against the romantic and extravagant nonsense of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels; and Miss Edgeworth's hardly less admirable stories of Irish life and character. In oratory, though this period falls far below that which preceded it, we may name the speeches of Canning, Sheil, O'Connell, and Sir Robert Peel. In political writing and pamphleteering, the chief names are, William Cobbett, with his strong sense and English heartiness, author of "The Englishman's Register; Scott, whose political squib, the "Letters of Malachi Malagrowther," had the effect of arresting the progress of a measure upon which the ministry had resolved; Southey; and Sydney Smith. In journalism, the present period witnessed the growth of a great and vital change, whereby the most influential portion of a newspaper is no longer, as it was in the days of Junius, the columns containing the letters of well-informed correspondents, but the leading articles representing the opinions of the newspaper itself. In prose satire, the inexhaustible yet kindly wit of Sydney Smith has furnished us with some incomparable productions; witness "Peter Plymley's Letters," 1 his articles on Christianity in Hindostan, and his letter to "The Times on Pennsylvanian repudiation. In history, we have the Greek histories of Mitford, Thirlwall, and Grote, the unfinished Roman history of Arnold,2 the English histories of Lingard and Hallam, and the work similarly named (though "History of the Revolution, and of the Reign of William III.," would be an exacter title) by Lord Macaulay. Mr. Hallam's " View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages" (1818) gave a stimulus to historical research in more than one field which for ages had been, whether arrogantly or ignorantly, overlooked. In biography, out of a countless array of 1 See p. 470. 2 See p. 489. works, may be particularized the lives of Scott, Wilberforce, and Arnold, compiled respectively by Lockhart, the brothers Archdeacon Wilberforce and the Bishop of Oxford, and Dr. Stanley. As to the other works subsidiary to history, such as accounts of voyages and travels, their name is Legion; yet perhaps none of their authors has achieved a literary distinction comparable to that which was conferred on Lamartine by his "Voyage en Orient." In theology, we have the works of Robert Hall and Rowland Hill, representing the Dissenting and Low Church sections; those of Arnold, Whately, and Hampden, representing what are sometimes called Broad Church, or Liberal, opinions; those of Froude, Pusey, Davison, Keble, Sewell, &c., representing various sections of the great High Church party; and, lastly, those of Milner, Dr. Doyle, — the incomparable "J. K. L.," — Wiseman, and Newman, on the side of the Roman Catholics. In philosophy, we have the metaphysical fragments of Coleridge, the ethical philosophy of Bentham, the logic of Whately and Mill, and the political economy of the last-mentioned writers, and also Ricardo and Harriet Martineau. Among the essay-writers must be singled out Charles Lamb, author of the "Essays of Elia," which appeared in 1823. In other departments of thought and theory, e.g., criticism, we have the literary criticism of Hazlitt and Thackeray, and the art-criticism of Mr. Ruskin.1 1 Much of the additional matter contained in this and the preceding chapter has been taken, with the consent of the publisher, Mr. Murby of Bouverie Street, from the author's Chaucer to Wordsworth: a Short History of English Literature. CRITICAL SECTION. CHAPTER I. POETRY. Definition of Literature, Classification of Poetical Compositions. ENGLISH LITERATURE is now to be considered under that which is its most natural and legitimate arrangement; that arrangement, namely, of which the principle is not sequence in time, but affinity in subject, and which aims, by comparing together works of the same kind, to arrive, with greater ease and certainty than is possible by the chronological method, at a just estimate of their relative merits. To effect this critical aim, it is evident that a classification of the works which compose a literature is an essential pre-requisite. This we shall now proceed to do. With the critical process, for which the proposed classification is to serve as the foundation, we shall, in the present work, be able to make but scanty progress. Some portions of it we shall attempt, with the view rather of illustrating the conveniences of the method, than of seriously undertaking to fill in the vast outline which will be furnished by the classification. First of all, what is literature? In the most extended sense of the word, it may be taken for the whole written thought of man; and, in the same acceptation, a national 29* 341 literature is the whole written thought of a particular nation. But this definition is too wide for our present purpose: it would include such books as "Fearne on Contingent Remainders," and such periodicals as "The Lancet" or "The Shipping Gazette." If the student of literature were called upon to examine the stores of thought and knowledge which the different professions have collected and published, each for the use of its own members, his task would be endless. We must abstract, therefore, all works addressed, owing to the speciality of their subject-matter, to particular classes of men; e.g., law books, medical books, works on moral theology, rubrical works, &c.; in short, all strictly professional literature. Again: the above definition would include all scientific works, which would be practically inconvenient, and would tend to obscure the really marked distinction that exists between literature and science. We must further abstract, therefore, all works in which the words are used as ciphers or signs for the purpose of communicating objective truth, not as organs of the writer's personality. All strictly scientific works are thus excluded. In popularized science, exemplified by such books as "The Architecture of the Heavens," or "The Vestiges of the Natural History of the Creation," the personal element comes into play: such books are, therefore, rightly classed as literature. What remains after these deductions is literature in the strict or narrower sense; that is, the assemblage of those works which are neither addressed to particular classes, nor use words merely as the signs of things, but which, treating of subjects that interest man as man, and using words. as the vehicles and exponents of thoughts, appeal to the general human intellect and to the common human heart. Literature, thus defined, may be divided into, 1. Poetry. 2. Prose writings. For the present, we shall confine our attention to poetry. The subject is so vast as not to be easily manageable; and many of the different kinds slide into each other by such insensible gradations, that any classification must be to a certain extent arbitrary: still the following division may perhaps be found useful. Poetry may be classed under eleven designations: 1, epic; 2, dramatic; 3, heroic; 4, narrative; 5, didactic; 6, satirical and humorous; 7, descriptive and pastoral; 8, lyrical (including ballads and sonnets); 9, elegiac; 10, epistles; 11, miscellaneous poems; the latter class including all those pieces (very numerous in modern times) which cannot be conveniently referred to any of the former heads, but which we shall endeavor further to subdivide upon some rational principle. Epic Poetry: "Paradise Lost," Minor Epic Poems. The epic poem has ever been regarded as in its nature the most noble of all poetic performances. Its essential properties were laid down by Aristotle in the Poetics, more than two thousand years ago, and they have not varied since; for, as Pope says, "These rules of old, discovered, not devised, The subject of the epic poem must be some one great complex action. The principal personages must belong to the high places of society, and must be grand and elevated in their ideas. The measure must be of a sonorous dignity, befitting the subject. The action is developed by a mixture of dialogue, soliloquy, and narrative. Briefly to express its main requisites, the epic poem treats of one great complex action, in a grand style, and with fulness of detail. |