PREFACE TO NINTH EDITION

As was explained in the Note to the Preface of the previous editions and impressions of this book, after the first, hardly one of them appeared without careful revision, and the insertion of a more or less considerable number of additions and corrections. I found, indeed, few errors of a kind that need have seemed serious except to Momus or Zoilus. But in the enormous number of statements of fact which literary history of the more exact kind requires, minor blunders, be they more or fewer, are sure to creep in. No writer, again, who endeavours constantly to keep up and extend his knowledge of such a subject as Elizabethan literature, can fail to have something new to say from time to time. And though no one who is competent originally for his task ought to experience any violent changes of view, any one's views may undergo modification. In particular, he may find that readers have misunderstood him, and that alterations of expression are desirable. For all these reasons and others I have not spared trouble in the various revisions referred to; I think the book has been kept by them fairly abreast of its author's knowledge, and I hope it is not too far behind that of others.

It will, however, almost inevitably happen that a long series of piecemeal corrections and codicils somewhat disfigures the character of the composition as a whole. And after nearly the full score of years, and not much less than half a score of re-appearances, it has seemed to me desirable to make a somewhat more thorough, minute, and above all connected revision than I have ever made before. And so, my publishers falling in with this view, the present edition represents the result. I do not think it necessary to reprint the original preface. When I wrote it I had already had some, and since I wrote it I have had much more, experience in writing literary history. I have never seen reason to alter the opinion that, to make such history of any value at all, the critical judgments and descriptions must represent direct, original, and first-hand reading and thought; and that in these critical judgments and descriptions the value of it consists. Even summaries and analyses of the matter of books, except in so far as they are necessary to criticism, come far second; while biographical and bibliographical details are of much less importance, and may (as indeed in one way or another they generally must) be taken at second hand. The completion of the Dictionary of National Biography has at once facilitated the task of the writer, and to a great extent disarmed the candid critic who delights, in cases of disputed date, to assume that the date which his author chooses is the wrong one. And I have in the main adjusted the dates in this book (where necessary) accordingly. The bibliographical additions which have been made to the Index will be found not inconsiderable.

I believe that, in my present plan, there is no author of importance omitted (there were not many even in the first edition), and that I have been able somewhat to improve the book from the results of twenty years' additional study, twelve of which have been mainly devoted to English literature. How far it must still be from being worthy of its subject, nobody can know better than I do. But I know also, and I am very happy to know, that, as an Elizabethan himself might have said, my unworthiness has guided many worthy ones to something like knowledge, and to what is more important than knowledge, love, of a subject so fascinating and so magnificent. And that the book may still have the chance of doing this, I hope to spare no trouble upon it as often as the opportunity presents itself.[1]

Edinburgh, January 30, 1907.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

FROM TOTTEL'S MISCELLANY TO SPENSER

The starting-point—Tottel's Miscellany—Its method and authorship—The characteristics of its poetry—Wyatt—Surrey—Grimald—Their metres —The stuff of their poems—The Mirror for Magistrates—Sackville—His contributions and their characteristics—Remarks on the formal criticism of poetry—Gascoigne—Churchyard—Tusser—Turberville—Googe— The translators—Classical metres—Stanyhurst—Other miscellanies Pages 1-27

CHAPTER II

EARLY ELIZABETHAN PROSE

Outlines of Early Elizabethan Prose—Its origins—Cheke and his contemporaries —Ascham—His style—Miscellaneous writers—Critics—Webbe—Puttenham —Lyly—Euphues and Euphuism—Sidney—His style and critical principles —Hooker—Greville—Knolles—Mulcaster 28-49

CHAPTER III

THE FIRST DRAMATIC PERIOD

Divisions of Elizabethan Drama—Its general character—Origins—Ralph Roister Doister—Gammer Gurton's Needle—Gorboduc—The Senecan Drama— Other early plays—The "university wits"—Their lives and characters— Lyly (dramas)—The Marlowe group—Peele—Greene—Kyd—Marlowe —The actor playwrights 50-81

CHAPTER IV

"THE FAËRIE QUEENE" AND ITS GROUP

Spenser—His life and the order of his works—The Shepherd's Calendar—The minor poems—The Faërie Queene—Its scheme—The Spenserian stanza— Spenser's language—His general poetical qualities—Comparison with other English poets—His peculiar charm—The Sonneteers—Fulke Greville— Sidney—Watson—Barnes—Giles Fletcher the elder—Lodge—Avisa— Percy—Zepheria—Constable—Daniel—Drayton—Alcilia—Griffin— Lynch—Smith—Barnfield—Southwell—The song and madrigal writers— Campion—Raleigh—Dyer—Oxford, etc.—Gifford—Howell, Grove, and others—The historians—Warner—The larger poetical works of Daniel and Drayton—The satirists —Lodge—Donne—The poems of Donne generally—Hall—Marston—Guilpin—Tourneur 82-156

CHAPTER V

THE SECOND DRAMATIC PERIOD—SHAKESPERE

Difficulty of writing about Shakespere—His life—His reputation in England and its history—Divisions of his work—The Poems—The Sonnets—The Plays—Characteristics of Shakespere—Never unnatural—His attitude to morality—His humour—Universality of his range—Comments on him— His manner of working—His variety—Final remarks—Dramatists to be grouped with Shakespere—Ben Jonson—Chapman—Marston—Dekker 157-206

CHAPTER VI

LATER ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN PROSE

Bacon—Raleigh—The Authorised Version—Jonson and Daniel as prose-writers —Hakluyt—The Pamphleteers—Greene—Lodge—Harvey—Nash—Dekker —Breton—The Martin Marprelate Controversy—Account of it, with specimens of the chief tracts 207-252

CHAPTER VII

THE THIRD DRAMATIC PERIOD

Characteristics—Beaumont and Fletcher—Middleton—Webster—Heywood— Tourneur—Day 253-288

CHAPTER VIII

THE SCHOOL OF SPENSER AND THE TRIBE OF BEN

Sylvester—Davies of Hereford—Sir John Davies—Giles and Phineas Fletcher —William Browne—Wither—Drummond—Stirling—Minor Jacobean poets—Songs from the dramatists 289-314

CHAPTER IX

MILTON, TAYLOR, CLARENDON, BROWNE, HOBBES

The quintet—Milton's life—His character—His periods of literary production —First Period, the minor poems—The special excellences of Comus— Lycidas—Second Period, the pamphlets—Their merits and defects— Milton's prose style—Third Period, the larger poems—Milton's blank verse—His origins—His comparative position—Jeremy Taylor's life—His principal works—His style—Characteristics of his thought and manner— Sir Thomas Browne—His life, works, and editions—His literary manner— Characteristics of his style and vocabulary—His Latinising—Remarkable adjustment of his thought and expression—Clarendon—His life—Great merits of his History—Faults of his style—Hobbes—His life and works— Extraordinary strength and clearness of his style 315-353

CHAPTER X

CAROLINE POETRY

Herrick—Carew—Crashaw—Divisions of Minor Caroline poetry—Miscellanies— George Herbert—Sandys—Vaughan—Lovelace and Suckling—Montrose— Quarles—More—Beaumont—Habington—Chalkhill—Marmion—Kynaston —Chamberlayne—Benlowes—Stanley—John Hall—Patrick Carey— Cleveland—Corbet—Cartwright, Sherburne, and Brome—Cotton—The general characteristics of Caroline poetry—A defence of the Caroline poets 354-393

CHAPTER XI

THE FOURTH DRAMATIC PERIOD

Weakening of dramatic strength—Massinger—Ford—Shirley—Randolph —Brome—Cokain—Glapthorne—Davenant—Suckling—Minor and anonymous plays of the Fourth and other Periods—The Shakesperian Apocrypha 394-427

CHAPTER XII

MINOR CAROLINE PROSE

Burton—Fuller—Lord Herbert of Cherbury—Izaak Walton—Howell—Earle —Felltham—The rest 428-444

Conclusion 445