Chaucer in the Clarendon Press Series, viz., Chaucer: The Prioresses Tale, Sir Thopas, The Monkes Tale, The Clerkes Tale, The Squieres Tale, &c. (4s. 6d., Macmillan); Chaucer: The Man of Lawe's Tale, The Pardonere's Tale, The Second Nonne's Tale, The Chanouns Yemannes Tale, &c. Both of these works are edited by W. W. Skeat, M.A., whose name is a guarantee of excellence and accuracy; and both contain numerous scholarly notes and full glossaries, which are indispensable to the candidate who has to study any portion of Chaucer included in these two admirable text-books. The latter of them alsotreats on the suggestive theme of Chaucer's Pronunciation. Dr. Morris's Specimens of Early English, Pt. II. (7s. 6d., Macmillan), also contains a useful Introduction, Notes, and Glossarial Index. It includes the period from 1298 to 1393. Valuable help in the study of Chaucer is afforded in Robert Bell's Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (4 vols., Bell and Sons), revised, with Preliminary Essay by W. W. Skeat, M.A. Besides the general introduction, there is a special introduction to each poem, giving its origin, history, &c., and textual notes are given at the foot of each page. It is one of the very best complete editions of Chaucer which can be found. For a detailed Life of Chaucer, for a learned and yet practical Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, for an Introductory Discourse to the "Canterbury Tales"-in which their several sources and characteristics are discussed,-for a chapter on Chaucer's Pronunciation, for a scheme of the Order of the Tales, for a lengthy Glossary, and for other desirable and useful hints, we may refer the student to the Aldine Edition of Chaucer's Poetical Works, edited by Dr. Morris (six vols., 1s. 6d. per vol., Bell and Sons). Vol. 1 comprises all the above subjects; the other volumes containing the "Canterbury Tales" and other Poems, without notes. 66 We also recommend Monfrie's Introduction to the Study of Chaucer (2s., Thomas Laurie, Edinburgh). It consists of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales," and is designed as a help to the understanding of Chaucer and other early English writers. There are grammatical notes at the foot of the text, and historical and philological notes at the end, all of which will render considerable help to the candidate who has to get up Chaucer's graphic and interesting Prologue, or is reading Chaucer for the first time. THE STUDY OF SPENSER. Mr. Fleay, in the second part of his useful Guide to Chaucer and Spenser already referred to on page 322, observes that this portion of his book is published for nearly the same reasons as the former part. "There is no satisfactory compendium in existence of the facts connected with the works of Spenser, their chronological arrangement, and the critical questions involved in them. . . . Spenser's language requires no special treatment. Where he differs from Shakespeare in grammar and use of words it is from introducing archaisms and other affectations. His use of the northern dialect in the Shepherd's Calendar is rather a matter for the English Dialect Society to examine than for a popular treatise; and his interlarded Chaucerianisms can cause no difficulty that the Guide to Chaucer will not resolve. . . . On the other hand, his metrical forms have never been sufficiently attended to as a means of chronological arrangement; and the data for identifying the characters introduced in his works under pastoral names have never been tabulated." On these points the Guide will be found instructive. It contains chapters on the Life of Spenser, on the Chronology, Plans, and Sources of his Works, on Contemporaneous Poets, &c. Other valuable aid, together with the best edited text, will be found in the Globe Edition of Spenser's Complete Works (3s. 6d., Macmillan). The Glossary-a feature essential to the student's sound progress is by Dr. Morris; and the excellent introductory memoir by Mr. J. W. Hales, M.A. Skeat's Specimens of English Literature from the "Ploughmans Crede" to the "Shepheardes Calendar" (7s. 6d., Macmillan), with its able Introduction, Notes, and Glossarial Index, will render excellent service to the student of our early literature. It includes the period from 1394 to 1579. More direct help for the reader of the Faërie Queene, Books I. and II. (2s. 6d. each Book, Macmillan), may be obtained from the Introduction, Notes, and Glossary supplied by the editor of this work, Mr. G. W. Kitchin, M.A. The Introduction, which is attached to Book I., is particularly valuable, and will be of great service to the student of any portion of the Faërie Queene. Spenser's letter to the "Right Noble and Valorous Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight," in which he expounds "his whole intention in the course of his worke," "for that it giveth great light to the reader," should be carefully studied; and the particular personages and events symbolised in this wonderful "Allegory or darke Conceit," together with its reflection of the patriotic and adventurous spirit of the courtly and chivalrous age of Elizabeth, should be noted in their bearing on the general construction and moral purpose of Spenser's great work. The student will be considerably helped in these respects by Craik's Spenser and His Poetry, published many years ago by Charles Knight and Co., and still obtainable on secondhand book-stalls. THE STUDY OF MILTON, DRYDEN, POPE, AND OTHER AUTHORS. Information and notes on these and other writers the candidate will find in sufficient abundance in most of the annotated editions which are now being literally poured from the press, and many of which are alluded to in our List of English Classics. Those of the Clarendon Press Series, Rivington's English School-Classics, and Longmans' London Series of English Classics, are particularly helpful and reliable. Of special excellence for the student's purpose is Browne's Milton: Poems (2 vols., 6s. 6d., Macmillan). The volumes may be had separately. Vol. I. contains an admirable Life of Milton, a discriminative and critically suggestive introduction, and a chronological table of the period of Milton's life, in parallel columns, by means of which may be compared the events of the poet's life with facts in English literature and in English and foreign history. In Vol. I. also will be found Milton's early poems, his sonnets, and the first six books of the Paradise Lost; in Vol. II. the remaining six books, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. In both volumes are copious notes and references which give adequate, but not superabundant, help to the student. Milton's writings especially should be considered with direct reference to the events of his time and his own personal experiences, which are, to a great extent, reflected in the general spirit and occasional allusions of his works. However sublime his genius in other respects, he was sadly wanting in that wonderful dramatic faculty which enables an author to keep himself in the background whilst his dramatis persona move and speak in front with individual and self-revealing distinctness. The same principle applies to the reading of Dryden and Pope. These and other authors' works may be fittingly prepared by the candidate's diligent study of the life of each, and of the literary, political, and social events with which they were so personally and deeply connected. Of Dryden and Pope there are detailed and excellent introductory memoirs in the Globe editions of these authors, besides a revised text and notes (3s. 6d. each, Macmillan). In the Clarendon Press Series also there is an abundance of useful and desirable information in the editions of these authors, edited by Messrs. W. D. Christie, M.A., and Mark Pattison, B.D. For the titles and prices of these and other suitable books we refer the reader to our list at the end of this chapter. HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. "No more noble or more complex subject can engage the human mind than the inquiry which traces the movements of that intellectual life of nations whence flow their predominant ideas, their laws, and their actions. Whatever branch or manifestation of its literature may seem at a given epoch to have been most clearly connected with, most actively instrumental in, the march of a nation's mind, that he [the historian of literature] will consider the object of his first and most serious pre-occupations."Thos. Arnold, M.A. "1. If possible, a period of literature should be studied as a whole, along with contemporary politics, manners, and historical events. "2. Not only the life of the special author whom we are studying, but also those of his friends, rivals, and otherwise connected contemporaries, should be carefully examined. "3. The works of any author should be read in the order in which they were written, and with reference to his contemporaries. "4. No doubtful critical point should ever be set before a student as ascertained. One great advantage of these studies is the acquirement of a power of forming a judgment in cases of conflicting evidence. "5. No extracts or incomplete works should be used. The capability of appreciating a whole work as a whole is one of the principal aims of æsthetic culture. "6. It is better to read thoroughly one simple play or poem, than to know details about all the dramatists and poets. The former trains the brain to judge of other plays or poems. The latter only loads the memory with details that can at any time be found when required in the book of reference. "For these studies to completely succeed, they must be as thorough as our classical studies used to be. No difficult point in syntax, prosody, accidence, or pronunciation-no variation In manners and customs-no historical or geographical allusion, must be passed over without explanation."— F. G. Fleay, M.A. The History of English Literature is invariably one of the "special subjects" selected from year to year-the period being limited and strictly defined for any particular examination. Thus, the period for one year's examination may be from 1548 to 1603; or from 1603 to 1660 or 1688; or from 1660 to 1702; or from 1688 to 1760. Sometimes particular reigns may be specified--the reign of Elizabeth, or the Stuart era; and sometimes the latter or the former half of a century. The period is usually confined to some portion of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. The questions directly bearing on the given period are not numerous as a rule. Indeed the questions on the other "special subjects" are so extensive that there is scarcely much time for the History of English Literature purely in relation to the stated period. Some candidates might conclude from this that a very general knowledge only is required; or that if they get up a few dates and facts connected with the principal authors of the period they will fully meet the wishes of the examiners. Nothing could be more delusive, nor yet more detrimental to the candidate's true interests. It is true he should mainly confine himself to the chief authors, but not exclusively; especially where these chief authors had direct relations to minor ones-relations which must be clearly kept in mind. Besides, it must be remembered that many writers who are little known now had great influence in their time, or produced some work which had a marked bearing on the circumstances and issues of that peculiar period. Of course, no examiner will expect a detailed and critical acquaintance with the crowd of minor authors; but it will be useful to single out the more noted of these, with the date and title of one of their principal works-the author and his work thus being linked with a particular date. The candidate must bear in mind the fact that whilst the examiner is most likely to set questions on the masterpieces of the most famous or influential authors, yet he is at liberty to ask any questions which can be fairly embraced in the given epoch. One of the ways in which a candidate's thoroughness of study is tested is by asking him to write down, with dates, the names of the writers who flourished within a specified time, with the titles and dates of their chief works, and perhaps a brief summary of the contents or scope of one or two of these works. However, the candidate can get many a hint of the nature and possible range of the questions by a glance at previous examination-papers. Here, for example, is a test question of a very general kind, set in 1876: "Give a brief description of the state of English literature in the reign of Queen Anne. Who were its chief ornaments? What qualities had they in common? What were their excellences, and what their defects?" The most important matter to the candidate is how to prepare the information and where to get it. On the first point we may give the following hints : 1. Read the history of the period rapidly two or three times so as to get a comprehensive idea of the whole and of its parts in their consecutive order. 2. Make a brief analysis, such as will set before you a bird's-eye view, as it were, of the results of your own reading. Do not make the analysis too long and detailed; the sight of it will only confuse and dismay you when attempting to grasp it just before going into the examination-room, and just when you have to think of another special subject, and of English History in addition. The above analysis should not occupy more than two large-sized pages facing each other. 3. Independently of the above analysis, but in reference to it, make more full yet concise notes of the life, the master-works, and the literary characteristics of two or three of the most distinguished authors of the period; such as Shakespeare, Jonson, Milton, Dryden, Bacon, Lord Herbert, Hobbes, Clarendon, Locke, Steele, Swift, Addison, Pope, Fielding, Bolinbroke, Newton, Hume, Berkeley, De Foe, Johnson, &c. |