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INTRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHARACTER

THE character is one of the most prolific of the literary kinds which flourished in the seventeenth century. Its contemporary popularity is shown not only by the large number of separate works that were issued, but by the numerous editions of these which an eager audience called for. To-day the greater number of these little books have an historical rather than a purely literary interest; but the interest that they have is strong enough to justify their being always accessible to those who would overhear the quaint gossipings or the satiric wit in which the manners and customs of that time are represented; a few—and the existence of these depends on all those others-will always be treasured for themselves.

We may sometimes consider the literature of a given period not solely for the sake of its outstanding works, but rather as a continuity of literary effort, the manifestation of a special tradition and temper determined by special circumstances. From this point of view the very absence of intrinsic excellence may allow us to perceive more clearly this continuous historical background of literature, the contrasts and relations of which in the greater works are already merged into the singularity of artistic perfection. The historian

of literature, so far as his history is more than an uncritical record of literary events in their sequence, must turn often towards this matter of background, and therefore often towards those lesser spirits whose work depends more evidently on an accepted tradition. In the tapestry of literature, the general tone and colouring give a special significance to the single figures which alone are noticed at first sight by the spectator.

The Character Defined

In the seventeenth century, one of these minor literary kinds which belongs peculiarly to the general background of literature is the charactersketch. Its interest for the literary historian lies in the number of ways in which it reflects the spirit of the time, not only within its own limits, but through the media of five other literary forms -satire, epigram, essay, sermon, and drama. Before these relations are examined the nature and scope of the character can be best indicated by the testimony of its writers. The earliest account is that of Bishop Hall in 1608, who, following his master Theophrastus, stresses the didactic purpose, a feature to be recalled by many subsequent protestations. Small sign of it, however, is to be seen in the characters of Ben Jonson and Overbury, which were to be the leading type in the seventeenth century. These are described in the ninth edition of Överbury's Characters (1616): Character is also taken for an Egyptian hieroglyphic, for an impress or short emblem: in little comprehending much. To square out a character by our English level, it is a picture