THE ROMANTIC REVOLT. CHAPTER I. BRITAIN. LIMITS OF THE PERIOD - CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANCE CONTRAST A HIS ISSUES OF ROMANCE-EARLY WORK-SCOTT AND GOETHE 'MIN- DIDACTIC NOVEL: MRS MORE-MRS INCHBALD-BAGE-DEVELOP- ORATORS: CHATHAM--BURKE-FOX-SHERIDAN-GRATTAN-PITT- period. THE period covered by the following pages is, roughly speaking, the last quarter of the eighteenth Limits of the century and the first few years of the nineteenth; or, to date by events in the literary history of Europe, the period from the death of Voltaire and Rousseau (1778) to the death of Schiller (1805). The scheme of the preceding volume has made allowance for a certain amount of overlapping; and, considering the difference of perspective which can hardly fail to assert itself when a fresh writer takes up the narrative, it will be convenient to give some little latitude of interpretation to the provision there expressly made. With this warning, we turn at once to our theme-the Romantic Revolt. of Romance. With the middle of the eighteenth century a great change began to make itself felt in the thought and Characteristics literature of western Europe-a change from the spirit of criticism to that of creation; from wit to humour and pathos; from satire and didactic verse to the poetry of passion and impassioned reflection; above all, a change from a narrow and cramping conception of man's reason to one far wider and more adequate to his powers. This change may be conveniently summed up in one phrase: the Romantic Revival, or, if our object be to lay stress on its negative aspect, the Romantic Revolt. But no such phrases can serve as more than a rough index. And it must be understood, on the one hand, that some few writers stand altogether apart from the general movement of the time; and, on the other hand, that behind the apparent unity of that movement several distinct tendencies were at work. Thus the very words Romantic and Romanticism, though they have their use and are sanctioned by long tradition, may easily give rise to misconception. They will certainly do so, unless we bear in mind. that they cover two completely different meanings. In the narrower and more usual sense, they point to that love of vivid colouring and strongly marked contrasts, that craving for the unfamiliar, the mar |