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Pleasures of Hope, Gertrude of Wyoming, O'Connor's Child, Lochiel's Warning, etc.

Minor poets of the time were William Lisle Bowles, Samuel Rogers, James Montgomery, Ebenezer Elliot ("the Corn-Law Rhymer"), the brothers Horace and James Smith, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Landon ("L. E. L."), Hartley Coleridge, and George Croly.

The publication of Specimens of the Old English Dramatists, by Charles Lamb, reopened the treasures of the Elizabethan drama and gave an impulse to dramatic literature.

The chief dramatists of the age were James Sheridan Knowles, Douglas Jerrold, Sir Henry Taylor, Thomas Noon Talfourd, Miss Mitford, and Henry Hart Milman.

The novelists of this period were Charlotte Bronté, Mary Russell Mitford, Captain Marryat, Samuel Lover, Charles James Lever, G. P. R. James, Mrs. Trollope. The Scotch novelists were Lockhart and Wilson.

The philosophic minds of England in the early part of the nineteenth century were influenced by German thought.

Thomas Carlyle ranks in literature as essayist, historian, biographer, translator. In all he is the philosopher.

His principal works besides his Critiques are Sartor Resartus, The French Revolution, Hero Worship, Latter-Day Pamphlets, Past and Present, and Life of Frederick the Great. His essays on eminent characters contain some of his best thoughts.

Force was his idol.

Sir William Hamilton was a noted metaphysician of the time.

Among physical scientists were the Herschels, Sir Charles Bell, Dr. William Whewell, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir David Brewster, Michael Faraday. Hugh Miller contributed rather to literature than to science.

In theology, a movement was being made towards high-church doctrines. Newman, Pusey, and John Keble were most prominent in the move

ment.

Other divines of the time were Frederick W. Robertson, Dean Alford, Nicholas Wiseman, Bishop Colenso, and the brothers Hare.

In history, the greatest names of the middle part of the century are Hallam, Macaulay, Alison, Milman, Dr. Arnold.

Henry Brougham (Lord Brougham) early distinguished himself as a writer in the Edinburgh Review. He became more famous afterwards in Parliament.

Charles Lamb was one of the most genial writers of the time. His Essays of Elia is his most important work.

William Hazlitt was a rare critic.

Leigh Hunt was a miscellaneous writer.

Thomas De Quincey was also a miscellaneous writer.

Walter Savage Landor is best known by his Imaginary Conversations. William and Mary Howitt enriched literature by their joint productions.

TENNYSON.

CHAPTER XIII.

Q

THE VICTORIAN AGE.

1850 to the Present.

UEEN VICTORIA ascended the throne in 1837. The measures of reform begun in the reign of her predecessor were extended. The cry for cheap bread which was ringing through England when the young Queen ascended the throne, was augmented into a demand for extended privileges, the main point being universal suffrage. To this end, a charter was drawn up by the Workingmen's Association, and its upholders were known as Chartists. In 1845 the corn laws were repealed, and in 1867, after innumerable efforts, a new Reform Bill was passed. Since then there has been a constant ebb and flow in English politics.

From 1832 until the present time there has been a steady intellectual growth. One marked change may be observed, more, perhaps, in the popular taste than in authorship. In the early and middle part of the century it was a new poem that attracted the attention of the reading public, to-day it is the new novel. The masses, owing to a greater diffusion of education, are now demanding literature as a recreation, and the romance and story of every-day life best suit the popular taste. The age demands prose rather than poetry. The new facts revealed by science, the new light in which history is viewed, give to scientific and historic works a place and interest in literature unknown before.

It is not a necessary conclusion that poetry declines as civil

ization advances. Poetry, the highest form of human expression, can never decline. Its outward forms may vary, and the history of literature shows that both prose and poetry have been subject to freaks,-whims of art. When, in Elizabeth's time, "Euphuism" prevailed in England, threatening to enervate the vigorous prose, Gabriel Harvey, a friend of Spenser's and Sir Philip Sidney's, had nearly persuaded these poets to join with himself to "reform" English poetry,-to abolish rhyme and introduce the Latin system of quantity in verse. Good sense prevailed, however, over false taste, and the scheme did not prosper. Still, as we have seen, other schools sprang up, the "metaphysical," "classical," and "foolish-fantastical," as the Della Cruscan school might be termed, which had an ephemeral existence in the latter part of the eighteenth century.* A similar unhealthy movement may be noticed at the present day, in a style of poetry which had a healthy origin in the pre-Raphaelite school of art originated by Ruskin, but which has at the present day degenerated into the burlesqued school of "æstheticism."†

-) and ELIZABETH BARRETT

ALFRED TENNYSON (1810 BROWNING (1809-1861) hold the highest rank among the Victorian poets. Of later years, ROBERT BROWNING (1812 ——) has, been accorded a place almost as high among the poets of his time.

For fifty years ALFRED TENNYSON has steadily kept his place in public favor, and for more than thirty years he has been poet-laureate of England. His highest poetic art is expressed in his shortest lyrics. They are the very condensation of feeling and expression. The Poet's Song, Break, Break, Break, and the Bugle Song are among the rarest gems in the language. Human utterance seemed to reach perfection in the Bugle Song, while that which lies beyond all utterance is illustrated in Break, Break, Break. In Memoriam, one of his longest poems, is an elegy written on the death of his beloved friend

*This school was the outgrowth of an unhealthy fancy entertained by a few selfstyled poets, who, from their leader's pseudonym, took the name of Della Cruscans.

The spirit of this school has invaded every department of art, poetry, painting, architecture, and dress, and not to decorate with sunflowers, cat-tails, and curtailed views, is not to be in the height of fashion.

ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM (1811-1833). It contains gems of thought and expression. In The Idylls of the King, Tennyson has given new life to the traditions of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round-Table, retaining to a remarkable degree the spirit of the original stories. Among other longer poems are The Princess (a medley), 1847; Maud, 1856; Enoch Arden, 1864. Queen Mary (a drama), was published in 1875, and was followed the next year by Harold, another dramatic poem. Since then The Lover's Tale, The Revenge (a ballad), and other minor poems have been published.

Among the most popular poems of Tennyson are Locksley Hall, Godiva, Dora, The Lord of Burleigh, The May Queen, The Two Voices, Lady Clare, The Talking Oak, etc.

For many

Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire. years he resided on the Isle of Wight, but since 1869 he has lived at Petersfield, Hampshire. His two elder brothers, Frederick and Charles, have also published poems. The laureate's first publication was with his brother Charles, in a volume entitled Poems by Two Brothers.

MRS. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING was born in London. She was an invalid the most of her life. Her early education was carefully watched by her father, a wealthy English gentleman. She was very precocious, acquiring when quite young a knowledge of the classics rarely possessed by young men of her age. When she was but seventeen her Essay on Mind was published. The work which brought her first before the public was her translation of Prometheus Bound, from the old Greek poet Eschylus. Then followed The Seraphim, A Drama of Exile, etc. In 1850 she wrote Lady Geraldine's Courtship, and the next year Casa Guidi Windows. The longest poem, Aurora Leigh, has been styled "a novel in verse," and was written, it might seem, to advocate her "convictions upon Life and Art." Other poems are Bertha in the Lane, The Lost Bower, The Cry of the Children, The Cry of the Human, The Rhyme of the Duchess May, The Vision of Poets, etc., beside innumerable Sonnets. Her Sonnets from the Portuguese, like Shakespeare's sonnets, best reveal her own inner life.

The poetry of Mrs. Browning is not of a popular order. It fits heights and depths of moods. It is only in moments of

inspiration, on the reader's part, that her full meaning flashes upon him. Her heart was open to the cry of humanity, and her sympathies intensely awakened with the oppressed of every nation. For years she resided with her husband, Robert Browning, and their one son in Florence, and

"From Casa Guidi windows (she) looked forth"

and watched with the eye of a patriot the fate of Italy, and the actions of Napoleon III., Victor Emmanuel, and Garibaldi.

The poetry of ROBERT BROWNING is seldom melodious and seldom easily understood. He appeals only to the highly cultured, and rarely seems to do his best. His first production was Paracelsus (a drama), followed by Bells and Pomegranates, a series of poems; A Blot on the 'Scutcheon, Pippa Passes, Men and Women, Dramatis Persona, and The Ring and the Book. Among his shorter poems the "Ride from Ghent to Aix" is a masterpiece in action and intensity.

The poets of this period who held a prominent rank even before 1850 are BRYAN WALLER PROCTER ("Barry Cornwall"), 1790-1874; ELIZA COOK, 1817 -; CHARLES SWAIN ("The Manchester Poet "), 1803-1874; MRS. NORTON, 1808 ; RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES ("Baron Houghton "), 1809 MARTIN F. TUPPER, 1810; CHARLES MACKAY, 1814 -; CHARLES KINGSLEY, 1819-1875, poet, novelist, and divine,--best known as a novelist; PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, 1816 author of Festus; ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH, 18191861; FRANCES BROWN, 1816- ——, called sometimes "the blind poetess of Ulster."

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A later class of poets-those known better since 1850-are MATTHEW ARNOLD, GERALD MASSEY, SYDNEY DOBELL, WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, COVENTRY PATMORE, ADELAIDE PROCTER, LORD LYTTON ("Owen Meredith"), JEAN INGELOW, AUBREY DE VERE, FREDERICK LOCKER, WILLIAM MORRIS, DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI, ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, E. W. GOSSE, AUSTIN DOBSON, PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON, and others.

MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822 -), with the elegant culture of a scholar and critic, finds his true realm in criticism. Like his father, Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, has aided the cause of

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