AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. BY HENRY A. BEERS. NEW YORK: C. L. S. C. Department, 805 BROADWAY. 1886. PR85 GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION MONROE C GUTMAN LIBRARY Feb 12, 1932 The required books of the C. L. S. C. are recom- Franklin Press: RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY, BOSTON. Copyright 1886, by PHILLIPS & HUNT, 805 Broadway, New York. 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. Cædmon 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 witn 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. |