the new spirit found their unrivaled literary expression in the reigns of Elizabeth and James (1558-1625). III. The Period of French Influence. From 1660 to about 1750. After the new thoughts and mighty passions that came with the Renaissance had spent their force, England seemed for the time to have grown tired of great feelings either in poetry or in religion. She became scientific, intellectual, cold, and inclined to attach great importance to the style or manner of writing, thinking that great works were produced by study and art rather than by the inspiration of genius. This tendency was encouraged, perhaps originated, by the example and influence of the French. This was during the brilliant reign of Louis XIV., when such writers as Molière, Racine, Corneille, and Boileau, were making French literature and literary standards fashionable in Europe. Charles II. ascended the throne in 1660, after his youth of exile on the Continent, bringing with him a liking for things French; and for awhile some English writers tried to compose according to the prescription laid down by Boileau and his followers. IV. The Modern English Period. Since about 1750. During this final period England outgrew her temporary mood of unbelief, criticism, and shallowness, and with it her reliance on the literary style of France. She has again expressed in her literature new and deep feelings; a wider love for mankind and a belief in the brotherhood of all men; a new power of entering into the life of nature. She has depended little for her inspiration on other nations, although to some extent influenced by Germany and Italy, and has produced literary works second only to those of the Elizabethan masters. These periods, in detail, form respectively the subjects of the Four Parts into which this book is divided. MABINOGION.-Entrance of Celtic Literature into English. Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of Britain, 1147. "Song of Roland." 64 Romance of King Alexander.' "The Romance of Sir Tristrem," 1270 (?). Walter Map continues Arthurian Legends, 12th century. Geoffrey Chaucer, and Union of English and Norman. II. The Period of Italian Influence, 1400-1660. 1. The Revival of Learning. a. In Education. b. In Literature. Wyatt and Surrey. The Elizabethan Period. (See Table IV, “Revival of Learning.") 2. The Expression of Reformation in Literature. Puritanism. Milton. (See Table VII, "Puritan England.") III. The Period of French Influence, 1660-cir. 1750. 1. Restoration to Death of Dryden, 1660-1700. 2. The Augustan Age (Critical School). Pope, Addison, Steele. (See Table VIII.) IV. The Modern English Period, 1750. 1. The Reaction Against the Critical School (or Augustan Age). a. The New Sympathy with Nature. Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, 1725. b. The New Sympathy with Man; Rise of Modern Democracy. c. German Influence in Coleridge and Carlyle. (See Table VIII, "Rise of the Modern Literature," and Table IX," Victorian Age.") 2. Recent Writers, 1830. Carlyle. Tennyson. Browning. (See Table IX, Victorian Age.") |