PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, PERIOD I. Before the Norman Conquest, 670–1066. PERIOD III. From Chaucer's Death to Elizabeth, 1400-1558. Elizabeth's Reign, 1558-1603. PERIOD IV. PERIOD V. From Elizabeth's Death to the Res toration, 1603–1660. PERIOD VI. From the Restoration to Swift's Death, 1660-1745. PERIOD VII. From Swift's Death to the French Revolution, 1745-1789. PERIOD VIII. From the French Revolution onwards, 1789 ENGLISH LITERATURE. INTRODUCTORY LESSON.* REQUISITES FOR THE STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.-TO teach one English literature is to acquaint him with the writings which constitute it. It is to put him in the way of getting at the characteristics of those who in a memorable degree have contributed to it; and to lead him along this way until the traits peculiar to each are distinctly seen by him, and in some measure of intimacy the desired acquaintance with them is reached. To such a study it is evident that the student should come prepared; he should bring to it respectable attainments, and a respectable discipline acquired in making these attainments. What rhetoric can teach him of thought and its invention, of words and the handling of them, of sentences in their myriad variety, of the cardinal qualities of style, of the great classes of literary productions, and all that this instruction can do in developing his power to discriminate and to classify, he should bring to this work. Some knowledge of what goes to the making of literature and so of what he is to seek in it, some standard of excellence by which to judge the writings he is to study, and a faculty to compare, to estimate, and to decide are desirable-may we not say needful? at the outset. THE TEXT-BOOK.-The text-book can aid the pupil in his work-it will be something if it aids without hindering * Those who have but little time for this study, and wish to give that to recent authors, and those who believe in beginning with that which is best known, should pass directly from this lesson to modern literature, Period VIII., p. 268. Completing that, they should return to Lesson 2, and take the remaining periods in their order. In studying the great authors we advise a free use of the Biographical Index, pp. 463–85. |
