INTRODUCTORY.

THE LITERARY ERAS.

FOR the sake of convenience, English literature has been divided into periods called "ages." In some cases these ages have been named after the representative writer of the period, as The Age of Milton; in others, after the reigning sovereign, as The Elizabethan Age; and in still others, from some important historic event, as The Age of the Restoration.

The ages thus classified form a connected chain of historic and literary links which it is impossible to separate without weakening the one or the other. By this systematic arrangement the student is enabled to associate and recall the period, the history, the literature and the author and his works.

The first period of English literature is known as the Age of Chaucer or the Transition Period, for during this time the English language was beginning to assume that form which it has since taken in literature. To Chaucer we are indebted for the influence he exerted in combining the two lealing elements, the Anglo-Saxon and the Nor

man-French, the former being the language of the common people and the latter that of the court at that time.

During the century and a half following the death of Chaucer-which period has by some been called the Age of Caxton, on account of his having introduced printing into England-literature did not flourish; and the only literary production of note handed down to us is Sir Thomas More's Utopia.

The Elizabethan Age includes the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. This age has also been called The Golden, or The Augustan, Age of English Literature, because the progress of this period so closely resembles that made in Roman literature in the reign of Augustus. During the Elizabethan age literature flourished in every department, as is manifest from the great number of writers and the great variety of style employed.

The Age of Milton, or The Age of the Commonwealth, was characterized by contention and bloodshed. The Puritans, having gained the supremacy in the government, succeeded in beheading Charles I. and in establishing Cromwell as lord-protector of England. The dissensions in government affairs were unfavorable to literary culture and growth. Few persons, therefore, pursued a literary life, and what little was written was mainly of a controversial character.

After the close of the protectorate of Cromwell, Charles II., son of Charles I., was called to the throne, thus restoring the House of Stuart; and the literary age has for this reason been called The Age of the Restoration. Freed from

the influences of Puritan restraint, the people were ready to enter upon the enjoyment of an English court modeled after the court of Louis XIV. of France, at which Charles II. had been educated. The literature took its tone from the character of the court, and we therefore find the English drama patterned after the French models by the pen of the poet Dryden, the chief writer of the age.

The period which followed the Restoration is known as The Age of Queen Anne, or The Silver Age. It is remarkable for the brilliancy of its authors and for the purity of their writings. Next to the Elizabethan age, this period is the most conspicuous for its literary progress and culture. Among its chief writers were Pope and Addison.

The Age of Johnson, which followed that of Queen Anne, has perhaps less to characterize it than any of the preceding ages. During this period but few wrote for fame, and fewer still for pleasure; and those who wrote for pay were obliged to do so because of necessity. Everything that was suggestive of poverty and misery was summed up in the term author.

The Age of Scott is rendered distinctive by the introduction of the romantic school of fiction and the founding of the historical novel. Byron in his writings imitated the Romance style of the southern languages, and Scott wove into his novels the legends of the preceding ages. It was in the age of Scott that prose gained that ascendency over poetry which it has ever since maintained.

The Victorian Age of English literature, which began in 1830, and which extends to the present time, represents all

that is desirable in the condition of the couuay, thamber of writers and the varieties of style employed. No previous age can boast of so many favorable influences brought to bear upon its government, and therefore upon its literature, as favor the Victorian age. Prose literature, though still employed for the essay and for writings of fic tion, has taken the form of pure history, which promises to be the standard literature of the future,

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

AGE OF CHAUCER.

1350-1400.

REIGNING SOVEREIGNS: EDWARD III., RICHARD II.,
HENRY IV.

REPRESENTATIVE WRITER: CHAUCER.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

1328-1400.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER is called the "Father of English Poetry." We are greatly indebted to him because of the fact that, while our language was undergoing the important change of throwing off the French pronunciation and spelling as well as the case-endings of the Anglo-Saxon nouns, he constantly urged the people to use the English whenever they could, leaving the French and the Latin for the clergy and the classical scholars. It was chiefly through Chaucer's influence, therefore, that our language is based on a Teutonic foundation, upon which has been built a superstructure of classical elements which have made the English the language of a large part of the world. Chaucer was born in London about the year 1328,