These Lectures

BEING

A SEQUEL TO THOSE ALREADY PUBLISHED

AND DEDICATED TO

THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT MORPETH, M.P.,

ARE ALSO

VERY RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED TO HIS LORDSHIP,

BY

THEIR AUTHOR.

ERRATUM.

Page 4-for "Layamon," read “Laydmon."

LECTURE I.

THE RISE, GROWTH, MATURITY, AND PROSPECTS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, &c. &c.

It would be easy to cull from "The Curiosities of Literature," some highly interesting facts connected with the subject chosen for this lecture; to compile from "Warton's History of Poetry" from "Hazlitt's Spirit of the Age"-from the learned pages of Hallam, and other authors, matter that would illustrate the rise, growth, maturity, and prospects of English Literature. But our desire has been, not so much to avail of the criticisms of others, as to rely on a clear matter-of-fact statement, by which we may be able to set forth the progress of letters from our earliest annals to the present day.

We cannot promise many of the charms of novelty in this undertaking. Here, as elsewhere, we have preferred truth to originality, and in our quest of the former, we have been willing to risk the absence of the latter. The state of Literature is generally a fair index of the state of Civilization in every country. We shall also find that what are frequently called national literary characteristics, generally resolve themselves into little more than the mere development of literature under various stages of civilization. A highly civilized country like England, for instance, cannot fail to pass through all these phases of literature. The literature of one age of civilization differing essentially from that of the next, and so on; and this fact we shall soon have an opportunity of exhibiting, as we pass over the literary history of our own country. We, therefore, doubt the propriety of determining the national literary characteristics of any country, apart from its then state of

B

civilization, and we can only justly compare the literatures of two countries, when they are products of the same states of civilization. There are many abstruse questions, which naturally arise, in connexion with the history of a nation's literature. Does the age form the man, or the man form the age? might be a suitable query at the outset. The appearance of great men at great epochs, is, certainly, a coincidence favouring the argument that the age makes the man; but, then, the age which succeeds the appearance of great men, is as frequently made (as it were) by them. Can this point ever be decided when both propositions are in degree true? It may be asked, whether Shakspeare or Milton are expositors of their respective ages, or so much in advance of them, that it required a future age to interpret their works aright? We rather incline to the opinion that some of the minor writers may more justly be termed expositors of their own age-because they do not rise above it--but that men of the greatest genius are invariably found in advance of their own age. So many difficulties beset the philosophical discussion of this and similar problems, that we have preferred taking (in the brief lecture before us) a more matter-of-fact chronological survey of the history of English literature, marking, as we proceed, the rise, growth, and maturity of its various branches. We shall afterwards add a few hints as to the future prospects of literature in this country, and conclude by some observations chiefly addressed to the members of Literary and Scientific Societies.

First, then, we shall attempt to trace the origin and growth of English literature, from the time of the Anglo-Saxon Chroniclers to our own days. To render this task more easy, we have subdivided this long period into nine intervals, in each of which we find some great name, or names, to mark the literary era more distinctly. These intervals may be briefly enumerated as follows:-1st. The Anglo-Saxon period; 2ndly. The Anglo-Norman period; 3rdly. The age of Chaucer; 4thly. The period succeeding Chaucer; 5thly. The age of Spenser and Shakspeare; 6thly. The age of Milton and Dryden; 7thly. The age of Pope and Addison; 8thly. The age of Thomson, Goldsmith, and Johnson; 9thly., and finally. The age of Cowper, Burns, Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth, &c.