Spenser, 1552 ? — 1599
Shakespeare, 1564 — 1616
Milton, 1608 — 1674
Dryden, 1631 — 1700
Pope, 1688 — 1744
Wordsworth, 1770 — 1850
Coleridge, 1772 — 1834
Byron, 1788 — 1824
Shelley, 1792 — 1822
Keats, 1795 — 1821
Tennyson, 1809 — 1892
Browning, 1812 — 1889
We do not enjoy the work of all these poets equally; in any case, boys and girls, men and women, have individual preferences. Some people find greater enjoyment in the work of Byron than in the work, let us suppose, of Tennyson. Others greatly prefer Tennyson to Browning; and again these may not care for Byron. But many people find delight in reading Browning's poetry. Still, we should remember that all these writers are great poets, and that each has had power over his own generation and other generations as well.
Chaucer, as you know, is difficult to read because he lived so many hundreds of years ago, and the English language has changed considerably since the time when he wrote poetry. The same may be said of Spenser, although in a less degree. Dryden and Pope helped to perfect the style of English poetry, and this, possibly, is their outstanding claim to greatness.
It may help us to know and enjoy poetry if we choose one or two of the poems written by these great poets.
You may have found the work of Chaucer already, but it is the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales which most people, who read Chaucer at all, know best. A little study will help us to read some of Chaucer's lines. We know also of Spenser's Faery Queen, of Una and the Red Cross Knight. Shakespeare lives as the master of English literature. We have some knowledge of his plays, but we have not yet spoken of his sonnets.
A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, usually divided into an octave—eight lines—and a sestet—six lines. There are three varieties of the sonnet form in English poetry. That used by Shakespeare has three four-line stanzas, the first line in each stanza rhyming with the third, and the second line with the fourth; these stanzas are followed by a rhyming couplet. Those of you who are specially interested in verse forms will find under the heading "technical terms", an interesting note on the sonnet in Mr. H. W. Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Some of the most beautiful short poems in the world have taken the form of the sonnet. Read Shakespeare's sonnet beginning with the lines,—
That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
See with what beauty Shakespeare clothes the bare branches of winter trees. Many times in our lives, we will think with joy of Shakespeare's words when we look at the leafless boughs of trees and remember how the birds in summer sang in the leafy bowers like choristers in a choir. Shakespeare used nine words only to give us this joy.
Milton, who was a great poet, also wrote sonnets. The best known of his sonnets was written on his own blindness. It begins with the line,
When I consider how my light is spent.
But the most loved poem by Milton is the "Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity". The beginning of the first stanza is as follows:
It was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him,
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
Of Dryden, read part of "Alexander's Feast"; and from Pope's work choose the gay, amusing poem called "The Rape of the Lock". Wordsworth's sonnets are specially beautiful; we should read "Upon Westminster Bridge", and one other called "The World". His longer poem, "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood", will express for you how beautiful the world is in your eyes, perhaps more perfectly than the work of any other of the great poets.
Coleridge's poem, "Do You Ask What the Birds Say?" we should read; Byron's "She Walks in Beauty"; Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind", or his poem "To a Skylark"; Keats' "Eve of St. Agnes"; Tennyson's "Morte d'Arthur"; and Browning's "Saul".
Listen to the music of the first lines belonging to the poems named in the last paragraph, if you still are not quite certain that there is delight in reading poetry.
Coleridge's poem begins:—
Do you ask what the birds say? The Sparrow, the Dove,
The Linnet, and Thrush, say "I love and I love!"
In the winter they're silent—the wind is so strong;
What it says, I don't know, but it sings a loud song.
The first four lines of Bryon's poem, "She Walks in Beauty," are:—
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:—
The first stanza of Shelley's "To a Skylark" is:—
Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert—
That from heaven or near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
Even this one verse by Shelley gives us the feeling of rising high towards heaven with the bird and hearing his song.
The beginning of Keats' poem, "The Eve of St. Agnes", is one of the most beautiful and alluring openings in all poetry:—
St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;—
Tennyson's "Morte d'Arthur" is a story of Arthur and the Round Table, and the great sword Excalibur. Its opening lines read:—
So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
Among the mountains by the winter sea;—
Browning's poems, "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix", "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", and "Hervé Riel", you are likely to know already. "Saul" is a more difficult poem, but in it Browning shows his great power as a poet. His love poetry, in such poems as "The Last Ride Together", and "One Word More", is considered Browning's finest work. "Saul" is a story taken from the Bible. David plays on his harp to Saul, who is ill. He tries to find help for Saul in his despondency. David finally tells Saul that God must be a man as well as God, so that He may help us all.
He who did most, shall bear most; the strongest shall
stand the most weak.
'Tis the weakness in strength, that I cry for! my flesh
that I seek
In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. O Saul, it shall be
A Face like my face that receives thee; a man like to me,
Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever: a Hand like
this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the
Christ stand!
Do you remember how we discovered earlier in this book that time decides what is great in writing? This is true of the work of poets. We can see for ourselves how widely great poets differ in their work. Some write sweet, simple, clear and lovely songs; others write poetry which is difficult to read and understand. The simple, clear and lovely songs may last longer than the difficult poems. But if the difficult poetry contains great meaning, it may last too. A poet sometimes is great for the people of his own generation, but the ages that follow may not care for his work. Yet it may be that after a hundred years or so, people will love the poet's work again.
Is great poetry being written now! It is difficult for anyone to answer this question with certainty. Some very lovely poetry has been written in this twentieth century, in the same way that beautiful verse has been written in the English language for hundreds of years.
Examples of this beautiful verse from Chaucer's time to the end of the nineteenth century, we may find in such books as Palgrave's Golden Treasury of English Verse; and The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, edited by Mr. Quiller-Couch. Several anthologies, called Books of Georgian Poetry, and others beside, contain poetry written in the twentieth century.
There are many poets of whose work we have not spoken. Some of their names you know already; some you will learn by and by. These poets may have lived long ago, or no longer ago than last century, or they may be living to-day. Three outstanding names belonging to the Victorian Age are those of Matthew Arnold, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Charles Algernon Swinburne. We should remember the names also of a group of women who have written poetry: Mrs. Browning, Christina Rossetti, Emily Brontë, and Emily Dickinson, who is an American poet.
Some modern poets are: Rudyard Kipling, Robert Bridges, W. B. Yeats, Rupert Brooke, James Elroy Flecker, Laurence Binyon, William Watson, George Russell, W. H. Davies, Walter de la Mare, Alice Meynell, Katherine Tynan, W. W. Gibson, John Masefield, James Stephens, Lascelles Abercrombie, Siegfried Sassoon, Ralph Hodgson, Edmund Blunden, and a sister and two brothers, three poets in one family, Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell.
For an ending we may quote a verse from a poem written by a modern poet, Mr. Walter de la Mare. The name of the poem is "The Listeners":
'Is there anybody there!' said the Traveller
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
Of the forest's ferny floor;
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller's head:
And he smote upon the door a second time;
'Is there anybody there?' he said.
YOUR COUNTRY AND BOOKS
CHAPTER XXXIV
READING FOR YOUR OWN COUNTRY
———
ENGLISH LITERATURE AND ITS BRANCHES
Most of us, no matter where we may happen to live, are not far away from a newspaper office. We may walk down a village street and stop at the door of a building where a newspaper is published, or we may drive in from the farm, and see a printing press through the open door of the same office. Perhaps it is an old-fashioned printing establishment where type is still set by hand; good printing often is taken from hand-set type. Or some of you may pass, day by day, a newspaper building in a town or city where the latest machinery is constantly at work on edition after edition of a daily newspaper.
We know without being told that newspapers form one of the great channels of communication in the modern world. To learn how to read a newspaper in the best way is something we can do for our own good, for the place in which we live, for the country round about, our own country and nation, and so on in ever-widening circles.
Newspapers possess a special fascination for almost everyone. We like to look in through the windows of a newspaper building and see the machinery moving rapidly. It is exciting to watch the great sheets being folded and coming off the presses. Perhaps you know a young man or woman who is a reporter; possibly some day you will be a reporter yourself. It is worth spending time trying to understand all that a newspaper means.
If we know anything about the way in which news is gathered, written, and printed, we know that sometimes news will be inaccurate, because newspaper work is done with speed. The work of a daily newspaper is to provide its readers with the day's news, and this must be accomplished quickly, or it will be to-morrow before we know where we are. It is the pride of a newspaper to publish correct news, as far as that is possible. But when we read a newspaper we must make allowance for the fact that some of the news is an estimate of what happened, rather than a statement of the absolutely true details of what has happened. Yet it is astonishing, considering all the circumstances, how few mistakes there are in newspapers.
We read newspapers to be well informed; to know how to relate ourselves to the life about us; and to find out what has happened that particularly concerns us in many different ways, as, for instance, in sports and games, schools and education, business and employment, about our neighbours and companions, politics and public affairs, even the hobbies in which we are interested, flower shows, cattle shows, sales of stamps, puzzles, jokes, wireless news, discoveries, inventions, explorations. By reading a good newspaper in the right way we keep in touch with current history.
There are other periodical publications, besides daily newspapers, weeklies and many monthly magazines, each of which has its own use and purpose. Some of these publications we may need to read, according to what our interests are. These you can choose for yourselves, as you grow older.
What is known as literature, writing of permanent value and beauty, not technical or scientific, but of general interest, as a rule finds its way into books. The time has come now when we can consider for a moment how many different literatures there are in the world.
Some writers belonging to literatures of countries other than our own, by this time you can name for yourselves. You know that there was a great Greek literature, a Latin literature, and Hebrew literature. The first name that comes into your minds belonging to Greek literature is Homer. Virgil was one of the great writers of Latin literature. The Bible is Hebrew literature. Dante's work is found in Italian literature; Cervantes' in Spanish literature; Goethe's in German literature; Dumas' work and Victor Hugo's and the work of a number of other writers belong to French literature. There are famous Russian novelists. Hans Andersen was a Dane. Maeterlinck is a Belgian. The Arabian Nights, in origins at least, takes us to countries as far away as China, India, Persia, and Egypt. All these literatures come into our lives and into the lives of other people, and so we understand how famous books help to bind the world together.
English literature is one of the great literatures of the world. If it pleases us to do so, we can count that it begins in the times of the Anglo-Saxons. Even if we take Chaucer as the first great name in English literature, this means that for six hundred years, famous, glorious books in poetry, story, drama, history, and other styles of composition, have been produced at intervals, but in an unbroken succession, in the literature which we can call our own.
English literature, as you know, includes the work of English, Scottish and Irish writers. If we think of English literature as a tree, one of its branches, which comes from the same root, is American literature. Other branches of this tree are the literatures of Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the work of writers in India who publish their books in the English language, known as Anglo-Indian literature. As you know, all these literatures, with the exception of American literature, belong to the nations of the British Empire. Kipling was thinking of the nations of the Empire when he called one of his books The Five Nations.
Some day you may find out for yourselves how many names you can remember of writers belonging to English literature, then any you know belonging to the branch literatures of Canada, Australia, South Africa and Anglo-India, and to American literature.
There are few lists in the world as splendid as the long roll of great writers in English literature. It is worth while learning the most famous names by heart. Numbers of these writers you know already. Many people find the greatest enjoyment they have from books in English literature.
The names of some of the most distinguished American writers are Emerson, Thoreau, Mark Twain, Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Fenimore Cooper, Longfellow, Parkman, Motley, and Washington Irving; many critics would add the name of Emily Dickinson. There are a number of interesting books in which you can read of American literature. A librarian will help you to choose one of them.
Names belonging to Australian and New Zealand literature are Henry Kingsley, Adam Lindsay Gordon, Kendall, Domett, Rolf Boldrewood, Lawson, Stephens, Louis Becke, Browne, Collins, Farjeon, Ada Cambridge, and Mrs. Campbell Praed. Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand and the lady sometimes known as "Elizabeth", Countess Russell, in Australia. You may find in a library articles on the writers of Australia and New Zealand. Someone might read aloud to you from an anthology of Australian verse.
South Africa has not had long to establish a literature. One well-known South African name is that of Olive Schreiner. Others are Pringle, Bell, Mrs. Millin, and a young poet, Roy Campbell. A collection of English South African poetry is called The Treasury of South African Poetry and Verse.
Many Canadians have written poetry and verse in which are true descriptions of nature and the spirit of nature in Canada. Some Canadian poets' names you will have learned already: Roberts, Carman, Lampman, Campbell, Scott, Isabella Valancy Crawford, Marjorie Pickthall, W. H. Drummond, whose habitant poems abound in humour and the delineation of character, two poets who served in the War, John McCrae and Bernard Trotter, Wilson MacDonald, and E. J. Pratt, a native of Newfoundland, the oldest dominion in the Empire. Other names you will find mentioned in several good anthologies. Haliburton was a humorist. The most widely read Canadian humorist of the present day is Mr. Stephen Leacock. Joseph Howe was a writer, an orator and statesman. The Golden Dog, by William Kirby, is a famous Canadian novel. Other novel writers are Miss Lily Dougall, Mrs. Cotes, Miss Mazo de la Roche, Sir Gilbert Parker, "Ralph Connor", Norman Duncan, Miss L. M. Montgomery. A number of writers of Canadian fiction are doing work to-day which may become eminent. There are writers in French Canada, both of prose and poetry. Canadian historians, English and French, have accomplished good work. The two series, Makers of Canada and Chronicles of Canada, contain histories which are well worth reading.
Here is a list of readings from Canadian literature, chapters from a few novels, poems from books of poetry, short stories, two fairy tales, two speeches by Canadian statesmen, a short history. These may guide you to books which you may enjoy. In addition, we should read William Kirby's novel, The Golden Dog. It is interesting to remember that Miss Pauline Johnson, whose poetical gift was undoubted, was a Canadian Mohawk Indian.
"How Rabbit Deceived Fox" and "Sparrow's Search for the Rain", from Canadian Fairy Tales, by Cyrus Macmillan.
Beautiful Joe, by Marshall Saunders.
"In the Big Haycart" and "Calling the Cows", from Chez Nous, by Adjutor Rivard, translated by W. H. Blake.
"The Freedom of the Black-Faced Ram" from The Watchers of the Trails, by C. G. D. Roberts.
"Privilege of the Limits" from Old Man Savarin Stories, by E. W. Thomson.
"The Scarlet Hunter", from Pierre and His People; and When Valmond Came to Pontiac, by Sir Gilbert Parker.
Chapter One, from The Imperialist, by Mrs. Cotes.
"Aunt Thankful and Her Room", from Wise Saws and Modern Instances, Vol. II, Chap. 4, by Thomas Chandler Haliburton.
"The Marine Excursion of the Knights of Pythias", from Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, by Stephen Leacock.
"O Love Builds on the Azure Sea", from Malcolm's Katie, by Isabella Valancy Crawford.
"Where the Cattle Come to Drink" and "The Potato Harvest", from Songs of the Common Day, by C. G. D. Roberts.
"The Frogs" and "Why Do You Call the Poet Lonely?" from The Poems of Archibald Lampman.
"How One Winter Came in the Lake Region" and "How Spring Came", from Lake Lyrics, by W. W. Campbell.
"The Ships of St. John" and "The Grave Tree", from Poems, by Bliss Carman.
"Heart of Gold" and "Madame Tarte", from Later Poems and New Villanelles, by S. Frances Harrison.
"Elizabeth Speaks", and "A Legend of Christ's Nativity", from Lundy's Lane and Other Poems, by Duncan Campbell Scott.
"The Habitant", "Little Bateese", "De Bell of Saint Michel", and "Little Lac Grenier", from The Poetical Works of W. H. Drummond.
"The Song My Paddle Sings", from Flint and Feather, by E. Pauline Johnson.
"Bega", "The Immortal", "The Shepherd Boy", from The Complete Poems of Marjorie L. C. Pickthall.
"A Song of Better Understanding", from The Song of The Prairie Land, by Wilson MacDonald.
"The Shark", from Newfoundland Verse, by E. J. Pratt.
Speech in Hants, 1844, from The Speeches and Public Letters of Joseph Howe, Chap. X. ed. by J. A. Chisholm.
"Political Liberalism", Quebec City, 1877, and "Death of Sir John Macdonald", House of Commons, 1891, Speeches by Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs, by George M. Wrong.
AFTERWORD
The name of this chapter, Afterword, seems as if it were an ending. But some endings in reality are beginnings. We all know the look of a catalogue of seeds, with its brilliantly coloured flowers. This book, which belongs to you, in one sense is like a seedsman's catalogue. The true delight of gardening is in choosing the seeds, digging, fertilizing and smoothing the garden till it is ready for sowing and planting. Then we look forward to the first green leaves, flowers, and fruits. There is an infinite deal to learn about gardens, and the seedsman's catalogue is only the beginning. This book is the beginning of the voyage of discovery in the world of your own books.
Because we have spoken in the preceding chapters almost wholly of writers and books, we should take care not to place too much emphasis on writing as an occupation. The world owes much to the writers of great books,—happiness, inspiration, enjoyment, wisdom which we may take from them if we will, learning, and at all times, unending entertainment.
But how many other people there are in the world to whom we owe love and gratitude: soldiers, sailors, explorers, inventors, statesmen, law-givers, physicians, discoverers, scientists, preachers, teachers, evangelists, missionaries, fathers, mothers, all the men and women who make our streets, build our houses, bake our bread, bring us food, make our clothes, sell us what we need, look after the finances of the world, manage our railways and run the trains, fly in airships, and of great importance in their occupation, men and women who grow food as farmers. Still, we dearly love good books and great writers.
No one should read all the time, for people are more important than books. Yet it would be a pity for any boy or girl not to read at all. Francis Bacon, the essayist, of whom we learned a very little in the chapter on essays and essayists, says in one of his writings: "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."
Bacon means by the first part of this saying that a man who does not read at all is sometimes empty-minded, while a man who reads well has many thoughts in his mind, good, sweet and profitable. If Bacon were in the world to-day, and noticed, as he would be certain to notice, for Bacon was a most observant man, how much time some people spend in reading, he might have added a sentence saying that continual reading may keep people from thinking. Rightly used, books are an aid in teaching us how to think.
There are many books which have not been mentioned in these pages, some of them famous, many of them delightful, important or amusing. Some of these books you will find for yourselves as time goes on; some you may know already. Perhaps you may have wondered why nothing has been said of this or that book. But it is true that there is always an individual choice in books, as in other things. You will find—and love—your own books, the books which belong to you. To discover one's own books for one's self is a great adventure.
Some of you may be specially interested in French literature; and, presently, you will read the works of the great French dramatist Molière, one of whose characters is the famous Monsieur Jourdain, who had spoken prose all his life without knowing it. Balzac and Flaubert are two other names among a multitude of French writers. The literatures of other countries offer us reading which many people enjoy greatly.
Numbers of fine books are continually being produced by writers in English. English novels especially make good reading. Among writers of a comparatively recent date who have not been mentioned are John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Henry James, an American, Anthony Trollope, William Morris, George Du Maurier, William de Morgan, and many others. Certainly, if you can find time, read the witty, entertaining Irish stories of two ladies, E. OE. Somerville and Martin Ross, especially their first book, Some Experiences of an Irish R. M.
Then there are modern writers, writers of your own day. Remember that a library is an excellent place in which to obtain advice and help in reading, especially in choosing modern books. There are many modern novelists, critics, and dramatists, as well as poets, whose work is well known. Some names are: Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, Quiller-Couch, Max Beerbohm, John Galsworthy, Anthony Hope, W. W. Jacobs, Booth Tarkington, Willa Cather, Norman Douglas, H. M. Tomlinson, Clemence Dane, Virginia Woolf, George Moore, Hugh Walpole, May Sinclair, Mary Webb, E. M. Delafield,, James Stephens, Henry Williamson and J. C. Squire, as well as others whose names you will add to the list when you read their books. Such writers as Katherine Mansfield and W. H. Hudson have left work which belongs to the present day, and may last for generations.
Great books are sometimes difficult to read, but when we conquer a great book we have discovered a new country, and enjoy the reward of the discoverer. It is a matter of choice whether we learn how to read great books that are difficult; but to read well is always a good choice.
We should never forget, however, that one of the principles of good reading is to read books in which we find pleasure. We will grow most successfully in this way along the lines of our own natural tastes and inclinations. So if we prefer history, let us read history; and biography, if this reading gives us most pleasure. In the same way, following each his or her own special preference, we may choose mechanics, invention, exploration, travel, science, architecture, art, music, poetry, essays, criticism, or books which will help us in the study of human nature. Books on the betterment of the world and on social conditions, books about homes and home life, are important.
Some people obtain most benefit from reading a very few books carefully, while others read many books. There are people, often of great value to the world, who are not as much interested in books as they are in action. They prefer travelling to reading of travels; and would choose to build a bridge, or climb a mountain, rather than read history or poetry. The French have a proverb which says, Chacun à son gôut, which means each to his own taste; and this is true in books as it is in other things.
Do you remember the list of books in Chapter twenty-eight, on Reading for What You Want To Be, many of them biographies? Some day, when you have an opportunity, ask permission to look over the books in the working library of some man or woman who is following the occupation with attracts you most. We can learn a great deal from the attentive study of such a library. Presently, you may begin to collect your own library. The best way to do this is slowly, with taste, discrimination and care. There is great enjoyment in buying, one by one, the books you care for most; and so, almost before you know what is happening, you will have a library of your own. Which book would you choose first to buy for your own library? Sometimes, in looking through the library of a friend, we may find the very first book bought by the owner of the library when he was a boy, or when the owner was a girl, as the case may be.
One of the pleasures of reading is to read according to times and seasons: To read books of out-of-doors on winter evenings, as well as books of adventure; to read poetry in summer, when we can spend much time under the sky. But those who love poetry, read it all through the year. We may read essays and biography when we are lonely and long for companionship. Novels are constantly enjoyable; a good novel tells us much about human nature.
One of the most beautiful seasons for reading is at Christmas time. Year by year, we may read the story of the shepherds in Saint Luke, ballads of Christmas, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and Milton's great "Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity". Reading of this character deepens our happiness.
By such means as these we come to recognize good reading, and can test all books by the great books we have read.
INDEX
Abbess Hilda, 185
Abercrombie, Lascelles, 236
Achilles, 86-7
Aeneid, The, 134
Aesop, 90-1
Agamemnon, King, 86
Agrippa, King, 168
Ainger, Canon, 210
Aladdin, 94
Alcinous, 88
"Alexander's Feast", 233
Ali Baba, 94
Alice in Wonderland, 97-9, 101
Amiens, 40
"Ancient Mariner, The", 228-9
Anne of Austria, 60
Anne of Geierstein, 25
Antony and Cleopatra, 44
Antiquary, The, 25-6
Antonio, 35
Aphrodite, 85
Apollo, 86
Apollyon, 144
Aramis, 60-1
Arden, Mary, 42
Argonauts, The, 88
Ariel, 36-7
Around Home, 196
Arthur, King, 94-6
As You Like It, 43
Athos, 60-1
Aunt Polly, 81
Aytoun, W. E., 123
Bagheera, 104
Ballad of the Red Harlaw, 27
Ballads, 65
Baloo, 104
Balzac, Honoré, 251
Barrie, James Matthew, 107, 187
Bates, Mrs. and Miss, 155
"Battle of Otterbourne, The", 112-4, 166
Baucis, 88
Bayly, Harry, 169
Beatrice, 133-5
Beaufort, Duc de, 61
Beaumains, 95
Becke, Louis, 245
Beerbohm, Max, 252
Bell, 245
Bennet, Mr., 155-6
Bennett, Arnold, 252
Beowulf, 185
Berners, Lord, 167
Bernice, Queen, 168
Bible, Authorized Version, 54
Binyon, Laurence, 236
Biographia Literaria, 214
Black Knight, The, 24
Blackmore, Richard Doddridge, 70
Black Panther, The, 104
Blue Beard, 92
Blue Bird, The, 106
Blunden, Edmund, 236
Boldrewood, Rolf, 245
Bones, Billy, 64
Books of Georgian Poetry, 236
Borrow, George, 76-8
Boswell, James, 188-93
Bragelonne, Vicomte de, 60
Brandes, Georg, 214
Bride of Lammermoor, The, 25
Bridges, Robert, 236
British North America Act, 178
Brontë, Anne, 160
Brontë, Branwell, 160
Brontë, Charlotte, 160-1
Brontë, Patrick, 160
Brooke, Rupert, 236
Browne, 245
Browning, Robert, 218, 230, 233-5
Brutus, 46
Burney, Fanny, 218
Burns, Robert, 196
Burton, Sir Richard, 206
Butcher, S. H., 88
Caedmon, 185
Caliban, 36
Cambridge, Ada, 245
Campbell, Roy, 245
Canterbury Tales, The, 169-71, 231
Carleton, Will, 196
Carlyle, Jane Welsh, 218
Carlyle, Thomas, 183
Carman, Bliss, 246
Caroline, Queen, 27
Cary, Rev. H. F., 134
Castlewood, Lady, 149
Cather, Willa, 252
Catriona, 65
Cedric, 24
Cervantes, 136-9, 141, 157, 243
Charles I, 182
Charpentier, Miss, 30
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 44, 169-71, 185, 230-1
Child Rowland, 226-7
Child's Garden of Verse, A, 65
Chingachgook, 80
Christmas Carol, A, 4, 7, 13, 254
Christian, 142-6
Christiana, 146
Christopher Robin, 101
Chronicles, (Froissart), 167-8
Chronicles of Canada, 246
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 195
Cinderella, 92
Clemens, Samuel, 82
Clio, 172
Cobden, Richard, 176
Cochrane, Lord, 72
Cockburn, Lord, 32
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 210, 212-3, 218, 228-9, 230, 233
Collins, 245
Columbus, Christopher, 202
Confederation Act, 178
Connor, Ralph, 246
Conspiracy of Pontiac, The, 183
Cook, James, 203-5
Cooper, James Fenimore, 78-80, 245
Cotes, Mrs., 246
"Cotter's Saturday Night, The", 196
Coverley, Sir Roger de, 212
Cratchit, Bob, 7
Cratchits, The, 17
Crawford, Isabella Valancy, 246
Crawley, Rawdon, 149
Curly, 107
Cuttle, Captain, 8
Dale, Laetitia, 150
Dan, 105
Dana, Richard Henry, 73
Dandie Dinmont, 195
Dane, Clemence, 252
Daniel Deronda, 160
Darling, John, 107
Darling, Michael, 107
Darling, Wendy, 107
d'Artagnan, 59-61
David Balfour, 65
David Copperfield, 3, 6, 7, 9, 13
Davies, W. H., 236
Debits and Credits, 157
Delafield, E. M., 252
de la Mare, Walter, 236-7
de la Roche, Mazo, 246
de Morgan, William, 251
Dhu, Sir Roderick, 118-9
Diana of the Crossways, 150-1
Dickens, Charles, 3-20, 171-2, 187, 195, 218, 254
Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 221, 232
Discovery of the Great West, 183
Divine Comedy, The, 133-6
Djali, 63
Dobbin, Major, 149