PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME
THE first volume of this work covered more than seven centuries of literary history; the second barely covers seventy years. The first was occupied to a considerable degree with the records of important literary movements enlisting numerous and nameless participators -such as the religious drama and ballad poetry-rather than with the individual authorship which almost engrosses the second. The first Idealt with a time when British literature neither extended, nor was fitted to extend, beyond the British borders; the second treats of a period when, though still confined within insular limits, it possessed the power and awaited the opportunity of exerting a deep influence on the world.
The historical treatment of epochs so contrasted cannot be exactly the same. The chief divergence will be found in the slighter notice accorded to inferior writers who would have been welcome, if they had come sooner, and the ample space devoted to those who have made the British literature of the age European, especially its two pre-eminent representatives, Bacon and Shakespeare.
This volume, to the end of the chapters on Shakespeare, is written by the author of vol. i., and thence to the conclusion by the author of vols. iii. and iv. The writers desire to record their obligations for literary assistance to Mr. A. W. Pollard and Mr. A. H. Bullen, and for aid in the department of illustration to Mrs. Christie-Miller, of Britwell Park; to Mrs. Sydney Pawling; to R. R. Holmes, Esq., King's Librarian, Windsor Castle; and to S. Arthur Strong, Esq., Librarian to the Duke of Devonshire.