ERA OF EXPANSION, 1750-1850. ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND INFLUENCES, AND THE 1750-1800. WITH BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. BY J. MACMILLAN BROWN, M.A., Professor of English Literature, Canterbury College. THE addition of Anglo-Saxon and Early English to the work in English for the Pass Degree by the Senate of the University of New Zealand at its 1893 session has necessitated the writing of this manual. Each of the periods of literature set for 1894 and 1895, viz. from 1750 to 1800 and from 1800 to 1850, is so full of authors and books and so worthy of detailed study, and yet has so little upon it in any of the available textbooks, that it needs two hours' lecture a week during the session. One of these hours has now, I found, to be devoted to the teaching of Old English. And I have had to spend my long vacation in attempting a manual that would supply the deficiency. After I had written the general chapters on the characteristics and influences of the two periods, I saw that the vacation would be too short for the detailed study of the literature of both. I have now found it to be too short for the completion of even the first period; and the approach of the beginning of the session has compelled me to print only the general chapters and the chapter on its poetry. The other chapters will be delivered as lectures during the session. Yet what is printed forms a natural unity. It sketches in the first three chapters the features of the great era of the rise of modern literature, and then, taking poetry, the form that has hitherto been the most essentially literary and the most sensitive to coming change, describes its development, and illustrates in detail the application of the general conclusions of the earlier chapters. Nor would a correct view of the evolution of the poetry of the period of preparation (1750 to 1800) have been gained, unless by throwing it into perspective, by seeing its relation to the period of fulfilment (1800 to 1850), for which it was a preparation. Hence not merely is the era of expansion (1750 to 1850) described as a whole, but each of the two stages or periods is described separately. The biographical tables in the appendix have been prepared by Mr. James Hight, B.A. They include the life and works of all the authors who wrote poetry during the period (1750 to 1800). J. MACMILLAN BROWN. March 19th, 1894. 209967 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND INFLUENCES OF THE ERA 1750-1850. Section 1.-(1) There are no exact limits for any era. (2) ... ... ... Section 3.-(1) New literary centres came into prominence 1-3 3-6 6-8 8-12 Section 5.-(1) The expansion also made it a great poetic era. (2) But it was the expansion of the thought that most affected poetry. (3) English poetry was reborn with the Section 6.-(1) All passions and thoughts, all history and science and philosophy were revivified by the new point of view. (2) A new kinship with nature was discovered (3) and a new interest in the future awakened; (4) whilst the feeling of a new relationship to God made the period ... ... ... ... Section 7.-(1) All knowledge had to be reorganised and encyclopedism appeared; (2) whilst the demand for con- temporary knowledge originated journalism. (3) Scholar- 17-21 21-24 ✓ Section 8.-(1) The scholarship of old English literature and especially Elizabethan literature began to predominate. (2) The publication of Percy's Reliques, as well as the new study of the Elizabethan drama, was an evidence of the reintroduction of the people into the realm of cultured literature. (3) The popularity of Ossian was a sign of the new birth of national instinct in literature. (4) The great antiquarian movement in literature pointed in the same direction. (5) English scholarship and English national life came together for the first time. (6) The nationalism of the audience attracted the genius and talent of the nation into literature. (7) But the French Revolution divided the era into a period of preparation and a period of fulfilment. 24-30 |