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                                 ESSAYS

                           LITERARY, CRITICAL
                             AND HISTORICAL


                                   BY
                            THOMAS O’HAGAN,
                              M.A., Ph.D.

                      Author of “Canadian Essays,”
                        “Studies in Poetry,” “In
                         Dreamland,” “Songs of
                            the Settlement,”
                                  etc.


                            AUTHOR’S EDITION

                                TORONTO
                             WILLIAM BRIGGS
                                  1909




                      Copyright, Canada, 1909, by
                            THOMAS O’HAGAN.




                                   TO

                         HIS FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,

                   THE FRENCH CANADIANS AND ACADIANS

                 Who, speaking the language of Bossuet
                    and Lamartine, have added Lustre
                      to our Canadian Citizenship,
                         Virtue to our Canadian
                         Homes, and Joy to our
                          Canadian Firesides,

                       THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,

                         IN SINCERE ADMIRATION,

                             BY THE AUTHOR




                                PREFACE.


Four of the five essays which make up this volume have appeared during
the past few years in the _American Catholic Quarterly Review_ and the
_Champlain Educator_. The author begs to acknowledge particularly his
indebtedness to Dr. S. E. Dawson’s admirable work on Tennyson’s “The
Princess,” in the preparation of his study of that poem. Indeed, without
Dr. Dawson’s fine analysis of the poem the first essay in this volume
could never have been written.

The paper on “The Italian Renaissance and the Popes of Avignon” was
prepared while the writer was sojourning at Louvain University, Belgium,
in the autumn of 1903, and at Grenoble University, France, during the
summer of 1904. It may be well to add that the libraries of both these
ancient and renowned seats of learning are very rich in works relating
to medieval history and literature, and afforded the author unusual
opportunity in the preparation of the essay.

In the writing of the essay on “Poetry and History Teaching Falsehood,”
the author has been motived by a desire to set forth in the clearest
light possible the misrepresentation of Catholic truth which obtains in
much of the history and poetry of our day.

The third essay in the volume, “The Study and Interpretation of
Literature,” is based by the author upon ideals gained in post-graduate
courses pursued in this subject at several of the leading American
universities, as well as upon a practical knowledge in the teaching of
literature obtained in the High Schools of Ontario.

The paper on “The Degradation of Scholarship” has never before appeared
in print. Let the reader, divested of every predilection and bias,
examine it carefully, remembering that the courage to state the truth is
a more valuable asset of character than the gift of bestowing false
praise, though that praise should secure friends.

                                                              T. O’H.
   Toronto, Canada, March, 1909.




                               CONTENTS.


                                                     PAGE

             A STUDY OF TENNYSON’S “PRINCESS”          11

             POETRY AND HISTORY TEACHING               45
               FALSEHOOD

             THE STUDY AND INTERPRETATION OF           65
               LITERATURE

             THE DEGRADATION OF SCHOLARSHIP            83

             THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE AND THE          101
               POPES OF AVIGNON




                         A STUDY OF TENNYSON’S
                               “PRINCESS”




                   A STUDY OF TENNYSON’S “PRINCESS.”


Few poems written within the Victorian era of English literature have
been so singularly underrated and misunderstood as Tennyson’s
“Princess.” At its very birth—as if it had been born under an
unfavorable star—it encountered the adverse breath of criticism; and
even now, after nearly fifty years have rectified many a past error of
judgment in literary matters, this, the first