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English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History by Henry Coppee

H >> Henry Coppee >> English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History




I shall not go back to the origin of printing, to show the great progress
that has been made in the art from that time to the present; nor shall I
attempt to explain the present process, which one visit to a press-room
would do far better than any description; but I simply refer to the fact
that fifty years ago newspapers were still printed with the hand-press,
giving 250 impressions per hour--no cylinder, no flying Hoe, (that was
patented only in 1847.) Now, the ten-cylinder Hoe, steam driven, works off
20,000 sheets in an hour, and more, as the stereotyper may multiply the
forms. What an emblem of art-progress is this! Fifty years ago
mail-coaches carried them away. Now, steamers and locomotives fly with
them all over the world, and only enlarge and expand the story, the great
facts of which have been already sent in outline by telegraph.

Nor is it possible to overrate the value of a good daily paper: as the
body is strengthened by daily food, so are we built up mentally and
spiritually for the busy age in which we live by the world of intelligence
contained in the daily journal. A great book and a good one is offered for
the reading of many who have no time to read others, and a great culture
in morals, religion, politics, is thus induced. Of course it would be
impossible to mention all the English dailies. Among them _The London
Times_ is pre-eminent, and stands highest in the opinion of the
ministerial party, which fears and uses it.

There was a time when the press was greatly trammelled in England, and
license of expression was easily charged with constructive treason; but at
present it is remarkably free, and the great, the government, and existing
abuses, receive no soft treatment at its hands.

_The London Times_ was started by John Walter, a printer, in 1788, there
having been for three years before a paper called the _London Daily
Universal Register_. In 1803 his son, John, went into partnership, when
the circulation was but 1,000. Within ten years it was 5,000. In 1814,
cleverly concealing the purpose from his workmen, he printed the first
sheet ever printed by steam, on Koenig's press. The paper passed, at his
death, into the hands of his son, the third John, who is a scholar,
educated at Eton and Oxford, like his father a member of Parliament, and
who has lately been raised to the peerage. The _Times_ is so influential
that it may well be called a third estate in the realm: its writers are
men of merit and distinction; its correspondence secures the best foreign
intelligence; and its travelling agents, like Russell and others, are the
true historians of a war. English journalism, it is manifest, is eminently
historical. The files of English newspapers are the best history of the
period, and will, by their facts and comments, hereafter confront specious
and false historians. Another thing to be observed is the impersonality of
the British press, not only in the fact that names are withheld, but that
the articles betray no authorship; that, in short, the paper does not
appear as the glorification of one man or set of men, but like an
unprejudiced relator, censor, and judge.

Of the principal London papers, the _Morning Post_ (Liberal, but not
Radical,) was begun in 1772. The _Globe_ (at first Liberal, but within a
short time Tory), in 1802. The _Standard_ (Conservative), in 1827. The
_Daily News_ (high-class Liberal), in 1846. The _News_ announced itself as
pledged to _Principles of Progress and Improvement_. _The Daily Telegraph_
was started in 1855, and claims the largest circulation. It is also a
_Liberal_ paper.




INDEX OF AUTHORS



Addison, Joseph, 258.
Akenside, Mark, 351.
Alcuin, 40.
Aldhelm, Abbot, 40.
Alfred the Great, 42.
Alfric, surnamed Germanicus, 40.
Alison, Sir Archibald, 447.
Alured of Rievaux, 49.
Arbuthnot, John, 252.
Arnold, Matthew, 438.
Arnold, Thomas, 448.
Ascham, Roger, 103.
Ashmole, Elias, 232.
Aubrey, John, 232.
Austen, Jane, 411.

Bacon, Francis, 156.
Bacon, Roger, 59.
Bailey, Philip James, 437.
Baillie, Joanna, 368.
Barbauld, Anne Letitia, 359.
Barbour, John, 89.
Barclay, Robert, 228.
Barham, Richard Harris, 437.
Barklay, Alexander, 102.
Barrow, Isaac, 230.
Baxter, Richard, 226.
Beattie, James, 356.
Beaumont, Francis, 154.
Beckford, William, 412.
Bede the Venerable, 37.
Benoit, 52.
Berkeley, George, 278.
Blair, Hugh, 369.
Blind Harry, 89.
Bolingbroke, Viscount, (Henry St. John,) 278.
Boswell, James, 321.
Browne, Sir Thomas, 225.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 432.
Browning, Robert, 434.
Buchanan, George, 126.
Buckle, Henry Thomas, 447.
Bulwer, Edward George Earle Lytton, 450.
Bunyan, John, 228.
Burke, Edmund, 369.
Burnet, Gilbert, 231.
Burney, Frances, 368.
Burns, Robert, 397.
Burton, Robert, 125.
Butler, Samuel, 198.
Byron, Rt. Hon. George Gordon, 384

Caedmon, 34.
Cambrensis, Giraldus, 49.
Camden, William, 126.
Campbell, Thomas, 401.
Carlyle, Thomas, 444.
Cavendish, George, 102.
Caxton, William, 92.
Chapman, George, 127.
Chatterton, Thomas, 340.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 60.
Chillingworth, William, 222.
Coleridge, Hartley, 427.
Coleridge, Henry Nelson, 427.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 424.
Collier, John Payne, 153.
Collins, William, 357.
Colman, George, 366.
Colman, George, (The Younger,) 366.
Congreve, William, 236.
Cornwall, Barry, 436.
Colton, Charles, 205.
Coverdale, Miles, 170.
Cowley, Abraham, 195.
Cowper, William, 353.
Crabbe, George, 400.
Cumberland, Richard, 363.
Cunningham, Allan, 412.

Daniel, Samuel, 127.
Davenant, Sir William, 205.
Davies, Sir John, 127.
Defoe, Daniel, 282.
Dekker, Thomas, 154.
De Quincey, Thomas, 468.
Dickens, Charles, 452.
Dixon, William Hepworth, 449.
Donne, John, 127.
Drayton, Michael, 127.
Dryden, John, 207.
Dunbar, William, 90.
Dunstan, (called Saint,) 41.

Eadmer, 49.
Edgeworth, Maria, 410.
Erigena, John Scotus, 40.
Etherege, Sir George, 238.
Evelyn, John, 231.

Falconer, William, 357.
Farquhar, George, 238.
Ferrier, Mary, 411.
Fielding, Henry, 288.
Fisher, John, 102.
Florence of Worcester, 49.
Foote, Samuel, 363.
Ford, John, 154.
Fox, George, 226.
Froissart, Sire Jean, 58.
Fronde, James Anthony, 448.
Fuller, Thomas, 224.

Gaimar, Geoffrey, 52.
Garrick, David, 361.
Gay, John, 252.
Geoffrey, 52.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 48.
Gibbon, Edward, 317
Gillies, John, 441.
Goldsmith, Oliver, 301.
Gowen, John, 86.
Gray, Thomas, 351.
Greene, Robert, 136.
Greville, Sir Fulke, 127.
Grostete, Robert, 59.
Grote, George, 440.

Hakluyt, Richard, 126.
Hall, Joseph, 221.
Hallam, Henry, 448.
Harvey, Gabriel, 110.
Heber, Reginald, 436.
Hemans, Mrs. Felicia Dorothea, 409.
Henry of Huntingdon, 49.
Hennyson, Robert, 90.
Herbert, George, 203.
Herrick, Robert, 204.
Heywood, John, 131.
Higden, Ralph, 50.
Hobbes, Thomas, 125.
Hogg, James, 412.
Hollinshed, Raphael, 126.
Hood, Thomas, 467.
Hooker, Richard, 125.
Hope, Thomas, 412.
Hume, David, 311.
Hunt, Leigh, 411.
Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, 205.

Ingelow, Jean, 437.
Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, 49.
Ireland, Samuel, 153.

James I, (of Scotland,) 89.
Johnson, Doctor Samuel, 324.
Jonson, Ben, 153.
Junius, 331.

Keats, John, 407.
Keble, John, 437.
Knowles, James Sheridan, 436.
Kyd, Thomas, 136.

Lamb, Charles, 466.
Landon, Letitia Elizabeth, 410.
Langland, 56.
Latimer, Hugh, 102.
Layamon, 53.
Lee, Nathaniel, 240.
Leland, John, 102.
Lingard, John, 446.
Locke, John, 231.
Lodge, Thomas, 135.
Luc de la Barre, 52.
Lydgate, John, 90.
Lyly, John, 136.

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 441.
Mackay, Charles, 437.
Mackenzie, Henry, 307.
Macpherson, Doctor James, 336.
Mahon, Lord, 447.
Mandevil, Sir John, 58.
Manning, Robert, 59.
Marlowe, Christopher, 134.
Marston, John, 136.
Massinger, 154.
Matthew of Westminster, 49.
Mestre, Thomas, 32.
Milton, John, 174.
Mitford, William, 444.
Moore, Thomas, 390.
More, Hannah, 367.
More, Sir Thomas, 99.

Napier. Sir William Francis Patrick, 447.
Nash, Thomas, 136.
Newton, Sir Isaac, 278.
Norton, Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth, 410.

Occleve, Thomas, 89.
Ormulum, 54.
Otway, Thomas, 239.

Paley, William, 370.
Paris, Matthew, 49.
Parnell, Thomas, 252.
Pecock, Reginald, 102.
Peele, George, 136.
Penn, William, 227.
Pepys, Samuel, 232.
Percy, Dr. Thomas, (Bishop,) 358.
Philip de Than, 52.
Pollok, Robert, 411.
Pope, Alexander, 241.
Prior, Matthew, 251.
Purchas, Samuel, 126.

Quarles, Francis, 203.

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 126.
Richard I., (Coeur de Lion,) 52.

Richardson, Samuel, 285.
Robert of Gloucester, 55.
Robertson, William, 315.
Roger de Hovedin, 49.
Rogers, Samuel, 403.
Roscoe, William, 413.
Rowe, Nicholas, 240.

Sackville, Thomas, 127.
Scott, Sir Michael, 59.
Scott, Walter, 371.
Shakspeare, William, 137.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 405.
Shenstone, William, 357.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 364.
Sherlock, William, 230.
Shirley, 154.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 107.
Skelton, John, 95.
Smollett, Tobias George, 292.
South, Robert, 230.
Southern, Thomas, 240.
Southey, Robert, 421.
Spencer, Edmund, 104.
Steele, Sir Richard, 264.
Sterne, Lawrence, 296.
Still, John, 132.
Stillingfleet, Edward, 230.
Stow, John, 126.
Strickland, Agnes, 447.
Suckling, Sir John, 204.
Surrey, Earl of, 98.
Swift, Jonathan, 268.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 437.

Tailor, Robert, 136.
Taylor, Jeremy, 223.
Temple, Sir William, 277.
Tennyson, Alfred, 428.
Thackeray, Anne E., 465.
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 459.
Thirlwall, Connop, 441.
Thomas of Ercildoun, 59.
Thomson, James, 347.
Tickell, Thomas, 252.
Tupper, Martin Farquhar, 437.
Turner, Sharon, 448.
Tusser, Thomas, 102.
Tyndale, William, 169.
Tytler, Patrick Frazer, 446.

Udall, Nicholas, 132.

Vanbrugh, Sir John, 237.
Vaughan, Henry, 205.
Vitalis, Ordericus, 49.

Wace, Richard, 51.
Waller, Edmund, 204.
Walpole, Horace, 321.
Walton, Izaak, 202.
Warton, Joseph, 368.
Warton, Thomas, 368.
Watts, Isaac, 252.

Webster, 154.
White, Henry Kirke, 358.
Wiclif, John, 77.
William of Jumieges, 49.
William of Malmsbury, 47.
William of Poictiers, 49.
Wither, George, 203.
Wolcot, John, 367.
Wordsworth, William, 415.
Wyat, Sir Thomas, 97.
Wycherley, William, 235.

Young, Edward, 253.



THE END.




FOOTNOTES



[1] His jurisdiction extended from Norfolk around to Sussex.

[2] This is the usually accepted division of tribes; but Dr. Latham denies
that the Jutes, or inhabitants of Jutland, shared in the invasion. The
difficult question does not affect the scope of our inquiry.

[3] Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. lv.

[4] H. Martin, Histoire de France, i. 53.

[5] Vindication of the Ancient British Poems.

[6] Craik's English Literature, i. 37.

[7] Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, book ix., c. i.

[8] Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.

[9] Kemble ("Saxon in England") suggests the resemblance between the
fictitious landing of Hengist and Horsa "in three keels," and the Gothic
tradition of the migration of Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidae to the
mouth of the Vistula in the same manner. Dr. Latham (English Language)
fixes the Germanic immigration into Britain at the middle of the fourth,
instead of the middle of the fifth century.

[10] Lectures on Modern History, lect, ii.

[11] Sharon Turner.

[12] Turner, ch. xii.

[13] For the discussion of the time and circumstances of the introduction
of French into law processes, see Craik, i. 117.

[14] Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, i. 199. For an admirable
summary of the bardic symbolisms and mythological types exhibited in the
story of Arthur, see H. Martin, Hist. de France, liv. xx.

[15] Craik says, (i. 198,) "Or, as he is also called, _Lawemon_--for the
old character represented in this instance by our modern _y_ is really
only a guttural, (and by no means either a _j_ or a _z_,) by which it is
sometimes rendered." Marsh says, "Or, perhaps, _Lagamon_, for we do not
know the sound of _y_ in this name."

[16] Introduction to the Poets of Queen Elizabeth's Age.

[17] So called from his having a regular district or _limit_ in which to
beg.

[18] Spelled also Wycliffe, Wicliff, and Wyklyf.

[19] Am. ed., i. 94.

[20] Wordsworth, Ecc. Son., xvii.

[21] "The Joyous Science, as the profession of minstrelsy was termed, had
its various ranks, like the degrees in the Church and in chivalry."--_Sir
Walter Scott_, (_The Betrothed_.)

[22] 1st, the real presence; 2d, celibacy; 3d, monastic vows; 4th, low
mass; 5th, auricular confession; 6th, withholding the cup from the laity.

[23] "The Earl of Surrey is said to have translated one of Virgil's books
without rhyme, and, besides our tragedies, a few short poems had appeared
in blank verse.... These petty performances cannot be supposed to have
much influenced Milton; ... finding blank verse easier than rhyme, he was
desirous of persuading himself that it is better."--_Lives of the
Poets--Milton_.

[24] From this dishonor Mr. Froude's researches among the statute books
have not been able to lift him, for he gives system to horrors which were
before believed to be eccentric; and, while he fails to justify the
monarch, implicates a trembling parliament and a servile ministry, as if
their sharing the crime made it less odious.

[25] The reader's attention is called--or recalled--to the masterly
etching of Sir Philip Sidney, in Motley's History of the United
Netherlands. The low chant of the _cuisse rompue_ is especially pathetic.

[26] This last claim of title was based upon the voyages of the Cabots,
and the unsuccessful colonial efforts of Raleigh and Gilbert.

[27] Froude, i. 65.

[28] Introduction to fifth canto of Marmion.

[29] Froude, i. 73.

[30] Opening scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor.

[31] Rev. A. Dyce attributes this play to Marlowe or Kyd.

[32] The dates as determined by Malone are given: many of them differ from
those of Drake and Chalmers.

[33]

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.

_Pope, Essay on Man_.

[34] Life of Addison.

[35] Macaulay: Art. on Warren Hastings.

[36] The handwriting of Junius professionally investigated by Mr. Charles
P. Chabot. London, 1871.

[37] H. C. Robinson, Diary II., 79.

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