leaves unsaid what the cyclopædias say, it is to be understood as part of my method.

The style I have used may be regarded as sometimes too familiar for the subject. But I hope my book may be read largely by young people; I hope it may be read aloud in classes devoted to the study of literature; and I have therefore used a colloquial tone, hoping by this means more easily to gain the interest and the ear of the reader.

I have used the words "our literature," "our English authors," all through the book with intention. Writing as I do for American readers, for the young people of our country, I have endeavored to impress. on them a pride in the works written in their language; I want them to feel that they have as much share and as much cause for pride in the glorious names of Shakespeare and Milton as if their grandfathers had not crossed the ocean to settle in Massachusetts or Virginia. English literature to the year 1800 is as much our literature as it is that of any girl or boy born in London or in Yorkshire. hold of and claim this grand inheritance.

Let us lay

A. S. R.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

ENGLISH LITERATURE BEFORE CHAUCER. 449 TO 1350.

INTRODUCTORY.

TALK

I. TELLING ABOUT THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, WHO THEY

WERE, AND HOW THEY FIRST CAME TO THE IS-

LAND OF BRITAIN

II. TELLING HOW LETTERS AND LEARNING FIRST CAME

TO ENGLAND.

III. THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

IV. ON THE FORM OF EARLY ENGLISH Poetry, and tHE

OLD POEM OF CEDMON

V. TELLING OF THE VENERABLE BEDA AND OF KING

Alfred the Good, and of THE WORK THEY DID

IN LITERATURE.

VI. TELLING HOW WILLIAM THE NORMAN CAME TO THE

CONQUEST OF ENGLAND

VII. ON LITERATURE UNDER THE NORMANS, ESPECIALLY

IN THE REIGN OF HENRY II.; AND THE LEGENDS

OF ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND

TABLE

37

VIII. ON THE STRUGGLES OF THE ENGLISH SPEECH TO

HOLD ITS OWN AGAINST THE NORMAN; OF OLD.

BALLADS, ESPECIALLY THE ROBIN HOOD BALLADS;

THE "OLD GESTE OF ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF

GISBORNE"

IX. HOW THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FINALLY CAME TO ITS

OWN AGAIN, AND WHAT BOOKS AND AUTHORS

HELPED TO KEEP IT ALIVE IN THE TWELFTH AND

THIRTEENTH CENTURIES

40

44

49

54

PART II.

FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER. 1350 TO 1550.

TALK

X.

TELLING OF SOME OF THE MEN WHO WROTE IN

CHAUCER'S TIME; AND OF THE "VISION OF

PIERS PLOUGHMAN"

XI. ON THREE GREAT CONTEMPORARIES OF CHAUCER,

-JOHN WYCLIFFE, JOHN MANDEVILLE, AND

JOHN GOWER

XII. ON GEOFFREY CHAUCer, his Life and Poetry

XIII. ON THE STORIES OF THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS

XIV. TELLING OF SOME OF THE GREAT EVENTS OF THE

FIFTEENTH CENTURY,- OF CAXTON AND HIS

PRINTING-PRESS, AND OF THE ROMANCE OF

THE "MORTE D'ARTHUR

XV. ON LITERATURE IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.;

MORE'S UTOPIA; TYNDALE'S BIBLE; SKELTON,

THE COURT POET; THE SONNETS OF SURREY

AND WYATT.

PAGE

61

64

69

74

79

84

XVIII. ON SIR PHILIP SIDNEY AND THE "ARCADIA "

XIX. ON SIR WALTER RALEIGH, SAMUEL DANIEL, AND

MICHAEL DRAYTON

113

XX. ON FRANCIS BACON, BARON VERULAM, VISCOUNT

ST. ALBANS

116

XXI. ON THE ENGLISH DRAMA AND SOME OF THE PLAY-

WRITERS WHO CAME BEFORE SHAKESPEARE

121

TALK

XXII. ON CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, THE GREAT PREDE-

CESSOR OF SHAKESPEARE

XXIII. ON WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, HIS LIFE, CHARAC-

TER, AND WORKS

XXIV. EXTRACTS FROM SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS, -"RICH-

ARD II.;""HAMLET; ""THE TEMPEST”..

XXV. ON THE DRAMATIC POETS WHO LIVED IN SHAKE-

BEN JONSON; BEAUMONT

SPEARE'S TIME,

AND FLETCHER

-

XXVI. ON GEORGE CHAPMAN, JOHN WEBSTER, JOHN

MARSTON, AND OTHER DRAMATISTS

XXVII. ON THE SINGERS OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF POET-

DONNE, WOTTON, WITHER, HERBERT,

RY,-

AND HERRICK

XXVIII. ON THE SINGERS of the Golden Age of PoETRY,

CAREW, SUCKLING, LOVELACE, WALLER

PAGE

129

136

144

162

169

XXX. MILTON'S COMUS," "PARADISE LOST," AND

185

189

XXXII. THE DIARIES OF SAMUEL PEPYS

EVELYN.

XXXIII. ON THE PROSE WRITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH

CENTURY; JOHN BUNYAN AND HIS PILGRIM'S

XXXIV. ON THE DRAMA OF THE RESTORATION; JOHN

DRYDEN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

219

228