Pope,
Alexander
(ed.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v09
Charles Blount.
Charles Leslie as Champion of
Orthodoxy. Toland's Christianity not Mysterious. His Literary
Career and Philosophical Development: Letters to Serena ;
Pantheisticon. Anthony Collins's Discourse of Free-thinking.
Tindals Christianity as old as the Creation. Other Deistical
Writers: Woolston; Chubb; Morgan; Henry Dodwell the younger.
Influence of Deism. Bolingbroke. Whiston's Primitive Chris-
tianity Revived. Opponents of the Deists: William Warburton.
III. Moralists. Samuel Clarke and Rational Ethics. Shaftesbury;
his Characteristics of Men and Manners. Hutcheson. Mandeville's
Fable of the Bees. Bishop Butler's Fifteen Sermons and Analogy.
Exhaustiveness of Butler's Reasonings
279
## p. xii (#18) #############################################
xii
Contents
CHAPTER XII
WILLIAM LAW AND THE MYSTICS
By CAROLINE F. E. SPURGEON, Dr of the University
of Paris, Fellow of King's College for Women and
Lecturer in English Literature at Bedford College,
University of London
PAGE
6
Undercurrent of Mystical Thought in England in the Earlier Half of
the Eighteenth Century. Mysticism in the Seventeenth Century.
*Children of Light' in Holland. The Behmenites' and the
Founders of the Society of Friends. Life and Writings of William
Law. Law's Controversial Writings against Hoadly, Mandeville
and Tindal. Christian Perfection and A Serious Call. Influence
of Malebranche, the earlier German Mystics and the Seventeenth
Century Quietists upon Law. Jacob Boehme and the Essence of
his Mysticism. Boehme and Law. An Appeal to all who Doubt
and The Way to Divine Knowledge. Character of Law's Prose:
Law and Mandeville; The Spirit of Prayer; A Serious Call.
Law's Followers: John Byrom; Henry Brooke. Later influence
of Boehme on English Thought .
305
.
CHAPTER XIII
SCHOLARS AND ANTIQUARIES
I. BENTLEY AND CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP
By JAMES DUFF DUFF, M. A. , Fellow and Lecturer in
Classics of Trinity College
Learning in England at the Time of Bentley's Birth: Pearson; Fell;
William Lloyd; Henry Dodwell; John Moore. Bentley's Earlier
Life and Labours. Epistola ad Millium. His Lectures against
Atheism. The Phalaris Controversy: Bentley and his Adversaries.
Bentley Master of Trinity. The Troubles of his Mastership. His
Reforms at Cambridge. Phileleutherus Lipsiensis. Bentley's
Horace. Remarks upon a late Discourse of Free-Thinking.
Editions of Terence and Manilius. Bentley and Paradise Lost.
His death. Joseph Wasse; Conyers Middleton; Jeremiah
Markland; John Taylor; Richard Dawes
329
## p. xiii (#19) ############################################
Contents
xiii
II. ANTIQUARIES
By H. G. ALDIS, M. A. , Peterhouse, Secretary of the
University Library
PAGE
Oxford and the Bodleian. Dagdale and Dodsworth. The Antiquities
of Warwickshire and Monasticon Anglicanum. Dugdale's Other
Labours. Anthony Wood and Athenae Oxonienses. Thomas
Hearne. John Tanner. John Aubrey. Local History and
Topography: Burton; Plot; Stukeley; Gordon. Chamberlayne's
Angliae Notitia and its Sequel. Gibson's Edition of Camden's
Britannia Ashmole and other County Antiquaries. Baker's
collections: his History of St John's College, Cambridge.
Writers on Monastic and Cathedral Antiquities. Old English
Studies: Sir Henry Spelman. Diplomatic: Thomas Madox.
Heraldry. Ames's Typographical Antiquities. The Cottonian
and the Harloian Libraries. Osborne and Oldys. Revival of the
Society of Antiquaries.
.
341
CHAPTER XIV
SCOTTISH POPULAR POETRY BEFORE BURNS
By T. F. HENDERSON
1
The long Blight on Scottish Secular Verse. Exceptional popularity of
Lyndsay. Survival of Songs in the Puritan Period. Peculiarity
of the relation between English and Scottish Song in the Seventeenth
Century. Ane Compendious Booke of Godly and Spirituall
Songs. Original Scots Songs in The Tea-Table Miscellany:
Lady Grizel Baillie, Lady Wardlaw and William Hamilton of
Gilbertfield. Robert Sempill and The Life and Death of Habbie
Simson. Watson's Choice Collection. Allan Ramsay. His
earlier productions and The Gentle Shepherd. Difficulty of
estimating his Originality. His treatment of the Old Songs. The
Tea-Table Miscellany and The Evergreen. Alexander Pennecuick.
Robert Crawford. William Hamilton of Bangour. Sir John
Clerk and George Halkett. Alexander Ross. Alexander Geddes.
Dougal Graham. Mrs Cockburn. Jane and Sir Gilbert Elliot.
Anonymous Songs. Songs from David Herd's Manuscript and
other Collections. Jacobite Songs in Hogg's Jacobite Relics of
Scotland. Hogg's editorial methods. Literary value of the
Jacobite Songs. Robert Fergusson: his personality and poetio
qualities
359
1
## p. xiv (#20) #############################################
xiv
Contents
CHAPTER XV
EDUCATION
By J. W. ADAMSON, Fellow of King's College, London, and
Professor of Education in the University of London
PAGE
The Seventeenth Century Curriculum. Henry Wotton's Essay on the
Education of Children. Proposed supersession of Oxford and
Cambridge under the Commonwealth: Milton; Harrington;
Hobbes. Seth Ward's Vindiciae Academiarum. The Long
Parliament and Education. Projected Reforms of Schools.
Influence of John Amos Comenius. Hartlib, Petty and Dury.
Educational Projects after the Restoration: Cowley's Proposition.
The Ancients v. Moderns Controversy: Temple and Bentley.
Dissenting Academies : Secker's Experience. Courtly and Private
Education: Comments of Clarendon, Peacham, Francis Osborn
and others. Cavils of Swift and Defoe. Locke's Thoughts on
Education and Essay concerning Human Understanding.
Influence of the Essay on subsequent Educational Theory.
Education of Girls: Swift, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and
others. Elementary Education. Private Schools. Charity Schools:
Mandeville. The Public Schools : Eton and Westminster. Subjects
of Teaching. The Universities. Examinations at Cambridge.
The Oxford Tutorial System. _Foundation of the Royal Society.
Bentley's Range of Studies. Extension of University Learning.
New Chairs at Cambridge. Gibbon's Charges against the Oxford
System. Difficulties in the way of Reform
381
415
Bibliographies.
Table of Principal Dates
Index of Names
575
.
579
.
## p. xv (#21) ##############################################
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
i
VOLUME IX. FROM STEELE AND ADDISON TO POPE AND SWIFT
Second Impression, 1919, Corrections and Additions
2
I
The errata mentioned in volumes of the History published later than the first
edition of this volume have been corrected in the present impression. In addition, some
misprints noticed later have been corrected, and a few alterations made. The more
important of these are as follows:
p. 78, 11. 17, 18 for Cytherea . . . 1723, read The St James's Journal of 15 December 1722,
p. 149, 11. 2-4 of footnote for Prior's. . . manuscripts. read J. Bancks, under the title
The History of His Own Time by Matthew Prior, and professing to be compiled from
the manuscripts of Adrian Drift, Prior's former secretary.
Addenda to the present (2nd) impression
The following should be added to the bibliographies :
pp. 415 ff. chapter 1. Defoe, The Newspaper and the Novel :
Behn, Mrs Aphra. See vol. VIII, chapter v and bibliography.
Haywood, Mrs Eliza (1693 ? -1756). Collected edn of novels, plays and poems. 4 vols.
1724.
Manley, Mrs Mary de la Rivière (1672 ? -1724). Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several
Persons of Quality, of both Sexes. From the New Atalantis. 2 vols. 1709.
pp. 434 ff. chapter 11. Steele and Addison:
Addison, Joseph, The Miscellaneous Works of. Ed. Guthkelch, A. C. Vols. I and 11. 1914.
Suddard, M. L'Humour d'Addison. Essais de littérature anglaise. Cambridge, 1915.
pp. 443 ff. chapter III. Pope :
Pope, Alexander (ed. ). Poems of Thomas Parnell. 1721.
Pope, Alexander (ed. ). Works of John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, etc. 1723.
pp. 452 ff. chapter iv. Jonathan Swift:
Suddard, Mary. Swift's Poetry. Essays in English Literature. Cambridge, 1912.
pp. 479 ff. chapter vi. Lesser Verse Writers :
Under Matthew Prior :
Aitken, G. A. Notes on the Bibliography of Matthew Prior. A paper read before the
Bibliographical Society, January 17, 1916. 1919.
Bickley, F. The Life of Matthew Prior. 1914.
Dennis, J. In Studies in English Literature. 1876.
Under David Mallet :
Ballads and Songs. Ed. Di lale, F. , with a memoir. 57.
Under Richard Savage (biography):
The Plain Dealer. Nos. 28 and 73. 1724.
Johnson, Samuel. Life of Savage. 1744.
pp. 488 ff. chapters vir and viii. Historical and Political Writers :
Under William Dampier :
Voyages. Ed. Masefield, J. 2 vols. 1906.
Thomas Pitt (1653-1726).
Dalton, Sir C. N. The Life of Thomas Pitt. Cambridge, 1915.
pp. 502 ff. chapter 21. Berkeley and Contemporary Philosophy :
Under George Berkeley :
Berkeley and Percival. The Correspondence between George Berkeley. . . and Sir John
Percival. . . . Ed. Rand, Benjamin. Cambridge, 1914.
Under Anthony Astley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury:
Second Characters or The Language of Forms. Ed. Rand, Benjamin. Cambridge,
1914.
pp. 542 ff. chapter xiv. Scottish Literature from 1603 to 1786 :
Under (1) General :
Millar, J. H. Scottish Prose of the 17th and 18th centuries. Glasgow, 1912.
Under D. Miscellaneous. I. (1603-1660):
James VI. Lusus Regius : being poems and other pieces by King James ye First. Ed.
Rait, R. S. 1901.
Under Scottish Popular Poetry. II. Critical and Historical Writings:
Ganttich Ta - Pantry
:
1912
## p. xvi (#22) #############################################
## p. xvii (#23) ############################################
ADDENDUM
VOL. VII
P. 412
Daniel, George, of Beswick (1616—57). Poems, from the original MSS. Ed. Grosart,
A. B. 4 vols. 1878.
Fisher, Payne (1616—93). Marston Moor, Eboracense carmen. 1650. [Payne Fisher
wrote much verse (chiefly Latin) in praise of Oliver Cromwell, after whose death
be epent several years in the Fleet, and wrote as a royalist. ]
CORRIGENDA
1
VOL. VIII
p. 6, footnote 2, line 2 from bottom, for Royal Exchange read New Exchange, Strand
p. 28, footnote 2 at end, read : to the researches, conducted independently in each
case, of W. J. Lawrence and Sir Ernest Clarke
p. 30, 1. 23 and elsewhere, for St Évremond read Saint-Évremond
p. 215. The verses, "Why dost thou shade thy lovely face,' here ascribed to
Rochester, are the work of Quarles, and were first published in his Emblems. They
have been printed in many editions of Rochester's poems, but whether they were
claimed by him in jest, or falsely attributed to him by his editors, we have no means
of knowing.
p. 370, 1. 21, for 1655 read 1665
p. 371, 1. 38. Read as follows in lieu of the next two sentences of the text :
English imitations also appeared ; Lord Broghill (Orrery)'s Parthenissa (first part) in
1654, with which, in spite of its handsome language, Dorothy Osborne was not
very much taken, and Sir George Mackenzie'ɛ Aretina of the Serious Romance in
1661. A complete edition of Parthenissa in three volumes was published in 1665 and
1667.
p. 376, l. 5, insert the before chevalier
p. 422, l. 15, Howard, James should be inserted before All Mistaken. (This and
the subsequent play were by him, not by Edward Howard. )
1. 2 from bottom, the entry Cibber should read:
Cibber, Theophilus. An Account of the Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and
Ireland, 5 vols. 1753.
p. 445, 1. 2 from bottom, for Grammont. Des read Grammont; des
p. 478, l1. 12, 13 from bottom, transfer entries Gray, G. J. and Elton, 0. to
heading Sir Isaac Newton
VOL. IX
p. 139, for Doctor's read Doctors'
p. 204, note, for second earl read third earl
p. 254, note, for Lord Walpole read Lord Holland
p. 276, 1. 15 and p. 499, 1. 40, for Gerard read Girard
1
## p. xviii (#24) ###########################################
## p. 1 (#25) ###############################################
CHAPTER 1
I
DEFOE-THE NEWSPAPER AND THE NOVEL
DEFOE is known to our day chiefly as the author of Robinson
Crusoe, a pioneer novelist of adventure and low life. Students,
indeed, remember that he was also a prolific pamphleteer of unenvi-
able character and many vicissitudes. To his early biographers, he
was not merely a great novelist and journalist, but a martyr to liberal
principles and a man of exalted probity. His contemporaries, on the
contrary, inclined to regard him as an ignorant scribbler, a political
and social outcast, a journalist whose effrontery was equalled
I only by his astonishing energy. There is, probably, a measure of
truth in all these views; it is certainly true that the novelist we
remember was evolved out of the journalist we have forgotten.
When Defoe established his most important periodical, The
Review, in February 1704, the English newspaper, in a technical
sense, was not quite fifty years old. There had been weekly
Corantos
, or pamphlets of foreign news, from 1622 to 1641, and,
throughout the period of the civil war and the commonwealth,
there had been weekly 'newsbooks' designed to spread domestic
news, official or unofficial, parliamentary or royalist; but there
existed no real newspaper, no news periodical, not a pamphlet or
a newsletter, until the appearance of The Oxford Gazette in
November 1665'. The intrigues that led to the founding of this
paper, which soon became The London Gazette and, for many
years
, meagre and jejune though it was, possessed a monopoly of
the printed news, are of abundant interest, but have already been
noticed in this work? . It must suffice to say that such predecessors
in journalism as Defoe had before he was of an age to be influenced
by what he read were, in the main, purveyors of news through
pamphlets and written newsletters-interesting and able men,
many of them; generally staunch partisans ; sometimes, as in the
case of Marchamont Nedham, whom one regrets to encounter in
Milton's company, shameless turncoats. From their rather sorry
See Williams, J. B. , History of English Journalism, etc. p. 7.
* See ante, vol. vn, chap. xv, pp. 363—5.
1
!
E. L. IX.
CH. I.
1
8
## p. 2 (#26) ###############################################
2
Defoe—the Newspaper and the Novel
ranks, two figures of special importance stand out: Henry Muddiman,
the best news disseminator of his day, who has been mentioned
previously), and Roger L'Estrange, who was worsted by Muddiman
as an editor of newsbooks, but in whom, as political journalist,
indefatigable pamphleteer and competent man of letters, we
discover Defoe's most significant prototype.
L'Estrange was born, of good Norfolk stock, on 17 December
1616. He received an education befitting his station and, on
reaching his majority, became a zealous supporter of the king.
Betrayed in a plot for the recapture of Lynn, he was seized,
unfairly condemned to death, reprieved, left languishing for a few
years in Newgate and, finally, suffered to escape. During his
imprisonment, he made a small beginning as a pamphleteer, and
it is to the exasperating treatment accorded him that we may
partly attribute the dogmatic partisanship which is the most
striking characteristic of his political and ecclesiastical writings.
His adventures on the continent and his experiences in England
from his return in 1653 to the death of Cromwell may be passed
over. Late in 1659, he came forward as a writer of pamphlets and
broadsides designed to promote the restoration of Charles II.
Many of them may be read in the tract entitled L'Estrange his
Apology, but his only production of the period that possesses
any general interest is his scurrilous attack on Milton bearing
the inhuman title No Blinde Guides. After the restoration,
L'Estrange felt that his services were not duly recognised; but he
did not, on that account, neglect his assumed duties as castigator
of all persons whom he deemed factious—particularly presbyterians.
His tracts of this period often contain important information about
their author and throw light on the times; but, save for occasional
passages of quaint homeliness, they make dismal reading.
In the summer of 1663, he published his stringent Considera-
tions and Proposals in order to the Regulation of the Press, and
he soon had his reward in his appointment as one of the licensers,
and as surveyor of printing presses. He was also granted a
monopoly of the news; but his two weekly newsbooks caused dis-
satisfaction, and The Gazette finally drove him from the field. He
was more successful as a suppressor of seditious publications,
witness the notorious case of John Twyn—but such sinister success
as he had has cast upon his name, whether fully merited or not,
a reproach from which it will never be freed. For about fifteen
years, his official duties seem to have checked his fluent pen; but,
1 See ante, vol. VII, pp. 349, 362 ff.
## p. 3 (#27) ###############################################
L’Estrange and Popish Plot. The Observator 3
during this period, he began, probably with his version of the
Visions of Quevedo, in 1667, the long series of his translations,
and he published, in 1674, a sensible Discourse of the Fishery,
thus anticipating Defoe in the character of promoter.
In 1679, he assailed Shaftesbury and the exclusionists in
pamphlets which won him the royal regard. During the next
year, he was in the thick of the controversy about the popish plot,
labouring to allay the popular fury against Roman Catholics. His
denunciations of Oates and other informers led to machinations
against himself. He was falsely accused of endeavouring by bribery
to secure the defamation of Oates, and he was charged with being
a papist. He was acquitted by the council; but public opinion
ran so high against him that he fled, for a short time, to Holland.
To employ a phrase in the title of one of his tracts, “a whole Litter
of Libellers' assailed him at this season; but 'the Dog Towzer'
was not to be thus daunted. He returned in February 1681, and
kept the press busy, not only with apologetic pamphlets, but with
bitter assaults upon the dissenters and with one of the most
important of his works, his political newspaper The Observator:
In Question and Answer.
This journal, of two double-columned folio pages, began its
career on 13 April 1681 and ran to 9 March 1686/7. After no.
Orthodoxy. Toland's Christianity not Mysterious. His Literary
Career and Philosophical Development: Letters to Serena ;
Pantheisticon. Anthony Collins's Discourse of Free-thinking.
Tindals Christianity as old as the Creation. Other Deistical
Writers: Woolston; Chubb; Morgan; Henry Dodwell the younger.
Influence of Deism. Bolingbroke. Whiston's Primitive Chris-
tianity Revived. Opponents of the Deists: William Warburton.
III. Moralists. Samuel Clarke and Rational Ethics. Shaftesbury;
his Characteristics of Men and Manners. Hutcheson. Mandeville's
Fable of the Bees. Bishop Butler's Fifteen Sermons and Analogy.
Exhaustiveness of Butler's Reasonings
279
## p. xii (#18) #############################################
xii
Contents
CHAPTER XII
WILLIAM LAW AND THE MYSTICS
By CAROLINE F. E. SPURGEON, Dr of the University
of Paris, Fellow of King's College for Women and
Lecturer in English Literature at Bedford College,
University of London
PAGE
6
Undercurrent of Mystical Thought in England in the Earlier Half of
the Eighteenth Century. Mysticism in the Seventeenth Century.
*Children of Light' in Holland. The Behmenites' and the
Founders of the Society of Friends. Life and Writings of William
Law. Law's Controversial Writings against Hoadly, Mandeville
and Tindal. Christian Perfection and A Serious Call. Influence
of Malebranche, the earlier German Mystics and the Seventeenth
Century Quietists upon Law. Jacob Boehme and the Essence of
his Mysticism. Boehme and Law. An Appeal to all who Doubt
and The Way to Divine Knowledge. Character of Law's Prose:
Law and Mandeville; The Spirit of Prayer; A Serious Call.
Law's Followers: John Byrom; Henry Brooke. Later influence
of Boehme on English Thought .
305
.
CHAPTER XIII
SCHOLARS AND ANTIQUARIES
I. BENTLEY AND CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP
By JAMES DUFF DUFF, M. A. , Fellow and Lecturer in
Classics of Trinity College
Learning in England at the Time of Bentley's Birth: Pearson; Fell;
William Lloyd; Henry Dodwell; John Moore. Bentley's Earlier
Life and Labours. Epistola ad Millium. His Lectures against
Atheism. The Phalaris Controversy: Bentley and his Adversaries.
Bentley Master of Trinity. The Troubles of his Mastership. His
Reforms at Cambridge. Phileleutherus Lipsiensis. Bentley's
Horace. Remarks upon a late Discourse of Free-Thinking.
Editions of Terence and Manilius. Bentley and Paradise Lost.
His death. Joseph Wasse; Conyers Middleton; Jeremiah
Markland; John Taylor; Richard Dawes
329
## p. xiii (#19) ############################################
Contents
xiii
II. ANTIQUARIES
By H. G. ALDIS, M. A. , Peterhouse, Secretary of the
University Library
PAGE
Oxford and the Bodleian. Dagdale and Dodsworth. The Antiquities
of Warwickshire and Monasticon Anglicanum. Dugdale's Other
Labours. Anthony Wood and Athenae Oxonienses. Thomas
Hearne. John Tanner. John Aubrey. Local History and
Topography: Burton; Plot; Stukeley; Gordon. Chamberlayne's
Angliae Notitia and its Sequel. Gibson's Edition of Camden's
Britannia Ashmole and other County Antiquaries. Baker's
collections: his History of St John's College, Cambridge.
Writers on Monastic and Cathedral Antiquities. Old English
Studies: Sir Henry Spelman. Diplomatic: Thomas Madox.
Heraldry. Ames's Typographical Antiquities. The Cottonian
and the Harloian Libraries. Osborne and Oldys. Revival of the
Society of Antiquaries.
.
341
CHAPTER XIV
SCOTTISH POPULAR POETRY BEFORE BURNS
By T. F. HENDERSON
1
The long Blight on Scottish Secular Verse. Exceptional popularity of
Lyndsay. Survival of Songs in the Puritan Period. Peculiarity
of the relation between English and Scottish Song in the Seventeenth
Century. Ane Compendious Booke of Godly and Spirituall
Songs. Original Scots Songs in The Tea-Table Miscellany:
Lady Grizel Baillie, Lady Wardlaw and William Hamilton of
Gilbertfield. Robert Sempill and The Life and Death of Habbie
Simson. Watson's Choice Collection. Allan Ramsay. His
earlier productions and The Gentle Shepherd. Difficulty of
estimating his Originality. His treatment of the Old Songs. The
Tea-Table Miscellany and The Evergreen. Alexander Pennecuick.
Robert Crawford. William Hamilton of Bangour. Sir John
Clerk and George Halkett. Alexander Ross. Alexander Geddes.
Dougal Graham. Mrs Cockburn. Jane and Sir Gilbert Elliot.
Anonymous Songs. Songs from David Herd's Manuscript and
other Collections. Jacobite Songs in Hogg's Jacobite Relics of
Scotland. Hogg's editorial methods. Literary value of the
Jacobite Songs. Robert Fergusson: his personality and poetio
qualities
359
1
## p. xiv (#20) #############################################
xiv
Contents
CHAPTER XV
EDUCATION
By J. W. ADAMSON, Fellow of King's College, London, and
Professor of Education in the University of London
PAGE
The Seventeenth Century Curriculum. Henry Wotton's Essay on the
Education of Children. Proposed supersession of Oxford and
Cambridge under the Commonwealth: Milton; Harrington;
Hobbes. Seth Ward's Vindiciae Academiarum. The Long
Parliament and Education. Projected Reforms of Schools.
Influence of John Amos Comenius. Hartlib, Petty and Dury.
Educational Projects after the Restoration: Cowley's Proposition.
The Ancients v. Moderns Controversy: Temple and Bentley.
Dissenting Academies : Secker's Experience. Courtly and Private
Education: Comments of Clarendon, Peacham, Francis Osborn
and others. Cavils of Swift and Defoe. Locke's Thoughts on
Education and Essay concerning Human Understanding.
Influence of the Essay on subsequent Educational Theory.
Education of Girls: Swift, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and
others. Elementary Education. Private Schools. Charity Schools:
Mandeville. The Public Schools : Eton and Westminster. Subjects
of Teaching. The Universities. Examinations at Cambridge.
The Oxford Tutorial System. _Foundation of the Royal Society.
Bentley's Range of Studies. Extension of University Learning.
New Chairs at Cambridge. Gibbon's Charges against the Oxford
System. Difficulties in the way of Reform
381
415
Bibliographies.
Table of Principal Dates
Index of Names
575
.
579
.
## p. xv (#21) ##############################################
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
i
VOLUME IX. FROM STEELE AND ADDISON TO POPE AND SWIFT
Second Impression, 1919, Corrections and Additions
2
I
The errata mentioned in volumes of the History published later than the first
edition of this volume have been corrected in the present impression. In addition, some
misprints noticed later have been corrected, and a few alterations made. The more
important of these are as follows:
p. 78, 11. 17, 18 for Cytherea . . . 1723, read The St James's Journal of 15 December 1722,
p. 149, 11. 2-4 of footnote for Prior's. . . manuscripts. read J. Bancks, under the title
The History of His Own Time by Matthew Prior, and professing to be compiled from
the manuscripts of Adrian Drift, Prior's former secretary.
Addenda to the present (2nd) impression
The following should be added to the bibliographies :
pp. 415 ff. chapter 1. Defoe, The Newspaper and the Novel :
Behn, Mrs Aphra. See vol. VIII, chapter v and bibliography.
Haywood, Mrs Eliza (1693 ? -1756). Collected edn of novels, plays and poems. 4 vols.
1724.
Manley, Mrs Mary de la Rivière (1672 ? -1724). Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several
Persons of Quality, of both Sexes. From the New Atalantis. 2 vols. 1709.
pp. 434 ff. chapter 11. Steele and Addison:
Addison, Joseph, The Miscellaneous Works of. Ed. Guthkelch, A. C. Vols. I and 11. 1914.
Suddard, M. L'Humour d'Addison. Essais de littérature anglaise. Cambridge, 1915.
pp. 443 ff. chapter III. Pope :
Pope, Alexander (ed. ). Poems of Thomas Parnell. 1721.
Pope, Alexander (ed. ). Works of John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, etc. 1723.
pp. 452 ff. chapter iv. Jonathan Swift:
Suddard, Mary. Swift's Poetry. Essays in English Literature. Cambridge, 1912.
pp. 479 ff. chapter vi. Lesser Verse Writers :
Under Matthew Prior :
Aitken, G. A. Notes on the Bibliography of Matthew Prior. A paper read before the
Bibliographical Society, January 17, 1916. 1919.
Bickley, F. The Life of Matthew Prior. 1914.
Dennis, J. In Studies in English Literature. 1876.
Under David Mallet :
Ballads and Songs. Ed. Di lale, F. , with a memoir. 57.
Under Richard Savage (biography):
The Plain Dealer. Nos. 28 and 73. 1724.
Johnson, Samuel. Life of Savage. 1744.
pp. 488 ff. chapters vir and viii. Historical and Political Writers :
Under William Dampier :
Voyages. Ed. Masefield, J. 2 vols. 1906.
Thomas Pitt (1653-1726).
Dalton, Sir C. N. The Life of Thomas Pitt. Cambridge, 1915.
pp. 502 ff. chapter 21. Berkeley and Contemporary Philosophy :
Under George Berkeley :
Berkeley and Percival. The Correspondence between George Berkeley. . . and Sir John
Percival. . . . Ed. Rand, Benjamin. Cambridge, 1914.
Under Anthony Astley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury:
Second Characters or The Language of Forms. Ed. Rand, Benjamin. Cambridge,
1914.
pp. 542 ff. chapter xiv. Scottish Literature from 1603 to 1786 :
Under (1) General :
Millar, J. H. Scottish Prose of the 17th and 18th centuries. Glasgow, 1912.
Under D. Miscellaneous. I. (1603-1660):
James VI. Lusus Regius : being poems and other pieces by King James ye First. Ed.
Rait, R. S. 1901.
Under Scottish Popular Poetry. II. Critical and Historical Writings:
Ganttich Ta - Pantry
:
1912
## p. xvi (#22) #############################################
## p. xvii (#23) ############################################
ADDENDUM
VOL. VII
P. 412
Daniel, George, of Beswick (1616—57). Poems, from the original MSS. Ed. Grosart,
A. B. 4 vols. 1878.
Fisher, Payne (1616—93). Marston Moor, Eboracense carmen. 1650. [Payne Fisher
wrote much verse (chiefly Latin) in praise of Oliver Cromwell, after whose death
be epent several years in the Fleet, and wrote as a royalist. ]
CORRIGENDA
1
VOL. VIII
p. 6, footnote 2, line 2 from bottom, for Royal Exchange read New Exchange, Strand
p. 28, footnote 2 at end, read : to the researches, conducted independently in each
case, of W. J. Lawrence and Sir Ernest Clarke
p. 30, 1. 23 and elsewhere, for St Évremond read Saint-Évremond
p. 215. The verses, "Why dost thou shade thy lovely face,' here ascribed to
Rochester, are the work of Quarles, and were first published in his Emblems. They
have been printed in many editions of Rochester's poems, but whether they were
claimed by him in jest, or falsely attributed to him by his editors, we have no means
of knowing.
p. 370, 1. 21, for 1655 read 1665
p. 371, 1. 38. Read as follows in lieu of the next two sentences of the text :
English imitations also appeared ; Lord Broghill (Orrery)'s Parthenissa (first part) in
1654, with which, in spite of its handsome language, Dorothy Osborne was not
very much taken, and Sir George Mackenzie'ɛ Aretina of the Serious Romance in
1661. A complete edition of Parthenissa in three volumes was published in 1665 and
1667.
p. 376, l. 5, insert the before chevalier
p. 422, l. 15, Howard, James should be inserted before All Mistaken. (This and
the subsequent play were by him, not by Edward Howard. )
1. 2 from bottom, the entry Cibber should read:
Cibber, Theophilus. An Account of the Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and
Ireland, 5 vols. 1753.
p. 445, 1. 2 from bottom, for Grammont. Des read Grammont; des
p. 478, l1. 12, 13 from bottom, transfer entries Gray, G. J. and Elton, 0. to
heading Sir Isaac Newton
VOL. IX
p. 139, for Doctor's read Doctors'
p. 204, note, for second earl read third earl
p. 254, note, for Lord Walpole read Lord Holland
p. 276, 1. 15 and p. 499, 1. 40, for Gerard read Girard
1
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## p. 1 (#25) ###############################################
CHAPTER 1
I
DEFOE-THE NEWSPAPER AND THE NOVEL
DEFOE is known to our day chiefly as the author of Robinson
Crusoe, a pioneer novelist of adventure and low life. Students,
indeed, remember that he was also a prolific pamphleteer of unenvi-
able character and many vicissitudes. To his early biographers, he
was not merely a great novelist and journalist, but a martyr to liberal
principles and a man of exalted probity. His contemporaries, on the
contrary, inclined to regard him as an ignorant scribbler, a political
and social outcast, a journalist whose effrontery was equalled
I only by his astonishing energy. There is, probably, a measure of
truth in all these views; it is certainly true that the novelist we
remember was evolved out of the journalist we have forgotten.
When Defoe established his most important periodical, The
Review, in February 1704, the English newspaper, in a technical
sense, was not quite fifty years old. There had been weekly
Corantos
, or pamphlets of foreign news, from 1622 to 1641, and,
throughout the period of the civil war and the commonwealth,
there had been weekly 'newsbooks' designed to spread domestic
news, official or unofficial, parliamentary or royalist; but there
existed no real newspaper, no news periodical, not a pamphlet or
a newsletter, until the appearance of The Oxford Gazette in
November 1665'. The intrigues that led to the founding of this
paper, which soon became The London Gazette and, for many
years
, meagre and jejune though it was, possessed a monopoly of
the printed news, are of abundant interest, but have already been
noticed in this work? . It must suffice to say that such predecessors
in journalism as Defoe had before he was of an age to be influenced
by what he read were, in the main, purveyors of news through
pamphlets and written newsletters-interesting and able men,
many of them; generally staunch partisans ; sometimes, as in the
case of Marchamont Nedham, whom one regrets to encounter in
Milton's company, shameless turncoats. From their rather sorry
See Williams, J. B. , History of English Journalism, etc. p. 7.
* See ante, vol. vn, chap. xv, pp. 363—5.
1
!
E. L. IX.
CH. I.
1
8
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2
Defoe—the Newspaper and the Novel
ranks, two figures of special importance stand out: Henry Muddiman,
the best news disseminator of his day, who has been mentioned
previously), and Roger L'Estrange, who was worsted by Muddiman
as an editor of newsbooks, but in whom, as political journalist,
indefatigable pamphleteer and competent man of letters, we
discover Defoe's most significant prototype.
L'Estrange was born, of good Norfolk stock, on 17 December
1616. He received an education befitting his station and, on
reaching his majority, became a zealous supporter of the king.
Betrayed in a plot for the recapture of Lynn, he was seized,
unfairly condemned to death, reprieved, left languishing for a few
years in Newgate and, finally, suffered to escape. During his
imprisonment, he made a small beginning as a pamphleteer, and
it is to the exasperating treatment accorded him that we may
partly attribute the dogmatic partisanship which is the most
striking characteristic of his political and ecclesiastical writings.
His adventures on the continent and his experiences in England
from his return in 1653 to the death of Cromwell may be passed
over. Late in 1659, he came forward as a writer of pamphlets and
broadsides designed to promote the restoration of Charles II.
Many of them may be read in the tract entitled L'Estrange his
Apology, but his only production of the period that possesses
any general interest is his scurrilous attack on Milton bearing
the inhuman title No Blinde Guides. After the restoration,
L'Estrange felt that his services were not duly recognised; but he
did not, on that account, neglect his assumed duties as castigator
of all persons whom he deemed factious—particularly presbyterians.
His tracts of this period often contain important information about
their author and throw light on the times; but, save for occasional
passages of quaint homeliness, they make dismal reading.
In the summer of 1663, he published his stringent Considera-
tions and Proposals in order to the Regulation of the Press, and
he soon had his reward in his appointment as one of the licensers,
and as surveyor of printing presses. He was also granted a
monopoly of the news; but his two weekly newsbooks caused dis-
satisfaction, and The Gazette finally drove him from the field. He
was more successful as a suppressor of seditious publications,
witness the notorious case of John Twyn—but such sinister success
as he had has cast upon his name, whether fully merited or not,
a reproach from which it will never be freed. For about fifteen
years, his official duties seem to have checked his fluent pen; but,
1 See ante, vol. VII, pp. 349, 362 ff.
## p. 3 (#27) ###############################################
L’Estrange and Popish Plot. The Observator 3
during this period, he began, probably with his version of the
Visions of Quevedo, in 1667, the long series of his translations,
and he published, in 1674, a sensible Discourse of the Fishery,
thus anticipating Defoe in the character of promoter.
In 1679, he assailed Shaftesbury and the exclusionists in
pamphlets which won him the royal regard. During the next
year, he was in the thick of the controversy about the popish plot,
labouring to allay the popular fury against Roman Catholics. His
denunciations of Oates and other informers led to machinations
against himself. He was falsely accused of endeavouring by bribery
to secure the defamation of Oates, and he was charged with being
a papist. He was acquitted by the council; but public opinion
ran so high against him that he fled, for a short time, to Holland.
To employ a phrase in the title of one of his tracts, “a whole Litter
of Libellers' assailed him at this season; but 'the Dog Towzer'
was not to be thus daunted. He returned in February 1681, and
kept the press busy, not only with apologetic pamphlets, but with
bitter assaults upon the dissenters and with one of the most
important of his works, his political newspaper The Observator:
In Question and Answer.
This journal, of two double-columned folio pages, began its
career on 13 April 1681 and ran to 9 March 1686/7. After no.
