PREFATORY NOTE THIS Short History of English Literature was originally intended to have been written in collaboration with Professor R. S. Wallace, M.A., Professor of English Language and Literature in the University of Melbourne. The War, however, called Professor Wallace away from Australia on active service, after he had written the first chapter and a fragment of the second. It fell to his partner to complete the book. In doing so he was compelled, for reasons of space, to avoid biographical details, except in so far as these had a direct bearing on an author's writings. His conviction that, where occasion offers, a history of English literature should discuss the thought and faith of a great writer no less than his art, will explain his treatment of such writers as Blake, Shelley, and Wordsworth. Some apology or explanation should perhaps be offered for the writing of a new History of English Literature when there are already good older histories in the field. A partial justification may be found in the attempt here made to bring the treatment of the subject abreast of recent research and criticism. A. T. S. CONTENTS PAGE FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST . 1 The earliest English poetry-Beowulf - Christian poetry - EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE (1066-1350) Effect of the Norman Conquest on English literature - Anglo- Latin literature - Geoffrey of Monmouth-Anglo-French The Beginnings - The Miracle Play The Morality Play Court Influence-School plays - The Interlude Early Shakespeare's predecessors Lyly, Nash, Peele, Kyd, Marlowe, Greene-Shakespeare His relation to his con- temporaries - Jonson, Chapman, Marston, Dekker, Middle- The Beginnings: Wyatt and Surrey to Sackville The Elizabethan Sonnet-Daniel, Drayton, Breton, |