COPYRIGHT 1906, 1907, BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY

Published, October, 1907

L. Schucman
10-27-42
46597

31.

CONTENTS

BOOK I

THE KING'S ENGLISH `

CHAPTER I-CAXTON

From xylography to typography-Gutenberg-Pre-Cax-

ton English-William Caxton-His life and achieve-

ment-The Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers

-Caxton's influence on the language-Early print-

ing and manuscripts

CHAPTER II-GOEFFREY CHAUCER

PAGE

1

Outline of Chaucer's life-His personal appearance

and portraits-Three chronological periods of his

work-Troilus and Criseyde-The Legend of Good

Women-Chaucer's debt to French and Italian

sources The Canterbury Tales-The scheme of the

poem-The qualities of Chaucer's poetry-History of

the Chaucerian MSS. and text-Attempts to mod-

ernise the text

CHAPTER III-MORAL GOWER-THE "MORTE

D'ARTHUR "

Warton's criticism of Gower-Confessio Amantis-Sir

Thomas Malory-Morte d'Arthur-Its influence in

English literature

CHAPTER IV-THE SCOTS POETS

The Chaucerian tradition in Scotland-Robert Henry-

son-Robene and Makyne-William Dunbar-The

Golden Targe-Comparisons of Dunbar with Chau-

cer and Burns-Gavin Douglas-Sir David Lynd-

say-His religious satires

13

32

39

CHAPTER V-EARLY TUDOR POETRY

Stephen Hawes-Alexander Barclay-John Skelton-—

His pictures of low life-Skeltonic verse Sir

Thomas Wyatt-His metrical innovations-Earl of

Surrey-His use of decasyllabic blank verse

PAGE

49

CHAPTER VI-EARLY TUDOR PROSE

Lord Berners' Froissart-Fabyan's New Chronicles-

Richard Grafton-John Leland-Andrew Boorde

George Cavendish-Grocyn and Linacre-John Colet

-Sir John Cheke Roger Ascham-The Scholemas-

ter-Latimer-Sir Thomas Elyot-Sir

More-Utopia-Its influence in literature

Thomas

58

BOOK II

DRAMA AND LYRIO

CHAPTER I-FROM TRANSITION TO TRANS-

FORMATION.—I

An important period of development-Italian in-

fluence Classical translations-Arthur Golding-

Sir Thomas North-Sir Thomas Hoby-Sir Geoffry

Fenton-Painter's Palace of Pleasure-George Chap-

man-Edward Fairfax-Joshua Sylvester-John

Florio Thomas Shelton-Sir Thomas Urquhart

78

CHAPTER

II-FROM TRANSITION TO TRANS-

FORMATION.—II

Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset-The Mirror for

Magistrates-George Gascoigne The Steele Glass-

Thomas Churchyard-George Whetstone-George

Turberville-Tottel's Miscellany-The Paradise of

Dainty Devices-Some later Miscellanies

97

CHAPTER III-RELIGION AND LETTERS FROM

THE AGE OF CHAUCER DOWN TO 1611

John Wyclif-Piers Plowman-William Langland-

William Tyndale-John Foxe The English Prayer

Book-The Metrical Psalms-The Authorised Ver-

sion of the Bible

PAGE

109

CHAPTER IV-THE RISE OF THE DRAMA

Religion and the drama-Church festivals and morali-

ties-The church, the market-place, the banquet-

hall-Heywood's interludes-Gorboduc-Senecan

plays

131

CHAPTER V-PRE-SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA

Actors and theatres-Lyly-Greene-Peele-Kyd—

Marlowe Tamburlaine-Faustus-Edward II.-Ar-

den of Feversham

144

CHAPTER VI-SPENSER AND HIS SCHOOL

Rhyme or clssical metres-Gabriel Harvey-Edward

Dyer-Two great metrical innovations-Edmund

Spenser The Shepheards Calendar-The Faerie

Queene Giles and Phineas Fletcher-Daniel-

Drayton .

CHAPTER VII-SONNETEERS,

AND MINOR VERSIFIERS

SONG-WRITERS,

Sir Philip Sidney-The fashion of sonneteering-Eliza-

bethan lyrics and music-Lyly, Nash, Greene, Lodge,

and Breton-Campion-Barnfield-Browne-Wotton

CHAPTER VIII-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Life at Stratford-The player-Early poems-First-

fruits-The flowering period-Shakespeare and

Scott-Hamlet and the great tragedies-Later years

-Bibliographical summaries .

171

198

211

CHAPTER IX-THE LATER CONTEMPORARIES

AND SUCCESSORS OF SHAKESPEARE

Beaumont and Fletcher-Ben Jonson-Volpone-The

Alchemist-Jonson's later comedies-Chapman-

Marston-Dekker-Middleton-Heywood-Webster-

Tourneur-Ford-Massinger-Shirley.

X-ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN

CHAPTER

PROSE.-I

John Lyly-Sidney's Arcadia-Greene-Dekker-Nash

-Nicholas

I.-Bacon

Breton-Hall-Overbury-Earle-James

PAGE

257

CHAPTER XI-ELIZABETHAN

PROSE.-II

AND JACOBEAN

Raleigh-Stow-Holinshed-Speed-Camden-Knolles

-Memoirs and Diaries-Manningham-Sir Symonds

D'Ewes-Naunton-Moryson-Hakluyt-Elizabethan

criticism-Gosson-Sidney's Defense and Jonson's

Timber

BOOK III

THE COUNTER-RENAISSANCE

CHAPTER I-FOUR GREAT PROSE WRITERS

297

322

Robert Burton-Thomas Fuller-Sir Thomas Browne

-Jeremy Taylor

342

CHAPTER II-JACOBEAN AND CAROLINE POETS

Donne and Drummond-The Caroline Lyrists: Carew,

Lovelace, Herrick, Sir John Suckling

357

CHAPTER III-RELIGIOUS POETRY

Herbert, Crashaw, and Vaughan-Wither and Quarles

-Habington, Pordage, and Traherne

377