ary history. The writer has, therefore, followed the biographical method more closely than some authors who have briefly summarized their biographical studies and enlarged the scope of their technical criticism.

The suggestions for study have been prepared in the hope that they will assist both pupil and teacher in the study of literature. In their preparation the writer has also kept in mind the not impossible student out of school who, without professional assistance or direction, is ambitious to become really acquainted with literature as well as with its history. In these suggestions has been embodied such analysis and criticism as seemed reasonable in a text-book of this grade. It is probable that the courses suggested will be found in some instances more extended than the time allotted will permit; of course the teacher will be guided by his own discretion in their use. Will it not be advantageous occasionally to base the exercise entirely upon these suggested studies without requiring in the classroom a formal recitation of the biographical details given in the preliminary sketch? The author will welcome all criticism based upon practical experience with these notes.

Much of the material used in sections dealing with the romancers and novelists has been taken from chapters in the author's Introduction to a Study of English Fiction, published by D. C. Heath and Company. In the biographical sketch of Walter Scott and the study suggestions upon Ivanhoe, similar use has been made of material included in the school edition of Ivanhoe published by Scott, Foresman and Company. The author has drawn also, in the account of De Quincey,

PREFACE

upon the biographical introduction to his edition of De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars, published by Ginn and Company. For the cordial permission of these houses to use this material, the writer desires to ex press his thanks.

The Age of Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer: Poet of the Dawn.

IIL THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES

The Fifteenth Century: The Renascence

First Half of the Sixteenth Century

Representative Prose and Verse in the Elizabethan Age

Development of the English Drama

William Shakespeare and his Successors

IV. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

The Last of the Elizabethans: Bacon

The Puritan Movement: Milton

Seventeenth Century Lyrics

The Restoration: Bunyan, Dryden

V. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

The Augustan Age of English Prose.

The Poetry of Alexander Pope

Rise of the English Novel

Essayists of the Second Half .

The

Romantic Movement in English Poetry

VL THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The New Poetry: Wordsworth, Coleridge.

The Romantic Movement in Fiction: Scott

The

Revolutionary Poets: Byron, Shelley

Romanticism in English Prose: Lamb, De Quincey

The Great Essayists: Macaulay, Carlyle, Ruskin

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35

41

41

43

59

64

82

82

89

98

108

129

Maturity of the Novel: Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot 412

The Victorian Poets: Browning, Tennyson