A. RENAISSANCE IN EDUCATION. Colleges founded; introduction of Printing, 1477; B. RENAISSANCE IN LITERATURE. 1. Early Writers. a. Wyatt and Surrey introduced respectively the sonnet and blank verse, in poems published in Tottel's Miscellany, 1557. b. Gascoigne and Sackville. 2. Culmination of the Renaissance, from Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, 1579, to death of Shakespeare, 1616. a. Spenser, descriptive and narrative poet, 1552-1599. b. Marlowe and Shakespeare, dramatists. Other dramatists: Kyd, Peele, Greene, Mid- c. Sidney, poet and prose writer, 1554-1586. 2. The Decline of the Renaissance and the Expression of the Reformation in Literature, from the death of Shakespeare, 1616, to the Restoration, 1660. A. LATER ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE. 1. Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher, dramatists. 2. The Spenserian School, poets following the manner of Spenser. 3. Cavalier Lyrists, Herrick, Lovelace, Suckling, etc. B. RELIGIOUS POETS. 1. John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Church of England. 2. John Milton, Puritan, 1608-1674. C. PROSE WRITERS. 1. Sir Thomas Browne, Isaak Walton, Richard Burton, Jeremy Taylor, John Milton. 2. John Bunyan, 1628–1688, published Pilgrim's Progress, 1678. Civil War and Protectorate, 1642–1660. III. THE PERIOD OF THE FRENCH INFLUENCE, 1660-1750 1. The England of the Restoration, or The Age of Dryden, 1660 1700. a. John Dryden, 1631-1700, satirist and writer of comedies. b. Other Dramatists, Farquhar, Wycherley, Con greve, etc., etc. 1688, Revolution, which results in placing William and Mary on the throne, and shows the increasing power of Parliament. c. Milton writes Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, 1667–1671. d. John Bunyan publishes Pilgrim's Progress, 1678. e. Jeremy Collier writes Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the Stage, 1698, and in part purifies the drama. 2. The Age of Pope, 1700-1750. A. POETRY. Alexander Pope, 1688-1744; satire, criticism, and philosophy in verse. B. PROSE. a. Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift, political writers and pamphleteers. They contribute to the development of fiction. b. Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, Periodical Essayists, who in the Tatler, Spectator, etc. contribute to the development of the novel. c. Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne, novelists. 3. The Age of Johnson. (Later followers of Dryden and Pope.) a. Dr. Samuel Johnson, moralist, critic, lexi cographer, and literary dictator of his day. b. Associated with Johnson were: Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, David Garrick (actor), Sir Joshua Reynolds (painter). IV. THE MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD, ABOUT 1725–1909 1. The Beginning of Modern Literature. A. THE NEW SYMPATHY WITH NATURE. 1. Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, 1725. 2. James Thomson's Seasons, 1730. 3. Collins and Gray. 4. Oliver Goldsmith's The Traveller, 1764, Deserted Village, 1770, etc. 5. The Poems of William Cowper, 1731-1800. 6. The Songs and Poems of Robert Burns, 1759-1796. 7. The poems of Wordsworth and Coleridge, especially Lyrical Ballads, 1798. B. THE NEW SYMPATHY WITH MAN. The Rise of Modern C. THE NEW INTEREST IN THE ROMANTIC PAST. 1. Dodsley's Old Plays, 1774. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 1764. 2. Poems of Thomas Chatterton, 1752–1770. 3. David Garrick's performances of Shakespeare's plays in London, 1741-1776. 4. Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832. a. Poems, about 1805-1832. b. Waverley Novels, 1814-1831. D. THE INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1. Burns, Wordsworth and Coleridge sympathize with 2. Edmund Burke, opposes the Revolution. 3. Later Poets of the Revolution. a. Byron, 1788-1824. b. Shelley, 1792-1822. E. JOHN KEATS, 1795-1821, the poet of Beauty, interested especially in classic Greek and romantic Medieval themes. F. ESSAYISTS: 1. Charles Lamb, 1775-1834, familiar essayist and critic. 2. Other essayists, Thomas De Quincey, Leigh Hunt, William Hazlitt, etc. 2. The Victorian Era (about 1832-1901). Reign of Queen Victoria, 1837-1901. Passing of the First Reform Bill, 1832, an important step in the advance of democracy. Publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, 1859, the greatest single contribution to modern science. A. PROSE WRITERS (historians, essayists, etc.). 1. Macaulay, 1800-1859, popular historian and critic. 2. Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881, critic, idealist, and prophet to his age. 3. John Ruskin, 1819-1900, art critic, social reformer, prophet. 4. Cardinal Newman, 1801-1890, theologian, educator, critic. 5. Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888, poet and literary and theological critic. 6. Other prose writers: James A. Froude, E. A. Freeman, J. R. Green (historians); Frederick Harrison, Leslie Stephen, Walter Pater, J. A. Symonds (critics and essayists). B. NOVELISTS. 1. Charles Dickens, 1812-1870. 2. William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811-1863. 3. George Eliot, 1819-1880. 4. George Meredith, 1828-1909. 5. Thomas Hardy, born 1840. 6. Other novelists and story-writers: Charles Reade; C. POETS. 1. Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, poet of democracy, science, and faith. 2. Robert Browning, 1812-1889, poet of faith. 3. Matthew Arnold and Arthur Hugh Clough, poets of doubt. 4. Rise of Pre-Raphaelite School of Poetry and Painting, about 1848. Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris, prominent poets in this school. |