No More Learning

Under Anna Seward :
Lucas, E. V. A Swan and her Friends. 1907.
pp. 493 ff. chapter xi. Letter-writers.
Under Sir Joshua Reynolds :
Phillips, Claude. Sir Joshua Reynolds. n. d. (1893).
Under Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield:
Collins, J. C. In Essays and Studies. 1895.
Under Horace Walpole, fourth earl of Orford:
Two Supplementary Volumes of Letters were added to the Paget Toynbee edn. Oxford,
1919.
Goad, Caroline. Horace in the English Literature of the Eighteenth Century. Yale
and Oxford, 1918.
[Contains a valuable appendix of instances of indebtedness to Horace in 18th
century English writings-Rowe, Addison, Steele, Prior, Gay, Pope, Swift,
Fielding, Richardson, Sterne, Smollett, Johnson, Chesterfield, Walpole. ]
Stephen, Sir Leslie. In Hours in a Library. Vol. 1874.
Under Gilbert White:
Jardine, Sir W. and Jesse, E. (ed. ). 1841.
pp. 506 ff, chapter XIII. Historians 11.
Under Edward Gibbon:
Stephen, Sir L. Gibbon's Autobiography in Studies of a Biographer. Vol. 1. 1898.
pp. 515 ff. chapter xy. Divines.
Alban Butler (1711-1773)
The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other principal Saints; compiled from
original monuments and other authentick records ; illustrated with the remarks of
judicious modern criticks and historians. 4 vols. 1756-9. 12 vols. Dublin,
1779–80; 12 vols. Edinburgh, 1798-1800; etc.
Richard Challoner (1691-1781)
The Garden of the Soul. 6. 1740 and numerous edns.
Memoirs of Missionary Priests, as well secular as regular, and of other catholics of
both sexes that have suffered death in England, on religious accounts, from the
year of our Lord 1577 to 1684. 2 vols. 1741-2 and later edns.
The Rheims New Testament and the Douay Bible, with annotations. 5 vols. 1749–50
and several later edns.
pp. 518 ff. chapter xvi. The Literature of Dissent, 1660-1760.
Dissenting Academies in England. Cambridge, 1915.
pp. 522 ff. chapter xvII. Political Literature (1755-75).
Bleackley, Horace. Life of John Wilkes. 1917.
Parker,


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PREFATORY NOTE
THE
THE late Mr D. C. Tovey's chapter on Gray, as well as the
accompanying bibliography, reached us a very short time
before his lamented death; and the proofs were not seen by him.
Mr Tovey's contribution to this History represents his last labour
upon a subject which he had gradually made his own, and with
which his name will always be associated in the minds of all lovers
of English literature, and especially of members of his own and
Gray's university.
We have to thank Mr A. T. Bartholomew, of Peterhouse and
the University Library, for contributing to this volume the
bibliographies to which his initials are appended, and for other
assistance chiefly of a bibliographical nature.
A. W. W.
A. R. W.
July 1913
152899


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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
RICHARDSON
By L. CAZAMIAN, Maitre de Conférences at the
Sorbonne, Paris
PAGE
:
Antecedents of the change introduced by Richardson into the history
of the English Novel. Richardson's life before 1741. Pamela:
its qualities and extraordinary success. Continuation, Stage
adaptation and Parody. Fielding and Richardson. Clarissa :
its unique place among its author's works; its Sentimentalism.
Sir Charles Grandison: its shortcomings and its psychological
value. Richardson's later years and death. Decline of his popu-
larity. Limitations of his art. His momentous influence upon
English and European Literature. His literary descendants. His
influence upon French Literature and national sentiment: Prévost,
Voltaire, Diderot. Richardson and Rousseau. His influence in
Germany: Gellert, Wieland, Klopstock and Goethe. Dutch and
Italian reproductions
1
CHAPTER II
FIELDING AND SMOLLETT
By HAROLD CHILD, sometime Scholar of Brasenose
College, Oxford
Fielding and Smollett compared. Fielding's descent and earlier life.
His first and subsequent Plays. His Farces and cognate Dramatic
Pieces. His marriage. Pasquin and The Historical Register.
Journalistic work: The Champion. Joseph Andrews and Pamela.
The character of Parson Adams. Fielding and Cervantes. Miscel-
lanies. Jonathan Wild. Political Journalism: The True Patriot
and The Jacobite's Journal. Magisterial work and humane efforts.
Tom Jones. The morality and the realism of the book: the author's
openness of soul. Further pamphlets on social reform. Amelia:
its distinctive charm. The Covent Garden Journal. Fielding
seriously ill. His journey to Lisbon, and his posthumous account
of it. His death.
Smollett's parentage and early training as a surgeon. His arrival in
London, with The Regicide in his pocket. His stay in the West
Indies. Satirical and other verse. Roderick Random and the
Picaresque Novel. Ferdinand Count Fathom. The Critical Re-
view; Historical and Miscellaneous work. Sir Launcelot Greaves.
Travels through France and Italy. Humphrey Clinker. Smollett's
last journey and death. Final comparison between the literary
achievements and influence of Fielding and Smollett
20


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viii
Contents
CHAPTER III
STERNE, AND THE NOVEL OF HIS TIMES
By C. E. VAUGHAN, M. A. , Balliol College, Oxford, Pro-
fessor of English Literature in the University of
Leeds
PAGE
:
New elements in the English Novel of the period from 1760 to 1780:
Personality, Emotion and Sentiment. Preeminence of Sterne.
His life. Tristram Shandy and its success. Fiction as the vehicle
of the Novelist's idiosyncrasy. Sterne as the Liberator of the Novel.
His Humour the groundwork of his Characters. Tristram Shandy
and Don Quixote. Sterne's artificiality and pruriency. Nature of
his Sentimentalism. Henry Mackenzie: The Man of Feeling;
The Man of the World; Julia de Roubigné. Henry Brooke:
The Fool of Quality. Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto and
Clara Reeve's Old English Baron. Fanny Burney as a Novelist :
Evelina; Cecilia; Camilla; The Wanderer. Spontaneity a
leading characteristic of these Novels. Proof of this in the Diary
of Mme d’Arblay. Her best qualities as surviving in her later
stories
46
CHAPTER IV
THE DRAMA AND THE STAGE
By GEORGE HENRY NETTLETON, Ph. D. , Assistant Professor
of English in Yale University
Significance of the term 'The Eighteenth Century English Drama. '
Queen Anne's reign a period of transition in English Dramatic
History. Cibber, Steele and Rowe. Sentimental Comedy in
England and on the Continent. French Classical and Native
influences upon English Eighteenth Century Drama. Law's In-
vective. New developments: Pantomime and Ballad Opera: John
Rich. The Beggar's Opera. Mrs Centlivre. Young, Hughes and
Thomson. Lillo and Prose Domestic Tragedy: George Barnwell.
Lillo's Morality. Fatal Curiosity. Other works by Lillo. His
influence upon French and German Dramatic Literature. Diderot
and Lessing. Edward Moore's Gamester. Voltaire and the
English Drama. English versions of his Plays. Voltaire and
Shakespeare. Fielding and Burlesque. Stage Political Satire
and the Licensing Act of 1737. The Novel and the Theatre.
Garrick and Shakespeare. Other Plays of the Garrick Era.
Whitehead. Home's Douglas. Foote's Comic Mimicry. His
Farces. Townley and Murphy. George Colman the Elder: The
Jealous Wife and The Clandestine Marriage. Kelly. The Re-
action against Sentimental Comedy
67


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Contents
ix
CHAPTER V
THOMSON AND NATURAL DESCRIPTION IN POETRY
By A. HAMILTON THOMPSON, M. A. , F. S. A.
, St John's College
PAGB
:
Relations of Thomson's Poetry to the tendencies of the age. His
life and literary career. The Seasons. Influence of Milton.
Thomson's interest in Nature. Nature pictures in The Seasons,
and the Human Element in these pictures. Thomson's objective
attitude towards Nature. His frequent vagueness of Description,
and striking Incidental Digressions. Patriotic Reflections:
Britannia and Liberty. The Castle of Indolence, its points of
contact with Spenser, and the commonplace character of its Alle-
gory. Thomson's Dramatic Work, from Sophonisba to Corio-
lanus. Influence of Thomson on the younger generation of
poets. Somervile's Chace and other Poems. Jago's Edge-Hill.
Lyttelton's Dialogues of the Dead and other Writings .
93
CHAPTER VI
GRAY
By the late Rey. DUNCAN C. TOVEY, M. A. , Trinity College
Gray's family and life. His friends at Eton and Cambridge. His
vacations at Burnham. His continental tour with Horace
Walpole. Their quarrel. Gray's return and Correspondence
with West. The Agrippina Fragment. Lyrics written at Stoke.
Gray again in residence at Peterhouse. Reconciliation with
Walpole. An Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Characteristics
of the Elegy. The Progress of Poesy; Vicissitude and The
Bard. Studies from the Norse. Gray quits Peterhouse for
Pembroke. Researches in the British Museum and tour in
Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Gray appointed Professor of Modern
History. The Installation Ode. Visit to the Lake country.
Gray and Bonstetten. Gray's death. His Letters, their value
and their charm. Friendship with Mason : projected joint History
of English Poetry. Concluding summary
116


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х
Contents
CHAPTER VII
YOUNG, COLLINS AND LESSER POETS OF THE
AGE OF JOHNSON
By GEORGE SAINTSBURY, M. A. , LL. D. , D. Litt. , F. B. A. ,
Professor of Rhetorie- and English Literature in-the-
University of Edinburgh
9
PAGE
Reasons of the relative familiarity of readers with this group of
English Verse-writers. Young's life and literary career. Night
Thoughts and its long-enduring popularity. His other Writings:
The Complaint. Collins's Odes and Eclogues. Contrast between
his individual inspiration and the influences of his age. How
Sleep the Brave and The Ode to Evening. Dyer's Grongar Hill.
Matthew Green. Blair's Grave. Conscious or half-conscious
Burlesque Verse; John Armstrong. His Art of Preserving
Health. Glover's Ballad Admiral Hosier's Ghost. Mannerisms
in his Blank Verse. Shenstone's Poetical Works and their charac-
teristics. His Schoolmistress and Miscellaneous Poems. Attrac-
tiveness and shortcomings of his Verse. Akenside's Pleasures of
Imagination. Smart's A Song to David. Beattie's Minstrel.
His treatment of the Spenserian Stanza. Falconer's Shipwreck.
Concluding remarks
138
CHAPTER VIII
JOHNSON AND BOSWELL
By DAVID NICHOL SMITH, M. A. , Goldsmiths' Reader
in English, University of Oxford
Boswell's Johnson the Johnson familiarly known to us. His personality
and his Works. Johnson's early life: Lichfield, Oxford and
Birmingham. His first writings and his Translation of A Voyage
to Abyssinia. Foreshadowings of Johnson's style. His school at
Edial and migration to London. Irene and its subsequent pro-
duction on the Stage. His work on The Gentleman's Magazine
his real start as a man of letters. Reports of Debates in Parliament.
Other Contributions to the Magazine. The Life of Savage.
Greater Schemes. Johnson's Earlier Verse. London and The
Vanity of Human Wishes. The Rambler and the Revival of the
Periodical Essay. Openly didactic purpose of The Rambler ;
success of the Collected Edition. A Dictionary of the English
Language; new features of its design; distinctive merits of the
work: the Definitions. Lesser work. Dedications. Journalistic
projects and labours. The Idler. Rasselas and its lesson.
Johnson's Edition of Shakespeare: value of its Text and Notes.
Political Pamphlets. A Journey to the Western Islands of
Scotland. The Lives of the Poets: their original plan and
distinctive features. Equipoise of biography and criticism.
Influence of personal feeling. Johnson's last years and death.


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Contents
xi
PAGE
His literary growth, and advance in ease of style. The weight
of his words carried by the strength of his thought. Ill success
of his Parodists. Effect of Johnson's death. Mrs Piozzi's Anec-
dotes and Sir John Hawkins's Life. Boswell's earlier experiences
and Writings. An Account of Corsica. His later life and
labours. His death, and his posthumously published Letters.
His Life of Johnson, with the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,
his enduring title to fame
157
CHAPTER IX
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
By HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON, LL. D.
Goldsmith's early life and the uncertainties surrounding it. Child-
hood at Lissoy and schooldays at Elphin. The Old House,
a New Inn. College life at Trinity, Dublin. Goldsmith, B. A.
Wanderings at home and abroad. Sojourn at Leyden. Medical
and literary efforts in London: the parting of the ways. Con-
tributions to The Monthly Review. Translation of Marteilhe's
Memoirs. An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning
in Europe and its Reception. The Bee, and its Verse and Prose.
Contributions to The British Magazine and The Public Ledger,
the Chinese Letters (reprinted as The Citizen of the World).
Goldsmith in Wine Office Court; his friendship with Johnson.
The History of England in Letters. The Traveller and its success.
The Vicar of Wakefield: the History of the Book. More Com-
pilation. The Good-Natur'd Man. The Temple and Islington.
The Deserted Village. The Haunch of Venison. She Stoops to
Conquer. Closing years and death. Goldsmith's personality and
literary genius .
195
CHAPTER X
THE LITERARY INFLUENCE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
By W. P. KER, M. A. , F. B. A. , Fellow of All Souls College,
Oxford, Professor of English Literature, University
College, London
Limited Influence of the Middle Ages upon Modern Literature. In-
fluence of Architecture. The Literary Gothic Terror or Wonder.
Dryden's, Pope's and Addison's estimates of Medieval Poetic
masterpieces. Temple and The Death-Song of Ragnar. Northern
Studies: Hickes's Thesaurus. Percy's Five Runic Pieces. Trans-
lations from the Icelandic: Gray. The Movement in favour of
Ballads and Border Songs. Ossian and Macpherson. Literary
career of Macpherson. Gaelic Elements in Fingal and Temora.
Macpherson's Literary Talent. Percy's Reliques. Their direct
influence upon Modern Poetry. Chatterton and his indebtedness
to Spenser. The Rowley Imposture. The Wartons. Thomas
Warton the Younger and his Poems. His History of English
Poetry. Hurd. Tyrwhitt, the Restorer of Chaucer
217


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xii
Contents
CHAPTER XI
PAGB
LETTER-WRITERS
I
By HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F. S. A.
Horace Walpole as "the Prince of Letter-Writers. His personal
character vindicated. His earlier life. Strawberry Hill. His
Letters and their qualities. Mann and other Correspondents.
Walpole as a Critic. His Anecdotes of Painting in England,
Castle of Otranto and Historic Doubts on Richard III. Chester-
field. His personality and public services. His wit. His genius
for friendship. His Letters to his Son and to his Godson. Their
actual nature. Fanny Burney (Mme d'Arblay): her Early Diary,
and her Diary and Letters. Mrs Elizabeth Montagu as a literary
hostess. Garrick and his Correspondents. Sir Joshua Reynolds's
Discourses. Hannah More as a Letter-Writer in youth and
middle age. Gilbert White's Natural History and Antiquities
of Selborne
242
II. THE WARWICKSHIRE COTERIE
By the Ven. W. H. HUTTON, B. D.