1742. Fielding's Joseph Andrews. 1745-1746. Second Jacobite Rising under Charles Edward, "The Young Pretender." 1748. Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe. 1749. Fielding's Tom Jones. 1751. Gray's Elegy. 1754. Hume's History of England. 1756. Burke's Sublime and Beautiful. 1756-1763. Seven Years' War. (In America called the French and Indian War.) 1759. Sterne's Tristram Shandy. 1760-1820. George III. 1765. The Stamp Act. 1766. Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. 1769. Letters of Junius. 1770. Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 1773. Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. 1775. Battle of Lexington. Sheridan's Rivals. 1776. Declaration of Independence. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 1777. Sheridan's School for Scandal. 1783. Peace with America. V. BIBLIOGRAPHY (1) MACAULAY Adams, Charles: Life Sketches of Macaulay. Arnold, M.: Mixed Essays. Bagehot Estimate of Some Englishmen and Scotchmen. Jebb Lecture on Macaulay. Jones, C. H.: Life of Lord Macaulay. Minto Manual of English Prose Literature. Morison Macaulay (English Men of Letters Series). Taine: English Literature, Bk. V., Ch. III. Trevelyan: Life and Letters of Macaulay. 2 Volumes. (2) JOHNSON AND HIS PERIOD Boswell: Life of Johnson. (The best edition is that of G. Birkbeck Hill.) Carlyle Essay on Boswell's Life of Johnson. (Extracts are given in the Appendix.) D'Arblay, Mme.: Diary and Letters and Early Journals. Grant: Johnson. (Great Writers Series.) Green: Short History of the English People. Hawkins: Life of Johnson. Hill, G. B.: Dr. Johnson, his Friends and his Critics. Macaulay Essays on Addison, Walpole, Earl of Chatham, Minto: Manual of English Prose Literature. Nichol: Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. Scoone Four Centuries of English Letters. (This contains in part the correspondence of Johnson and Mrs. Thrale.) Stephen Johnson (English men of Letters Series); Hours in a Library; History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. Thackeray English Humorists and The Four Georges. VI. NOTE ON METHODS OF STUDY It is impossible to lay down any method of study for this work which would suit even the majority of teachers or classes. Every teacher of English who is worth anything will have his own method of imbuing his pupils with a knowledge and love of the master works of our literature. The main point is to make the study interesting. A dry method, though it may be scholarly and thorough, with secondary school pupils at least, often defeats its own end. It makes no lasting impression. All the average pupil acquires is an extreme dislike for our classic literature. I well remember with what diabolical glee I burnt my Virgil when its study was completed that Virgil which, in after years, I read with intense delight. Macaulay's Life of Johnson is such a good narrative, so clearly and vivaciously told, that the pupils, if they are not at first bothered with technical points of style, will read it through with much pleasure. Those notes which give extracts from Boswell and other authorities on Johnson, and characteristic bits of Johnson's own writings, may be used to increase the interest. By no means should the pupils be required to learn them. Then some of the extracts from Macaulay's and Carlyle's essays on Croker's Boswell given in the Appendix may be employed to heighten the interest and to lead the pupils from Macaulay's vivid but superficial picture to Carlyle's deeper and more sympathetic insight. Johnson's place in English literary history may be studied by means of the admirable passage from Leslie Stephen in the Appendix, the notes which refer to contemporary writers, and some of the extracts from Carlyle. The chronological table may also be found of value here. As for the study of Macaulay's style, much will depend upon the judgment of the teacher and the capacity of the class. A general criticism of his style is given in the biographical sketch of Macaulay in the Introduction. Every English teacher should be familiar with Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature, and should give his pupils as much of this as he thinks they can acquire. Single paragraphs of the Life of Johnson may be selected for intensive study; and much interest may be aroused by a comparative study of Macaulay's and Carlyle's method of treating the same subject. In this way dry technicalities may be made quite exciting. The pupils may also be required to imitate Macaulay's style in written reports of investigations suggested by the literary and historical references given in the notes. But, after all, everything depends on the teacher. He will be either a taskmaster or an inspiration. |