id="id00085">Dougall's The Burns Country.

Crockett's The Scott Country.

Hill's Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends.

Cook's Homes and Haunts of John Ruskin.

William Sharp's Literary Geography and Travel Sketches (Vol. IV. of Works) contains chapters on _The Country of Stevenson, The Country of George Meredith, The Country of Carlyle, The Country of George.

Eliot, The Brontë Country, Thackeray Land_, The Thames from Oxford to the Nore_.

Hutton's Literary Landmarks of Edinburgh.

Stevenson's Picturesque Notes on Edinburgh.

Loftie's Brief Account of Westminster Abbey.

Parker's Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture.

Stanley's Memorials of Westminster Abbey.

Kimball's An English Cathedral Journey.

Singleton's How to Visit the English Cathedrals.

Bond's The English Cathedrals (200 illustrations).

Cram's The Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain (6 illustrations).

Home's What to See in England.

Boynton's London in English Literature.

GENERAL REFERENCE LIST FOR THE STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE[1]:

Cambridge History of English Literature, 14 vols.

Garnett and Gosse's English Literature, 4 vols.

Morley's English Writers, 11 vols.

Jusserand's Literary History of the English People.

Taine's English Literature.

Courthope's History of English Poetry, 6 vols.

Stephens and Lee's Dictionary of National Biography (dead authors).

New International Cyclopedia (living and dead authors).

English Men of Letters Series (abbreviated reference, E.M.L.)

Great Writers' Series (abbreviated reference. G.W.).

Poole's Index (and continuation volumes for reference to critical articles in periodicals).

The United States Catalogue and Cumulative Book Index.

SELECTIONS FROM ENGLISH LITERATURE[2]:

*Pancoast and Spaeth's Early English Poems. (P. & S.)[3]

*Warren's Treasury of English Literature, Part I. (Origins to
Eleventh Century: London, One Shilling.) (Warren.)

*Ward's English Poets, 4 vols. (Ward.)

*Bronson's English Poems, 4 vols. (Bronson.)

Oxford Treasury of English Literature, Vol. I., Beowulf to Jacobean;

*Vol. II., Growth of the Drama; Vol. III., Jacobean to Victorian.
    (Oxford Treasury.)

*Oxford Book of English Verse. (Oxford.)

*Craik's English Prose, 5 vols. (Craik.)

*Page's British Poets of the Nineteenth Century. (Page.)

Chambers's Cyclopedia of English Literature. (Chambers.)

Manly's English Poetry (from 1170). (Manly I.)

Manly's English Prose (from 1137). (Manly II.)

Century Readings for a Course in English Literature. (Century.)

CHAPTER I: FROM 449 A.D. TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066

Subject Matter and Aim.—The history of English literature traces the development of the best poetry and prose written in English by the inhabitants of the British Isles. For more than twelve hundred years the Anglo-Saxon race has been producing this great literature, which includes among its achievements the incomparable work of Shakespeare.

This literature is so great in amount that the student who approaches the study without a guide is usually bewildered. He needs a history of English literature for the same reason that a traveler in England requires a guidebook. Such a history should do more than indicate where the choicest treasures of literature may be found; it should also show the interesting stages of development; it should emphasize some of the ideals that have made the Anglo-Saxons one of the most famous races in the world; and it should inspire a love for the reading of good literature.

No satisfactory definition of "literature" has ever been framed. Milton's conception of it was "something so written to after times, as they should not willingly let it die." Shakespeare's working definition of literature was something addressed not to after times but to an eternal present, and invested with such a touch of nature as to make the whole world kin. When he says of Duncan:—

"After life's fitful fever he sleeps well,"

he touches the feelings of mortals of all times and opens the door for imaginative activity, causing us to wonder why life should be a fitful fever, followed by an incommunicable sleep. Much of what we call literature would not survive the test of Shakespeare's definition; but true literature must appeal to imagination and feeling as well as to intellect. No mere definition can take the place of what may be called a feeling for literature. Such a feeling will develop as the best English poetry and prose: are sympathetically read. Wordsworth had this feeling when he defined the poets as those:—

"Who gave us nobler loves and nobler cares."

The Mission of English Literature.—It is a pertinent question to ask, What has English literature to offer?

In the first place, to quote Ben Jonson:—

  "The thirst that from the soul cloth rise
  Doth ask a drink divine."

English literature is of preëminent worth in helping to supply that thirst. It brings us face to face with great ideals, which increase our sense of responsibility for the stewardship of life and tend to raise the level of our individual achievement. We have a heightened sense of the demands which life makes and a better comprehension of the "far-off divine event" toward which we move, after we have heard Swinburne's ringing call:—

  "…this thing is God,
  To be man with thy might,
  To grow straight in the strength
    of thy spirit, and live out thy life
    as the light."

We feel prompted to act on the suggestion of—

        "…him who sings
    To one clear harp in divers tones,
    That men may rise on striping-stones
  Of their dead selves to higher things."[4]

In the second place, the various spiritual activities demanded for the interpretation of the best things in literature add to enjoyment. This pleasure, unlike that which arises from physical gratification, increases with age, and often becomes the principal source of entertainment as life advances. Shakespeare has Prospero say:—

      "…my library
  Was dukedom large enough."

The suggestions from great minds disclose vistas that we might never otherwise see. Browning truly says:—

"…we're made so that we love First when we see them painted, things we have passed Perhaps a hundred tunes nor cared to see."

Sometimes it is only after reading Shakespeare that we can see—

  "…winking Mary buds begin
    To ope their golden eyes.
  With everything that