COMMON-SCHOOL LITERATURE. PART I. THE LITERATURE OF ENGLAND. O INTRODUCTION. RIGIN.-English literature may be said to have begun with Chaucer, about the middle of the fourteenth century. There are works that were written much earlier, but they are in a language so different from modern English that they cannot be read without a glossary. The works produced in England from about 450 to 1050 A. D., were in Anglo-Saxon, now a dead language. Those produced between 1050 and 1350 were in a dialect which was neither Anglo-Saxon nor English, but a mixture of the two, approximating more and more, toward the close of the period, to the language of Shakspeare. The dialect used during the first part of this interval, say from 1050 to 1200, is known as SemiSaxon; that used during the last part of it is known as Old English. PERIODS.-We find that literature at different times has different characteristics, varying with the intellectual, social, and political conditions that prevail in the nation. It is thas possible to divide the literature of a people into certain epochs or periods more or less marked. Of course there is and can be no sharp dividing line between these periods: literature is not a succession of pools, but a continuous stream, sometimes widening, sometimes narrowing, but ever flowing on. Since these divisions are to some extent arbitrary, we have in this work fixed them at such dates as are easily remembered. We find in English Literature nine of these periods :— Period I. The Age of Chaucer, 1350-1400 Period II. The Age of Caxton, 1400-1550. Period VIII. The Age of Scott, 1800-1837. THIS PERIOD I.-AGE OF CHAUCER. (Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV.) HIS age is memorable in history on account of the military glories of Edw. III. and his heroic son the Black Prince; by which the Saxon and Norman elements of the people were united, a national sentiment established, and the supremacy of England secured. It was also a period of religious agitation, of awakening thought, and of vigorous protest against the abuses and corruption that had invaded the church. At this time were sown, by Wyckliffe and others, the seeds that produced, more than a century later, the English Reformation under Henry VIII. The chief literary representative of this age is our first great poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. GEOFFREY CHAUCER. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), known as "the father of English poetry," was not only the earliest of our great poets, but was also the only author of the first class that England produced till the middle of the sixteenth century. His principal work is the Canterbury Tales. It consists of twenty-four stories supposed to have been told by a company of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, with a Prologue and connecting narrations. EXTRACTS. Truth is the highest thing a man may keep. II. Of study took he mostē* care and heed; OTHER AUTHORS OF THIS AGE. JOHN WYCKLIFFE (1324-1384), a learned preacher, sometimes called "The Morning Star of the Reformation," author of the first English Translation of the whole Bible. William Langland (about 1332-1400), author of a powerful allegorical poem entitled Piers Plowman. JOHN GOWER (1320 ?-1402), called by Chaucer "Moral Gower," author of a long, tedious poem entitled Confessio Amantis (A Lover's Confession). SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE (1300-1372), author of a book of Travels. PERIOD II.-AGE OF CAXTON. (Henry V., Henry VI., Edward IV., Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary.) HIS was an age of turmoil, and it gave rise to no great author. THI It is celebrated in history on account of four great events: 1. The invention of printing, and its introduction into England by Caxton; 2. The Discovery of America; 3. The Wars of the Roses; 4. The Protestant Reformation in England under Henry VIII. In reading Chaucer it is often necessary to sound e final, to preserve the metre. AUTHORS OF THIS AGE. WILLIAM CAXTON (1412-1492), the first English printer. The first book printed in England was The Game and Play of Chess. JOHN SKELTON (1460-1529), a satirical poet, first "PoetLaureate," tutor to the Duke of York, afterwards Henry VIII., author of Colin Clout, Book of the Sparrow, etc. SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503–1542), a statesman and lyric poet. His best poems are his love songs. HENRY HOWARD, Earl of Surrey (1516–1547), a writer of sonnets and songs, and first writer of blank verse. He was executed by the King upon an absurd charge of treason. SIR THOMAS MORE (1480-1535), Chancellor to Henry VIII., executed because he refused to assist the King in getting a divorce from Catharine. Author of Utopia, a prose romance. TYNDALE (1480-1536) and COVERDALE (1487-1568), translators of the Bible. Henry VIII. caused Tyndale to be burned, THIS PERIOD III.—ELIZABETHAN AGE. 1550-1625. (Reigns of Elizabeth and James I.) Nature at this Within a period HIS is the most glorious era of English literature. No other age presents such a splendid array of great names, such originality, such creative energy; and no other has added so many grand ideas to the mental treasures of the race. time seems to have been prodigal of great men. of eleven years (1553 to 1564) she produced three writers-Spen. ser, Shakspeare, and Bacon-either of whom would have made any age illustrious; besides many others, who, had they lived in any other period, would have stood in the first rank of authors. Among the chief literary events of the age were the rise and marvellous development of the English drama, and the revision of the English Bible (Protestant version) under King James, in 1611. Its chief historical events were the restoration of Protestant supremacy, the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, and the ' destruction of the Spanish Armada. We select as its literary representatives the three already mentioned,-Spenser, Shakspeare, and Bacon. SPENSER. 1553-1599. Edmund Spenser, whose name stands second on the roll of great English poets, was born in London in 1553; received a liberal education; was introduced at Court by Sir Philip Sidney; received from the Queen a grant of land in Ireland, where he spent several years of his life; finally, in 1599, was driven from his castle by a mob, and died soon after in London, at the age of forty-six. He was a man of pure character, elegant culture, and rare geniusone of the brightest ornaments of Elizabeth's reign. His principal work is The Faerie Queene, a long allegory in six books, setting forth the excellence of holiness, temperance, chastity, justice, courtesy, and friendship, under the guise of knights. It is distinguished for the fertility of its invention, the beauty of its descriptions, and the wealth of its imagery. Among the best of his other poems are his Epithalamion, or marriage song, Hymns of Love, Beauty, Heavenly Love, and Heavenly Beauty, and his exquisite Sonnets. EXTRACTS. Oh, how can beauty master the most strong, Faerie Queene, Bk. I., Canto III. II. At last the golden oriental gate Of greatest heaven 'gan to open fair, And Phoebus, fresh as bridegroom to his mate, Came dancing forth, shaking his dewy hair, And hurled his glistening beams through gloomy air. III. F. Q., Bk. I., Canto V. MINISTERING ANGELS. And is there care in heaven? And is there love In heavenly spirits to these creatures base, |