FROM CELT TO TUDOR***


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      Project Gutenberg has the other three volumes of this work.
          II: From Elizabeth to Anne
                  see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54142
         III: Queen Anne and the Georges
                  see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37226
          IV: The Later Georges to Victoria
                  see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54143





ENGLISH LANDS LETTERS AND KINGS

From Celt to Tudor


      *      *      *      *      *      *

ENGLISH LANDS LETTERS AND KINGS

_By Donald G. Mitchell_

  I. From Celt to Tudor
 II. From Elizabeth to Anne
III. Queen Anne and the Georges
 IV. The Later Georges to Victoria

_Each 1 vol., 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50_

AMERICAN LANDS AND LETTERS

From the Mayflower to Rip Van Winkle

_1 vol., square 12mo, Illustrated, $2.50_

      *      *      *      *      *      *


ENGLISH LANDS LETTERS AND KINGS

From Celt to Tudor

by

DONALD G. MITCHELL

[Illustration]






New York
Charles Scribner’s Sons
MDCCCXCVII

Copyright, 1889, by
Charles Scribner’S Sons

Trow’S
Printing and Bookbinding Company,
New York.




_PREFACE._


This little book is made up from the opening series of a considerable
range of “talks,” with which--during the past few years--I have
undertaken to entertain, and (if it might be) instruct a bevy of friends;
and the interest of a few outsiders who have come to the hearings has
induced me to put the matter in type. I feel somewhat awkwardly in
obtruding upon the public any such panoramic view of British writers, in
these days of specialists--when students devote half a lifetime to the
analysis of the works of a single author, and to the proper study of a
single period.

I have tried, however, to avoid bad mistakes and misleading ones, and
shall reckon my commentary only so far forth good--as it may familiarize
the average reader with the salient characteristics of the writers
brought under notice, and shall put these writers into such a swathing of
historic and geographic enwrapments as shall keep them better in mind.

When I consider the large number of books recently issued on similar
topics, and the scholarly acuteness, and the great range belonging to
so many of them, I am not a little discomforted at thought of my bold
scurry over so wide reach of ground. Indeed, I have the figure before me
now--as I hint an apology--of an old-time country doctor who has ventured
with his saddle-bags and spicy nostrums into competition with a half
score of special practitioners--with their microscopy and their _granules
dosimetriques_; but I think, consolingly, that possibly the old-time
mediciner--if not able to cure, can at the least induce a pleasurable
slumber.

                                                          EDGEWOOD, 1889.




_CONTENTS._


                                                     PAGE
                       CHAPTER I.

    PRELIMINARY,                                        1

    EARLY CENTURIES,                                    5

    CELTIC LITERATURE,                                  7

    BEGINNING OF ENGLISH LEARNING,                      9

    CÆDMON,                                            13

    BEDA,                                              15

    KING ALFRED,                                       17

    CANUTE AND GODIVA,                                 22

    WILLIAM THE NORMAN,                                25

    HAROLD THE SAXON,                                  29

                      CHAPTER II.

    GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH,                              37

    KING ARTHUR LEGENDS,                               39

    EARLY NORMAN KINGS,                                46

    RICHARD CŒUR DE LION,                              50

    TIMES OF KING JOHN,                                53

    MIXED LANGUAGE,                                    56

    SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE,                               59

    EARLY BOOK-MAKING,                                 62

    RELIGIOUS HOUSES,                                  66

    LIFE OF A DAMOISELLE,                              72

                      CHAPTER III.

    ROGER BACON,                                       77

    WILLIAM LANGLANDE,                                 84

    JOHN WYCLIF,                                       90

    CHAUCER,                                           97

                      CHAPTER IV.

    OF GOWER AND FROISSART,                           127

    TWO HENRYS AND TWO POETS,                         132

    HENRY V. AND WAR TIMES,                           141

    JOAN OF ARC AND RICHARD III.,                     146

    CAXTON AND FIRST ENGLISH PRINTING,                149

    OLD PRIVATE LETTERS,                              154

    A BURST OF BALLADRY,                              158

                       CHAPTER V.

    EARLY DAYS OF HENRY VIII.,                        167

    CARDINAL WOLSEY, AND SIR THOMAS MORE,             173

    CRANMER, LATIMER, KNOX, AND OTHERS,               182

    VERSE-WRITING AND PSALMODIES,                     189

    WYATT AND SURREY,                                 193

    A BOY-KING, A QUEEN, AND SCHOOLMASTER,            197

                      CHAPTER VI.

    ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND,                              204

    PERSONALITY OF THE QUEEN,                         207

    BURLEIGH AND OTHERS,                              210

    A GROUP OF GREAT NAMES,                           214

    EDMUND SPENSER,                                   217

    THE FAERY QUEEN,                                  221

    PHILIP SIDNEY,                                    230

    CHAPTER VII.

    JOHN LYLY,                                        245

    FRANCIS BACON,                                    250

    THOMAS HOBBES,                                    261

    GEORGE CHAPMAN,                                   266

    MARLOWE,                                          269

    A TAVERN COTERIE,                                 274

                     CHAPTER VIII.

    GEORGE PEELE,                                     284

    THOMAS DEKKER,                                    287

    MICHAEL DRAYTON,                                  291

    BEN JONSON,                                       295

    SOME PROSE WRITERS,                               303