PREFACE

CONTENTS

OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

INTRODUCTION.

Of the Latin as the source of the Languages of Latin

Europe

The English Language, divided into five epochs

Page

i

3

11

Manners

Manners continued.-Vigour and End of the Barbarous

Ages

39

PART THE FIRST.

FIRST AND SECOND EPOCHS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Literature at the time of the Anglo-Saxons, the Danes,

and during the Middle Ages.-Of the Anglo Saxons

under William the Conqueror-The Britons.-Tacitus

-Erse Poems

Anglo-Saxons and Danes

Page

- 47

THIRD AND FOURTH EPOCHS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Anglo-Norman and Norman-French epochs from William

the Conqueror, and from Henry II. to Henry VIII.—

Anglo-Norman Trouvères

The Anglo-Norman Trouvères continued. -

65

Terrestrial

73

79

Miracles-Mysteries-Satires

Change in Literature-Struggle between the two Lan-

guages

Return, by law, to the National Language

Chaucer-Gower-Barbour

Sentiment of political Liberty-Why different amongst

English and French writers of the 16th and 17th

centuries-Place held by the People in the ancient

Institutions of the two Monarchies

Portrait of Luther by Maimbourg, Bossuet, and Voltaire 179

My former Mis-judgment of Shakspeare-Mistaken Ad-

mirers of the Poet

-

235

Voltaire's Opinion of Shakspeare-Opinion of English

Critics

-

Page

280

- 244

The faults of Shakspeare are the Faults of his Age.—The

Language of Shakspeare and Dante

Mechanism of the English Stage in the sixteenth century 249

Character of Shakspeare's Genius

Shakespeare's Style of Writing has corrupted Taste-

Poets and other Writers contemporary with Shakspeare

The Life of Shakspeare

Shakspeare one of the five or six Great Master Spirits

-

254

PART THE THIRD.

LITERATURE UNDER THE FIRST TWO STUARTS AND DURING

THE COMMONWEALTH.

What England owes to the Stuarts

James I.-Basilikon Doron

Raleigh.-Cowley

Political Writings under Charles I. and Cromwell

The Abbe de Lamennais

Killing no Murder-Locke-Hobbes-Denham - Ha-

rington Harvey Sieyes - Mirabeau -

-

-

Benjamin

Constant-Carrel

353

HISTORICAL VIEW

OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

VOL. I.

B