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List of Illustrations xi

List of Timelines xiii

Acknowledgements xiv

Preface to the First Edition xvii

Preface to Second Edition xviii

Preface to Third Edition xix

Abbreviations xx

Introduction 1

Why literary history? 2Literary status 2What is literature? 3Scope: English, British, English 4Canon, anti-canon, mini-canon 6Priorities 6Who are the major writers? 7Language change 7Is drama literature? 8Qualities, quantities, obligation, allocation 8Texts 9

Further reading 9

Primary texts 9Secondary texts 9

P A R T I

Medieval

1 Old English Literature:to 1100 13

Orientations 13

Britain, England, English 13

Oral origins and conversion 15

Aldhelm, Bede, Cædmon 17

Northumbria and The Dream of the Rood 22

Heroic poetry 24

Christian literature 25

Alfred 27

Beowulf 29

Elegies 32

Battle poetry 33

The harvest of literacy 34

Further reading 35

2 Middle English Literature:1066–1500 36

The new writing 36

Handwriting and printing 36

The impact of French 37

Scribal practice 37

Dialect and language change 38

Literary consciousness 39

New fashions: French and Latin 40

Epic and romance 41

Courtly literature 42

Medieval institutions 44

Authority 45

Lyrics 46

English prose 48

The fourteenth century 48

Spiritual writing 48Julian of Norwich 49

Secular prose 50

Ricardian poetry 51

v

Contents


Piers Plowman 51Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 54John Gower 55

Geoffrey Chaucer 56The Parlement of Fowls 58Troilus and Criseyde 60The Canterbury Tales 61

The fifteenth century 64

Drama 65Mystery plays 65Morality plays 67

Religious lyric 67

Deaths of Arthur 68

The arrival of printing 70

Scottish poetry 71Robert Henryson 72William Dunbar 72Gavin Douglas 73

Further reading 74

P A R T 2

Tudor and Stuart

3 Tudor Literature: 1500–1603 77

Renaissance and Reformation 77

The Renaissance 77Expectations 79Investigations 79England’s place in the world 80

The Reformation 81Sir Thomas More 81The Courtier 83Sir Thomas Wyatt 84The Earl of Surrey 86

Religious prose 87Bible translation 87Instructive prose 89

Drama 90

Elizabethan literature 92

Verse 92Sir Philip Sidney 92Edmund Spenser 97Sir Walter Ralegh 101Elizabethan and Jacobean 103Christopher Marlowe 103

Song 104Thomas Campion 105

Prose 105John Lyly 105Thomas Nashe 106Richard Hooker 106

Further reading 107

4 Shakespeare and the Drama 108

William Shakespeare 108

Shakespeare’s life 108

The plays preserved 111Luck and fame 112

The drama 112The commercial theatre 112Predecessors 114Christopher Marlowe 114The order of the plays 116

Histories 117Richard II 118Henry IV 119Henry V 120

Comedy 121A Midsummer Night’s Dream 122Twelfth Night 125

The poems 126

Tragedy 128Hamlet 129King Lear 130Macbeth 132

Late Romances 133The Tempest 134

Conclusion 136Shakespeare’s achievement 136His supposed point of view 136

Ben Jonson 136The Alchemist 138Volpone 138

Further reading 138

5 Stuart Literature: to 1700 139

The Stuart century 139

Drama to 1642 141Comedy 141Tragedy 142

vi C O N T E N T S


John Donne 143

Prose to 1642 146Sir Francis Bacon 146Lancelot Andrewes 148Robert Burton 148Sir Thomas Browne 148

Poetry to Milton 149Ben Jonson 149Metaphysical poets 150Devotional poets 151Cavalier poets 153

John Milton 154Prose and Paradise Lost 158

The Restoration 162

The Earl of Rochester 165

John Bunyan 166

Samuel Pepys 167

The theatres 167Restoration comedy 168

John Dryden 169Satire 171Prose 174

John Locke 176

Women writers 176

William Congreve 177

Further reading 178

P A R T 3

Augustan and Romantic

6 Augustan Literature: to 1790 181

The eighteenth century 181

The Enlightenment 182Sense and Sensibility 184

Alexander Pope and 18th-century civilization 184

Joseph Addison 184

Jonathan Swift 186

Alexander Pope 189Translation as tradition 191The Rape of the Lock 192Mature verse 194

John Gay 196

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 197

The novel 198

Daniel Defoe 198

Cross-currents 200

Samuel Richardson 200

Henry Fielding 201

Tobias Smollett 203

Laurence Sterne 203

The emergence of Sensibility 205

Thomas Gray 206

Pre-Romantic sensibility: ‘Ossian’ 208

Gothic fiction 210

The Age of Johnson 211

Dr Samuel Johnson 211The Dictionary 213Literary criticism 216

James Boswell 216

Non-fiction 218Edward Gibbon 218Edmund Burke 219

Oliver Goldsmith 220

Frances Burney 221

Richard Brinsley Sheridan 221

Christopher Smart 222

William Cowper 223

Robert Burns 224

Further reading 226

7 The Romantics: 1790–1837 227

The Romantic poets 227

Early Romantics 227William Blake 227

Subjectivity 228

Romanticism and Revolution 229William Wordsworth 230Samuel Taylor Coleridge 234Sir Walter Scott 236

Younger Romantics 237Lord Byron 237Percy Bysshe Shelley 239John Keats 241

Romantic prose 245

Belles lettres 245Charles Lamb 245William Hazlitt 246Thomas De Quincey 246

C O N T E N T S vii


Fiction 247Thomas Love Peacock 247Mary Shelley 247Maria Edgeworth 247Sir Walter Scott 249Jane Austen 250

Towards Victoria 254

Further reading 255

P A R T 4

Victorian Literature to 1880

8 The Age and its Sages 259

The Victorian age 259

Moral history 260

Abundance 263

Why sages? 264

Thomas Carlyle 265

John Stuart Mill 266

John Ruskin 267

John Henry Newman 269

Charles Darwin 271

Matthew Arnold 272

Further reading 272

9 Poetry 273

Victorian Romantic poetry 273

Minor verse 273John Clare 273

Alfred Tennyson 274

Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning 277

Matthew Arnold 278Arthur Hugh Clough 280

Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti 280

Algernon Charles Swinburne 281

Gerard Hopkins 282

Further reading 284

10 Fiction 285

The triumph of the novel 285

Disraeli’s Sybil 286

Two Brontë novels 287Jane Eyre 287Wuthering Heights 289

Elizabeth Gaskell 290

Charles Dickens 290The Pickwick Papers 291David Copperfield 292Bleak House 293Our Mutual Friend 294Great Expectations 295‘The Inimitable’ 295

Wilkie Collins 296

William Makepeace Thackeray 296Vanity Fair 296

Anthony Trollope 299

George Eliot 300Adam Bede 302The Mill on the Floss 302Silas Marner 303Middlemarch 303Daniel Deronda 306

Nonsense prose and verse 306Lewis Carroll 306Edward Lear 307

Further reading 308

11 Late Victorian Literature:1880–1900 309

Differentiation 309

Thomas Hardy and Henry James 309

Aestheticism 312Walter Pater 312

A revival of drama 314

Oscar Wilde 314

George Bernard Shaw 316

Fiction 317

Thomas Hardy 317Tess of the d’Urbervilles 318

Minor fiction 320Samuel Butler 320Robert Louis Stevenson 320George Moore 320

viii C O N T E N T S


Poetry 321

Aestheticism 321A. E. Housman 321Rudyard Kipling 322

Further reading 323

P A R T 5

The Twentieth Century and Beyond

12 Ends and Beginnings:1901–19 327

The new century 327

Fiction 329

Edwardian realists 329Rudyard Kipling 329John Galsworthy 329Arnold Bennett 329H. G. Wells 330

The press and G. K. Chesterton 330

Joseph Conrad 331Heart of Darkness 332Nostromo 333

E. M. Forster 334

Ford Madox Ford 335

Poetry 336

Pre-war verse 336Thomas Hardy, poet 337

War poetry and war poets 338

Further reading 340

13 From Post-War to Post-War:1920–55 341

‘Modernism’: 1914–27 341

D. H. Lawrence 342The Rainbow 344

James Joyce 345Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 345Ulysses 347

Ezra Pound: the London years 349

T. S. Eliot 350The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 351The Waste Land 351Four Quartets 353Eliot’s criticism 354

W. B. Yeats 355

Hugh MacDiarmid and David Jones 357

Virginia Woolf 357To the Lighthouse 359

Katherine Mansfield and Jean Rhys 361

1928 362

Non-modernism: the Twenties and

Thirties 362

Modernism fails to catch on 365

The poetry of the Thirties 366Political camps 366W. H. Auden 366

The novel 369Evelyn Waugh 369Grahame Greene 371Anthony Powell 371George Orwell 372Elizabeth Bowen 374

Fantasy Fiction 374C. S. Lewis 374J. R. R. Tolkien 375

Poetry 376The Second World War 376Dylan Thomas 377

Drama 377Sean O’Casey 378

Further reading 378

14 Beginning Again: 1955–80 379

Drama 381

Samuel Beckett 381

John Osborne 384

Harold Pinter 385

Established protest 386

Novels galore 387

William Golding 388

Muriel Spark 389

Iris Murdoch 391

Other writers 391

C O N T E N T S ix


Poetry 393

Philip Larkin 395

Ted Hughes 397

Geoffrey Hill 397

Tony Harrison 397

Seamus Heaney 398

Further reading 400

15 Contemporaries 401

Can a literary medium be global? 401

Import-export 402

The touch of history 403

All literature is contemporary 404

The dominance of fiction 404

Drama and theatre 404

Theatre and identity 406

Alan Bennett 406

Stage politics 406

Poetry 407

Contemporary poetry 407

Greatness? 407

Paul Muldoon 408

Popular contemporaries 409

The empire of fiction 409

Fiction and the university 410

Malcolm Bradbury, David Lodge, AnthonyBurgess 410

Metropolitan novelists 411

Ian McEwan 411

Martin Amis 412Julian Barnes 412

Post-modernism? 414

Some novelists 414A. S. Byatt 415Angela Carter 415Kazuo Ishiguro 415Graham Swift 417J. G. Ballard 417Penelope Fitzgerald 418Beryl Bainbridge 419Michael Frayn 420Pat Barker 421

Looking back 421Salman Rushdie 422Penelope Lively 423

‘Post-colonial’? 423V. S. Naipaul 424

‘Multi-culturalism’ 424

Genre 427

Literary biography 427

Fictionalized biography 428

Historical fiction 429Patrick O’Brian 429

Detective fiction 430

Spy fiction 430John Le Carré 430

Genre and literary standards 431

Fiction and fantasy 431Philip Pullman 432J. K. Rowling 432

Further reading 434

Index 435

x C O N T E N T S


The chief glory of every people arises from its authours: whether Ishall add any thing by my own writings to the reputation of Englishliterature, must be left to time.

Dr Johnson, Preface to the Dictionary

England has a rich literature with a long history. This attempt to tell its story, fromits beginnings to the present day, is written to be read as a whole. Issues arising fromthe discussion of one author, genre or period often arise elsewhere. So the book willgive more to a reader who reads it through, although it can be read in parts, and itsapparatus and index allow it to be consulted for reference.

To be read as a whole, a book must be a reasonable companion; it should notdiscuss everything. There are said to be ‘nine and twenty ways of reciting tribal lays’,and there is more than one way of writing a history of English literature. ThisIntroduction says what kind of a history this is and what it is not, where it beginsand ends, which writers fall within its scope and which do not; and what ‘English’and ‘literature’ are taken to mean.

‘Literature’ can mean writing in general, but here the term has a qualitative impli-cation. Without such an implication, and without a belief that some qualities ofliterature are best appreciated when it is seen roughly in the order in which itappeared, there would be no point in literary history. This effort to present the mostmemorable English writing in historical sequence is offered as an aid to publicunderstanding. It is assumed that the readers of this book like literature, and thatthey will want chiefly to know about works such as Shakespeare’s King Lear andSwift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the major poems of Chaucer and of Milton, Wordsworthand T. S. Eliot, and the novels of Austen and Dickens. The major earns more spacethan the minor in these pages; minor literature may be discussed, but writings whosehistoric importance is not of a literary kind will not be. Thus, to take an extremecase, Alice in Wonderland is briefly discussed and quoted, whereas On The Origin ofSpecies and The Descent of Man are mentioned for their effect on writers. In a historyof literature Charles Dodgson (whose pen name was Lewis Carroll) may earn morespace than Charles Darwin.

ContentsWhy literary history? 2Literary status 2What is literature? 3Scope: English, British,

English 4Canon, anti-canon,

mini-canon 6Priorities 6Who are the major writers? 7Language change 7Is drama literature? 8Qualities, quantities,

obligation, allocation 8Texts 9

Further reading 9Primary texts 9Secondary texts 9

Introduction

1


Why literary history?Literary history can be useful and the need for it becomes greater. English teachersteach single works, scholars work in small fields. Even university teachers ofEnglish may know little of classical, biblical or European literature, or of fields ofEnglish literature remote from those which they themselves cultivate. Larger narra-tives, longer perspectives, are lost. Students of English usually leave school know-ing a few isolated texts. They would not like to be asked to place an unread writerin a context or in a century. ‘How many thousands never heard the name / OfSidney or of Spenser, or their books!’, wrote Samuel Daniel, a poet a little youngerthan they. The students of English literature now number hundreds of thousands.They read some Shakespeare and have heard of Sir Philip Sidney and EdmundSpenser, though not of Samuel Daniel. We know that Shakespeare read Sidney andSpenser, since he made use of their work in his King Lear. Even a little literaryhistory can help.

I once read an essay in a final examination paper for a degree in English litera-ture which began ‘Charles Dickens was an 18th-century novelist’. The differencebetween the eighteen-hundreds and the 18th century is usually realized beforeuniversity. A slip of the pen – a confusion of names, not of periods? But someonewho, after years of study, thought of the author of A Tale of Two Cities as havinglived before the French Revolution might not be reliable on other matters. A readerof this book will follow chronological sequence, and some (mostly literary)history; will see what English literature consists of; and how this author or textmight relate to that, time-wise or otherwise. A reading of the book – and it is writ-ten to be read through – offers a series of views on the relations between writingsand their times, of one literary work to another, and of the present to the past.Apart from the interest of discovery and comparison, literary history also offersangles on the present.

Literary statusThe historian of a literature tries to do justice to its great things, knowing that liter-ary status is earned and can fade. Storytelling and verse go back a long way: Beowulfshows the ancestors of the English as valuing poetry which related things both sothond sarlic, true and sad; and as passing appreciative comments on poetic skill. Later,King Alfred decided to put key books from Latin, the language of clerks, intoEnglish, making his people’s tongue the earliest European vernacular to survive inany quantity. The first assertion of the dignity of writing in a modern vernacularrather than in Latin was made in about 1307 by the Italian poet Dante. Sidney madethe claim for English in his Defence of Poetry, 1579, a response to a Puritan attack ontheatre. Parliament kept the public theatres closed from 1642 to 1660, when thecourt returned from France. Literature became central to English civilization: seeSamuel Johnson’s remark at the head of this Introduction. From 1800, Romanticpoets made high claims for the value of poetry, and Victorians saw English literatureas equal to that of Greece or Rome. ‘In the importance and noise of tomorrow’, asone poet wrote on hearing of the death of another, ‘the death of the poet [is] keptfrom his poems’: literature lives on. The category of literature springs from aninstinctive recognition that words can be put together more or less memorably,more or less well. Merit, what deserves to survive, is decided by processes in which

2 I N T R O D U C T I O N


the reading public eventually has the last word. Good writing, of whatever date,remains contemporary.

‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ is a saying which recognizes that words havethe power to change minds. Rulers often mistrust writers. The Greek philosopherPlato (c.429–347BC), a superb writer, in one of his books banned writers from theideal Republic, since they attach emotions to inferior things, and did not clear themind for truth. Elizabeth I’s government banned religion from the stage. ThePuritans kept the theatres closed for related reasons. John Milton, famed for hisliberal principles, accepted that bad books should be burned and their authors muti-lated. He later acted as a censor for Cromwell. More oblique acknowledgement ofthe status of literature came after 1968, when some critics in Paris claimed that crit-ics were more important than writers. At the same time, some Californian studentswere encouraged to reject ‘the Canon’ on the grounds that too many of the authorsof the best books were dead white European men.

What is literature?What qualifies a piece of writing as literature? There is no agreed answer to thisquestion, but a working definition is put forward in the next paragraph. Dr Johnsonthought that if a work was read after a hundred years, it had stood the test of time.Homer’s works are still fresh after twenty-seven centuries. Our access to them isadmittedly helped by favourable social, cultural and academic factors, yet a workmust have exceptional merit to outlive the context in which it appeared, howeverclose that relationship once was. The contexts supplied by scholars – literary, biog-raphical and historical (not to mention theoretical) – differ from each other. A liter-ary text is more vital, more real, takes us closer to the time of its composition, thanany scholar’s reconstruction of a context.

This is a history of a literature, not an introduction to literary studies, nor ahistory of literary thought. It adopts as a simple rule this working definition: that themerit of a piece of writing lies in its combination of literary art and human interest.A work of high art which lacks human interest dies. For its human interest to last –and interests change – the language of a work has to have memorable life, and itsform has to please. Admittedly, these qualities of language and form are easier torecognize than to define. The ability to recognize it comes from reading widely, andusing comparison and historical imagination. No further definition of literature isattempted. In practice, though literary canons have been attacked, knocked downand rebuilt using some of the same components, they are not discarded. For the clas-sics are the permanently vital parts of our literature.

In literary and cultural investigations, the question of literary quality can be post-poned but not avoided. ‘Did you like it?’ and ‘Is it any good?’ are different questions.There are orders of magnitude, hard though it may be to agree on cases. It would beunfair, for example, to the quality of a writer such as Frances (‘Fanny’) Burney orMrs Gaskell or Penelope Fitzgerald to pretend that the work of Agatha Christie orEnid Blyton had the same merit. It would be hard to maintain that the verse of MrsFelicia Hemans was as good as the poetry of Christina Rossetti. Comparison isodious, but mediocrity is tedious. Without comparison, the outstanding writer, theJulian of Norwich, the Jane Austen, might not get the billing, or the readers, theydeserve. Sir Walter Scott, Count Leo Tolstoy and Sir Salman Rushdie are all histori-cal novelists, but they are not all of equal merit.

I N T R O D U C T I O N 3


Scope: English, British, EnglishA book which means to do something definite defines its scope. The subject-matter of this book is defined by when it was written, where it was written, and bywhom. The period extends from the point at which writing in English begins,before the year 680, to the present. The first extant poet in English was notGeoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400, but Cædmon, who died before 700. A one-volume history of 1340 years is not a full survey but a series of projections, clari-fying certain things while distorting others. Authors have to be selected and theirchief works chosen. If the discussion is to get beyond critical preliminaries,authors as great as Jonathan Swift may be represented by a single book. Half ofShakespeare’s plays go undiscussed here, though the range of his work is sampled.Readers who use this History as a textbook (it aspires to be more than a textbook)should remember that it is selective.

‘English literature’ can refer to writing by English writers, or to writing in English.This book is about the first; the second is too much for one volume, even if anauthor could be found equal to the task. ‘English writers’ is taken nationally. Some,not many, British writers who contributed notably to English literature, or whochanged it, are also included. Two pages are devoted to two Americans who whenthey lived in England influenced English literature.

Since well before the death of one of these, Henry James, in 1916, Americans haveseen their writers as part of American, not of English, literature. Some Americanswill agree with Johnson that ‘the chief glory of every people arises from its authours’;a greater number may feel the honourable bigotry known as patriotism. Such feel-ings have a real basis: Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were not English. Otherex-colonies followed suit, and each has its own literary history. So it happens thatnaturalized British subjects such as Joseph Conrad and T. S. Eliot are in histories ofEnglish literature, but that non-Brits are not. (‘British’ is defined below.) Fifty yearsago the nationality of a Henry James or of a James Joyce was regarded – in a univer-sity English course – as an unimportant consideration. Still today, at CambridgeUniversity, an English paper called ‘The English Moralists’ begins with Plato. But abook with a historical intention must take account of historical developments, suchas the right of nations to political self-determination, and the consequences of theirindependence.

Turning from principle to practice, a scholarly history of all the literatures inEnglish would be a multi-authored work of reference. Only one single-volumesingle-authored history of world literature (not merely of literature in English) isknown to me: Ford Madox Ford’s The March of Literature: From Confucius toModern Times (1938). This is an engaging view from above, written by ‘an old manmad about writing’, an amateur of genius. The world of literature is now, for goodand ill, more professional. Scholars do not look out from Mount Olympus but workin the fields below.

An entity known as ‘British Literature’ is often studied, but only outside Britain.A history of British, as distinct from English, literature would seem a theoreticalpossibility. Yet no Briton has written one: it would be resented in Wales, disputed inScotland and laughed out of court in Ireland, a country in which Shakespeare doesnot have the standing he has in England. In a history of British literature, writersimportant in the literature of Wales, Scotland and Ireland, such as Lady CharlotteGuest, Dylan Thomas, Robert Fergusson, John Galt, Charles Lever and James



Clarence Mangan, would be shouldered out by English worthies, not to mention thenative literature of Saunders Lewis, Sorley Maclean and a great many writers in IrishGaelic. Only one of the above-mentioned writers gets a mention in this book. Therehas been a New Penguin Book of English Verse (2000), an anthology of poems in ‘thelanguage common to these islands’. But a comprehensive history, from medievaltimes onward, of the poetry, fiction and drama of four countries would not work.The historical relationship between England, Britain, Ireland and the UnitedKingdom is not well understood even in the United Kingdom. Outside it, the differ-ence between England and Britain is generally ignored. As an Englishman whotaught in Scottish universities for 33 years, I found that many Scots do not wantBurns or Scott to appear in a history of English Literature.

So this book addresses literature written in English by the English. It also consid-ers writers who lived much in England, such as James ‘Rule Britannia’ Thompson,Oliver Goldsmith, R. L. Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, J. M. Barrie, G. B. Shaw and MurielSpark. Also included are a few who lived mostly out of England but who contributedin a big way to the English literary tradition, or had a major effect on it, most notablyWalter Scott, whose historical fiction changed the English novel. These borderlinecases include Swift, Maria Edgeworth, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.Generally, however, writing by non-Brits is (again with regret) excluded, for reasonsof focus, coherence and space, from the main text.

Britain is a geographical term. The largest of the British Isles was called Greatbecause it was larger than Brittany, the western peninsula of Gaul. Great Britainbecame a political entity from 1603 onwards. Geographically, Britain does notinclude Ireland, though she interfered with its politics for centuries. Constitutionally,Ireland was part of a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to1922. Irish writers, unless born in Northern Ireland, have not been British subjectssince 1922. Scotland, having shared a crown with England since 1603, became partof the United Kingdom of Great Britain by the Union of 1707. Wales has been ruledby England since the Middle Ages. An effect of this complex history is that the inhab-itants of all these countries are often seen as British – especially outside the UnitedKingdom. ‘British’ comes to mind easily, if sometimes erroneously, because ‘UnitedKingdom’ is a name without an adjectival form: ‘United Kingdomish’ has nevercaught on. Irish writers thus vaguely ‘British’ (and thus part of English literature)include Congreve, Swift, Berkeley, Sterne, Goldsmith, Burke, Edgeworth, Shaw, Wildeand Yeats, Irish-English persons who lived in England for all or part of their lives.Many Irishmen have been UK subjects, James Joyce, for example, who kept up hisBritish passport until the day he died. Samuel Beckett, asked by a French journalist ifhe was English, replied ‘Au contraire’. Born near Dublin in 1906, when Ireland wasruled from Westminster, Beckett was thus a citizen of the United Kingdom of GreatBritain and Ireland. As his influence revolutionized English drama, he is in. So is theman who has long been the most popular living poet in English, Seamus Heaney,born in Northern Ireland, and educated at Queen’s University, Belfast, though hispassport is now green. Geographical facts and the curious vagaries of history affectthe eligibility of writers to be considered in this book.

A literary history is about writing and writers. What is read in England hasrecently become more international, but a history of English Literature should notfor this reason change its policy at the last minute. The talented Indian novelistVikram Seth is much appreciated in England, and the titles of his novels appear in amarginal box in the final chapter of this book. If having an English readership is a



reason for being discussed, it is a reason which would apply to William Faulkner,Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Patrick White, Saul Bellow, Wole Soyinka,Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, V. S. Naipaul and J. M. Coetzee, to mention onlyNobel laureates who write in English but are not English.

Scope is a problem of principle, but affected by history. The practical problem ofa history such as this is space. Few authors can be given any fullness of attention, andfewer books, although the major works of major authors should find mention.Literary merit has been followed, in defiance of partisanship.

Canon, anti-canon, mini-canonA literary canon is a selection from those works which have become classics. The firstwriter in English to refer to other writers by name is Geoffrey Chaucer (d.1400).Fifteenth-century poets in England, and in Scotland, took Chaucer as their ancestor,a poetic tradition accepted by Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Milton andtheir successors. The tradition widened at the Renaissance to embrace drama, andprose; it then branched out further, changing shape every generation or so. When,for instance, 18th-century scholars looked into English literary history they found amedieval phase far longer and richer than had been suspected. In the 19th century,the novel became stronger than drama.

Approaches to the study of English diverged after 1968, and university English hashad to fight off ideology, with some success, and premature research specialization,with less success. ‘English’ had long included other writing in English: American first,then that of other colonies. Neglected work by women writers has been uncovered.Disavowing literary pretensions, Cultural Studies addressed writing of sociologicalinterest, magazine stories, advertising, the unwritten ‘texts’ of film and television.Special-interest courses were offered for sectional interests – social, sexual or racial.The question ‘What’s in this for me?’ was asked. The hierarchy of literary genres orkinds was challenged: poetry and drama had long been joined by fiction, then camechildren’s books, travel writing, and so on. Yet the literary category cannot be infi-nitely extended – if new books come in, others must go. Two questions about a bookhave to be answered: is it well written, and does it have wide human interest? Attackson the canon have brought some changes in content and detail, but what is studiedat school, college and university keeps familiar names at its core. Thirty years ago,those who disputed the existence or propriety of a literary canon, if they needed some‘literature’ to illustrate their ideas, used Shakespeare. In non-historical degree courses,Shakespeare now is the canon, the only prescribed author before 1800. Chaucer,Milton, Pope, Fielding and other pre-Romantic writers rotate through the syllabus ofsixth-form examinations, sometimes with Aphra Behn. Contemporary authorschange more quickly and do not always return.

In this situation, it becomes all the more true that students need to place authorsin an intelligible order and to get a feel for how they relate to literary and non-liter-ary history. This book, being a history of 1340 years of English literature, concernsitself with what has living literary merit, whether contemporary or medieval.

PrioritiesWhile taking things, as far as it can, chronologically, the priority of a history of liter-ature is more literary than historical. Shakespeare ends a sonnet ‘So long as men can



breathe and eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.’ The beliefthat literature outlives the circumstances of its origin, illuminating as these can be,guides the selection of writers and works. Ben Jonson claimed of Shakespeare thathe was ‘not of an age, but for all time’. This is at odds with historicizing approacheswhich return a text to a reconstructed context. Beliefs and priorities apart, not manyof the 230,000 words in this book can be devoted to the contexts of thirteencenturies. Essentials are indicated briefly, and placed in an intelligible sequence.Critical debate may earn a mention, but a foundation history must also sometimessketch the story of a novel. Another priority has been that literary texts should bequoted, as far as permission fees permit. But the prime consideration has been thatthe works chiefly discussed and illustrated will be the greater works which havedelighted or challenged generations of readers and have made a difference to theirthinking, their imaginations or their lives.

Who are the major writers?The history of taste shows that few names are oblivion-proof. In Western literatureonly those of Homer, Dante and Shakespeare are undisputed, and the first two werelong lost to view. Voltaire, King George III, Leo Tolstoy, G. B. Shaw and LudwigWittgenstein thought Shakespeare overrated; they were not wholly English. Yet eversince the theatres reopened in 1660, he has had audiences, readers and defenders. Socontinuous a welcome has not been given to other English writers, except Chaucer.This is not because it is more fun to go to the theatre than to read a book, butbecause human taste is inconstant; luck is also a factor. William Blake was unappre-ciated; Gerard Hopkins was unpublished; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight wasunread for centuries until printed in 1839. Fame also fades: who now reads AbrahamCowley, the most esteemed poet of the 17th century, or Sir Charles Grandison, themost admired novel of the 18th? The mountain range of poetry from Chaucer toMilton to Wordsworth has not been eroded by time or distance, though a forest offiction has grown up in the foreground. Prose reputations last less well: the historyof fictional and non-fictional prose shows whole kinds rising and falling. Thesermon was powerful and popular from the Middle Ages until the 19th century. Inthe 18th century the essay became popular but has faded. The romance lost groundto the novel, and the novel was found worthy of study; romance has now revived. Asfor non-fiction, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded in 1950 to the philoso-pher Bertrand Russell and in 1953 to Winston Churchill as historian. Non-fictionalwriting then drifted out of the focus of professional students of literature. A gener-ation ago, English literary biography suddenly became very popular. It has lastedbetter than a French theory of the death of the author.

So genres rise and fall, but outstanding examples of a genre now obsolete cansurvive, as do Chaucer’s dream visions, Addison’s best essays and Richardson’s epis-tolary novels. Verse drama is rarely attempted now, but we read Shakespeare.

Language changeAs literature is written language, the linguistic medium always matters. There werefour centuries of English writing before the Norman Conquest. Dethroned, Englishwas still written. It re-emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, gaining paritywith French and Latin in Geoffrey Chaucer’s day. With the 16th-century



Reformation, and the new nation-state, English drew ahead of Latin for mostpurposes, and literature became nationalist. The English poet John Milton wroteverse in Latin, Greek and Italian, but held that God revealed Himself ‘as is hismanner, first to his Englishmen’ – God’s chosen people.

Yet when he wrote the governmental justification of the execution of King CharlesI, Milton revealed himself to educated Europe in Latin. Dr Johnson wrote verse inLatin as well as in English. In 1788, four years after Johnson’s death, English wasspoken in Australia. Educated subjects of Queen Victoria read classical and Europeanlanguages, and those who ran her empire spoke other languages too. English becamethe world’s business language in the 20th century, and though the English are oftenmonoglot, educated foreigners learn English, and often read English literature. Whenthe President of China visited England in 2011, he asked to visit Shakespeare’s birth-place.

Is drama literature?Drama has been a fundamental category of Western literature since the 5th centuryBC, but the question is not stupid. Words are a part of drama, but so are bodies,moves, gestures, stage, staging and so on. In some plays, words play a small part. Notall theatre is drama. Even in what is called text-led drama, a line may have no obvi-ously literary quality. King Lear says in his last scene: ‘Pray you undo this button.’ Therequest prompts an action, and Lear says ‘Thank you, sir.’ Eight words require theperformance of several physical actions. The words are right, but gain their powerfrom the immediate situation, the staged actions that go with them, and from theirplace in the play as a whole. So drama is only partly literary, a point easily overlookedby those who read no plays other than those of Shakespeare, a poetic dramatist.

Only the literary part of drama appears here. It diminishes, for the literarycomponent in English drama declines after Shakespeare. The only 18th-centuryplays read today are in prose; they have plot and wit. In the 19th century, theatre wasentertainment, and poetic drama was altogether too poetic. The English take pridein Shakespeare and pleasure in the stage, yet after 1660 the best drama in the Englishtongue is by Irishmen: Congreve, Goldsmith, Sheridan, Shaw, Wilde, Beckett.

Qualities, quantities, obligation, allocation‘The best is the enemy of the good’, said Voltaire. As the quantity of literatureincreases with population and with cheaper printing, the question of quality becomespressing. Literary history, however scholarly, deals largely in accepted valuations.Another remark of Voltaire, that ancient history is no more than an accepted fiction,applies also to literary history, though less so in its later stages. All histories of Anglo-Saxon literature agree that the poetry is better than the prose, and discuss much thesame poems. Later periods also have some traditional arrangements; Restorationcomedy is more discussed than Restoration tragedy. Such agreements should be chal-lenged, corrected and supplemented, but cannot be silently disregarded.

In this sense, literary history is critical-consensual, deriving from what T. S. Eliotcalled ‘the common pursuit of true judgement’. A literary historian who thought thatsuch figures as Spenser, Dryden, Walter Scott or Eliot (George or T. S.), thoughhistorically important, were overrated could not omit them: the scope for personalopinion is limited.



The priorities of a history may be deduced from its allocation of space. Yet spacehas also to be given to the historically symptomatic. Thus, Thomas Gray’s Elegy writ-ten in a Country Churchyard (1750) is treated at length since it shows a century turn-ing from the general to the personal. This does not mean that the Elegy is worthmore than the whole of Old English prose or of Jacobean drama, which are summar-ily treated, or than travel writing, which is not treated at all. Much space is given toChaucer and Milton, poets whose greatness is historical as well as personal. Wherethere is no agreement (as about Blake’s later poetry), or where a personal view isoffered, this is made clear.

In a History, the order in which authors and works are discussed is chrono-logical. But comparisons can be fruitful and in this History they are often offered –sometimes on pages remote from the original discussion. Readers will, I hope, takeadvantage of the much fuller Index which I have compiled for this History's thirdedition.

Texts

The best available texts are followed. These may not be the last text approved by theauthor. Line references are not given, for editions differ considerably. Some titles,such as Shake-speares Sonnets, and Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe, keep their original forms;and some texts are unmodernized. But most are modernized in spelling and repunc-tuated by their editors. Variety in edited texts is unavoidable, for well-edited texts canbe edited on principles which differ widely. This inconsistency is a good thing, andshould be embraced as positively instructive.

n Further reading

Primary texts

Blackwell’s Anthologies of Verse.

Longman’s Annotated Anthologies of Verse.

Penguin English Poets, and Penguin Classics as a whole.

Oxford Books of Verse.

Oxford, Cambridge, and Arden editions of Shakespeare.

Oxford University Press’s World’s Classics.

Secondary texts

Birch, Dinah (ed.), The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 7th edn (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2009). The standard work of reference.

Jeffares, A. N. (general ed.), The Macmillan History of English Literature (1982–85) coversEnglish literature in eight volumes. Other volumes cover Scottish, Anglo-Irish, American andother literatures.

Rogers, P. (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1987; paperback, 1990). Well designed; each chapter is by an expertscholar.



The Cambridge Companions to Literature (1986– ). Uneven, but most can be recommended.Each Companion has specially written essays by leading scholars on several later periods andauthors from Old English literature onwards.

The Longman Literature in English Series (1984– ). General editors, David Carroll andMichael Wheeler; 35 volumes to date. Comprehensive literary history.

The Oxford English Literary History (2002– ). General editor, Jonathan Bate. Most of thevolumes so far published can be recommended.



AAchebe, Chinua (1930– ) 423, 425Ackroyd, Peter (1949– ) 381, 411,

428‘Adam lay y-bounden’ 67Addison, Joseph (1672–1719) 7, 182,

183, 184–6, 206, 208, 214Advent Lyrics 26Ælfric (c.955–c.1020) 19, 26, 27, 29,

34, 88aestheticism 242, 280, 312–14, 321–8Alamanni, Luigi (1495–1556) 84, 85,

86Aldhelm (c.640–709) 13, 17, 20Aldington, Richard (1895–1962)

339, 343, 349, 363, 365Alfred (d.899), King of Wessex

(871–99) 2, 4, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20,22, 23, 26, 27–9, 34, 37, 40, 81,401

Ali, Monica (1967– ) 405allegory 46, 49 53, 92, 99, 166, 167,

374–5alliterative verse 22, 42Alliterative Morte 68–9Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury

(d.1012) 35‘Alysoun’ 45–6Amis, Kingsley (1922–1993) 373,

379, 388, 389, 392–3, 395, 408,410

Amis, Martin (1949– ) 411, 412, 425Ancrene Riwle (Ancrene Wisse) 39, 48Andreas 25, 26Andrewes, Lancelot, Bishop of

Winchester (1555–1628) 91,146, 147–8

‘Anglo-Saxon’ 15Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The 15, 19,

27, 29, 37

Angles/Angels 24Areopagus 92, 158Ariosto, Ludovico (1474–1535) 78,

91, 98, 99Aristotle (384–322 BC) 45, 98, 99,

106, 119, 128, 129, 168, 174, 191,382

Armitage, Simon (1963– ) 397, 409Arnold, Matthew (1822–1888) 13,

95, 191, 216, 219, 230, 235, 261,262, 264, 271, 272, 278–9, 288,301, 307, 313, 354, 368

Arthurian writings 36, 41, 42–3, 51,54, 68, 69, 70, 89, 98, 275, 357,362, 376, 432, 433

Ascension 26Ascham, Roger (c.1515–1568) 80, 89,

97Astell, Mary (1666–1731) 176, 197Aubrey, John (1626–1697) 110, 174,

175Auchinleck manuscript (c.1330) 43Auden, W.H. (1907–1973) 14, 274,

355, 356, 357, 363, 365, 366–8,369, 373, 376, 378, 379, 380, 395,396, 397, 407, 408

Augustanism 164, 172, 181, 184, 218,245

Augustine of Hippo, St (354–430) 18,27, 28, 44, 45, 46, 50, 62, 87, 199

Austen, Jane (1775–1817) 1, 3, 44,93, 163, 184, 201, 222, 224, 227,238, 248, 250–3, 263, 264, 288,290, 296, 297, 300, 346, 361, 404,421

Emma 252, 413Mansfield Park 250, 252Northanger Abbey 250–1Persuasion 250, 251–3Pride and Prejudice 251

Authority in medieval literature 45autobiography 127, 162, 166, 175,

246, 266, 268, 270, 276, 287, 295,299, 302, 303, 373, 387, 417

Ayckbourn, Alan (1939– ) 381, 386,406, 420

BBacon, Sir Francis (1561–1626) 79,

103, 146–8Bainbridge, Beryl (1932–2010)

419–20Ballard, J.G. (1930–2000) 417Barbour, John (c.1325–1395) 42, 72Barker, Pat (1943– ) 421Barnes, Julian (1946– ) 401, 402,

411, 412–14, 418, 419, 420Barnes, Rev. William (1801–1886)

261, 338Barrie, J.M. (1860–1937) 5, 311, 328,

329, 377, 378Battle of Brunanburh 19, 32, 33Battle of Maldon 19, 33, 34Baxter, Richard (1615–1691) 167,

174Beardsley, Aubrey (1872–1898) 312,

369Beaumont, Sir Francis (1584–1616)

141, 142Beckett, Samuel (1906–1989) 5, 8,

342, 363, 365, 373, 378–84, 385Beckford, William (1759–1844) 204,

211Bede, St (676–735) 13, 14, 15, 16–17,

19, 20–1, 24, 26, 27, 88Beerbohm, Max (1872–1956) 314,

316, 335Behn, Aphra (1640–1689) 6, 168,

169, 174, 176, 177Benedictine Revival 22, 29, 34

435

Index


Bennett, Alan (1934– ) 383, 386,402, 406

Bennett, Arnold (1867–1931) 327,328, 329, 330, 331, 335, 358, 392,414

Benoît de Sainte-Maure 42Bentham, Jeremy (1748–1832) 235,

241, 266, 268Beowulf 2, 18, 19, 24, 26, 28, 41–2,

88, 277, 375, 398, 402, 409Berkeley, Bishop (1685–1753) 5, 183,

211, 212, 234Bernart de Ventadorn (fl.c.1150–80)

40, 47Betjeman, John (1906–1984) 376,

380, 394, 395, 396, 397Bible translations 18, 25, 38, 44, 50,

83, 91King James Version 87–9

biography 7, 110, 175, 310, 348, 358,361, 402, 404, 410, 418, 419,427–8

Blair, Eric see Orwell, GeorgeBlair, Robert (1699–1746) 206Blake, William (1757–1827) 7, 9, 13,

208, 227–8, 230, 282, 355, 362,404

Bloomsbury Group 354, 357–8, 364,408, 432, 433

Blunden, Edmund (1896–1974) 339,343

Boethius (c.480–524) 18, 19, 27, 28,48, 60, 91, 101

Book of Common Prayer 35, 88, 174Book of the Order of Chivalry 71Bond, Edward (1934– ) 405Borges, Jorge Luis (1899–1986) 402Boswell, James (1740–1795) 111,

211–12, 216–18, 220, 221, 427Boucicault, Dion (1829–1890) 261,

316Bowen, Elizabeth (1899–1973) 343,

365, 373, 374, 375Bradbury, Malcolm (1932–2000)

381, 388, 410Bradstreet, Anne, Mrs (c.1612–1672)

176Brecht, Bertold (1898–1956) 367,

378, 372, 386, 405Brenton, Howard (1942– ) 405Britain a geographical term 5Brittain, Vera (1893–1970) 339

Brontë sisters 229, 246, 261, 285,288, 289, 381

Brontë, Anne (1820–1849) 261, 289Brontë, Charlotte (1816–1855) 261,

262, 362, 427Jane Eyre 287–8

Brontë, Emily (1818–1848) 261, 263,289, 390

Wuthering Heights 261, 289–90,296

Brooke, Rupert (1887–1915) 312,328, 335, 336, 339, 343

Brookner, Anita (1928– ) 419Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–1682)

146, 147, 148–9Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

(1806–1861) 261, 262, 277Browning, Robert (1812–1889)

254–5, 261, 263, 264, 274, 277–8,279, 383, 311, 321, 330, 338, 356,426

Brunanburh, Battle of 19, 33Bunting, Basil (1900–1985) 357, 380Bunyan, John (1628–1688) 53, 157,

163, 166–7, 169, 171, 174, 178,182

Burbage, James (c.1530–1597) 112Burgess, Anthony (1917–1994) 380,

388, 407, 410–11Burke, Edmund (1729–1797) 5, 182,

209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 217, 218,219, 221, 238, 266

Burney, Fanny (1752–1840) 3, 200,204, 211, 212, 220, 221, 250, 251

Burns, Robert (1759–1796) 5, 208,224–6, 257

Burton, Robert (1577–1640) 146,147, 148, 203

Butler, Samuel (1613–1680) 164, 171Butler, Samuel (1835–1902) 320Butts, Mary (1890–1937) 362Byatt, A.S. (1936– ) 392, 422, 415,

418, 433Byrhtferth of Ramsey (late 10th

century) 34Byron, George Gordon (1788–1824)

98, 101, 228, 233, 237–9, 240, 241,244, 246, 247, 254, 268, 290, 291,302, 314, 321, 362, 404

CCædmon (fl.670) 4, 15, 17, 18, 20,

21–2, 24, 25, 17, 409

Camden, William (1551–1623) 137Campion, Thomas (1567–1620) 103,

105Carew, Thomas (1594–1640) 141,

150, 151Carey, Peter (1943– ) 392, 425Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1881) 229,

235, 254, 255, 261, 262, 263, 264,265–6, 267, 285, 287, 316

Carroll, Lewis (Rev. CharlesLutwidge Dodgson)(1832–1898) 1, 262, 263, 264,306–7, 432

Carter, Angela (1940–1992) 381,411, 415

Castiglione, Baldassare (1478–1529)83–4, 91

Castle of Perseverance, The 67Caxton, William (?1422–1491) 55,

64, 69, 70Chanson de Roland 41, 61Charles I (b.1600, King 1625–49) 8,

95, 134, 141, 146, 149, 151, 155,157, 164

Charles II (b.1630), King 1660–85)153, 158, 162, 164, 165, 167, 169,171, 222

Chatterton, Thomas (1753–1770)209, 210

Chaucer, Geoffrey (c.1342–1400)4, 7, 15, 20, 27, 38, 39, 40, 42,43, 45, 50, 53, 55, 56–64, 65, 71,72, 73, 77, 78, 83, 84, 87, 92, 98,110, 112, 137, 151, 171, 174,236, 361

The Book of the Duchess 57, 58The Canterbury Tales 41, 51, 55,

57, 59, 61–2, 64, 71The House of Fame 57–8The Knight’s Tale 63, 97, 122The Legend of Good Women 58–9The Parlement of Fowls 55, 57, 58–9The Romance of the Rose 57, 59Troilus and Criseyde 39, 51, 60–1,

84, 126Cheke, John (1514–1557) 89Chekhov, Anton (1860–1904) 311,

314, 328, 361, 377, 382, 385Chesterton, G.K. (1874–1936) 328,

330–1, 335, 355, 375, 431chivalry 42, 54, 70Chrétien de Troyes (fl.1170–90) 40,

43

436 I N D E X


Christ 26Christie, Agatha (1890–1976) 430, 431Church (medieval) 40, 44 see also

Mystery playsChurchill, Caryl (1938– ) 381, 386Churchill, Sir Winston (1874–1965)

7, 238, 331, 363, 373, 376, 379Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43 BC)

58, 89, 106, 146Clare, John (1793–1864) 271–2Cloud of Unknowing, The 39, 49Clough, Arthur Hugh (1819–1861)

261, 262, 273, 261, 262, 273, 279,280

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772–1835)95, 164, 203, 210, 216, 219, 224,228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 234–6,237, 239, 242, 244, 245, 246, 254,266, 267, 269, 271, 277, 282, 391

Colet, John (1466–1519) 82Collier, Rev. Jeremy (1650–1726)

174, 178Collins, Wilkie (1824–1889) 262,

296, 431Collins, William (1721–1759) 210,

224Columbus, Christopher (c.1445–1506)

36, 79Compton-Burnett, Ivy (1884–1969)

366, 372Comte, Auguste (1789–1857) 301Conan Doyle, Arthur (1859–1930)

310, 311, 320, 359, 431Congreve, William (1670–1729) 167,

171, 176–7Connolly, Cyril (1903–1974) 3, 407,

414Conrad, Joseph (Josef Teodor Konrad

Korzeniowski, 1857–1924) 4,263, 306, 310, 311, 320, 328, 329,331–4, 335, 346, 388, 389, 426,430

Heart of Darkness 332–3, 426Nostromo 333–4

‘Contemporary Literature’ 404Cope, Wendy (1945– ) 407, 409Corpus Christi, The Play Called 66Courtier, The Boke of The 83–4, 89Coverdale, Miles (1488–1568) 87, 88Cowley, Abraham (1618–1667) 7,

150, 153, 175Cowper, William (1731–1800) 199,

209, 222, 223–4, 231, 251

Crabbe, Rev. George (1754–1832)209, 220, 251, 254

Cranmer, Archbishop Thomas(1489–1556) 81, 88

Crashaw, Richard (1613–1649) 150,151–2

Cultural Studies 6Cynewulf (9th century) 19, 20, 26

DDaniel, Samuel (1562–1619) 2, 103Dante (1265–1326) 2, 7, 15, 40, 45,

60Darwin, Charles (1809–1882) 1, 261,

264, 271–2, 320Daryush, Elizabeth (1887–1977)

362Davenant, William (1608–1668) 167,

169Davidson, John (1857–1909) 321,

322Day-Lewis, Cecil (1904–1972) 366De Quincey, Thomas (1785–1859)

235, 246Defoe, Daniel (1660–1731) 43, 182,

183, 184, 186, 187, 198–9, 330,371, 429

Dekker, Thomas (?1570–1634) 141,142

Delony, Thomas (?1560–1600) 141Denham, Sir John (1615–1669) 151,

164, 206Dennis, John (1657–1734) 174, 193Deor 18, 24detective fiction 278, 296, 320, 359,

403, 404, 430, 431dialect 37–40, 224, 226, 261, 338Dickens, Charles (1812–1870) 1, 2, 95,

98, 136, 137, 141, 211, 246, 249,260, 261–2, 263, 264, 266, 267, 268,277, 285, 286, 287, 290–6, 298, 300,301, 302, 305, 317, 329, 330, 333,334, 351, 361, 370, 374, 392, 404,428, 431, 432, 433

Bleak House 246, 261, 290, 293–4David Copperfield 98, 261, 290,

292, 303, 433Great Expectations 262, 295, 302,

369Oliver Twist 291–2, 293, 302Our Mutual Friend 294, 351Pickwick Papers, The 254, 261,

290, 291

Di Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi(1896–1957) 402–3

Disraeli, Benjamin (1804–1881) 285,290, 297, 361, 427

Sybil; or, The Two Nations 286–7Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge see

Carroll, LewisDonne, Dr John (1572–1631) 73, 91,

92, 103, 140, 143–6, 148, 149, 150,151, 152, 153, 157, 161, 165, 171,283, 353, 387, 427

Doolittle, Hilda (1886–1961) 349Doomsday 26Douglas, Gavin (?1475–1522) 72,

73–4, 860–1, 72–3, 86Dowson, Ernest (1867–1900) 321Dream of the Rood, The 22–4, 25, 26,

33, 49, 88dream-visions 7, 51, 57–9, 426Dryden, John (1631–1700) 8, 9, 95,

140, 150, 163, 164, 167, 168,169–74, 182, 190, 191, 192, 195,218, 220, 239, 310, 367, 394

Absalom and Achitophel 163, 170,171–2

Aeneid 164, 173, 191Mac Flecknoe 9, 170, 171–2Sylvae 173

Duffy, Carol-Ann (1955– ) 409Dunbar, William (?1460–1513)

71–3Dunn, Douglas (1942– ) 380, 381,

400, 409Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury

(c.910–88) 19, 29, 34Dyer, Edward (1543–1607) 92

EEco, Umberto (1932– ) 363, 402–3Edgeworth, Maria (1768–1849) 5,

183, 204, 224, 238, 247–8, 253,265

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204)40–3

Elegies, Old English 30–3Eliot, George (Mary Ann Evans,

1819–1880) 8, 249, 263, 264,265, 272, 285, 286, 290, 299,300–5, 306, 310, 361, 410, 427

Adam Bede 262, 301, 302Daniel Deronda 301, 306Middlemarch 260, 262, 296, 301,

303–5, 306, 319

I N D E X 437


Eliot, George – continuedThe Mill on the Floss 300, 301,

302–3, 417Silas Marner 303

Eliot, T. S. (1887–1965) 1, 4, 8, 88,216, 245, 274, 278, 310, 328, 329,331, 332, 334, 335, 337, 343, 345,349, 350–5, 363, 364, 365, 363,364, 365, 368, 373, 377, 394, 401,423, 428

Four Quartets 353–4, 370, 373, 401The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

328, 343, 351, 353, 383, 396The Waste Land 61, 337, 343, 349,

351–3, 364, 382Elizabeth I (b.1533; Queen

1558–1603) 80, 81, 88, 89, 96,97, 98, 101, 102, 103, 114, 118,132

Ellis, Alice Thomas (1932–2005) 391Elyot, Sir Thomas (c.1490–1546) 80,

89English language 5–6, 7, 15–17,

37–9, 49, 401–2‘Englishmen, God’s’ 8, 156, 272, 323English Review, The 331Enlightenment, the 182–4, 209, 224,

400, 421Erasmus, Desiderius (1466–1536) 78,

81, 82, 83, 146, 147, 165, 174Essex, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of

(1566–1601) 118, 144Established Protest 405, 407Etherege, Sir George (?1634–?1691)

168, 169Evans, Mary Ann see Eliot, GeorgeEvelyn, John (1620–1706) 167, 174,

175Everyman 67, 116Exeter Book 19, 26, 27, 29, 32

FFaber Book of Modern Verse 282, 365,

368Fabian Society 312fantasy fiction 306, 362, 374–6, 425,

422, 431–4Farquhar, George (?1677–1707)

168–9, 178Fenton, James (1949– ) 409Fielding, Henry (1705–1754) 164,

183, 201–3, 204, 205, 206, 220,245, 291, 297, 319

Finch, Anne, Countess of Winchilsea(1661–1720) 153, 176, 206,224

Finnsburh 18, 24, 33Firbank, Ronald (1886–1926) 369,

426Fitzgerald, Penelope (1916–2000)

418–19, 428Fletcher, John (1579–1625) 116, 117,

134, 141, 142, 167Florio, John (c.1533–1625) 91, 148Ford, Ford Madox (1873–1939) 4,

328, 329, 332, 335–6, 339, 341,349, 350, 358, 362

Ford, John (1586–after 1639) 141,142

Forster, E.M. (1879–1970) 327, 328,334–5, 343, 349, 358, 361, 371,380

Fowles, John (1926–2005) 380, 388,391–2, 414

Foxe, John (1516–1587) 89Franks Casket 15, 24, 25French language 7, 15, 37–40, 42, 50,

51, 71, 402friars 44, 68Friel, Brian (1929– ) 381, 386, 402Froissart, Jean (d.1410) 69Fry, Christopher (1907–2005) 373,

378, 379

GGalileo Galilei (1564–1642) 79Galsworthy, John (1867–1933) 328,

332, 329, 335, 343, 358, 363, 377Gama, Vasco da (?1469–1524) 79Gammer Gurton’s Needle 90Gascoigne, George (1539–1578) 91Gaskell, Mrs Elizabeth (1810–1865)

3, 260, 261–2, 285, 286, 287, 290,361, 427

Gautier, Théophile (1811–1872) 308Gay, John (1685–1732) 183, 194,

196–7, 220Geoffrey of Monmouth (d.1155)

41–3, 68, 79Georgian Poetry 328, 336Gibbon, Edward (1737–1794) 183,

211, 212, 218–19, 229, 238Gilbert, W.S. (1836–1911) 197, 263,

313, 316, 321Gissing, George (1857–1903) 291,

310, 320

Globe Theatre, London 110, 112–13,120, 124, 135, 140, 141

Godric, St (1065–1170) 48, 50Godwin, William (1756–1836) 183,

212, 228, 239, 250, 366Golden Treasury, The 262, 336Golding, Arthur (?1536–?1605) 91,

104Golding, William (1911–1993) 363,

372, 373, 379, 380–1, 388–9, 417Goldsmith, Oliver (1730–1774) 5, 8,

164, 190, 204, 211, 220, 221, 314Gorboduc 91Gosson, Stephen (1554–1624) 95Gothic fiction 43, 142, 182, 210–11,

228, 235, 236, 239, 246, 247,250–1, 288–9, 296, 390, 412

Gower, John (?1330–1408) 40, 51,55, 64, 72, 73, 94

Graves, Robert (1895–1985) 336,339, 354, 365, 367, 373, 380

Gray, John (1866–1934) 321Gray, Thomas (1711–1771) 9, 184,

206–8, 209, 210, 216, 218, 220,222, 223, 229, 318

Green, Henry (Henry Yorke,1905–1973) 365, 372, 373

Greene, Graham (1904–1991) 331,334, 365, 366, 371, 373, 374, 379,389, 390

Greene, Robert (1558–1592) 104,114

Gregory the Great, St (c.540–604)27, 44

Greville, Fulke (1554–1628) 93, 95,103

Grey, Lady Jane (1537–1553) 89–90Grieve, C.M. see MacDiarmid, HughGrimestone, John of (fl.1360s) 68Gwynn, Nell (1650–1687) 167, 177

HHall, Edward (d.1547) 91Hamilton-Paterson, James (1941– )

420Hare, David (1947– ) 386, 405Hardy, Thomas (1840–1928) 137,

249, 262, 263, 270, 272, 274, 276,278, 289, 309–11, 317–20, 321,322, 328, 330, 335, 343, 356, 361,362, 367, 369, 396, 407

Tess of the D’Urbevilles 313–19Poetry 336–9

438 I N D E X


Harley Manuscript 47–8Harrison, Tony (1937– ) 391, 395,

407Hartley, L.P. (1895–1972) 371, 373,

379, 420Harvey, Gabriel (c.1550–1631) 106Hazlitt, William (1778–1830) 95, 98,

235, 241, 246, 254Heaney, Seamus (1939– ) 5, 363,

380–1, 394, 398–9, 402, 407, 409Henley, W.E. (1849–1903) 312, 322Henry V (b. 1387; King 1413–22)

40, 85, 119Henry VIII (b.1491; King 1509–47)

22, 36, 77, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 89,101

Henryson, Rev. Robert (?1424–1506)71–2

Herbert, Rev. George (1593–1633)49, 148, 151–2, 171, 283

Herbert, Lord Edward, of Cherbury(1582–1648) 148

Herrick, Rev. Robert (1591–1674)149, 150–1, 153

Heywood, Jasper (1535–1598) 91, 142Heywood, John (c.1497–1580) 90–1Heywood, Thomas (?1570–1632) 141Hill, Geoffrey (1932– ) 357, 380–1,

394, 397, 399Hill, Susan (1942– ) 428Hilton, Walter (d.1379) 49Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679) 146,

165Hoccleve, Thomas (?1367–1426) 56,

63, 64, 65Holinshed, Raphael (d.?1580) 91, 118Hollinghurst, Alan (1954– ) 411,

426–7Holmes, Richard (1945– ) 428Home, John (1722–1808) 185Homer (8th century BC) 3, 7, 15, 16,

29, 32, 40, 46, 60, 98, 161, 190–1,192, 193, 196, 202, 209, 241, 264,267, 277, 295, 339

Hooker, Rev. Richard (1554–1600)92, 106–7, 148, 174

Hopkins, Gerard, S.J. (1844–1889) 7,264, 273, 282–3, 300, 336, 343,368, 377

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus),(65–8BC) 40, 46–7, 85, 86, 92,149, 153, 164, 173, 189–90, 195,206, 215, 223, 322, 357

Housman, A. E. (1859–1936) 311,321–2, 329, 343, 362, 396

Hughes, Ted (1930–1999) 379, 380,394, 397

Humanists 40, 43, 77, 79–82, 83, 89,99, 109, 118, 165, 188, 277, 309,432

Hume, David (1711–1776) 183, 206,209, 211, 212

Hunt, Leigh (1784–1859) 241, 246Hutchinson, Lucy (b.1620) 175

I‘I syng of a mayden’ 68, 92Ibsen, Henrik (1828–1906) 316, 346,

374, 378Imagism 349Interlude 90, 114, 122, 123, 143‘In the vaile of restles mynd’ 68Irish contribution to English drama

8Isherwood, Christopher (1904–1986)

365, 366Ishiguro, Kasuo (1954– ) 408,

415–17

JJacobean plays 141–3James, Henry (1843–1916) 4, 61,

259, 262, 263, 264, 278, 290,305–6, 309–11, 318, 328, 329,335, 341, 371, 374, 410

James I (b. 1566; James VI of Scotlandfrom 1567; King of England1603–25) 134, 137, 139, 141

James II (1633–1701; King 1685–88)162, 164, 169, 209

James, P.D. (1920– ) 404Jerome, St (c.342–420) 18, 26, 44, 87Johnson, Lionel (1867–1902) 321Johnson, Dr Samuel (1709–1784) 1,

2, 3, 4, 85, 149, 164, 171, 174, 181,183, 184, 188, 197, 198, 204, 206,211–18, 231, 330, 364, 387, 401,404, 427, 434

on Addison 214and Boswell 211–2, 216–18, 427Dictionary 38, 182, 213–14, 297,

424and Goldsmith 220on Gray 208, 216on idle reading 434trans. of Horace 215

on Metaphysical poets 150–1on Milton 100, 160–1, 182, 216,

223on ‘Ossian’ poems 209on Pope 191, 192on Rochester 165on Shakespeare 121, 129, 130, 131,

136, 168, 216on Sheridan 221on Sterne 205

Jones, David (1895–1974) 339, 357,365, 373

Jones, Inigo (1573–1652) 141Jonson, Ben (1572–1637) 6, 7, 92,

100, 110, 111, 114, 121, 136–7,141, 144, 146, 148, 149–50, 151,153, 154, 156, 157, 165, 168, 171,172, 206, 264, 277, 291, 298

The Alchemist 137, 138Volpone 138

Joyce, James (1882–1941) 4, 5, 272,309, 341–9, 350, 353, 357, 358,360, 365, 367, 381, 383, 392, 414,428

Dubliners 346Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

345–6Ulysses 346–9, 359, 360, 365, 422Finnegans Wake 345, 349, 383,

381, 365Julian of Norwich, Dame

(c.1343–c.1413/27) 3, 37, 41, 45,49–50, 68, 77, 254

Junius Book 21

KKane, Sarah (1971–1999) 406–7Katherine texts 48Keats, John (1795–1821) 98, 101,

112, 136, 192, 228, 230, 239, 240,241–5, 246, 354, 269, 278, 280,308, 312, 321, 356, 395, 404

Kempe, Margery (c.1373–c.1439) 49,50

Killigrew, Anne (1660–1685) 167,176

King, Bishop Henry (1592–1669) 151Kingis Quair, The 71Kingsley, Rev. Charles (1815–1875)

263, 265, 270, 286, 362, 432Kipling, Rudyard (1865–1936) 1,

278, 311, 312, 317, 321, 322–3,328, 329, 336, 339, 362, 363, 430

I N D E X 439


Korzeniowski, Josef Teodor Konrad seeConrad, Joseph

Kureishi, Hanif (1954– ) 424, 425Kyd, Thomas (1558–1594) 112, 113,

114, 116, 129, 137, 142

LLamb, Charles (1775–1834) 165,

245, 246, 247, 248Landor, Walter Savage (1775–1864)

238, 246, 247, 264, 273, 281, 408Langland, William (?1330–after 1386)

38, 52, 59, 66Piers Plowman 39, 45, 51–3, 64,

167Larkin, Philip (1922–1985) 338, 356,

379, 380–1, 382, 393–6, 399, 406,407, 408

Law, Rev. William (1686–1761) 183,200

Lawrence, D.H. (1885–1930) 263,309, 318, 335, 336, 341, 341–5,367, 383, 415

The Rainbow 328, 343, 344–5Layamon (fl. late 12th century) 41–2Lear, Edward (1812–1888) 261, 263,

264, 307Leavis, Dr F.R. (1895–1978) 188,

294, 310, 335, 350, 373, 408Le Carré, John (John Cornwall, 1931– )

331, 380, 402, 416, 430–1Lennox, Charlotte (1720–1804) 200,

211Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) 78,

312Lessing, Doris (1919– ) 363, 386,

388, 391, 393Lewis, C.S. (1898–1963) 373, 374–5,

432, 433Lewis, Matthew (1775–1828) 204,

211, 251Lindisfarne Gospels 21, 22Lively, Penelope (1933– ) 411, 419,

423Locke, John (1632–1704) 146, 163,

174–6, 184, 192, 204, 214, 234Lodge, David (1935– ) 381, 388, 410,

428Lodge, Thomas (1558–1625) 113‘Lollius Maximus’ 44–5Lovelace, Sir Richard (1618–1658)

151, 153Lowth, Dr Robert (1710–1787) 210

Lydgate, John (?1370–1449) 64, 65,73, 91

Lyly, John (c.1554–1606) 105, 113

MMacDiarmid, Hugh (C.M. Grieve,

1892–1978) 343, 357, 400MacDonald, George (1824–1905)

432, 433McEwan, Ian (1948– ) 401–2Machiavelli, NiccoIò (1469–1527) 79MacInnes, Colin (1914–1976) 392Mackenzie, Henry (1745–1831) 204,

224, 250MacNiece, Louis (1907–1963)

365–6, 361Macpherson, James ‘Ossian’

(1736–1796) 182, 209, 210, 314Magellan, Ferdinand (?1480–1521) 79Maldon see Battle of MaldonMalory, Sir Thomas (d.1471) 37, 42,

64, 68, 69–70, 77, 89, 433Mandeville, Bernard de (1670–1733)

183, 184Mandeville, Sir John (fl. 14th century)

50Mankind 67Manley, Delarivière (1663–1724) 177Mansfield, Katherine (1888–1923)

343, 361Manutius, Aldus (1449–1515) 78Marie de Champagne (fl.1145–98)

45Marie de France (fl.1160–90) 40, 41,

42, 43, 45Marlowe, Christopher (1564–1593)

67, 79, 87, 91, 92, 101, 106,114–16, 118, 119, 126, 137, 165

Marston, John (?1575–1634) 142Marvell, Andrew (1621–1678) 14,

139, 140, 142, 146, 149, 150, 151,154, 162, 174

Marx, Karl (1818–1883) 199, 261,266, 366, 378, 425

Mary I (b.1516; Queen 1553–58) 81,86

Massinger, Philip (1583–1649) 141, 142medieval lyric 46–8Medwall, Henry (fl.1486) 90Meredith, George (1828–1909) 210,

262, 290, 310, 311, 361Metaphysical poets 145, 146, 150–1,

166

Mew, Charlotte 332–3Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475–1564)

78, 79, 80, 408Middle English 38, 40, 44Middleton, Thomas (1580–1627)

117, 140, 142Mill, John Stuart (1806–1873) 225,

229, 235, 261–2, 264, 266, 271,274, 301

Milton, John (1608–1674) 1, 3, 6, 8,9, 21, 67, 80, 89, 98, 100, 104, 106,111, 139–41, 151, 154–62, 164,170, 190, 206, 207, 209, 216, 218,209, 216, 218, 228, 239, 277, 354,364, 408

Areopagitica 158–9Lycidas 157–8Paradise Lost 154, 158–61, 170,

216, 223, 295, 394Il Penseroso 155Samson Agonistes 159, 161–2

Mo, Timothy (1950– ) 424Molière (1622–1673) 87Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley

(1689–1762) 183, 197, 212Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de

(1533–1592) 78, 91, 149, 165,174

Moore, George (1852–1933) 311,320, 343, 346

Morality plays 67, 90More, Sir Thomas (?1477–1535) 40,

64, 78, 81–3, 90, 118, 143, 429Morte Arthur 68–9, 70Morte Darthur, Le (of Thomas

Malory) 67–71Muldoon, Paul (1951– ) 408–9multi-culturalism 424–6Murdoch, Iris (1919–1999) 373, 380,

388, 391Mystery plays 65–7, 108, 112

NNaipaul, V.S. (1932– ) 6, 262, 380,

393, 402, 411, 424, 425Nashe, Thomas (1567–1601) 104,

105–6New Penguin Book of English Verse 5,

434Newman, Cardinal John Henry

(1801–1890) 229, 235, 254,261–2, 263, 264, 269–70, 282,290, 299, 300

440 I N D E X


newspapers see pressNorman Conquest 7, 15 28, 35, 36, 37North, Sir Thomas (?1536–?1600)

91, 126Northumbria, Anglo-Saxon 17, 18,

22, 26see also Bede, St

Norton, Thomas (1532–1584) 91

OO’Brian, Patrick (1914–1999) 429O’Casey, Sean (1880–1964) 343, 377,

378, 385Old English 13, 15, 17, 22, 35Old English verse 22Orléans, Charles d’ (1394–1465) 71Orosius 27Orton, Joe (1933–1967) 390Orwell, George (Eric Blair,

1904–1950) 326, 368, 370Osborne, Dorothy (1627–1695) 175Osborne, John (1929–1994) 380,

382, 384–5Otway, Thomas (1652–1685) 167,

168, 169Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso; 43 BC–AD

18) 40, 55, 57, 91, 104, 122, 126,135, 143, 164, 165

Owen, Wilfred (1893–1918) 339,340, 343, 368, 421

Owl and the Nightingale, The 46–8Oxford (or Tractarian) Movement

254, 265, 269, 270

PPaine, Thomas (1737–1809) 183,

212, 230‘Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage, The’

102Paston Letters 50Pater, Walter (1839–1894) 272, 287,

311, 312–13Peacock, Thomas Love (1785–1856)

238, 241, 245, 246, 247Pembroke, Mary, Countess of

(1561–1621) 91, 93, 95, 101Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703) 167, 175Percy, Bishop Thomas (1729–1811)

224, 236Peterborough Chronicle 49Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca,

1304–1374) 40, 80, 84, 85, 86,94, 97

Philips, Katherine (1631–1664) 151,167, 177

Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) 79,81

Pinero, Sir Arthur (1855–1935) 316Pinter, Harold (1930–2008) 363,

379, 380, 382, 385–6Plato (424–347 BC) 3, 82, 89Plautus (c.254–184 BC) 90, 121Plutarch (c.50–c.125) 91, 126Pope, Alexander (1688–1744) 6, 37,

149, 164, 171, 182–3, 184, 185,186, 188, 189–96, 197, 200, 205,206, 207, 209, 216, 225, 229, 235,238, 394, 427

The Dunciad 170, 195–6Epistle to a Lady 194–5Essay on Criticism 190, 191, 195Iliad 191–2Of the Use of Riches 195The Rape of the Lock 192–4To Miss Blount, on her Leaving the

Town, after the Coronation191

Post-colonial 423–4Post-modernism 414Potter, Dennis (1935–1997) 386Pound, Ezra (1884–1972) 33, 53,

267, 278, 312, 321, 328, 329, 335,337, 338, 339, 343, 349–50, 351,352, 353, 356, 364, 373, 403, 408

Powell, Anthony (1905–2000) 365,370, 371–2, 373

Prayer Book see Book of CommonPrayer

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 261,280–1, 314, 335, 355

press 330–1printing, introduction of 36, 37, 38,

70–1Pugin, A.W. (1812–1852) 260, 266,

267Pullman, Philip (1946– ) 402, 432Pym, Barbara (1913–1980) 389

QQuintilian (c.35–c.100) 89, 355

RRadcliffe, Ann (1764–1823) 204,

251, 288Ralegh, Sir Walter (c.1552–1618) 92,

97, 98, 99, 100, 101–3, 107, 124

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio, 1483–1520)78

Rastell, John (?1470–1536) 90Rattigan, Terence (1911–1977) 373,

377, 378, 405, 406Read, Piers Paul (1941– ) 391Reformation, the 8, 36, 80–1, 86religious lyric 67Renaissance, the 77–9, 86, 140Restoration, the 161–4Restoration comedy 168–9Rhys, Jean (1890–1979) 361–2, 365,

380, 388Richard II (1367–1400; King 1377–99)

51, 116Richardson, Samuel (1689–1761) 7,

44, 61, 95, 182, 183, 200–1, 202,204, 205, 288, 296

riddles 24, 27Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of

(1647–1680) 165–6, 167, 169Rolle, Richard (c.1300–1349) 48–9romances 42–3, 54, 68–70, 93,

133–6, 236–7, 238, 249–50, 286,310, 320, 375–6, 434

Roper, William (1498–1578) 89Rosenberg, Isaac (1890–1918) 336,

339Rossetti, Christina (1830–1894) 3,

264, 273, 286–1Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828–1882)

273, 286–1Rowley, William (?1585–1626) 142Rowling, J. K. (1965– ) 376, 387,

402, 432–4Royal Society of London 146, 174,

175Rushdie, Salman (1947– ) 3, 381,

411Ruskin, John (1819–1900) 229, 261,

263, 264, 265, 266, 267–9, 291,311, 312

Ruthwell Cross 22–4

SSackville, Thomas (1536–1608) 91Saintsbury, George (1845–1933)

236Sassoon, Siegfried (1886–1967) 328,

335, 329, 339, 343, 365Scholasticism 44–5, 145Scott, Paul (1920–1978) 380–1, 388,

422

I N D E X 441


Scott, Sir Walter (1771–1832) 3, 5, 8,121, 224, 225, 228, 236–7, 241,242, 247, 249–50, 254, 260, 266,270, 301, 338, 394, 404, 421, 428

Seafarer, The 33, 349Sedley, Sir Charles (?1639–1701)

167, 169Seneca (c.4 BC–AD65) 33, 86, 91, 117,

129, 146Shadwell, Thomas (?1642–1692)

171, 172Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper,

1st Earl of (1621–1683) 169,171–2, 175

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper,3rd Earl of (1671–1713) 183,206

Shakespeare, William (1564–1616)1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 37, 77, 80,83, 887, 90, 91, 96, 101, 103, 104,106, 108–13, 116–36, 148, 156,167–8, 183, 190, 209, 211, 212,245, 277, 290, 296, 377, 405, 407,408, 428

Hamlet 79, 80, 84, 90, 103, 114,124, 126, 128, 129, 134, 142,147, 404

Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 106, 117,119–20, 121, 339

Henry V 119–20, 339, 377Julius Caesar 117, 124, 128King Lear 1, 2, 8, 13, 41, 67, 117,

121, 128, 129, 130–2, 134, 168,386

Love’s Labour’s Lost 106, 117,121–2

Macbeth 111, 117, 126, 128,132–3, 134, 216

Measure for Measure 117, 124, 134,135

A Midsummer Night’s Dream 90,117, 121, 122–4, 135

Richard II 115, 117, 118–19, 121,128

Richard III 82, 117–18, 121Sonnets 9, 85, 117, 126–8The Tempest 111, 117, 124, 134–6Twelfth Night 117, 125–6

Shaw, George Bernard (1856–1950)3, 7, 8, 309, 311, 316–17, 328, 330,343, 355, 362, 363, 378

Shelley, Mary (1797–1851) 228, 238,247, 254, 390

Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792–1822)192, 230, 239–41, 247, 254, 281,395

Shenstone, William (1714–1763)183, 206

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley(1751–1816) 8, 164, 211, 212,218, 221–2, 222, 238, 314, 316

Sidney, Sir Philip (1554–1586) 2, 80,84, 91, 92–5, 96, 101, 112, 137

Arcadia 84, 93–4, 95, 96, 98Astrophil and Stella 93–4Defence of Poesy 2, 80, 93–6, 98,

239, 241Sillitoe, Alan (1928–2010) 380, 392Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 7,

36, 37, 54, 68Sir Orfeo 43Skelton, John (1460–1529) 85Smart, Christopher (1722–1771)

208, 209, 222–3Smith, Zadie (1975– ) 405Smollett, Dr Tobias (1721–1771)

203, 204, 212Snow, C. P. (1905–1980) 373, 392sonnet 85, 94Southey, Robert (1774–1843) 229,

234, 239, 271Soyinka, Wole (1934– ) 6, 363, 424Spark, Muriel (1918–2006) 5, 372,

380, 389–91, 402Spectator, The 164, 183, 184–5Spender, Stephen (1909–1998) 366,

368Spenser, Edmund (1552–1599) 64, 92,

976–101The Faerie Queene, The 43, 92, 97,

98–100, 102Sprat, Dr Thomas (1635–1713)

174–5Steele, Sir Richard (1672–1729) 183,

184, 185Sterne, Rev. Laurence (1713–1768) 5,

148, 182, 203–5, 207Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894)

5, 250, 309, 311, 316Stoppard, Tom (1937– ) 380–1, 386,

402Storey, David (1933– ) 392Strachey, Lytton (1880–1932) 263,

328, 331, 343, 357–8, 364Strindberg, August (1849–1912)

405

Suckling, Sir John (1609–1642) 151,152, 164

Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of(1517–1547) 80, 84, 86–7

Swan Theatre, London 111Swift, Graham (1949– ) 411, 417Swift, Dr Jonathan (1667–1745) 1, 5,

83, 175, 184, 186–9, 193, 195, 205,214, 266, 426

Swinburne, Algernon Charles(1837–1909) 273, 281–2, 321,348, 377

Symons, Arthur (1865–1945) 312, 321Synge, J.M. (1871–1909) 377–8, 329,

355

TTacitus (55–after 115) 33, 118, 333Tasso, Torquato (1544–1595) 78, 91,

98, 158Tate, Nahum (1652–1715) 130, 168Tennyson, Alfred Lord (1809–1892)

33, 70, 254, 261, 272, 274–7, 278,279, 301, 311, 312, 336, 394, 414

textual policy 9Thackeray, William Makepeace

(1811–1863) 254, 261–2, 286,296–9, 300, 361

Vanity Fair 166, 261, 285, 296–8,305

Thomas, Dylan (1914–1955) 4, 362,365, 373, 386, 377

Thomas, Edward (1878–1917) 339,340, 368

Thomson, James (1700–1748) 5,101, 181, 183, 206, 209, 210, 237

Thomson, James (‘B.V.’) (1834–1882)262, 322

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1892–1973) 362, 365,373, 375–6, 432, 433

Tolstoy, Count Leo (1828–1910) 7,408, 421

Tottel, Richard (c.1530–1594) 92Tottels Miscellany 86, 105Tourneur, Cyril (?1575–1626) 142Tractarian (or Oxford) Movement

254, 265, 269, 270Traherne, Rev. Thomas (1637–1674)

150–2Trevisa, John (c.1340–1402) 50Trollope, Anthony (1815–1882)

261–2, 264, 285, 286, 290,299–300, 361, 408

442 I N D E X


Tyndale, William (?1495–1536), 87, 88,91

Tyrwhitt, Thomas (1730–1786) 92

UUdall, Nicolas (1504–1556) 90–1, 105United Kingdom 5universities, medieval 44, 71

VVanburgh, Sir John (1654–1726)

168, 169, 183Vaughan, Rev. Henry (1621–1695)

150–2Vegius, Mapheus 74Vercelli Book 22, 26, 29vernacular 37Villon, François (1431–after 1463) 45Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro,

70–19 BC) 41, 164, 190, 191,195, 274

translations 73–4, 86, 91, 169,170–3, 189–90, 310, 366, 399

Voltaire (1694–1778) 7, 8, 183, 203,204, 206, 217, 228

WWace (c.1110–after 1171) 40, 41, 183Wain, John (1925–1995) 392Waller, Edmund (1606–1687) 151,

164, 207Walpole, Horace (1717–1797) 183,

204, 206, 210–11, 212

Walton, Dr Izaak (1593–1683) 145,152, 174, 427

Wanderer, The 32, 33, 67Warner, Sylvia Townsend (1893–1978)

359Warton, Joseph (1722–1800) 208Warton, Thomas (1728–90) 208Watts, Dr Isaac (1674–1748) 183,

185, 200, 205, 228, 306Waugh, Evelyn (1903–1966) 136,

287, 343, 355, 362, 364–5,369–71, 373, 379, 380, 410, 420

Webster, John (c.1578–c.1632) 142Wells, H. G. (1866–1946) 311, 327,

328, 329, 330Wesley, John (1703–1791) 183, 200,

212‘Western wind, when wilt thou blow’

47‘Where beth they beforen us weren’

67White, Patrick (1912–1990) 6, 363,

423–4, 425White, T. H. (1906–1964) 362, 380,

432, 433Wilde, Oscar (1854–1900) 5, 8, 264,

267, 287, 311–16, 322Wilmot, John see Rochester, John

Wilmot, Earl ofWilson, Angus (1913–1991) 380,

388, 389Winchilsea, Countess of see Finch,

Anne, Countess of Winchilsea

Winterson, Jeannette (1959– ) 380,408

Wodehouse, P.G. (1881–1975) 316,364, 369

Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759–1797)212, 228, 239, 247

Woolf, Virginia (1892–1941) 267,312, 341–2, 343, 357–60, 354–8,415, 422, 427

To the Lighthouse 343, 359–60Wordsworth, William (1770–1850)

1, 101, 164, 209, 219, 220, 224,228, 229–34, 236–46, 261, 269,271, 288, 300, 301, 304, 307, 338,395

Wren, Sir Christopher (1632–1723)140, 146, 162, 175, 177, 184

writing 36Wulfstan, Archbishop of York (d.1023)

34–5Wyatt, Sir Thomas (1503–1542) 80,

84–8, 92Wycherley, William (1641–1715)

168–9Wyclif, John (c.1330–1384) 50

YYeats, W.B. (1867–1939) 5, 309, 311,

312, 317, 321, 328, 329, 337, 340,342, 343, 349, 355–6, 366, 368,377, 407

Young, Edward (1683–1765) 206Yorke, Henry see Green, Henry

I N D E X 443


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