ENGLISH LITERATURE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION HISTORICAL PERIODS, AND THE TYPES OF LITERATURE Length and continuity of the literature. Among the literatures of all peoples no other has had such a continuous history, unbroken by long periods of lack of production, nor has any other had such a great history, as the literature of the Englishspeaking peoples. Literature has been produced in the English language and its Teutonic ancestor, the old German language, for considerably more than twelve hundred years. It began with the old Teutonic poems which celebrate the deeds of the near relatives of the Germans, who, clad in blowzy upper garments, narrow trousers, and conical-shaped wolfskin caps, marched into Rome in the train of the imperial conquerors to the delight of the mobs of the Eternal City. Those near relatives were Beowulf and the heroes of the poem which bears his name. If, as is supposed, Beowulf belonged to the court of Hygelac, who reigned as a king about 515 A.D., and if the writer of the poem lived near the time of the hero, then the literature in our tongue began about fourteen hundred years ago. But it is not likely that Beowulf was so great a hero to those with whom he lived as to the man who wrote of his deeds, and hence we think that a century or two must have passed by before the epic story began to be told in writing. There have been very few centuries, or even decades, since the seventh century, in which some writings of importance were not produced in our tongue; and as man is much the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, the qualities of English literature have always been much alike. English-speaking men have always been writing men, and from the very earliest writers down to Mark Twain and W. B. Yeats and Kipling they have always been filled with the inspiration of thought and feeling which in attractive and interesting ways has made their writings literature. Geographical distribution of English writers. It is the custom in studying English literature to give attention exclusively to the writers who have lived in the British Isles. But it is logical to extend the list to include the writers who have lived in America, Australia, India, South Africa, and the islands of the South Seas, using the term "British literature " to describe only that which was produced by men living in the islands of the United Kingdom. Therefore, in the study which will be made in this book, at least passing mention will be given to other important writers in the English language than those who have chanced to do their work within a few hundred miles of London. Names and dates of the periods in the history of English Literature. — Dr. Samuel Johnson once said that the chief glory of a people arises from its authors. The life of a race shows itself most clearly in the feeling and thought and imagination which its writers put into books. Racial life passes through stages of civilization and culture, and the authors of its books. take pictures, as it were, of that life as they see it. Now, if we take England as the center of the life of the people who speak English, it is possible to divide the literary picturing of their civilization and culture into the following periods: Flexibility of the dates. Since literature is the welllanguaged" record of the intellectual and emotional life of groups of men, and since no one large group of men ever passes out of existence at once, therefore the dates dividing these periods cannot be considered as positively fixed. A book may also be written in one age, and yet reflect the spirit of an earlier age. In fact, rarely does a book ever appeal to a great number of readers unless it reflects ideas that have been afloat in the minds of many people before the author begins to write the book, even though he may finely and forcefully reflect those ideas for the first time. Since, also, literature mirrors tendencies and general movements of thought even more strongly than it does minute details of life, it is difficult to make very accurate dates to bound periods in literary history, and hence the dates given above may easily be extended a few years in either or both directions without being untrue to actual facts. The thing to be remembered is that the tendencies of life and the general movements of thought are of more importance than any facts as to dates of the births of authors or as to dates of the publication of books. - Method of study. Without doubt the ideal way of studying the literature of a race is to study it continuously from its earliest beginnings down to the student's own day. But this is an ideal way which has not achieved ideal results, because in order to secure ideal results by this way of study so much knowledge |