A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. BY THOMAS B. SHAW, M.A., EDITED, WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY WILLIAM SMITH, D.C.L., LL.D. TENTH EDITION. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1876. The right of Translation is reserved. UNIFORM WITH THE PRESENT WORK. THE STUDENT'S OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. FROM THE THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF GREECE. FROM THE EARLIEST *Questions on the Student's Greece. 12mo. 28. THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ROME. FROM THE EARLIEST THE STUDENT'S GIBBON : THE EMPIRE, with the History of HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF ROME. BY EDWARD GIBBON. Abridged. Incorporating the researches of recent writers. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY. By REV. W. L. BEVAN. Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE. By REV. W. L. BEVAN. Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S MIDDLE AGES OF EUROPE. BY HENRY HALLAM, LL.D. Post 8vo. 78. 6d. THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF FRANCE. FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SECOND EMPIRE IN 1852. By Rev. W. H. JERVIS. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By HENRY HALLAM, LL.D. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S HUME: A HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. By DAVID HUME. Corrected and continued to 1868. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. * Questions on the Student's Hume. 12mo. 2s. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By G. P. MARSH. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Selected from the Chief Writers. By T. B. SHAW. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. With QUOTATIONS and REFERENCES. BY WILLIAM FLEMING, D.D. Post 8vo. 78. 6d. THE STUDENT'S BLACKSTONE. AN ABRIDGMENT OF THE COMMENTARIES, ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT STATE OF THE LAW. By MALCOLM KERR, LL.D. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. PREFACE. THE present work, which was originally published under the title of 'Outlines of English Literature,' has been entirely re-written with a special view to the requirements of Students, so as to make it, as far as space would allow, a complete History of English Literature. The Author devoted to its composition the labour of several years, sparing neither time nor pains to render it both instructive and interesting. In consequence of Mr. Shaw's lamented death the MS. was placed in my hands to prepare it for publication as one of Mr. Murray's STUDENT'S MANUALS, for which purpose it seems to me peculiarly well adapted. Through long familiarity with the subject, and great experience as a teacher, the Author knew how to seize the salient points in English literature, and to give prominence to those writers and those subjects which ought to occupy the main attention of the Student. Considering the size of the book, the amount of information which it conveys is really remarkable, while the space devoted to the more important names, such as Bacon, Shakspeare, Milton, Dryden, Addison, Sir Walter Scott, and others, is sufficient to impress upon the Student a vivid idea of their lives and writings. The Author has certainly succeeded in his attempt "to render the work as little dry—as readable, in short-as is consistent with accuracy and comprehensiveness.” As Editor, I have carefully revised the whole work, completed the concluding chapters left unfinished by the Author, and inserted at the end of the first and second chapters a brief account of AngloSaxon, Norman, and early English Literature, in order to render the work as useful as possible to Students preparing for the examination of the India Civil Service, the University of London, and the like. Moreover I have, in the other Notes and Illustrations, given an account of the less important persons, which though not designed for continuous perusal, will be useful for reference, for which purpose a copious Index has been added. All living writers are, for obvious reasons, excluded. London, January, 1864. W. S. SECOND EDITION. In this Edition a few errors in names and dates have been corrected, and considerable additions have been made to the later Chapters of the work. A brief account of the lives and works of more than 220 authors has been added; and it is believed that the work, in its present form, will be found to contain information respecting every writer who deserves a place in the history of our literature. Along with this volume is published another, divided into the same number of Chapters, and containing a selection of choice passages from the Writers treated of in these pages, so that they may be read with the biographical and critical account of each author. London, January, 1865. W. S. THIRD EDITION. THIS Edition has been carefully revised, and there has been added a Chronological List of the works of the most eminent English poets of the fourteenth, sixteenth, seventeeth, and eighteenth centuries, together with an account of the Poet-Laureateship, and a list of Poets-Laureate. London, January, 1867. W. S. TENTH EDITION. In this Edition the Chapter on Shakspeare has been revised throughout, and in part rewritten, by Edward Dowden, LL.D., Professor of English Literature in the University of Dublin, and author of 'Shakspeare, a Critical Study of his Mind and Art,' from whom also important corrections have been received in other portions of the book. W. S. London, July, 1875. A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. THOMAS BUDD SHAW, born in Gower Street, London, on the 12th of October, 1813, was the seventh son of John Shaw, F.R.S., an eminent architect. From a very early period of his life, though of delicate constitution, he manifested that delight in the acquisition of knowledge which was continued throughout his subsequent career In the year 1822 he accompanied his maternal uncle, the Rev. Francis Whitfield, to Berbice in the West Indies, where that gentleman was the officiating clergyman, and who was eminently qualified as a scholar and an accomplished gentleman to advance his nephew in his studies and in the formation of his character. On his return from the West Indies, in 1827, he entered the Free School at Shrewsbury, where he became a favourite pupil of Dr. Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield. Here the writer of this brief record recollects that it was remarked of the subject of it that, although inferior to some of his contemporaries in the critical exactness of his scholarship, he was surpassed by none in the intuitive power with which he comprehended the genius and spirit of the great writers of antiquity. At this early period also, apart from school exercises, he rapidly accumulated that general and varied knowledge of books and things which when acquired seemed never to be forgotten. From Shrewsbury, in 1833, Mr. Shaw proceeded to St. John's College, Cambridge. On taking his degree, in 1836, he became tutor in the family of an eminent merchant; and subsequently, in 1840, he was induced to leave England for Russia, where he commenced his useful and honourable career, finally settling in St. Petersburgh in the year 1841. Here he formed an intimacy with M. Warrand, Professor at the University of St. Petersburgh, through whose influence, in 1842, he obtained the appointment of Professor of English Literature at the Imperial Alexander Lyceum. His lectures were eagerly attended: no professor acquired more thoroughly the love and respect of his pupils, many of whom continued his warmest admirers and friends in after life. In October in the same year he married Miss Annette Warrand, daughter of the Professor. In 1851 he came to England for the purpose of taking his Master of Arts degree; and on his return to Russia was elected Lector of English Literature at the University of St. Petersburgh. His first pupils were the Princes of Leuchtenberg; and, his reputation being now thoroughly established, he was in 1853 engaged as tutor and |