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A Brief History of the English Language and Literature, Vol. 2

Chapter 25: INDEX.
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About This Book

A concise survey traces the development of English from its spoken origins through changes in sounds, grammar, and vocabulary, discusses the emergence of writing and historical grammatical forms, and presents specimens from different stages. The work then offers a chronological outline of English literature, summarizing successive literary periods and their characteristic themes and styles, with brief sketches of representative texts, pedagogical notes, reference tables, and an index to support classroom use and individual review.

 
 

TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

In the printed book, this table covered 14 (fourteen) pages, with the header repeated at the top of each page. The column headed “Years” was labeled “Centuries” on the earlier pages, changing to “Decades” on the page beginning 1560.

Writers. Works. Contemporary Events. Years.

(Author unknown.)

Beowulf (brought over by Saxons and Angles from the Continent).

500

CAEDMON.

A secular monk of Whitby.

Died about 680.

Poems on the Creation and other subjects taken from the Old and the New Testament.

Edwin (of Deira), King of the Angles, baptised 627.

600

BAEDA.

672-735.

“The Venerable Bede,” a monk of Jarrow-on-Tyne.

An Ecclesiastical History in Latin. A translation of St John’s Gospel into English (lost).

First landing of the Danes, 787.

700

ALFRED THE GREAT.

849-901.

King; translator; prose-writer.

Translated into the English of Wessex, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and other Latin works. Is said to have begun the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

The University of Oxford is said to have been founded in this reign.

800

Compiled by monks in various monasteries.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 875-1154

ASSER.

Bishop of Sherborne. Died 910.

Life of King Alfred.

900

(Author unknown.)

A poem entitled The Grave.

1000

LAYAMON.

1150-1210.

A priest of Ernley-on-Severn.

The Brut (1205), a poem on Brutus, the supposed first settler in Britain.

John ascended the throne in 1199.

1100

ORM OR ORMIN.

1187-1237.

A canon of the Order of St Augustine.

The Ormulum (1215), a set of religious services in metre.

ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER.

1255-1307.

Chronicle of England in rhyme (1297).

Magna Charta, 1215.

Henry III. ascends the throne, 1216.

1200

ROBERT OF BRUNNE.

1272-1340.

(Robert Manning of Brun.)

Chronicle of England in rhyme; Handlyng Sinne (1303).

University of Cambridge founded, 1231.

Edward I. ascends the throne, 1272.

Conquest of Wales, 1284.

SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE.

1300-1372.

Physician; traveller; prose-writer.

The Voyaige and Travaile. Travels to Jerusalem, India, and other countries, written in Latin French and English (1356). The first writer “in formed English.”

Edward II ascends the throne, 1307.

Battle of Bannockburn, 1314.

1300

JOHN BARBOUR.

1316-1396.

Archdeacon of Aberdeen.

The Bruce (1377), a poem written in the Northern English or “Scottish” dialect.

Edward III. ascends the throne, 1327.

JOHN WYCLIF.

1324-1384.

Vicar of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire.

Translation of the Bible from the Latin version; and many tracts and pamphlets on Church reform.

Hundred Years’ War begins, 1338.

Battle of Crecy, 1346.

1350

JOHN GOWER.

1325-1408.

A country gentleman of Kent; probably also a lawyer.

Vox Clamantis, Confessio Amantis, Speculum Meditantis (1393); and poems in French and Latin.

The Black Death. 1349.
1361.
1369.

WILLIAM LANGLANDE.

1332-1400.

Born in Shropshire.

Vision concerning Piers the Plowman—three editions (1362-78).

Battle of Poitiers, 1356.

First law-pleadings in English, 1362.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

1340-1400.

Poet; courtier; soldier; diplomatist; Comptroller of the Customs: Clerk of the King’s Works; M.P.

The Canterbury Tales (1384-98), of which the best is the Knightes Tale. Dryden called him “a perpetual fountain of good sense.”

Richard II. ascends the throne, 1377.

Wat Tyler’s insurrection, 1381.

JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND.

1394-1437.

Prisoner in England, and educated there, in 1405.

The King’s Quair (= Book), a poem in the style of Chaucer.

Henry IV. ascends the throne, 1399.

WILLIAM CAXTON.

1422-1492.

Mercer; printer; translator; prose-writer.

The Game and Playe of the Chesse (1474)—the first book printed in England; Lives of the Fathers, “finished on the last day of his life;” and many other works.

Henry V. ascends the throne, 1415.

Battle of Agincourt, 1415.

Henry VI. ascends the throne, 1422.

Invention of Printing, 1438-45.

1400

WILLIAM DUNBAR.

1450-1530.

Franciscan or Grey Friar; Secretary to a Scotch embassy to France.

The Golden Terge (1501); the Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins (1507); and other poems. He has been called “the Chaucer of Scotland.”

Jack Cade’s insurrection, 1450.

End of the Hundred Years’ War, 1453.

1450

GAWAIN DOUGLAS.

1474-1522.

Bishop of Dunkeld, in Perthshire.

Palace of Honour (1501); translation of Virgil’s Æneid (1513)—the first translation of any Latin author into verse. Douglas wrote in Northern English.

Wars of the Roses, 1455-86.

Edward IV. ascends the throne, 1461.

WILLIAM TYNDALE.

1477-1536.

Student of theology; translator. Burnt at Antwerp for heresy.

New Testament translated (1525-34); the Five Books of Moses translated (1530). This translation is the basis of the Authorised Version.

Edward V. king, 1483.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

1480-1535.

Lord High Chancellor; writer on social topics; historian.

History of King Edward V., and of his brother, and of Richard III. (1513); Utopia (= “The Land of Nowhere”), written in Latin; and other prose works.

Richard III. ascends the throne, 1483.

Battle of Bosworth, 1485.

SIR DAVID LYNDESAY.

1490-1556.

Tutor of Prince James of Scotland (James V.); “Lord Lyon King-at-Arms;” poet.

Lyndesay’s Dream (1528); The Complaint (1529); A Satire of the Three Estates (1535)—a  “morality-play.”

Henry VII. ascends the throne, 1485.

Greek began to be taught in England about 1497.

ROGER ASCHAM.

1515-1568.

Lecturer on Greek at Cambridge; tutor to Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, and Lady Jane Grey.

Toxophilus (1544), a treatise on shooting with the bow; The Scholemastre (1570). “Ascham is plain and strong in his style, but without grace or warmth.”

Henry VIII. ascends the throne, 1509.

Battle of Flodden, 1513.

Wolsey Cardinal and Lord High Chancellor, 1515.

1500

JOHN FOXE.

1517-1587.

An English clergyman. Corrector for the press at Basle; Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral; prose-writer.

The Book of Martyrs (1563), an account of the chief Protestant martyrs.

Sir Thomas More first layman who was Lord High Chancellor, 1529.

Reformation in England begins about 1534.

EDMUND SPENSER.

1552-1599.

Secretary to Viceroy of Ireland; political writer; poet.

Shepheard’s Calendar (1579): Faerie Queene, in six books (1590-96).

Edward VI. ascends the throne, 1547.

Mary Tudor ascends the throne, 1553.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

1552-1618.

Courtier; statesman; sailor; coloniser; historian.

History of the World (1614), written during the author’s imprisonment in the Tower of London.

Cranmer burnt 1556.

1550

RICHARD HOOKER.

1553-1600.

English clergyman; Master of the Temple; Rector of Boscombe, in the diocese of Salisbury.

Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594). This book is an eloquent defence of the Church of England. The writer, from his excellent judgment, is generally called “the judicious Hooker.”

Elizabeth ascends the throne, 1558.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

1554-1586.

Courtier; general; romance-writer.

Arcadia, a romance (1580). Defence of Poesie, published after his death (in 1595). Sonnets.

FRANCIS BACON.

1561-1626.

Viscount St Albans; Lord High Chancellor of England; lawyer; philosopher; essayist.

Essays (1597); Advancement of Learning (1605); Novum Organum (1620); and other works on methods of inquiry into nature.

Hawkins begins slave trade in 1562.

Rizzio murdered, 1566.

1560

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

1564-1616.

Actor; owner of theatre; play-writer; poet. Born and died at Stratford-on-Avon.

Thirty-seven plays. His greatest tragedies are Hamlet, Lear, and Othello. His best comedies are Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and As You Like It. His best historical plays are Julius Cæsar and Richard III. Many minor poems— chiefly sonnets. He wrote no prose.

Marlowe, Dekker, Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ford, Webster, Ben Johnson, and other dramatists, were contemporaries of Shakspeare.

BEN JONSON.

1574-1637.

Dramatist; poet; prose-writer.

Tragedies and comedies. Best plays: Volpone or the Fox; Every Man in his Humour.

Drake sails round the world, 1577.

Execution of Mary Queen of Scots, 1578.

1570

WILLIAM DRUMMOND (“of Hawthornden”).

1585-1649.

Scottish poet; friend of Ben Jonson.

Sonnets and poems.

Raleigh in Virginia, 1584.

Babington’s Plot, 1586.

Spanish Armada, 1588.

1580

THOMAS HOBBES.

1588-1679.

Philosopher; prose-writer; translator of Homer.

The Leviathan (1651), a  work on politics and moral philosophy.

Battle of Ivry, 1590.

1590

SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

1605-1682.

Physician at Norwich.

Religio Medici (= “The Religion of a Physician”); Urn-Burial; and other prose works.

Australia discovered, 1601.

James I. ascends the throne in 1603.

1600

JOHN MILTON.

1608-1674.

Student; political writer; poet; Foreign (or “Latin”) Secretary to Cromwell. Became blind from over-work in 1654.

Minor Poems; Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained; Samson Agonistes. Many prose works, the best being Areopagitica, a speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.

Hampton Court Conference for translation of Bible, 1604-11.

Gunpowder Plot, 1605.

SAMUEL BUTLER.

1612-1680.

Literary man; secretary to the Earl of Carbery.

Hudibras, a mock-heroic poem, written to ridicule the Puritan and Parliamentarian party.

Execution of Raleigh, 1618.

1610

JEREMY TAYLOR.

1613-1667.

English clergyman; Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland.

Holy Living and Holy Dying (1649); and a number of other religious books.

JOHN BUNYAN.

1628-1688.

Tinker and traveling preacher.

The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678); the Holy War; and other religious works.

Charles I. ascends the throne in 1625.

Petition of Right, 1628.

1620

JOHN DRYDEN.

1631-1700.

Poet-Laureate and Historiographer-Royal; playwright; poet; prose-writer.

Annus Mirabilis (= “The Wonderful Year,” 1665-66, on the Plague and the Fire of London); Absalom and Achitophel (1681), a poem on political parties; Hind and Panther (1687), a religious poem. He also wrote many plays, some odes and a translation of Virgil’s Æneid. His prose consists chiefly of prefaces and introductions to his poems.

No Parliament from 1629-40.

Scottish National Covenant, 1638.

1630

Long Parliament, 1640-53.

Marston Moor, 1644.

Execution of Charles I., 1649

1640

JOHN LOCKE.

1632-1704.

Diplomatist; Secretary to the Board of Trade; philosopher; prose-writer.

Essay concerning the Human Understanding (1690); Thoughts on Education; and other prose works.

The Commonwealth, 1649-60.

Cromwell Lord Protector, 1653-58.

1650

DANIEL DEFOE.

1661-1731.

Literary man; pamphleteer; journalist; member of Commission on Union with Scotland.

The True-born Englishman (1701); Robinson Crusoe (1719); Journal of the Plague (1722); and more than a hundred books in all.

Restoration, 1660.

First standing army, 1661.

First newspaper in England, 1663.

1660

JONATHAN SWIFT.

1667-1745.

English clergyman; literary man; satirist; prose-writer; poet; Dean of St Patrick’s, in Dublin.

Battle of the Books; Tale of a Tub (1704), an allegory on the Churches of Rome, England, and Scotland; Gulliver’s Travels (1726); a few poems; and a number of very vigorous political pamphlets.

Plague of London, 1665.

Fire of London, 1666.

SIR RICHARD STEELE.

1671-1729.

Soldier; literary man; courtier; journalist; M.P.

Steele founded the ‘Tatler,’ ‘Spectator,’ ‘Guardian,’ and other small journals. He also wrote some plays.

Charles II. pensioned by Louis XIV. of France, 1674.

1670

JOSEPH ADDISON.

1672-1719.

Essayist; poet; Secretary of State for the Home Department.

Essays in the ‘Tatler,’ ‘Spectator,’ and ‘Guardian.’ Cato, a Tragedy (1713). Several Poems and Hymns.

The Habeas Corpus Act, 1679.

ALEXANDER POPE.

1688-1744.

Poet.

Essay on Criticism (1711); Rape of the Lock (1714); Translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, finished in 1726; Dunciad (1729); Essay on Man (1739). A  few prose Essays, and a volume of Letters.

James II. ascends the throne in 1685.

Revolution of 1688.

William III. and Mary II. ascend the throne, 1689.

1680

Battle of the Boyne, 1690.

1690

JAMES THOMSON.

1700-1748.

Poet.

The Seasons; a poem in blank verse (1730): The Castle of Indolence; a mock-heroic poem in the Spenserian stanza (1748).

Censorship of the Press abolished, 1695.

Queen Anne ascends the throne in 1702.

1700

HENRY FIELDING.

1707-1754.

Police-magistrate, journalist; novelist.

Joseph Andrews (1742); Amelia (1751). He was “the first great English novelist.”

Battle of Blenheim, 1704.

Gibraltar taken, 1704.

DR SAMUEL JOHNSON.

1709-1784.

Schoolmaster; literary man; essayist; poet; dictionary-maker.

London (1738); The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749); Dictionary of the English Language (1755); Rasselas (1759); Lives of the Poets (1781). He also wrote The Idler, The Rambler, and a play called Irene.

Union of England and Scotland, 1707.

DAVID HUME.

1711-1776.

Librarian; Secretary to the French Embassy; philosopher; literary man.

History of England (1754-1762); and a number of philosophical Essays. His prose is singularly clear, easy, and pleasant.

George I. ascends the throne in 1714.

1710

THOMAS GRAY.

1716-1771.

Student; poet; letter-writer; Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge.

Odes; Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750)—one of the most perfect poems in our language. He was a great stylist, and an extremely careful workman.

Rebellion in Scotland in 1715.

TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT.

1721-1771.

Doctor; pamphleteer; literary hack; novelist.

Roderick Random (1748); Humphrey Clinker (1771). He also continued Hume’s History of England. He published also some Plays and Poems.

South-Sea Bubble bursts, 1720.

1720

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

1728-1774.

Literary man; play-writer; poet.

The Traveller (1764); The Vicar of Wakefield (1766); The Deserted Village (1770); She Stoops to Conquer—a Play (1773); and a large number of books, pamphlets, and compilations.

George II. ascends the throne, 1727.

ADAM SMITH.

1723-1790.

Professor in the University of Glasgow.

Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759); Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). He was the founder of the science of political economy.

EDMUND BURKE.

1730-1797.

M.P.; statesman; “the first man in the House of Commons;” orator; writer on political philosophy.

Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful (1757); Reflections on the Revolution of France (1790); Letters on a Regicide Peace (1797); and many other works. “The greatest philosopher in practice the world ever saw.”

1730

WILLIAM COWPER.

1731-1800.

Commissioner in Bankruptcy; Clerk of the Journals of the House of Lords; poet.

Table Talk (1782); John Gilpin (1785); A Translation of Homer (1791); and many other Poems. His Letters, like Gray’s, are among the best in the language.

EDWARD GIBBON.

1737-1794.

Historian; M.P.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-87). “Heavily laden style and monotonous balance of every sentence.”

Rebellion in Scotland, 1745, commonly called “The ’Forty-five.”

1740

ROBERT BURNS.

1759-1796.

Farm-labourer; ploughman; farmer; excise-officer; lyrical poet.

Poems and Songs (1786-96). His prose consists chiefly of Letters. “His pictures of social life, of quaint humour, come up to nature; and they cannot go beyond it.”

Clive in India, 1750-60. Earthquake at Lisbon, 1755.

Black Hole of Calcutta, 1756.

1750

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

1770-1850

Distributor of Stamps for the county of Westmoreland; poet; poet-laureate.

Lyrical Ballads (with Coleridge, 1798); The Excursion (1814); Yarrow Revisited (1835), and many poems. The Prelude was published after his death. His prose, which is very good, consists chiefly of Prefaces and Introductions.

George III. ascends the throne in 1760.

Napoleon and Wellington born, 1769.

1760

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

1771-1832.

Clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh; Scottish barrister; poet; novelist.

Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805); Marmion (1808); Lady of the Lake (1810); Waverley—the first of the “Waverley Novels”—was published in 1814. The “Homer of Scotland.” His prose is bright and fluent, but very inaccurate.

Warren Hastings in India, 1772-85.

1770

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

1772-1834.

Private soldier; journalist; literary man; philosopher; poet.

The Ancient Mariner (1798); Christabel (1816); The Friend—a  Collection of Essays (1812); Aids to Reflection (1825). His prose is very full both of thought and emotion.

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

1774-1843.

Literary man; Quarterly Reviewer; historian; poet-laureate.

Joan of Arc (1796); Thalaba the Destroyer (1801); The Curse of Kehama (1810); A History of Brazil; The Doctor—a Collection of Essays; Life of Nelson. He wrote more than a hundred volumes. He was “the most ambitious and and most voluminous author of his age.”

American Declaration of Independence, 1776.

CHARLES LAMB.

1775-1834.

Clerk in the East India House; poet; prose-writer.

Poems (1797); Tales from Shakespeare (1806); The Essays of Elia (1823-1833). One of the finest writers of writers of prose in the English language.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

1775-1864.

Poet; prose-writer.

Gebir (1798); Count Julian (1812); Imaginary Conversations (1824-1846); Dry Sticks Faggoted (1858). He wrote books for more than sixty years. His style is full of vigour and sustained eloquence.

Alliance of France and America, 1778.

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

1777-1844.

Poet; literary man; editor.

The Pleasures of Hope (1799); Poems (1803); Gertrude of Wyoming, Battle of the Baltic, Hohenlinden, etc. (1809). He also wrote some Historical Works.

Encyclopædia Britannica founded in 1778.

HENRY HALLAM.

1778-1859.

Historian.

View of Europe during the Middle Ages (1818); Constitutional History of England (1827); Introduction to the Literature of Europe (1839).

THOMAS MOORE.

1779-1852.

Poet; prose-writer.

Odes and Epistles (1806); Lalla Rookh (1817); History of Ireland (1827); Life of Byron (1830); Irish Melodies (1834); and many prose works.

THOMAS DE QUINCEY.

1785-1859.

Essayist.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). He wrote also on many subjects—philosophy, poetry, classics, history, politics. His writings fill twenty volumes. He was one of the finest prose-writers of this century.

French Revolution begun in 1789.

1780

LORD BYRON (George Gordon).

1788-1824.

Peer; poet; volunteer to Greece.

Hours of Idleness (1807); English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809); Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818); Hebrew Melodies (1815); and many Plays. His prose, which is full of vigour and animal spirits, is to be found chiefly in his Letters.

Bastille overthrown, 1789.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

1792-1822.

Poet.

Queen Mab (1810); Prometheus Unbound—a  Tragedy (1819); Ode to the Skylark, The Cloud (1820); Adonaïs (1821), and many other poems; and several prose works.

Cape of Good Hope Hope taken, 1795.

Bonaparte in Italy, 1796.

Battle of the Nile, 1798.

1790

JOHN KEATS.

1795-1821.

Poet.

Poems (1817); Endymion (1818); Hyperion (1820). “Had Keats lived to the ordinary age of man, he would have been one of the greatest of all poets.”

Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 1801.

Trafalgar and Nelson, 1805.

1800

Peninsular War, 1808-14.

Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia; Moscow burnt, 1812.

1810

THOMAS CARLYLE.

1795-1881.

Literary man; poet; translator; essayist; reviewer; political writer; historian.

German Romances—a set of Translations (1827); Sartor Resartus—“The Tailor Repatched” (1834); The French Revolution (1837); Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840); Past and Present (1843); Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches (1845); Life of Frederick the Great (1858-65). “With the gift of song, Carlyle would have been the greatest of epic poets since Homer.”

War with United States, 1812-14. Battle of Waterloo,1815.

George IV. ascends the throne, 1820.

Greek War of Freedom, 1822-29.

Byron in Greece, 1823-24.

Catholic Emancipation, 1829.

1820

LORD MACAULAY (Thomas Babington).

1800-1859.

Barrister; Edinburgh Reviewer; M.P.; Member of the Supreme Council of India; Cabinet Minister; poet; essayist; historian; peer.

Milton (in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ 1825); Lays of Ancient Rome (1842); History of England—unfinished (1849-59). “His pictorial faculty is amazing.”

William IV. ascends the throne, 1830.

The Reform Bill, 1832.

Total Abolition of Slavery, 1834.

1830

LORD LYTTON (Edward Bulwer).

1805-1873.

Novelist; poet; dramatist; M.P.; Cabinet Minister; peer.

Ismael and Other Poems (1825); Eugene Aram (1831); Last Days of Pompeii (1834); The Caxtons (1849); My Novel (1853); Poems (1865).

Queen Victoria ascends the throne, 1837.

Irish Famine, 1845.

1840

JOHN STUART MILL.

1806-1873.

Clerk in the East India House; philospher; political writer; M.P.; Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews.

System of Logic (1843); Principles of Political Economy (1848); Essay on Liberty (1858); Autobiography (1873); “For judicial calmness, elevation of tone, and freedom from personality, Mill is unrivalled among the writers of his time.”

Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846.

Revolution in Paris, 1851.

Death of Wellington, 1852.

1850

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

1807-1882.

Professor of Modern Languages and Literature in Harvard University, U.S.; poet; prose-writer.

Outre-Mer—a Story (1835); Hyperion—a Story (1839); Voices of the Night (1841); Evangeline (1848) Hiawatha (1855); Aftermath (1873). “His tact in the use of language is probably the chief cause of his success.”

Napoleon III. Emperor of the French, 1852.

Russian War, 1854-56.

LORD TENNYSON (Alfred Tennyson).

1809——.

Poet; poet-laureate; peer.

Poems (1830) In Memoriam (1850); Maud (1855); Idylls of the King (1859-73); Queen Mary—a  Drama (1875); Becket—a  Drama (1884). He is at present our greatest living poet.

Franco-Austrian War, 1859.

Emancipation of Russian serfs, 1861.

1860

ELIZABETH B. BARRETT (afterwards Mrs Browning).

1809-1861.

Poet; prose-writer; translator.

Prometheus Bound—translated from the Greek of Æschylus (1833); Poems (1844); Aurora Leigh (1856); and Essays contributed to various magazines.

Austro-Prussian “Seven Weeks’ War”, 1866.

Suez canal finished, 1869.

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

1811-1863.

Novelist; writer in ‘Punch’; artist.

The Paris Sketch-Book (1840); Vanity Fair (1847); Esmond (1852); The Newcomes(1855); The Virginians (1857). The greatest novelist and one of the most perfect stylists of this century. “The classical English humorist and satirist of the reign of Queen Victoria.”

Franco-Prussian War 1870-71.

Third French Republic, 1870.

William I. of Prussia made Emperor of the Germans at Versailles, 1871.

1870

CHARLES DICKENS.

1812-1870.

Novelist.

Sketches by Boz (1836); The Pickwick Papers (1837); Oliver Twist (1838); Nicholas Nickleby (1838); and many other novels and works; Great Expectations (1868). The most popular writer that ever lived.

Rome the new capital of Italy, 1871.

Russo-Turkish War 1877-78.

ROBERT BROWNING.

1812——.

Poet.

Pauline (1833); Paracelsus (1836); Poems (1865); The Ring and the Book (1869); and many other volumes of poetry.

Berlin Congress and Treaty, 1878.

Leo XIII. made Pope in 1878.

JOHN RUSKIN.

1819——.

Art-critic; essayist; teacher; literary man.

Modern Painters (1843-60); The Stones of Venice (1851-53); The Queen of the Air (1869); An Autobiography (1885); and very many other works. “He has a deep, serious, and almost fanatical reverence for art.”

Assassination of Alexander II., 1881

Arabi Pasha’s Rebellion 1882-83.

War in the Soudan, 1884.

1880

GEORGE ELIOT.

1819-1880.

Novelist; poet; essayist.

Scenes of Clerical Life (1858); Adam Bede (1859); and many other novels down to Daniel Deronda (1876); Spanish Gypsy (1868); Legend of Jubal (1874).

Murder of Gordon, 1884.

New Reform Bill, 1885.


Footnotes

1. See p. 43.

2. Words and Places, p. 158.

3. In the last half of this sentence, all the essential words—necessary, acquainted, character, uses, element, important, are Latin (except character, which is Greek).

4. Or, as an Irishman would say, “I am kilt entirely.”

5. Chair is the Norman-French form of the French chaise. The Germans still call a chair a stuhl; and among the English, stool was the universal name till the twelfth century.

6. In two words, a fig-shower or sycophant.

7. A club for beating clothes, that could be handled only by three men.

8. The word faith is a true French word with an English ending—the ending th. Hence it is a hybrid. The old French word was fei—from the Latin fidem; and the ending th was added to make it look more like truth, wealth, health, and other purely English words.

9. The accusative or objective case is given in all these words.

10. In Hamlet v. 2. 283, Shakespeare makes the King say—

“The King shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath;

And in the cup an union shall he throw.”

11. Professor Max Müller gives this as the most remarkable instance of cutting down. The Latin mea domina became in French madame; in English ma’am; and, in the language of servants, ’m.

12. Milton says, in one of his sonnets—

“New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large.”

From the etymological point of view, the truth is just the other way about. Priest is old Presbyter writ small.

13. See p. 242.

14. This plural we still find in the famous Winchester motto, “Manners maketh man.”

15. Goût (goo) from Latin gustus, taste.

16. Quickly.

17. This use of the phrase “the same” is antiquated English.

18. Emulating.

INDEX.


Spellings in the Index are sometimes different from those used in the main text, as with the names “Shakespeare” and “Wycliffe”, or the use of ligatures in names such as “Bæda” and “Cædmon”. Page references are linked to the nearest paragraph.

PART III.

African words in English, 263.

American words in English, 263.

Analytic English (= modern), 239.

Ancient English, 199.

synthetic, 239.

Anglo-Saxon, specimen from, 250.

contrasted with English of Wyclif and Tyndale, 251.

Arabic words in English, 263.

Aryan family of languages, 195.

Bible, English of the, 256.

Bilingualism, 222.

Changes of language, never sudden, 198.

Chinese words in English, 264.

Dead and living languages, 198.

Dialects of English, 238.

Doublets, English and other, 236-238.

Greek, 233.

Latin, 230-233.

Dutch and Welsh contrasted, 197.

words in English, 260.

English, 194.

a Low-German tongue, 196.

diagram of, 203.

dialects of, 238.

early and oldest, compared, 252.

elements of, characteristics of the two, 234-236.

English element in, 202.

foreign elements in, 204.

grammar of, its history, 239-249.

its spread over Britain, 197.

modern, 258-265.

nation, 202.

of the Bible, 256.

of the thirteenth century, 254.

of the fourteenth century, 255.

of the sixteenth century, 256.

on the Continent, 194.

periods of, 198-201.

marks which distinguish, 254.

syntax of, changed, 245.

the family to which it belongs, 195.

the group to which it belongs, 195, 196.

vocabulary of, 202-238.

Foreign elements in English, 204.

French (new) words in English, 261.

(Norman), see Norman-French.

German words in English, 262.

Grammar of English, 239-249.

comparatively fixed (since 1485), 258.

First Period, 240.

general view of its history, 243.

Second Period, 241.

short view of its history, 239-243.

Third Period, 242.

Fourth Period, 242.

Greek doublets, 233.

Gutturals, expulsion of, 246-248.

Hebrew words in English, 262.

Hindu words in English, 264.

History of English, landmarks in, 266.

Hungarian words in English, 264.

Indo-European family, 195.

Inflexions in different periods, compared, 253.

loss of, 239, 240.

grammatical result of loss, 248.

Italian words in English, 259.

Keltic element in English, 204-206.

Landmarks in the history of English, 266.

Language, 193.

changes of, 198.

growth of, 193.

living and dead, 198.

spoken and written, 203.

written, 193.

Latin contributions and their dates, 209.

doublets, 230-233.

element in English, 208-233.

of the eye and ear, 230.

of the First Period, 210.

Second Period, 211, 212.

Third Period, 212-227.

Fourth Period, 227-230.

triplets, 233.

Lord’s Prayer, in four versions, 251, 252.

Malay words in English, 264.

Middle English, 200.

Modern English, 201, 258-265.

analytic, 239.

Monosyllables, 244.

New words in English, 258-265.

Norman-French, 212.

bilingualism caused by, 222.

contributions, general character of, 220.

dates of, 213-215.

element in English, 212-227.

gains to English from, 221-224.

losses to English from, 225-227.

synonyms, 222.

words, 216-220.

Oldest and early English compared, 252.

Order of words in English, changed, 245.

Periods of English, 198-201.

Ancient, 199.

Early, 199.

Middle, 200.

Tudor, 201.

Modern, 201.

grammar of the different, 239-249.

marks indicating different, 254.

specimens of different, 250-257.

Persian words in English, 264.

Polynesian words in English, 264.

Portuguese words in English, 264.

Renascence (Revival of Learning), 227.

Russian words in English, 264.

Scandinavian element in English, 206-208.

Scientific terms in English, 265.

Spanish words in English, 259.

Specimens of English of different periods, 250-257.

Spoken and written language, 203.

Syntax of English, change in, 245.

Synthetic English (= ancient), 239.

Tartar words in English, 264.

Teutonic group, 195.

Tudor English, 201.

Turkish words in English, 264.

Tyndale’s English, compared with Anglo-Saxon and Wyclif, 251.

Vocabulary of the English language, 202-238.

Welsh and Dutch contrasted, 197.

Words and inflexions in different periods, compared, 253.

new, in English, 258-265.

Written language, 193.

and spoken, 203.

Wyclif’s English, compared with Tyndale’s and Anglo-Saxon, 251.

PART IV.

Addison, Joseph, 315.

Alfred, 276.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 276.

Arnold, Matthew, 359.

Austen, Jane, 348.

Bacon, Francis, 299.

Bæda (Venerable Bede), 275.

Barbour, John, 285.

Beowulf, 273.

Blake, William, 334.

Browning, Robert, 358.

Browning, Mrs., 357.

Brunanburg, Song of, 275.

Brunne, Robert of, 279.

Brut, 277.

Bunyan, John, 309.

Burke, Edmund, 326.

Burns, Robert, 332.

Butler, Samuel, 304.

Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 343.

Cædmon, 274.

Campbell, Thomas, 342.

Carlyle, Thomas, 349.

Caxton, William, 288.

Chatterton, Thomas, 333.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 283.

followers of, 287.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 340.

Collins, William, 321.

Cowper, William, 329.

Crabbe, George, 331.

Defoe, Daniel, 312.

De Quincey, Thomas, 348.

Dickens, Charles, 361.

Dryden, John, 305.

Eliot, George, 364.

Gibbon, Edward, 327.

Gloucester, Robert of, 279.

Goldsmith, Oliver, 325.

Gower, John, 282.

Gray, Thomas, 320.

Hobbes, Thomas, 308.

Hooker, Richard, 296.

James I. (of Scotland), 287.

Johnson, Samuel, 323.

Jonson, Ben, 295.

Keats, John, 345.

Lamb, Charles, 346.

Landor, Walter Savage, 347.

Langlande, William, 282.

Layamon, 277.

Locke, John, 309.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 354.

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 351.

Maldon, Song of the Fight at, 275.

Mandeville, Sir John, 281.

Marlowe, Christopher, 295.

Milton, John, 303.

Moore, Thomas, 342.

More, Sir Thomas, 290.

Morris, William, 360.

Orm’s Ormulum, 278.

Pope, Alexander, 317, 319.

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 298.

Ruskin, John, 363.

Scott, Sir Walter, 339.

Shakespeare, William, 292, 301.

contemporaries of, 294.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 344.

Sidney, Sir Philip, 297.

Southey, Robert, 341.

Spenser, Edmund, 291.

Steele, Richard, 316.

Surrey, Earl of, 289.

Swift, Jonathan, 313.

Taylor, Jeremy, 307.

Tennyson, Alfred, 355.

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 361.

Thomson, James, 319, 320.

Tyndale, William, 290.

Wordsworth, William, 337.

Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 289.

Wyclif, John, 282.