The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-06 00:00:00

literature•

English Writers. Vol. H., Part I. Prom Career
to bender. By HISNRY MORLIT, Professor of
English Literature in University College, Lon-
don.
Chapman and Hall.
When Professor Morley's work, of which a fur-
ther instalment is now before us, has reached its
termination, it will present the most comprehensive
history of English literature to be found in the
language. We are in fact very ill provided with
works of this kind. Wart in " History of Eng-
lish Poetry," though a most able and learned pro-
duction, only refers to one-half of our literature—
that which is expressed in verse ; and other works
of a similar nature have either been equally sec-
tional or have been constructed on so small a scale
as simply to possess the character of manuals.
!Professor Morley, however, aims at something
much more complete. He includes English writers
of all kinds, whether they wrote in verse or prose ;
and, beginning at the very commencement of our ,
tongue, he proposes to bring the record down
to the present day. He hasspread his canvas,;
moreover, on a liberal scale. When finished,
the work will consist of three large volumes,
each subdivided into two parts—strictly speaking
six volumes—for the subdivision into parts is
merely nominal. The " part" now in our hands
extends to 462 pages of full-sized octavo, so that
the reader may judge what the dimensions of the
entire book will be. Although in many cases " a
great book is a great evil,"- and although many
works are needlessly large, it is evident that so
vast a subject as the entire course of English
literature, from the days of the Saxons to our own,
cannot be satisfactorily treated in any smaller com-
pass, unless in the form of a compendium or hand-
book, the usefulness of which will not for a moment
be denied, but which is not sufficient to satisfy
the demands of scholars who want something more
than an outline of one of the principal literatures
of the world. It is remarkable that, while we have
voluminous histories of the literature of many
foreign countries, we have not hitherto
anything of equivalent pretensions on treasintel-
lectual achievements of our own race. This want
Professor Morley is now supplying, and he exhibits
many excellent qualifications for the task. He has ,
large knowledge and comprehensive sympathy ; he
has given several years to the study of the
subject, and he has all those collateral aids,
of general scholarship and acquaintance with the
l of the chief continental nations, which
are indispensable to a thorough examination of
our own writers. We arc, therefore, disposed to
regard his book as a valuable addition to the
library shelves, giving, not only a critical account,
but an epitome, of those great works which have
contributed to nake th:raElish mind what it is.
The first two volumes the stream from its
rise to the age immediately preceding that of Ed-
ward 111. ; in the present instalment we have a
view of the subsequent period, extending to the
latter part of the fifteenth century. The epoch was
one of great importance and of great interest. Its
commencement saw the birth of modern English,l
and its close the revival of learning and the dawn
of the Renaissance. It included, at its two ex-
tremities, Chaucer, the glory of England, and
Dunbar, the glory of Scotland. It was a period of
growth, of vital expansion, of strong national life, I
of vivid ideas and active intellect. The principal
literary figures by which it was distinguished were
Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, Occleve James I. of
Scotland, " Blind Harry," and William Dunbar ;
but others of less importance or of smaller genius,
but yet interesting to the student, as illustrating
particular phases in the development of the
national mind, are to be discovered on a near
inspection, and these have been examined and de-
scribed by Professor Morley: in the trot eluipterl
of the present volume, he considers the influence
of the revived genius of Italy on the intellectual!
life of England. That influence was unquestionably
very great and very beneficial. The re-awakening
of the Italian race from the long torpor into which
it had fallen after the destruction of the Roman
Empire, and the over-running of the peninsula by
the barbarians of the north, acted like a powerful
stimulant on the English race also. We, too, bad
had our interval of lethargy and disorganisation,
consequent on a foreign subjugation and an alien
tyranny. Mr. Morley is right in pointing out that
the genius of England does not commence with
Gower or Chaucer • it only starts afresh with those
eminent men. Before their birth "the literature
of this country," to borrow the language of our
author, " had maintained for a longer time than ,
has passed since a foremost place in the intellectual
history of Europe. To say nothing of the yet
earlier Beowulf, English Ciedmon poured the soul
of a Christian poet into noble song six hundred
and fifty years before Chaucer was born. Six cen-
turies before Chaucer, Bede, foremost of Christian
scholars, was the historian of England, and
Chaucer wrote his `Canterbury Tales not quite
five centuries ago. Long before Chaucer, Alcuin
gave light from the English mind to the empire'
of Charlemagne. In prose and verse, for century
after century before the time of Chaucer, there was a
literature here of home-seaking earnestness, prat-I
wit, and humour.' But these earlier men
formed the heroes of Mr. Morley's previous
volumes, and he now taken up the tale with ,
the immediate precursors of Gower, such as
Richard of Bury (author of the " Philo-i
biblon "), Robert de Graystanes, Walter Burley, I
Robert Holcot, Thomas Bradwardine, and others.
We then come to Gower, of whom an exeallent life
is given, together with a prose summary of his
principal works. The reader is then conducted I
into the presence of Chaucer, who is treated in like
manner. Next we pass over the somewhat dull
period which followed the death of Chaucer, until
with the rise of the Scotch poet, Dunbar, we enter, .
on a new phase of English intellect, and catch the
first gleams of the larger and richer literature that
came with printing, and helped to mould and
animate the mind of modern Europe. Though'
wanting in first-class writers, however, that inter-
mediate period presented several noticeable fea-
tures and some men of mark. It produced the
Miracle Plays, the theological writings of the'
Lollards and other controversialists, several ,
monastic chroniclers, the Patton Letters, and some I
poets of at least respectable powers. Among the i
latter, Lydgate seems to have caught most of the'
grace, tenderness, and pathos of the " Canterbury
Tales ;" but no man at all approaching the great-
ness of Chaucer in his entirety arose in the genera-
tion succeeding him, to carry on his work and add
another golden link to the chain of English letters. •
With Dunbar, a remarkable development of what
must be called the English genius took place on Scot-
tish soil ; but this admirable poet is reserved by
Professor Morley for examination in the second
part of Vol. 11., the present subdivision concluding
with Dunbar's Scotch predecessors, Andrew of
Wyntoun, King James, and Blind Harry. We
await the continuation of the present work with
great interest, and congratulate its author on the
parrihe has already made. Among the most
fiestures of the book are the ample summa-
ries of remarkable works, such as those of Gower
and Chaucer. These will be found of great help
to the student ; though, had space permitted, we
should have been glad to see them accompanied by
more specimens of the original text itself.

THE FEMALE MEDICAL SOCIETY.—The Female
Medical Society is steadily makingway at 4, Fitaopequare,
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the three years of it. existence. There is still, however,
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be made to wipe it off ?—From Social &iota, Aug. 2.
ROYAL FRES HOSPITAL, GRAY'S-INN-ROAD.—The
number of patients relieved at this hospital, daring the
week ending 3rd August, 1867, was 3,352, of which 1,125
were new cases.