in a paragraph or two. Wherever an author's contribution has proved epoch-making in literary history, that fact is given special prominence in a final summary.

Throughout the book the writer has earnestly endeavored to keep the balance between external influences — movements, tendencies, environments in general — and the individual, recognizing that the history of English literature is not simply a series of biographies on the one hand, nor a chain of "movements" on the °*k**r. As usual, the truth is doubtless to be found in the golden mean, but, in the writer's opinion, with distinct leanings toward the biographies.

This work is designed to accompany a volume of selections from English poetry and prose, several of which are now easily accessible (see list of books following Introduction), or to be used with separate editions of representative classics from Beowulf to Kipling. In the earlier periods more illustrative extracts have been inserted, on the asssumption that the literature of these

PREFACE periods is not usually within reach of the average reader. Wherever, indeed, quotations seemed necessary to clearness, they have been freely introduced. Following each chapter is an outlinesummary of the period, with leading characteristics, and a list of useful books, such as are likely to be available for high school and college students.

This volume is in form and content the outcome of years of experience in teaching English literature. Whatever its defects, it at least has the merit of having been written with a definite set of individuals in view. In a time of many and excellent histories of English literature it is impossible, of course, for the latest comer into the field to lay claim to any marked originality. All the standard histories have been consulted, and the writer of this work acknowledges his indebtedness. He has, however, throughout this long literary journey steadfastly gone to the literature itself for knowledge and inspiration. To his colleagues, Professors R. A. Stewart and H. A. VanLandingham, who have read the work in proof, the author's thanks are due for helpful suggestions.

Richmond, Va. J. C. M.

CONTENTS chapter page

Introduction 9

I Anglo-Saxon or Old English Period 13

The Land and the People.-.. 13

The Pagan Poetry._ 16

The Christian Poetry._ 25

II Anglo-Norman Period.- „ 36

III The Age of Chaucer._ 53

Geoffrey Chaucer._ 55

Contemporaries of Chaucer 67

IV Renaissance and Reformation Period 73

From the Death of Chaucer to the Accession of Elizabeth.... 73

V The Elizabethan Age 86

The Flood Tide of the Renaissance... _ 86

Elizabethan Poetry (Non-dramatic)..... 91

Edmund Spenser._ 91

The Lesser Poets 98

The Drama

Pre-Elizabethan Drama 102

The Elizabethan Drama.. . Ill

Christopher Marlowe — 113

William Shakespeare 120

Shakespeare's Contemporaries and Successors .... 138

Elizabethan Prose 147

Francis Bacon .... 150

VI The Puritan Period.. 157

The Age of Milton 157

Poetry of the Puritan Period 160

John Milton 172

Prose of the Puritan Period 187

John Bunyan 191

VII The Restoration Period .. 198

/ The Age of Dryden 198

John Dryden „_ 202

VIII The Earlier Eighteenth Century 215

The Age of Pope: Classicism 215

Prose Literature 219

Joseph Addison. 219

Richard Steele 226

Jonathan Swift... 228

Poetry.__ 235

Alexander Pope 235

8 CONTENTS

IX The Middle and Later Eighteenth Century.. 246

Rise of the English Novel . _ 249

Daniel Defoe 251

Samuel Richardson . . 256

Henry Fielding 258

Johnson and his Circle __ 263

Samuel Johnson... 263

Oliver Goldsmith 269

Edmund Burke 273

Beginning of Romanticism . 278

Thomas Gray..... 284

William Cowper 287

Robert Burns .... 290

X Thl JriuMph of Romanticism 300

The Greater Romantic Poets 302

William Wordsworth 302

Samuel Taylor Coleridge.. 309

George Gordon Byron 314

Percy Bysshe Shelley 319

John Keats 324

The Minor Romantic Poets....... 330

The Novelists 332

Jane Austen 334

Sir Walter Scott 336

The Essayists and Critics 343

Charles Lamb 345

Thomas De Quincy 348

XI The Victorian Era 356

The Essayists 359

Thomas Babington Macaulay.. 360

Thomas Carlyle.. ... 364

John Ruskin : 372

Matthew Arnold... 378

The Victorian Poets ° r i . oo5

Alfred Tennyson 385

Robert Browning 396

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 404

The Novelists - - 411

Charles Dickens 413

William Makepeace Thackeray 417

George Eliot = - 422

Robert Louis Stevenson.... ,. — - 426

Minor Novelists - 430

Later Novelists - 434

I

Introduction

What is Literature? — Any piece of writing, long or short, that gives permanent pleasure to men and women because of its artistic form and expression, is literature. Books which simply impart information are scientific rather than literary; books which appeal to our sense of beauty and to our imagination, or which stir our feelings, belong to literature proper. Literature is closely akin to what are called the fine arts — painting, sculpture, and architecture. Poetry, in particular, because it uses the language of emotion and imagination, is a fine art; and whenever prose is touched with these qualities, it too becomes a fine art. Literature is an expression of the beautiful in pleasing speech. Science is concerned with techincal ideas and is therefore more coldly intellectual ; literature humanizes knowledge with sentiment and imagination.

English literature is the thought of the English people put into artistic form. It consists of poetry and such prose forms as the novel, the essay, oratory, biography, and history written in attractive style. Style is the flavor of personality. "Literature is the personal use of language," says Newman. The history of English literature attempts to record the lives and works of standard authors together with the historical and social influences that helped to determine the direction of their thought. Literature is in part at least an expression of the social forces of the time in which it was written, but it is in a deeper sense the reflection of interesting personalities.

Literature and History. — History has much to say of the deeds of men — how they founded states, made laws, built cities, went on voyages of discovery, waged wars, acquired territory, and waxed rich through commerce. These are outward actions; and yet, in a deeper sense, they are the results of such abiding emotions and ideals as ambition, love, hate, faith, duty, freedom.

INTRODUCTION

The man of action first had his dream and his vision, then the struggle, then the achievement. With these inward things of the spirit literature is concerned — the motives and passions which, in spite of changing thought and action, remain essentially the same in human nature, making the whole world kin. Scientific books become antiquated and history must be rewritten as knowledge widens, but a great poem is never out of date. Literature reproduces for posterity the spirit of a bygone age more vitally than history does: in the dramas and lyrics of the Elizabethan age still throbs the joyous life of those spacious days; in the novel the future historian will feel the currents of our times.

For the larger background of literature we must go to history. Every epoch-making political, religious, or social movement in a nation is reflected in its literature. The institution of Feudalism, for instance, colored poetry and prose throughout the Middle Ages; the Renaissance and the Reformation stimulated literary production for generations. Our earlier literature bears the stamp of the artistocratic society from which it sprang: kings and princes and ncbles fill the books. With the rise of the middle class in Chaucer's time democracy entered literature and through the centuries since has won its way. And so, from age to age, the poet, the dramatist, the novelist, have gone on weaving their silken tapestry, which we call literature, out of the political, religious, and social ideals of the people. Some knowledge of English history is therefore essential to an understanding of the forces which have contributed to the making of English literature.

The Study of Literature. — We must not make the mistake of assuming, however, that a knowledge of history and biography means a knowledge of literature. Information about a period or writer is valuable in so far as it throws light on conditions and motives of literary activity, but studying about literature is not studying literature. History and biography, however interesting, should be kept subordinate. "The play's the thing," as Hamlet says; the poem's the thing. Better one poem or play or essay mastered and enjoyed than a whole volume of criticism and gossip. Great literature should be approached with an open mind

INTRODUCTION and a reverent spirit. Bacon's advice still holds good: "Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider," and one may add, to enjoy. The serious study of literary masterpieces will result in the enrichment of one's mental and spiritual life, and in the forming of imperishable friendships among the loftiest thinkers and seers of our race.

A history of English literature is simply a guidebook to this long picture gallery of immortals. It points out the masters and their works, tells something about them, tries to make them real and human to the seeker after truth and beauty, encourages him to read them for himself. It does not assume to be a substitute for even the least of the works it recommends; its place is secondary. Such a guidebook finds its highest usefulness not so much in giving information as in stimulating and suggesting. Its chief glory

"Rather consists in opening out a way Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, Than in affording entry for a light Supposed to be without."

SOME USEFUL BOOKS OF A GENERAL NATURE

Historical — Green's Short History of the English People, one vol., or Green's History of the English People, four vols. (American Book Co.); Gardiner's Students' History of English (Putnam); Traill's Social England (Putnam); Cheyney's Short History of England (Ginn).

Literary.— Garnett and Gosse's Illustrated History of English Literature, 4 vols, (specially valuable for pictures and facsimiles); Cambridge History of English Literature, 14 vols.; Jusserand's Literary History of the English People, 2 vols.; Ten Brink's Early English Literature, 3 vols.; Morley's English Writers, 11 vols, (through Elizabethan period). In Biography the English Men of Letters Series (Macmillan), Great Writers Series (Scribners), and Beacon Biographies (Houghton), are standard. Hinchman and Gummere's Lives of Great English Writers (Houghton) is an interesting volume of thirty-eight biographies.

INTRODUCTION

Selections Covering the Field of English Literature. — Newcomer and Andrews' Twelve Centuries of English Poetry and Prose (Scott, Foresman & Co.), Manly's English Poetry and Manly's English Prose (Ginn), Century Readings in English Literature (Century Co.), Pancoast's Standard English Poems and Standard English Prose (Holt). These are singlevolume collections designed to accompany a History of English Li+erature.

Gayley's Classic Myths in English Literature (Ginn) and Winchester's Principles of Literary Criticism (Macmillan) are good companions in the reading and study of literature.

For a popular account of the growth of the English language and changes in the meanings of words, Krapp's Modern English (Scribners) and Greenough & Kittredge's Words and their Ways in English Speech (Ginn) are valuable. On the forms and scansion of verse, Alden's Introduction to Poetry (Holt) and Johnson's Forms of English Poetry (American Book Co.) are recommended.

Chapter One The Land And The People

The Angles and Saxons. — The beginnings of what we now call English Literature properly belong to the continent of Europe rather than to the island home of the English people. The earliest poetry tells of the adventures, the sea wanderings, the warlike deeds, the religious impulses, of men who belonged to Teutonic tribes dwelling along the rugged coasts of northwestern Europe from the Scandinavian and Danish peninsulas to the Rhine and Elbe rivers. Three of these kindred tribes came in large numbers to the coasts of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries of our era, and by the beginning of the seventh century had spread over much of what we know as England. They were the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons, half-barbarian it is true, but possessed of energy and political capacity. Of the three the Jutes seem to have been the least aggressive, for they contented themselves with occupying the southeastern corner of the island, while the Saxons and the Angles pushed on northward and westward until they were masters of the territory stretching far beyond the River Thames. The Angles were more numerous than the other tribes and more capable besides, for from them the country derives its name of Angle-land, afterwards modified to England; from them and their kinsmen the older language is often called Anglo-Saxon; and among them developed the first literary culture.

The Britons and the Romans. — The land to which these fierce strangers came had already been the scene of severe conflicts between the Britons, the original inhabitants, and the Romans, the great colonizers of ancient times. The native Britons were a Celtic people, of the same race as the earlier inhabitants of France and Spain. By the first century before Christ these Britons had spread over what we call England, Scotland, Ireland, and the adjacent islands. Organized in tribes or clans, they had developed a rude sort of civilization which was known to the Romans of Caesar's time who made trading expeditions to Britain; but because of their geographical isolation, they remained comparatively unmolested until Julius Caesar visited them in 55 B. C. This visit of the imperial Roman was the beginning of trouble for the Britons, though it was nearly a hundred years later before they yielded to the world-conquerors under the Emperor Claudius and his legions. After this conquest, Britain, except in the far north and west, was rapidly transformed into a Roman colony with splendid villas, temples, theaters, public baths, great walls and highways. The Roman occupation lasted until the early part of the fifth century, when the legions were recalled to defend Rome against the incursions of the barbarian hordes from the north. Weakened by several centuries of foreign luxury, the Romanized Britons were now harassed by their fiercer kinsmen, the northern and western Celts, who rushed in when the Roman garrisons were withdrawn. In the midst of these domestic troubles came the Saxons swarming over the narrow seas to the shores of Britain, a virile folk who meant to stay and possess the land. It was about the middle of the fifth century when this Teutonic migration began, and by the seventh century the three tribes already mentioned had firmly established themselves in Britain. Henceforth the islands were to be fundamentally Anglo-Saxon, or English, in life and thought.

Influence of the Celts on Literature. — The Celt, whom these English had conquered, was impulsive, quick-witted, imaginative, fond of color, given to gayety, eager for news, clever at repartee, and a lover of beauty for its own sake. Sensitive of soul, he was responsive to the changeful moods of nature and loved to translate them into song and fairy tale, peopling the streams and fields and forests with mysterious beings that flit Ariel-like through the air, or with elfin creatures that dance in the moonlight, or with woodsprites whose "airy tongues syllable men's names." He abounded, too, in sentiment, giving voice to his amotions in tones of lament or of rapturous joy. The utterance of the Celtic bard shows a kind of wild grace and the song of the Celtic warrior a fierce joy in the clash of battle, for on occasion he was a valiant fighter.

The influence of this Celtic spirit upon our literature has been considerable, though it is too subtle and elusive to be measured with exactness. The inward grace and nimbleness, the airiness and lightness, of some of our most exquisite poetry from Chaucer through Spenser and Milton and Gray on to Poe and Tennyson, can be explained only by taking into account the union of the sensitiveness and gayety of the Celt with the solidity and high seriousness of the Anglo-Saxon. This blending of the two temperaments was, to be sure, the result of centuries of racial absorption through intimate association and intermarriage, in the course of which the Norman-French element powerfully reinforced the Celtic contribution. But there is little or no trace in our earlier literature of the immediate influence of the conquered race. Out of the mist of these confused times, however, has emerged one leader, at least, whose doughty exploits have been the inspiration of many a poem and story, the chivalrous King Arthur with his goodly fellowship of knights. Loaded with legends this heroic Briton has come down the centuries of English poetry as perhaps the most impressive figure in the romance of our race. Around some brave chieftain among the Celts stories of prodigious valor early began to gather, out of which there gradually developed the great Arthurian cycle perfected by Tennyson in his Idylls of the King.

Geographical Position of England. — Both the geographical position and climate of Britain were favorable to the development of the new race which was to be permanently at home there. Separated from his kinsmen on the continent of Europe, the Anglo- Saxon had a chance to develop in comparative quiet and under milder skies his nation-making instincts. This isolation meant, above all, the growth of a sturdy spirit of independence which, as we shall see later on, was to blossom into political and religious liberty. He could conserve his strength here in his island home, protected by watery barriers from constant external interference; and these same encircling seas could become highways as well, joining the island to the continent whenever England needed the stimulus of new ideas from abroad. This detachment has from the first helped the English to preserve their individuality, and it has encouraged a certain independence of mind; while at the same time the opportunities for contact with continental movements of various kinds, political, intellectual, artistic, have saved them from a narrow provincialism. Thus it has happened that the sense of nationality among the English people, while deep and vital, has been enlightened and liberal. Of their literature, which is itself a refined and artistic expression of national life and hence mightily influenced by these same advantages of situation and climate, we may now take up the story.

ANGLO-SAXON POETRY

1. THE PAGAN POETRY

Subjects of the Oldest Poetry. — The oldest Anglo-Saxon poetry known to us is full of the spirit of war and adventure, reflecting the two ruling passions of the race, fighting and wandering. The unknown writers of these early lays sing of the mysterious gloom of the sea which beat upon their rugged coasts and over which bands of warriors went to seek their enemies,- or some bold adventurer, impelled by curiosity, set forth to visit distant lands. A restless folk were these primitive Englishmen of the continent. When the long winter was over, they pushed out in every direction in their dark boats, bent on plundering or discovery or on wreaking vengeance upon their neighbors. They were in a chronic state of war : tribal feuds kept them in fighting mood and whetted their appetite for blood. When they returned victorious from a conflict, they assembled in the mead-hall and feasted and sang far into the night. They lived in a region of misty moors, dismal fens or marshes, and desolate stretches of seacoast, which their childlike fancy peopled with all sorts of dreadful monsters. Living close to nature, these fierce Teutons knew all her moods, and so we find their songs and their stories colored with this intimate knowledge and love of nature as they saw it all about them in a climate which, during much of the year, was cloudy and chill. They were fond of giving picturesque names to natural objects: the sea was "the whale's path," "the seal's bath," "the swan's road;" the sun was "heaven's candle" shining through the mist; the night was a "shadow-helm" that came down upon the darkening earth; their boats were "foamy-necked floaters very like seabirds." Indeed, this passionate love of the sea, with its resounding challenge to man and its plaintive undertone, runs through English poetry from the nameless authors of the earliest Anglo-Saxon lyrics down to Byron and Tennyson and Matthew Arnold; and often even the joy of conquest over foes has not been greater than the pride of mastery over the sea. War and the sea — these are the two favorite themes of the older Anglo-Saxon poems, through which there runs a certain grim religious seriousness reflecting the somber cast of the Teutonic mind.

Primitive Religion of the Anglo-Saxons. — The gods of the Anglo-Saxons, before they came to Britain, were as fierce and blood-loving, as the men of whom they were the giant images. They had all the passions of these warriors and sea rovers as well as their sense of the mystery of nature. Only the brave, especially those who died fighting enemies, could enter Valhalla, hall of heroes, after death. Above the battlefield rode the Valkyries, victory- women, on their cloud-like steeds to carry dying warriors to Woden's hall. Woden was the chief of the gods; Tiu was the god of war; Thor the god of thunder; and Frea the goddess of fruitfulness. After these Teutonic deities four days of the week are named; while from Eostre, goddess of the dawn or of spring, comes our word Easter. More dread than any of these, however, was Wyrd, or Fate, who controlled all mortal things. "Wyrd goeth ever as she is bound/ ' says Beowulf. An element of fatalism gives a somber tinge to all this older Anglo-Saxon poetry, that feeling of human helplessness in the hands of some inexorable power, which has been the mood of all great tragedy. But this pagan poetry, which had its beginnings on the continent, fell later into Christian hands and has come down to us considerably modified in religious coloring, though enough of the primitive spirit remains to enable us to form a good notion of the life and ideals of these distant ancestors of ours.

Leading Traits of the Early English. — In spite of their delight in bloodshed and robbery, these early Englishmen had such redeeming traits as seriousness, steadiness, generosity, a high sense of honor, and a feeling for law and personal freedom. Above all, they had that splendid vitality, that primitive freshness and vigor, which, as we shall see, is so necessary in the making of a great nation — the sound physical basis of statecraft and of artistic expression as well. Along with the faults of youth they had the potential virtues of well-rounded manhood. They were sensitive alike to praise or blame; they were seekers after glory, rather than fighters for material wealth or mere power; they showed in their mightiest deeds of physical prowess a certain rude nobility which suggests the knightly courtesy of the days of chivalry. When Beowulf lay dead, after sacrificing his life in the fight with the dragon to save his people, his companions can think of no higher tribute than this:

Of men he was mildest and most beloved, To his kin the kindest, keenest for praise. 1

That he might live to later times through the praiseworthiness of his deeds was the one ardent desire of this heroic leader of his people.

A Group of Shorter Poems. — Among the lyric poems which

1 From Gummere's Version.

afford us glimpses of the Anglo-Saxon and his kindred before the permanent settlement of Britain, are several interesting fragments telling of heroes, wanderings, and sea-sorrow. The oldest of these is Widsith, or the Far- Traveler, in which a wandering minstrel sings of his journeys through strange lands as well as to the courts of well-known princes. He was often entertained in royal hall and rewarded with golden treasure for his songs and skilful playing on the harp. He sang of deeds of prowess before kings and was ever a welcome guest:

Widsith spake, his word-hoard unlocked, Who farthest had fared among folk of earth Through tribes of men, oft taking in hall Rich meed of gold.

These are the first lines of the poem, and with the unlocking of Widsith's "word-hoard" the long story of English literature begins. Another typical utterance *of this early time is "Deor's Complaint/ ' a song of consolation by an old court poet whom a rival singer had supplanted in royal favor. In his day of adversity Deor recalls how various heroes of his own race had suffered ill-treatment at the hands of former friends and patrons, and yet had kept brave hearts until they finally overcame. He too can endure, though it sorely grieves him to lose his lands and his place before the king. The refrain of the little poem, tinged with melancholy though it is, sounds a characteristic note of Anglo- Saxon poetry, courageous endurance:

Yet he strove on and overcame, nor shall my strength be less.

"The Seafarer" is another interesting lyric, in which an old viking recounts his tribulations on a wintry sea far from kinsmen and friends; and yet his incurable seafaring passion makes him love the dangers of the deep more than the quieter joys of the land :

Yet the thoughts of my heart now are throbbing

To test the high streams, the salt waves in tumultuous play.

Desire in my heart ever urges my spirit to wander

To seek out the home of the stranger in lands afar off. 1

1 Iddings' Translation.

This same passion for the sea throbs in Tennyson's "Ulysses"; old and new English poetry come together in such lines as these :

Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die.

Closely akin to "The Seafarer," but gloomier by far, is "The Wanderer," which is the lament of an exiled minstrel out on the sea for the good cheer of home. He has fallen asleep in his boat from sheer weariness and has dreamed of the bright mead-hall where he was rewarded with gifts from his lord and with applause from his fellows. He suddenly awakes to find the snow and hail falling about him and the sea birds dipping to the waves. His sorrow is renewed at the memory of those happy times, and he shapes a song on the vanity of human hopes and the transitory nature of earth's joy and loveliness. To him it seems that everything is in the hands of Wyrd, the goddess of Fate, who destroys cities and brings princes to naught. These four short poems are personal lyrics. If we would get a wider knowledge of the primitive Anglo-Saxon, we must turn to the great national epic poem Beowulf.

Beowulf: the Story. — This long poem of over three thousand lines is mainly about the heroic deeds of Beowulf, prince and warrior among the Geats, a people who dwelt in the southern part of Sweden. The story is as follows:

King Hrothgar, whose realm was in the north of Denmark, had built a great pleasure-hall near the sea and named it Heorot, or in modern English Hart, because its gold-adorned gables were decorated with the antlers of a deer or hart. In this hall the king and his thanes or knights feasted and here his band of knights would often sleep. A horrible monster called Grendel, whose lair was deep down under the sea, hearing the sound of revelry in this mead-hall, came one night across the misty moors, broke into the hall and carried off thirty warriors. For twelve years the demon Grendel had paid his deadly visits, until the king's company of thanes was sadly reduced, the land neglected, and the old king dispirited. Across the narrow seas Beowulf, nephew of King Hygelac, heard of Hrothgar's distress and resolved to go to his relief. With fourteen brave companions he crossed to Denmark. At the banquet in his honor Beowulf after relating to the king, queen, and knights his own deeds of prowess, concluded with these words: "I am resolved to do an earl's brave deed, or end my life in this mead-hall."

That night Beowulf and his men occupied the hall, reclining on the benches. After a while came Grendel bursting through the doorway:

Straightway he seized a sleeping warrior For the first, and tore him fiercely asunder, The bone-frame bit, drank blood in streams, Swallowed him piece-meal: swiftly thus The lifeless corse was clear devoured, E'en hands and feet. 1

Grendel then attacks Beowulf who grapples fiercely with him, the two swaying back and forth through the hall, overturning benches and making a fearful din. Grendel has met his match for once; he tries to get away; but Beowulf pulls off his arm and part of his shoulder, and the monster mortally wounded flees howling to his den beneath the sea. The great arm with its claw-like hand is fastened to the front of the building as a grisly trophy. Beowulf is rewarded with rich gifts by King Hrothgar and his queen. That night, however, Grendel's mother comes from the seadepths and avenges her son's death by carrying off one of the king's most valiant thanes. Sorrow is renewed in Heorot, and Beowulf therefore resolves to seek out the she-monster.