ENGLISH LITERATURE BY WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE AND ROBERT MORSS LOVETT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1902 COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS C TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY LIBRARY Leland Stanford, Jr. UNIVERSITY PREFACE SEVERAL dangers lie before the writer of an elementary history of literature. He may conceive his task too ambitiously, and in his zeal for thoroughness may lose that clearness and simplicity of plan which is indispensable in the first presentation of a large subject. He may, on the other hand, be tempted to simplify his matter artificially, and in so doing may fail to give the student any safe substructure upon which to build in later study. Again, in striving to be scientific, he may be only dry; or in a wholesome desire to be entertaining, he may be only gossipy or nebulous. The present volume, whether or not it avoids these dangers, has been prepared with full consciousness of them. An attempt has here been made to present the history of English literature from the earliest times to our own day, in a historical scheme simple enough to be apprehended by young students, yet accurate and substantial enough to serve as a permanent basis for study, however far the subject is pursued. But within the limits of this formal scheme, the fact has been held constantly in mind that literature, being the vital and fluid thing it is, must be taught, if at all, more by suggestion, and by stimulation of the student's own instinctive mental life, than by dogmatic assertion. More than any other branch of study, literature demands on the part of the teacher an attitude of respect toward the intelligence of the student; and if at any point the authors of this book may seem to have V 72654 |