PREFATORY NOTE

IN view of comments which have been made on previous volumes of this history, I would again remind the reader that my design from the first has been, not to furnish an exhaustive list of the English poets as individuals, but rather to describe the general movements of English Poetry, as an Art illustrating the evolution of national taste.1 The poets whose works are here considered are treated as having contributed something characteristic towards these movements; but I have not thought it necessary to dwell on the lives and writings of versifiers such as Ambrose Philips, Beattie, Aaron Hill, and others, whose ħames appear in collections like those of Anderson and Chalmers; their poetry having too little distinctive character for my purpose.

1 Vol. i. p. 8.

WHIG AND TORY: HEROIC, MOCK-HEROIC, DIDACTIC

VERSE

44

PHILOSOPHICAL ENGLISH POETRY IN THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY: INFLUENCE OF DEISM, NATURE-Worship,

LIBERTY, AND THE ARTS.

CHAPTER XI

RELIGIOUS LYRICAL POETRY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY:

INFLUENCE OF THE METHODIST MOVEMENT

251

272

327

ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

EFFECTS OF THE CLASSICAL RENAISSANCE ON
MODERN EUROPEAN POETRY

Double significance of the word "Renaissance"; political and literary.
Greek Art and Literature the reflection of free Greek civic life: its decay.
Assimilation of Greek Art in the Roman Empire: overthrow of the
Empire by the barbarians.

Resurrection of Art in the early civic life of modern Europe.

Effects of the Classical Renaissance proportioned to the degree of civil
and religious liberty in the various nations of Europe.

The Renaissance stimulates artistic invention in free communities, but
overlays national originality with imitated classic forms in States deprived
of their political freedom.

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE HISTORY OF ITALIAN POETRY
Dante's national Mediævalism.

:

Ariosto's balanced style in the first period of the Classical Renaissance.
Tasso Mixture of Classical and Romantic elements in his style.
Marino Anarchy of Romantic and Classic elements in his style.
Chiabrera and Fulvio Testi: Formal Imitation of the Classics.

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE HISTORY OF FRENCH POETRY

Party struggle between the Feudal and Bourgeois Elements in the French
nation reflected in French Poetry: Roman de la Rose; Machault: Eustace
Deschamps: Charles of Orleans: Coquillart: Villon.

Alliance between the Crown and the Bourgeoisie.

Opposition of literary taste between Marot and Ronsard: Malherbe and
D'Aubigné Boileau and the Hôtel Rambouillet.

: