English Literature
the mass. of expression in written prose and poetry, try, of the mind of the English-speaking peoples, through the medium of the English language.
Before any English literature, in the strict sense of the term, existed, four literatures had arisen in England-the Celtic, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo- Norman. The first included the name of Merlin. The Latin literature prior to the Conquest presented the names of Bede, Alcuin, and Asser. With the coming of the Normans the native language practically ceased for a time to be used in literature, Latin being employed in law, history, and philosophy, French in the lighter forms of literature. The Norman trouvère displaced the Saxon scop, or gleeman, introducing the fabliau and the romance. By the fabliau the literature was not greatly influenced till the time of Chaucer; but the romance attained an early and striking development in the Arthurian cycle, founded on the legends of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin "History of the Britons" (1147), by Geoffrey Gaimar, Maistre Wace, Walter Map, and other writers of the 12th century. The Latin literature included important contributions to the Scholastic philosophy by Alexander Hales (died 1245), Duns Scotus (died 1308), the philosophic works of Roger Bacon (1214-1292), the Golias poems of Walter Map, and a long list of chronicles or histories, either in prose or verse, by Eadmer (died 1124), William of Malmesbury (died 1143), Geoffrey of Monmouth (died 1154), Henry of Huntingdon (died after 1154), Joseph of Exeter (died 1195), Roger of Wendover (died 1237), Roger de Hoveden (12th and 13th centuries), Joscelin de Brakelonde (12th and 13th centuries), and Matthew Paris (died 1259).
Apart from a few brief fragments, the first English writers after the Conquest are the "Brut" of Layamon (about 1200), and the "Ormulum," a collection of metrical homilies attributed to Orm or Ormin, an Augustine monk. Next in importance come the rhyming chroniclers Robert of Gloucester (time of Henry III., Edward I.) and Robert of Brunne or Mannyng (died 1340). To this pre- Chaucerian period belong also several English translations of French mances. Between the beginning and middle of the 14th century a rapid expansion of the literature took place, ro- ENGLISH LITERATURE having as the foremost figure Chaucer (1340-1400). Contemporary with him were the poets William or Robert Langland (1332-1400), John Gower (1325- 1408), John Barbour (1316-1395). In prose the name of John Wyclif (1324- 1384) is pre-eminent.
The period from the time of Chaucer to the appearance of Spenser (from the end of the 14th to near the end of the 16th century), is a very barren one in English literature. The center of poetic creation was for the time transferred to Scotland, where James I. (1394-1437) headed the list, which comprises Andrew de Wyntoun (15th century), Henry the Minstrel or Blind Harry (died after 1492), William Dunbar (1460-15-), Gavin Douglas (1474-1522), and Sir David Lyndsay (1490-1557). In England the only noteworthy prose prior to that of More being that of Reginald Pecock (1390-1460), Sir John Fortescue (1395-1485), the "Paston Letters" (1422- 1505), and Malory's "Morte d'Arthur" (completed 1469-1470); the only noteworthy verse, that of John Skelton (1460-1529).
The Renaissance spread from Florence to England by means of Colet, Linacre, Erasmus, and Sir Thomas More (1480- 1535), the last noteworthy as at the head of a new race of historians. Important contributions to the prose of the time were the Tyndale New Testament, printed in 1525, and the Coverdale Bible (1535). The first signs of an artistic advance in poetic literature are to be found in Wyatt (1503-1542) and Surrey (1516-1547), who nationalized the sonnet, and of whom the latter is regarded as the introducer of blank verse. The drama too, had by this time reached a fairly high stage of development. At length farces on the French model were constructed, the interludes of John Heywood (died 1565) being the most important examples. To Nicholas Udall (1504-1556) the first comedy, "Ralph Roister Doister," was due. The first tragedy was performed in 1561, and the first prose play, the "Supposes" of Gascoigne, in 1566. The most prominent figures are those of Sidney (1554-1586) and Spenser (1552-1599). In drama Lyly, Peele, Greene, Na Nash and Marlowe (1564-1593) are the chief immediate precursors of Shakespeare (1564-1606), Marlowe, alone, however, being at all comparable with him. Contemporary and later dramatic writers were Ben Jonson (1573-1637), Middleton (died 1627), Marston (better known as a satirist), Chapman (1557-1634), Thomas Heywood, Dekker (died 1639), Webster (17th century), Ford (1586-1639), Beaumont (1586-1616) and Fletcher (1576- ENGLISH LITERATURE 1625), and Massinger (1584-1640). The minor poets include Michael Drayton (1563-1631), Samuel Daniel (1562- 1619), John Davies (1570-1626), John Donne (1573-1631), Giles Fletcher (1580-1623), an and Phineas Fletcher (1584-1650), Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649). In Elizabethan prose the prominent names are those of Rogers Ascham (1515-1568), Lyly the Euphuist (1553-1606), Hooker (1554-1600), Raleigh (1552-1618), Bacon (1561-1626), the founder in some respects of modern scientific method, Burton (1576-1640), Herbert of Cherbury (1581-1648), and Selden (1584-1654), with Overbury, Knolles, Holinshed, Stowe, Camden, Florio, and North. The issue of the authorized version of the Bible in 1611 closed the prose list of the period.
After the death of James I. the course of literature breaks up into three stages, the first from 1625 to 1640, in which the survivals from the Elizabethan age slowly died away. The "metaphysical poets," Cowley, Wither, Herbert, Crashaw, Habbington, and Quarles, and the cavalier poets, Suckling, Carew, Denham, all published poems before the close of this period, in which also Milton's early poems were composed, and the "Comus" and "Lycidas" published. The second stage (1640-1660) was given up almost wholly to controversial prose, the Puritan revolution checking the production of pure literature. In this controversial prose Milton was easily chief. With the restoration a third stage was begun.
Milton turned his new leisure to the composition of his great poems; the drama was revived, and Davenant and Dryden, with Otway, Southerne, Etherege, Etherege, Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar in their first plays, and minor playwrights, are the most representative writers of the period. Butler established a genre in satire, and Marvel as a satirist in some respects anticipated Swift; Roscommon, Rochester, and Dorset contributed to the little poetry; while in prose we have Hobbes, Clarendon, Fuller, Sir Thomas Browne, Walton, Cotton, Pepys, and Evelyn, John Bunyan, Locke, Sir William Temple, Owen Feltham, Sir Henry Wotton, James Harrington, and a crowd of theological writers, of_whom the best known are Jeremy Taylor, Richard Baxter, Robert Barclay, William Penn, George Fox, Isaac Barrow, John Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Bishop Pearson, Sherlock, South, Sprat, Cudworth, and Burnet. Other features of the last part of the 17th century were the immense advance in physical science under Boyle, Isaac Newton, Harvey, and others, and the rise of the newspaper press.
Dryden's death in 1700 marks the ENGLISH LITERATURE formal limits of his conception of poetry than Pope (1688-1744). Against the tan age in English literature. During verse of Thomson (1700-1748), Gray signs of reaction were apparent in the than Pope (1688-1744). Against the formal limits of his conception of poetry signs of reaction were apparent in the tions of Macpherson and Chatterton. smith (1728-1774), and in the produc- The poets Prior (1664-1721), Gay smith (1728-1774), and in the productions of Macpherson and Chatterton. The poets Prior (1664-1721), Gay (1688-1732), and Ambrose Phillips (1671-1749), inherited from the later respectable poets - including Parnell, there were a large number of small but connection with English opera; and there were a large number of small but respectable poets including Parnell, Shenstone, Blair, Akenside, Anstey, 18th century was found. Defoe (1661- prose that the chief development of the 18th century was found. Defoe (1661- 1731) and Swift (1667-1745) led the way in fiction and prose satire; Steele (1671-1729) and Addison (1672-1719), working on a suggestion of Defoe, established the periodical essay; Richardson (1689-1761), ent.
Fielding (1707-1754), (1721-1793), Smollett (1721-1771), and Sterne raised smith also falls into the fictional group the novel to sudden perfection. Goldas well as into those of the poets and the as well as into those of the poets and the cised during the latter part of his life essayists. Johnson (1709-1784) exercised during the latter part of his life the power of a literary dictator, with ent.
The other chief prose writers Boswell (1740-1795) as literary dependwere Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753), Ar-
The other chief prose writers buthnot (1675-1735), Shaftesbury (1671- 1713), Bolingbroke (1678-1751), Burke, the historians David Hume (1711- 1713), Bolingbroke (1678-1751), Burke, 1776), William Robertson (1' Edmund Gibbon (1737-1794); the poli- 1776), William Robertson (1721-1793), tical writers Wilkes and Junius, the economist and moral philosopher Adam tical writers Wilkes and Junius, the Smith (1723-1790); the philosophical writers Humoy Bentham (1749-1832), and Dugald Stewart (1753-1828), th scholars Bentley (1662-1742), Sir William Jones (1746-1794), and Richard liam Jones (1746-1794), and Richard scholars Bentley (1662-1742), Sir Wil- Porson (1759-1808) the theologians Atton, and Paley, and some inferior playwrights, of whom Rowe, John Home, wrights, of whom Rowe, John Home, ton, and Paley, and some inferior playand Sheridan were the most important. With the French Revolution, or a few years earlier, the modern movement in literature began. The departure from the last years of the century in Cowper (1731-1800) and Burns (1759-1796), and was developed and perfected in the (1731-1800) and Burns (1759-1796), (1762-1850), and the "Lake poets" Wordsworth hands of Blake (1757-1828), Bowles (1762-1850), and the "Lake poets" (1770-1850), Coleridge ENGLISH LITERATURE 1949 but there were at first many survivals from the poetic manner of the 17th century, such as Erasmus Darwin (1731- 1802), Dr. John Wolcot (1738-1819), Robert Bloomfield (1766-1823), and Samuel poets of the century, also, were George Rogers (1763-1855). Among the earlier poets of the century, also, were George Crabbe (1754-1832), Sir Walter Scott. bell (1777-1844), James Montgomery, Mrs. Hemans Byran, Waller Procter ("Barry Cornwall") Milman, L. E. Landon, Joanna Baillie, Robert Montgomery. A more im A more important group was that of and Keats (1796-1821), with which may important group was that of (1784-1859), Thomas Moore (1779- 1852), and Landor (1775-1864). Among (1784-1859), Thomas Moore (1779be associated the names of Leigh Hunt and Keats (1796-1821), with which may the earlier writers of fiction there were several women of note, such as Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849), and Jane Aus- several women of note, such as Maria ten (1775-1817). The greatest name in fiction was unquestionably that of Scott.
Other prose writers were Mackintosh, Malthus, Hallam, James Mill, Southey, mers, Hannah More, Cobbett, William Hazlitt, Sydney Smith, Francis Jeffrey, Other prose writers were Mackintosh, Lord Brougham. In the literature after 1830 poetry included as its chief names Sidney Dobell, Alexander Smith, Philip Praed, Hood, Aytoun, Lord Houghton, Praed, Hood, Aytoun, Lord H Arthur Hugh Clough, Edwin Arnold, more, Lord Lytton, ("Owen Meredith"), Houghton, Matthew Arnold, Dante G. Rossetti, Arthur Hugh Clough, Edwin Arnold, more, Lord Lytton, ("Owen Meredith"), burne, William Watson, Kipling, and for the same period includes Marlast and greatest, Tennyson and Brownlast and greatest, Tennyson and Brown- burne, William Watson, Kipling, and ing.
A brilliant list of novelists Dickens, Thackeray, Charles and Henry Lever, Wilkie Collins, George Macdonald, ryat, Lord Lytton, Ainsworth, Benja- for the same period includes Mar-
Reade, George Eliot, Anthony Charles Rea and Augustus Trollope, William Black, Thomas Hardy, R. D. Blackmore, George Charles
Reade, George Eliot, Anthony Lever, Wilkie Collins, George Macdonald, Robert Louis Stevenson, Miss Braddon, Mrs. Craik (Miss Mulock), Mrs. Oli- Thomas Hardy, R. D. Blackmore, George and Augustus Trollope, William Black, Mrs. H thony Hope Hawkins, and others. To the historical and biographical list belong Alison, Macaulay, Buckle, Carlyle, Mrs.
Humphry Ward, J. M. Barrie, An- Gardiner, Kinglake, John Richard Green, the historical and biographical list be- Stanley, David Masson, John Morley, long Alison, Macaulay, Buckle, Carlyle, inent among the theological writers were Stanley, David Masson, John Morley, E. A. Freeman, Charles Knight, Dean Gardiner, Kinglake, John Richard Green,
Humphry Ward, J. M. Barrie, An- ENGRAVING Hamilton, Alford, F. W. Robertson, Stopford Brooke, Liddon, Isaac Taylor, Jowett, James Martineau, Tulloch, Henry Drummond, and Caird. In science and philosophy among the chief writers have been Whewell, Sir W.
Hamilton, Mansel, John Stuart Mill, Alexander Bain, Hugh Miller, Charles Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, uxley, Tyndall, Max Müller, Herbert Spencer, T. H. Green, Sir William Thomson. Of the other prose writers of importance the chief are: De Quincey, Harriet Martineau, Sir Arthur Helps, Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, W. E.
Gladstone. A large number of writers of American and colonial birth were added to the native contributors to English literature in its widest sense. Among the English novelists whose work is notable in the twentieth century are Maurice Hewlett, John Galsworthy, Hugh Walpole, D. H. Lawrence, J. D.
Beresford, Compton MacKenzie, Clemence Dane, W. B. Maxwell, Gilbert Cannan, Stephen McKenna, and W. L. George.