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| PREFACE.
In so brief a history of so rich a literature, the problem is how to get
room enough to give, not an adequate impression—that is impossible—but
any impression at all of the subject. To do this I have crowded out
every thing but belles lettres. Books in philosophy, history, science,
etc., however important in the history of English thought, receive the
merest incidental mention, or even no mention at all. Again, I have
omitted the literature of the Anglo-Saxon period, which is written in a
language nearly as hard for a modern Englishman to read as German is, or
Dutch. Cædmon and Cynewulf are no more a part of English literature than
Vergil and Horace are of Italian. I have also left out the vernacular
literature of the Scotch before the time of Burns. Up to the date of the
union Scotland was a separate kingdom, and its literature had a
development independent of the English, though parallel with it.
In dividing the history into periods, I have followed, with some
modifications, the divisions made by Mr. Stopford Brooke in his
excellent little Primer of English Literature. A short reading course
is appended to each chapter.
HENRY A. BEERS. |