Theodore
and
Hadrian.
Hadrian.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v01
This file was downloaded from HathiTrust Digital Library.
Find more books at https://www. hathitrust. org.
Title: The Cambridge history of English literature, ed. by A. W. Ward
and A. R. Waller.
Publisher: Cambridge, The University Press, 1908-1927.
Copyright:
Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain in the United
States of America. It may not be in the public domain in other countries.
Copies are provided as a preservation service. Particularly outside of the
United States, persons receiving copies should make appropriate efforts to
determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the
work accordingly. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or
the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as
illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions.
Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights
may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The
digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc.
(indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests
that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used
commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly,
non-commercial purposes.
Find this book online: https://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwfydf
This file has been created from the computer-extracted text of scanned page
images. Computer-extracted text may have errors, such as misspellings,
unusual characters, odd spacing and line breaks.
Original from: Harvard University
Digitized by: Google
Generated at University of Chicago on 2022-12-31 14:28 GMT
## p. (#1) ##################################################
HD WIDENER
HW FYDF
.
## p. (#2) ##################################################
10445. 44
barvard College Library
OIANA
ARVAN
ET
VE SRI
EMIA
ECCL
RIS
TAS
ADE
ZONOVO
SSIAE
CHR
BOUGHT WITH MONEY
RECEIVED FROM THE
SALE OF DUPLICATES
## p. (#3) ##################################################
## p. (#4) ##################################################
## p. i (#5) ################################################
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF
ENGLISH LITERATURE
VOLUME I
FROM THE BEGINNINGS
TO THE
CYCLES OF ROMANCE
## p. ii (#6) ###############################################
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER.
London: FETTER LANE, E. C.
Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET.
Paris: THE GALIGNANI LIBRARY.
Berlin: ASHER AND CO.
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO. , LTD.
Copyrighted in the United States of America by
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS,
27 AND 29, WEST 23RD STREET, NEW YORK.
All Rights reserved
## p. iii (#7) ##############################################
THE
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF
ENGLISH LITERATURE
EDITED BY
A. W. WARD, Litt. D. , F. B. A. , Master of Peterhouse
AND
A. R. WALLER, M. A. , Peterhouse
VOLUME I
FROM THE BEGINNINGS
TO THE
CYCLES OF ROMANCE
23
* POCL
LVC
CAMBRIDGE :
at the University Press
1908
## p. iv (#8) ###############################################
10445. 44
ARVARD COLLEGE
MAR 28 19179)
LIBRARY
Geekúrat 7:19:44
(14 rel)
First Edition November, 1907
Reprinted May, 1908
dy. .
## p. v (#9) ################################################
PREFACE
TN the preliminary statement of the aims and objects of this
1 History, communicated to those who were invited to become
contributors to it, the editors emphasised the following purposes
of their undertaking.
(a) A connected account was to be given of the successive
movements of English literature, both main and subsidiary; and
this was intended to imply an adequate treatment of secondary
writers, instead of their being overshadowed by a few great names.
(6) Note was to be taken of the influence of foreign literatures
upon English and (though in a less degree) of that of English upon
foreign literatures.
(c) Each chapter of the work was to be furnished with a
sufficient bibliography.
Very few words seem needed here, in addition to the above, by
way of preface to the first volume of the History; this volume
and its successors must show how far editors and contributors
have been able to carry out in practice the principles by which
they have been guided. It may, however, be expedient, while
directing attention to a few details in the general plan of the
work, to dwell rather more fully on one or two of the ideas which
will be kept in view throughout its course.
In an enquiry embracing the history of motives, causes and
ends, it is often far less important to dwell on “leading” person-
alities and on the main tendencies of literary production, than to
consider subsidiary movements and writers below the highest rank,
and to trace, in apparently arid periods, processes which were
often carried on, as it were, underground, or seemed to be such as
could safely be ignored. It cannot be too often urged that there
are few, if any, isolated phenomena; the voices may be voices
crying in the wilderness, but they belong to those who prepare the
## p. vi (#10) ##############################################
Preface
way. While, therefore, anxious that not less than justice shall be
dealt out to the works of better-known writers, the editors have
tried so to plan these volumes that something more than the mere
justice with which works designed on a smaller scale have had to
content themselves may be given to less known writers and to
so-called fugitive literature.
In the interest both of the general reader and of the student, it
has been decided to insert footnotes below the text, where refer-
ences seem required. These have been kept as brief as possible, in
order that they may not distract attention. Further notes are,
in special cases, added in the appendix and bibliographies at
the end of the volume. The names of a few writers not dealt
with in the text will be found in the bibliographies; but these
names have not, it is hoped, been forgotten in the index. And
the birth and death dates of most of the English writers men-
tioned in the text will be found in the index, rather than in the
body of the work.
An occasional attempt has been made to give the student some
assistance by means of critical hints in the bibliographies, and to
point out where he may best obtain fuller information of a more
special nature than can possibly be given within the limits of a
general history. To attempt an exhaustive treatment of any one
writer, however eminent or however insignificant, to supply analyses
of well-known books which are, or should be, on the same shelves
as those which may hold these volumes, or to devote much space
to the repetition of biographical facts-all this has seemed to lie
outside the scope of the present work.
While it is desired to preserve a certain unity in the contents
of each volume--an easier task, probably, in the case of those
dealing with later than of those treating of earlier times--yet the
editors have no belief in “hard and fast" limits as encompassing any
epoch, and their wish is that this History should unfold itself,
unfettered by any preconceived notions of artificial eras or con-
trolling dates. They venture, therefore, to remind their critics, to
whom they confidently look for an indication of mistakes, that
some of the subjects which may seem to have been omitted may
prove to have been deliberately reserved for later treatment. To
force an account of literary, educational or scientific movements
## p. vii (#11) #############################################
Preface
vii
into chronological shackles, and make it keep step year by year
with the progress of external events, or to present it as an orderly
development when its edges are, in truth, woefully ragged, is not
always either possible or desirable. From time to time, buried
treasure comes to light; things seemingly of a day suddenly reveal
the strength that is in them and become things for all time ; and
the way then lies open for a profitable retrospect. Thus, the
editors have thought it simpler to defer an enquiry into the first
glimmerings of the English drama and an account of the miracle
plays until towards the close of the second volume, and to deal,
on broad lines, with the progress of the English language, as the
vehicle of English literature, with changes in English prosody and
with the work of universities and scholarship, towards the end of
successive periods, rather than piecemeal at successive stages
of each.
With regard to future volumes-since the history of a nation's
literature cannot be divorced from some consideration of its
political, religious and social life, including its manners as well
as its phases of sentiment and fashion, its trivial thoughts no less
than its serious moments—the editors have thought it well to
make some provision for treating certain subjects more or less
closely allied to literature pure or proper. Such are the literature
of science and philosophy, and that of politics and economics ; par-
liamentary eloquence; the work of schools and universities and
libraries ; scholarship; the pamphlet literature of religious and
political controversy; the newspaper and the magazine; the
labours of the press and the services of booksellers ; homely books
dealing with precept and manners and social life; domestic letters
and street songs; accounts of travel and records of sport—the
whole range of letters, in its widest acceptation, from the “Cam-
bridge Platonists" to the “fraternity of vagabonds. ” And, since
the literature of the British Colonies and of the United States
are, in the main, the literature of the mother-country, produced
under other skies, it is intended to give, in their proper place,
some account of these literatures also.
Though the editors are jointly responsible for the work as
a whole—both text and bibliographies--it is obvious that an
undertaking of this nature could no more be accomplished by one
mo
one
## p. viii (#12) ############################################
viii
Preface
or two men than the Cambridge Modern History could have been
written by a few hands. It could only be begun, and can only
be carried to completion, by the continued cooperation of many
scholars, who, whether British or American, hold their common
heritage as a thing of worth, and by the ungrudging assistance of
continental scholars, whose labours in the field of our national
literature entitle them to the gratitude of Englishmen. This
twofold assistance the editors have been fortunate enough to
secure for the volumes already in immediate preparation. In
addition to chapters written by English scholars, from without
Cambridge as well as from within, the readers of the Cambridge
History of English Literature will have the benefit of contri-
butions from specialists of other countries; and it is the sincere
hope of the editors that they may enjoy the same generous
support until their task is done.
It remains to thank those who, apart from the actual con-
tributors, have aided the editors in the work of the earlier
volumes now in hand. And, first, they would desire to remember
with gratitude the labours of their predecessors : Thomas Warton,
whose History of English Poetry may be, and, in many respects,
has been, superseded, but is never likely to be forgotten or cast
aside; Thomas Wright, whose industry and enthusiasm in the
cause of medieval letters and archaeology allow us to forget his
failings; George Lillie Craik, whose modest efforts kindled in
many men still living their first affection for English letters ;
Henry Morley, who devoted a laborious and zealous life to the
noble end of making English writers widely accessible to students
and who died before he could complete the last and most im-
portant piece of work he set himself to do; Bernard ten Brink,
whose history of English literature to the death of Surrey must
long remain unsurpassed on its own ground—“Great things,” as
he himself said of Surrey's tragic end," he might still have accom-
plished, but what he did accomplish has not been lost to posterity”;
Hippolyte Taine, the master of analysis and the first to show the
full significance of the study of a nation's literature for the study
of its general history; Hermann Hettner, in whose History of
English Literature from 1660 to 1770, and the companion accounts
of French and German literature in the eighteenth century, the
## p. ix (#13) ##############################################
ix
Preface
comparative method is luminously applied ; Georg Brandes, whose
Main Currents in the Literature of the Nineteenth Century reveals
an extraordinary quickness of intellectual insight and a not less
uncommon breadth of moral sympathy; Henry Duff Traill, whose
brilliant gifts are held in affectionate remembrance by those who
have come under their spell, and whose symposium, Social
England, should be in the hands of all who desire to possess “a
record of the progress of the people”; L. Petit de Julleville, whose
Histoire de la Langue et de la Littérature française has been of
special value and assistance in the planning of the present work;
Grein, Kölbing, Mätzner, Wülker, Zupitza and many other eminent
Teutonic scholars who have made, and are making, the paths smoother
for their contemporaries and for their successors. The brilliant
Histoire Littéraire du Peuple Anglais of M. J. J. Jusserand has
been constantly in the hands of the editors of this work, and the
Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Dictionary of National Bio-
graphy have, as a matter of course, been laid under contribution,
together with the extremely useful Chambers's Cyclopaedia of
English Literature, a work which, used with delight by the
writers of this preface, in its old form, many years ago, has, in its
revised garb, proved of considerable use. The invaluable Beiträge
zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, with which
are associated the names of H. Paul, W. Braune and E. Sievers, has
been repeatedly referred to, and always with advantage, while the
bibliographies will show what use has been made of Anglia,
Englische Studien, Romania, the publications of American uni-
versities and of modern language associations. In this last
connection may be mentioned the Modern Language Review,
recently reconstituted under the editorship of Prof. J. G. Robert-
son. For advice on certain points in the present volume, or for
indebtedness in other ways, the editors' thanks are also due to
Dr F. J. Furnivall, whose labours, together with those of the band
of fellow-workers in the Early English Text Society, have done
much to remove the reproach that Englishmen were not alive to
the beauties of their own literature; to Professor W. W. Skeat,
Miss Steele Smith, Prof. G. L. Kittredge and to Prof. Alois
Brandl, with other eminent members of the Deutsche Shakespeare
Gesellschaft; and to the writings of Dr Stopford A. Brooke,
## p. x (#14) ###############################################
Preface
Prof. Albert S. Cook, Prof. T. R. Lounsbury and Prof. W. H.
Schofield. Other debts, too numerous to set forth in detail, it
has only been possible to acknowledge by the insertion of names
and titles of works in the bibliographies; but our thanks will, we
trust, be read “ between the lines” by all our fellow-workers.
A. W. W.
A. R. W.
PETERHOUSE, CAMBRIDGE
2 August 1907
## p. xi (#15) ##############################################
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS
By A. R. WALLER, M. A. , Peterhouse.
Characteristics of the earliest Poetry. The Gleeman. Theodore and
Hadrian. National Strife . . . . . . . . .
PAGB
CHAPTER II
RUNES AND MANUSCRIPTS
By ANNA C. PAUES, Ph. D. Upsala, Newnham College.
The National Germanic Alphabet. Runes in Scandinavian and Old
English Literature. The Ruthwell Cross. The Franks Casket.
The Roman Alphabet. The Irish School of Writing. Tablets,
parchment, vellum, paper, pens, ink and binding. Scribes and
scriptoria. . • • • • • • • • • • •
CHAPTER III
EARLY NATIONAL POETRY
By H. MUNRO CHADWICK, M. A. , Fellow of Clare College.
Early National Poems the work of Minstrels. Teutonic Epic Poetry.
Beowulf: Scandinavian Traditions; Personality of the Hero; Origin
and Antiquity of the Poem; the Religious Element. Finnsburh.
The Waldhere Fragments. Widsith. Deor. The Wanderer.
The Seafarer. The Wife's Complaint. The Husband's Message.
The Ruin. Religious Poetry of Heathen Times . . . '.
CHAPTER IV/
OLD ENGLISH CHRISTIAN POETRY
By M. BENTINCK SMITH, M. A. ,
Headmistress of St Leonard's School, St Andrews.
Celtic Christianity. Changes wrought by the New Spirit. ' Caedmon's
Hymn. Genesis, Exodus, Daniel. Crist and Satan. Cynewulf.
Theodore and
Hadrian. National Strife . . . . . . . . .
PAGB
CHAPTER II
RUNES AND MANUSCRIPTS
By ANNA C. PAUES, Ph. D. Upsala, Newnham College.
The National Germanic Alphabet. Runes in Scandinavian and Old
English Literature. The Ruthwell Cross. The Franks Casket.
The Roman Alphabet. The Irish School of Writing. Tablets,
parchment, vellum, paper, pens, ink and binding. Scribes and
scriptoria. . • • • • • • • • • • •
CHAPTER III
EARLY NATIONAL POETRY
By H. MUNRO CHADWICK, M. A. , Fellow of Clare College.
Early National Poems the work of Minstrels. Teutonic Epic Poetry.
Beowulf: Scandinavian Traditions; Personality of the Hero; Origin
and Antiquity of the Poem; the Religious Element. Finnsburh.
The Waldhere Fragments. Widsith. Deor. The Wanderer.
The Seafarer. The Wife's Complaint. The Husband's Message.
The Ruin. Religious Poetry of Heathen Times . . . '.
CHAPTER IV/
OLD ENGLISH CHRISTIAN POETRY
By M. BENTINCK SMITH, M. A. ,
Headmistress of St Leonard's School, St Andrews.
Celtic Christianity. Changes wrought by the New Spirit. ' Caedmon's
Hymn. Genesis, Exodus, Daniel. Crist and Satan. Cynewulf.
His Personality. Crist, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles,
Elene. Andreas. The Dream of the Rood. Guthlac, The
Phoenix, Physiologus, Riddles. Minor Christian Poems. The
Riming Poem, Proverbs, The Runic Poem, Salomon and Saturn.
The Schools of Caedmon and Cynewulf . . . . . .
41
## p. xii (#16) #############################################
Contents
CHAPTER V
LATIN WRITINGS IN ENGLAND TO THE TIME OF ALFRED
By MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES, Litt. D. ,
Provost of King's College.
PAGE
Gildas and The History of the Britons. “Hisperic” Latin. Nennins
and Historia Brittonum. The Roman Mission to Kent and its
results. Aldhelm and his School. Bede's Ecclesiastical History.
Bede's Letter to Egbert of York. Alcuin. Lives of Saints.
Visions. Minor writings . . .
. .
. . .
65
CHAPTER VI
ALFRED AND THE OLD ENGLISH PROSE OF HIS REIGN
By P. G. THOMAS, M. A. , Professor of English Language and
Literature at Bedford College, University of London.
Asser's Life of Alfred. The Handbook and Pastoral Care. Trans-
lations of Orosius and Bede. Codes of Law. De Consolatione
Philosophiae. The metres in Alfred's Boethius. Augustine's
Soliloquies. The Chronicle. Gregory's Dialogues. Works at-
tributed to Alfred. His Literary Achievement . . . . 88
CHAPTER VII
FROM ALFRED TO THE CONQUEST
By JOHN S. WESTLAKE, M. A. , Trinity College.
The Chronicle. The Monastic Reform. Blickling Homilies.
The Works of Aelfric. Wulfstan. Byrhtferth. Lindisfarne,
Rushworth and West Saxon Glosses. Legends of the Holy Rood.
Legends of the East. Quasi-scientific works. The Ballads and
Poems in The Chronicle. Judith. The Battle of Maldon or
Byrhtnoth's Death. Menologium. Be Domes Daege . . .
Wulfatares. Legends The Baldon Of
108
108
CHAPTER VIII
THE NORMAN CONQUEST
By A. R. WALLER
Dunstan. The Coming Change. The Wisdom of the East. Lanfranc.
Anselm. Norman Gifts . . . . . . . . . .
149
## p. xiii (#17) ############################################
Contents
xiii
CHAPTER IX
LATIN CHRONICLERS FROM THE ELEVENTH TO THE
THIRTEENTH CENTURIES
By W. LEWIS JONES, M. A. , Professor of English Language and
Literature at the University College of North Wales.
PAGE
England and Normandy. Characteristics of the Chroniclers. The
Northumbrian School of English Medieval History. Simeon of
Durham. Florence of Worcester. Eadmer and Ordericus Vitalis.
William of Malmesbury. Gesta Stephani. Henry of Huntingdon.
Geoffrey of Monmouth. William of Newburgh. Benedict of
Peterborough. Richard Fitz-Neale. Roger of Loveden. Ralph
of Diceto. Richard of Devizes. Jocelin of Brakelond. Giraldus
Cambrensis. Walter Map. Matthew Paris. Minor Chroniclers.
156
CHAPTER X
ENGLISH SCHOLARS OF PARIS AND FRANCISCANS
OF OXFORD
LATIN LITERATURE OF ENGLAND FROM JOHN OF SALISBURY TO
RICHARD OF BURY
By J. E. SANDYS, Litt. D. , Fellow of St John's College and
Public Orator of the University of Cambridge.
The University of Paris. English Scholars of Paris. John of Salisbury.
Peter of Blois. Walter Map. Other Writers of Latin. Gervase.
Nigel Wireker. Jean de Hauteville. Alain de Lille. Geoffrey de
Vinsauf. Alexander Neckam. Joannes de Garlandia. Giraldus
Cambrensis. Michael Scot. Franciscans and Dominicans. Fran-
ciscans of Oxford. Alexander of Hales. Robert Grosseteste and the
Franciscans. Adam Marsh. Roger Bacon. Duns Scotus. William
of Ockham. Walter Burleigh.
Find more books at https://www. hathitrust. org.
Title: The Cambridge history of English literature, ed. by A. W. Ward
and A. R. Waller.
Publisher: Cambridge, The University Press, 1908-1927.
Copyright:
Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain in the United
States of America. It may not be in the public domain in other countries.
Copies are provided as a preservation service. Particularly outside of the
United States, persons receiving copies should make appropriate efforts to
determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the
work accordingly. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or
the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as
illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions.
Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights
may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The
digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc.
(indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests
that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used
commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly,
non-commercial purposes.
Find this book online: https://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwfydf
This file has been created from the computer-extracted text of scanned page
images. Computer-extracted text may have errors, such as misspellings,
unusual characters, odd spacing and line breaks.
Original from: Harvard University
Digitized by: Google
Generated at University of Chicago on 2022-12-31 14:28 GMT
## p. (#1) ##################################################
HD WIDENER
HW FYDF
.
## p. (#2) ##################################################
10445. 44
barvard College Library
OIANA
ARVAN
ET
VE SRI
EMIA
ECCL
RIS
TAS
ADE
ZONOVO
SSIAE
CHR
BOUGHT WITH MONEY
RECEIVED FROM THE
SALE OF DUPLICATES
## p. (#3) ##################################################
## p. (#4) ##################################################
## p. i (#5) ################################################
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF
ENGLISH LITERATURE
VOLUME I
FROM THE BEGINNINGS
TO THE
CYCLES OF ROMANCE
## p. ii (#6) ###############################################
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER.
London: FETTER LANE, E. C.
Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET.
Paris: THE GALIGNANI LIBRARY.
Berlin: ASHER AND CO.
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO. , LTD.
Copyrighted in the United States of America by
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS,
27 AND 29, WEST 23RD STREET, NEW YORK.
All Rights reserved
## p. iii (#7) ##############################################
THE
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF
ENGLISH LITERATURE
EDITED BY
A. W. WARD, Litt. D. , F. B. A. , Master of Peterhouse
AND
A. R. WALLER, M. A. , Peterhouse
VOLUME I
FROM THE BEGINNINGS
TO THE
CYCLES OF ROMANCE
23
* POCL
LVC
CAMBRIDGE :
at the University Press
1908
## p. iv (#8) ###############################################
10445. 44
ARVARD COLLEGE
MAR 28 19179)
LIBRARY
Geekúrat 7:19:44
(14 rel)
First Edition November, 1907
Reprinted May, 1908
dy. .
## p. v (#9) ################################################
PREFACE
TN the preliminary statement of the aims and objects of this
1 History, communicated to those who were invited to become
contributors to it, the editors emphasised the following purposes
of their undertaking.
(a) A connected account was to be given of the successive
movements of English literature, both main and subsidiary; and
this was intended to imply an adequate treatment of secondary
writers, instead of their being overshadowed by a few great names.
(6) Note was to be taken of the influence of foreign literatures
upon English and (though in a less degree) of that of English upon
foreign literatures.
(c) Each chapter of the work was to be furnished with a
sufficient bibliography.
Very few words seem needed here, in addition to the above, by
way of preface to the first volume of the History; this volume
and its successors must show how far editors and contributors
have been able to carry out in practice the principles by which
they have been guided. It may, however, be expedient, while
directing attention to a few details in the general plan of the
work, to dwell rather more fully on one or two of the ideas which
will be kept in view throughout its course.
In an enquiry embracing the history of motives, causes and
ends, it is often far less important to dwell on “leading” person-
alities and on the main tendencies of literary production, than to
consider subsidiary movements and writers below the highest rank,
and to trace, in apparently arid periods, processes which were
often carried on, as it were, underground, or seemed to be such as
could safely be ignored. It cannot be too often urged that there
are few, if any, isolated phenomena; the voices may be voices
crying in the wilderness, but they belong to those who prepare the
## p. vi (#10) ##############################################
Preface
way. While, therefore, anxious that not less than justice shall be
dealt out to the works of better-known writers, the editors have
tried so to plan these volumes that something more than the mere
justice with which works designed on a smaller scale have had to
content themselves may be given to less known writers and to
so-called fugitive literature.
In the interest both of the general reader and of the student, it
has been decided to insert footnotes below the text, where refer-
ences seem required. These have been kept as brief as possible, in
order that they may not distract attention. Further notes are,
in special cases, added in the appendix and bibliographies at
the end of the volume. The names of a few writers not dealt
with in the text will be found in the bibliographies; but these
names have not, it is hoped, been forgotten in the index. And
the birth and death dates of most of the English writers men-
tioned in the text will be found in the index, rather than in the
body of the work.
An occasional attempt has been made to give the student some
assistance by means of critical hints in the bibliographies, and to
point out where he may best obtain fuller information of a more
special nature than can possibly be given within the limits of a
general history. To attempt an exhaustive treatment of any one
writer, however eminent or however insignificant, to supply analyses
of well-known books which are, or should be, on the same shelves
as those which may hold these volumes, or to devote much space
to the repetition of biographical facts-all this has seemed to lie
outside the scope of the present work.
While it is desired to preserve a certain unity in the contents
of each volume--an easier task, probably, in the case of those
dealing with later than of those treating of earlier times--yet the
editors have no belief in “hard and fast" limits as encompassing any
epoch, and their wish is that this History should unfold itself,
unfettered by any preconceived notions of artificial eras or con-
trolling dates. They venture, therefore, to remind their critics, to
whom they confidently look for an indication of mistakes, that
some of the subjects which may seem to have been omitted may
prove to have been deliberately reserved for later treatment. To
force an account of literary, educational or scientific movements
## p. vii (#11) #############################################
Preface
vii
into chronological shackles, and make it keep step year by year
with the progress of external events, or to present it as an orderly
development when its edges are, in truth, woefully ragged, is not
always either possible or desirable. From time to time, buried
treasure comes to light; things seemingly of a day suddenly reveal
the strength that is in them and become things for all time ; and
the way then lies open for a profitable retrospect. Thus, the
editors have thought it simpler to defer an enquiry into the first
glimmerings of the English drama and an account of the miracle
plays until towards the close of the second volume, and to deal,
on broad lines, with the progress of the English language, as the
vehicle of English literature, with changes in English prosody and
with the work of universities and scholarship, towards the end of
successive periods, rather than piecemeal at successive stages
of each.
With regard to future volumes-since the history of a nation's
literature cannot be divorced from some consideration of its
political, religious and social life, including its manners as well
as its phases of sentiment and fashion, its trivial thoughts no less
than its serious moments—the editors have thought it well to
make some provision for treating certain subjects more or less
closely allied to literature pure or proper. Such are the literature
of science and philosophy, and that of politics and economics ; par-
liamentary eloquence; the work of schools and universities and
libraries ; scholarship; the pamphlet literature of religious and
political controversy; the newspaper and the magazine; the
labours of the press and the services of booksellers ; homely books
dealing with precept and manners and social life; domestic letters
and street songs; accounts of travel and records of sport—the
whole range of letters, in its widest acceptation, from the “Cam-
bridge Platonists" to the “fraternity of vagabonds. ” And, since
the literature of the British Colonies and of the United States
are, in the main, the literature of the mother-country, produced
under other skies, it is intended to give, in their proper place,
some account of these literatures also.
Though the editors are jointly responsible for the work as
a whole—both text and bibliographies--it is obvious that an
undertaking of this nature could no more be accomplished by one
mo
one
## p. viii (#12) ############################################
viii
Preface
or two men than the Cambridge Modern History could have been
written by a few hands. It could only be begun, and can only
be carried to completion, by the continued cooperation of many
scholars, who, whether British or American, hold their common
heritage as a thing of worth, and by the ungrudging assistance of
continental scholars, whose labours in the field of our national
literature entitle them to the gratitude of Englishmen. This
twofold assistance the editors have been fortunate enough to
secure for the volumes already in immediate preparation. In
addition to chapters written by English scholars, from without
Cambridge as well as from within, the readers of the Cambridge
History of English Literature will have the benefit of contri-
butions from specialists of other countries; and it is the sincere
hope of the editors that they may enjoy the same generous
support until their task is done.
It remains to thank those who, apart from the actual con-
tributors, have aided the editors in the work of the earlier
volumes now in hand. And, first, they would desire to remember
with gratitude the labours of their predecessors : Thomas Warton,
whose History of English Poetry may be, and, in many respects,
has been, superseded, but is never likely to be forgotten or cast
aside; Thomas Wright, whose industry and enthusiasm in the
cause of medieval letters and archaeology allow us to forget his
failings; George Lillie Craik, whose modest efforts kindled in
many men still living their first affection for English letters ;
Henry Morley, who devoted a laborious and zealous life to the
noble end of making English writers widely accessible to students
and who died before he could complete the last and most im-
portant piece of work he set himself to do; Bernard ten Brink,
whose history of English literature to the death of Surrey must
long remain unsurpassed on its own ground—“Great things,” as
he himself said of Surrey's tragic end," he might still have accom-
plished, but what he did accomplish has not been lost to posterity”;
Hippolyte Taine, the master of analysis and the first to show the
full significance of the study of a nation's literature for the study
of its general history; Hermann Hettner, in whose History of
English Literature from 1660 to 1770, and the companion accounts
of French and German literature in the eighteenth century, the
## p. ix (#13) ##############################################
ix
Preface
comparative method is luminously applied ; Georg Brandes, whose
Main Currents in the Literature of the Nineteenth Century reveals
an extraordinary quickness of intellectual insight and a not less
uncommon breadth of moral sympathy; Henry Duff Traill, whose
brilliant gifts are held in affectionate remembrance by those who
have come under their spell, and whose symposium, Social
England, should be in the hands of all who desire to possess “a
record of the progress of the people”; L. Petit de Julleville, whose
Histoire de la Langue et de la Littérature française has been of
special value and assistance in the planning of the present work;
Grein, Kölbing, Mätzner, Wülker, Zupitza and many other eminent
Teutonic scholars who have made, and are making, the paths smoother
for their contemporaries and for their successors. The brilliant
Histoire Littéraire du Peuple Anglais of M. J. J. Jusserand has
been constantly in the hands of the editors of this work, and the
Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Dictionary of National Bio-
graphy have, as a matter of course, been laid under contribution,
together with the extremely useful Chambers's Cyclopaedia of
English Literature, a work which, used with delight by the
writers of this preface, in its old form, many years ago, has, in its
revised garb, proved of considerable use. The invaluable Beiträge
zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, with which
are associated the names of H. Paul, W. Braune and E. Sievers, has
been repeatedly referred to, and always with advantage, while the
bibliographies will show what use has been made of Anglia,
Englische Studien, Romania, the publications of American uni-
versities and of modern language associations. In this last
connection may be mentioned the Modern Language Review,
recently reconstituted under the editorship of Prof. J. G. Robert-
son. For advice on certain points in the present volume, or for
indebtedness in other ways, the editors' thanks are also due to
Dr F. J. Furnivall, whose labours, together with those of the band
of fellow-workers in the Early English Text Society, have done
much to remove the reproach that Englishmen were not alive to
the beauties of their own literature; to Professor W. W. Skeat,
Miss Steele Smith, Prof. G. L. Kittredge and to Prof. Alois
Brandl, with other eminent members of the Deutsche Shakespeare
Gesellschaft; and to the writings of Dr Stopford A. Brooke,
## p. x (#14) ###############################################
Preface
Prof. Albert S. Cook, Prof. T. R. Lounsbury and Prof. W. H.
Schofield. Other debts, too numerous to set forth in detail, it
has only been possible to acknowledge by the insertion of names
and titles of works in the bibliographies; but our thanks will, we
trust, be read “ between the lines” by all our fellow-workers.
A. W. W.
A. R. W.
PETERHOUSE, CAMBRIDGE
2 August 1907
## p. xi (#15) ##############################################
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS
By A. R. WALLER, M. A. , Peterhouse.
Characteristics of the earliest Poetry. The Gleeman. Theodore and
Hadrian. National Strife . . . . . . . . .
PAGB
CHAPTER II
RUNES AND MANUSCRIPTS
By ANNA C. PAUES, Ph. D. Upsala, Newnham College.
The National Germanic Alphabet. Runes in Scandinavian and Old
English Literature. The Ruthwell Cross. The Franks Casket.
The Roman Alphabet. The Irish School of Writing. Tablets,
parchment, vellum, paper, pens, ink and binding. Scribes and
scriptoria. . • • • • • • • • • • •
CHAPTER III
EARLY NATIONAL POETRY
By H. MUNRO CHADWICK, M. A. , Fellow of Clare College.
Early National Poems the work of Minstrels. Teutonic Epic Poetry.
Beowulf: Scandinavian Traditions; Personality of the Hero; Origin
and Antiquity of the Poem; the Religious Element. Finnsburh.
The Waldhere Fragments. Widsith. Deor. The Wanderer.
The Seafarer. The Wife's Complaint. The Husband's Message.
The Ruin. Religious Poetry of Heathen Times . . . '.
CHAPTER IV/
OLD ENGLISH CHRISTIAN POETRY
By M. BENTINCK SMITH, M. A. ,
Headmistress of St Leonard's School, St Andrews.
Celtic Christianity. Changes wrought by the New Spirit. ' Caedmon's
Hymn. Genesis, Exodus, Daniel. Crist and Satan. Cynewulf.
Theodore and
Hadrian. National Strife . . . . . . . . .
PAGB
CHAPTER II
RUNES AND MANUSCRIPTS
By ANNA C. PAUES, Ph. D. Upsala, Newnham College.
The National Germanic Alphabet. Runes in Scandinavian and Old
English Literature. The Ruthwell Cross. The Franks Casket.
The Roman Alphabet. The Irish School of Writing. Tablets,
parchment, vellum, paper, pens, ink and binding. Scribes and
scriptoria. . • • • • • • • • • • •
CHAPTER III
EARLY NATIONAL POETRY
By H. MUNRO CHADWICK, M. A. , Fellow of Clare College.
Early National Poems the work of Minstrels. Teutonic Epic Poetry.
Beowulf: Scandinavian Traditions; Personality of the Hero; Origin
and Antiquity of the Poem; the Religious Element. Finnsburh.
The Waldhere Fragments. Widsith. Deor. The Wanderer.
The Seafarer. The Wife's Complaint. The Husband's Message.
The Ruin. Religious Poetry of Heathen Times . . . '.
CHAPTER IV/
OLD ENGLISH CHRISTIAN POETRY
By M. BENTINCK SMITH, M. A. ,
Headmistress of St Leonard's School, St Andrews.
Celtic Christianity. Changes wrought by the New Spirit. ' Caedmon's
Hymn. Genesis, Exodus, Daniel. Crist and Satan. Cynewulf.
His Personality. Crist, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles,
Elene. Andreas. The Dream of the Rood. Guthlac, The
Phoenix, Physiologus, Riddles. Minor Christian Poems. The
Riming Poem, Proverbs, The Runic Poem, Salomon and Saturn.
The Schools of Caedmon and Cynewulf . . . . . .
41
## p. xii (#16) #############################################
Contents
CHAPTER V
LATIN WRITINGS IN ENGLAND TO THE TIME OF ALFRED
By MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES, Litt. D. ,
Provost of King's College.
PAGE
Gildas and The History of the Britons. “Hisperic” Latin. Nennins
and Historia Brittonum. The Roman Mission to Kent and its
results. Aldhelm and his School. Bede's Ecclesiastical History.
Bede's Letter to Egbert of York. Alcuin. Lives of Saints.
Visions. Minor writings . . .
. .
. . .
65
CHAPTER VI
ALFRED AND THE OLD ENGLISH PROSE OF HIS REIGN
By P. G. THOMAS, M. A. , Professor of English Language and
Literature at Bedford College, University of London.
Asser's Life of Alfred. The Handbook and Pastoral Care. Trans-
lations of Orosius and Bede. Codes of Law. De Consolatione
Philosophiae. The metres in Alfred's Boethius. Augustine's
Soliloquies. The Chronicle. Gregory's Dialogues. Works at-
tributed to Alfred. His Literary Achievement . . . . 88
CHAPTER VII
FROM ALFRED TO THE CONQUEST
By JOHN S. WESTLAKE, M. A. , Trinity College.
The Chronicle. The Monastic Reform. Blickling Homilies.
The Works of Aelfric. Wulfstan. Byrhtferth. Lindisfarne,
Rushworth and West Saxon Glosses. Legends of the Holy Rood.
Legends of the East. Quasi-scientific works. The Ballads and
Poems in The Chronicle. Judith. The Battle of Maldon or
Byrhtnoth's Death. Menologium. Be Domes Daege . . .
Wulfatares. Legends The Baldon Of
108
108
CHAPTER VIII
THE NORMAN CONQUEST
By A. R. WALLER
Dunstan. The Coming Change. The Wisdom of the East. Lanfranc.
Anselm. Norman Gifts . . . . . . . . . .
149
## p. xiii (#17) ############################################
Contents
xiii
CHAPTER IX
LATIN CHRONICLERS FROM THE ELEVENTH TO THE
THIRTEENTH CENTURIES
By W. LEWIS JONES, M. A. , Professor of English Language and
Literature at the University College of North Wales.
PAGE
England and Normandy. Characteristics of the Chroniclers. The
Northumbrian School of English Medieval History. Simeon of
Durham. Florence of Worcester. Eadmer and Ordericus Vitalis.
William of Malmesbury. Gesta Stephani. Henry of Huntingdon.
Geoffrey of Monmouth. William of Newburgh. Benedict of
Peterborough. Richard Fitz-Neale. Roger of Loveden. Ralph
of Diceto. Richard of Devizes. Jocelin of Brakelond. Giraldus
Cambrensis. Walter Map. Matthew Paris. Minor Chroniclers.
156
CHAPTER X
ENGLISH SCHOLARS OF PARIS AND FRANCISCANS
OF OXFORD
LATIN LITERATURE OF ENGLAND FROM JOHN OF SALISBURY TO
RICHARD OF BURY
By J. E. SANDYS, Litt. D. , Fellow of St John's College and
Public Orator of the University of Cambridge.
The University of Paris. English Scholars of Paris. John of Salisbury.
Peter of Blois. Walter Map. Other Writers of Latin. Gervase.
Nigel Wireker. Jean de Hauteville. Alain de Lille. Geoffrey de
Vinsauf. Alexander Neckam. Joannes de Garlandia. Giraldus
Cambrensis. Michael Scot. Franciscans and Dominicans. Fran-
ciscans of Oxford. Alexander of Hales. Robert Grosseteste and the
Franciscans. Adam Marsh. Roger Bacon. Duns Scotus. William
of Ockham. Walter Burleigh.
