More quickly through our frame’s deep-winding night,
And without thought raise thought’s best fruit, delight.”
[ TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.]
In the printed book, this table covered 14 (fourteen) pages, with the header repeated at the top of each page. The column headed “Years” was labeled “Centuries” on the earlier pages, changing to “Decades” on the page beginning 1560.
| Writers. | Works. | Contemporary Events. | Years. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(Author unknown.) | Beowulf (brought over by Saxons and Angles from theContinent). | 500 | |||
CAEDMON. A secular monk of Whitby. Died about 680. | Poems on the Creation and other subjects taken from theOld and the New Testament. | Edwin (of Deira), King of the Angles, baptised 627. | 600 | ||
BAEDA. 672-735. “The Venerable Bede,” a monk of Jarrow-on-Tyne. | An Ecclesiastical History in Latin. A translation ofSt John’s Gospel into English (lost). | First landing of the Danes, 787. | 700 | ||
ALFRED THE GREAT. 849-901. King; translator; prose-writer. | Translated into the English of Wessex, Bede’s EcclesiasticalHistory and other Latin works. Is said to have begun theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle. | The University of Oxford is said to have been founded in thisreign. | 800 | ||
Compiled by monks in various monasteries. | Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 875-1154 | ||||
ASSER. Bishop of Sherborne. Died 910. | Life of King Alfred. | 900 | |||
(Author unknown.) | A poem entitled The Grave. | 1000 | |||
LAYAMON. 1150-1210. A priest of Ernley-on-Severn. | The Brut (1205), a poem on Brutus, the supposed firstsettler in Britain. | John ascended the throne in 1199. | 1100 | ||
ORM OR ORMIN. 1187-1237. A canon of the Order of St Augustine. | The Ormulum (1215), a set of religious services inmetre. | ||||
ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER. 1255-1307. | Chronicle of England in rhyme (1297). | Magna Charta, 1215. Henry III. ascends the throne, 1216. | 1200 | ||
ROBERT OF BRUNNE. 1272-1340. (Robert Manning of Brun.) | Chronicle of England in rhyme; Handlyng Sinne(1303). | University of Cambridge founded, 1231. Edward I. ascends the throne, 1272. Conquest of Wales, 1284. | |||
SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. 1300-1372. Physician; traveller; prose-writer. | The Voyaige and Travaile. Travels to Jerusalem, India, andother countries, written in Latin French and English (1356). The firstwriter “in formed English.” | Edward II ascends the throne, 1307. Battle of Bannockburn, 1314. | 1300 | ||
JOHN BARBOUR. 1316-1396. Archdeacon of Aberdeen. | The Bruce (1377), a poem written in the Northern Englishor “Scottish” dialect. | Edward III. ascends the throne, 1327. | |||
JOHN WYCLIF. 1324-1384. Vicar of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire. | Translation of the Bible from the Latin version; and manytracts and pamphlets on Church reform. | Hundred Years’ War begins, 1338. Battle of Crecy, 1346. | 1350 | ||
JOHN GOWER. 1325-1408. A country gentleman of Kent; probably also a lawyer. | Vox Clamantis, Confessio Amantis,Speculum Meditantis (1393); and poems in French andLatin. |
| |||
WILLIAM LANGLANDE. 1332-1400. Born in Shropshire. | Vision concerning Piers the Plowman—threeeditions (1362-78). | Battle of Poitiers, 1356. First law-pleadings in English, 1362. | |||
GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 1340-1400. Poet; courtier; soldier; diplomatist; Comptroller of the Customs:Clerk of the King’s Works; M.P. | The Canterbury Tales (1384-98), of which the best is theKnightes Tale. Dryden called him “a perpetual fountain of goodsense.” | Richard II. ascends the throne, 1377. Wat Tyler’s insurrection, 1381. | |||
JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND. 1394-1437. Prisoner in England, and educated there, in 1405. | The King’s Quair (= Book), a poem in the styleof Chaucer. | Henry IV. ascends the throne, 1399. | |||
WILLIAM CAXTON. 1422-1492. Mercer; printer; translator; prose-writer. | The Game and Playe of the Chesse (1474)—the firstbook printed in England; Lives of the Fathers, “finished on thelast day of his life;” and many other works. | Henry V. ascends the throne, 1415. Battle of Agincourt, 1415. Henry VI. ascends the throne, 1422. Invention of Printing, 1438-45. | 1400 | ||
WILLIAM DUNBAR. 1450-1530. Franciscan or Grey Friar; Secretary to a Scotch embassy toFrance. | The Golden Terge (1501); the Dance of the Seven DeadlySins (1507); and other poems. He has been called “the Chaucer ofScotland.” | Jack Cade’s insurrection, 1450. End of the Hundred Years’ War, 1453. | 1450 | ||
GAWAIN DOUGLAS. 1474-1522. Bishop of Dunkeld, in Perthshire. | Palace of Honour (1501); translation of Virgil’sÆneid (1513)—the first translation of any Latin author intoverse. Douglas wrote in Northern English. | Wars of the Roses, 1455-86. Edward IV. ascends the throne, 1461. | |||
WILLIAM TYNDALE. 1477-1536. Student of theology; translator. Burnt at Antwerp forheresy. | New Testament translated (1525-34); the Five Books ofMoses translated (1530). This translation is the basis of theAuthorised Version. | Edward V. king, 1483. | |||
SIR THOMAS MORE. 1480-1535. Lord High Chancellor; writer on social topics; historian. | History of King Edward V., and of his brother, and of RichardIII. (1513); Utopia (= “The Land of Nowhere”), writtenin Latin; and other prose works. | Richard III. ascends the throne, 1483. Battle of Bosworth, 1485. | |||
SIR DAVID LYNDESAY. 1490-1556. Tutor of Prince James of Scotland (James V.); “Lord LyonKing-at-Arms;” poet. | Lyndesay’s Dream (1528); The Complaint(1529); A Satire of the Three Estates (1535)—a “morality-play.” | Henry VII. ascends the throne, 1485. Greek began to be taught in England about 1497. | |||
ROGER ASCHAM. 1515-1568. Lecturer on Greek at Cambridge; tutor to Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth,and Lady Jane Grey. | Toxophilus (1544), a treatise on shooting with thebow; The Scholemastre (1570). “Ascham is plain and strong in hisstyle, but without grace or warmth.” | Henry VIII. ascends the throne, 1509. Battle of Flodden, 1513. Wolsey Cardinal and Lord High Chancellor, 1515. | 1500 | ||
JOHN FOXE. 1517-1587. An English clergyman. Corrector for the press at Basle; Prebendary ofSalisbury Cathedral; prose-writer. | The Book of Martyrs (1563), an account of the chiefProtestant martyrs. | Sir Thomas More first layman who was Lord High Chancellor,1529. Reformation in England begins about 1534. | |||
EDMUND SPENSER. 1552-1599. Secretary to Viceroy of Ireland; political writer; poet. | Shepheard’s Calendar (1579): Faerie Queene, in sixbooks (1590-96). | Edward VI. ascends the throne, 1547. Mary Tudor ascends the throne, 1553. | |||
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1552-1618. Courtier; statesman; sailor; coloniser; historian. | History of the World (1614), written during the author’simprisonment in the Tower of London. | Cranmer burnt 1556. | 1550 | ||
RICHARD HOOKER. 1553-1600. English clergyman; Master of the Temple; Rector of Boscombe, in thediocese of Salisbury. | Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594). This book is aneloquent defence of the Church of England. The writer, from hisexcellent judgment, is generally called “the judicious Hooker.” | Elizabeth ascends the throne, 1558. | |||
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 1554-1586. Courtier; general; romance-writer. | Arcadia, a romance (1580). Defence of Poesie,published after his death (in 1595). Sonnets. | ||||
FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626. Viscount St Albans; Lord High Chancellor of England; lawyer;philosopher; essayist. | Essays (1597); Advancement of Learning (1605);Novum Organum (1620); and other works on methods of inquiry intonature. | Hawkins begins slave trade in 1562. Rizzio murdered, 1566. | 1560 | ||
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 1564-1616. Actor; owner of theatre; play-writer; poet. Born and died atStratford-on-Avon. | Thirty-seven plays. His greatest tragedies areHamlet, Lear, and Othello. His best comediesare Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, andAs You Like It. His best historical plays are JuliusCæsar and Richard III. Many minor poems— chieflysonnets. He wrote no prose. | Marlowe, Dekker, Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ford, Webster,Ben Johnson, and other dramatists, were contemporaries ofShakspeare. | |||
BEN JONSON. 1574-1637. Dramatist; poet; prose-writer. | Tragedies and comedies. Best plays: Volpone orthe Fox; Every Man in his Humour. | Drake sails round the world, 1577. Execution of Mary Queen of Scots, 1578. | 1570 | ||
WILLIAM DRUMMOND (“ofHawthornden”). 1585-1649. Scottish poet; friend of Ben Jonson. | Sonnets and poems. | Raleigh in Virginia, 1584. Babington’s Plot, 1586. Spanish Armada, 1588. | 1580 | ||
THOMAS HOBBES. 1588-1679. Philosopher; prose-writer; translator of Homer. | The Leviathan (1651), a work on politics and moralphilosophy. | Battle of Ivry, 1590. | 1590 | ||
SIR THOMAS BROWNE. 1605-1682. Physician at Norwich. | Religio Medici (= “The Religion of a Physician”);Urn-Burial; and other prose works. | Australia discovered, 1601. James I. ascends the throne in 1603. | 1600 | ||
JOHN MILTON. 1608-1674. Student; political writer; poet; Foreign (or “Latin”) Secretary toCromwell. Became blind from over-work in 1654. | Minor Poems; Paradise Lost; ParadiseRegained; Samson Agonistes. Many prose works, the best beingAreopagitica, a speech for the Liberty of UnlicensedPrinting. | Hampton Court Conference for translation of Bible, 1604-11. Gunpowder Plot, 1605. | |||
SAMUEL BUTLER. 1612-1680. Literary man; secretary to the Earl of Carbery. | Hudibras, a mock-heroic poem, written to ridicule thePuritan and Parliamentarian party. | Execution of Raleigh, 1618. | 1610 | ||
JEREMY TAYLOR. 1613-1667. English clergyman; Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland. | Holy Living and Holy Dying (1649); and a number ofother religious books. | ||||
JOHN BUNYAN. 1628-1688. Tinker and traveling preacher. | The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678); the Holy War; andother religious works. | Charles I. ascends the throne in 1625. Petition of Right, 1628. | 1620 | ||
JOHN DRYDEN. 1631-1700. Poet-Laureate and Historiographer-Royal; playwright; poet;prose-writer. | Annus Mirabilis (= “The WonderfulYear,” 1665-66, on the Plague and the Fire of London); Absalom andAchitophel (1681), a poem on political parties; Hind andPanther (1687), a religious poem. He also wrote many plays,some odes and a translation of Virgil’s Æneid. His prose consistschiefly of prefaces and introductions to his poems. | No Parliament from 1629-40. Scottish National Covenant, 1638. | 1630 | ||
Long Parliament, 1640-53. Marston Moor, 1644. Execution of Charles I., 1649 | 1640 | ||||
JOHN LOCKE. 1632-1704. Diplomatist; Secretary to the Board of Trade; philosopher;prose-writer. | Essay concerning the Human Understanding (1690);Thoughts on Education; and other prose works. | The Commonwealth, 1649-60. Cromwell Lord Protector, 1653-58. | 1650 | ||
DANIEL DEFOE. 1661-1731. Literary man; pamphleteer; journalist; member of Commission on Unionwith Scotland. | The True-born Englishman (1701); Robinson Crusoe(1719); Journal of the Plague (1722); and more than a hundredbooks in all. | Restoration, 1660. First standing army, 1661. First newspaper in England, 1663. | 1660 | ||
JONATHAN SWIFT. 1667-1745. English clergyman; literary man; satirist; prose-writer; poet; Deanof St Patrick’s, in Dublin. | Battle of the Books; Tale of a Tub (1704), anallegory on the Churches of Rome, England, and Scotland; Gulliver’sTravels (1726); a few poems; and a number of very vigorous politicalpamphlets. | Plague of London, 1665. Fire of London, 1666. | |||
SIR RICHARD STEELE. 1671-1729. Soldier; literary man; courtier; journalist; M.P. | Steele founded the ‘Tatler,’ ‘Spectator,’ ‘Guardian,’ and othersmall journals. He also wrote some plays. | Charles II. pensioned by Louis XIV. of France, 1674. | 1670 | ||
JOSEPH ADDISON. 1672-1719. Essayist; poet; Secretary of State for the Home Department. | Essays in the ‘Tatler,’ ‘Spectator,’ and ‘Guardian.’ Cato,a Tragedy (1713). Several Poems and Hymns. | The Habeas Corpus Act, 1679. | |||
ALEXANDER POPE. 1688-1744. Poet. | Essay on Criticism (1711); Rape of theLock (1714); Translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, finished in1726; Dunciad (1729); Essay on Man (1739). A fewprose Essays, and a volume of Letters. | James II. ascends the throne in 1685. Revolution of 1688. William III. and Mary II. ascend the throne, 1689. | 1680 | ||
Battle of the Boyne, 1690. | 1690 | ||||
JAMES THOMSON. 1700-1748. Poet. | The Seasons; a poem in blank verse (1730):The Castle of Indolence; a mock-heroic poem in the Spenserianstanza (1748). | Censorship of the Press abolished, 1695. | |||
Queen Anne ascends the throne in 1702. | 1700 | ||||
HENRY FIELDING. 1707-1754. Police-magistrate, journalist; novelist. | Joseph Andrews (1742); Amelia (1751). He was “thefirst great English novelist.” | Battle of Blenheim, 1704. Gibraltar taken, 1704. | |||
DR SAMUEL JOHNSON. 1709-1784. Schoolmaster; literary man; essayist; poet;dictionary-maker. | London (1738); The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749);Dictionary of the English Language (1755); Rasselas(1759); Lives of the Poets (1781). He also wrote TheIdler, The Rambler, and a play called Irene. | Union of England and Scotland, 1707. | |||
DAVID HUME. 1711-1776. Librarian; Secretary to the French Embassy; philosopher; literaryman. | History of England (1754-1762); and a number ofphilosophical Essays. His prose is singularly clear, easy, andpleasant. | George I. ascends the throne in 1714. | 1710 | ||
THOMAS GRAY. 1716-1771. Student; poet; letter-writer; Professor of Modern History in theUniversity of Cambridge. | Odes; Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard(1750)—one of the most perfect poems in our language. He was agreat stylist, and an extremely careful workman. | Rebellion in Scotland in 1715. | |||
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT. 1721-1771. Doctor; pamphleteer; literary hack; novelist. | Roderick Random (1748); Humphrey Clinker (1771). Healso continued Hume’s History of England. He published also somePlays and Poems. | South-Sea Bubble bursts, 1720. | 1720 | ||
OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 1728-1774. Literary man; play-writer; poet. | The Traveller (1764); The Vicar of Wakefield(1766); The Deserted Village (1770); She Stoops toConquer—a Play (1773); and a large number of books, pamphlets,and compilations. | George II. ascends the throne, 1727. | |||
ADAM SMITH. 1723-1790. Professor in the University of Glasgow. | Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759); Inquiry into theNature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). He was thefounder of the science of political economy. | ||||
EDMUND BURKE. 1730-1797. M.P.; statesman; “the first man in the House of Commons;” orator;writer on political philosophy. | Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful (1757); Reflectionson the Revolution of France (1790); Letters on a RegicidePeace (1797); and many other works. “The greatest philosopher inpractice the world ever saw.” | 1730 | |||
WILLIAM COWPER. 1731-1800. Commissioner in Bankruptcy; Clerk of the Journals of the House ofLords; poet. | Table Talk (1782); John Gilpin (1785); ATranslation of Homer (1791); and many other Poems. HisLetters, like Gray’s, are among the best in the language. | ||||
EDWARD GIBBON. 1737-1794. Historian; M.P. | Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-87). “Heavilyladen style and monotonous balance of every sentence.” | Rebellion in Scotland, 1745, commonly called “The’Forty-five.” | 1740 | ||
ROBERT BURNS. 1759-1796. Farm-labourer; ploughman; farmer; excise-officer; lyricalpoet. | Poems and Songs (1786-96). His prose consists chiefly ofLetters. “His pictures of social life, of quaint humour, come up tonature; and they cannot go beyond it.” | Clive in India, 1750-60. Earthquake at Lisbon, 1755. Black Hole of Calcutta, 1756. | 1750 | ||
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 1770-1850 Distributor of Stamps for the county of Westmoreland; poet;poet-laureate. | Lyrical Ballads (with Coleridge, 1798); TheExcursion (1814); Yarrow Revisited (1835), and many poems.The Prelude was published after his death. His prose, which isvery good, consists chiefly of Prefaces and Introductions. | George III. ascends the throne in 1760. Napoleon and Wellington born, 1769. | 1760 | ||
SIR WALTER SCOTT. 1771-1832. Clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh; Scottish barrister; poet;novelist. | Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805); Marmion (1808);Lady of the Lake (1810); Waverley—the first of the“Waverley Novels”—was published in 1814. The “Homer of Scotland.”His prose is bright and fluent, but very inaccurate. | Warren Hastings in India, 1772-85. | 1770 | ||
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 1772-1834. Private soldier; journalist; literary man; philosopher;poet. | The Ancient Mariner (1798); Christabel (1816);The Friend—a Collection of Essays (1812); Aids toReflection (1825). His prose is very full both of thought andemotion. | ||||
ROBERT SOUTHEY. 1774-1843. Literary man; Quarterly Reviewer; historian; poet-laureate. | Joan of Arc (1796); Thalaba the Destroyer (1801);The Curse of Kehama (1810); A History of Brazil; TheDoctor—a Collection of Essays; Life of Nelson. He wrotemore than a hundred volumes. He was “the most ambitious and and mostvoluminous author of his age.” | American Declaration of Independence, 1776. | |||
CHARLES LAMB. 1775-1834. Clerk in the East India House; poet; prose-writer. | Poems (1797); Tales from Shakespeare (1806); TheEssays of Elia (1823-1833). One of the finest writers of writers ofprose in the English language. | ||||
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 1775-1864. Poet; prose-writer. | Gebir (1798); Count Julian (1812);Imaginary Conversations (1824-1846); Dry Sticks Faggoted(1858). He wrote books for more than sixty years. His style is full ofvigour and sustained eloquence. | Alliance of France and America, 1778. | |||
THOMAS CAMPBELL. 1777-1844. Poet; literary man; editor. | The Pleasures of Hope (1799); Poems (1803);Gertrude of Wyoming, Battle of the Baltic,Hohenlinden, etc. (1809). He also wrote some HistoricalWorks. | Encyclopædia Britannica founded in 1778. | |||
HENRY HALLAM. 1778-1859. Historian. | View of Europe during the Middle Ages (1818);Constitutional History of England (1827); Introduction to theLiterature of Europe (1839). | ||||
THOMAS MOORE. 1779-1852. Poet; prose-writer. | Odes and Epistles (1806); Lalla Rookh (1817);History of Ireland (1827); Life of Byron (1830); IrishMelodies (1834); and many prose works. | ||||
THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 1785-1859. Essayist. | Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). He wrotealso on many subjects—philosophy, poetry, classics, history,politics. His writings fill twenty volumes. He was one of the finestprose-writers of this century. | French Revolution begun in 1789. | 1780 | ||
LORD BYRON (GeorgeGordon). 1788-1824. Peer; poet; volunteer to Greece. | Hours of Idleness (1807); English Bards and ScotchReviewers (1809); Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818);Hebrew Melodies (1815); and many Plays. His prose, whichis full of vigour and animal spirits, is to be found chiefly in hisLetters. | Bastille overthrown, 1789. | |||
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 1792-1822. Poet. | Queen Mab (1810); Prometheus Unbound—a Tragedy (1819); Ode to the Skylark, The Cloud (1820);Adonaïs (1821), and many other poems; and several proseworks. | Cape of Good Hope Hope taken, 1795. Bonaparte in Italy, 1796. Battle of the Nile, 1798. | 1790 | ||
JOHN KEATS. 1795-1821. Poet. | Poems (1817); Endymion (1818); Hyperion (1820).“Had Keats lived to the ordinary age of man, he would have been one ofthe greatest of all poets.” | Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 1801. Trafalgar and Nelson, 1805. | 1800 | ||
Peninsular War, 1808-14. Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia; Moscow burnt, 1812. | 1810 | ||||
THOMAS CARLYLE. 1795-1881. Literary man; poet; translator; essayist; reviewer; political writer;historian. | German Romances—a set of Translations (1827); SartorResartus—“The Tailor Repatched” (1834); The FrenchRevolution (1837); Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840); Pastand Present (1843); Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches (1845);Life of Frederick the Great (1858-65). “With the gift of song,Carlyle would have been the greatest of epic poets sinceHomer.” | War with United States, 1812-14. Battle of Waterloo,1815. | |||
George IV. ascends the throne, 1820. Greek War of Freedom, 1822-29. Byron in Greece, 1823-24. Catholic Emancipation, 1829. | 1820 | ||||
LORD MACAULAY (ThomasBabington). 1800-1859. Barrister; Edinburgh Reviewer; M.P.; Member of the Supreme Council ofIndia; Cabinet Minister; poet; essayist; historian; peer. | Milton (in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ 1825); Lays ofAncient Rome (1842); History of England—unfinished(1849-59). “His pictorial faculty is amazing.” | William IV. ascends the throne, 1830. The Reform Bill, 1832. Total Abolition of Slavery, 1834. | 1830 | ||
LORD LYTTON (EdwardBulwer). 1805-1873. Novelist; poet; dramatist; M.P.; Cabinet Minister; peer. | Ismael and Other Poems (1825); Eugene Aram (1831);Last Days of Pompeii (1834); The Caxtons (1849); MyNovel (1853); Poems (1865). | Queen Victoria ascends the throne, 1837. | |||
Irish Famine, 1845. | 1840 | ||||
JOHN STUART MILL. 1806-1873. Clerk in the East India House; philospher; political writer; M.P.;Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews. | System of Logic (1843); Principles of Political Economy(1848); Essay on Liberty (1858); Autobiography (1873);“For judicial calmness, elevation of tone, and freedom from personality,Mill is unrivalled among the writers of his time.” | Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846. | |||
Revolution in Paris, 1851. Death of Wellington, 1852. | 1850 | ||||
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 1807-1882. Professor of Modern Languages and Literature in Harvard University,U.S.; poet; prose-writer. | Outre-Mer—a Story (1835); Hyperion—aStory (1839); Voices of the Night (1841); Evangeline(1848) Hiawatha (1855); Aftermath (1873). “His tact in theuse of language is probably the chief cause of his success.” | Napoleon III. Emperor of the French, 1852. Russian War, 1854-56. | |||
LORD TENNYSON (AlfredTennyson). 1809——. Poet; poet-laureate; peer. | Poems (1830) In Memoriam (1850); Maud (1855);Idylls of the King (1859-73); Queen Mary—a Drama (1875); Becket—a Drama (1884). He is at presentour greatest living poet. | Franco-Austrian War, 1859. | |||
Emancipation of Russian serfs, 1861. | 1860 | ||||
ELIZABETH B. BARRETT (afterwards Mrs Browning). 1809-1861. Poet; prose-writer; translator. | Prometheus Bound—translated from the Greek ofÆschylus (1833); Poems (1844); Aurora Leigh (1856); andEssays contributed to various magazines. | Austro-Prussian “Seven Weeks’ War”, 1866. Suez canal finished, 1869. | |||
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 1811-1863. Novelist; writer in ‘Punch’; artist. | The Paris Sketch-Book (1840); Vanity Fair (1847);Esmond (1852); The Newcomes(1855); TheVirginians (1857). The greatest novelist and one of the mostperfect stylists of this century. “The classical English humorist andsatirist of the reign of Queen Victoria.” | Franco-Prussian War 1870-71. Third French Republic, 1870. William I. of Prussia made Emperor of the Germans at Versailles,1871. | 1870 | ||
CHARLES DICKENS. 1812-1870. Novelist. | Sketches by Boz (1836); The Pickwick Papers (1837);Oliver Twist (1838); Nicholas Nickleby (1838); and manyother novels and works; Great Expectations (1868). The mostpopular writer that ever lived. | Rome the new capital of Italy, 1871. Russo-Turkish War 1877-78. | |||
ROBERT BROWNING. 1812——. Poet. | Pauline (1833); Paracelsus (1836); Poems(1865); The Ring and the Book (1869); and many othervolumes of poetry. | Berlin Congress and Treaty, 1878. Leo XIII. made Pope in 1878. | |||
JOHN RUSKIN. 1819——. Art-critic; essayist; teacher; literary man. | Modern Painters (1843-60); The Stones of Venice(1851-53); The Queen of the Air (1869); An Autobiography(1885); and very many other works. “He has a deep, serious, and almostfanatical reverence for art.” | Assassination of Alexander II., 1881 Arabi Pasha’s Rebellion 1882-83. War in the Soudan, 1884. | 1880 | ||
GEORGE ELIOT. 1819-1880. Novelist; poet; essayist. | Scenes of Clerical Life (1858); Adam Bede (1859);and many other novels down to Daniel Deronda (1876); SpanishGypsy (1868); Legend of Jubal (1874). | Murder of Gordon, 1884. New Reform Bill, 1885. |
[ Footnotes]
[1.] See p. 43.
[2.] Words and Places, p. 158.
[3.] In the last half of this sentence, all the essential words—necessary, acquainted, character, uses, element, important, are Latin (except character, which is Greek).