A history of English and American literature

Front matter

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Preface

In writing this book the author has sought to lay stress on the facts of the history of English literature, rather than on the interpretation of it. The need of the high school pupil would seem to be, first of all, the chief facts, given in a continuous narrative, with important movements, so far as is possible, told in terms of men rather than of ideas. Though a certain amount of aesthetic comment, implied if not stated, is inevitable in any survey of literature which is more than a dictionary of names, the intention of the present writer has been to place the emphasis on men, on what they did, and on how they came to do it — not on what the world thinks of their performance. By such a method the space gained is considerable ; there are important facts which cannot be included in a small volume if it is half-full of " interpretation."

In selecting authors for inclusion the writer has tried to keep in mind the needs of the high school pupil. Detailed mention, therefore, has been given only to those authors whose works the pupil is likely to read. Names of secondary importance to such a pupil have been either left to the chronological lists or given only brief mention in the text. Much space has thus been gained for careful treatment of the important figures. In the chronological tables, together with the lists of books for reading, vi Preface

advanced students will find suggestions for extended study.

The Appendix contains a chapter on " Literary Forms " and one on " Versification. " Hitherto these subjects have usually been confined to rhetoric books. Since we do not teach our boys and girls to write epics but to read them, the proper place for such information would seem to be a hand-book of literature.

The writer takes this opportunity of thanking many friends to whom he is under obligation for helpful suggestions; especially: Professor William T. Brewster, of Columbia University; Mr. D. O. S. Lowell, of Roxbury Latin School, Boston ; Mr. Charles S. Thomas, of Newton High School, Massachusetts; Professor James F. Hosic, of Chicago Normal College ; and his colleague, Mr. Eric Parson.

Groton, Mass., March, 1915.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

J The Anglo-Saxons. The English people and their language — Old English literature — Poetry — Prose — Chronology — Books and suggestions for reading . . 3

II From the Conquest to Chaucer. The foreign period — Middle English before Chaucer — The Romances — Wiclif — Piers Plowman — Chronology — Books and suggestions for reading 29

Appendix

General Bhliogra; hy 433

A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATTR

H

CHAPTER PAGE

The Revolutionary Period — Franklin — Other Writers of the Revolutionary Period — The R::nan:i:ists

Whittier — Lowell — Other New England Writers — Writers Outside New England — Books an. 1 sngges-

III The Turn ■:■? the Cexgvpy. Bret Harte — C'entens — Jther Writers — Fiction — History an:' Essay — Fietry — A ldi:ic::al Writers — Conclusion — F-coks and suggestions : :r reading -j2

Che: n; locoes : c:

Ix: ex

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE John Milton, at the age of ten. From the painting by Janssen.

(Full Page in Color) Frontispiece

Stonehenge 4

Facsimile of the first page of "Beowulf." (Full Page) . . . 11 Whitby Abbey 19

King Alfred. Statue at Winchester by Hamo Thornycroft.

(Full Page) . 23

Glastonbury Abbey 37

Tintagel Head, Cornwall * 39

John Wiclif 42

Malvern Hills 44

Geoffrey Chaucer. From a painting by J. Houbraken. (Full

Page) .53

Canterbury Cathedral , 55

The Tabard Inn, Southwark 60

The Canterbury Pilgrims 62

Effigy of John Gower, St. Saviour's, Southwark 64

Sherwood Forest 65

Major Oak, Sherwood Forest 66

Caxton and Edward IV. From an old print. (Full Page) . 79

Sir Thomas More 81

Queen Elizabeth 88

Edmund Spenser 90

St. Michael's Mount, Land's End ,.91

The Death of Sir Philip Sidney .98

Interior of the Fortune Theater, London, Built in 1599 . . , 104

Ground Plan of Elizabethan Theater 112

ix x Illustrations

PAGE

William Shakespeare. Frontispiece to M First Folio " Edition.

{Full Page) 121

Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford 123

Grammar School, Stratford 124

Stratford Church and River Avon 128

Setting for the Ship Scene in "The Tempest'' 142

Francis Bacon. From the portrait by Van Somen (Full Page) 147

Ben Jonson 164

Francis Beaumont 166

John Fletcher 168

Robert Herrick 169

John Milton. Faithorne Portrait. (Full Page) 175

Milton's Cottage. Chalfont St. Giles 1S1

Ludlow Castle 184

Milton Dictating to his Daughters 187

John Bunyan. From a drawing by Robert White. {Full Page) 193

The Market Cross. Elstow 195

Jeremy Taylor 197

Isaac Walton 198

John Dryden. From a painting by Sir G. Kneller. {Full Page) 201

Dryden's Birthplace, Aldwinkle 204

The Gardens at Versailles 215

Scene in a Cottee House 216

Jonathan Swift 220

Joseph Addison 224

Magdalen College. Oxford 225

Addison's Walk, Oxford 226

Richard Steele 228

Alexander Pope. From the painting by Jervas. {Pull Page) . 231

Defoe in the Pillory 240

Samuel Johnson 244

Dr. Johnson and His " Club " 249

James Boswell 251

Illustrations xi

PAGE

Henry Fielding - 260

Stoke Pogis Churchyard 263

William Covvper . .- 265

Robert Burns 267

Birthplace of Burns, Alloway 269

Burns Monument, Edinburgh 272

Sir Walter Scott. From a painting by Landseer. (Full Page) 287

Abbotsford 290

Ellen's Isle, Loch Katrine 293

William Wordsworth. After a sketch from life by Wyon.

(Full Page) 295

"Striding Edge," Helvellyn 298

Dove Cottage, Grasmere 300

Daffodils, Near Rydal Mount 302

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 305

Christ Hospital 306

Charles Lamb 312

Lord Byron 316

Newstead Abbey 318

Percy Bysshe Shelley 323

Shelley's Sophocles 325

John Keats 328

Thomas DeQuincey 333

Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. (Full Page) 345

Alfred Tennyson. (Full Page) 349

Robert Browning 358

Thomas Babington Macaulay 365

Thomas Carlyle. From a photograph by John Patrick. (Full

Page) 369

Birthplace of Carlyle, Ecclefechan 371

John Ruskin 376

Ruskin's Grave, Coniston 379

Matthew Arnold 382 xii Illustrations

PAGE

Charles Dickens. From a painting by David Maclise. (Full

William Makepeace Thackeray . . . , 390

Thackeray's Grave, Kensal Green 392

George Eliot 394

Robert Louis Stevenson 398

The Manse, Colinton 399

Historical Chart 409

Literary Map of England 432

View of Minute Man, Concord Bridge 438

New York in 1667 441

Early View of Harvard College 443

Jonathan Edwards 446

View of Independence Hall 448

Benjamin Franklin 450

Sunnyside, Irving's Home on the Hudson 457

William Cullen Bryant 461

Edgar Allan Poe 464

Ralph Waldo Emerson 474

House of Seven Gables 479

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 481

Whittier Homestead at Amesbury 485

James Russell Lowell 488

Walt Whitman . 496

Cabin in which Lincoln was born ............ 498

Mark Twain in front of his boyhood home 506

William Dean Howells 510

John Burroughs 513

Chapter I The Anglo-saxons

The English People and their Language. When our Anglo-Saxon x ancestors rowed up the English rivers and took possession of what soon came to be called England, or land of the Angles, they found a considerable civilization, but they were too ignorant to value it. They drove the native inhabitants, of Celtic stock, steadily westward into Wales and Ireland, absorbing little of either their customs or their language. What material the early Britons gave to English literature came at a later date, when English poets wrote about the British Arthur, or Lear, or Cymbeline. The history of Eng-

1 Anglo-Saxon. This name sprang from the fact that the Angles and the Saxons were chief among the " Low German " tribes which invaded Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries. It must not be supposed, however, that they came as one people or spoke one dialect. " Saxons " was the name often used in their own time by foreigners to denote roughly all the commingling tribes, but the land and the language were named after the Angles. In this book " Anglo-Saxon " will be used to denote all the Low German settlers in Britain, and " Old English " to denote their language and literature.

lish literature begins, therefore, with the invading Anglo-Saxons.

The Anglo-Saxons were the chief ancestors of Englishmen in blood, customs, language, and literature. Their rough strength, directness, and sincerity, though modified in countless ways through all the years since the landing of Hengist in 449. have persisted as the backbone of English character: and this character, softened to a necessary flexibility by foreign influence,

has developed a great nation and a great literature. It is important, therefore, to know something of the life and -wrings of these early settlers before we study the literature of their descendants.

The Anglo-Saxons took readily to simple agricultural life, but when they left their German homes they were a primitive people, used to warfare, hunting, and warlike sports. Furthermore, the hardships of long winters made them terrible to the city-dwelling Britons. Great " smiters in battle," strong eaters and drinkers, they were a vigorous folk. They lacked the faery fancy of the Celt and the sunny laughter of the Roman, but they far surpassed those races in earnestness and integrity. The picture given by Tacitus of the early Germans is substantially true of the Anglo-Saxons : they were hospitable, loyal, fearless, held women in respect, and had a

STONEHENGE, PREHISTORIC RUINS ON SALISBURY PLAIX peculiar, highly developed sense of the freeman's rights. These characteristics, coupled with their physical stamina, gave them the strength to absorb countless outside influences and yet remain, at heart, the same. The Danes invaded the east coast from the eighth to the tenth centuries and became English; the Normans came in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and turned English; and to-day English speech and customs are reaching the remotest corners of the world. Unable to develop national government, too inflexible to grow with the changing world, the Anglo-Saxons needed outside influence, such as the Norman conquest, but through all the changes of the English nation, their indestructible vitality perpetuated the main Anglo-Saxon characteristics.

The language of the Anglo-Saxons was like their character — rough, direct, vigorous. When they came to England, and for many centuries afterwards, their speech was very different from modern English — how different may be seen by comparing a line or two of their great epic poem, Beowulf, with a literal English translation :

Old English : Hwaet ! we Gar-Dena in gear-dagum

Translation: Ho! we of the Spear-Danes in yore days

Translation : Of the folk-kings the fame have heard.

After a little study, however, it becomes apparent that, roughly speaking, this Old English speech was the father of Chaucer's, Shakespeare's, and Wordsworth's English. The language, nevertheless, was not "fixed" in dictionaries, as it is to-day ; it was split into many dialects ; it was greatly influenced by contact with French and Latin ; and, finally, it kept changing through a period (500-1500) nearly three times as long as the period of so-called Modern English. If we take the trouble to follow it through all its shiftings, to note the gradual disappearance of inflections and the inroads from foreign tongues, we realize that for every hundred words we speak, eighty or ninety are of Old English origin. Though a large proportion (about 75 per cent.) of the words in an English dictionary is of foreign origin, many of these words are unusual, such as scientific terms ; while the names of common objects, such as man, house, tree, the most common verbs, such as swim, run, zcork, the pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions, — the main stock of our speech, in short, — come direct from the Old English. But Old English words were too limited, especially in expressing abstractions, for new needs. The Anglo-Saxons, for instance, had no word to represent adequately what we mean by the words government and nation, so, as the need arose, their descendants took such words from French and Latin. Again, they made no distinction between sheep in the pasture and sheep dressed for the table till they learned from the Norman French to say mutton. A few foreign words of all sorts, such as shawl from Persia and tobacco from America, have come into the language at different times, usually through trade, but the two great additions are French and Latin. French came in first through the Normans, but chiefly in the time of the Plantagenets, 1 when the English Kings held large domains in France and when literature on both sides of the Channel was largely French. Occasional Latin words, espe- 1 1 154-1399.

cially in connection with the church, have crept into English through the whole period of English history, but the great bulk entered the language either in the time of the Tudor s, 1 when all Europe was interested in the classics, or, later, along with Greek, in the nineteenth century, to supply the needs of science and invention. It must be remembered, of course, that foreign words got into literature long before they got into the language of the common people, and that the great body of Englishmen, till they began to read in comparatively recent times, used a far greater proportion of Old English than we should find in the writings of a learned man such as Milton; yet even Milton's works contain less than 30 per cent, of words of foreign origin. Thus we find that a writer, like Bunyan or Wordsworth, using the simple language of the common people, employs words almost wholly of Old English origin.

The foreign additions, then, so persistent was the Anglo-Saxon speech, enriched, rather than destroyed the old language. A -familiar way in which we speak of the English language is to compare it to a tree, of which the trunk is Old English, while the branches are many of them grafted on from other tongues; and, to carry the figure further, the wonderful blossoms and fruit of such a tree combine the strength of the parent stem with the variety and rich beauty of the grafted limbs. If our Bible were not written chiefly in Old English words (about 90 per cent.), it would not be so strong and direct as it is, but if it were wholly Old English, it would lack much of its sonorous beauty.

1 1485-1603.

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE.

The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms embraced a great race, dominant in England for six centuries; and in their literature we find a various life reflected. It is important to realize that their poems are not a succession of mournful dirges, as many have supposed. " They tell tales, drink the mead, race horses across the plain, ply bow and spear, are loyal to their lords, defiant of their foes, hungry for honor; moreover, when they see death approaching, they face it with solemnity — if pagans, with fortitude and calm resignation; if Christians, with godly fear and joyful hope. Not savages these, not mere drunken churls, not cravens continually occupied with images of the charnel-house, but men who challenge our respect, and deserve it." x Yet, various and interesting as Old English literature is, it is more serious than the writings of any other nation. " Night is the clutch of the grave," " Loathly is that earth-house and grim to dwell in," — such melancholy expressions abound. War, seafaring, and death, the chief subjects of the pagan and secular poems, prompt the singers more often to sadness than to mirth; and the Christian poems, written in the same serious tone, are pervaded by a like earnestness. This seriousness, however, is so direct and sincere and the language which expresses it is so vivid, that it often strikes, like Hebrew poetry, into sublimity. To understand the spirit of Old English poetry is to understand in large measure English Puritanism and the

1 From Translations of Old English Poetry, preface, vi, by Cook and Tinker.

" high seriousness " of such poets as Milton and Wordsworth.

OLD ENGLISH POETRY.

In looking back over the literature of the past we must not forget that it was written by individuals, as the books of to-day are written, with no thought of the pigeon-holes into which students would later try to force it. It must be remembered, moreover, that the people of Alfred's time did not think the same kind of thoughts or speak quite the same language as the people of Offa's time. In other words, we must not lose the perspective of a great and various literature extending over six centuries. In the case of the Anglo-Saxons, however, it will be convenient and fairly accurate to divide Old English poetry, roughly speaking, into that which dealt with pagan and secular subjects and that which dealt with religious subjects.

Beowulf. The earliest Old English poetry, as is common among primitive tribes, was oral — war songs and tales of their heroes, for the most part, sung at their feasts by the scop, or gleeman. From these stories and songs arose their epic poems, eventually written out by individuals, rewritten by others, and changed till the anonymous form in which they have come down to us is probably of much later date than the original. Of most of these poems we possess only small fragments, but Beowulf, the national Old English epic, has been handed down almost entire. It was written probably near the end of the seventh century, 1 but the story was brought

1 Our oldest manuscript of Beowulf is a copy, probably with some changes, written in the tenth century.

TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST PAGE OF BEOWULF. SEE FACSIMILE OPPOSITE.

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings

of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,

we have heard, and what honor the Athelings won !

from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,

awing the earls. Since erst he lay

friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him :

for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,

till before him the folk, both far and near,

who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,

gave him gifts : a good king he !

To him an heir was afterward born,

a son in his halls, whom heaven sent

to favor the folk, feeling their woe

that erst they had lacked an earl for leader

so long a while ; the Lord endowed him,

the Wielder of Wonder, with world's renown.

Famed was this Beowulf : far flew the boast of him,

son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands.

So becomes it a youth to quit him well

with his father's friends, by fee and gift, . . .

Translation by F. B. Gum mere.

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Copyright photo. Emery Walker, London, E. C, FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF " BEOWULF." (MANUSCRIPT IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM). SEE TRANSLATION OPPOSITE over from the Continent and deals with heroes who lived along the North German and Danish coasts. Beowulf was a historical person, nephew of Chochilaicus (Hygelac in the poem), king of the Geats, but, like Siegfried, Hercules, and Rustum in their respective races, he is vaguely identified in legend with spring and all that is good in triumph over darkness and the powers of evil. To the Anglo-Saxons in their forests and fens the long dark winter was a terrible foe, and it they identified with Grendel, a monster of the fen. Here is the story :

Hrothgar, king of the Danes, has built a great mead-hall, or palace, wherein he and his followers sit down to feast. But Grendel, angry at the sounds of joy in the mead-hall, comes by night over the " mist-covered moor-fens " and carries off thane after thane to the sea-bottom den where he and his mother dwell.

Untrod is their home ; by wolf-cliffs haunt they and windy headlands, fenways fearful, where flows the stream from mountains gliding to gloom of the rocks, underground flood. Not far is it hence in measure of miles that the mere expands, and o'er it the frost-bound forest hanging, sturdily rooted, shadows the wave.

By night is a wonder weird to see, fire on the waters. So wise lived none of the sons of men, to search those depths ! Nay, though the heath-rover, harried by dogs, the horn-proud hart this holt should seek, long distance driven, his dear life first on the brink he yields ere he brave the plunge to hide his head : 't is no happy place ! Thence the welter of waters washes up wan to welkin when winds bestir evil storms, and air grows dusk, and the heavens weep. 1

For twelve years no one is found who can overcome the monster. Then Beowulf comes over the sea from Geatland 2 to help Hrothgar. See the young warrior and his comrades march up the street to Hrothgar's hall:

Stone-bright the street: it showed the way

to the crowd of clansmen. Corselets glistened

hand- forged, hard; on their harness bright

the steel ring sang, as they strode along

in mail of battle, and marched to the hall.

There, weary of ocean, the wall along

they set their bucklers, their broad shields, down,

and bowed them to bench : the breastplates clanged,

war-gear of men; their weapons stacked,

spears of the sea-farers stood together,

gray-tipped ash : that iron band

was worthily weaponed ! 3

The " battle-brave " Beowulf, with " thirty men's heft of grasp in the gripe of his hand," is welcomed by the Danish king, who at bedtime leaves the hall in charge of the hero and his fourteen companions. At length Grendel approaches, more furious than ever. First he kills one of the sleeping companions, then turns towards the leader, who, without weapons, grapples with him in a hand to hand struggle. Before long Beowulf with a mighty wrench tears Grendel's arm from its socket, and the monster, roaring with rage and pain, makes off to his den, where he dies.

But the joy of the Dane-men is short-lived, for the following night Grendel's mother comes to avenge his death. When

2 Perhaps in Southern Sweden, perhaps in Jutland.

she has made off with one of Hrothgar's followers, Beowulf is called to the rescue. Armed this time, he follows her over moorland and through dark waters till, after a fierce struggle in her sea-bottom den, he slays her and, cutting off the dead Grendel's head, swims back with it in triumph.

Later, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats. After fifty years of happy rule, he learns that his own country is troubled by a dragon. The old champion goes forth to kill the monster, but, though he succeeds in slaying the dragon, he is himself killed in the struggle. His grief-stricken people burn his body with great ceremony and raise a huge barrow on the shore to his memory.

Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland,

for their hero's passing his hearth-companions :

quoth that of all the kings of earth,

of men he was mildest and most beloved,

to his kin the kindest, keenest for praise. 1

But a recital of a mere outline of the story of Beowulf, with scattered quotations, gives no picture of the beauty and setting of the poem. It should be read entire if one would appreciate its simplicity and vigor and carry in the memory a true image of the warlike race that gave it birth.

Of the fragments of Old English epics, The Attack on Finnsburg, of which about fifty lines remain, gives a vivid picture of battle: "The sword-light gleamed as if Finn's whole burg were blazing with fire." Finnsburg is clearly closer than Beowulf to the original minstrel form: it moves breathlessly, as if the author were composing on his feet, while the author of Beowulf obviously had time to reflect and adorn. Another of the minstrel-

tales is Widsith, or the " Far-Wanderer," in which the scop tells of the people and kings he has met in his travels. It bears the distinction of being the earliest piece of Old English writing that we have. Stirring narrative poems, not of this early epic group, but telling of the contest with the Danes in the tenth century, are The Battle of Brunanburgh 1 and The Battle of Maldon, both inserted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 2

Other verses that belong in the division of secular poems are The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruined City, and Deor's Lament. These pieces are not narratives; they express rather the thoughts and feelings of their authors. In The Wanderer the subject is the cruelty of Wyrd, goddess of Fate; in The Seafarer it is the call of the sea and the necessity of keeping on in adversity; in The Ruined City it is a picture of a deserted British town, with its broken baths; in Deors Lament it is the hard luck and somewhat wistful courage of the writer, an outcast minstrel. Deor reminds himself of others brave in adversity and concludes each stanza with the consolation :

That he surmounted; so this may I.

It is more of a personal, lyric poem than the others, the only poem in Old English, in fact, with a regular refrain. The Seafarer gives in Part I a vivid picture of life on a winter sea :

I have suffered; have borne tribulations; explored in my ship Mid the terrible rolling of waves, habitations of sorrow.

1 Translated by Tennyson, in a vigorous but not literal version.

The hail flew in showers about me; and there I heard only The roar of the sea, ice-cold waves, and the song of the swan; For pastime the gannets' cry served me; the kittiwakes' chatter For laughter of men; and for mead drink the call of the seamews! 1

Yet, in spite of the hardships, something still calls the seafarer to the sea :

Now my spirit uneasily turns in its chamber,

Now wanders forth over the tide, o'er the home of the whale,

To the ends of the earth — and comes back to me. Eager and greedy

The lone wanderer screams, and resistlessly drives my soul onward,

Over the whale path, over the tracts of the sea. 2

It is the same eager, exploring spirit that through all time

Drives our English hearts of oak

Seaward round the world.

And the tenacity and courage which the author of The Seafarer urges in Part II we find echoing down through English poetry to the present day, echoing in such familiar lines as Arnold's

On, to the bound of the waste, On, to the City of God !

and Browning's

Cry " speed, — fight on, fare ever There as here ! "

1 Translation by LaMotte Iddings, in Translations from Old English Poetry, Cook and Tinker.

2 Translation by LaMotte Iddings, in Translations from Old English Poetry, Cook and Tinker.

Even a brief account of Old English poetry may not omit mention of the Riddles, Gnomic Verses, or proverbs, and Charms. The Charms, some of them very old, are quaint relics of superstition. Here is a charm for swarming bees :

Take earth, throw it up with thy right hand from under thy right foot, and say :

I take earth under foot, I have found it.

Verily earth avails against every creature,

And against mischief and mindlessness,

And against the great tongue of man.

Throw dust over them when they swarm, and say:

Sit ye, victor dames, sink to earth,

Xever to fly wild to the wood !

Be as mindful of my good

As every man is of food and estate. 1

Religious Poetry. Old English religious poetry is almost as old as the secular poetry and exceeds it in bulk. Oedmon, the first of the religious poets, is the earliest Old English writer whose name we know. About 660, or less than a century after the introduction of Christianity into England, he began to make his religious poems and paraphrases of the Bible, and for a century after him religious poetry flourished in Northumbria. Csedmon was a poor cowherd in the monastery of Hild at Whitby, and, knowing nothing of making verses, he was long accustomed to leave the table at feasts when all sang in turn. One night, however, Bseda tells, an angel appeared to him in a vision and commanded him

1 Translation by W. O. Stevens, in Translations from Old English Poetry, Cook and Tinker.

to sing

He protested that he could not sing, but the angel replied, " No matter, you are to sing " ; and, when Caedmon asked what he should sing, the angel told him to " sing the beginning of created things." To his surprise the cowherd found, on awaking, that he could sing and make verses, whereupon for the rest of his life he

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WHITBY ABBEY made religious poems and was held in great honor at Whitby. It is not certain what poems were really the work of Gedmon, but paraphrases of parts of the Bible were long ascribed to him, though scholars now incline to believe that the poems belong to a later date. More authentic are the few verses called Ccedmon's Hymn.

The other great name among Old English religious poets is Cynewulf. 1 He lived, probably also in Northumbria, about a century after Caedmon. Cynewulf tells

1 Pronounced Kin-e-wttlf.

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