Part Ii.--Age of Wordsworth (_1798-1832_).

Forces at Work.--Note the influence of German thought, the effects of the French Revolution and of the War between England and France, 1793-1815. Also the attitude of the English liberals to the French Republic and the difference between the older revolutionary poets such as Wordsworth and the younger such as Shelley. Equally important are the effects of the industrial revolution, the congregation of people in towns and the growing demand for political and social measures ending in the Reform Bill. Note also the War of 1812, and the emergence of American literature proper.

Literary Features.--Literature is marked by a remarkable activity and success in all forms except the drama. Here nothing better could be done than low comedy, and the unsuccessful poetic tragedy of Byron and others. Poetry is exceedingly fertile. The return to Nature heralded in the previous age, and the new interest in the Middle Ages, comes to full fruition, while the growing philosophical spirit demands more than a mere metrical facility and sympathetic observation. All nature is the field, and the meaning thereof the quest. No new metrical forms are in vogue, but the new verse is marked by a wider range of subject, a freshness of treatment, and a simplicity of style. In the novel we have the full development of the historical and domestic types, and the introduction of the hybrid “society” novel. A tremendous advance takes place in the critical and miscellaneous essay. The vogue of these and of the political essay is seen in the number of new magazines and newspapers. Prose tends towards the middle style, but all kinds are represented from plain Cobbett to fervid De Quincey. Letter writers, literary biography and satire hold minor positions, but by no means negligible ones, while history and other forms of research are well represented.

(a) AMERICAN LITERATURE.

1. POETRY.--Bryant. Paulding. Dana, Snr. Woodworth.

2. THE DRAMA.--Barker. Payne.

3. THE NOVEL.--Brackenridge. Brown. Cooper. Irving. Paulding.

4. THE ESSAY.--Channing. Dennie. Wirt. Paulding. Dana, Snr.

5. HUMOR.--Irving and the beginnings of short humorous sketch.

6. POLITICIANS AND ORATORS.--Calhoun. Randolph. Clay. Webster.

7. PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.--Hopkins. T. Dwight. A. Norton.

8. HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.--Irving.

(b) ENGLISH LITERATURE.

1. POETRY.--(a) Wordsworth Group--Poetry of Man and Nature: Wordsworth. Coleridge. Bowles. Crabbe. Bloomfield. Clare. Elliott, (b) Scott Group--Ballad and Song: Scott. Leyden. Hogg. Cunningham. Tannahill. Motherwell. Campbell. Moore. Rogers. Southey. Hemans. (c) Religious Poets: Montgomery. Heber. Milman. K. White, (d) Shelley and the younger Revolutionaries: Shelley. Byron. Keats. Tennant. Horace Smith. Beddoes. Wells. Wade. Darley. Proctor. Landor.

2. THE DRAMA.--The one region in which romanticism failed. Note prevalence of farce and “commercial” comedy, the vogue of Kotzebue and the German drama, and of melodrama, and the failure of romantic poetic drama. Comedy: O’Keefe. Colman, Junr. Inchbald. Holcroft, Tobin. Reynolds and Morton. Melodrama: Lewis. Maturin. Poetic Drama: Wordsworth. Coleridge. Baillie. Knowles. Shelley. Beddoes. Byron.

3. FICTION.--(a) Novel of Manners: Edgworth. Lady Morgan. Austen. Mitford. Scotch--Galt. Ferrier. Moir. Picken. Wilson. Irish--The Banims. Griffin. Croker. Carleton. (b) The Picaresque Romance: T. Hope. Morier. The New Fashionable Novel--Bulwer. Disraeli. Lister. Satire--Peacock. (c) The Romance of Terror: Lewis. Maturin. M. W. Shelley. (d) The Revolutionary Romance: Godwin. Mrs. Opie. Hannah More. (e) Historical Novel: The Porters. Miss Lees. M. W. Shelley. Scott.

4. ESSAYISTS AND CRITICS.--(a) The Johnsonian Tradition: Jeffrey. S. Smith. Gifford. Lockhart. (b) The Romantic School.: Lamb. De Quincey. Wilson, Hazlitt. Hunt. Coleridge. Wordsworth. Carlyle.

5. LETTER WRITERS.--Keats. Byron. Lamb.

6. SATIRE.--Frere. Gifford. Canning and light parody. Byron. Peacock. Shelley. More. J. and H. Smith.

7. STUDY AND RESEARCH.--(a) Science and Philosophy: The Herschels. Brewster. Davy. W. Smith. Bell. Stewart and Brown, and the “commonsense” school. The “association” school. (b) Politics and Sociology: Godwin, Cobbett, and the “democratic reformers.” Mill, Ricardo, and the “philosophical radicals.” Malthus. Mackintosh. Coleridge. (c) Theology: (i) The Liberals and Evangelicals--Hall. Chalmers. Coleridge. Erskine. Irving. (ii) The Conservatives--Whately. Thirlwall. (d) Historians: (i) Hume’s Followers--Mitford. Coxe. Roscoe. (ii) Gibbon’s Followers--Sharon Turner. Lingard. Hallam. (iii) Military History--Southey. Napier. (e) Explorers and Travellers: Malcolm. Park. Burckhardt. Parry. Hall. (f) Biography: Southey. Moore. Lockhart.

8. CHILDREN’S WRITERS.--Edgeworth. Lamb. J. Porter. Mrs. Sherwood. The Taylors. Mrs. Pilkington.

TEST PAPER. (1745-1832).

1. Describe briefly the successive phases of the novel from Richardson to Scott.

2. What were the characteristics of the new romantic poetry from 1740-1780; who were the chief writers?

3. What reasons can you offer for the poor position of the drama during the period 1740-1830?

4. Trace the development of literary criticism from Johnson to Hazlitt.

5. “During this period the writing of history was greatly advanced.” Discuss this statement.

6. Write a brief essay on any one of the following: Austen, Burns, Johnson, Crabbe, Blake.

7. Contrast Shelley with Byron, or Keats with Wordsworth.

8. Who wrote the following and when:--“Rasselas,” “Political Justice,” “Tam-o’-Shanter,” “The Task,” “Lyrical Ballads,” “Mrs. Battle on Whist,” “A Vision of Judgment”?

9. Trace the development of satirical writing from 1745-1830.

10. Name the source of any five of the following quotations:

“O Sleep it is a gentle thing.”

“How wonderful is Death, Death and his brother, Sleep.”

“Where’er we tread, t’is haunted holy ground.”

“The world is a comedy to those that think, A tragedy to those who feel.”

“The man recovered of the bite, The dog it was that died.”

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.”

“The child is father to the man.”

“I stood tip-toe on a little hill.”

“Here’s to the maiden of bashful fifteen, Here’s to the widow of fifty.”

“Nobody is on my side.... Nobody feels for my poor nerves.”

Lesson 5 (1832-1920).