The ocean of literature is without limit. How then shall we be able to perform a voyage, even to a moderate distance, if we waste our time in dalliance on the shore? Our only hope is in exertion. Let our only reward be that of industry.—Ringelbergius.
HE student of English literature has indeed embarked upon a limitless ocean. A lifetime of study will serve only to make him acquainted with parts of that great expanse which lies open before him. He should pursue his explorations earnestly, and with the inquiring spirit of a true discoverer. His thirst for knowledge should be unquenchable; he should long always for that mind food which brings the right kind of mind growth. He should not rest satisfied with merely superficial attainments, but should strive for that thoroughness of knowledge without which there can be neither excellence nor enjoyment.
English literature is not to be learned from manuals. They are only helps,—charts, buoys, light-houses, if you will call them so; or they serve to you the purposes of guide-books. What do you think of the would-be tourist who stays at home and studies his Baedeker with the foolish thought that he is actually seeing the countries which the book describes? And yet I have known students, and not a few teachers, do a thing equally as foolish. With a Morley, or a Shaw, or even a Brooke in their hands, and a few names and dates at their tongues’ ends, they imagine themselves viewing the great ocean of literature, ploughing its surface and exploring its depths, when in reality they are only wasting their time “in dalliance on the shore.”
English literature does not consist in a mere array of names and dates and short biographical sketches of men who have written books. Biography is biography; literature “is a record of the best thoughts.” But the former is frequently studied in place of the latter. “For once that we take down our Milton, and read a book of that ‘voice,’ as Wordsworth says, ‘whose sound is like the sea,’ we take up fifty times a magazine with something about Milton, or about Milton’s grandmother, or a book stuffed with curious facts about the houses in which he lived, and the juvenile ailments of his first wife.”[23] Instead of becoming acquainted at first hand with books in which are stored the energies of the past, we content ourselves with knowing only something about the men who wrote them. Instead of admiring with our own eyes the architectural beauties of St. Paul’s Cathedral, we read a biography of Sir Christopher Wren.
Again, it must be borne in mind that literature is one thing, and the history of literature is another. The study of the latter, however important, cannot be substituted for that of the former; yet it is not desirable to separate the two. To acquire any serviceable knowledge of a book, you will be greatly aided by knowing under what peculiar conditions it was conceived and produced,—the history of the country, the manners of the people, the status of morals and politics at the time it was written. Between history and literature there is a mutual relationship which should not be overlooked. “A book is the offspring of the aggregate intellect of humanity,” and it gives back to humanity, in the shape of new ideas and new combinations of old ideas, not only all that which it has derived from it, but more,—increased intellectual vitality, and springs of action hitherto unknown.
In the study of literature, one should begin with an author and with a subject not too difficult to understand. A beginner will be likely to find but little comfort in Chaucer or Spenser, or even in Emerson; but after he has worked up to them he may study them with unbounded delight. For a ready understanding and correct appreciation of the great masterpieces of English literature, a knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology and history is almost indispensable. The student will find the courses of historical reading given in a former chapter of this book of much value in supplementing his literary studies.
The great works of the world’s masterminds should be studied together, with reference to the similarity of their subject-matter. For example, the reading of Shakspeare will give occasion to the study of dramatic literature in all its forms; the reading of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” will introduce us to the great epics, and to heroic poetry in general; Sir Walter Scott’s “Lay of the Last Minstrel” will lead naturally to the romance literature of modern and mediæval times; Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” fitly illustrate the story-telling phase of poetry; the study of lyric poetry may centre around the old ballads, the poems of Robert Burns, and the religious hymns of our language; Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” introduces us to allegory, and Milton’s “Lycidas” to elegiac and pastoral poetry; and to know the best specimens of argumentative prose, we begin with the speeches of Daniel Webster and end with the orations of Demosthenes.
The following schemes for the study of different departments of English literature have been tested both with private students and with classes at school. Of course, many of the books mentioned are to be used chiefly as works of reference; some of them may be conveniently omitted in case it is desirable to abridge the course, and others may be exchanged for similar works upon the same subject.
SCHEME I.
For the Study of Dramatic Literature.
LITERATURE.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
For manuals use any or all of the following works—
Shaw’s Manual of EnglishLiterature.
Morley’s First Sketch ofEnglish Literature.
Baldwin’s English Literatureand Literary Criticism.
Brooke’s Primer of EnglishLiterature.
Welch’s Development ofEnglish Literature.
Richardson’s FamiliarTalks on English Literature.
English histories for studyand reference—
Green’s History of the EnglishPeople.
Knight’s History of England.
Yonge’s Young Folks’ England.
To be read—
“Rise and Progress of the EnglishDrama,” in White’sShakspeare, vol. i.
“Origin and Growth of theDrama in England,” inHudson’s Life, Art, andCharacters of Shakspeare,vol. i.
“Life of Shakspeare” in eitherof the works just named.
To be referred to—
Dowden’s Shakspere Primer.
Abbott’s ShakspearianGrammar.
Taine’sEnglish Literature,the chapter on “Shakspeare.”
Study the history of Englandfrom 1066 to 1580.
Write an essay on one of thefollowing subjects—
1. Miracles and Mysteries.
2. Popular Amusements of theMiddle Ages.
3. The Church and the EarlyDrama.
4. The Social Condition ofEngland in the Time ofQueen Elizabeth.
5. The Early Theatres.
To be studied—
I. The Merchant OfVenice.
I. Study the history and topographyof Venice.
Write essays on various subjectssuggested by the play
II. Coriolanus or JuliusCæsar.
II. Read Plutarch’s Life ofCoriolanus or of JuliusCæsar.
Study the peculiarities ofRoman life and manners.
Refer to Mommsen’s Rome.
III. Richard III.
III. Study the history of Richard III.as related by trustworthy historians.Write an essay in his defence.
IV. A Midsummer Night’sDream.
IV. Study the sources fromwhich this play has beenderived. Write essayson subjects suggestedby it.
V. King Lear or Macbeth.
V. Read Geoffrey of Monmouth’saccount of KingLear. Learn what youcan of the historical legendsof early Britain andScotland.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these plays.
VI. Hamlet.
Books for study and referencewhile studying Shakspeare—
Hazlitt’s Characters ofShakspeare’s Plays.
Coleridge’s Literary Remains.
Leigh Hunt’s Imaginationand Fancy.
Lamb’s Essay on Shakspeare’sTragedies.
Dowden’s Mind and Art ofShakspeare.
Weiss’s Wit, Humor, andShakspeare.
Morgan’s The ShakspearianMyth.
Also, the various works of theShakspeare Society and ofthe New Shakspere Society.
VI. Hamlet. Study thesources of the play.Write essays. Discussthe question of Hamlet’smadness.
Write an essay on Shakspeare’sworks, his life, his art.
Discuss the Baconian theoryof the authorship of Shakspeare’splays.
General Study of the Drama.
1. The Greek Drama.—Referto, or read,—
Mahaffy’s Greek Literature.
Schlegel’s Dramatic Literature.
Copleston’s Æschylus.
Church’s Stories from theGreek Tragedians.
Mrs. Browning’s translationof Prometheus Bound.
Donne’s Euripides.
Froude’s essay,—Sea Studies.
Donaldson’s Theatre of theGreeks.
1. The Greek Drama.—Studythe history ofGreece from some brieftext-book like Smith’sSmaller History. Studythe life and manners ofthe Greeks by referring toBecker’s Charicles, orMahaffy’s Old GreekLife.
Refer to Grote and Curtius.
Read the old Greek Myths.
Write essays on the GreekStage, the Greek Tragedy, andkindred subjects.
Discuss the subjects suggestedby reading “PrometheusBound.”
2. The Roman Drama.—Seethe following works—
Schlegel’s Dramatic Literature.
Simcox’s History of LatinLiterature.
Quackenbos’s Classical Literature.
2. Refer to Mommsen’s Rome,especially the chapters relatingto literature and art.
3. Mysteries and Miracle-Plays.—Referto—
“An Essay on the Origin of theEnglish Stage,” in Percy’sReliques of Ancient EnglishPoetry.
Warton’s History of EnglishPoetry.
Morley’s English Writers;and the essays of White andHudson, already named.
3. Review the history of Englandfrom 1066 to 1580,with special reference tothe social, religious, andpolitical progress of thepeople.
4. The Elizabethan Drama.—Seethe works on Shakspeare,mentioned above;also,—
Whipple’s Literature of theAge of Elizabeth.
Hazlitt’s Age of Elizabeth.
Lamb’s Notes on the ElizabethanDramatists.
Ward’s English DramaticLiterature.
Study selections from—
Jonson’s Every Man in hisHumor.
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus,or Tamburlaine.
Also, selections from Webster,Beaumont and Fletcher, andothers.
4. Subjects for special study—
The history of the reigns ofElizabeth and James I.
The causes and character ofthe Renaissance in England.
Character of the Elizabethandramatists.
Causes of the decline of dramaticliterature.
The character of James I.
The Puritans and their influenceupon the manners ofthe English people.
The Puritans and the drama.
Prynne’s Histrio-Mastix.
The reign of Charles I.
5. Study Milton’s Comus.
Read Milton’s Samson Agonistes.
5. Study the history of OliverCromwell and PuritanEngland. Suppression ofthe drama.
Read Macaulay’s Essay onMilton.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
Discuss the character of thePuritans.
6. The Drama of the Restoration.—Read—
Hazlitt’s English ComicWriters.
Johnson’s Life of Dryden.
Thackeray’s English Humorists.
Macaulay’s Essay on theComic Dramatists of theRestoration.
Ward’s History of the Drama.
6. Study the state of society atthe time of the Restoration.
The history of England from1660 to 1760.
Write essays on subjectsrelating to the drama or thepublic manners of this period.
Jeremy Collier’s work.
7. The Later Drama.—Seethe following—
Fitzgerald’s Life of DavidGarrick.
The Life and DramaticWorks of R. B. Sheridan.
Lives of the Kembles.
Macready’s Reminiscences.
Lewes’s Actors and the Artof Acting.
Hutton’s Plays and Players.
Goldsmith’s She Stoops toConquer.
Sheridan’s School for Scandal.
Bulwer’s Richelieu.
Tennyson’s Drama of QueenMary.
Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound.
Swinburne’s Atalanta inCalydon.
Robert Browning’s Dramas.
7. Study the history of Englandto the close of the eighteenthcentury.
Write an essay on the “Influenceof the Drama.”
Discuss the means by whichthe stage may be made beneficialas a means of popular education.
Study the character of thedrama of our own times, andhow it may be improved.
SCHEME II.
For the Study of Epic Poetry.
LITERATURE.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
For manuals, etc., seeScheme I.
To be studied—
Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Read—
Macaulay’s Essay on Milton.
Dr. Johnson’s Life of Milton.
Stopford Brooke’s Milton.
Mark Pattison’s Milton.
Hazlitt’s Essay on “Shakspeareand Milton,” in EnglishPoets.
Hazlitt’s Essay on Milton’sEve.
De Quincey’s Essay on Miltonvs. Southey and Landor.
Himes’s A Study of ParadiseLost.
The Spectator; the numbersissued on Saturdays fromJan. 5 to May 3, 1712.
Masson’s Introduction to Milton’sPoetical Works.
Gosse’s Essay on Milton andVondel, in “Studies inNorthern Literature.”
Read Byron, by John Nichol,in “English Men of Letters.”
Read Matthew Arnold’s Introductionto the SelectedPoems of Lord Byron.
Compare Byron’s poetrywith that of Sir Walter Scott,
1st. As to matter.
2d. As to style.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
Discuss reasons why LordByron’s poetry is much lesspopular than formerly.
Study selections fromMoore’s Lalla Rookh.
Read Hazlitt’s criticisms onMoore, in his “English Poets.”
Also, W. M. Rossetti’s Introductionto the Poems ofThomas Moore.
Study, from whatever sourcesare available, Oriental life andmanners as portrayed inLalla Rookh. Write essayson the same.
Study selections from Morris’sSigurd the Volsung; alsofrom The Earthly Paradiseby the same author.
Study the myths of thenorth, referring to Mallet’sNorthern Antiquities and Anderson’sNorse Mythology.
SCHEME IV.
For the Study of Story-Telling Poetry.
LITERATURE.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
Use manuals for referenceas indicated in Scheme I. Tothese may be added Underwood’sAmerican Literature,and White’s Story of EnglishLiterature.
Use for reference, Green’sHistory of the English People,or Knight’s History of England;also, some standard historyof America.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Study the Prologue andeither the Knightes Tale orthe Clerkes Tale.
Refer to, or read,—
The Riches of Chaucer, byCharles Cowden Clarke.
Lowell’s Essay on Chaucer,in “My Study Windows.”
Carpenter’s English of theFourteenth Century.
Chaucer’s Canterbury TalesExplained, by Saunders.
Canterbury Chimes, by Storrand Turner.
Stories from Old EnglishPoetry, by Mrs. Richardson.
Study the history of Englandin the fourteenth century, andespecially the social condition ofthe people during that period.
Make some acquaintancewith the great Italian writerswho flourished about this time,and exerted a marked influenceupon Chaucer’s work.
Refer to—
Sismondi’s Literature ofSouthern Europe;
Campbell’s Life of Petrarch;
Botta’s Dante as Philosopher,Patriot, and Poet; etc.
Read some of Scott’s shorternarrative poems,—
Rokeby.
The Bridal of Triermain.
Harold the Dauntless.
For criticisms and essays onScott, see Scheme III.
Study the historical subjects,suggested by these poems.
See Parallel Studies in connectionwith Scott’s longerpoems, Scheme III.
Study The Prisoner of Chillon,by Lord Byron.
Read Wordsworth’s story-poems,—
The White Doe of Rylstone;
Peter Bell;
We are Seven; etc.
Study Coleridge’s The AncientMariner, and Keats’sThe Eve of St. Agnes.
See criticisms on Byron, inTaine’s English Literature.
Read Hazlitt’s estimate ofWordsworth, in The Spiritof the Age.
De Quincey on Wordsworth’spoetry, in Literary Criticism.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
For criticisms on the poetslast read, refer to—
Hazlitt’s English Poets.
Swinburne’s Studies and Essays.
Shairp’s Studies in Poetry.
Lord Houghton’s Life ofKeats.
Matthew Arnold’s Essayon Keats, in Ward’s EnglishPoets.
Carlyle’s Reminiscences.
Study the history of the Englishpeople from 1760 to 1820,with special reference to theirsocial condition, and the progressof literature.
Write essays on suggestedsubjects.
Read Campbell’s Gertrudeof Wyoming.
Read selections from Mrs.Hemans.
Read Mrs. Browning’s LadyGeraldine’s Courtship; alsosome of her shorter poems.
Study Tennyson’s poems,—
The Princess.
Maud.
Enoch Arden.
Also his shorter poems.
Read the historical accountof the Massacre of Wyoming.
Read biographies of Mrs.Hemans and Mrs. Browning.Discuss reasons why Mrs. Hemans’poetry is no longer popular.
Consult—
Stedman’s Victorian Poets.
Hadley’s Essays.
Kingsley’s Miscellanies.
Study at least two poems inMorris’s Earthly Paradise.
Study the classical and Norselegends upon which these storiesare based.
Study Longfellow’s poems,—
Evangeline.
Miles Standish.
Hiawatha.
Tales of a Wayside Inn.
The Skeleton in Armor.
Read Underwood’s Life ofLongfellow.
See—
Bancroft’s History of theUnited States, vol. iv.
Abbott’s Life of Miles Standish.
Study other historical references,etc., suggested by thesepoems.
Study the story-poems ofJohn G. Whittier: Maud Muller;Flud Ireson; etc.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
Bancroft’s History of the United States, vol. iv.
Abbott’s Life of Miles Standish.
SCHEME V.
For the Study of Allegory.
LITERATURE.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
Æsop’s Fables.
Oriental parables and fables.
Study Bunyan’s Pilgrim’sProgress, as being the mostpopular allegory in the Englishlanguage.
Read—
Macaulay’s Essay on JohnBunyan.
Cheever’s Lectures on Bunyan.
Rhetorical definition of allegory.The distinction betweenfables and parables.
Study the history of the riseand progress of Puritanism inEngland.
Refer to Green’s History ofthe English People, and toTaine’s English Literature.
Anglo-Saxon parables andallegories. The growth of theallegory.
The Vision of Piers Plowman.
The great French allegory, theRoman de la Rose.
Chaucer’s Romaunt of theRose.
Other allegorical poems usuallyascribed to Chaucer,—
The Court of Love.
The Cuckow and the Nightingale.
The Parlament of Foules.
The Flower and the Leaf.
Refer to Taine’s EnglishLiterature.
Notice, next, Dunbar’s TheThistle and the Rose; also,The Golden Terge, and theDance of the Seven Sins.
Stephen Hawes’s GrandAmour and la Bell Pucell.
Study selected passagesfrom Spenser’s Faerie Queene; alsothe general plan of the poem.
See—
Lowell’s Among My Books.
Craik’s Spenser and his Poetry.
Consult—
Morley’s English Writers.
Warton’s History of EnglishPoetry.
George P. Marsh’s Lectureson the Origin and Historyof the English Language.
Skeats’s Specimens of EnglishLiterature.
Study the social condition ofEngland in the thirteenth,fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.Refer to the historiesalready mentioned; also to—
Pearson’s History of Englandin the Fourteenth Century.
Lanier’s Boy’s Froissart, orthe abridged edition of Froissart’sChronicles.
Towle’s History of Henry V.
Study the social and literaryhistory of England during thesixteenth century.
Refer to Froude’s Historyof England.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
Read—
Phineas Fletcher’s PurpleIsland.
Thomson’s Castle of Indolence.
Lowell’s Vision of SirLaunfal.
Gay’s Fables.
Burns’s The Twa Dogs, andThe Brigs of Ayr.
Abou Ben Adhem.
Discuss the value of allegoryas an aid in education.
Why has the taste for allegorysteadily declined?
Write in plain prose the lessonlearned in each of the fablesstudied.
What relationship exists betweenfables and myths?
SCHEME VI.
For the Study of Didactic Poetry.
LITERATURE.
REFERENCES.
Dryden’s Religio Laici; andThe Hind and the Panther.
Study selected passages fromPope’s Essay on Criticism,and Essay on Man.
Young’s Night Thoughts.
Johnson’s Vanity of HumanWishes.
Akenside’s Pleasures of theImagination.
Warton’s Pleasures of Melancholy.
Rogers’ Pleasures of Memory.
Campbell’s Pleasures ofHope.
Grahame’s The Sabbath.
Study selected passages fromWordsworth’s Excursion.
Select and study some of thebest-known shorter didacticpoems in the language.
Refer to—
Hazlitt’s English Poets;Lowell’s Among My Books(essay on Dryden); Macaulay’sEssay on Dryden; andTaine’s English Literature.
Johnson’s Lives of the Poets;Stephen’s Hours in a Library;De Quincey’s Literatureof the Eighteenth Century.
Macaulay’s Essay on SamuelJohnson; Boswell’s Life ofDr. Johnson; Carlyle’s Essayon Boswell’s Life ofJohnson; Stephen’s Johnson,in “English Men of Letters.”
Whipple’s Essay on Wordsworth,in “Literature and Life.”
Shairp’s Studies in Poetryand Philosophy; Hazlitt’sSpirit of the Age; CharlesLamb’s Essay on Wordsworth’sExcursion.
SCHEME VII.
For the Study of Lyric Poetry.
LITERATURE.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
I.
The Early Ballads.
Ballads of Robin Hood.
Ballads of the Scottish Border.
Modern Ballads.
Read histories and stories ofthe mediæval times.
Refer to Percy’s Reliques;Aytoun’s Scottish Ballads; Scott’s Minstrelsy of the ScottishBorder.
II.
Songs of Patriotism.
Read and study the best-knownpatriotic poems in thelanguage.
Study the historical events,or other circumstances whichled to the production of thesepoems.
III.
Battle Songs.
The battle scenes in Scott’spoems. Burns: “Scots whahae wi’ Wallace bled.” Macaulay’sBattle of Ivry, Naseby,Horatius at the Bridge.Tennyson’s Charge of theLight Brigade. Drayton’sBattle of Agincourt.
Study the historical eventswhich gave rise to these poems.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
IV.
Religions Songs and Hymns.
George Herbert’s Temple.Read selections from Crashawand Vaughan. StudyMilton’s Hymn on the Nativity, and selections fromKeble’s Christian Year.Read Pope’s UniversalPrayer, and The DyingChristian; also selectionsfrom Moore’s Sacred Songs,Byron’s Hebrew Melodies,and Milman’s Hymns forChurch Service.
For specimens and extractsof lyric poetry of every class,consult Ward’s English Poets;Appleton’s Library of BritishPoets; The Family Library ofBritish Poets; Emerson’s Parnassus;Chambers’ Cyclopædia ofEnglish Literature;Bryant’s Library of Poetryand Song; and Piatt’s AmericanPoetry and Art.
V.
Love Lyrics.
The Songs of the Troubadours.Wyatt’s Poems.Marlowe’s Passionate Shepherd.Raleigh’s TheNymph’s Reply. RobertHerrick’s Poems. Selectionsfrom the poems of Sir JohnSuckling. The love poemsof Robert Burns. Coleridge’sGenevieve. Selectionsfrom other poets.
Consult Miss Prescott’sTroubadours and Trouvères;Warton’s History of EnglishPoetry. Study the biographiesof Marlowe, Raleigh, Herrick,and Suckling. Read Carlyle’sEssay on Robert Burns; andPrincipal Shairp’s Burns, in“English Men of Letters.”
VI.
Sonnets.
The origin of the sonnet. Selectionsfrom the sonnets ofWyatt, Spenser, Sidney,Shakspeare, Drayton, Drummond,Milton, Wordsworth,Keats, and others. Mrs.Browning’s Sonnets fromthe Portuguese.
See Leigh Hunt’s Book ofthe Sonnet; Dennis’s EnglishSonnets; French’s DublinAfternoon Lectures; Massey’sShakspeare’s Sonnets; HenryBrown’s Sonnets of Shakspeare Solved; Tomlinson’sThe Sonnet: its Origin,Structure, and Place inPoetry.
VII.
Odes.
Dryden’s Alexander’s Feast.
Pope’s Ode on St. Cecilia’sDay.
Collins’s Ode on the Passions,and other odes.
Gray’s Ode on theProgress ofPoesy, and The Bard.
Keats’s Sleep and Poetry.
Shelley’s Ode to Liberty, andTo the West Wind.
Coleridge’s Ode on France,and To the Departing Year.
Wordsworth’s Ode on theIntimations of Immortality.
See Husk’s Account of theMusical Celebrations on St.Cecilia’s Day, in the Sixteenth,Seventeenth, and EighteenthCenturies.
Study the construction of theode. Compare the English odewith the Greek and Latinode. Learn something of theodes of Horace.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
VIII.
Elegies.
Study Milton’s Lycidas.Read selections from Spenser’sAstrophel; Shelley’sAdonais; Tennyson’s InMemoriam; Ode on the Deathof the Duke of Wellington;Pope’s Elegy on an UnfortunateLady. Study Gray’s Elegyin a Country Churchyard;The Dirge in Cymbeline; andCollins’s Dirge in Cymbeline.Read Shenstone’s Elegies;Cowper’s The Castaway;and Bryant’s Thanatopsis.
For references to Milton andSpenser, see other schemes.For Shelley’s Adonais, seeHutton’s Essays. See F. W.Robertson’s Analysis of InMemoriam. See also, for subjectsconnected with thesestudies, Roscoe’s Essays; Hazlitt’sEnglish Poets; Dr. Johnson’sLife of Gray; E. W.Gosse’s Gray, in “EnglishMen of Letters;” Parke Godwin’sLife of William CullenBryant.
IX.
Miscellaneous Lyrics.
Study selections from thepoems of Burns, Ramsay, andFergusson; Whittier, Bryant,and Longfellow; WilliamBlake; Mrs. Browning, Tennyson,and Swinburne; and others,both British and American.
Refer to the manuals elsewherementioned.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
Discuss the distinctive qualitiesof Lyric Poetry, and theplace which it occupies in EnglishLiterature.
SCHEME VIII.
For the Study of Descriptive Poetry, Etc.
LITERATURE.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
Study selections from thepoems of William Cullen Bryant.
Study Whittier’s Snow-Bound,and other descriptive poems.
Study Milton’s L’Allegroand Il Penseroso.
Study selections from Thomson’sSeasons, and Cowper’sTask.
Study Goldsmith’s Traveller,and The Deserted Village;also, Shenstone’s Schoolmistress.
Find and read characteristicdescriptive passages in thepoems of Scott, Byron, Shelley,Wordsworth, Keats, Browning,and others. CompareScott’s descriptions with thedescriptions in Pope’s WindsorForest and in Denham’sCooper’s Hill.
Select and study descriptivepassages from Chaucer’s Poems,and from Spenser’s FaerieQueene.
Read selections from Gay’sRural Sports, and from Bloomfield’sFarmer’s Boy.
See Godwin’s Life of WilliamCullen Bryant; andUnderwood’s biography ofJohn G. Whittier. See StopfordBrooke’s Milton; andMark Pattison’s Milton, in“English Men of Letters;”Irving’s Life of Goldsmith;Thackeray’s English Humoristsof the Eighteenth Century;William Black’s Goldsmith, in“English Men of Letters;”Hazlitt’s English Poets; andDe Quincey’s Literature of theEighteenth Century.
Read Macaulay’s Essay onMoore’s Life of Byron.
Refer to Goldwin Smith’sCowper, in “English Men ofLetters;” also to CharlesCowden Clarke’s Life of Cowper.
See references to Chaucerand Spenser elsewhere given.
Pastoral Poetry.
Study Milton’s Arcades, andselections from Pope’s Pastorals;also from Spenser’sShepherd’s Calendar.
See Drayton’s Shepherd’sGarland; Browne’s Britannia’sPastorals; Jonson’s SadShepherd; Fletcher’s FaithfulShepherdess; Gay’s Shepherd’sWeek; Ramsay’s GentleShepherd; and Shenstone’sPastoral Ballads.
Read Pope’s Essay on PastoralPoetry.
Learn something about Theocritusand his Idyls, andabout the Eclogues of Virgil.A translation of the formermay be found in Bohn’s ClassicalLibrary. The latesttranslation of the Eclogues isthat by Wilstach.
SCHEME IX.
For the Study of Satire, Wit, and Humor.
LITERATURE.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
Dean Swift, the great Englishsatirist. Study his lifeand character. See Forster’sLife of Swift; or LeslieStephen’s Swift, in “EnglishMen of Letters.”
Read selections from Gulliver’sTravels, and the Tale ofa Tub. Read, also, his ModestProposal.
Daniel Defoe’s SatiricalEssays: The Shortest Waywith Dissenters, etc.
See Minto’s Defoe, in “EnglishMen of Letters.”
Rabelais, the great satiristof France. Read Besant’sFrench Humorists; andRabelais, by the same author.Refer also to VanLaun’s History of FrenchLiterature.
Voltaire, the third of thegreat modern satirists.Read Parton’s Life of Voltaire;or Voltaire, by JohnMorley; or Colonel Hamley’sVoltaire, in “ForeignClassics for English Readers.”
The origin and growth ofsatirical literature in England.
Satirical literature in Rome.
John Skelton’s Satires. SeeWarton’s History of EnglishPoetry, and Taine’s EnglishLiterature.
Barclay’s Shyp of Fooles.See Warton’s History.
The Satires of Surrey andWyatt. See Hallam’s Literary History, and Chalmers’Collection of the Poets.
Gascoigne’s The Steele Glass.
Donne’s Satires. See Pope’sThe Satires of Dr. DonneVersified.
Hall’s Virgidemiarum. SeeWarton’s History, and Campbell’sSpecimens of the EnglishPoets.
Study selected passages fromButler’s Hudibras.
Refer to Hazlitt’s ComicWriters, and Leigh Hunt’sWit and Wisdom.
Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel,and the publicationswhich followed it.
The great poetical satirists ofancient times,—Horace andJuvenal. See Lord Lytton’stranslation of the Epodesand Satires of Horace; andDryden’s Imitations of Juvenal.Dr. Johnson’s Londonand The Vanity of Human Wishes are alsoimitations of Juvenal. SeeDryden’s Essay on Satire.
To understand the satires ofHall, Butler, Dryden, andPope, it is absolutely necessaryto be well acquainted with thehistory and social condition ofEngland during the seventeenthcentury.
Study Green’s History ofthe English People.
Study the political agitationsin England just preceding theRevolution of 1688.
Dryden’s MacFlecknoe.
Pope’s Dunciad.
Byron’s English Bards andScotch Reviewers.
Lowell’s Fable for Critics.
Compare these four personalsatires, and write essays on thesubjects suggested by theirstudy.
Pope’s Moral Essays.
Swift’s Satirical Poems.
The humor of Fielding, Smollett,and Goldsmith, as exhibitedin their writings.
Chatterton’s Prophecy.
Read Burns’ Holy Willie’sPrayer, and the Holy Fair.
Read Thackeray’s Humoristsof the Eighteenth Century,and Hazlitt’s Comic Writers.
Study the social condition ofEngland in the eighteenthcentury.
Sydney Smith. See theWit and Wisdom of SydneySmith (1861).
The Fudge Family in Paris,by Thomas Moore.
The Humorous Essays ofCharles Lamb.
Thomas Carlyle’s SartorResartus, and Latter-DayPamphlets. Study selections.
Study the political agitationsin England during the first halfof the present century. Referto Knight’s History of England,and to Justin McCarthy’sHistory of Our Own Times.Miss Martineau’s History ofthe Thirty Years’ Peace maybe read with profit.
Write essays on subjects suggestedby these studies.
Thackeray as a humorist.Read his Irish Sketch-Book,and selections from the Bookof Snobs, but especially observehis power in VanityFair.
Read and study Dr. Holmes’Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.
Study the true distinctionsbetween Wit, Humor, andSatire; and select from whatyou have read a number of illustrativeexamples.
Discuss questions which mayarise from these studies; andwrite essays on the same.
Read Lowell’s Biglow Papers.
Read selections from MarkTwain and other living Americanhumorists.
Compare the humor of thepresent day with that of thelast generation. Read selectionsfrom Irving’s SketchBook, and Knickerbocker’sNew York.
Read Burns’ Tam O’Shanter;and selections from Hood,John G. Saxe, and others.
Study the biographies ofIrving, Lowell, Holmes, MarkTwain, Saxe, and other Americanauthors whose works havebeen noticed in this scheme.
SCHEME X.
For the Study of English Prose Fiction.
General Works of Reference.
LITERATURE.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
Dunlop’s History of Fiction.
Jeaffreson’s Novels andNovelists.
Masson’s British Novelistsand their Styles.
Tuckerman’s History ofEnglish Prose Fiction.
The historical works and alsothe literary manuals mentionedin Scheme IV. should be athand for constant reference.
I.
The First Romances.
Sidney’s Arcadia.
Lyly’s Euphues.
Greene’s Pandosto, or the Triumph of Time.
The Novels of Thomas Nash.
Study the conditions of lifeand thought in England underwhich these first attempts atthe writing of prose romancewere made.
II.
Fabulous Voyages and Travels.
Godwin’s Man in the Moon.
Hall’s Mundus Alter et Idem.
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels;—readselections.
Study Robinson Crusoe.
The Adventures of PeterWilkins.
Edgar A. Poe’s Narrative ofArthur Gordon Pym.
See Collins’ Lucian, in “AncientClassics for EnglishReaders,” for an account ofLucian’s Veracious History.
Read the voyage of Gargantuaby Rabelais; or, better,consult Besant’s Rabelais.
Read Minto’s Defoe, in“English Men of Letters.”
See Forster’s Life of DeanSwift; Scott’s Memoir ofDean Swift; and Minto’sManual of English Prose.
III.
Romances of the Supernatural.
Walpole’s The Castle ofOtranto.
Mrs. Radcliffe’s Romances.
Godwin’s St. Leon.
Bulwer’s Zanoni.
Mrs. Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Lewis’s The Monk.
See Tuckerman’s Literatureof Fiction (an essay); C. KeganPaul’s Life of WilliamGodwin; Macaulay’s Essay onHorace Walpole; Miss Kavanagh’sEnglish Women ofLetters.
IV.
Oriental Romances
Beckford’s Vathek.
Hope’s Anastasius.
The Adventures of HajjiBaba.
V.
Historical Romances.
Miss Porter’s ScottishChiefs.
Scott’s Waverley Novels.
The Novels of G. P. R.James.
Bulwer’s Last Days of Pompeii;Rienzi; Harold; TheLast of the Barons.
Lockhart’s Valerius.
Kingsley’s Hypatia.
George Eliot’s Romola.
See Lockhart’s Life ofScott; Stephen’s Hours in aLibrary; Carlyle’s Essay onSir Walter Scott; Shaw’sManual of English Literature;Hutton’s Scott, in “EnglishMen of Letters;” NassauSenior’s Essays on Fiction;The Life of Edward Bulwer-Lytton,by his son, the presentLord Lytton.
VI.
Novels of Social Life, etc.
Richardson’s Novels.
Fielding’s Tom Jones.
Smollett’s Novels.
Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.
Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield.
Miss Burney’s Novels.
Godwin’s Caleb Williams.
Miss Edgeworth’s Novels.
Scott’s Guy Mannering; The Heart of Mid-Lothian; The Bride of Lammermoor; The Antiquary; etc.
Miss Austen’s Works.
Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.
Dickens’s Pickwick Papers.
Other Novels of Dickens andThackeray.
Charlotte Brontë’s JaneEyre.
Bulwer’s Novels.
Disraeli’s Vivian; and Lothair.
Charles Kingsley’s Novels.
George Eliot’s Works.
See Stephen’s Hours in aLibrary; Hazlitt’s EnglishNovelists; Thackeray’s EnglishHumorists of the EighteenthCentury; Irving’s Lifeof Goldsmith; Macaulay’s Essayon Madame d’Arblay;Miss Kavanagh’s English Womenof Letters; James T.Fields’ Yesterdays with Authors;Horne’s New Spirit ofthe Age; John Forster’s Lifeof Charles Dickens; Hannay’sStudies on Thackeray; Hannay’sCharacters and Sketches;Anthony Trollope’s Thackeray,in “English Men ofLetters;” Taine’s EnglishLiterature, vol. iv.; Mrs.Gaskell’s Life of CharlotteBrontë; Miss Martineau’s BiographicalSketches; Thackeray’sRoundabout Papers;Life of Charles BrockdenBrown, in Sparks’ “AmericanBiography;” Griswold’s Prose
American Fiction—
Charles Brockden Brown’sWieland, and other Novels.
Cooper’s Novels.
James Kirke Paulding.
John P. Kennedy.
William Gilmore Simms.
Hawthorne’s Works.
The later and living novelists.
Writers of America; Prescott’sMiscellaneous Essays;J. T. Fields’ Hawthorne; H.A. Page’s Life of Hawthorne;Lathrop’s Study of Hawthorne;Roscoe’s Essays;Hawthorne, by Henry James,in “English Men of Letters;”Cooke’s George Eliot: a CriticalStudy of her Life, Writings,and Philosophy; (Round-TableSeries) George Eliot,Moralist and Thinker.
VII.
Didactic Fiction.
More’s Utopia.
Harrington’s Oceana.
Disraeli’s Coningsby.
Bulwer-Lytton’s The ComingRace.
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
Hannah More’s Novels.
Johnson’s Rasselas.
The modern didactic novel.
See Hallam’s Literary History;and references given inthe preceding schemes.
