The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare

by J. J. Jusserand

CONTENTS.

		page
TABLE OF CONTENTS		[5]
EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS		[11]
INTRODUCTION		[23]
CHAPTER I.
BEFORE SHAKESPEARE		[31]
	I. Remote origin of the novel—Old historical romances orepics—Beowulf. The French conquest of England in the eleventh century—The mind andliterature of the new-comers—Their romances, their short tales	[31]
	II. Effects of the conquest on the minds of the Englishinhabitants—Slow awakening of the native writers—Awakening of theclerks, of the translators and imitators—The English inhabitantsconnected through a literary imposture with Troy and the classicalnations of antiquity—Consequences of this imposture. Chaucer—His lack of influence on later prose novelists—The short prosetales of the French never acclimatized in England before theRenaissance—More's Latin "Utopia"	[37]
	III. Printing—Caxton's rôle—Part allotted to fiction in the list ofhis books—Morte Darthur. Development of printing—Mediæval romances set in type in the sixteenthcentury	[52]
CHAPTER II.
TUDOR TIMES—THE FASHIONS AND THE NOVEL		[69]
	I. The Renaissance and the awakening of a wider curiosity—Travelling inItaly—Ascham's censures	[69]
	II. Italian invasion of England—Italian books translated, Boccaccio,Ariosto, Tasso, &c. English collections of short stories imitated from the French orItalian—Separate short stories—Lucrece of Sienna—A "travellingliterature"	[74]
	III. Learning—Erasmus' judgment and prophecies—The part played bywomen—They want books written for themselves—Queen Elizabeth, hertalk, her tastes, her dress, her portraits—The "paper work"architecture of the time	[87]
CHAPTER III.
LYLY AND HIS "EUPHUES"		[103]
	I. "Euphues," a book for women	[103]
	II. "Euphuism," its foreign origin—How embellished and perfected byLyly—Fanciful natural history of the time—The mediævalbestiaries—Topsell's scientific works	[106]
	III. The plot of the novel—Moral tendencies of "Euphues"—Lyly'sprecepts concerning men, women and children	[123]
	IV. Lyly's popularity—Courtly talk of the time—Translations andabbreviations of "Euphues" in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies	[135]
CHAPTER IV.
LYLY'S LEGATEES		[145]
	I. Lyly's influence—His principal heirs and successors, Riche,Dickenson, Melbancke, Munday, Warner, Greene, Lodge, &c.	[145]
	II. Robert Greene's biography—His autobiographical tales—His life andrepentance, characteristic of the times	[150]
	III. His love stories and romantic tales—His extraordinary success—Histales of real life—His fame at home and abroad	[167]
	IV. N. Breton, an imitator of Greene—Thomas Lodge, a legatee ofLyly—His life—His "Rosalynd" and other works—His relation toShakespeare	[192]
CHAPTER V.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY AND PASTORAL ROMANCE		[217]
	Of shepherds.
	I. Sidney's life—His travels and friendship with Languet—His courtlife and love—His death—The end of "Stella"	[219]
	II. Sidney's works—Miscellaneous writings—The "Apologie"—Sidney'sappreciation of the poetic and romantic novel. The "Arcadia," why written—Sidney's various heroes: shepherds, knights,princesses, &c.—Eclogues and battles, fêtes, masques andtournaments—Anglo-arcadian architecture, gardens, dresses andfurniture. Sidney's object according to Fulke Greville, and according tohimself—His lovers—Youthful love, unlawful love, foolish love,innocent love—Pamela's prayer—The final imbroglio. Sidney's style as a novel writer—His wit and brightness—Hiseloquence—His bad taste—His fanciful ornaments	[228]
	III. Sidney's reputation in England—Continuators, imitators, andadmirers among dramatists, poets and novelists—Shakespeare, Jonson,Day, Shirley, Quarles—Lady Mary Wroth and her novel—Sidney'sreputation in the eighteenth century, Addison, Young, Walpole,Cowper—Chap-books. In France—He is twice translated, and gives rise to a literaryquarrel—Charles Sorel's judgment in the "Berger extravagant," and DuBartas' praise—Mareschal's drama out of the "Arcadia"—Niceron andFlorian	[260]
CHAPTER VI.
THOMAS NASH; THE PICARESQUE AND REALISTIC NOVEL		[287]
	I. Merry books as a preservative of health—Sidney's contempt for thecomic. Studies in real life—The picaresque tale; its Spanish origin—Itssuccess in Europe—-Lazarillo and Guzman	[287]
	II. Thomas Nash—His birth, education and life—His writings, histemperament—His equal fondness for mirth and for lyrical poetry—Hisliterary theories on art and style—His vocabulary, his style. His picaresque novel, "Jack Wilton"—Scenes and characters—Observationof nature—Dramatic and melodramatic parts—Historicalpersonages—Nash's troubles on account of "Jack Wilton." His other works—Scenes of light comedy in them—Portraits of theupstart, of the sectary, &c.	[295]
	III. Nash's successors—H. Chettle—Chettle's combined imitation ofNash, Greene and Sidney. Dekker—His dramatic and poetical faculty—His prose works—His literaryconnection with Nash—His pictures of real life—His humour andgaiety—Grobianism—A gallant at the play-house in the time ofShakespeare—Defoe and Swift as distant heirs	[327]
CHAPTER VII.
AFTER SHAKESPEARE		[347]
	I. Heroical romances—Their origin mainly French—The new heroism àpanache on the stage, in epics, in the novel, in real life—The heroicideal—The Hôtel de Rambouillet	[347]
	II. Heroes and heroism à panache migrate to England—Their welcome inspite of the Puritans—Translations of French romances—Use of Frenchengravings—Imitation and appreciation of French manners—Orinda, theDuchess of Newcastle, Dorothy Osborne, Mrs. Pepys	[362]
	III. Original English novels in the heroical style—Roger Boyle, J.Crowne—Heroism on the stage	[383]
	IV. Reaction in France—Sorel, Scarron, Furetière, &c.—Reaction inEngland—"Adventures of Covent Garden," "Zelinda," &c.	[397]
	V. Conclusion—The end of the period—Ingelo, Harrington, Mrs. Behn; howshe anticipates Rousseau. Connection between the master-novelists of the eighteenth century andthe prentice-novelists of the sixteenth	[411]
INDEX		[419]

aries.

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taurus.

EXPLANATORY LIST OF
ILLUSTRATIONS.

	page
1.—Queen Elizabeth in State costume, with the royal insignia, after the engraving by William Rogers (born in London, about 1545)	[Frontispiece]
2 to 13.—The signs of the Zodiac, after Robert Greene's "Francesco's Fortunes," 1590. Towards the end of this novel a palmer is asked by his host to leave a remembrance of his visit in his entertainer's house; the palmer engraves on an ivory arch verses and drawings illustrating at the same time, and in the same way as the signs of the Zodiac, both the course of the year and the course of human life [tail-pieces to all the chapters]	p. [9] et passim
14.—An Elizabethan Shepherdess, from a wood-block illustrating a ballad (the inscription added)	[23]
15.—Beginning of the unique MS. of "Beowulf," preserved in the British Museum	[31]
16.—Chaucer's pilgrims seated round the table of the "Tabard" at Southwark, a reproduction of Caxton's engraving in his second edition of the "Canterbury Tales," 1484	[45]
17.—Robert the devil on horseback (alias Romulus), being the frontispiece of several romances in verse published by Wynkyn de Worde, London, 1510 (?), 8vo. The history of Robert is illustrated throughout	[57]
18.—The knight of the swan, from the frontispiece of the metrical romance: "The Knight of the Swanne. Here beginneth the history of ye noble Helyas knyght of the swanne, newly translated out of frensshe," London, Copland, 1550 (?), 4to	[61]
19.—"Then went Guy to fayre Phelis." From the metrical romance "Guy of Warwick," London, 1550 (?), 4to, Sig. Cc. iij	[65]
20.—Drawing by Isaac Oliver (b. 1556) after an Italian model, from the original preserved in the British Museum; illustrative of the cultivation of Italian art by Englishmen in Tudor times	[69]
21.—Frontispiece to Harington's translation of Ariosto, London, 1591, fol. This engraving and the numerous copper-plates adorning this very fine book are usually said to be English. But these plates were in fact a product of Italian art, being the work of Girolamo Porro, of Padua; they are to be found in the Italian edition of Ariosto published at Venice in 1588, and in various other editions. The English engraver, Thomas Coxon (or Cockson), whose signature is to be seen at the bottom of the frontispiece, only drew the portrait of Harington in the space filled in the original by a figure of Peace. Coxon, according to the "Dictionary of National Biography" and other authorities, is supposed to have flourished from about 1609 to 1630 or 1636. The date on this plate (1st August, 1591), shows that he began to work nearly twenty years earlier. It must be added that this portrait of Harington has an Italian softness and elegance, and differs greatly in its style from the other portraits signed by Coxon (portrait of Samuel Daniel on the title-page of his Works, 1609; of John Taylor, "Workes," 1630, etc.). It is possible that Harington's portrait was merely drawn by Coxon, and engraved by an Italian	[77]
22.—How the knight Eurialus got secretly into his lady-love's chamber. From the German version of the history of the Lady Lucrece of Sienna, 1477, fol. (a copy in the British Museum)	[82]
23.—Queen Cleopatra as represented on the English stage in the eighteenth century: Mrs. Hartley in "All for Love"; Page's engraving, dated 1776, for Bell's "Theatre"	[97]
24.—Sketches made by Inigo Jones in Italy, 1614; from his sketch-book reproduced in fac-simile by the care of the Duke of Devonshire, London, 1832	[100]
25.—Persians standing as caryatides, from a drawing by Inigo Jones for the circular court projected at Whitehall, and reproduced by W. Kent: "The Drawings of Inigo Jones," London, 1835, 2 vols., fol.	[101]
26.—A dragon according to Topsell, "The historie of Serpents," London, 1608, fol., p. 153	[103]
27.—The "Ægyptian or land crocodile," according to Topsell's "Historie of Serpents," London, 1608, fol., p. 140	[109]
28.—A Hippopotamus taking its food, according to Topsell's "Historie of foure footed beastes," London, 1607, fol., p. 328	[113]
29.—"The true picture of the Lamia," ibid., p. 453	[117]
30.—"The boas," from Topsell's "Serpents," 1608, frontispiece	[121]
31.—The Great Sea-serpent, ibid., p. 236	[125]
32.—Knightly pastimes; Hawking; illustrative of Gerismond's life in the forest of Arden as described in Lodge's "Rosalynd"; from Turberville's "Booke of Faulconerie," London, 1575, 4to, frontispiece	[144]
33.—Another dragon from Topsail's "Serpents," 1608, p. 153	[145]
33A.—Robert Greene in his shroud, from Dickenson's "Greene in conceipt," 1598	[161]
34.—Yet another dragon, from Topsell's "Serpents," p. 153	[171]
35.—Velvet breeches and cloth breeches, from Greene's "Quip," 1592, frontispiece	[190]
36.—Preparing for the Hunt, from Turberville's "Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting," London, 1575, 4to, frontispiece	[205]
37.—Penshurst, Sidney's birthplace, from a drawing by M. G. du Thuit. "Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show Of touch or marble ... Thou hast thy walks for health as well as sport ... That taller tree which of a nut was set At his great birth, where all the Muses met." (Ben Jonson, "The Forest")	[217]
38.—A shepherd of Arcady, as seen on the title-page of various editions of Sidney's "Arcadia," e.g., the third, 1598	[242]
39.—A Princess of Arcady, ibid.	[243]
40.—Argalus and Parthenia reading a book in their garden; from Quarles' poem of "Argalus and Parthenia," London, 1656, 4to, p. 135	[265]
41.—"The renowned Argalus and Parthenia": "See the fond youth! he burns, he loves, he dies; He wishes as he pines and feeds his famish'd eyes." From "The unfortunate Lovers, the History of Argalus and Parthenia, in four books," London, 12mo, a chap-book of the eighteenth century. Frontispiece	[273]
42.—"How the two princesses, Pamela and her sister Philoclea, went to bath themselves in the river Ladon, accompanied with Zelmane and Niso: And how Zelmane combated with Amphialus for the paper and glove of the princess Philoclea, and what after hapned." From "The famous history of heroick acts ... being an abstract of Pembroke's Arcadia," London, 1701, 12mo, p. 31. Not without truth does the publisher state that the book is illustrated with "curious cuts, the like as yet not extant"	[275]
43.—"How the two illustrious princesses, Philoclea and Pamela, being Basilius's only daughters, were married to the two invincible princes, Pyrocles of Macedon and Musidorus of Thessalia: and of the glorious entertainments that graced the happy nuptials," from the same chap-book, p. 139	[277]
44.—An interior view of the Swan Theatre in the time of Shakespeare, from a drawing by John de Witt, 1596, recently discovered in the Utrecht library by M. K. T. Gaedertz, of Berlin. Reproduced as illustrative of Dekker's "Horne-booke," 1609 (infra, ch. vi. § 3). Spectators have not been represented. They must be supposed to fill the pit, "planities sive arena," where they remained standing in the open air, and the covered galleries. The more important people were seated on the stage. Actors, to perform their parts, came out of the two doors inscribed "mimorum ædes." The boxes above these doors, concerning which some doubts have been expressed, seem to be what was called "the Lords' room." "Let our gallant," says Dekker, "advance himself up to the throne of the stage. I meane not the Lords roome (which is now but stages suburbs): no, those boxes, by the iniquity of custome, conspiracy of waiting women and gentlemen ushers, that there sweat together, and the covetousness of sharers are contemptibly thrust into the reare, and much new satten is there dambd by being smothrd to death in darknesse. But on the very rushes, where the comedy is to daunce, yea and under the state of Cambises himselfe must our fethered Estridge be planted valiantly, because impudently, beating downe the mewes and hisses of opposed rascality" ("Works," ed. Grosart, vol. ii. p. 247)	[286]
45.—Elizabethan gaieties. The actor Kemp's dance to Norwich, from the frontispiece of "Kemps nine daies wonder performed in a from London to Norwich, containing the pleasure, paines and kind entertainment of William Kemp betweene London and that city ... written by himselfe to satisfie his friends," London, 1600, reprinted by Dyce, Camden Society, 1840, 4to	[287]
46.—Portrait of Nash, from "Tom Nash his ghost ... written by Thomas Nash his ghost" (no date). A copy in the British Museum	[326]
47.—Portrait of Dekker, from "Dekker his dreame," a poem by the same, London, 1620, frontispiece	[333]
48.—Heroical deeds in an heroical novel. "Pandion slayes Clausus," from "Pandion and Amphigenia," by J. Crowne, London, 1665, 8vo	[347]
49.—Sir Guy of Warwick addressing a skull, in a churchyard, from "The history of Guy, earl of Warwick," 1750? (a chap-book), p. 18	[350]
50.—Burial of Sir Guy of Warwick, from the same chap-book	[351]
51.—A map of the "tendre" country. The original map was inserted by Mdlle. de Scudéry in her novel of "Clélie," Paris, 1654, et seq., 10 vols., 8vo, vol. i. p. 399. It was a map drawn by Clelia and sent by her to Herminius, and which "showed how to go from New Friendship to Tender." It was reproduced in the English translations of "Clélie"; the plate we give is taken from the edition of 1678	[359]
52.—Endymion plunged into the river in the presence of Diana, after an engraving by C. de Pas, in "L'Endimion de Gombauld," Paris, 1624, 8vo, p. 223. The French plates were sent to England and used for the English version of this novel: "Endimion, an excellent fancy ... interpreted by Richard Hurst," London, 1639, 8vo	[367]
53.—Frontispiece to Part IV. of the translation of La Calprenède's "Cléopatre," by Robert Loveday: "Hymen's præludia or Loves master-piece," London, 1652, et seq., 12mo. This frontispiece was drawn according to the instructions of Loveday himself, "Loveday's Letters," Letter lxxxiii.	[371]
54.—A fashionable conversation, from the frontispiece of "La fausse Clélie," by P. de Subligny, Amsterdam, 1671, 12mo. An enlarged plate was made after this one, to serve as frontispiece to the English version of the same work: "The mock Clelia, being a comical history of French gallantries ... in imitation of Don Quixote," London, 1678, 8vo	[375]
55.—Conversations and telling of stories at the house of the Duchess of Newcastle, from a drawing by Abr. a Diepenbeck, engraved for her book: "Natures pictures drawn by Fancies pencil to the life," London, 1656, fol.	[379]
56.—Moorish heroes, from an engraving in Settle's drama: "The Empress of Morocco," London, 1673, 4to	[393]
57.—A poet's dream realized, from the English version of Sorel's "Berger Extravagant," "The extravagant Shepherd," London, 1653, fol., translated by John Davies. The usual description of the heroine of a novel has been taken to the letter by the engraver, who represents Love sitting on her forehead, and lilies and roses on her cheeks. Two suns have taken the place of her eyes, her teeth are actual pearls, &c.	[401]

gemini.

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an elizabethan shepherdess.

The English Novel in the
Time of Shakespeare.

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