The Project Gutenberg eBook, From Chaucer to Tennyson, by Henry A. Beers,
et al

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: From Chaucer to Tennyson

Author: Henry A. Beers

Release Date: March 17, 2004 [eBook #11618]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM CHAUCER TO TENNYSON***

Juliet Sutherland, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders

Chautauqua Reading Circle Literature

FROM

CHAUCER TO TENNYSON

WITH TWENTY-NINE PORTRAITS

AND

SELECTIONS FROM THIRTY AUTHORS.

BY

HENRY A. BEERS

_Professor of English Literature in Yale University_.

[Illustration]

PREFACE.

In so brief a history of so rich a literature, the problem is how to get
room enough to give, not an adequate impression--that is impossible--but
any impression at all of the subject. To do this I have crowded out
every thing but _belles lettres_. Books in philosophy, history, science,
etc., however important in the history of English thought, receive the
merest incidental mention, or even no mention at all. Again, I have
omitted the literature of the Anglo-Saxon period, which is written in a
language nearly as hard for a modern Englishman to read as German is, or
Dutch. Caedmon and Cynewulf are no more a part of English literature than
Vergil and Horace are of Italian. I have also left out the vernacular
literature of the Scotch before the time of Burns. Up to the date of the
union Scotland was a separate kingdom, and its literature had a
development independent of the English, though parallel with it.

In dividing the history into periods, I have followed, with some
modifications, the divisions made by Mr. Stopford Brooke in his
excellent little _Primer of English Literature_. A short reading course
is appended to each chapter.

HENRY A. BEERS.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER, 1066-1400

CHAPTER II.
FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER, 1400-1599

CHAPTER III.
THE AGE OF SHAKSPERE, 1564-1616

CHAPTER IV.
THE AGE OF MILTON, 1608-1674

CHAPTER V.
FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEATH OF POPE, 1660-1744

CHAPTER VI.
FROM THE DEATH OF POPE TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1744-1789

CHAPTER VII.
FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION T