LECTURE I.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 1770-1850.

I. BIOGRAPHICAL.

Birth and boyhood in the Lake District. Hawkshead and St. John's, Cambridge. Early views on man and nature in relation to outbreak of the French Revolution. Wordsworth's travels in France; effects upon him of the advancing Revolution. Return to England and intimacy with Coleridge. His early poems: Descriptive Sketches and Evening Walk. Genesis of the Lyrical Ballads. Views as to the art of poetry which they were intended to illustrate. Co-operation of Coleridge with The Ancient Mariner. Examination of Wordsworth's contributions. Contrasts which they present. Wordsworth's theory of simplicity; how far he fulfils its conditions; how far it is ridiculous. Lines on Tintern Abbey.

Residence in Germany, 1798. Productions of this period: The Prelude; its relation to The Excursion. Return to England, and settlement in the Lake District.

Lake life and Lake poems. Peculiar and subtle influences of the English Lake country. The morality of ascetic and aesthetic retirement. Character of the emotions and views of life produced by Wordsworth's environment. His domestic life; his sister and his wife. The shooting lights of thy wild eyes.' 'She was a phantom of delight.' Who was the phantom? Wordsworth's Guide to the Lake District. Poems on the Naming of Places. The English Lakes interpreted through the medium of Wordsworth. Wordsworth and Napoleon. Sonnets to Liberty. Wordsworth as a patriot. Trafalgar, 1805. The Happy Warrior. Chronological and sequential list of Wordsworth's major poems. His own system of classification. Transitory moods and doctrines, but one essential principle of philosophy and metaphysics throughout. Incidents of his later life. The Laureateship offered, declined, and accepted. Death of Wordsworth, St. George's Day, 1850.

LECTURE II.

WORDSWORTH.

II. CRITICAL.

Wordsworth as the Poet of Nature.

The return to Nature. Meaning of the expression. The Romantic revival. Its two characteristics, i. e. Nature and Romance. Wordsworth only affected by one side of it. Cf. and contrast Keats and Tennyson. Nature and Religion. Affinity between Wordsworth and the Greek mind. The higher Pantheism. Wordsworth as a religious teacher. The Excursion. Its general plan. Deficiency in movement and action: the epic of a human soul. Is it legitimate material for an epic poem? Strength and weakness of The Excursion. Nature and Humanity. Wordsworth as the poet of 'Experiences.' Inequalities and incongruities inseparable from egoistic impulses. Wordsworth as metaphysician. The Intimations of Immortality. Splendour of conception and diction. Wordsworth's views on poetic diction.

The classical poems. Laodamia. Influence of Virgil and the classics. The sonnets. Revival of the Sonnet by the poets of this epoch. Qualities which a sonnet demands. Comparison between Milton, Wordsworth and Keats. The Sonnets on the Duddon and To Liberty. The Ecclesiastical Sketches.

The White Doe of Rylstone. Its story; its execution. Its place in Wordsworth's work.

Wordsworth's lyrics.

General estimate of Wordsworth's influence upon English thought and literature, and of his qualities as poet and thinker.

LECTURE III.

COLERIDGE. 1772-1834.

I. BIOGRAPHICAL.

Coleridge a mixture of poet, journalist and philosopher, i. e. a man of imagination, of speculation and of affairs. Not all of these at one time however. His career falls naturally into three epochs--the poetical, the opium and the philosophical epoch.

1. The poetic period, to 1799.

School days at Christ's Hospital. A precocious metaphysician. At Jesus College, Cambridge. The 'Comberback' episode. His marriage. Influence of the French Revolution. The Songs of the Pixies. The Aeolian Harp. Publication of Poems on Various Subjects, 1797. Other poems of this period of inspiration. Association with Wordsworth. The Lyrical Ballads. Composition of The Ancient Mariner. Poetic theories which it illustrated. Christabel and Kubla Khan. Literary ventures other than poetical. The Watchman. Coleridge as a politician.

2. The opium epoch, 1799-1818.

Visit to Germany with Wordsworth. Return to London and connexion with The Morning Post. Coleridge as journalist. He throws up active life and retires to the Lakes. Begins to feel the burden of existence. Causes of this and of the opium habit. The Ode to Dejection. Domestic break-up. In Malta. In London as a lecturer at the Royal Institution. Back to the Lakes and publishes The Friend. Analysis of his state of mind during this period. Increasing restlessness and depression. Writes for The Courier and lectures on Shakspere. He submits himself to systematic treatment.

3. The philosophical epoch, 1818–1834.

Coleridge at Highgate. Gigantic literary and philosophic schemes. Coleridge as oracle. Nature of the influence he exercised. The Biographia Literaria. His death and general character.

Coleridge's style and metre. Sources of his inspiration. His affinity to the Lake School. Contrast and comparison between Coleridge and Wordsworth. Analysis and criticism of The Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Kubla Khan, and some occasional pieces.

Coleridge as Critic.

His lectures on literature; more particularly on Shakspere. Critical insight into Shakspere exhibited in Coleridge. His methods as a lecturer. How far he was really affected by opium. De Quincey's view of Coleridge.

Coleridge as Journalist and Politician.

His work for The Morning Post and The Friend. Extreme views of his early days; how far they were modified by experience, time and personal circumstances. Contrast presented by Coleridge as dreamer and man of affairs.

Coleridge as Metaphysician.

His early bent towards philosophical speculation. Nature of the theories he held. His methods of exposition. Association in later life with J. H. Green. Green's Spiritual Philosophy.

Remarks on Table Talk and Aids to Reflection. His powers as a conversationalist. Comparison between Coleridge and Dr. Johnson. On what does his enduring reputation depend? Final summary of his work, and nature of his influence upon his times and our own.

LECTURE V.

ROBERT SOUTHEY. 1774-1843.

Southey's place among his contemporaries. The 'entire man of letters.' Wide range of literary activities-poet, historian, biographer, Laureate, and writer of miscellanea. The Grub Street hack prosperous and rangé. Southey as exemplar, friend and literary adviser. Worth and utility of such a man to his age.

Biographical Sketch.

Southey's humble origin. Precocious avidity for books. At Westminster School. First literary attempts. Appalling facility in versification. At Balliol College, Oxford. Friendships formed there. Enthusiasm for revolutionary principles. Meeting with Coleridge. The community of 'Pantisocrats.' Marriage. Wanderings in Spain. Settles at Greta Hall, Keswick. Uninterrupted tranquility of a literary life. Sequence and character of his various works. Becomes Poet Laureate. Death in 1843.

Southey as a Poet.

Remarks on Thalaba, The Curse of Kehama, and Roderick. The Vision of Judgment. Ridicule by Byron. Southey's limitations as a poet appear by contrast with the work of Wordsworth and Coleridge. His minor pieces.

Biographies and Histories.

The Life of Nelson; enduring value of this work. His Life of Wesley. History of Brazil. Extent of his erudition. Critic on The Quarterly. Southey's correspondence. General estimate of his place in literature.